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nose tube brushed along the ground, sucking up bits and pieces of plant stuff.
There were two eyepits on the subsidiary head at the base of the nose tube,
but these had either grown over or like a viper s pits col-lected heat rather
than light. Above the first set of shoulders the chitinous material that
covered the body turned a bright cherry red and rose into a sort of hood with
the main head of the
Gestalt tucked into the hol-low of the open front. This head was round and
soft, with huge dark green eyes, a doughy greenish tint to the skin; it had a
button nose and a handsome, mobile mouth. There was a fringe of tentacles
around the body head, their skin sharing its consistency and color.
These tentacles were in constant movement like a nest of snakes; she watched
their movements for a short while, decided that they might be sense organs as
well as graspers.
Under the feet of the adults in this array dozens of tiny body replicas were
skittering around, whistling and making small chuckling sounds, chasing each
other, playing with a cheerful intensity that brought a smile to Shadith s
face. Tiny blobs pulled themselves along by nests of tentacles growing beneath
their rudi-mentary chins; these were the infant heads. There were fugitive
movements in the litter of grass and old leaves, but she never got a good look
at any of these bits of the array.
The adults were hosing up seeds and insects from the ground, nuzzling
at the trees, and poking among the leaves of the vines. She watched one of
them fool-ing about a bush for several minutes, the neck tentacles busy about
something. It was only when the Taalav moved on that she saw it had been tying
stray canes to smaller reeds it had thrust into the ground.
All this while the adults were silent, going about their activities as if they
were alone, though they sneaked glances at the creepier as they moved about.
The largest Taalav moved closer, scuttling sideways on those long, bent,
tippy-toe legs. It stopped a body length away and stared at her, ignoring the
Kliu almost as if it considered the guard a part of the machine.
It started making noises. Excited noises. Exchanging noises with the other
Taalavs as they gathered around. Noises that blending into song, complex and
lovely music.
Sudden pain jagged behind her eyes; intensified by the itch from the
distorters in the exo.
Shadith clutched at the chair as she sought to make sense of what was
happening. The translator didn t work on animal sounds, only on organized
speech. And that meant the Taalav were not animals, they were sen-tient
beings.
The more they chattered, the worse her head felt. This langue had to be
a mass of peculiarities because she d never felt the translator labor so
hard.
I ve got to get out of here. Now
She slapped at the controller, got the creepier mov-ing once more on its
programmed path, this time
turn-ing round to head back to the lake.
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As soon as the machine began moving, the Taalav .backed cautiously away, then
stood watching as s the creepier picked its careful way up the slope and into
the trees.
5
She lay in semidarkness, a damp compress spread across her eyes and dripping
into her pillow.
Despite the exo s support, the days she d spent on this world kept layering
exhaustion on exhaustion so even in the best of circumstances, thinking would
have been diffi-cult. Now she had a moral dilemma to complicate matters.
If the nu didn t know the Taalav Gestalts werein-telligent beings rather
than beasts, they had to suspect it. So if she piped up like a good little
phenom with her discovery, the least she could expect was a sudden ac-cident
that would leave her a grease spot on some mountain between here and Base. No
wonder they wanted to erase all instances of the Taalav outside their control.
Discovery of the Gestalt s intelligence would complicate their lives
enormously. And it wouldn t help the Taalav all that much either.
Instinct said this is slavery and it has to stop. Instinct was an ass.
Even if she managed to get them taken from the Kliu, how long would they last
without an equally powerful protector?
Protector? Call it what it was. Exploiter. Once they re discovered,
they re going to be exploited. The only big weapon that small people have is
Helvetia s adamant stance against slavery. Getting that evoked would take a
whole lot of proof not just her word.
There were a few comforting things she d noticed. They seemed healthy enough,
and the abundance of the tiny body forms meant that reproduction was
continu-ing. She d felt no rage or fear or frustration from that lot. And
loathsome exploiters as the Kliu were, they were also protection as long as
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