“What you are is what you choose to be,” Benita cried.
He choked with bitter laughter. “Oh, Benita, even as tiny ones, we are taught not to choose, not to want. Choosing is not what we do.”
She fumbled about for a reason, finally suggesting, “But you have to take us back, Chiddy!”
“I know. That’s what I’m saying. I have to take you back.”
“And you have to stay on Earth a while . . .”
“No, I must return at once. They won’t let…”
“The Inkleozese! They’re still on Earth, awaiting the emergence of their larvae! They have no spaceships. You have to wait and bring them back. Otherwise you’re intervening, aren’t you?”
“This is true,” he said haltingly. “I had forgotten the Inkleozese.”
“And Vess has to come with you, just in case something goes wrong.” Over Chiddy’s shoulder she saw T’Fees approaching.
“A little redundancy,” said Chad. “Every venture requires a little redundancy. She’s right.”
T’Fees came within hearing distance. “What are you discussing?”
“Benita says we have to go back and pick up the Inkleozese,” said Chiddy. “We really are committed to doing so.”
“Benita is correct,” said T’Fees, after a moment’s thought. “But we will insist upon holding a hostage, just to be sure Chiddy and Vess return to their home!”
The large Pistach came closer, peering into Benita’s face. “It is true that you must be returned to your homes and the Inkleozese must be fetched, but now that we have proved Pistach interventionism to be non-historic, we have no intention of letting it start up again.”
“What do you mean, hostage?” she asked.
“We will keep your son,” said T’Fees. “He is not essential to anything, so far as we can see. We will hold him here until Chiddy and Vess return. Then we will send him home by some other means. A Credon ship can be paid to take him as a passenger.”
“They won’t hurt him,” murmured Chiddy, close to Benita’s ear. “Really.”
“I know,” she murmured in return. “But he’ll try their patience severely.”
“One will ask to’eros nootch to see to your son’s welfare,” said Chiddy. “All nootchi have the power of silencing children.”
She turned and went into the room where Carlos had been deposited on a sleeping mat. His face was peaceful, like a child’s. She had not seen that expression in a long, long time. For several years now, whenever she’d seen him awake, she had seen only discontent and rancor. There was no reason not to leave him. Missing school was no reason. According to Angelica, he’d been cutting classes. Relationships was no reason. Miss Bigg was no longer interested.
She sighed, wiped her eyes, and returned to Chiddy. “Let him stay here if it will help matters,” she said.
Their preparations for departure were sketchy and urgent. Vess came scrambling through the shadows, Chad and Benita took their little bags and plodded toward the ship, T’Fees following closely behind them with several of his burlier rebels.
As they started to board the ship, T’Fees grasped Benita by the shoulder and turned her to face it. Him. Ter. She didn’t know what it was or how to refer to it.
“We know how long the Inkleozese take to pupate,” T’Fees said. “Do not keep Chiddy and Vess past that time, or your son will be worse for it.”
“Would you hurt him, T’Fees?” she asked, gently. “Would you really?”
For a moment, it looked startled, as though it had not thought what it would do. Then it looked crafty. “You have seen on the Fresco what we are capable of.”
Two of T’Fees’s aides handed Carlos out like a bale of fiber. Chad and Benita got into the ship. With a sound that was suspiciously like a sob, Chiddy closed the portholes and started them on their journey home.
Benita—TUESDAY WEEK
Shortly after they left Pistach-home, Chiddy offered Chad and Benita the sedative food and drink they had taken during the trip from Earth. Both refused.
“We have a lot of thinking to do,” Benita said. “You and Vess are obviously upset,- I know our president is going to bevery upset. I wouldn’t feel I had done my utmost unless Chad and I had talked this matter over from end to end. Somehow, someone must come up with some way to prevent tragedy from happening to your people and ours!”