“So soon after such an experience? You recovered from it quickly.”
“Well, we talked about it on the way up, while we were resting, and we figured somebody owes us a favor. It won’t be inappropriate or greedy. You can count on that.”
Bao said pleadingly, “We are not bothering you with it now, Questioner. Everything is being too upset and weird, and there are rocks still falling off mountains. And besides … besides … “ His voice trailed away. Besides, he had been going to say, Flowing Green had changed everything when she had talked to them before the transformation. She had told them something wonderful, right there at the end—something they hadn’t even had a chance to think about. Not yet.
“Well, if you want a favor, I can at least consider it,” said Questioner. “You’ve been good and dutiful aides. You’re deserving of some consideration. And what about Mouche?”
“You’ll have to ask Mouche,” said Ellin. “I don’t feel all that different from before. Not yet. There were only five of us, but the memory is already fading. I know why the Timmys couldn’t remember, all those thousands of them. But Mouche … I don’t think he will forget. I think something different happened to Mouche.”
“I shouldn’t be surprised,” muttered Questioner. “Though this planet has, on several occasions, surprised me.” She turned to stare at the two Hags, who were standing a little distance away. “Unpleasantly,” she added with a sniff.
Onsofruct caught Questioner’s glance. Her eyes brimmed with tears, and she turned away to hide the tears that spilled down her cheeks. “It’s going to happen, Jewy. Our grandmothers made the wrong choice.”
“No,” said D’Jevier angrily. “They made the right choice. It just doesn’t happen to fit into Haraldson’s edicts.”
“What?” demanded Calvy. “What are you talking about?”
“She’s going to sterilize mankind on Newholme,” murmured D’Jevier.
“Because of the Timmys?” Calvy cried, not waiting for an answer. “She’s going to sterilize the people?” He turned to confront Questioner, saying accusingly, “Sterilize my children? That’s a rotten way to repay Mouche and Ornery for their efforts on your behalf, Questioner. Or all the people on this planet who never killed a single Timmy. No future for them, either?”
“What are you talking about?” cried Ornery. “She’s going to do what?”
“The innocent suffer with the guilty,” said Questioner, with a significant glance at the Hags. “And it is not because of the Timmys! Let them explain it to you.” She moved ponderously up the hill away from them.
Behind her, D’Jevier burst into tears, to be comforted by Ellin, who stared after Questioner, wondering if she and Bao should stay or go after her. Bao put a hand on her shoulder, holding her in place. Well then, they would stay. They did not yet understand what exactly was happening, but they understood well enough that Mouche and Ornery along with the rest of Newholmian people were condemned to a fate that had sunk the others of their group deep in grief.
Away toward the chasm, Mouche looked up, noticed the unhappy group by the Fauxi-dizalonz and came slowly toward them.
“How can I tell him?” wept Madame. “Everything he’s done for us, for us all, and now this. I can’t tell him.”
“It wouldn’t make any difference to him, would it?” asked Ornery. “He never had any future, anyhow. Not in the way of children and a family.”
“But this is different,” Madame cried. “Different … when it’s the whole world.”
Ornery, watching Mouche’s slow approach, was not at all sure that the difference was worth mentioning.
61—Love Cards Wild
Over the succeeding days, the Quaggi egg was tunneled away from the body of Kaorugi and also out of the body of Quaggima—a job for which Kaorugi created two large creatures with geo-surgical aptitudes. The blast capsules beneath the egg were also carefully disassembled and Questioner’s ship—whose captain had claimed “parts failure” as an excuse for failing to respond during the gathering of the moons—proved capable under the Gablian commander of lifting Quaggima and the egg and the dangerous hatching mechanism from the planet’s surface. Quaggima was deposited on one of the tiny moonlets orbiting Newholme, for a time of rehabilitation, but the egg was taken farther out, to be cracked when Quaggima was ready. According to Bofusdiaga, Quaggima intended to take his children under his wing, male and female both, to start a Quaggian rights movement, a movement that might seek an allegiance with the Council of Worlds, who would be asked to lend certain ships to the task of rescuing abused and dying Quaggi. During the enlightening intercourse that had taken place in the chasm, the Quaggima had acquired strong feelings about Quaggian sexuality.