NOT THAT ONE, GRL, his father replied mildly.
It is alone and afraid, Rojer thought and shook his head to dispense with pity for this member of a dangerously predatory species.
Then, without any grace, the Queen dropped to her six upper limbs and crawled out of the pod.
She showed more grace when she stood erect on the four lower limbs and turned her head slowly in a full circle. With great deliberation then, she waddled, again ungainly, towards the mounds of fresh vegetables and plants that had been replaced daily just beyond the pod.
Setting back on her hind legs which Rojer thought ended in suction pads, she daintily conveyed food, hand over hand, to an orifice that opened in the triangular head. Some hands discarded samples from time to time and Roddie alerted a corporal – for the viewing room was now full of the station’s personnel – to make notes of what she rejected.
She ate fruits, rind, skin and pith, but carefully put aside seeds and pits. She rejected grasses, including wheat, rye and oat, though she sampled all that had been provided, ate tubers, leaf vegetables of all kinds, and sugar cane, legumes and pulses. She did not eat rice.
She ate steadily through the piles and then sat.
She sat and sat and sat and did not so much a flourish an antenna or the feelers on her limbs or blink her eyes, settle her wings or give any further indication that she had moved. Rojer thought she’d stuffed herself with breakfast. How long had she been without any food, he wondered.
The twelve visitors who just missed the spectacle were horribly disappointed at such inertia and one oafish man insisted that Captain Waygella, Roddie’s superior who had not missed the emergence, do something to stimulate her. The captain refused but she did set the tapes of the event to automatic replay on the main viewscreen.
When a second visitation was said to be scheduled, Afra, Rojer and the `Dinis made a determined move to leave. The captain asked Roddie to accompany them to the bay and greet the new lot.
`Made a tape for you to take back to Aunt Damia and the others,’ Roddie said, passing it to Afra as they reached the bay.
`That’s very thoughtful of you, Rhodri.
`Not at all. The corporal’ll be copying that sequence all day.
I’ve been `porting `em out by the dozen to Aunt Rowan to shift to everyone who needs to know,’ and Roddie grinned wryly, `and Primes need to know, don’t they?’ Unexpectedly he nodded at Rojer, for the first time accepting Rojer’s higher rating.
`Thoughtful of you all the same, Rhodri,’ Afra said.
Rojer murmured a thank you as well because the old Roddie certainly wouldn’t have been so generous. Life in the Alliance Guards had certainly improved him.
They got into their carrier, made sure the `Dinis were harnessed properly.
Generator’s up, ready for your push, Roddie said.
Do it, Rojer, his father said. If my time sense hasn’t failed me, we should be home in time for breakfast.
DAD!
You’re back! Good, Damia said cheerfully. Come have some breakfast.
Rojer groaned as he unbuckled and his father chuckled.
Little breakfast was actually eaten that morning, and most became cold as the entire household and Tower staff watched the tape of the Queen’s emergence.
`So that’s what they really look like,’ Damia said.
`She’s rather spectacularly coloured.
`I think she’s beautiful!’ Zara said, almost defensively.
Fok and Tri had been clicking softly to themselves, their pelt colours darkening with what Rojer recognized as their aggressive shade.
Gil and Kat were not as bad but Zara’s two, Pig and Dzl, were at first speechless: then crept close, not to Zara, but to Fok and Tri to be comforted.
After her remark, Zara watched with such a wary, scared expression on her face that Damia moved closer to her. Rojer `heard’ reassuring words which confused him since his mother wouldn’t be projecting that on a wide enough band to include him.
Rojer began to wonder if Zara should watch the rest of the tape.