Chapter 51

As two of the natives—these unarmed—separated themselves to come forward, Meiersdottir took in the scene and turned to Igwanda. "Quickly, Carlos, you need to disarm. Get rid of anything threatening."

"No," he said firmly. "They offer threat." He pointed to the images of the surrounding natives. "It is as before—equal. These two, I presume they are Joe and Akakha, come at least vis­ibly unarmed; you meet them likewise. I come prepared to defend. Once again, Amanda, we are not supplicants. We regret what happened, but we do not grovel, it was simply a misadventure."

"Carlos, they're going to give us a chance to talk, anyway—"

"How good of them!" he exclaimed caustically. "Amanda, if this were really accidental would you not feel irate that they greeted us thusly when we came to explain and offer caring?"

She drew a breath. "You're right," she said. "I'm still too much a pacifist. OK, Bernard, Carlos and I will go alone to start; you stay here now, but be ready for anything."

"And if there is an attack, lift immediately," Igwanda added. "Do not wait for us. We cannot in good conscience risk the lander—and you, too—as well as ourselves." He moved with Meiersdottir into the airlock. "A full cycle," he said.

"You still tell the tale," he continued to Meiersdottir as the outer door began to open. "But let me go first."

Joe and Akakha, for it was indeed they, had reached the base of the ramp and were openly staring at the scorched area. Igwanda strode down the ramp and began speaking even before he reached its base.

"What is this?" he demanded, gesturing broadly at the surrounding natives. "Is this how you greet us, with weapons?"

Joe looked at him as he spoke, looked back at the damaged lander, and finally returned his eyes to Igwanda—who noted they were considerably enlarged. The crowd of spear-carrying natives didn't move.

"You tell us," Joe finally spoke. "Confuse." The words were thickly accented.

"Joe, why are you speaking pidgin again? Your way?" put in Meiersdottir.

"Speak friend before," the native said. "Now not know."

"Why not know?" she persisted.

"You leave, guard stand there." He pointed to the ramp. "Not friend. Then short time, big noise in sky, smoke. Things fall on us. Not friend. Now you come, Eeghanka wear guard things. Not friend."

"I wear the guard things because I must guard," said the colonel flatly. "I see what is there." He gestured again. "I did not put them there."

"Joe, we came back to tell you what happened, and to apologize," added Meiersdottir. "There was an accident." She pointed to the lander. "As you see."

Another hesitation. Then, in unison, the natives encircling them turned and retreated back into the overgrowth. Igwanda was also pleased to notice that Joe's and Akakha's eyes had receded to nearly normal size.

"That's better," she said. "Carlos?" Catching her meaning, he ostentatiously shrugged out of his blaster harness and removed both his helmet and the holster belt with his laser.

"Now," she continued. "First the guard when we left. He did that on his own, without instructions. Carlos was very angry with him about it, and after we got on the ship he told the man never to do that again, that you were friends and we should treat you as friends and trust you." She waited, but there was no response.

"The explosions in the sky—that was our fault," she said. "We had a problem with this lander and Bernard, you remember him, was testing it. We thought we'd fixed the problem, but we hadn't done it right. The door blew open and some parts fell out. They were what exploded in your sky."

There was still no immediate response, but this time she let the silence continue. The natives again looked at the damage to the lander, and Akakha walked over to touch the area.

"We know you have another lander," said Joe. She drew a breath of relief as he abandoned the pidgin. "Why did you not use it instead of this faulty one?"

"We need both landers working, in case one fails," she explained. "We have to make repairs on the other because of what you did to it. That meant we needed to test this one."

"We are sorry that we damaged your ship," said Joe.

"And we are sorry for the accident," she responded. "Good heavens! I'm forgetting the most important thing! Were any of you hurt when the explosions went off?"

"No," the native said. "There were parts that fell down on us, but they did not hit any of us. One part hit a house, but then it rolled off and fell on the ground. The rest struck the ground directly."

"Thank goodness!" she exclaimed. "We were very worried. We came as soon as we could, but after the accident Bernard had to fly back to the big ship and we had to fix the lander—this time we did it right!—before he could bring us down again. But I still don't understand the way you greeted us. Did you think we had attacked you?" She said the last with a touch of disbelief.

"We were not sure," said Joe. "We thought it was possible."

"Joe, Akakha, you have seen our weapons," Igwanda put in, looking first at one, then the other. "You know what they can do. If we were going to attack you, do you not think we could make a better job of it than simply sprinkling you with small bits of metal?"

Both natives let out snorts of their laughter.

"What happened to trust?" Meiersdottir demanded. "We talked about that a lot. Carlos and I showed that we trusted you by staying here for three nights without protection, even right after you attacked us. We showed we trusted you by telling you no-one would harm your mothers even if you killed us. Can't you trust us enough to even wait for an explanation before you send an army to meet us?"

Once more a hesitation. Then Joe finally spoke. "Amanda, trust is new to us. Because we think together we have never needed it before. What we saw did not seem to us the same as your words. In our old way what we saw is what was important; we are accustomed to deciding in that way. We are sorry."

"I understand," she said. "I'm glad we have this cleared up. Now, Carlos and I haven't finished what we were doing back at the mothership, the big ship, so..." She trailed off; both natives had stiffened visibly.

"Joe, would it make you more comfortable if Carlos and I stayed here again tonight?" she asked.

"Things happened when you left before," responded the native. "We try to trust, but..."