from the forward section of the coil, that is, from the tail segments of this
multiple creature, and the second two came from a position considerably aft of
amidships. Our own deductions, supported by the information on the creatures’
probable planet of origin which
arrived with Tyrell, suggest that the tail segments are immature beings, perhaps
very young adults, and the head segments aft to be composed of the older, more
experienced, and most highly intelligent of the beings since they are
responsible for ship operations and disembarkation following a stern landing.”
“Agreed,” Conway said, wishing Prilicla would get to the point, no matter how
unpleasant it was, instead of talking all around it.
“Aft of amidships, friend Conway,” Prilicla went on, “the CRLTs should be older.
The two who have just left us, judging by their emotional radiation, were even
less mature than the first set.”
Conway looked at Murchison, who said defensively, “I don’t know why that should
be, I’m sorry. Do the data on their home planet, if it is their home planet,
suggest an answer?”
“I’m pretty sure it was their home planet,” Conway replied thoughtfully,
“because there couldn’t possibly be another like it. But the data are old and
sparse and predate the assembly and launching from orbit of the coilship, and
we’ve been too busy since Tyre’ll brought back the information to discuss it
properly.”
“We have half an hour,” Murchison observed, “before the next two CRLTs arrive.”
Many centuries before the formation of the Galactic Federation, the Eurils had
ranged interstellar space, driven by a curiosity so intense and at the same time
hampered by a caution so extreme that even the Cinrusskin race to which Prilicla
belonged was considered brave, even foolhardy, by comparison. Physiologically
they were classification MSVK—a low-gravity, tripedal, and vaguely storklike
life-form, whose wings had evolved into twin sets of multidigited manipulators.
They had been and still were the galaxy’s prime observers, and they were content
to look and learn and record through their long-range probes and sensors without
making their presence known to the large and dangerously overmuscled specimens,
intelligent or otherwise, who were under study.
During their travels the Eurils had come upon a system whose single,
life-bearing planet pursued a highly eccentric orbit about its primary which
forced its flora and fauna to adapt
to environmental conditions ranging from steaming polar jungles in summer to an
apparently lifeless winter world of ice. Seeing it for the first time in its
frigid, winter mode, the Eurils had been about to dismiss it as being
uninhabitable until their probes showed evidence of a highly technical culture
encased in the winter ice. Closer investigation revealed that the civilization
was current and was awaiting the spring, like every other animal and vegetable
life-form on the planet, to come out of hibernation.
It was not until the polar spring was far advanced that the members of this
hibernating culture were identified as the large, loglike objects which had been
lying in and around the cities under the ice.
“It is clear from this that the overall being is a group entity* which, for
reasons we do not yet understand, must separate into its individual parts before
hibernation can take place,” Conway went on. “Since hibernation is natural to
them, the problem of artificially extending it and reversing the process for the
purpose of interstellar migration was, medically speaking, relatively easy to
solve.
“The following year a number of the beings were observed by the Eurils in a
fully conscious state,” he continued, “going about their business in small group
gestalts inside heated domes under the winter ice, which indicates that they do
not go into hibernation unless or until it is forced on them. It is
unnecessary, therefore, to duplicate the extremes of temperature of their
planet of origin on their new home since any world closely resembling their
summer environment would suit them. Had this not been so, the near impossibility
of finding another and identical planetary environment to the one they were
trying to leave would have made the migration hopeless from the start. And the
reasons for the CRLT life-form becoming a group entity, initially a small-group
entity, are also becoming clear.” Even at the time of the Eurils’ visit the