investigate and I'm a man of my thought. Of course,the curiosity vanished as soon as I got into actual communication withone of them."
"They communicate?" Curl permitted his image to appear mildlyastonished, which was the only civilized thing to do. "Tell me aboutit."
"It's crude, but in some things successful," Tensor explained. "Thealien I contacted was a female, for instance. When I adjusted forrelative somatic sympathy so that I could stand the poor, uncivilizedcreature, I naturally acquired the full appetites of a male animal andthis female seemed to understand some of my thoughts very well.
"You simply can't imagine the violent somatic compulsions one encountersunder such a balance."
"Horrible," agreed Curl. "But I understand, my boy. I once fathered achild--must have been at least a couple of thousand years ago. Purelyout of scientific interest, of course, and never again." The physicianpaused and added, "Matter of fact, it's quite likely that you're thatchild. Can't ever tell about these things, you know."
Tensor nodded in polite agreement and continued with his own story. "Itwasn't at all bad while it was going on, because I was pretty wellanesthetized from body chemicals. But the hangover was terrific."
"Yes, no doubt." Curl appeared to consider a moment before asking. "Whatabout this uncivilized hubbub the Prime raised that caused the councilto order him to destroy himself?"
"Oh, that. Well, just as I was about to leave, this primitive I was withcoaxed me into playing an interesting but remarkably violent sport withher. And about the same time, it appears that her superiors, for someunknown reason, decided to destroy her. It seems that the aliens'Council doesn't let them take care of it themselves."
"Uh, huh. How did they accomplish it?"
"They used some nuclear breakdown devices, which I imagine serve theirprimitive society quite well. The devices have appetites built into themfor a certain kind of target so they will know where to go.
"But when I agreed to play this game, I naturally set up a privacyfocus, so the ship we were in just didn't exist for the nuclear devices.They kept on looking, though, and finally found a lot of similar shipsback at the alien's main camp. Made an awful mess out of one of thePrime's favorite landscapes, I understand."
"Well," Curl replied engagingly, "Prime should have had betterself-control. I don't blame the Council a bit, and it does fix things uprather nicely." His image smiled into Tensor's mind and then hesitatedas he saw the concern there. "Doesn't it?"
"Uh, yes. All except for the alien female that insists on staying withme, now, since none of her people is left on the planet. I told her twoor three times to go ahead and destroy herself if she wanted; but shejust rumples up my hair, grins at me and says she already has." Helooked worriedly at Curl.
"Well, that's just one of those things, I guess," Curl murmuredphilosophically. Sensing a local distraction approaching Tensor at thatmoment, he politely withdrew from the other man's mind.
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