"Affirmation."
The space shuttle landed on a monstrous leaf. Gale's awareness of the near future paths showed her where to go.
They got out and followed a path to a spherical flower or flower bud. The air was fresh and sweet. They pushed through curtain-like petals and entered the body of the flower. It shook gently, swaying, like a ship on a wave. Then they pushed back out of it.
Now they were in a much larger flower. The small one had moved, carrying them to the interview site.
"Neat," Vila said.
Before them was a giant central pistil, the female organ of a flower. It vibrated, and made a sound, a musical note.
"Greeting," a small metallic unit translated.
"Acknowledged," Gale said, and heard the translator render the word into another note.
There was a series of notes making a complex melodic fragment. "Fiolora, queen of the florals, in your terminology," the translation came.
"Gale, queen of the humans of planet Charm." She waited a moment for the translation to proceed, then added: "Vila, my daughter."
"A seedling."
Vila laughed. "Affirmation," Gale said.
"We have serious dialogue. There is a place for seedlings."
"Caution."
"Follow the Bee."
Bee? The translation unit was a small machine. But Gale didn't argue. She and Vila followed it as it buzzed across the floor of the flower and nudged through the curtain petals to another flower.
This one had wall-petals that showed geographic scenes of many types. Some were fields of flowers, some were immense forests of flowering trees, some were flower-covered mountains, or seas with floating lily-type flowers. The flowers themselves varied widely, some being monstrous, others tiny. They had many shapes and colors, and there were variegate patterns of different flowers. Overall, the chamber was remarkably beautiful and fascinating.
"Ooo," Vila repeated.
"Havoc will be sorry he didn't come," Gale murmured.
"He wanted to," Vila confided. "But Voila wouldn't let him. She said it had to be you."
That was interesting news. "Question," Gale asked the translation unit. "Where do we go from here?"
This time there was no music; the Bee-chine answered directly. "This is for the sapling. She may view any pictures she chooses. She has merely to orient on a petal and it will animate, showing the scene alive. Example:" It hovered before a field of red and blue flowers.
The picture expanded, as though they were approaching the scene, overlapping the surrounding panels. The flowers became large and clear, swaying gently in the breeze. Eight-legged insects climbed their stems, gathering their pollen, storing it in leg baskets and moving on. That alone signaled a different world, because on Charm insects were five-legged, and six-legged on Earth. Small animals moved among the stems, grazing on lesser vegetation.
The unit flew back somewhat. The scene contracted. It was no longer being addressed.
Gale saw the way of it. "Would you like to visit here while I talk with Queen Fiolora in the next flower?"
"Affirmation!" Vila was already orienting on a mountain scene, witching it expand awesomely. She seemed almost to be standing on the steep flowery slope. She absolutely loved nature; this was ideal for her.
Gale nodded. "Stay here, or return to me when you wish. Signal me telepathically if there is any problem."
"Sure, mommy," the child said, her attention focused on the plants and creatures of the mountain.
Gale followed the translator Bee back to Fiolora. "I presume my child will be safe." Her view of the near future paths indicated this was true.
"It is a tourist station," the Bee replied. "Tourists are safe."
That did make sense. Gale approached the queen flower. She brought out her dulcimer, applied her hammers, and played the sounds for "Greeting, appreciation."
Fiolora wavered as if shook by a sudden gust of wind. "You spoke directly!" her music said.
"Affirmation," she played. Then she spoke. "I have picked up only a few words, but will increase my vocabulary as we go. Direct communication seems more personal."
"Impressed. We anticipated less. There are many applicants for admission to the living culture coalition. We belong, but our associates do not, and there may be objection."
"Your associates are machines?"
"Affirmation."
"You understand we are at war with the machines?"
"Clarification: there are different machine cultures, as there are different living cultures. These ones are allies."
Gale shook her head. "I have a problem with this, and I suspect the Living Cultures Coalition does too. The machines have various and sometimes sophisticated devices and approaches. My husband has taken as a mistress a humanoid robot, which is a machine in the form of a fetching human woman. She has features no living culture can match when fashioning machines. This is just one example. How can you be sure these machine associates were not also sent by the malign machines?"
"We are sure, for several reasons. We will present these reasons, if you will receive them."
"That is what I am here for. I promise to listen. I can't promise to agree."
"Satisfactory. One reason is their age. They have been with us for millions of years. The enemy machines have been on the scene for less than one million years."
"Mutation? Could it not happen to your machines?"
"Unlikely. They have quality control."
"Suppose the malign machines send an agent to change your machines' program? They could become your enemy instantly."
"Unlikely."
"Question?"
"Ours have empathy. The malign machines lack empathy. They would be unable to reprogram ours. The circuitry is incompatible."
"Empathy! This is a living quality."
"Negation. It is a quality most living creatures possess and most machines lack. It is not inherent in either form, and the lack of it is not inherent."
"Amazement."
"But we do not expect you to take our word. You must judge them for yourself."
"I believe I must. My doubt remains. An a meeting be arranged?"
"Needless. You have already met."
Gale paused, then realized. "The translator!"
"Introduction: Bee-chine. Queen Gale Human."
"Greeting," Gale said faintly. She had been talking with and through the machine all along. "I assumed you were a slave unit, without sentience."
"I am a unit, governed by my nature, but not a slave. I am sentient and, in association, sapient."
"Association?"
"Your term is symbiosis. We exist with the flower folk, and can not survive without them, or they without us."
"Symbiosis!" Suddenly Gale understood why she, rather that Havoc, had been selected for this mission. She was the Glamor of Lichen, a symbiotic species, and thus she specialized in symbiosis also. But she had never imagined a plant/machine symbiosis. "Clarification."
"We machines are mobile," the Bee-chine said. "We can perform tasks requiring mobility. The flowers are telepathic; they can communicate far more effectively than we do. We work together for mutual benefit."
"Confirmation: you evolved together?"
"Affirmation. We machines occupy the niche on your planets occupied by insects. No insects evolved here. But our collaboration goes beyond that. It enabled us both to go to space."
Gale shook her head. "Amazement."
"To us, it was a surprise to discover that similar robots did not exist elsewhere," the Queen said. "We thought that the natural order as it exists on our planet was typical. But we have found it nowhere else."
Could it actually be? Friendly machines? "I would like to know more," Gale said. "What powers you? Surely you do not have externally supplied fuel. Batteries?"
"Negation," the Bee said. "Heat differential. We evoke electric current from any sharp difference: light and shadow, snow and water, wind and matter. We can store energy briefly, but need a regular input. The curtain I'm sitting on is cool, the adjacent air warm. Differentials are nearly universal."