The second is I am harmless. A hand placed palm up on a table or knee. A shoulder shrug, derived from an ancient vertebrate reflex, signifying helplessness. Combine that with a tilted head, which displays the vulnerability of the neck. These commonly appeared when two people drawn to each other have their first conversation-all quite unconsciously.
Such moves and gestures are subcortical, emerging far below the neocortex.
Did such forces shape the Empire more than trade balances, alliances, treaties?
He looked at his own kind and tried to see it through pan eyes.
Though human females matured earlier, they did not go on to acquire coarse body hair, bony eye ridges, deep voices, or tough skin. Males did. And women everywhere strove to stay young looking. Cosmetics makers freely admitted their basic role: We don’t sell products. We sell hope.
Competition for mates was incessant. Male pans sometimes took turns with females in estrus. They had huge testicles, implying that reproductive advantage had come to those males who produced enough sperm to overwhelm their rivals’ contributions. Human males had proportionally smaller testicles.
But humans got their revenge where it mattered. All known primates were genetically related, though they had separated out as species many millions of years ago. In DNA-measured time, pans lay six million years from humans. Of all primates, humans had the largest penises.
He mentioned to Dors that only four percent of mammals formed pair bonds, were monogamous. Primates rated a bit higher, but not much. Birds were much better at it.
She sniffed. “Don’t let all this biology go to your head.”
“Oh, no, I won’t let it get that far.”
“You mean it belongs in lower places?”
“Madam, you’ll have to be the judge of that.”
“Ah, you and your single-entendre humor.”
Later that evening, he had ample opportunity to reflect upon the truth that, while it was not always great to be human, it was tremendous fun being a mammal.
14.
They spent one last day immersed in their pans, sunning themselves beside a gushing stream. They had told Vaddo to bring the shuttle down the next day, book a wormhole transit. Then they entered the immersion capsule and sank into a last reverie.
Until Biggest started to mount Sheelah.
Hari/Ipan sat up, his head foggy. Sheelah was shrieking at Biggest. She slapped him.
Biggest had mounted Sheelah before. Dors had bailed out quickly, her mind returning to her body in the capsule.
Something was different now. Ipan hurried over and signed to Sheelah, who was throwing pebbles at Biggest. What?
She moved her hands rapidly, signing, No go.
She could not bailout. Something was wrong back at the capsule. He could go back himself, tell them.
Hari made the little mental flip that would bail him out.
Nothing happened.
He tried again. Sheelah threw dust and pebbles, backing away from Biggest. Nothing.
No time to think. He stepped between Sheelah and Biggest.
The massive pan frowned. Here was Ipan, buddy Ipan, getting in the way. Denying him a fern. Biggest seemed to have forgotten the challenge and beating of the day before.
First he tried bellowing, eyes big and white. Then Biggest shook his arms, fists balled.
Hari made his pan stand still. It took every calming impulse. he could muster.
Biggest swung his fist like a club. Ipan ducked. Biggest missed.
Hari was having trouble controlling Ipan, who wanted to flee. Sheets of fear shot up through the pan mind, hot yellows in the blue-black depths.
Biggest charged forward, slamming Ipan back. Hari felt the jolt, a stabbing pain in his chest. He toppled backward, hit hard.
Biggest yowled his triumph. Waved his arms at the sky.
Biggest would get on top, he saw. Beat him again. Suddenly he felt a deep, raw hatred.
From that red seethe he felt his grip on Ipan tighten. He was riding both with and within the pan, feeling its raw red fear, overrunning that with an iron rage. Ipan’s own wrath fed back into Hari. The two formed a concert, anger building as if reflected from hard walls.
He might not be the same kind of primate, but he knew Ipan. Neither of them was going to get beaten again. And Biggest was not going to get Sheelah/Dors.
He rolled to the side. Biggest hit the ground where he had been.
Ipan leaped up and kicked Biggest. Hard, in the ribs. Once, twice. Then in the head.
Whoops, cries, dust, pebbles-Sheelah was still bombarding them both. Ipan shivered with boiling energy and backed away.
Biggest shook his dusty head. Then he curled and rolled easily up to his feet, full of muscular grace, face a constricted mask. The pan’s eyes widened, showing white and red.
Ipan yearned to run. Only Hari’s rage held him in place.
But it was a static balance of forces. Ipan blinked as Biggest shuffled warily forward, the big pan’s caution a tribute to the damage Ipan had inflicted.
I need some advantage,Hari thought, looking around.
He could call for allies. Hunker paced nervously nearby.
Something told Hari that would be a losing strategy. Hunker was still a lieutenant to Biggest. Sheelah was too small to make a decisive difference. He looked at the other pans, all chattering anxiously-and decided. He picked up a rock.
Biggest grunted in surprise. Pans didn’t use rocks against each other. Rocks were only for repelling invaders. He was violating a social code.
Biggest yelled, waved to the others, pounded the ground, huffed angrily. Then he charged.
Hari threw the rock hard. It hit Biggest in the chest, knocked him down.
Biggest came up fast, madder than before. Ipan scurried back, wanting desperately to run. Hari felt control slipping from him-and saw another rock. Suitable size, two paces back. He let Ipan turn to flee, then stopped him at the stone. Ipan didn’t want to hold it. Panic ran through him.
Hari poured his rage into the pan, forced the long arms down. Hands grabbed at the stone, fumbled, got it. Sheer anger made Ipan turn to face Biggest, who was thundering after him. To Hari, Ipan’s arm came up in achingly slow motion. He leaned heavily into the pitch. The rock smacked Biggest in the face.
Biggest staggered. Blood ran into his eyes. Ipan caught the iron scent of it, riding on a prickly stench of outrage.
Hari made the trembling Ipan stoop down. There were some shaped stones nearby, made by the ferns to trim leaves from branches. He picked up one with a chipped edge.
Biggest shook his head, dizzy.
Ipan glanced at the sober, still faces of his troop. No one had ever used a rock against a troop member, much less Biggest. Rocks were for Strangers.
A long silence stretched. The pans stood rooted; Biggest grunted and peered in disbelief at the blood that spattered into his upturned hand.
Ipan stepped forward and raised the jagged stone, edge held outward. Crude, but a cutting edge.
Biggest flared his nostrils and came at Ipan. Ipan swept the rock through the air, barely missing Biggest’s jaw.
Biggest’s eyes widened. He huffed and puffed, threw dust, howled. Ipan simply stood with the rock and held his ground. Biggest kept up his anger display for a long while, but he did not attack.
The troop watched with intense interest. Sheelah came and stood beside Ipan. It would have been against protocols for a female to take part in male dominance rituals.
Her movement signaled that the confrontation was over. But Hunker was having none of that. He abruptly howled, pounded the ground, and scooted over to Ipan’s side.
Hari was surprised. With Hunker maybe he could hold the line against Biggest. He was not fool enough to think that this one stand-off would put Biggest to rest. There would be other challenges and he would have to fight them. Hunker would be a useful ally.