protective mimicry there is an associated empathic faculty. While I don’t know
what the limb gesture means exactly, I could feel that I was being
complimented.”
Danalta, she had no doubt, was also aware of her embarrassment, but as they
followed the two Earth-humans from the compartment the shape-changer did not
speak of it.
The corridor outside was thronged with a menagerie of creatures, a few of whom
resembled, in shape if not in size, nonintelligent species found on Sommaradva.
She tried not to flinch as one of the small, red-furred bipeds of the species
she had seen in charge of Reception brushed past, and she felt acutely anxious
when enormous, six-limbed, multitentacled monsters of many times her body mass
bore down on her. But not all of the creatures were frightening, or even ugly. A
large crustacean with a beautifully marked carapace and hard exo-skeletal limbs
clickedpast, its pincers opening and closing slowly as it talked to a truly
lovely being who had at least thirty short, stubby legs and an overall coat of
rippling, silvery fur. There were others she could not see clearly because of
their protective envelopes and, in the case of the occupant of a mobile pressure
vessel from which steam was escaping, she had no idea what weird or wonderful
shape the vehicle was concealing.
The cacophony of hooting, chirping, gobbling, and moaning conversation could not
be described, because it was totally unlike anything she had previously
experienced.
“There is a much shorter route to the dining hall,” Danalta said as a spiney,
membraneous being who looked like some kind of dark, oily vegetable shuffled
past, its physical details clouded by the thick yellow fog inside its
transparent suit. “But it would mean a trip through the water-filled Chalder
wards, and your protective envelopes won’t be ready for another six, maybe seven
days. How do you feel, and what do you think of the place so far1?”
It was disconcerting and embarrassing to have Danalta, who could be nothing less
than a wizard-healer of rulers, ask such questions of a mere warrior-surgeon.
But the questions had been asked, and answers were expected. If the being wished
to practice its art in the middle of a crowded corridor, it was certainly not
her place to criticize.
Promptly she replied, “I feel confused, frightened, repelled, curious, and
unsure of my ability to adapt. My confusion is such that I am unable to be more
specific. I’m beginning to feel that the two Earth-humans walking in front of
us, member of a species that a short time ago I would have considered totajly
alien, have an almost welcome normality about them. And I feel that you, because
you have made yourself the most familiar and reassuring entity in the hospital,
are by your very nature the most alien of all. I haven’t had enough time, nor
have I sufficient direct experience, to form any useful impressions or opinions
about the hospital, but it may well be that the empathic faculty you possess has
already made you aware of my feelings.
“Is the environment of the dining hall,” she added worriedly, “much worse than
this?”
Danalta did not reply at once, and the two Earth-humans had been silent for some
time. The one called Braithwaite had fallen slightly behind the other, and its
head was turned to one side so that the fleshy protuberance that was one of its
auricular organs would be better able to pick up her words. It seemed that her
feelings were of interest not only to the shape-changer. When Danalta did speak,
its words resembled a lecture rather than a simple reply to her question.
“A low level of empathy is common in most intelligent life-forms,” it said, “but
only in one species, the natives of Cinruss, is there a perfect empathic
faculty. You will meet one of them soon because it, too, is curious about newly
discovered life-forms and will want to seek you out at the first opportunity.
You can then compare my limited empathic faculty with Prilicla’s.
“My own limited faculty,” it went on, “is based on the observation of body
movements, tensions, changes in skin coloration, and so on, rather than the