“I came out searching as soon as I got cleaned up and had a decent meal. Took a few days, but it was a lot easier since I knew exactly what I was looking for. Found this occurrence a couple of days ago. Flew back into town, called for a meeting with a suitable specialist in the science division, ended up talking to Jack, here.” He spit at something slender, bright, and chartreuse that scrambled to scurry away from his spit. “Didn’t know he was married to the chief administrator. Makes things easier.” He indicated the bobbing, weaving rhizomorphs. “Ask it which way to town.”
“Ask it?” Kneeling beside the hypnotic ebon filaments, she looked questioningly at Jack. “Even if it could understand me, it has no ears.”
Her husband was grinning like a little boy who’d just had his allowance doubled. “Turns out there are cilia on specialized rhizomorphs that can sense and interpret vibrations in the air. Not all that different, really, from the way the tympanum in your ears handles sound waves.”
As might be expected, she still found it all hard to believe. “Okay, I’ll accept that. But sensing vibrations is one thing. Understanding them, deciphering them, is something else.”
Moving close to her, Hasa reached down to caress the dozens of erect rhizomorphs. They lay down against his open palm like cats’ paws. Observing the interaction, it was difficult to deny that some kind of connection was being made.
“I’ve been trying to train this one. Get it to connect words, sounds, with actions. It’s very slow. For something so vast, it’s not very smart. On the other hand,” he said as he drew his hand back, “it’s hard to say what kind of smarts the pannula does have. I’m not the guy to find that out.” He nodded at Jack. “That’s a job for your partner and his fellow dirt-rooters. Me, I just find stuff. Like my women, all my evaluations are quickies.” He moved a little too close. “Go on, Administrator. Put your lips right up next to the filaments and ask it, ‘Which way to town?’ ”