“Why not?” Jordan asked. “What else do I have to do?”
After breakfast the five of them clambered aboard one of the buggies and headed for the city. Brandon drove, with Elyse sitting beside him. Meek and Thornberry sat together and Jordan contented himself with the last row. They rode in an awkward silence through the cool, bright morning.
Jordan sat back and admired the stately trees of the forest, for a while.
Then Meek turned toward him and asked, “Do you plan to stay in the city?”
“For the time being,” Jordan replied easily. “I have a lot of questions to ask Adri and the others.”
With obvious discomfort, Meek said, “What we did last night isn’t a reflection on how we feel personally about you, Jordan. I hope you understand that. It’s not a personal reflection at all.”
“Of course, Harmon,” Jordan said cordially. “I understand completely.”
Meek looked puzzled as he turned back and stared straight ahead for the rest of the ride.
Adri stood waiting for them at the city’s edge, looking like a modernist statue, tall and willowy slim, in his ankle-length blue-gray robe. Jordan wondered what Meek would do if he knew that Adri could track their movements. Run back to the ship and flee back to Earth, most likely. Brandon’s going to have his hands full controlling him.
Aditi was not there. Jordan felt disheartened. Have I hurt her? Disappointed her with my reaction to her revelation about the biolab?
Brandon pulled the buggy over to a stop and they all piled out.
“Greetings, friends,” said Adri, his spiderwebbed face creasing into a warm smile. “Welcome.”
“And the top o’ the day to you, sir,” said Thornberry, smiling genially. “We’ve come to attend school with your people.”
“School?”
Meek, almost as tall and lean as Adri, said, “We’re here to learn, sir. We’ve come to find the answers to many, many questions.”
“Good!” said Adri. “We are here to answer your questions, whatever they may be.”
Jordan let out a sigh of relief. We begin well, he thought.
“Won’t you get into our vehicle, Adri?” he said. “You can ride into the city with us.”
“With pleasure,” said Adri. Brandon slid behind the wheel again and the others resumed their seats. Jordan extended a hand to Adri, who looked bemused as he climbed into the buggy’s last row.
“Aditi asked you to forgive her for not coming out to greet you. She’s busy arranging for our best scientific and technical experts to meet with you.”
“That’s good,” said Jordan, as his pulse thumped happily. Then he realized that Adri already knew why they had come to the city, and was making preparations before they had told him of their intentions. None of the others seemed to notice this, not even Meek.
They drove to the administrative center, where Aditi was waiting at the foot of the stairs with a handful of young men and women. Several of them wore robes of various colors, although most of them were dressed as Aditi was, in comfortable shorts and blouses. Within minutes, Meek, Thornberry, Brandon, and Elyse were all engaged in deep conversations with their tutors—that’s how Jordan thought of them. Soon enough, they each strolled off to separate parts of the city, humans and aliens, talking animatedly. Even Meek looked pleased with the two biologists Aditi had gotten for him: a young man and a slightly older-looking woman.
Adri excused himself and headed up the stairs by himself. Jordan stood at the base of the stairs, alone with Aditi.
There were too many people strolling along the plaza for him to take her in his arms as he wanted to. Instead he asked an innocuous, “How are you?”
“Better,” she said, with a pert smile, “now that you’re here.”
He smiled back at her. “Did you sleep well?”
“Undisturbed.”
Jordan felt his cheeks redden. “I … uh … I’ve been relieved of my duties as leader of our group.”
Aditi looked stricken. “Because of me?”
He shook his head. “Not really. It was my own fault.”
“It was because of me,” she said. Jordan realized that it was true, at least in part. And he didn’t give a damn.
“We’ll both sleep better tonight,” he said.
Aditi laughed, like the ringing of a little silver bell. “Perhaps. Or perhaps we won’t sleep at all.”
DINNER
Jordan and Aditi had dinner that evening with Brandon and Elyse. Thornberry and Meek were each eating with their respective tutors. Adri begged off when Jordan asked him to join them.
“I have much to do,” he said. “Besides, I eat very little, and it’s difficult to maintain my diet when I dine with you hearty youngsters.”
Jordan felt mildly surprised to be considered a youngster, but then he remembered that Adri was nearly four centuries old.
Over dinner, Brandon was strangely silent. His new responsibilities are weighing on him, Jordan thought. Handling Meek and his cohorts isn’t going to be easy. Then he said to himself, Good! It’s about time Brandon grew up.
Elyse bubbled with enthusiasm over her chance to study the Pup. “To observe a white dwarf star close up,” she said. “To watch its flares, measure the fusion reactions still simmering along its photosphere. I’ll be the most envied astrophysicist in the world!”
Brandon teased, “Until the next batch arrives here.”
Jordan asked, “How’s the planetary astronomer faring, Bran?”
“Plenty to do, plenty to find out. De Falla and I are working up a geological history of this planet. It’s a lot younger than Earth, if what we’ve sampled so far is typical of the whole planet.”
They chatted as they ate, until abruptly Brandon said to Aditi, “Jordy told us about your way of reproduction.”
Jordan felt a flash of anger.
Aditi began, “I know it must seem strange to you, but we—”
“Not strange,” said Jordan. “Different.”
Brandon said, “There’s something to be said about not having to get pregnant, I suppose.”
“Or not worrying about becoming pregnant,” Jordan heard himself say.
“I don’t know,” Elyse murmured, looking straight at Aditi. “For many women, pregnancy is a very special thing.”
“All I’ve ever heard is complaints,” Brandon said. “Backaches and morning sickness and all that.”
“How many women have you gotten pregnant?” Aditi asked.
Brandon’s eyes went wide. “Me?” he squeaked. “None!”
Smiling at his brother, Jordan corrected, “None that you know of, Bran.”
“None,” said Brandon, firmly. “Zero.”
“So far,” said Elyse.
They all burst into hearty laughter, except Brandon.
Reddening slightly, Brandon tried to change the subject. “You know, Aditi, your method of reproducing yourselves reminds me of an old, old joke.”
Oh no, Jordan thought. He’s not going to try to make a joke out of this.
“The only jokes you know are old ones,” Elyse teased.
Ignoring her, Brandon explained, “Back in the early days of space flight, astronauts from Earth landed on this planet that was populated by a race of intelligent robots.”
Elyse rolled her eyes toward the ceiling as she took a forkful of the cakelike dessert before her. Aditi’s attention was riveted on Brandon.
“The robots understand that their visitors are from another planet,” he went on, “and they show the astronauts all through their city.”
“Just as we’re doing for you,” Aditi said.
“Well, yeah, that’s right. But at the end of the day the robots throw a big dinner party for the astronauts. A thousand robots fill the hall.”