She sipped delicately. “Intestinal bacteria. Symbionts. We all have ’em. Tiny critters that live in our guts, an’ in our mouths. They’re harmless partners, mostly. Help us digest our food in exchange for a free ride.”
“Ah.” Of course Robert knew about bio-symbionts; any school kid did.
“Dr. Schultz managed to come up with a suite of bugs that helps the Villas eat — and enjoy — a whole lot of native Garth vegetation. They—”
She was interrupted by a high-pitched little cry, unlike anything an ape might produce. “Robert!” shrieked a piping voice.
He looked up. Robert grinned. “April. Little April Wu. How are you, Sunshine?”
The little girl was dressed like Sheena, the jungle girl. She rode on the left shoulder of an adolescent male gorilla whose black eyes were patiently gentle. April tipped forward and waved her hands in a quick series of signs. The gorilla let go of her legs and she climbed up to stand on his shoulder, holding his head for balance. Her guardian chuffed uncomplainingly.
“Catch me, Robert!”
Robert hurried to his feet. Before he could say anything to stop her, she sprang off, a sun-browned windmill that streamed blo›d hair. He caught her in a tangle of legs. For a moment, until he had a sure grip, his heart beat faster than it had in battle or in climbing mountains.
He had known the little girl was being kept with the gorillas for safety. To his chagrin he realized how busy he had been since recovering “from his injuries. Too busy to think of this child, the only other human free in the mountains. “Hi, Pumpkin,” he said to her. “How’re you doing these days? Are you taking good care of the Villas?”
She nodded seriously. “I’ve gotta take good care of th’Villas, Robert. We gotta be in charge, ’cause there’s just us.
Robert gave her a close hug. At that moment he suddenly felt terribly lonely. He had not realized how badly he missed human company. “Yup. It’s just you and me up here,” he said softly.
“You an’ me an’ Tymbimmie Athaclena,” she reminded him.
He met her eyes. “Nevertheless, you’re doing what Dr. de Shriver asks, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “Dr. de Shriver’s nice. She says maybe I might get to go see Mommy and Daddy, sometime soon.”
Robert winced. He would have to talk to de Shriver about deceiving the youngster. The chim in charge probably could not bear to tell the human child the truth, that she would be in their care for a long time to come. To send her to Port Helenia now would be to give away the secret of the gorillas, something even Athaclena was now determined to prevent.
“Take me down there, Robert.” April demanded with a sweet smile. She pointed to a flat rock where the infant gorilla now capered before some of Robert’s group. The chims laughed indulgently at the little male’s antics. The satisfied, slightly smug tone in their voices was one Robert found understandable. A very young client race would naturally feel this way toward one even younger. The chims were very proprietary and parental toward the gorillas.
Robert, in turn, felt a little like a father with an unpleasant task ahead of him, one who must somehow break it to his children that the puppy would not remain theirs for long.
He carried April across to the other bank and set her down. The water temperature was much more bearable here. No, it was wonderful. He kicked off his moccasins and wriggled his toes in the tingling warmth.
April and the baby gorilla flanked Robert, resting their elbows on his knees. Elsie sat by his side. It was a brief, peaceful scene. If a neo-dolphin were magically to appear in the water, spy-hopping into view with a wide grin, the tableau would have made a good family portrait.
“Hey, what’s that you’ve got in your mouth?” He moved his hand toward the little gorilla, who quickly shied back out of reach. It regarded him with wide, curious eyes.
“What’s he chewing on?” Robert asked Elsie.
“It looks like a strip of plastic. But… but what’s it doing here? There isn’t supposed to be anything here that was manufactured on Garth.”
“It’s not Garth-made,” someone said. They looked up. It was the chimmie who had served them their soup. She smiled and wiped her hands on her apron before bending over to pick up the gorilla infant. It gave up the material without fuss. “All the little ones chew these strips. They tested safe, and we’re absolutely positive nothing about it screams Terran!’ to Gubru detectors.”
Elsie and Robert exchanged a puzzled look. “How can you be so sure? What is the stuff?”
She teased the little ape, waving the strip before its face until it chirped and grabbed it, popping the well-masticated piece back into its mouth.
“Some of their parents brought shredded bits of it back from our first successful ambush, back at the Howletts Center. They said it ‘smelled good.’ Now the brats chew it all the time.”
She grinned down at Elsie and Robert. “It’s that super-plastic fiber from the Gubru fighting vehicles. You know, that material that stops bullets flat?”
Robert and Elsie stared.
“Hey, Kongie. How about that?” The chimmie cooed at the little gorilla. “You clever little thing, you. Say, if you like chewing armor plating, how about taking on something really tasty next? How about a city? Maybe something simple, like New York?”
The baby lowered the frayed, wet end long enough to yawn, a wide gaping of sharp, glistening teeth.
The chimmie smiled. “Yum! Y’know, I think little Kongie likes the idea.”
54
Fiben
“Hold still now,” Fiben told Gailet as he combed his fingers through her fur.
He needn’t have said anything. For although Gailet was turned away, presenting her back to him, he knew her face bore a momentary expression of beatific joy as he groomed her. When she looked like that — calm, relaxed, happy with the delight of a simple, tactile pleasure — her normally stern countenance took on a glow, one that utterly transformed her somewhat ordinary features.
It was only for a minute, unfortunately. A tiny, scurrying movement caught Fiben’s eye, and he pounced after it on instinct before it could vanish into her fine hair.
“Ow!” she cried when his fingernails bit a corner of skin, as well as a small squirming louse. Her chains rattled as she slapped his foot. “What are you doing!”
“Eating,” he muttered as he cracked the wriggling thing between his teeth. Even then, it didn’t quite stop struggling.
“You’re lying,” she said, in an unconvincing tone of voice.
“Shall I show it to you?”
She shuddered. “Never mind. Just go on with what you were doing.”
He spat out the dead louse, though for all their captors had been feeding them, he probably could use the protein. In all the thousands of times he had engaged in mutual grooming with other chims — friends, classmates, the Throop Family back on Cilmar Island — he had never before been so clearly reminded ofj›ne of the ritual’s original purposes, inherited from the jungle of long ago — that of ridding another chim of parasites. He hoped Gailet wouldn’t be too squeamish about doing the same for him. After sleeping on straw ticks for more than two weeks, he was starting to itch something awful.
His arms hurt. He had to stretch to reach Gailet, since they were chained to different parts of the stone room and could barely get close enough to do this.
“Well,” he said. “I’m almost finished, at least with those places you’re willing to uncover. I can’t believe the chimmie who said pink to me, a couple of months ago, is such a prude about nudity.”
Gailet only sniffed, not even deigning to answer. She had seemed glad enough to see him yesterday, when the renegade chims had brought him here from his former place of confinement. So many days of separate carceral isolation had made them as happy to see each other as long-lost siblings.