“But taking your people wasn’t rational!” cried Ellin. “What would any of us from off planet know about their dance?”
Questioner laughed wryly, shaking her head. “Persons, beings are often unable to see things they can’t recognize, things they have no search-image for. Kaorugi is not accustomed to sexual reproduction. On this planet, creatures are budded or assembled in the Fauxi-dizalonz, and Kaorugi designs them and grows them as it needs them. All information on this planet is held by parts of Kaorugi. When Kaorugi needs information, it accesses the part that has it. From Kaorugi’s point of view, it was rational to assume that if some of its information is missing, we must have it. Where else could it have gone?”
“Even if the Corojumi are gone,” said Mouche, “the Timmys who performed in the dance should remember it. Why doesn’t Kaorugi gather up the Timmys who danced and give their information to some new Corojumi?”
“Right. Quite right, Mouche,” said Questioner, nodding her approval. “I asked the Corojum that same question during our voyage. The Timmys, however, weren’t shaped as they are until mankind came. They retain the memories but not the shape. If that weren’t enough, it seems your second wave of settlers had not only forbidden dancing but had killed and burned many of the Timmys who went on doing it. As a result, much of the Timmy information was lost.”
D’Jevier blanched. Onsofruct moved uncomfortably. Calvy nodded, mouth twisted. “This time we really did it, didn’t we?”
Questioner shrugged. “Certainly someone did. Kaorugi is intelligent but not at all imaginative, because it has never had to be. Conflict acting on intelligence creates imagination. Faced with conflict, creatures are forced to imagine what will happen, where the next threat will come from. If there has never been conflict, imagination never develops. Wits arise in answer to danger, to pain, to tragedy. No one ever got smarter eating easy apples.
“Kaorugi, therefore, could not imagine beings who would willingly destroy the common good for personal gain, something mankind is very good at. Kaorugi knew nothing of individually acquisitive creatures, and it didn’t learn until too late. The point I am trying to make quite clear is that all of us here must admit that it is, in fact, too late for any simple solution. We and Kaorugi must try something else.”
“It could kill the Quaggima,” said Onsofruct. “That’s what it could do!”
They all stared at her. The Questioner arranged her face, keeping her expression disinterested. “It couldn’t, as a matter of fact. It does not kill.”
“Well then, you can! You’ve got a ship out there. It has weapons!”
“Onsy!” said D’Jevier, warningly.
“Well, she could!”
“I’m not at all sure I could,” Questioner said calmly. “But aside from the fact I’m still unable to contact my ship, how would you kill it?”
“Blow her to hell!”
Questioner replied, “Blowing her, as you say, to hell, would certainly destroy the egg, and if you destroy the egg, you’ll set off the propulsive system and probably blow the planet apart. Which is rather what we’re trying to avoid.”
“So no matter what we do, it’s going to happen sooner or later anyhow,” cried Onsofruct.
“The operative word is later,” cried Calvy.
Questioner nodded. “I’m sure a century or so could make a big difference to everyone involved, including Kaorugi. Given even a few tendays, there are many things we could do, but we have only a day or so to do something else. Something wonderful and imaginative and expert that will give us breathing time.”
She turned, gesturing to Ellin and Bao. “And here are my wonderful and imaginative experts. How shall we set about recovering the dance?”
Ellin gasped, turning quite pale as she said, “You’re joking? You’ve got to be!” She looked around herself in a panic, reaching out for Bao.
“Oh, how faulty an expecting!” asserted Bao, giving Ellin a supportive arm and a sympathetic look. “We are being out of our depths here.”
“No false modesty, hysterics, or avoidance rituals, please,” Questioner murmured. “It’s a simple question well within your field of expertise. My data banks tell me that recovery of old dances is something done all the time among dancers on Old Earth. Simply tell us how they would do it.”