The Draco Tavern Part 14

Humans, it seemed, were afraid of nearly everything.

Many species were afraid of death. Others feared loss of mind, loss of intelligence. I've hunted with the Folk; I said they were afraid of nothing. d.a.m.n few s.p.a.ce travelers feared pain; they'd all found ways to block it. Gray Mourners, the males, were afraid of unprotected s.e.x. Flutterbies?

A Flutterby told Aurora, "Green glop, temperature fifty-one degrees," while the other asked the grads, "How would you live your life if you knew exactly when and how you were to die?"

"I remember an old science fiction story like that," the boy, Willis, said. "Martians could see the future but not the past. Their lives just ran down like a windup toy."

Berda said, "I could plan a lot better. My grandmother used to say, 'If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself.' "

Willis asked, "The menu says you can make guacamole?"

"It's already made," Aurora told him.

"Guacamole and Fritos," he said, and she went away.

"There'd be less to be afraid of," the girl said. "Even when you got old, you wouldn't have to worry about falling off a balcony or dodging a bus. The bus either gets you or it doesn't."

"I suggest a different hypothesis," the first Flutterby said. "Presume you know exactly how and when you will die, if you can survive all natural dangers. Your mind will fade first. You will die in ecstasy, and you will be too stupid to know that it's the end for you."

The second said, "The chrysalis form is a deep torpor. What wakes is near mindless. Digestive organs have faded too. There's no motive except survival and mating, and then even those nerves shut down."

The first: "Also you may pause your fate indefinitely. The danger is that all other ways to suffer or die will have more time to find you."

The boy asked, "You're not being hypothetical now, are you?"

"No. This is our fate, but we must still fear all other mischance. Predators, a fall, a misalignment in Apparent Dischord's Apparent Dischord's antimatter containment could rob us of our destiny. We took this risk gladly in order to see more of the universe." antimatter containment could rob us of our destiny. We took this risk gladly in order to see more of the universe."

Aurora returned pus.h.i.+ng a floating tray.

Willis dipped up some guacamole. I hid my grin with a cappuccino mug; but I'd looked first to see he hadn't found the wrong bowl of green glop. He said, "We do the same."

The Flutterbies seemed startled. "What? Do you really?"

"I mean we try to live as long as possible. Whatever's currently killing our old people, we go through a lot of effort to cure it. That always means the next thing in line gets us. It was cancer and Alzheimer's when I was growing up, because we'd cured some other diseases. Elders usually die miserably, and it sometimes takes a long time-"

"There isn't any good way to die," the girl snapped. She looked at the Chirpsithra. "Is there?"

The Chirp said, "You already know our answer. Some of us are many millions of Earth-orbits old. All sapient beings evade what evolution shaped us for. All meddle with their destiny, even Flutterbies. A Flutterby who succeeds at longevity will not breed. That seems very strange."

"Death comes to all of your kinds, and always unwelcome," the second Flutterby said. "Our death is welcome if we hang on long enough. We've arrested our development, but we took our risk with senses wide open."

The Flutterbies left during a lull in the ongoing ice storm. Afterward Aurora came to me. "I must resign my post," she said.

"You were listening to them, weren't you?"

"Certainly."

"Does it strike you that they were talking for for you?" you?"

"Oh, yes," said Aurora. "They could not speak to me, but they could convey arguments in my hearing. Also they brought pheromones from adult Flutterbies. I felt protective and protected, and I heard their arguments. I know what they did to me. I know, but it doesn't matter."

"Pheromones. Doesn't that strike you as unfair?" In fact the whole j.a.pe seemed monstrously unfair.

Aurora said, "We must have adults about us, to protect. Proper pheromones are released into our cabins during flight. If I remain on Earth I will not have that. I will only have the knowledge that I die without children. But, Rick, their argument cuts both ways. I go to see if they can follow their own logic."

I paid her salary to date, and she went.

Two days later, the Draco Tavern was empty. Corliss went to visit her family in Canada. Jehaneh stayed, of course. With her two pa.s.sengers-one a visiting sapient bacterium, the other our unborn child-she's grown a bit heavy for travel. And we waited for Apparent Dischord Apparent Dischord to leave the Moon. to leave the Moon.

Instead, a floating cart parked itself outside the array of airlocks. A Chirpsithra came in and got me, the same officer who'd sat at the Wilsonn table.

I looked into the cart at six fat fluffy white bags each about my size, lightly dusted with fluffy white snow, and one growth-arrested Flutterby.

The Chirp said, "We must ask for judgment. May these immigrate?"

"I don't make policy for the UN," I said. "What happened?"

"It may have caught your attention-"

I lost patience. "Half my clientele that day were conspiring to get Aurora back to her berth in Apparent Dischord. Dischord. Why?" Why?"

The Chirp officer said, "When clients board as a group, we prefer that they remain a group. We do not like to explain how we lost one here, one there. Others of my pa.s.sengers found it amusing to help rebuild a lapsed ... family."

"Now you've lost all seven," I said. "Aurora? What happened?"

"You heard their arguments. They were sensible," the remaining Flutterby said, "and I am persuasive. If we-if my mating group were to wait for our return to homeworld, any kind of accident might take us. If we lose even one of seven, our genetic variety might be too spa.r.s.e. We owe it to our gene line to have our children immediately."

"We? But not you."

"One must remain to teach the children. I may still mate among the next generation."

"Or the one after that. They bought this?"

"Rick, for most of the species I've met, mating has consequences, but not for us. It was not difficult to persuade my family that it is time to mate. My time will come too."

I sighed. I asked, " 'Immigrate'?"

The Chirp officer said, "We don't have convenient room aboard Apparent Dischord. Dischord. Rick, your planet is wide. A few dozen refugees won't harm you." Rick, your planet is wide. A few dozen refugees won't harm you."

"What do they eat?"

"Thank you, Rick, an excellent point. We will learn."

At that point I knew I was stuck. I dropped the word to some news channels before I called any government agencies.

The mating dance swirls above the Draco Tavern, gloriously sharing its colors with the Aurora Borealis. They are all brilliant wings and little torso, more kite than b.u.t.terfly. They mate while falling. Via movie screens and TV sets it is being seen all over the Earth.

Presently they scatter across the tundra. Chirpsithra researchers have found Siberian plants the immature forms can eat, and scent-marked them so the adults can find them.

I'll have to talk to Aurora about food supplies for future generations. The Siberian tundra isn't exactly lush.

THE DEATH ADDICT.

The Draco Tavern was nearly empty: just me and the bugs and Sarah. Sarah was complaining about the expanding universe.

She's an angular woman with solid and elegant bones, not much flesh to cover them. She'd introduced herself to me: Dr. Sarah Winch.e.l.l, anthropologist, a woman in her forties (a bit younger than myself) who had lived with apes in the wild and had now come to confront aliens. I'd have expected her to be overspecialized. Her knowledge of cosmology surprised me.

I'd brought her two mai tais, with popcorn for the Bebebebeque. Now she was drinking club soda. Her speech stayed lucid and brisk.

"The universe is expanding," she told the ring of bugs. "Fine, I can live with that, I grew up knowing that. But the expansion is increasing. increasing. Getting faster. What could be the Getting faster. What could be the purpose purpose in a universe that is forever blowing apart?" in a universe that is forever blowing apart?"

She sat in an arc of chrome yellow bugs each about fourteen inches tall, perched around the rim of the big table. They buzzed. Their translator said, "Purpose you expected? Examine your contract!"

She laughed.

The Bebebebeque were a hive mind. They spoke with one voice. "To isolate cultures may be a way to keep novelty in the universe. Too easy communication is making the human race too uniform, is it not?"

Sarah laughed again. "We're not uniform!"

"You seem so to us. For purpose, will you have entertainment? The puzzle of how to build civilization changes with time. Tools are invented, then better tools. If this goes on, all problems may be solved, all tools reach their perfect state. It may be that a universal expansion propelled by dark energy is expected to compensate, make communication more difficult, puzzles more interesting. Here enters Bazin; shall we ask him?"

She turned to see who had come through the line of airlocks.

Bazin was an aerodynamic shape. He might have been mistaken for a thousand-pound turtle, but he moved more briskly, even with sixty pounds of life support and sensor gear mounted on his sh.e.l.l. I'd spoken with him when we arranged for CBS to interview him.

Sarah said, "I've seen Bazin on television. Is he, what, a philosopher? Cosmologist?"

The Bebebebeque were amused. "No!"

"I thought he was something like a stuntman. Rick?" She turned to me. "Do you know-"

I said, "Even before Fly By Wire Fly By Wire made orbit, my customers all knew he was coming." I poured out a row of tiny golden seeds in front of the Bebebebeque, and gave Sarah her water. "Out there among the stars, he's a star. Bazin is a daredevil, a risk taker. Maybe he does some exploring too, but mostly he's looking for the biggest thrill. He makes, um, entertainments. Wire him up and you can record what he experiences. If he ever gets killed, they'll record that too." made orbit, my customers all knew he was coming." I poured out a row of tiny golden seeds in front of the Bebebebeque, and gave Sarah her water. "Out there among the stars, he's a star. Bazin is a daredevil, a risk taker. Maybe he does some exploring too, but mostly he's looking for the biggest thrill. He makes, um, entertainments. Wire him up and you can record what he experiences. If he ever gets killed, they'll record that too."

I stepped outside the privacy s.h.i.+eld around the big table, so he could hear me, and shouted, "Bazin!"

Bazin swerved toward us. The turtle-a.n.a.logue's own voice was a series of eructations from under his flexible sh.e.l.l. His translator cried, "Rick! What is the topic?"

I said, "The topic is cosmology."

He joined them at the big table. But more customers had come in, so I missed the rest of that conversation.

Most of Earth has to put up with television sets, but the Chirpsithra had long since set up a huge holo wall in the Draco Tavern. Generally we let it jump randomly between news channels. Bazin was with us a few days later, while we watched the Today Today interview. interview.

"I haven't decided what I'll do on Earth," Bazin's image told Wade Hannofer, Today's Today's talking head. "I don't know what Earth has to offer yet, and of course local governments have territorial rights. I welcome suggestions." talking head. "I don't know what Earth has to offer yet, and of course local governments have territorial rights. I welcome suggestions."

Hannofer asked, "Have you seen the Grand Canyon?"

Bazin brushed it off. "I have viewed Valles Marinaris on Mars. When I am done with Earth, I will sail it in a balloon."

"Mons Olympus?"

"Too shallow. A climb would be a mere walk. Maybe I'll climb Everest." In close-up I saw the gleam of his sh.e.l.l, polished to a mirror. The Bazin beside me had lost some polish. A webbing of old cracks showed deep in his sh.e.l.l. I remembered an actor, Jackie Chan, who had a scar for every movie he'd made.

The image of Wade Hannofer waved around at the image of the Draco Tavern. "Some of the visitors here know when they'll die. Some are immortal. What are you?"

"I have longevity," Bazin said. "Nanosurgery has turned off the death wish in my genetics. I may be killed, but I will not die naturally."

Afterward Bazin asked me, "Did you enjoy the interview?"

"They cut too much," I said.

"I was only talking. They'll pay more attention when I test the Earth for its potential."

We watched Bazin as he went about the Earth. My customers came less often, though Fly By Wire Fly By Wire continued to orbit the Moon. continued to orbit the Moon.

In Disneyland Bazin took the "Star Tours" ride three times straight.

In a movie theater, the only viewer, he watched Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing, and and Die Hard. Die Hard.