"Oh… I suppose I'll get used to it in time," Dorothy said with an apologetic grin.
"You're Fourth Drop, aren't you?" Kris replied as neutrally as possible while Zainal closed the door behind them. There were several desks against the long stone wall but a table and chairs made an appropriate conference spot by the wide window. There was nothing but darkness outside, since the hangar faced south and there were no habitations yet beyond the field.
"You said you had a bit of outrageous luck?"
Kris asked when they were seated.
"Yes, not everyone in the group you brought had been mind-wiped."
"Certainly the Deskis, Rugs, and Turs weren't," Kris said.
"Nor all the Humans," Dorothy said, smiling over such a minor triumph.
"They weren't?" Kris asked, exchanging surprised glances with Zainal. "Yes, some faked the vacuity of the mindless…"
"Faked it?"
Dorothy smiled more brightly. "Clever of them, actually, and they got away with it because those in charge weren't keeping track of who had been… done."
Kris let out a long whistle. "All us Human look alike to Eosi? Proves, though, doesn't it, that the Eosi aren't all that smart after all. Clever of us Humans to run the scam."
"They're also able to give us names for many of the people who no longer remember who they are." Dorothy gave a little shudder. "I've dealt with amnesia patients before, of course, and accident shock trauma, but this is on so much larger a scale… and complicated by not only emotional but also physical shock and injury. We have established-thanks to Leon Dane's work with injured Catteni--that there are more points of similarity than differences between our two species since both are bipedal, pentadactyl, and share many of the same external features, like eyes, ears, noses. We can't of course cross-fertilize," and to Kris' surprise, Dorothy ducked her head to hide a flush.
"As well," Kris said dryly.
Dorothy flashed her an apology and continued. "Internally, though the Catteni have larger hearts, lungs, and intestinal arrangements, Leon says that the main difference is the density of the brain matter. It's also larger though similarly organized as ours are, as far as the position of the four major lobes is concerned. Leon was amazed at what damage a Catteni skull could take without permanent injury. I think," and she paused, frowning slightly at what she did not voice, "that the initial injuries to the prisoners were attempts to recalibrate the instrument to human brains."
"Initial injuries?" Kris asked.
"Yes," and Dorothy seemed to wish to get over this topic very quickly, "though they would have been dead before their nervous systems could register much."
"Oh?"
"Yes, and leave it at that, Kris," Dorothy went on briskly. "Will Seiss-mann should not dwell on the details although he seems to want to… a part of his trauma."
"Will Seissmann?" Kris asked.
"Yes, he and Dr. Ansible…"
"Dr. Ansible?" Kris shot bolt upright. "But he's-was, rather-at the observatory. Only I think he was away on some sort of a conference when the Catteni took Denver:'
"Yes, he was and took refuge at Stamford," Dorothy replied, nodding.
"He tried to argue others he knew to follow Will's example. I don't know whether or not the dogmatic scientist has an innate martyr complex but only a few would resort to the trick to save themselves;' She broke off with a sigh. "At any rate, we are able to put names to most of the Victims. But I need to know whatever details you may have, Zainal. They will be so helpful in correcting the trauma… if, indeed, we can."
Zainal shook his head. "I know little about such Eosi devices." Then his expression changed into what Kris privately termed his "Catteni look," cold, impassive, shuttered. "I do know-it is part of the Catteni history-that they have a device that increases and measures intelligence."
"Oh?" Dorothy leaned forward across the tame in her eagerness. "Then it could possibly extract information, too?"
Zainal blinked and his expression altered to a less forbidding one. He gave a slight smile. "It would seem likely since I only know of the one device.
The Eosi used it on the primitive Catteni to make them useful as hosts."
"Really?" Dorothy's expression was intensely eager as she leaned forward, encouraging Zainal to elaborate.
"Yes, really. Roughly two thousand years ago, the Eosi discovered Catten and its inhabitants. We were little more than animals, a fact the Eosi never let us forget. About a thousand years ago, my family started keeping its records for our ancestor was one of the first hundred to have… his brains stimulated by the device. Each family keeps its own records-how many males it has delivered to the Eosi as hosts and details of children and matings."
"A thousand, two thousand years to develop into a space-going race?
That's impressive," Dorothy said.
"Humans did it without such assistance and that impresses me," Zainal said with an odd laugh. "But that's how the Emassi were developed. To serve the Eosi."
"They didn't use the mind thingummy on the Drassi?" Kris asked.
"To a lesser degree," Zainal replied and turned to Dorothy. "There are three levels of Catteni now… Emassi," and he touched his chest, "Drassi who are good at following orders but have little initiative or ambition: some were rejected for the Emassi ranks, but are able to be more than Drassi-ship captains and troop leaders. Then there're the Rassi, who were left as they are."
"Rassi?" Kris echoed in surprise. "Never heard of them."
"They do not leave Catten and are as we all were when the Eosi found us."
"So you, as a species, did not evolve by yourselves? But had your intelligence stimulated?" Dorothy asked. She turned to Kris. "The Eosi evidently never heard of the Prime Directive."
Kris giggled. A psychologist who was a Trekkie?
"The Prime Directive means an advanced culture is not supposed to interfere with the natural evolution of another species or culture/' Kris explained to Zainal.
"The anthropologists will have a field day with this/' Dorothy added, jotting down another note. "Was one… application sufficient to sustain the higher level of intelligence?" she asked Zainal.
He shrugged. "I do not know that." Abruptly his expression again changed to his "Catteni look/' impassive, expressionless, shuttered. "When I had my full growth, I had to be presented to the Eosi, to see if I was acceptable as a host. And what training I should be given."
"And?" Dorothy prompted him when he paused.
"I was passed, and I was to be trained to pilot spaceships;' Then his grin became devilish and his "Catteni look" completely disappeared. "My father and uncles had worried that Eosi would find me too curious and unacceptable."
"Too curious? Why would that make you unacceptable?" Dorothy asked.
"Eosi tell Emassi what they need to know. That is all they are supposed to know."
"Before you start training? Surely you had basic schooling?" Dorothy asked, surprised.
Zainal gave a snort. "Emassi are trained, not schooled;'
"But didn't you learn to read, write, and figure before you were fourteen?"
Dorothy was having difficulty with this concept. "Surely you've had to learn mathematics to pilot spaceships?"
Zainal nodded. "Emassi males are taught that much by their fathers…"
He grimaced.
"The hard way?" Kris said, miming the use of a force whip.
"Yes, the hard way. One tends to pay strict attention to such lessons."
"And yet you were curious enough to want to know more?" Dorothy asked.
"Because it was forbidden," Zainal said, again with the twinkle in his eye. He must have been a handful as a youngster. Kris was also immensely relieved that his intelligence, which she suspected was a lot higher than hers, was natural, rather than artificially stimulated.
"So the device assessed you. Can you give me any description of it?"