Human to Human Read Online Free PDF Page B

Universe is destroyed and recreated with each gate leap (history failing to be a sensible continuum of gradual advances).”
    “Are you serious?”
    “Would contact with your species be bad for you?”
    “I don’t know. Marianne would approve.”
    “So she should be left with the dangerous ones—good training for expanded human contact (sapient killers, babies dangerous to mothers being a bad start).”
    Black Amber seemed to believe that evolution was intentional. I thought she was smart enough to know better. I said, “Birth must be rough on children, too.”
    She sucked her left hand noisily, then said, “Better to have nymphs.”
    I almost said something about the number of Gwyng nymphs that died, but realized that Black Amber’s nymphs all died now that she’d used up her birth permits. “You asked me here to talk?”
    “For company for the Weaver.” She oo’ed and rubbed her belly up to the pouch hole. My own belly muscles tightened and my shoulders went up, arms half bent. Why did Black Amber want me to sleep with Molly, cheat on Marianne?
    “I’m married to her sister.”
    “Marianne is with Karriaagzh now,” Black Amber said. “He draws no species lines. His sex objects don’t even have to be alive.”
    One of the other Gwyngs stuck his head in the door and sniffed once before backing off. She said to me, “Disruptor spray in the top doorside cabinet. Break my molecules.”
    Gwyngs were incredibly sensitive to the anger juice odor, but the Federation medics invented a molecular disruptor to break the odor up. Gwyngs didn’t kill or so Gwyngs claimed. They just bruised and bloodied. I sprayed as I wondered about the evolutionary reasons for angry Gwyngs to warn off other Gwyngs.
    “Couldn’t you come visit us? We’ve got another spare bedroom.”
    “Don’t you approve of my house here?”
    “Very nice, Black Amber.”
    “I invested in hydrogen crews from Gwyng Home. Tap gas giants for volatiles.” She looked pleased with herself. I wondered if she’d used her Sub-Rectorship or her friends on the History Committee to wangle possession of a non-habitable gas-giant system.
    Cynical of me to wonder. I said, “Congratulations.”
    “The Federation is useful, as a trade body.”
    I was wondering how we could get away from this conversation when Rhyodolite, Molly, and Karl came in, sweating, flushing blood through webs, radiating exercise heat. Karl threw open cooler doors until he found juice, then sat down on top of a counter to drain most of the bottle. Molly found a beer while Rhyodolite held ice chunks against his webs. Molly and Rhyo chattered about how good a catcher Karl was getting to be.
    Karl looked over the bottle and said, “Thanks, I know.”
    Rhyodolite koo’ed over that and said, “Tell him, Weaver, we remember when a thrown disc toppled him off his feet.”
    Karl finished the bottle and said, “Now we go home.”
    Black Amber spread her long fingers over his face and neck and wiggled them as if trying to massage out the negative language. Karl opened his mouth as if he planned to bite. As I shook my head, Black Amber jerked her hands away and said, “Red-Clay’s son, you should bite captive bad-sapients for us.”
    He said, “You don’t scare me, you old—”
    “Karl,” Molly said.
    Black Amber seemed defeated by that one temporal morpheme, left dangling. “Go home.”
    I said, “Karl, you’re going to have to bear with us.”
    Black Amber said, “No, take him home. We can talk in Karst City (fear Bird spies, though).”
    “If you need to talk to me about something, Karl can wait a few minutes.”
    “I need you/your support.”
    “No, I can’t wait a few minutes,” Karl said.
    “Just relax, Karl.”
    Karl turned pale. I thought he might cry, but he looked away from us, then got up and went out.
    Rhyodolite said, “Go with him.”
    I followed him to our room and saw him playing with the puppet, getting it to jump up on him with its forelegs as if it were a