Loo-Macklin wondered what the alien was being so secretive about. As he watched, the two el spinning their way across Naras Sharaf's upper body switched to silver and gold as they consumed his old attire of black and white polka dots. Naras automatically lifted his left upper tentacle to allow them access to his flank and back.
The el were one bioproduct humanity did not take to. The idea of inch-long bugs constantly crawling over one's flesh was not appealing to the majority of mankind, not even to the more fashion-conscious among them. Besides, the el tickled the more sensitive human skin.
Loo-Macklin found them unirritating and had bought several dozen of the industrious little creatures early on in his trading relationship with the Nuel. The sight of his clothing changing constantly during the day was as fascinating as the material, a fine silk, was comfortable. The special el he wore had been trained and bred by Nuel designers to clothe the human body.
"Enough toying about, Naras Sharaf," he said, more curious than impatient. "What desire have I forgotten that you have not?"
"Your wish to observe a Birthing," Naras Sharaf told him in a low voice.
Loo-Macklin felt a rising surge of excitement, rare these days. Any hint of something new and special was an event.
"Very much would I like this. Are you truly serious?"
"Truly much so," said the alien. "But there are complications."
"I am not surprised. What kind of complications?"
"To the best of my knowledge," said Naras, hesitating to answer, "no alien, human or otherwise, has ever witnessed a Birthing in person."
Loo-Macklin saw no reason to argue with that. A Birthing was an event of importance and privacy.
"But you," Naras continued, "have become such a vital part of our efforts to infiltrate and control the UTW, and have proven your loyalty on so many occasions these past years, that you have made many friends among the families. So I have been able to secure permission from one such for you to observe one of their Birthings." He hesitated.
"But there is a condition. A strong condition."
"Name it."
"Restrain your compliance 'til you have heard." Loo-Macklin hadn't seen Naras Sharaf this serious in some time. He listened carefully.
"The observer psychologist in charge, with whom I had contact, was most reluctant, but he agreed to pass favorably on the request if you would accede to one condition. His superiors agreed and think it a valuable idea even if no Birthing view was involved.
"Recall you that a number of years ago I mentioned to you the possibility of your taking on an implant?"
Loo-Macklin's memory sought. "Vaguely, yes. You never told me what kind of implant."
"It was first proposed by the Si. You are a remarkable human, Kee-yes vain Lewmaklin, but I do not know if you are remarkable enough to agree to this.
"There is a very small, empathetically sensitive creature we have bred. A symbiotic nonmotile insect about the size of the claw in your smallest digit."
Loo-Macklin looked thoughtfully at the nail adorning his little finger.
"Somewhat smaller than that, actually," said the uncomfortable Naras. "There is a technique by which it can be sensitized to a particular thought. It is then implanted behind the cerebral cortex of any oxygen breather. An Orischian, for example, or myself, or a . . ."
"Or a human," Loo-Macklin finished for him. "Myself, for example."
"Truly, for example," Naras admitted, watching him carefully for reaction. As usual, there was nothing. Naras had grown adept at recognizing the meaning of human gestures and expressions. Loo-Macklin was neutral as ever.
"You would be asked to think a certain thought at the moment of sensitization. There are ways of checking on such things. We have equivalents of your truth machines. The sensitization process, by the way, is a chemical one and utterly painless."
"What kind of thought?"
"That you would agree never to do anything that would be contrary to the best interests of the Nuel. The actual insertion is performed under local anesthetic. You would never feel or be aware of the presence of the lehl in your skull."
Loo-Macklin reached back and rubbed his neck. "How long does this little visitor stay with you?"
"For the life of the implantee or until it is removed by Nuel surgeons. I assure you that only my own people are capable of making such an implant work. If anyone else, human doctors for example, were to attempt to remove the lehl, the process would affect the creature's emotional stability and it would react by defending itself."
"And how would it do that?"
"By hiding in the only place it knows. By leaving its assigned position and burrowing as deeply as necessary into its host's brain."
"Then I'll make sure I don't sign up for any surprise operations." Loo-Macklin smiled slightly.
"Then you consent?" Naras Sharaf was startled in spite of himself.
"Why not?"
Naras performed several elaborate gestures and eye movements indicative of astonishment mixed with delight.
"That is wonderful to hear and a great relief to me personally. I can tell you now that for over a year there has been much talk of testing your loyalty by asking you to undergo such an implanting. The Si were against it, not wanting to risk losing your aid should you decline. They will be most pleased and your decision will strengthen their position within the Eight.
"The problem arose because whether you realize it or not, Kee-yes vain Lewmaklin, you have become so deeply entrenched in not only our intelligence service but also general commerce that your humanness itself became enough to condemn you in certain circles. Many grow nervous to see a human wield such influence. Now that you have agreed to accept an implant, even those voices raised most vitriolic against you must cease their complaining. Your ability to work freely among the families will not be questioned again."
"What happens if someone goes back on their sensitized thought but doesn't try to have the lehl removed?" Loo-Macklin asked curiously.
"The disturbance will register with the creature. The chemosensitive receptors within its body will become irritated and the body will release a nerve poison. The action is instinctive and reflexive. The creature has no more control over it than you do. The host dies quickly. There is no effective antidote. The mind dies first."
"Unpleasant. Yet you regard the lehl as a beneficial creature."
"All creatures, no matter how seemingly insignificant or unimportant, have their uses. That is a lesson your kind has yet to learn.
"As long as you do not try to have it removed and do not retract the sensitized thought, you will not even notice its presence, save for one small side effect."
"Which is what?" Loo-Macklin asked.
"The lehl prefers calm surroundings, as does any sensible creature. It secretes other chemicals to make its 'home' a comfortable place. While it remains with you, you cannot suffer cerebral hemorrhaging. If you receive damage to the skull, the lehl will assist your natural bodily mechanisms in healing any wounds.
"And another headache you will not have for the duration of your life." Naras Sharaf sounded pleased at being able to cite a beneficial effect or two for the implant.
The former sounded good to Loo-Macklin. He did not tell Naras Sharaf that in his long and complex life he had never experienced a headache . . . .
Chapter 10
Sharaf was right. The operation was painless. Loo-Macklin was even able to watch, disdaining general anesthetic, as the incredibly deft Nuel surgeons opened the back of his head and inserted the tiny, dark blue creature. It did not move about, resembling a scrap of blue sponge more than a living animal.
Then they sealed the opening so smoothly that within a couple of hours it was impossible to tell where the initial incisions had been made. A brief session under the programming machinery, during which he dutifully complied with all instructions necessary to sensitize the lehl to the indicated thought, and then he was up and walking about.
He put his hand to the back
of his head. Only by pressing very hard could he find even the slightest hint that something other than flesh and bone lay beneath the skin. He hadn't even lost any hair.
For a few days he scratched at the spot, but the itch he rubbed was psychological only. In a week he'd forgotten about it.
Then came the day when Naras spirited him out of the central city in a Nuel ground car. Loo-Macklin had to scrunch down low to avoid bumping the curved, claustrophobically low ceiling.
Compressed air powered the car through a plastic tube, sent it speeding out into the countryside toward a distant range of spectacularly rugged mountains. It was raining outside the tube, most Nuel worlds being subject to periodic deluges. These the Nuel manufactured themselves when they did not occur naturally with sufficient frequency. The Nuel were evolved amphibians. They couldn't breathe water any longer, but they still liked to be wet.
"Where are we going?" the cramped human asked his guide.
"There are certain traditional places," Naras Sharaf explained. "New worlds give rise to new traditions. We go to one such place.
"A pregnant female has her choice of where to give birth. On the original eight worlds of our forefathers there are ancient sites, which have been used for this purpose for thousands of years. Birthing at such places is rumored to endow offspring with such virtues as good luck, fine appearance, thick cilia, sexual potency, and other desirables. Nonsense, of course, but entrenched superstitions die hard."
"We have plenty of our own," Loo-Macklin assured him.
"I am aware of that." He turned great eyes on the tube ahead. "In witnessing of a Birthing you will learn one of the great secrets of the Nuel, learn why such events are so closely guarded from the sight of aliens. You are to be the first, Kee-yes vain Lewmaklin. A great privilege. No one is worried about this. Not now, not since the implanting." One eye continued to study the route before them while the other swiveled independently to stare at Loo-Macklin.
"The implant gives you no trouble?"
"None whatsoever. In fact, I think you must have understated the beneficial side effects the lehl induces. Since the implanting I feel better than I have in years."
"No human has partnered a lehl before, so though the probable results were carefully schematized before the operation, they remained only theoretical."
"In fact, I feel positively buoyant."
The tube rose into the mountains, carrying the car with it through passes and around sheer cliffs no road could have traversed. At night the single large moon shone on coniferous trees whose branches curved upward, giving the forest they were traveling through the appearance of an army of emerald candelabra. Loo-Macklin slept soundly on the pallet that had been arranged for him near the back of the thin, long car. The creature inside his head, which could kill him instantly, saw to it that he always had a good night's sleep.
Two days later they'd left any semblance of flat ground far behind. Occasional Nuel communities were visible, built in scattered mountain valleys or on the less precipitous flanks of snow-capped crags.
The car slowed automatically and was shunted into a smaller tube. They sped on alone, no other car visible ahead or behind them at the usual preset interval.
Eventually they slowed. The car slid out of the tube into a docking area inside a building decorated with baroque carvings and mosaics. Arches were everywhere, employed more for their aesthetic than architectural use.
A pair of subtly armed Nuel approached the car. They wore two el apiece, the busy spinners constantly changing the shape of the stars that dominated the alien's blue and brown uniforms. They looked askance at Loo-Macklin as he wrinkled his way out of the confining vehicle and drew their stubby projectile weapons.
One recognized Sharaf. "Truly this is some kind of bad humor, brother."
"Truly there is no humor to it," Sharaf replied.
"But surely you cannot mean to. . . ."
"It is all right, brothers," Sharaf assured them. "He has been spoken for."
"Hello," said a new voice. The Nuel who joined them now was younger than even the two guards, considerably younger than Naras Sharaf. He was barely beginning to gain control over the viscosity of his excreted slime and other bodily fluids, and his interlocking eyelids occasionally stuck together longer than was completely polite. In addition to the iridescent purple, which occasionally flashed from the skin of a Nuel, a bright yellow sparkle also appeared on his body from time to time, a particularly attractive surface coloration.
"Greetings, Naras," he murmured. Then both eyes examined the foreigner. "So you are Kee-yes vain Lewmaklin."
The stocky human extended a hand palm downward, fingers tightly pressed together, as he'd discovered was the preferable approach among the Nuel. The newcomer hesitated, then extended two tentacles and crudely managed the shaking motion. Loo-Macklin spat into his other hand and offered fluid, studying the other in turn.
"From what I have been told," the newcomer said, "it is difficult to believe that you are not a Nuel biologically reengineered by our scientists to resemble a human."
"I'm quite human," Loo-Macklin assured him. "As human as you are Family."
"I am Chaheel Riens, Nuel psychologist and student of alien thoughts and actions."
"So truly are you then here to observe me as much as anything else."
"Truly," admitted Chaheel, showing no surprise at Loo-Macklin's mastery of the guttural Nuel tongue. That much he expected, having studied it in the records pertaining to this remarkable creature.
"I am to understand that you have submitted to a lehl implant?"
Loo-Macklin said nothing.
"Well then, I suppose you are as assured of as any biped could be. Come along, and please lower your voices to a respectful level."
Naras and Loo-Macklin trailed behind the psychologist as he exited the car dock and entered the main structure. The human's presence attracted many stares and set others to talking. He smiled inwardly at some of the comments, which were whispered openly in the belief that he could not understand them.
The Nuel were quite conscious of the fact that all other civilized races regarded them as exceptionally ugly. For their part, the Nuel had never thought of themselves as very attractive, either. The attitudes of other peoples coupled with the Nuel's own insecurity combined to produce a racial inferiority complex unmatched among any other intelligent race. It also served to bind the Nuel tightly together.
Three other sentient species had been taken over by the expanding Nuel society. These three now kept their true opinions of the Nuel appearance well hidden. It is not healthy to make disparaging remarks about one's conqueror.
The Nuel could do nothing to make themselves attractive. Very well, then; they would settle instead for power. One day mankind, too, would be forced to hide its contempt for the Nuel. One day the bipeds of the eighty-three worlds of the UTW would kiss the ground a Nuel slid upon, if so ordered.
Until then the Nuel would bide their time, endure the continuing flow of insults inspired by their appearance, and keep silent.
Soon the visitors had left behind the smoothly crafted rooms and corridors and had entered a dimly lit passage hewn out of the solid mountain. They continued down the long tunnel. Loo-Macklin could see ancient signs and paintings covering the walls, some carefully protected by a transparent shield to prevent accidental damage.
"This is a very old place," Naras Sharaf told him reverently. "The Nuel have held Birthings here for several hundred years."
"Surely those patterns are older than that?" Loo-Macklin indicated the tunnel decorations.
"No. They are old enough, but are only duplicates of those appearing on similar tunnel walls on the Motherworld, on ancient Woluswollam. These were painted here by the first settlers of this world. So they are old but not truly ancient. Old enough, though, to be worth preserving. The inhabitants of this world take pride in their origins."
"Lucky them," said Loo-Macklin, but Sharaf's curious look did not make him elaborate furt
her.
The passageway wound deeper into the mountain before opening into a large natural cavern. Stalactites and stalagmites grew in profusion, and there was even some butterfly calcite hanging from a nearby flowstone curtain. Geology's the same everywhere, he thought. There was running water somewhere ahead, and close by.
They were met by a Nuel clad in a peculiar conical cap and an unmoving, prewoven garment, one of the few Loo-Macklin had seen on a Nuel. It was deep brown shot through with black metal thread. Their host had been told of their coming, since he glanced only briefly at Loo-Macklin before addressing himself softly to Naras Sharaf.
"It is almost time. Truly should we hurry." He added almost imperceptibly, with a half-glance at Loo-Macklin, "I like this not."
Then they were jogging down the path leading deeper into the main cavern. Surprisingly, it began to grow lighter even though the artificial lights faded to insignificance. The cavern narrowed, then opened into a still-larger chamber. Filtered sunlight entered from the far side through a translucent green glass window of impressive proportions and multisided shape.
They had gone completely through this part of the mountain. Here an underground stream rambled through a section of cavern exquisitely decorated with long limestone straws and thick masses of twisting helectites.
It was not the colorful formations, which drew Loo-Macklin's attention, however, but the deep, still pool formed by a gaur dam on the far side of the running stream. It was the first time he'd ever seen a pregnant Nuel.
Her lower abdomen was swollen three times normal size. The loose folds of skin that formed the cilia-shielding skirt, of which Naras Sharaf was so proud, had expanded to encompass the increased volume of flesh.
The Nuel in the hat escorted them to a molded formation, which hid several observation cupouches and instructed them to keep out of sight. Particularly Loo-Macklin, whose presence could be disturbing to she-who-was-about-to-give-birth.