Finally she forced herself to rise, leaning against the real wall until the waves of darkness throbbed through her brain and then died away. Then she donned her robe and walked out in the direction of the translation chamber.
She realized when she reached it that she had lost track of time. It was late.
In fact, it was night, and only the Yilayil were about.
She began to retreat, for she knew the etiquette: not until she had been invited could she interact with the Yilayil.
The sleek weasel-shaped beings ignored her, and she stood uncertainly, until the wisp-wisp wisp-wisp of a robe upon the floor brought her attention round. of a robe upon the floor brought her attention round.
Zhot stood there, still, his eyes unblinking.
"Come. Train," he droned.
Unquestioning, Saba followed him into the chamber beyond, where she saw a terminal. She sank down onto the bench, resolutely dismissing the ache of head and neck, and spread her hands lightly over the keypads.
They were too far apart for true comfort. Vividly she saw the long, furred, double-knuckled digits of the four-armed Yilayil.
"Now," Zhot said. "Begin."
She tapped out the combinations she had learned, and then, when Zhot said nothing, she went on to those she"d managed to puzzle out.
Moving with his accustomed fluidity, Zhot reached down to tap out a new combination, which caused symbols to flow across the screen.
"See," he commanded. "And let go of the connections you impose..."
Again time streamed by, uncounted, as Saba worked under Zhot"s direction. Saba"s fever slowly increased, noticed only on the periphery of her attention: chills, heat, ache. She dismissed them all. She was aware only that Katarina seemed to stand at her other shoulder, watching in approval.
She remembered a brief discussion of synesthesia from her neurology studies, how some people perceived shapes to have tastes, or colors sounds. The instructor had said that no one really understood the phenomenon, but that it was thought to emerge from the limbic system, where symbols and emotions were correlated.
Where symbols and emotions dance, she thought suddenly. The thought moved her hands, and a new combination of ideographs popped up on the screen.
"You begin to perceive," said Zhot. She started. She had not realized he was still standing there.
Saba did not understand what she had done, so she returned her attention to her hands, and to the symbols scrolling across the screen. Slowly, slowly, she was beginning to make sense of them; or rather, to stop trying to force sense on them and let them speak-dance?-for themselves.
The organization was indeed akin to Chinese writing, something she understood the guiding principles of, though she did not speak or read Chinese.
But finding a familiar structure accentuated the kinship of beings otherwise so far from one another in temporal reality. The miracle of similar structure-of hands, and brain, and mouth to talk and eyes to look-produced similarities in language. It was a bond, a universal bond.
It was exciting to penetrate it.
"I will find you, Katarina," she said to her ghost when, abruptly, Zhot departed and she was left to find her way back to her room.
She collapsed in grat.i.tude onto her bed, dropping immediately into a deep sleep.
Thirst and chills forced her awake again. Groggy and cold, she rose to draw water. The room lights came on as soon as she left the bed. She reached to fill her water gla.s.s-then paused, activated the sonic screen, and pa.s.sed it through a couple times.
The water had registered as pure. She was sure the sonic screen killed microbes... so why was she sick?
She sighed, filled the cup, drank thirstily. Then she reluctantly helped herself to another precious dose of her medicine. She"d feel the fever drop soon, and then she could work.
Restlessness brought her to her feet. She tabbed on the computer, blinked at the blurry screen, then decided to wait until the medicine dose had restored her equilibrium.
Instead, the restlessness distilled into a single, strong urge: for fresh air, for light.
Was it morning? She would find out.
She pa.s.sed her flaxen robe through the cleaner, then pulled it on, sighing with relief as its folds draped softly down her body to the floor. Then she tabbed her door open, and slid out, moving silently.
Not down. That way led only to the grand mosaic-suns and stars-and the chambers of knowledge, more and more of them the farther down one went.
Instead, for the first time, she turned her steps upward.
As she walked, she thought about the Yilayil metaphors and images. One shard was the fact that human and Yilayil idiom evoked opposites: for humans, upward and light meant freedom, opportunity, beauty. Dancing-free-in the sun. How many earth cultures carried just such a potent image?
For the Yilayil, harmony, the Great Dance, meant darkness. Downward and dark were the preferred directions. Saba had unconsciously fallen into the same thought pattern; that was inevitable when one focused one"s attention on achieving ti[trill]kee ti[trill]kee.
Upward was undesirable, upward was... danger?
She frowned, thinking over the little gestures, the modes of expression she"d unconsciously a.s.similated while trying to reach for greater understanding.
Was there danger? Her steps up the ramp did not falter. The desire for light, for stillness and air, was too strong.
No one had forbidden her to go upward. Yet she had never seen anyone go there. Still, this s.p.a.ce was here, she thought, looking around. There were even rooms.
She paused, laying a hand on a door. The rooms were far apart, but they were there. Rooms-or pa.s.sages?
She touched the silver control, and to her surprise, the door slid open.
She looked out-not in. This was not a room, it was a kind of balcony, looking out at the morning sun above the tops of the buildings. In the distance she could see the solid green line of the jungle, pressing up against the city borders. And at one end, the edge of the long-abandoned s.p.a.ceport.
She stepped out onto the balcony, then stopped. Now visible from the door was more s.p.a.ce-and on it several still figures.
She saw three beings she did not recognize, but the fourth was Zhot.
He was not wearing his flaxen robe. Saba glanced down his body, seeing the supple seallike muscle structure, the scaled skin. In the strong, clear sunlight his skin had a greenish flush, almost a glow, overlaying the sandy coloration she was used to seeing.
The urge to fling off her clothing-which suddenly felt heavy and confining-seized her. How wonderful just to stand, breathing the fresh air, and feeling the sunlight on face, skin, limbs!
She took a deep breath, then forced herself away.
She had work to do.
The urge stayed with her as she retreated back down the ramp to her room. But duty steadied her, as always. It was morning, almost time for her daily signal to Gordon. Now that she was away from the allure of the sunlight, her eyes ached with the need for sleep, and her mouth was dry, but duty had become habit, and habit steadied her mind. Anch.o.r.ed her to reality.
What to do until the time for the signal?
She turned to her terminal, and touched the control. The screen lit. Sitting down, Saba worked her fingers into one of the patterns she"d recently learned. Without really considering what she was doing, she tested her ability to tranliterate, and traced out Zhot"s name.
To her surprise, a new screen flickered into place, offering her choices. On her keypad, several keys lit with subtle color.
She touched the control that she recognized as indicating world-of-origin.
And once again the screen rippled, this time showing a rapidly moving vid of Zhot"s people. Two voices whispered from the terminal"s audio system: one language she couldn"t recognize at all, but the other was Yilayil-someone"s translation!
Curious, she watched what seemed rather like one of those travel vids she used to view in school: Welcome to Kenya Welcome to Kenya! or Welcome to Australia Welcome to Australia! only this was more like the equivalent of Welcome to Earth Welcome to Earth! because it featured the world"s primary in a schematic, and an unfamiliar system, zeroing in on the fourth body out.
Zhot"s world was, like the Yilayil world, primarily water, only it seemed to have two very long continents straddling either side of the equator. On it Zhot"s people seemed to be the most numerous beings, along with some undersea creatures that might have been sentient, but after the brief introduction, the screen paused and offered choices, this time showing different beings.
History of races?
Saba touched the control that corresponded to Zhot"s seal-people, and watched in fascination. This time she listened to the Yilayil, not trying to translate any single words, but letting the whole flow through her.
Zhot"s people, the Valeafeh, seemed to have had technology for a very long time. A matriarchy of loosely intersecting tribal families, they fostered young of other races and in turn sent out their young males to learn before coming back to settle down to service; the females stayed in order to learn government.
Opposite from the Virigu? Saba thought, making a mental note to look them up in their turn.
She found lots more information-including data on daily life. But nowhere did she see a glimpse of any of the Valeafeh behaving as she"d just witnessed Zhot behaving. Nor did any of them look green.
Strange! Had she inadvertently stumbled onto a custom that was taboo, or at least forbidden witnesses? Saba decided that must be it, knowing that any travelogue vid made about Earth would not include acts considered private and intimate.
Well, at least Zhot had not woken from his meditation, or nap, or whatever he"d been doing, and Saba decided she would not bring it up. No harm done.
She glanced at the chrono. At last, time for her daily signal to Gordon.
She clicked the communicator on, and her thumb hovered over the little plastic key she had used for so long to send the pulse codes.
For a moment she looked down uncomprehendingly at the walkie-talkie"s little display screen. Her vision, though blurry, was clear enough to warn her that the usual pattern of green lights had altered.
She frowned, and held the device up to the light to reread the displays.
Then she identified the single b.u.t.ton that had been blank for so long-the frequency for speaking was now clear.
"Gordon?"
"Saba!"
WHEN EVELEEN AND Ross reached the Nurayil dorms, she gratefully wiped her forehead as they pa.s.sed inside, and let her breath out in a whoosh.
"I don"t know whether to be glad it stopped raining or not," she said to Ross as they started up the ramp.
Ross grinned at her. "I"d wanted to see the sun for the past week or three-but now I think I"ve had enough of it."
He squinted upward. "Okay, hear that? You can go back to rain now."
Eveleen laughed. "At least abate the humidity."
"With a jungle a stone"s throw away?" Ross retorted. "Not a chance."
"Well, I wish there was a way to get a weather report- either that or to get air-conditioning in the-" Eveleen stopped when she saw Gordon standing outside their room.
She felt Ross tense up beside her. Something had happened.
n.o.body spoke until they"d pa.s.sed inside. Then Gordon said, "The frequency cleared. I don"t know why, or what it means, but at least I can talk to Saba."
"And?" Ross prompted in a sharp voice.
Gordon gave his head a shake. "She"s sick. Tried to downplay it, but I suspect she"s much sicker than we are."
"d.a.m.n," Ross breathed. "What do we do? Pull her out?"
Gordon said, "Even if we could-which I doubt-she won"t come. Insists she"s close to some kind of breakthrough. When I tried to get her to explain, I"m afraid she scared me. Made little sense. Yet it"s apparent she"s gotten much further than we have in her investigations. She has access to the Yilayil computer system, and she has even been permitted to walk around the House of Knowledge at night."
"Ti [trill]kee [trill]kee?" Eveleen asked, amazed.
Gordon shook his head again. "No; the Yilayil ignored her. But she wasn"t shooed back by her tutor. She got more lessons."
"How sick is she?" Ross asked.
"That"s what I was trying to determine." Gordon looked from one of them to the other, clearly hesitating.
Eveleen felt her heart hammer a warning tattoo. "Oh, no..."
Gordon"s dark brows furrowed. "You"re in her confidence?"
Eveleen nodded soberly, then turned to Ross. "I guess, considering the circ.u.mstances, it would be fair to tell you: she was told many years ago that she carries a recessive gene for sickle-cell anemia. Definitely recessive, they said-she probably wouldn"t get it, but might pa.s.s it on, especially if she ever married someone who carried the same gene."
Ross grimaced.
Eveleen said in a low voice, "It"s why she decided she would never marry. Have kids. Didn"t want to risk pa.s.sing on a tragedy."
Gordon looked up sharply, and Eveleen knew that he hadn"t heard about that. He"d probably read about the recessive gene in Saba"s file, but he hadn"t considered what effect it could have on her life decisions.
They"re so much alike, Eveleen thought. Each reclusive, solitary, by choice. Only what is in Gordon"s past? She would never ask, of course.
Ross said, "So maybe this has weakened her immune system in some way? Made her sicker than we are-if she has the same disease? She"s been isolated from us, so it could be something totally different."
"Or it could be something we were all exposed to on arrival," Gordon said. "We"re not going to know-at least, not unless Viktor finds out something down the timeline." He glanced at his watch.
"He signaled this morning, then?" Ross asked.
"Yes," Gordon said.
Eveleen bit her lip. Viktor had had his long walk to the transport, and he and Gordon had agreed that he"d spend a maximum of one day and one night there, taking care to arrive in the morning so that the long walk back to the meetpoint would not bring anyone out after dark.