Katie cried for a long time. Richard held her tightly and patted her on the back. “But I do love you, Daddy,” Katie said when she finally raised her head. “I always have, and I always will. . . . I’m terribly sorry that I have disappointed you.”
“Katie, we must be leaving now,” Franz said firmly. “If the power is restored while we are still in the house, we’ll be in deep shit.”
Katie kissed her father hurriedly on the lips and stroked his beard affectionately with her fingers one final time. ‘Take care of yourself, Daddy,” she said. “And don’t give up hope.”
The flashlight beam was a thin finger of light preceding the visiting pair as they quickly crossed the room to the bottom of the stairs. “Good-bye, Daddy,” Katie said.
“I love you too, Katie,” Richard said as he heard the sound of his daughter’s feet running up the stairs.
5 T:
:K octospider on the table was inconscious. Nicole handed Dr. Blue the small plastic container that the alien physician had requested and watched as the tiny creatures were dumped onto the greenish black fluid that covered the open wound. In less than a minute the fluid was gone and her octospider colleague deftly sewed up the incision using the forward five centimeters of three of her tentacles.
“That’s the last one for today,” Dr. Blue said in color. “As always, Nicole, we thank you for your help.”
The two of them walked together out of the operating area into an adjacent room. Nicole had not yet accustomed herself to the cleaning process. She took a deep breath before removing her protective gown and placing her arms in a large bowl filled with dozens of silverfishlike animals. Nicole fought against her personal revulsion as the slimy things clambered all over her arms and hands.
“I know this part is not pleasant for you,” Dr. Blue said, “but we really have no choice now that the forward water
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supply has been contaminated by the bombing. And we can’t take a chance that anything here might be toxic for you.”
“Is everything destroyed north of the forest?” Nicole asked while Dr. Blue finished cleaning herself up.
“Almost,” the octospider replied. “And it looks as if the human engineers have now finished their modifications to the helicopters. The Chief Optimizer fears that they will make their first flights over the forest in another week or two.”
“And there have been no replies to the messages you have sent?”
“None at all. We know that Nakamura has read them . . . but the humans captured and killed the last messenger near the power plant—despite the fact that our octospider was carrying a white flag.”
Nicole sighed. She remembered something Max had said the night before when she had expressed bewilderment that Nakamura was ignoring all the messages. “Of course he is,” Max had shouted angrily. “That man understands nothing but force. All those stupid messages say is that the octos want peace and will be forced to defend themselves if the humans don’t desist. The threats that follow are meaningless. What is Nakamura to think when his troops and helicopters move around unimpeded, destroying everything in sight? Hasn’t the Chief Optimizer learned anything about humans? The octospiders must engage Nakamura’s army in some kind of battle.”
“That’s not their way,” Nicole had replied. ‘They do not involve themselves in skirmishes or limited wars. They only fight when their survival is threatened. The messages have spelled this all out very carefully and have repeatedly urged Nakamura to talk to Richard and Archie.”
In the hospital, Dr. Blue was flashing colors at Nicole. She shook her head and returned to the present. “Are you going to wait today for Benjy?” the octospider asked. “Or will you go directly over to the administrative center?”
Nicole checked her watch. “I think I’ll go now. It usually takes me a couple of hours to digest all the qyadroid data from the day before. So much is happening. Please tell Benjy to tell the others that I’ll be home for dinner.”
She walked out of the hospital a few minutes later and headed for the administrative center. Even though it was daytime, the streets of the Emerald City were nearly deserted. Nicole passed three octospiders, all hurrying on the other side of the road, and a pair of crab biots, who looked strangely out of place. Dr. Blue had told Nicole that the crab biots had been recruited for Emerald City garbage duty.
The city has changed so much since the decree, Nicole thought. Most of the older octos are now over in the war domain. And we never saw a single biot here until a month ago, after most of the support creatures had supposedly been moved to another location. Max thinks many of them might have been terminated because of the shortages. Max always thinks the worst of the octospiders.
Often after work Nicole would accompany Benjy to the transport stop. Her son was also helping the shorthanded staff at the hospital. As Benjy had become more aware of what was occurring in the Emerald City, it had grown increasingly difficult for Nicole to hide the seriousness of their situation.
“Why are our people fighting against the octospiders?” Benjy had asked the previous week. “Don’t they know that -the octos don’t want to hurt anybody?”
‘The colonists in New Eden don’t understand the octospiders,” Nicole had replied. “And they won’t let Archie and Uncle Richard explain anything.”
“Then they’re stupider than I am,” Benjy had said gruffly.
Dr. Blue and the other members of the octospider .hospital staff who had not been reassigned because of the war were all very impressed with Benjy. In the beginning, when he had volunteered to help, the octospiders had had reservations about what he could do with his limited capabilities. Once a simple task had been explained to him by Nicole, however, and he had repeated it back to her, Benjy never made a mistake. With his strong, youthful body, he was especially helpful performing heavy labor, a ? valuable attribute now that so many of the larger creatures
were no longer around. ; While Nicole was walking toward the administrative
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center, she found herself thinking about both Benjy and Katie. In her mind’s eye Nicole glanced back and forth between pictures of the two children. As parents, she said to herself, we often spend too much time focusing on intellectual potential instead of more substantive qualities. What matters most is not how much intellect the child has, but rather what he or she decides to do with it. Benjy has succeeded beyond our wildest imaginings, primarily because of who he is inside. As for Katie, never, in my worst nightmares . . .
Nicole broke her train of thought as she entered the building. An octospider guard waved at her and she smiled. When she reached her usual viewing room, Nicole was surprised to find the Chief Optimizer waiting for her. “I wanted to take this opportunity,” the head octospider said, “both to thank you for the contribution you are making in this difficult period and to reassure you that all your family and friends here in the Emerald City will be cared for as if they were members of our species, no matter what happens in the next few weeks.”
The Chief Optimizer started to leave the room. “The situation is deteriorating, then?” Nicole asked.
“Yes,” the octospider replied. “As soon as the humans fly over the forest, we will be forced to retaliate.”
When the Chief Optimizer was gone, Nicole sat down in front of her console to scan through the quadroid data from the day before. She was not allowed access to all the information from New Eden, but she was permitted to call up the images of the daily activities of all the members of her family. Nicole could see each day what was happening in the basement with Richard and Archie, how Ellie and Nikki were adjusting to being back in New Eden, and what was occurring in Katie’s world.
As time passed, Nicole watched Katie less and less. It was simply too painful for her. Observing her granddaughter Nikki, by contrast, was pure delight. Nicole especially enjoyed watching Nikki on those afternoons when (jie little girl went to the Beauvois playground to play with the other children of the village. Although the images were soundless,
Nicole could almost hear the squeals of mirthful delight as Nikki and the others tumbled over one another in pursuit of an elusive soccer ball.
Nicole’s heart ached for Ellie. Despite her daughter’s heroic efforts, Ellie was not having any luck resuscitating her marriage. Robert had remained withdrawn in his workaholic pattern, using the demands of the hospital to keep him from facing all emotions, including his own. He was a dutiful but restrained parent with Nikki, only rarely showing any true delight. He did not make love with Ellie and would not talk about it, except to say that he was “not ready” when she tearfully brought up the subject three weeks after they had been reunited.