Chapter 27

"It infuriates me to have to win my troops' loyalty through such a childish macho display," Igwanda grumbled to Meiersdottir. "And to have let that young trooper goad me into it ... But I saw no other route. Miller fairly obviously disparaged me extensively to them, seeking to aggrandize himself at my expense, and I had to overcome that quickly."

His wife simply giggled. "I'd love to have seen it, dear. And their faces when you showed him. Let me know next time you're going to play with the kiddies, OK? I want to watch."

He gave a wry smile. "That is the problem, though, they are 'kiddies' in too many ways. Miller has clearly been far too busy instilling them with moronic values, values entirely inappropriate to a soldier."

"Well, morons do moronic things, that's how you know they're morons," she said practically. "Anyhow, you've got them for the rest of our stay, you'll shape them up."

"I and Zo," the colonel corrected. "The sergeant remains a good soldier, he will be of inestimable help."

"Good. But meantime. How soon are we due at the sick bay?"

He glanced at his chronometer. "We meet Bernard and Zo there in about forty minutes."

"Time enough, then."

"Time for what?"

"Time to go talk to Joe, I'm sure he's been sitting non-stop at the communicator that's still down there. We've kind of left them hanging and swinging, and I need to make contact."

"What do you plan to say?"

"A little of this, a little of that, and nothing definite," she said. "We've got to talk this through at tomorrow's meeting. Right now I'm not going to commit to anything."

"Good plan," he approved. "Some thought is going to be required by all." By now they were moving down the corridor toward the communications compartment. "By the way, where is Meier?"

"Don't laugh, but Rory's got him again. She's turning into a regular babysitter, and they both seem to love it. I mean Roarin' Rory, who knew? Do you think it's Zo?"

"When they got started I told you I thought Zo could handle it and wondered if Rory could," he said. "The sergeant has many depths to him, I saw that when we were here before and now still more. Do you know he was drawing his laser to protect me when Miller came at me?"

"Bless his sweet little heart, I owe him a kiss for that," she said with a smile. "But maybe I'd better ask Rory for permission first, she's kind of taken him over. She told me he was going to join her looking after Meier when you all got finished. Oops, here we are," she added, noticing that they'd reached the communication center door.

It took, as she'd predicted, almost no time to contact Joe; he responded to her first call.

"Amanda, are you well?" he asked immediately. "Is baby well?"

"I'm fine, Joe, and so is Meier," she replied. "The mother who ... kept us, she called herself Kalogakhing, she was very polite, there was no harm done to us."

"It is as it should be," came the response. "She was wrong to make you stay. All know this now. But that name is not right. There is only one Kalogakhing, and it is not this one. We do not use names, as we have said, but if you need name for her you may call her Ajukakhing. It means far-mother, mother who is not here but is in other place. We know that she treat you well, she say in think-together that is passed from that place to this. It is right that she do this."

"It's getting complicated, isn't it, Joe?"

"We do not think it will be so when we send out party for copper, we think only to seek copper. But has become much more than that. Amanda, we need your help. When do you come back?"

"That's something I can't say now, Joe," she said. "I only called to let you know that we haven't gone away. We're still here, high above your sky in our mothership, and we won't go away without telling you."

"Does this mean that you will go away, and not come here again?"

"I don't think so, Joe. But what happened was very bad. It's something we must talk about, we humans, all of us. You know we don't think together, Joe, we have to talk. And it's like what Gagugakhing once said to Carlos and me about nest-think, the thinking that only your mothers do together—talk is slower than think-together, but sometimes it's best. We won't come back today, and probably not tomorrow, either, to give us the time to talk, but I expect at least some of us will be back soon."

The conversation went on for a few more minutes, but there was really little more of substance for either to say. Meiersdottir ultimately ended it gracefully by saying she had to be elsewhere, and the clearly unhappy alien subsided.