Missing Link | Page 6

from the air," said Orne. "It is very beautiful."
"Yes," said Tanub. "Why did you land so far from it?"
"We didn't want to come down where we might destroy anything."
"There is nothing to destroy in the jungle," said Tanub.
"Why do you have such a big city?" asked Orne.
Silence.
"I said: Why do you--"
"You are ignorant of our ways," said Tanub. "Therefore, I forgive you.
The city is for our race. We must breed and be born in sunlight.
Once--long ago--we used crude platforms on the tops of the trees.
Now ... only the ... wild ones do this."
Stetson's voice hissed in Orne's ears: "Easy on the sex line, boy. That's
always touchy. These creatures are oviparous. Sex glands are
apparently hidden in that long fur behind where their chins ought to
be."
"Who controls the breeding sites controls our world," said Tanub.
"Once there was another city. We destroyed it."
"Are there many ... wild ones?" asked Orne.
"Fewer each year," said Tanub.
"There's how they get their slaves," hissed Stetson.
"You speak excellent Galactese," said Orne.

"The High Path Chief commanded the best teacher," said Tanub. "Do
you, too, know many things, Orne?"
"That's why I was sent here," said Orne.
"Are there many planets to teach?" asked Tanub.
"Very many," said Orne. "Your city--I saw very tall buildings. Of what
do you build them?"
"In your tongue--glass," said Tanub. "The engineers of the Delphinus
said it was impossible. As you saw--they are wrong."
"A glass-blowing culture," hissed Stetson. "That'd explain a lot of
things."
Slowly, the disguised sled crept through the jungle. Once, a scout
swooped down into the headlights, waved. Orne stopped on Tanub's
order, and they waited almost ten minutes before proceeding.
"Wild ones?" asked Orne.
"Perhaps," said Tanub.
A glowing of many lights grew visible through the giant tree trunks. It
grew brighter as the sled crept through the last of the jungle, emerged
in cleared land at the edge of the city.
Orne stared upward in awe. The city fluted and spiraled into the
moonlit sky. It was a fragile appearing lacery of bridges, winking dots
of light. The bridges wove back and forth from building to building
until the entire visible network appeared one gigantic dew-glittering
web.
"All that with glass," murmured Orne.
"What's happening?" hissed Stetson.
Orne touched his throat contact. "We're just into the city clearing,

proceeding toward the nearest building."
"This is far enough," said Tanub.
* * * * *
Orne stopped the sled. In the moonlight, he could see armed Gienahns
all around. The buttressed pedestal of one of the buildings loomed
directly ahead. It looked taller than had the scout cruiser in its jungle
landing circle.
Tanub leaned close to Orne's shoulder. "We have not deceived you,
have we, Orne?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You have recognized that we are not mutated members of your race."
Orne swallowed. Into his ears came Stetson's voice: "Better admit it."
"That's true," said Orne.
"I like you, Orne," said Tanub. "You shall be one of my slaves. You
will teach me many things."
"How did you capture the Delphinus?" asked Orne.
"You know that, too?"
"You have one of their rifles," said Orne.
"Your race is no match for us, Orne ... in cunning, in strength, in the
prowess of the mind. Your ship landed to repair its tubes. Very inferior
ceramics in those tubes."
Orne turned, looked at Tanub in the dim glow of the cab light. "Have
you heard about the I-A, Tanub?"
"I-A? What is that?" There was a wary tenseness in the Gienahn's

figure. His mouth opened to reveal the long canines.
"You took the Delphinus by treachery?" asked Orne.
"They were simple fools," said Tanub. "We are smaller, thus they
thought us weaker." The Mark XX's muzzle came around to center on
Orne's stomach. "You have not answered my question. What is the
I-A?"
"I am of the I-A," said Orne. "Where've you hidden the Delphinus?"
"In the place that suits us best," said Tanub. "In all our history there has
never been a better place."
"What do you plan to do with it?" asked Orne.
"Within a year we will have a copy with our own improvements. After
that--"
"You intend to start a war?" asked Orne.
"In the jungle the strong slay the weak until only the strong remain,"
said Tanub.
"And then the strong prey upon each other?" asked Orne.
"That is a quibble for women," said Tanub.
"It's too bad you feel that way," said Orne. "When two cultures meet
like this they tend to help each other. What have you done with the
crew of the Delphinus?"
"They are slaves," said Tanub. "Those who still live. Some resisted.
Others objected to teaching us what we want