Chapter 12

Their reception was everything they could have hoped. Initially Joe and Akakha waited alone in the now dramatically refurbished pavilion, and walked out sedately to greet Meiersdottir and her family. Ceremoniously both extended their limbs and bowed their heads in greeting, much as Meiersdottir had initiated at her first encounter with Joe.

The humans reciprocated, touching their hands to the Edenites'. Then Meiersdottir cocked her head slightly. "That's the way we greet strangers, Joe," she said. "This is how we greet good friends after a long time apart." She sank to her knees, shifting Meier to one shoulder and reaching out with the other arm to embrace the alien. Igwanda, slightly startled by her impetuous action, smiled and followed suit with Akakha. The Edenites, considerably more startled, at first simply stood there and then tentatively returned the embraces.

After a moment Meiersdottir and Igwanda regained their feet. "Now, Joe, the others will come. There are eleven of us altogether, twelve really but one is our pilot as Bernard was last time, and they'll all meet you now. Two you know, they are Jack and Zo, the others are new here but I'll tell you of their work so you know to make matches."

Over the next several minutes she introduced each of the humans to first Joe, then Aka­kha. As she did more of the natives emerged from the Eden equivalent of woodland that surrounded their meadow, and Joe smoothly paired the newcomers with their Edenite counterparts. There was a slight delay when it came Plantz' turn, the natives clearly hadn't been prepared for agronomy as a separate discipline, but that was soon rectified.

The introductions finished, Meiersdottir was asking Joe to relay her greetings to the mothers, especially Gagugakhing and Akeelakhing, the two with whom she'd had personal interactions on the prior visit, when Zo tapped her on the shoulder.

"Ma'am, Maj. Miller wants to speak with you," he said formally; she gathered that Miller was listening over his sergeant's communicator.

Except for Zo's, none of the landing party's communicators were linked to the Gardener. This was at Meiersdottir's insistence, she had not wanted the audio transmitted during their first encounter. But the lander's external video pickups were sending up visual images, and Zo's demeanor made clear that Miller was unhappy.

She thought she knew why. Making a quick motion with her hand to alert Joe and the other natives that she was talking to the ship, she toggled her own communicator to its frequen­cy.

Igwanda, standing nearby, left his own unit off; he had no doubt of her competence to handle this unwanted interruption. So he heard only her end of the conversation.

"Yes, Maj. Miller," she said sweetly. There was a long delay, during which she turned her head and winked at her husband.

"I know, Major, he told me," she finally said. "I'm sorry, but I thought it important to countermand them." Another brief pause. "Maj. Miller, please, as I think you agreed yourself I'm in command for this landing. My orders took precedence, as your sergeant reluctantly recognized. And as you've seen—" She broke off momentarily for what seemed to be an interruption. "As you've seen," she picked up again with emphasis, "we've been very much welcomed."

Conscious that the lander's sensors were still picking up her image, she turned her back to them to make a face at Igwanda. "Yes, Major, I'm aware that this is only our first encounter. The equipment is readily available aboard the lander if it should be needed. But for the moment I'm afraid I need Sgt. Zo here with us, dressed as he is. Now, I'm sorry but I must go back to what I was doing. And Major, thank you very much for your concern, but it has to be the same rules as before, please don't interrupt again unless there's some real emergency." She toggled her communicator quickly.

"Fucking asshole," she muttered before turning back to Joe. Clearly she was thoroughly annoyed, the colonel thought; ordinarily her vocabulary was only that pungent under stress.