"You know their skill with water-world biology. This one comes to Earth with a technique for maintaining and restoring the early-maturity state in humans. The treatment is complex, but with enough customers the cost would drop, or so the merchant says. I must persuade it not to make the offer."

"Affirmative! Removing the death-limit would drastically affect human psychology!"

One of the sh.e.l.led beings was getting up. The voices chopped off as I rounded the bar and headed for my chosen table, with no clear idea what I would say. I stepped into the bubble of sound around two sh.e.l.led beings and a Rosyfin, and said, "Forgive the interruption, sapients-"

"You have joined a wake," said the tank"s translator widget.

The sh.e.l.led being said, "My mate had chosen death. He wanted one last smoke in company." It bent and lifted its dead companion in its arms and headed for the door.

The Rosyfin was leaving too, rolling its spherical fishbowl toward the door. I realized that its own voice hadn"t penetrated the murky fluid around it. No chittering, no bone-shivering ba.s.s. I had the wrong table.

I looked around, and there were still no other candidates. Yet somebody somebody here had casually condemned mankind-me!-to age and die. here had casually condemned mankind-me!-to age and die.

Now what? I might have been hearing several voices. They all sound alike coming from a new species; and some aliens never interrupt each other.

The little yellow bugs? But they were with humans. But they were with humans.

Sh.e.l.ls? My voices had mentioned sh.e.l.ls ... but too many aliens have exoskeletons. Okay, a Chirpsithra would have spoken by now; they"re garrulous. Scratch any table that includes a Chirp. Or a Rosyfin. Or those Srivinthish: I"d have heard the My voices had mentioned sh.e.l.ls ... but too many aliens have exoskeletons. Okay, a Chirpsithra would have spoken by now; they"re garrulous. Scratch any table that includes a Chirp. Or a Rosyfin. Or those Srivinthish: I"d have heard the skreek skreek of their breathing. Or the huge gray being who seemed to be singing. That left ... half a dozen tables, and I couldn"t interrupt that many. of their breathing. Or the huge gray being who seemed to be singing. That left ... half a dozen tables, and I couldn"t interrupt that many.

Could they have left while I was distracted?

I hot-footed it back to the bar, and listened, and heard nothing. And my spinning brain could find only limits.

TABLE MANNERS*

A lot of what comes out of Xen.o.biology these days is cla.s.sified, and it lot of what comes out of Xen.o.biology these days is cla.s.sified, and it doesn"t doesn"t come out. The Graduate Studies Complex is in the Mojave Desert. It makes security easier. come out. The Graduate Studies Complex is in the Mojave Desert. It makes security easier.

Sireen Burke"s smile and honest blue retina prints and the microcircuitry in her badge got her past the gate. I was ordered out of the car. A soldier offered me coffee and a bench in the shade of the guard post. Another searched my luggage.

He found a canteen, a sizable hunting knife in a locking sheath, and a microwave beamer. He became coldly polite. He didn"t thaw much when I said that he could hold them for a while.

I waited.

Presently Sireen came back for me. "I got you an interview with Dr. McPhee," she told me on the way up the drive. "Now it"s your baby. He"ll listen as long as you can keep his interest."

Graduate Studies looked like soap bubbles: foamcrete sprayed over inflation frames. There was little of military flavor inside. More like a museum. The reception room was gigantic, with a variety of chairs and couches and swings and resting pits for aliens and humans: designs borrowed from the Draco Tavern without my permission.

The corridors were roomy too. Three Chirpsithra pa.s.sed us, eleven feet tall and walking comfortably upright. One may have known me, because she nodded. A dark gla.s.s sphere rolled through, nearly filling the corridor, and we had to step into what looked like a cla.s.sroom to let it pa.s.s.

McPhee"s office was closet-sized. He certainly didn"t interview aliens here, at least not large aliens. Yet he was a mountainous man, six feet four and barrel-shaped and covered with black hair: s.h.a.ggy brows, full beard, a black mat showing through the V of his blouse. He extended a huge hand across the small desk and said, "Rick Schumann? You"re a long way from Siberia."

"I came for advice," I said, and then I recognized him. "B-beam McPhee?"

"Walter, but yes."

the Beta Beam satellite had never been used in war; but when I was seven years old, the Pentagon had arranged a demonstration. They"d turned it loose on a Perseid meteor shower. Lines of light had filled the sky one summer night, a glorious display, the first time I"d ever been allowed up past midnight. The Beta Beam had shot down over a thousand rocks.

Newscasters had named Walter McPhee for the Beta Beam when he played offensive guard for Washburn University.

B-beam was twenty-two years older, and bigger than life, since I"d last seen him on a television set. There were scars around his right eye, and scarring distorted the lay of his beard. "I was at Washburn on an athletic scholarship," he told me. "I switched to Xeno when the first Chirpsithra ships landed. Got my doctorate six years ago. And I"ve never been in the Draco Tavern because it would have felt too much like goofing off, but I"ve started to wonder if that isn"t a mistake. You get everything in there, don"t you?"

I said it proudly. "Everything that lands on Earth visits the Draco Tavern."

"Folk too?"

"Yes. Not often. Four times in fifteen years. The first time, I thought they"d want to talk. After all, they came a long way-"

He shook his head vigorously. "They"d rather a.s.sociate with other carnivores. I"ve talked with them, but it"s d.a.m.n clear they"re not here to have fun. Talking to local study groups is a guest-host obligation. What do you know about them?"

"Just what I see. They come in groups, four to six. They"ll talk to Glig, and of course they get along with Chirpsithra. Everything does. This latest group was thin as opposed to skeletal, though I"ve seen both-"

"They"re skeletal just before they eat. They don"t a.s.sociate with aliens then, because it turns them mean. They only eat every six days or so, and of course they"re hungry when they hunt."

"You"ve seen hunts?"

"I"ll show you films. Go on."

Better than I"d hoped. "I need to see those films. I"ve been invited on a hunt."

"Sireen told me."

I said, "This is my slack season. Two of the big interstellar ships took off Wednesday, and we don"t expect another for a couple of weeks. Last night there were no aliens at all until-"

"This all happened last night?"

"Yeah. Maybe twenty hours ago. I told Sireen and Gail to go home, but they stayed anyway. The girls are grad students in Xeno, of course. Working in a bar that caters to alien species isn"t a job for your average waitress. They stayed and talked with some other Xenos."

"We didn"t hear what happened, but we saw it," Sireen said. "Five Folk came in."

"Anything special about them?"

She said, "They came in on all fours, with their heads tilted up to see. One alpha-male, three females, and a beta-male, I think. The beta had a wound along its left side, growing back. They were wearing the usual: translators built into earm.u.f.fs, and socks, with slits for the fingers on the forefeet. Their ears were closed tight against the background noise. They didn"t try to talk till they"d reached a table and turned on the sound baffle."

I can"t tell the Folk apart. They look a little like Siberian elkhounds, if you don"t mind the head. The head is big. The eyes are below the jawline, and face forward. There"s a nostril on top that closes tight or opens like a trumpet. They weigh about a hundred pounds. Their fingers are above the callus, and they curl up out of the way. Their fur is black, sleek, with white markings in curly lines. We can"t say their word for themselves; their voices are too high and too soft. We call them the Folk because their translators do.

I said, "They stood up and pulled themselves onto ottomans. I went to take their orders. They were talking in nearly ultrasonic squeaks, with their translators turned off. You had to strain to hear anything. One turned on his translator and ordered five gla.s.ses of milk, and a drink for myself if I would join them."

"Any idea why?"

"I was the closest thing to a meat-eater?"

"Maybe. And maybe the local alpha-male thought they should get to know something about humans as opposed to grad students. Or-" McPhee grinned. "Had you eaten recently?"

"Yeah. Someone finally built a sushi place near the s.p.a.ceport. I can"t do my own cooking, I"d go nuts if I had to run an alien restaurant too-"

"Raw flesh. They smelled it on your breath."

Oh. "I poured their milk and a double scotch and soda. I don"t usually drink on the premises, but I figured Sireen or Gail could handle anything that came up.

"It was the usual," I said. "What"s it like to be human. What"s it like to be Folk. Trade items, what are they missing that could improve their life styles. Eating habits. The big one did most of the talking. I remember saying that we have an ancestor who"s supposed to have fed itself by running alongside an antelope while beating it on the head with a club till it fell over. And he told me that his ancestors traveled in cl.u.s.ters-he didn"t say packs- packs-and followed herds of plant-eaters to pull down the slow and the sick. Early biological engineering, he said."

McPhee looked worried. "Do the Folk expect you to outrun an antelope?"

"Oboy!" That was a terrible thought. "No, we talked about that too, how brains and civilization cost you other abilities. Smell, for humans. I got a feeling ... he wanted to think we"re carnivores unless we run out of live meat. I tried not to disillusion him, but I had to tell him about cooking, that we like the taste, that it kills parasites and softens vegetables and meat-"

"Why?"

"He asked. Jesus, B-beam, you don"t lie to aliens, do you?"

He grinned. "I never have. I"m never sure what they want to hear."

"Well, I never lie to customers.-And he talked about the hunts, how little they test the Folk"s animal abilities, how the whole species is getting soft.... I guess he saw how curious I was. He invited me on a hunt. Five days from now."

"You"ve got a problem anyone in this building would kill for."

"Ri-ight. But what the h.e.l.l do they expect expect of me?" of me?"

"Where does it take place? The Folk have an emba.s.sy not fifty miles from here."

"Yeah, and it"s a hunting ground too, and I"ll be out there next Wednesday, getting my own meal. I may have been a little drunk. I did have the wit to ask if I could bring a companion."

"And?" B-beam looked like he was about to spring across the desk into my lap.

"He said yes."

"That"s my n.o.bel Prize calling," said B-beam. "Rick Schumann, will you accept me as your, ah, second?"

"Sure." I didn"t have to think hard. Not only did he have the knowledge; he looked like he could strangle a grizzly bear, which might be what they expected of us.

The Folk had arrived aboard a Chirpsithra liner, five years after the first Chirp landing.

They"d leased a stretch of the Mojave. They"d rearranged the local weather and terrain, over strenuous objections from the Sierra Club, and seeded it with a hundred varieties of plants and a score of animals. Meanwhile they toured the world"s national parks in a 727 with a redesigned interior. The media had been fascinated by the sleek black killing machines. They"d have given them even more coverage if the Folk had been more loquacious.

Three years of that, and then the public was barred from the Folk hunting ground. Intra World Cable sued, citing the public"s right-to-know. They lost. Certain guest species would leave Earth, and others would kill, to protect their privacy.

Intra World Cable would have killed to air this film.

The sunset colors were fading from the sky ... still a Mojave desert sky, though the land was an alien meadow with patches of forest around it. Gra.s.s stood three feet tall in places, dark green verging on black. Alien trees grew bent, as if before a ferocious wind; but they bent in different directions.

Four creatures grazed near a stream. None of the Folk were in view.

"The Folk don"t give a d.a.m.n about privacy," B-beam said. "It"s pack thinking, maybe. They don"t mind our taking pictures. I don"t think they"d mind our broadcasting everything we"ve got, worldwide. It was all the noisy news helicopters that bothered them. Once we realized that, we negotiated. Now there"s one Xen.o.biology Department lifter and some cameras around the fences."

The creatures might have been gazelles with ambitions to become giraffes, but the mouths and eyes and horns gave them away.

Alien. The horns were big and gaudy, intricately curved and intertwined, quite lovely and quite useless, for the tips pointed inward. The neck was long and slender. The mouth was like a shovel. The eyes, like Folk eyes, were below the jaw hinges; though they faced outward, as with most grazing beasts. The creatures couldn"t look up. Didn"t the Folk planet have birds of prey? Or heights from which something hungry might leap?

B-beam reclined almost sleepily in a folding chair too small for him. He said, "We call it a melk, a mock elk. Don"t picture it evolving the usual way. Notice the horns? Melks were shaped by generations of planned breeding. Like a show poodle. And the gra.s.s, we call it fat fat gra.s.s." gra.s.s."

"Why? Hey-"

"Seen them?"

I"d glimpsed a shadow flowing among the trees. The melks had sensed something too. Their heads were up, tilted way up to let them see. A concealed nostril splayed like a small horn.

Three Folk stood upright from the gra.s.s, and screamed like steam whistles.

The melks scattered in all directions. Shadows flowed in the black gra.s.s. One melk found two Folk suddenly before it, shrieking. The melk bellowed in despair, wheeled and made for the trees. Too slow. A deer could have moved much faster.

The camera zoomed to follow it.

Into the trees-and into contact with a black shadow. I glimpsed a forefoot/hand slashing at the creature"s vulnerable throat. Then the shadow was clinging to its back, and the melk tried to run from the forest with red blood spilling down its chest. The rest of the Folk converged on it.

They tore it apart.

They dragged it into the trees before they ate.

Part of me was horrified ... but not so d.a.m.n horrified as all that. Maybe I"ve been with aliens too long. Part of me watched, and noticed the strange configuration of the rib cage, the thickness and the familiar design of legs and knees, and the convenient convenient way the skull split to expose brain when two Folk pulled the horns apart. The Folk left nothing but bone. They split the thick leg bones with their jaws and gnawed the interiors. When they were finished, they rolled the bones into a neat pile and departed at a waddle. way the skull split to expose brain when two Folk pulled the horns apart. The Folk left nothing but bone. They split the thick leg bones with their jaws and gnawed the interiors. When they were finished, they rolled the bones into a neat pile and departed at a waddle.

B-beam said, "That"s why we don"t give these films to the news. Notice anything?"

"Too much. The one they picked, it wasn"t just the smallest. The horns weren"t right. Like one grew faster than the other."

"Right."

"None of the Folk were carrying anything or wearing anything. No knives, no clothes, not even those sock-gloves. What do they do in winter?"

"They still hunt naked. What else?"

"The rest drove it toward that one hidden in the woods.

"There"s one designated killer. Once the prey"s fate is sealed, the rest converge. There are other meat sources. Here-"

There was a turkey-sized bird with wonderful iridescent patterns on its small wings and enormous spreading tail. It flew, but not well. The Folk ran beneath it until it ran out of steam and had to come down into their waiting hands. The rest drew back for the leader to make the kill. B-beam said, "They killed four that day. Want to watch? It all went just about the same way."

"Show me."

I thought I might see ... right. The third attempt, the bird was making for the trees with the Folk just underneath. It might make it. Could the Folk handle trees? But the Folk broke off, far short of the trees. The bird fled to safety while they converged on another that had landed too soon, and frightened it into panicky circles....

Enough of that. I said, "B-beam, the Folk sent some stuff to the Draco Tavern by courier. Your gate Security has it now. I think I"d better get it back. A microwave beamer and a hunting knife and canteen, and it all looks like it came from Abercrombie and Fitch."

He stared at me, considering. "Did "Did they? What do you think?" they? What do you think?"