CRLTs, despite their advanced technology, were not having things all their own
way. They lived on an incredibly savage world which had no clear division
between its animal and vegetable predators. In order to have any chance of
survival at all, the young CRLTs had to be born physically well developed and
remain under the
protection of the parent for as long as possible. In the CRLT’s case,
parturition was delayed until the offspring was a young adult who had learned
how to survive and how to aid the continued survival of its parent.
Separation took place every winter, when everything went to sleep and there was
no physical threat, and the young one rejoined its parent in the spring to
continue its lessons in survival. The young one, who at this stage was
invariably female, reached physical maturity early and produced a child of its
own. And so it went with the original adult, who had begun to change its sex to
male, trailing a long tail of beings of diminishing degrees of masculinity and
experience behind it as it moved up the chain of the group entity toward the
head.
“The CRLT brain forms part of the central nerve core which during fusion is
linked to the brains of the individuals ahead of and behind it via the
interfaces at each end of the body,” Conway went on, “so that an individual
segment learns not only by its own experience but from those of its predecessors
farther up the line. This means that the larger the number of individuals in the
group, the smarter will be its male head and forward segments. Should the head
segment, who is the elder of the group and probably its decision maker, die from
natural or other causes, the male next in line takes over.”
Murchison cleared her throat delicately and said, “If anyone wishes at this
juncture to make a general observation regarding the superiority, physical or
intellectual, of the male over the female, be advised that I shall spit in his,
her, or its eye.”
Conway smiled and shook his head. He said seriously, “The male head will,
naturally, fertilize a number of young female tail segments of other group
entities, but there is a problem. Surely there would be serious psychological
difficulties, sex-based frustrations, with so many of the intervening segments
neither fully male or female and unable to—”
“There is no problem,” Murchison broke in, “if all mentation and, presumably,
the pain and pleasure stimuli are shared by every individual in the group.”
“Of course, I’d forgotten that aspect,” Conway said. “But there is another.
Think of the length of our survivor. If mentation and experience are shared,
then this could be a very long-
lived and highly intelligent group entity indeed—”
The discussion was cut short at that point by the lock cycling warning. The
third pair of CRLTs had arrived, *
These two had been taken from the sternmost loops of the coilship where the
casualties among the most senior and intelligent CRLTs had been heaviest.
According to Vespasian’s tactical computer and the findings of Descartes’s
specialists in e-t written languages and numerical systems, fifty-three of the
CRLT hibernation cylinders—and their occupants—had been destroyed as a result of
the collision, and between these two segments there had been seventeen members
of the group entity who had not made it.
The other breaks in the coil were much smaller—the largest missing five segments
and the rest only three or four each. Conway hoped that if the largest gap could
be closed successfully, then the smaller ones should pose fewer problems.
As with the previous two CRLTs, the combination of artificial gravity and
atmospheric pressure triggered the actuators which opened the cylinders and
reversed the hibernation process. Conway had already sited the IV needles which
would put them back to sleep again should they become disorderly, and Prilicla
reported that they were reviving and their emotional radiation indicated that
they were beings who were fully mature, healthy, and highly intelligent. As
consciousness returned they began moving out of their cylinders and toward each
other.
They touched, and jerked apart.
“What?” Conway began. But Prilicla was already answering the question.