Uncharted Territory Read Online Free PDF Page A

that you’ve been here, so after you’re gone you won’t be forgotten, some monument to what you’ve done?”
    “My shit,” Carson said, “if you’re talking about doing stuff, Fin and I are the ones who should have something named after us! How about it, Fin? You want me to name something after you?”
    “What would I do with it? What I want is the meat!” I held out my hands for it, but nobody paid any attention.
    “Findriddy Lake,” Carson said. “Fin Mesa.”
    “Findriddy Swamp,” C.J. said.
    It was time to change the subject, or I was never going to get any meat. “So, Ev,” I said. “You’re a sexozoologist.”
    “Socioexozoologist,” he said. “I study instinctive mating behaviors in extraterrestrial species. Courtship rituals and sexual behaviors.”
    “Well, you’ve come to the right place,” Carson said. “C.J.—”
    C.J. cut in, “Tell me about some of the interesting species you’ve studied.”
    “Well, they’re all interesting, really. Most animal behaviors are instinctive, they’re hardwired in, but reproductive behavior is really complicated. It’s part hardwiring, part survival strategies, and the combination produces all these variables. The charlizards on Ottiyal mate inside the crater of an active volcano, and there’s a Terran species, the bowerbird, which constructs an elaborate bower fifty times his size and then decorates it with orchids and berries to attract the female.”
    “Some nest,” I said.
    “Oh, but it’s not the nest,” Ev said. “The nest is built in front of the bower, and it’s quite ordinary. The bower is just for courtship. Sentients are even more interesting. The Inkicce males cut off their toes to impress the female. And the Opantis’ courtship ritual—they’re the indigenous sentients on Jevo—takes six months. The Opanti female sets a series of difficult tasks the male must perform before she allows him to mate with her.”
    “Just like C.J.,” I said. “What land of tasks do these Opantis have to do for the females? Name rivers after them?”
    “The tasks vary, but they’re usually the giving of tokens of esteem, proofs of valor, feats of strength.”
    “How come the male’s always the one who has to do all the courting?” Carson said, “Giving ‘em candy and flowers, proving they’re tough, building bowers while the female just sits there making up her mind.”
    “Because the male is concerned only with mating,” Ev said. “The female is concerned with ensuring the optimum survival of her offspring, which means she needs a strong mate or a smart one. The male doesn’t do all the courting, though. The females send out response signals to encourage and attract the males.”
    “Like landing lights?” I said.
    C.J. glared at me.
    “Without those signals, the courtship ritual breaks down and can’t be completed,” Ev said.
    “I’ll keep that in mind,” Carson said. He pushed back from the table. “Fin, if we’re gonna start in two days, we’d better take a look at the map. I’ll go get the new topographicals.” He went out.
    C.J. cleared off the table, and I threw Bult off the computer and set up the map, filling in the two holes with extrapolated topographies before I went back over to the table.
    Ev was bending over the map. “Is that the Wall?” he said, pointing at the Tongue.
    “Nope. That’s the Tongue. That’s the Wall,” I said, sticking my hand in the middle of the holo to show him its course.
    “I hadn’t realized it was so long,” he said wonderingly, tracing its meandering course along the Tongue and into the Ponypiles. “Which part is uncharted territory?”
    ‘The blank part,” I said, looking at the huge western expanse of the map. The charted area looked like a drop in the bucket.
    Carson came back in and called Bult and his umbrella over, and we discussed routes.
    “We haven’t mapped any of the northern tributaries of the Tongue,” Carson said, circling an area in light marker.