"We"ll have f.a.n.n.y Mae identified shortly," McKie said.
"Ident.i.ty," the Caleban said, her communication coming through with more strength but with an icy withdrawal of emotion. "Ident.i.ty refers to unique self-understanding quality as it deals with self-label, self-abode and self-manifestations. You not me hang yet, McKie. You hang term yet? Self-I overstand your time node."
"Hang?" Cheo asked, jerking the noose around Abnethe"s neck.
"A simple old-fashioned idiom," McKie said. "I imagine Mliss gets the hang of it."
"What"re you talking about?" Cheo asked.
Tuluk took the question as having been directed to him. "In some way," he said, "Calebans manifest themselves in our universe as stars. Every star has a pulse, a certain unique rhythm, a never-duplicated ident.i.ty. We have f.a.n.n.y Mae"s pattern recorded now. We"re going to run a tracer on that pattern and try to identify her as a star."
"A stupid theory like that is supposed to interest me?" Cheo demanded.
"It had better interest you," McKie said. "It"s more than a theory now. You think you"re sitting in a safe hidey-hole. All you have to do is eliminate f.a.n.n.y Mae, that"s supposed to eliminate our universe and leave you out there the only sentients left at all? Is that it? Ohhh, are you ever wrong."
"Calebans don"t lie!" Cheo snarled.
"But I think they can make mistakes," McKie said.
"Proliferation of single-tracks," the Caleban said.
McKie shuddered at the icy wave which accompanied the words. "If we discontinue, will Abnethe and her friends still exist?" he asked.
"Different patterns with short limit on extended connectives," the Caleban said.
McKie felt the icy wave invade his stomach. He saw that Tuluk was trembling, facial slit opening and closing.
"That was plain enough, wasn"t it?" McKie asked. "You"ll change somehow, and you won"t live very long after us."
"No branchings," the Caleban said.
"No offspring," McKie translated.
"This is a trick!" Cheo snarled. "She"s lying!"
"Calebans don"t lie," McKie reminded him.
"But they can make mistakes!"
"The right kind of mistake could ruin everything for you," McKie said.
"I"ll take my chances," Cheo said. "And you can take . . ."
The jumpdoor winked out of existence.
"S"eye alignment difficult," the Caleban said. "You hang difficult? More intense energy requirement reference. You hang?"
"I understand," McKie said. "I hang." He mopped his forehead with a sleeve.
Tuluk extended his long mandible, waved it agitatedly. "Cold," he said. "Cold-cold-cold-cold."
"I think she"s holding on by a thin thread," McKie said.
Tuluk"s torso rippled as he inhaled a deep breath into his outer trio of lungs. "Shall we take our records back to the lab?" he asked.
"A stellar ma.s.s," McKie muttered. "Imagine it. And all we see here is this . . . this bit of nothing."
"Not put something here," the Caleban said. "Self-I put something here and uncreate you. McKie discontinues in presence of I-self."
"Do you hang that, Tuluk?" McKie asked.
"Hang? Oh, yes. She seems to be saying that she can"t make herself visible to us because that"d kill us."
"That"s the way I read it," McKie said. "Let"s get back and start that comparison search."
"You expend substance without purpose," the Caleban said.
"What now?" McKie asked.
"Flogging approaches, and I-self discontinue," the Caleban said.
McKie put down a fit of trembling. "How far away, f.a.n.n.y Mae?"
"Time reference by single-track difficult, McKie. Your term: soon."
"Right away?" McKie asked and he held his breath.
"Ask you of intensity immediate?" the Caleban inquired.
"Probably," McKie whispered.
"Probability," the Caleban said. "Energy necessity of self-I extends alignment. Flogging not . . . immediate."
"Soon, but not right away," Tuluk said.
"She"s telling us she can take one more flogging and that"s the last one," McKie said. "Let"s move. f.a.n.n.y Mae, is there a jumpdoor available to us?"
"Available, McKie. Go with love."
One more flogging, McKie thought as he helped Tuluk gather up the instruments. But why was a flogging so deadly to the Caleban? Why a flogging, when other energy forms apparently didn"t touch them?
The most common use of abstraction is to conceal contradictions. It must be noted that the abstracting process has been demonstrated to be infinite.
-Culture Lag, an unpublished work by Jorj X. McKie
At some indeterminate moment, and that soon, the Caleban was going to be lashed by a whip, and it would die. The half-mad possibility was about to become apocalyptic reality, and their sentient universe would end.