“But why would they do such a thing?” Kren asked.
“Long grass has several uses. It can be processed for its fiber, for one thing. Most of our paper, rope, and clothing is made from grass fiber. The rest is synthetic, except for leather. Most of the long grass, though, is used to feed the juvenals in the winter,” Bronki said, amazed at his ignorance of the simplest things.
“I’d heard of grass paper, but I hadn’t realized that they actually made it from grass. What is this winter thing you mentioned?”
And I’m taking him to the university, Bronki thought. I’ll be a laughingstock for sure. “Winter is the part of the year when it gets cold.”
“And why does it do that?”
“You’ve never seen winter?”
“Except for the last few months, I’ve spent the last nine gross years or so in a mine below ground. I didn’t see any of this winter thing down there,” Kren said.
“You wouldn’t. Underground, it always stays the same temperature. That’s why we keep the juvenals underground in the winter. Do you see those doors on the south side of the wall? Those doors lead to an underground set of caverns. The juvenals stay there for most of the winter. The caverns are right under the field of long grass. This makes it easier to cut the grass and deliver it to the juvenals. Our taxes pay for the workers who feed the juvenals in the winter. Our taxes also pay for other things.”
“You are speaking slowly, while using a lot of small words and simple sentences.”
“I apologize. I am still not used to speaking to a vampire,” Bronki said. “Until I learned what you are, I always assumed that when you asked a strange question, you were making a joke. Your store of information is extremely spotty. Your knowledge of mathematics, languages, and the military arts is outstanding, yet you are ignorant of the simplest things. I find myself talking to you as if you were a newly emerging mind, which I suppose, is exactly what you are. But, if you ask this sort of thing of other students once you get to the university, they will think that you are very strange. Once we get there, I suggest that you remain silent when you don’t understand something, and then come and ask me about it later. For now, keep on asking questions, and I will do the best I can.”
“Thank you. I will follow your suggestions. Why is winter?”
Why is winter? Bronki asked herself. “Okay, you see that bright shiny thing up there? That is the sun. What do you know about it?”
“I know that it is a ball of mostly hydrogen, with some helium, too, and small amounts of most of the other elements. It is heated by gravitationally induced fusion of the hydrogen into helium. It is three gross three dozen thousand miles in diameter, and has a surface temperature of . . .”
“That is adequate. Now, this place we’re walking on is a planet. It is located two dozen and seven million miles from the sun, spins on its axis once a day, and travels around the sun once a year. The axis of the spin is not the same as the axis of its circle around the sun, but is at a relative tilt of eleven degrees.”
“This was all mentioned in the book on physics I just read,” Kren said.
“Good. Now, because of the axial tilt, the southern hemisphere of the planet, where we’re now at, gets more of the sun’s radiation for one half of the year, and less for the other half. Is that obvious to you?”
“Yes, of course. You say that we’re in the southern hemisphere?”
“Yes. I should have given you a book on geography, a fault that I will correct as soon as we get to my house at the university. Anyway, when this hemisphere is getting less radiation, it gets colder. That’s what we call winter,” she said.
“Thank you. Do the adults go underground the way the juvenals do?”
“Generally not, although many of the facilities in the cities are below ground. We prefer to live above ground and heat our houses. We wear heavily insulated clothing when we must go outside. I’ll see that you are taken to where you can buy some warm clothes when we get to the university.”
They got to the tube station as the sun was setting. From the surface, this was little more than a doorway set into a low hill. Bronki used her credit card to open the heavy door.
“The doors are kept locked to keep the juvenals out,” she explained.
Inside, a stairway went deep into the earth. At the bottom, signs directed them to platforms that went to eight different cities, with many stops along the way. One of the cities listed was the University of Dren.
Kren was interested in everything around them. He had never imagined such a place as this. Deep below ground, it was well lighted, clean, and pleasantly decorated, with colored tiles of blue, lavender, and green on some walls, and red, orange, and yellow on others, and all artfully arranged. The ceilings glowed evenly in an attractive sky blue, from the side, but white when you looked straight up. The floors were a uniform grass green. He had to look carefully before he was sure that it wasn’t actually grass, but a synthetic carpet.
Yet, there didn’t seem to be any other travelers around.
“This is lovely,” he said.
“If you say so. The important criterion in the design of this sort of structure is that it must require very little maintenance. I doubt if this place has been refurbished in five thousand years. The initial costs are sometimes high, but quality pays for itself in the long run.”
He followed Bronki to the proper train platform, where she pressed a request button for the next train to stop. They waited on a bench for less than a dozen minutes before a MagFloat train pulled quietly up.
They stepped on quickly, and the train took off immediately. Bronki went forward, gave the operator her credit card, and told her their destination.
“You’ll owe me another eleven Ke for the ticket, when we go to the bank tomorrow,” she said. “After what I’ve lost, I’m surprised that I can still remember my numbers.”
They were the only passengers in any of the four cars.
“I’m surprised that so few customers use this amazing train,” Kren said.
“There isn’t much traffic this far out in the country. It will fill up as we get close to the university. As to being amazing, well, I suppose it is, but it doesn’t seem so to me. Tube trains have been here all of my life. Actually, the tube system on this planet was completed over eight gross thousand years ago. You can go to within a day’s walk of any place on the planet’s surface with it, but for long trips, aircraft are faster.”
“I wonder what it would be like to fly.”
“It’s not much different from being on a train, except for being more crowded. Well, the view is better. On your first flight, ask for a window seat.”
“Bronki, I don’t understand why you are being so helpful to me.”
“Why shouldn’t I be helpful; it doesn’t cost me anything. I’ve told you that hate is a wasteful emotion. There’s no profit in it. Yes, you’ve taken things from me, but now that they’re gone, harming you wouldn’t get them back. It is most unlikely that you will ever again be in a position to take anything more from me without my consent. I might be very useful to you now, but in time, I suspect that you might become very useful to me.”
“In what way?” Kren asked.
“I’m not entirely sure. For the next two years, I’ll be teaching literary subjects, so I probably won’t need my mathematical abilities in the near future. But if it should happen that I do, well, you now have those abilities, and I think that you might be courteous enough to help out if I asked.”
“Certainly, within reason.”
“Also, I maintain living quarters for students and junior faculty members at my town house. You would be wise to stay near me, for my advice if nothing else, for the next few years, and you will need to rent a room someplace in the city. You will probably find it convenient to pay me rent and stay with me. I had a few vacancies last year, and that cuts into profits,” she said.
“I imagine that I might do that, if your rates are competitive.”
“They are. Lastly, you are a superbly trained warrior. Such beings are rare at the university. In the unlikely event that such skills proved necessary to me, it would be very useful to have someone to call on.”