Chapter 40

"Why you call?" said Joe unceremoniously as they arrived. "Not eat, not sleep."

"Joe, we have something to say that we think we must say now," began Meiersdottir. "We don't ask that you answer us at all, but I hope you'll listen to everything I have to say." She took a deep breath. "We know you're planning to move your mothers."

The two natives were utterly still, but their eyes were suddenly wide again.

"We believe you'll do so very soon, because of what Igwanda said yesterday," she continued. "We also believe that if you do this so quickly, some of your mothers and some of your children could be hurt, could die."

She paused for any response, but neither alien moved to speak.

"If any of what I've said is wrong, please tell me and I don't need to say anything else." She paused again; still no response.

"Very well. First, I tell you this: no matter what happens, your mothers are safe. We will not kill them." She looked at Igwanda. "Tell them."

"We will not hurt your mothers, or you," he reiterated.

"Why you say?" said Akakha directly to him.

"If I had not said that yesterday, would Amanda and I still be alive?" he challenged.

"Not... ," began Akakha, and then trailed off.

"Would we? Say true," the colonel persisted.

"Guard things you wear then," the native admitted.

"So Igwanda said that to save our lives," Meiersdottir picked up smoothly. "But we won't do that. We trust our lives to you now." She held out her hands in imitation of the Argo captain's gesture of peace. "We come in peace. Will you kill us?"

The two natives simply stood there, evidently nonplused.

"We tell you this so you won't put your mothers and your children at risk by moving them so quickly. We don't want your mothers or your children to be hurt, to die."

There was still no response.

"It may be that you don't believe what I've told you," she continued. "If I were in your place, I might not believe it. I might think, 'they're just saying that so we won't move the mothers and they'll know where to find them if they decide to kill them.' Perhaps you think that.

"So I must say more. I must tell you that moving your mothers won't protect them. We can find them again as easily as we found them before."

The two natives' eyes had returned partially to normal size, but remained enlarged as they continued to stand unspeaking.

"I'll tell you how we found your mothers," she said. "When you think together, you make a ... a kind of sound, a noise. We can't hear that sound, but we have a machine, a thing that can. It's the same machine that was the weapon we used against your minds yesterday."

The natives said nothing.

"That machine can find where each sound comes from. Your mothers make a different sound than you and Akakha do. So as long as you think together, we'll know always where your mothers are."

There was still no response.

"If you think I'm lying, I can prove it. In the night you can move one mother. Do it carefully so there's no injury to her. Tomorrow we'll tell you where you moved her. I don't ask you to do this because I'm concerned that even that one careful move might do harm to the mother, but I offer it as a test if you need us to prove what I've said."

There was a long silence. Finally Akakha broke it.

"Why you say this?" he asked.

"Because we don't want harm to come to your mothers and your children," Meiersdottir said.

"Why you care?" came the immediate response.

"We spoke of friendship today," she answered carefully. "I told you that a friend is someone you wish good things for. You want good things for your friend, not bad things. We want to be your friend. This is a way to show that."

"You tell us can find mother, kill mother any time you want, and we not can protect," said Akakha. "We not can do anything, only die. This friend?"

"And I tell you that Igwanda and I are here where you see us and you can kill us any time you want and nothing will happen to you," said Meiersdottir forcefully. "Yes, that is a friend. A friend trusts his friend not to do him harm. There's no gain for one friend to hurt his friend."

"This way of single?" asked Akakha. "Not safe, always other may kill, only trust?"

"Yes, that's part of the way of being single," she said. "Anyone can hurt anyone else, can kill anyone else. It's only customs and rules and trust that protect you. No-one can ever be completely safe. I can't, Carlos— Igwanda can't, and you can't."

"Not think single good idea." This time it was Joe who spoke.

"That isn't your choice," said Meiersdottir. "You are a single, just as we are. You can think together with yourselves, but you're not alone in the universe"—she gestured broadly—"and you can't think together with others. You said early today that you realized you were a single. We didn't make it so, it is so. I'm only telling you what is."

"Yes," said Joe, "that true. You say more?"

"No, that was why I motioned for you to come back, to say what I did," she said.