Nesa, the park ranger, was grinning from ear to ear as they pulled out of the village.
“We’ll have to arrange a show for you some evening,” she said. “The rangers and some of the villagers have put together an orchestra, and we can have some dancing and puppets.”
“I’d like that,” Ukatonen said. “I would be happy to perform a quarbirri for them, if you think they would be interested.”
“What you did in the village was incredible,” Nesa told him. “I’m sure they’d be eager to see you perform again.”
They reached the research station just before dark. Juna and the Tendu piled out of the van, and followed Nesa to their rooms in a traditional high-roofed adat house with its beautifully carved and painted roof gables. Ukatonen threw his suitcase in the corner, picked up one of the gathering bags, swung down off their balcony, and walked into the forest. Juna didn’t try to stop him. She knew how much he needed the peace and familiarity of the jungle. Moki put Juna’s suitcase on the bed and looked at her pleadingly.
“Go ahead, Moki. Come back when you need me.”
He [[Mowed Ukatonen in(6 Cfe 6mt JBSt Si MSfddS ]] stepped onto the balcony of Juna’s room.
“Are they going to be all right?”
Juna smiled. “They’re going to be happier than they’ve been since they left Tiangi. It’s as close to home as they can come on Earth. They’ll be back in a couple of days, full of questions.”
“But aren’t you worried about Moki?”
“Moki can survive anything this rain forest can throw at him, Marcus.”
“I— ” Marcus began. He looked terribly crestfallen, like some wet baby bird.
“You wanted to spend some time with them, is that it?” Juna said. “Don’t worry, you will, but they’ve been through so much in the last few weeks. It’s time to let them be who they are without humans around.”
Her stomach growled loudly. “The baby says it’s time to eat,” she said, patting her swelling belly. “Come on, let’s go find out what’s for dinner. We’ll see the Tendu when they’re ready for our company and not before.”
Ukatonen sat on a high branch, feeling a welcome warm rain running down his skin. He had a rain forest around him, this time for more than a few days. He could actually get to know this forest, and compare it to those on Tiangi. He took a deep breath, breathing in the warm, sweet scent of this forest. It was different from the forest in Monteverde; the underlying scents were spicier and more pungent here.
Somewhere nearby, a bird honked loudly. Ukatonen sat still, waiting, and soon an ungainly black bird with an enormous bill fluttered onto a nearby branch. He watched as it gazed suspiciously around for a few moments, then settled into the serious business of stripping fruit off the branch it was perched on.
Watching the bird, so reminiscent of the poo-eet bird of Tiangi, yet so different, Ukatonen felt a weight lift from his heart. He was home and not-home simultaneously. He was surrounded by the familiarity of a rain forest that was different from anything on Tiangi. Here was what he had traveled so long and so far to see.
Moki swung up beside him, startling the bird, which flew off, honking sonorously.
“I wish we could stay longer,” Moki said in skin speech, “It’s nice being back.”
Ukatonen flickered agreement, but looked away. Sadness clouded his skin at the thought of going back to Berry Station. Interesting as it was, it didn’t feel like home.
“I’m sorry, en.” Moki said. “I didn’t mean to make you sad.”
“Let’s just enjoy the time we have here,” Ukatonen told him. “We can think about going home when the time comes.” But as he said this, he knew he couldn’t go back with Eerin and Moki. It would be hard on Moki, but he was clever and adaptable. He would be all right. Perhaps Moki would learn more about humans without another Tendu around to distract him.
For Juna, the green and golden days passed swiftly. Moki and Ukatonen emerged from the forest a couple of days later, their bags bulging with freshly gathered fruit. Ukatonen spent several days conferring with the researchers, while Moki spent time lounging on the riverbank with her. Then the Tendu vanished into the forest again. Each time they emerged from the green gloom they seemed happier and more relaxed, but also more alien. Moki and Ukatonen spoke more in skin speech and less in Standard. It was as though they were shedding the part of themselves that had learned to live in the human world.
Marcus hung around Ukatonen whenever the enkar was in camp. Ukatonen seemed to enjoy his company. He took Marcus along on walks through the forest, and started teaching him how to climb trees.
When he was not exploring with Marcus, Ukatonen spent most of his time talking with the researchers, listening to their plans for restoring the original ecology. Moki and Juna spent most of their time swimming in the river or resting on the shore, watching flocks of brilliant butterflies alight on the sandy bank to drink and sun themselves. Sometimes Juna closed her eyes and let herself imagine that they were all still on Tiangi.
A few days before they were due to leave, Ukatonen came down and sat beside Juna, on the bank of the river. There was a serious, thoughtful cast to his skin.
“What is it, en?”
“Dr. Sivagnam has invited me to work with the restoration team. I want to stay here.”
Juna felt a welling of sadness within her, like blood from a wound, but she wasn’t surprised by the enkar’s decision. She propped herself up on her arms to see him better. “What about Moki?” she asked.
“He’ll be all right. He’s happy to be wherever you are, you know that. But I— ” He hesitated. “I need this, Eerin. I can’t go back to Berry, not yet. I’ll be there to help you have the baby, but then I’ll come back here. I need to be here.”
“Who’ll look after you?”
“Marcus has offered. He wants to study me, and how I interact with humans.” He shrugged, looking away. “I’ll get a comm account, so that we can talk.”
“We’ll miss you,” she said, squinting up at him.
Ukatonen brushed her shoulder affectionately with his knuckles. “I’ll miss you too.”
They sat there for a long time, watching the sun dance on the river and the butterflies and birds come and go. Then Ukatonen got up, ducked into the river, and came out again, gleaming in the sun. He touched her shoulder again and walked into the forest.
The last few days were very subdued. The three of them spent a lot of time together. They linked as often as they could, bringing themselves into a strange, almost prescient state where each knew what the other was going to do almost as soon as the other thought of it. They spoke very little, there was no need.
At last it was time to go. Ukatonen went with them to the airport in Medan. They clasped hands in a last brief link and then Moki and Juna turned and got on the plane.
Ukatonen spent most of the next month alone in the forest. It felt good to have cast off his connections again, to be free of obligations, free to study this strange and tattered ecosystem. He had seen enough restoration projects to appreciate how much the humans had done to repair this badly damaged ecosystem. Still there were holes, places where species were missing. He brooded over his observations, trying to create a pattern out of the remnants of the whole.
Finally he returned to the research station.
“The forest is too broken,” he said, defeated. “I cannot repair it without samples from the creatures that are dead now,” he told them. “Without samples, I cannot re-create the species that the forest needs in order to be whole again.”
“How big a sample do you need?” Dr. Fardhi, the head biologist, asked hesitantly.