Had Jones been an Elder, Kiv reflected, I'd be still finishing my ritual apology, with numbers two and three to go. It's a good thing Jones is different.
''Here we are," Jones said. He fumbled at his waist until he managed to detach his door-opener from the belt of his shorts. He inserted it; the door clicked open.
They were in Kiv's laboratory.
"To forestall your question," Jones said, "Yes, I have been taking care of your pets while you were gone, as requested."
"I never doubted it," Kiv said.
"I know." Jones smiled. "Pardon me when I tease you. You're so solemn sometimes."
I'll never get used to the way he talks, Kiv thought. As if I were his brother, almost. And he's older than I am, by the Light! Perhaps the Earthmen will never understand that they are due the greatest respect.
Jones drew out the box containing Kiv's hugl.
"While you were gone, I started a new nest. Come here and look at it, will you?"
Kiv walked to the cabinet near the window and peered in. The cabinet swarmed with hugl, fiercely tearing what looked like the haunch of a deest to ribbons.
And every one of them was a dark, glossy black.
Kiv looked up, startled.
"They're just like mine," he said. "Black!"
"Exactly," Jones said. "Your specimen is of a type not exactly uncommon in these parts. As a matter of fact, I collected all of these on the farm of one Korvin peDrang Yorgen, not very far from here. His farm was completely overrun with them about three days ago. It should take these black hugl about ten days to reach your father's farm in—where is it—Kandor?"
Kiv stared at the Earthman's bland, unexpressive face. Suddenly, he remembered the weary old farmer Narla had encountered outside the communications office, and how he had protested so bitterly that the onslaughts of the hugl seemed to get worse every year.
"These hugl are all over the district?"
"All over," Jones said. "They go from farm to farm. Eating. They're the hungriest creatures I've ever seen. Take a look at Korvin peDrang's farm later in the day. Right out in front you'll see a very fine deest skeleton. The hugl picked it clean of flesh in less time than I can tell about it."
Kiv squinted into the cabinet again, watching the furious milling-about of the little animals. They were marching round and round their enclosure, as if mere motion would eventually free them.
"I'll testify that they 're hungry beasts." He held out his bandaged thumb for Jones' inspection. "This one I brought back took a neat chunk out of me while I was collecting him."
Jones nodded. "Oh, they'll eat anything, all right. Ask some of our farmers."
"It's funny," Kiv remarked. "Here I am, an expert on hugl, and the first time the little beasts do something significant I have to be miles away! Some specialist I am! My own animals develop a new species and begin eating deests, and I don't find out about it for days."
He stared gloomily into the big tank where his hugl larvae lived. The little teardrop-shaped animals— "water wiggles," the farmers called them—were paddling peacefully up and down in the brackish pond water Kiv had so carefully transported to his laboratory from the nearby lake where he had collected them.
"Will these be black or brown?" he asked Jones.
"How should I know? Ask them."
Kiv smiled, concealing his feeling of annoyance at the Earthman's flippancy. "I haven't learned their language," he said. "Or they haven't learned mine."
He looked back over his shoulder at Jones, who was staring out the window, watching the stream of radiance from the Great Light slowly fade from the clouded skies. It was approaching nightfall.
"I guess the poor farmers are working all day and all night to get their fields sprayed with Edris powder," Kiv said.
"They are. They've used so much that the supply is starting to run low. You can almost smell the Edris drifting on the wind, they've used so much."
"That's good. Hugl make very interesting beasts to study—but I don't feel so affectionate toward them when they threaten the crops. And it's a lucky thing the Edris powder controls them so well."
"Very lucky," said Jones. He turned to face Kiv, and there was a curious twinkle in his eyes. "But there's one other thing I haven't told you yet. The Edris powder isn't controlling these black hugl at all. Not at all."
III
Picture a multilegged little animal about half as long as your thumb. Now multiply it by a factor of between one and three million. Picture this vast horde of vicious, eternally hungry little monsters moving slowly but inexorably over the farmland of Nidor's one great continent.
Every lake and every pond could become a focal point of the infection, from which the predators would spread, consuming everything in their path.
That was the picture that sprang into Kiv's mind. If what Jones said was true, if Edris powder could no longer control the hugl, then—then—
His mind simply failed to grasp the immensity of the disaster. So he rejected it. He shook his head, partly in negation, partly to clear it.
"That doesn't seem right," he said uneasily. "Edris powder will kill hugl. It's always killed them. For thousands of years. Why shouldn't it kill them now? What difference does their color make?"
The last glow of the Great Light streamed through the window and outlined Jones' head. The Earthman's face was coolly expressionless.
"That's what you ought to find out, isn't it?"
"But—but Jones—how do you know Edris powder won't kill them?"
"The same way you would have found out if you'd been here when the first ones appeared.'' The Earthman stopped, his alien eyes looking at Kiv's own.
Kiv met the Earthman's glance, as he tried to penetrate the peculiar logic of Jones' thought processes.
"If I'd caught one, I'd have tried to dissect it, I suppose. Naturally, I'd have killed it first. But I'd have used the gas generator. I don't understand."
Jones smiled. "That's because I withheld a minor bit of information. The gas generator overheated several weeks ago and cracked."
Kiv nodded. "So you used Edris instead. And—it didn't work?"
Frowning, the Earthman said, "I wouldn't say it didn't work altogether. The thing finally died, but it took a rather long time. Four days."
"Four days?" Kiv's voice held a touch of awe. The long shadows began to gather in the little laboratory room, and he reached for the illuminator cord. "Four days?" He paused, holding the cord, letting the implications of Jones' statement sink in.
There was a diffident knock on the door. Narla stepped inside.
"I thought I'd find you here." She looked around. "What are you two so somber about? Look."
She held out a small printed booklet. "According to the Term Bulletin, I'm eligible to take Grandfather Syg's course—Application of Canon Law. Didn't you say you were going to take it, Kiv?"
"I wouldn't miss it for anything," Kiv said, glad to get his mind off the peculiarities of the black hugl for a moment.
"Grandfather Syg is a brilliant man," Jones said in his soft voice. "I believe McKay is working with him on teaching technique.'' Abruptly, Jones rose. "You'll have to excuse me now," he said.
After Jones had left the lab, Kiv turned to look again at the peacefully-swimming hugl larvae. "I don't think I'll ever understand these Earthmen," he said.
"Nor will I," Narla agreed. "But you'll have to admit that the School has done some wonderful things for Nidor."