Silent Dances (18 page)

head
,
she tu
rn
ed away
. Thorn
looks stung,
Meg 88

thought.
I've got to be more patient with him.
He'd done everything asked of

him all the months Meg had been gone. He might've handled the situation

with Lauren a little better, but. no one takes rejection well. However,

because of that, Meg hadn't anticipated his sudden infatuation with Tesa.

Sipping her tea, she felt its welcoming warmth travel through her.

"Well, Lauren," Peter spoke suddenly into the uncomfortable silence, "how does it feel to be a wealthy woman? Almost makes our rodeo ride down here

worthwhile."

The technician, who'd been carefully packing the Grus cloak into the same

case that had held Water Dancer's skin, gave him a wry look. "Let's see you

say that when
you're
piloting and one of them puts the ship into a spin."

Lauren ran a gentle hand over the gleaming cloak. "It's beautiful," she said

wistfully, "but it isn't mine. It belongs to the people of Earth.
"

Tesa tapped Meg. "I don't understand," she signed. "FliesTooFast gave it to her."

"It's in our contracts," Meg signed and spoke, so her conversation with Tesa

would include the others. "Anything the Grus give us is
a diplomatic
gift, not a personal one."

"That's what happens when you stop being an explorer and start developing

a First Contact," Bruce said, looking at Tesa. Meg frowned, knowing his

words weren't really for the young interrelator's benefit. "If they allowed

people to make a little profit on these endeavors, there might not be so much

outside interest in scuttling them."

Bruce can never keep his politics out of any discussion,
Meg thought with a

scowl.

"At least we can keep this on the
Crane
until the next supply ship comes

through, and enjoy it," Lauren said, ignoring Bruce as she usually did when

he dragged out one of his many soapboxes. "It'll probably end up in the

Smithsonian."

"When I think of what might've been," Bruce continued, shaking his head.

"Tesa, there's a plain about six hours from here. When I first saw it, I thought,

that's where I'll put my town-Carpenterville! In a few years it'll be

Carpentertown, then eventually-the city of Carpenter! I can still see it. But

then, of course, we had no idea what we were going to find. If we
had,
we

could've guarded our transmissions better ..."

89

"No doubt," said Szu-yi evenly, "they would've been so well guarded that no one would have
ever
known."

"That's not what
I me
an
t
," Bruce responded with a poisonous
smile
.
"
I
meant
, we could've prevented anyone like the privateers from finding out

about the Grus. Dr. Li can't help her attitude, Tesa," he added sarcastically,

"she's never known any ambition but to be a good government worker."

"A respectable desire," Szu-yi responded emotionlessly. "I certainly never had
your
interest
in being a
profiteer."

"A colonizer!"
Bruce snapped. "There's a difference!"

"Enough," Meg held up her hand. "I was hoping by now you both had

learned to get along better."

Tesa had kept track of the conversation by quick glances at her voder.

Looking squarely at Meg, she signed, "Why isn't anyone talking about what

happened with Taller and the skin?"

The others read their voders, then self-consciously exchanged glances

among themselves.

"I should've looked at it first," Meg said disgustedly. "I would've recognized"

Tesa shook her head. "You didn't recognize it when you saw it. Taller did,

and you responded to his reaction. But--"Am I reading this right?"

Bruce interjected. "Tesa, you think
Taller
knew that skin was Dancer's

before
Meg told him?"

Tesa nodded. "It was obvious. He reacted before she did."

"Did it look that way to the rest of you?" Bruce asked the others. No one

responded.

Tesa was visibly annoyed.
"None
of you realized that? But this is important!

Taller's ability to recognize and grieve for his son can be significant in

proving his intelligence."

"Well, I don't know about
that,"
Bruce drawled. "The Terran elephant does both those things and I don't think we're ready to submit that species to the

CLS for a First Contact."

Meg had been afraid they'd get into this. Neither Bruce nor Lauren believed

the Grus to be the intelligent people she and Scott knew they were.

However, the two technicians had had enough confidence in Scott to believe

he could convince the CLS. They'd given up everything in the hopes they

could establish this First Contact-and it had all been shattered by Scott's

death.

"I see
," Tesa signed simply. "I had thought no one wanted

90

to discuss Taller's reaction
because it
was too painful. But that's not it at all.

You can't recognize what's happening in front of you, or agree on
it, so
you

won't identify
significant
cultural responses--and then you won't document

them. Don't you want to prove that the Grus
are intelligent
enough to

deserve protection from exploitation?"

Everyone quickly nodded their assents, except Bruce. "I don't know about

the exploitation part. My motivation is purely chauvinistic. I want Earth to get

our full-membership CLS status before those damned Simiu shut us out,

maybe forever."

Tesa physically recoiled. "So we can shut out the Simiu?" Bruce nodded

unabashedly. "We've got to teach 'em to respect Terrans. Half of 'em have

been trying to discredit us since the
Desiree
incident. It's no secret that the Simiu will do everything they can to block any Terran membership bid that'll

come up, but right now our half memberships make us equals. So, we've got

to
get full
membership before them. Then we can try and block them-and

we'll have more power to do it. If they stop us this time, we might never get

another chance."

"Bruce," Tesa signed, "none of that
matters!
The
only
thing that's important is whether or not the Grus
are intelligent."
The weatherman pointed to

Tesa's Mizari voder. "I'm hoping that thing, l'il darling, will solve that problem.

Since that's the same device the Mizari use to back up their claims of

intelligence
for other
marginal
species, we should do the
same."

Tesa looked confused. "What species?"

"Are the Ri intelligent
enough,"
Bruce asked, "or have the Mizari
decided
they are so they--can control--pardon me,
I mean
, `protect'--the shisso

seaweed from which they derive that drug that extends the Mizari life span?

How can we know, since the Mizari insist the Ri are so shy that the sight of

any alien-other than themselves, of course-can cause one of those

overgrown squid to die of shock. But the Mizari have their magical voders to

back them up." He was warming to his subject now, his face animated.

"Well, the Grus produce
something
of great value, too, so let's take the

voder and document what we need to so we can protect them."

He moved closer to Tesa to make his
point
. "The bottom
line is this
, l
il
darlin
'. Trinity can get us full membership

91

in the CLS
.
So, the Grus damned well
better
be intelligent."

Meg rubbed the bri
dge of her nose wearily
.
Welcome to the real World
,
Tesa,
she thought bitterly.

"
I'm afraid I must agree with Dr
.
Carpenter
,"
Dr. Li said. Eve
ry
head in
the place tu
rn
ed. "Who can
really
judge such a nebulous thing as intelligence?
We just have to hope that we can prove this claim and

establish Ea
rt
h's full membership. Tesa must understand the way

things really are."

"So," Peter asked Tesa,
"do
you know how things really are?"

She hadn'
t been looking at him however
,
and didn
'
t realize he'd

spoken to her
.
Bruce got her attention and pointed to her voder
.
She
read it and faced Peter
. "
I understand that you would all feel differently
if you had bothered to lea
rn
to sign Grus. Then
,
you could've picked
up the pieces when you lost Scott
,
and Meg had to leave
.
You

would've had more documentation for the First Contact claim, and you

wouldn't have been so dependent on that faulty voder program
.
More

importantly, if you signed
,
you would all
know
as Scott did, as Meg doe
s, as I do, that there
'
s no question that the Grus are intelligent
enough."

She looked at Bruce squarely. "
At StarB
ri
dge, I knew people who'd had
communications with Rigellians, who'd met the Ri. They had no doubt

about their intelligence. When you communicate with beings in their

own language, you
understand
them--
you build b
ri
dges
.
But you just
want to rely on
this"--she
pulled the voder off Bruce'
s w
ri
st"because it
'
s
easy."

The meteorologist'
s eyes followed his voder as Tesa pulled it away:

"What
'
s she saying
,
Meg, damn it
?
I can't ..." Tesa dem
an
ded
through gestures that he maintain eye contact
with her.
She signed as

Meg translated
, "
This is how you communicate
,
B
ru
ce. Talk to
me,
not to this
stupid
machine." Bru
ce looked intently into Tesa
'
s golden eyes
,
then remarked
, "
There
'
s a lot in those eyes, darlin'."

Without glancing at the voders,
Tesa signed
, "
If you could sign G
ru
s,
you'd see a lot more in their eyes, too."

Bru
ce seemed shocked that Tesa had understood him. "And if you

signed G
ru
s," she continued
, "
you would
know
that Taller recognized his dead son." Tesa handed him his voder.

"
Signing is not my job
,"
B
ru
ce said with a g
ru
dging smile.

92

"
It wasn
't Scott's job either, was it?" Tesa asked.

He read the voder now with obvious reluctance. "I'll make a deal with you?"

Tesa looked at him, uncertain. He repeated the sentence and she nodded

that
she understood.

"I'll study Grus signs ... if Dr. Li will."

Tesa held up a hand and turned to Meg. "Did he say he'd study Grus if the

doctor would also?"

"That's right," Meg signed wearily.

Tesa looked at the doctor, who was sitting, wooden-faced. "I'll have to have

someone
to practice with," Bruce drawled. "No, thank you," the doctor stated flatly.

"Come on, Uncle Bruce," Lauren interjected quietly. She only used that

endearment when she was determined to have her way. "I'll be your practice

partner."

Bruce started to argue, but Lauren gave him a look that made him grin and

back down. "Okay, honey, I never could refuse you anything. We'll learn to

sign Grus. That should be something."

Yes,
thought Meg,
that certainly should.

Through it all Thorn had said nothing, Meg noted, but had watched with

quiet interest.

"Well, now that intergalactic relations have taken a giant leap forward," Peter said, "can the starving immigrants eat?"

Peter carried a precarious pile of dishes into the kitchen area. "You really

wash
these?" he asked Thorn, incredulously.

"Doesn't make any sense to make the recycler sterilize and reformulate

dishes for such a small job. Life's simpler here."

"Is that so?" the black man wondered. "I caught that look in your eye over the hearts-of-reed soup. Isn't there something you want to tell me?"

Thorn quickly glanced over his shoulder. "And I thought you offered to help

out of graciousness."

Peter snorted. "I wanted to keep you from making a fool of yourself when you

tried to get Tesa's assistance."

"I can't figure her out. She was a lot warmer yesterday."

"Maybe you're coming on too strong," Peter suggested. "Or maybe she's

afraid Lauren might slit her throat."

Both men laughed quietly. "Still, it pisses me off when she puts on that deaf

routine," Thorn said.

93

SILENT DANCES 93
Peter raised his eyebrows. "Routine?"

"You know, I say something and halfway through she looks
away and tunes

me out
.
She can follow what I
'
m saying."

"
Why don't you
sign to her?"

"Ahh, I feel so uncomfortable doing that. I'd like to be a
Terran
when I talk to Tesa, you know? Use a human language."