“The odors emanate, we found, from waxy secretions created by bacteria living in pores in the empresses’ skins. The bacteria are subject to constant mutation, and thus each population of bacteria is unique. The bacteria rub off on the moss, the moss incorporates them into its own structure where they reproduce and spread radially, creating an area that is recognizable to all as the territory of that particular Empress because it smells like her.
“However, when empresses are crowded together, one empress’s scent actually abuts and interpenetrates the moss spread of one or more neighboring empresses. Inimical scents are picked up by worker Flibotsi and carried into the vicinity of the empress and the male sperm in the vlasiput are affected.
“Once we were sure how it happened, we didn’t take time to investigate the biology of the situation. It was enough to know where the problem lay, and we had no wish to infringe further upon the privacy of the Flibotsi empresses.”
“They needed to move farther apart,” suggested Chad.
Chiddy nodded. “As you saw, however, when we were orbiting the planet, the forest lands cover only a small portion of Flibotsia. The Flibotsi cannot live in the sea or on the deserts or even in the great prairies which, so we were told, had been forested until several centuries ago, when the Flibotsi sold the timber to alien lumbermen in return for transport to new colonies.”
“So there was no room for them to separate, was there?” said Benita.
“You are correct. In order to make more room between empresses, new empresses could not be allowed to mature until several old empresses had died, opening up a space. Any new empresses for which there was no vacant slot had to settle off planet, no matter how traumatic they found the journey. We also suggested that they begin reforestation of the plains to provide for future living space.
Until this is well underway, the population must be very strictly controlled.
“We also suggested the immediate retirement of the more aged empresses and the roll-back of their mosses.”
“Did it work?” asked Chad.
“As you saw,” said Chiddy, “they have reduced the number of empresses by half. Each time we return, they thank us again and again for our intervention.”
The next planet was Vixbotine, a desert world full of dunes and tormented stone, interrupted here and there by fertile oases and permeated by caverns which were cool, moist, and sheltered from the sun and everlasting winds. They landed near one such cavern, were welcomed by several small, slender persons who seemed to be hollow. Their living parts, so Chiddy informed the humans in an aside, were just beneath the skin, as in a tree on Earth, while the center portion was a sound box that grew longer and larger as the Vixbot aged.
“They are, I suppose, as much vegetable as animal,” Vess said. “Those lacy things around their heads are not quite ovaries, the eggs are in the fringe, and the long leafy part on top is the flower that sheds not-quite pollen into the wind. When the pollen hits the ovary, it makes seeds, of course, and the ripened seeds have little wings that let the wind spread them to some welcoming cavern entrance. That is, unless the Vixbot wishes to plant them somewhere in particular, as many do. Between the inner cavity and the outer integument there are pump chambers which suck air in and direct it through various openings to the sound cavity, thus making both single tones and harmonics.
“The young ones are supersonic, but they are merely high pitched by the age of two, becoming soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and finally basso profundo as they age and become less and less mobile. The very oldest ones have taken root and grown long, leafy hair, so most of the truly great chorales are built around a copse of aged Vixbot who sing down to your subsonic range.”
“Will we get to hear them?” Benita asked, amazed.
“Oh, indeed. That’s why we landed here. Those great huge tree-looking things over there at the edge of the cavern are bassos profun-dissimos. You may not even hear the tones they sing, but you’ll feel them through your feet.”