[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
of individual hygiene. In fact, it was more thanspotless.
It had not been lived in for some time.
"There must be some mistake." Her gestures were clumsy,her words hesitant as she surveyed the
immaculate, obviouslyuntouched quarters. "His ident is on the door."
The supervisor checked her own scri!ber. Reflexively ges-turing confusion, she checked it again. And a
third time.When she looked up, the commingled movements of herlimbs and antennae indicated more
than simple puzzlement.
"You are right. Thereis a mistake. This living cubicle isunassigned."
Mandibles moving slowly against one another, Jhywinhuran stared at the senior female. "But his full ident
is im-printed on the entrance."
"It certainly is. Be assured that I am no less curious thanyou to find out how and why it is there."
Jointly, they ran detailed searches. No assistant food preparator of any name had been placed in cubicle
eighty-two byresidential assignment. Yes, one named Desvendapur hadbeen transferred to the subsidiary
kitchens. No, he could notbe located. Perhaps his scri!ber was turned off or had rundown without being
noticed. Follow-up queries of everysingle worker assigned to food preparation in this sector re-vealed no
knowledge of a Desvendapur. Nor could anyone by that name be locatedanywhere, in any sector.
"Something is very wrong here," declared the supervisoras she concluded her searching.
Jhywinhuran was still working her scri!ber. "I agree, butwhat? He told me, told everyone he worked
with, that he wasbeing transferred to food preparation in this sector. His nameis on the work roster."
"Just as his name is on the door to these quarters." Thetwo females considered the situation. "Let me run
one moresearch."
Jhywinhuran waited while the senior female waltzed thedelicate fingers of her truhands over her unit.
Moments latershe looked up again, her antennae aimed directly at her visi-tor. "There is no record of a
transfer to this sector beingauthorized for anyone in food preparation, or specifically,anyone named
Desvendapur."
"Then...he lied." Jhywinhuran could barely muster theappropriate clicks to underscore her reply.
"So it would seem. But why? Why would this friend ofyours, or any thranx, lie about being shifted from
one part ofthe hive to another?"
"I do not know." The sanitation worker stridulated softly."But if he isn't here, and he isn't there, then
where is he? Andwhy is he wherever he is?"
"I do not know either, but unless something emerges to in-dicate otherwise, what we have here is
unequivocal evidence of antisocial behavior. I am sure it will all become clear whenhe is located."
When he was not, something akin to alarm set in not onlyamong those thranx charged with locating the
errant assistant food preparator, but among their human associates as well.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Jhywinhuran found herself waiting in an empty interroga-tion chamber. It was of modest size and in no
way remarkableexcept for the presence among the usual resting benches of atrio of very peculiar
sculptures whose purpose she was un-able to divine. They looked like tiny benches, much too smallto
provide surcease and comfort to even a juvenile thranx. In-stead of being open and easily accessed, one
side of each ofthe squarish objects was raised above the rest, so that even ifyou tried to settle your
abdomen across it, the stiff raised por-tions would make it next to impossible.
The hive had been turned upside down in the search for themissing assistant food preparator. When it
was determined toa specific degree of assurance that not only was he no longerpresent in the hive, but
that his body could not be found, astartled Jhywinhuran had found herself called away from her labor and
ordered to this room. There she sat, and waited, andwondered what in the name of the lowest level of
the supremehive was going on.
She did not have to wait long.
Four people filed into the chamber. Two of them betweenthem had only as many limbs as she did. She
had seen hu-mans around the hive before, but not often. They did not fre-quent the section of the colony
where she worked, and shehad had no actual contact with them herself. From her predeparture studies
she was able to discern that both genders wererepresented. As was common among humans, their skin
andsingle-lensed eye color varied markedly. These and othersuperficial physical variations she expected.
She also wasnot surprised when they sat down in two of the peculiar con-structs whose function had so
puzzled her. She winced in-wardly, unable to see how any being, even one as flexible as ahuman, could
call "relaxing" a posture that required the bodyto almost fold itself in half.
But she was startled when conversation commenced, andthe humans participated speaking not in their
own lan-guage but in a crude, unsophisticated, yet impressively intel-ligible rendition of Low Thranx.
"How long have you known the assistant food preparator who calls himself Desvendapur?" The human
female blun-dered slightly over the correct pronunciation of the title.
Jhywinhuran hesitated, taken aback by both the nature ofthe question and its source. She looked to the
two thranx pres-ent for advice, only to have the eldest gesture compliance.Not politely, either. Clearly,
something serious was afoot.
"I met him on theZenruloim on the journey out fromWillow-Wane. He was pleasant company, and as
there wereonly four of us bound for this world, we naturally struck upan acquaintance. I also met and
became friends with the engi-neers Awlvirmubak and Durcenhofex."
"They do not concern us and are not involved in thismatter," the eldest thranx explained, "because they
are notonly where they are, they are who they are."
She gestured bewilderment. "I don't understand."
"Neither do we," the elder responded. "That is one of thepurposes of this meeting: to reach
understanding." His an-tennae bobbed restlessly as he spoke, indicating no especial sentiment: only a
continuing unease. "Your friend has gonemissing."
"I know. I helped to file the report."
"No, you don't know," the elder corrected her. "I do notmean that he has gone missing in the accepted
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
sense. I meanthat he is nowhere to be found anywhere in the hive."
"Nor," added the male human somewhat melodramatically,"is his corpse."
"The inescapable conclusion," the younger of the two thranxtold her, "is that he has gone outside."
"Outside?" Jhywinhuran's confusion gave way to disbe-lief. "You mean, he has left the colony?
Voluntarily?"
The elder genuflected sadness mixed with concurrence."So it must be assumed."
"Butwhy?" Acknowledging her acceptance of the human'spresence, she included them in her question
as well as thepair of somber supervisors. "Why would he do such a thing?Why would any member of the
colony?"
The female human crossed one leg completely over an-other, an intriguing gesture no thranx could
emulate halfso fluidly. Jhywinhuran wondered at its hidden meanings."We were really hoping you could
shed some light on that,Jhywinhuran."
Hearing her name emerge from an alien throat, completeto the appropriate whistle-and-click
accentuation, was a nov-elty the sanitation worker did not have time to enjoy. "I assureyou all I have no
idea."
"Think," the elder prodded her. "This is important beyondanything you can imagine. We are already, with
the aid of ourhuman friends, searching the surface above and around thecolony for this absent individual,
but it would be of consider-able use to know who and what we are searching for."
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]