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one, sir."
I'd noticed Saiko right away, of course. On an absolute scale he wasn't
particularly small-a little shorter than average height, perhaps, with a
slender build-but against the more massive physiques of the rest of
the brigade, he seemed almost childlike. His smooth, Oriental face also stood
out of the crowd, its lack of racial mix marking him as an Earthman. He was
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clearly a newcomer, and I could tell the others hadn't quite figured him out
yet.
Eldjarn nodded. "Go ahead, Corporal."
"Sir, has anyone tried to negotiate with the Falkwade natives, to find out why
they object to our presence?"
Eldjarn blinked in surprise at Saiko's question but recovered quickly. "Not
all the Falkren are against us,"
he said. "The females, who control the villages, accept both the contact team
and the mineral exploration groups as friends."
From what I'd read, the Falki females were closer to neutral on the subject,
but I didn't say anything.
Eldjarn went on. "It's only the neuters out in the hills and woodlands who are
trying to kick up a guerrilla war."
"Yes, sir, but has anyone tried talking with them?" Saiko persisted. "There
may be no need to fight."
In the silence that followed, someone snickered, and I could see both disgust
and amusement flicker across the Enforcers' faces. Eldjarn kept his own
expression neutral. "We're Enforcers; we fight. Talking is for the feeble and
the diplomats. Any other questions, Corporal?"
"No, sir." Saiko's face didn't change, but I felt a stab of pain for him.
Enforcers were not noted for sensitivity or compassion, and I knew Saiko would
be the butt of some very low humor all the way to
Falkwade.
"All right, then," Eldjarn said. "Eighteenth Enforcers: prepare to board."
I wasn't wrong. Before we were even off the ground, Saiko had been given his
first Enforcer nickname:
Love-and-kisses.
Enforcers, the elite policemen of the Starguard, like to keep in fighting
trim, and our transport had been furnished with this in mind. One of the cargo
holds was equipped as a gym/combat room; another boasted a simuholographic
shooting range where one could hone one's marksmanship without putting needle
dents in any bulkheads. Other training and practice equipment was distributed
around the passenger areas.
None of this was of any personal interest to me. So I stayed pretty much in my
quarters, reading and working from the mountain of material I'd brought with
me. It wasn't until the fourth day of the trip that I
had my first visitor.
It was Saiko. "Excuse me, Lieutenant Hillery," he said, standing at the door.
"I wonder if I might talk to you for a moment."
"Sure, Saiko, come on in," I waited until he was seated before continuing.
"How are you doing?"
"Fine, sir. I wanted to ask you a few questions about the Falkren, if I may."
I covered my surprise; I'd expected him to want help on personal problems.
"Sure. What do you want to know?"
"Well, sir, I've read the material we were provided, and it seems to have some
inconsistencies in it. Are there three Falki sexes or just two?"
I nodded; I'd noted the inadequacy of the official handouts and was working
hard to turn out a better set.
"Good question, and it depends on how you look at it. While there are really
just male and female
Falkren, the males periodically undergo hormonal changes that leave them
sexless. We call these neuters;
and while they are, in a gross physiological sense, identical to the males,
their emotional and social makeup is completely different. Whether or not they
should count as a third gender is still being debated."
"I see," Saiko said slowly, "I think. But the reports said the males lived in
the villages with the females.
They only dislike humans in their neuter state?"
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"How the males feel about us is really irrelevant because they're completely
under the control of the females, who are tolerating us at the moment."
"I'm not sure I understand."
"Okay." I hunched forward slightly in my chair, feeling my professorial side
taking over. "Here's the Falki setup. The females all live in the villages
that are scattered over the major land masses. With them live the males, who
handle all the heavy work-building, hauling, some farming-while the females
have babies, do lighter work, and give all the orders. The males are
completely subservient-as long as they're male. The minute they change to
neuter-and the change apparently only takes minutes-they can't be ordered
around any more by the females. They immediately leave the village and join up
with the neuters who live in the surrounding area. We don't know the social
structure of that group yet, but it's clear that they have one, because things
get done. The neuters do all the hunting, fishing, lumbering-anything that
needs to be done outside the village proper, delivering the goods to males at
a rendezvous point near the village border and getting grain and clothing in
return. If the village needs to move, the neuters blaze the trail and act as a
moving screen while the males and females travel. And, of course, they do any
fighting that needs to be done."
"And when they go back to being male?"
"They return to the village."
Saiko stroked his lip thoughtfully. "Interesting. It makes sense to protect
those who are breeding, both female and male, as much as possible. A most
unusual expression of oneness, with this periodic changing of roles."
"You mean the way the females dominate the males but not the neuters? I
suppose that does make for a certain symmetry."
He fixed me suddenly with a curious gaze. "Why do you insist on seeing it in
terms of domination and submission? Couldn't it simply be that the Falkren
recognize their interdependence and take the roles which allow their survival
and growth?"
I floundered for a good five seconds on that one. "I suppose I'm
anthropomorphizing," I said at last.
"Most human societies run along power/authority lines. So I guess we have an
automatic tendency to assume aliens behave that way, too."
"I see." There was an odd note of disappointment in Saiko's tone.
"You disagree?" I probed.
"Well... I don't think that is the best way for even humans to look at the
universe. It leads to unnecessary conflict."
He hesitated, unblinking eyes gauging my reaction. I knew that look and the
thoughts behind it; my own rather nonmilitary personality had made me an
oddball of sorts even among other Starguard scientists.
The search for a kindred spirit could be a long and painful one. "Go ahead," I
encouraged him.
"If I think in terms of dominance and submission, then I must consider myself
as separate from the rest of the universe," Saiko said. "In other words, if I
consider you to be outside of me, then I can try to dominate you. This sets up
conflict between us.
"If instead I consider you to be actually another part of me, then I won't
fight you, because we don't fight ourselves. I'll try to help you, try to let
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