07. Ghost of the Well of Souls (10 page)

Yeah, and I bet none of 'em are in any hurry to go back to home sweet home, either,
Ari commented sourly.
Still, I wonder if this means we'll change back once we're here?

Maybe, but I doubt it. I think that whatever you are when you leave home is what you stay. It sure means that these guys are havin' a field day. All the replacements are female, no added competition.

Well, at least we know what's turning us on,
Ari commented.
All those male hormones in this compact little place.

Yeah. I think maybe you should just relax and let me take control for a while,
Ming suggested.
At least I'm in my element here.

I'll bet you are. I've seen you in action, although not exactly from this vantage point.

The bar was not crowded, but there were a dozen or so Kalindans—maybe five males, seven females. Ming wasn't looking for just anyone; she had two categories of targets in mind, one for business, one pragmatic. The lonely and talkative sort would be useful for business; lonely and well-heeled would beat sleeping at the top of the dome if such a one were here and available.

Even back in the old days, when Ari was a male Terran and Ming a female, and with all the high-tech options for super sex without complications, it still often boiled down to a lonely man or woman in a bar far from home. The fact that she'd been a cop and he'd been an agent for a criminal organization was irrelevant; they both still had the same job, just different moral compasses.

It had been long enough since they'd seen a male Kalindan, and in fact male and female Kalindans didn't look that different. The genitalia were essentially concealed until put into active use, as it were; both sexes had egg pouches that could be used to nurture an egg until it hatched; and both could nurse a new hatchling if the egg had been more than a few days in the pouch. But though other races couldn't tell the sexes apart, there was no confusion among Kalindans.

Ming had barely begun to survey the field when a guy she'd hardly noticed drifted toward her with the clear intent of putting the moves on her.

"You are new here," the man stated.

"Yes, new here, new in Yabbo," Ming responded. "Does it show that much?"

"You are far too young to be here on any sort of work contract, and I know just about all the regulars and their families here. Nothing mysterious," the man replied. "I am Kalimbuch. My official title is Deputy Consular Officer for Trade, which is a fancy way of saying that I am a government accountant. My job is to log the business we do, particularly the new business. I keep an eye on trade balances as well as, of course, ensuring that what gets into Kalinda is what we wish to get in, and what we wish to stay out stays out."

Ming had a cover story ready, partially prepared by others back in Kalinda and then amplified by conversations and reactions with those they'd met on the way. "I am Mingchuk. I have passed all my exams and decided to travel while waiting for the university lists to open."

"Ah! I thought as much! What district are you from?"

"Well, Jinkinar as much as anywhere. My family was military, and we were posted to different missions. In truth, I know more about some faraway places than I do my own native land and region, which is why I'm using the time this way."

There. That should cover any slips on local families and geography.
If anybody asked about some of the foreign hexes she'd visited with her "military adviser" parents, she could make up something convincing since she knew a lot of races from her previous life who had counterparts here. Chances were, nobody who asked about them would know truth from falsehood anyway.

"Most efficient use you could make," Kalimbuch responded. "Might I buy you something as a welcoming libation, perhaps?"

"I—I'm just getting used to such things, having only come of age in the past month," she responded demurely. "What would you suggest?"

"I know just the thing!" the consul responded, and floated over to the bar where a bored-looking Kalindan female stirred enough to take the order.

"A stuska," Kalimbuch told her. "And my usual."

Watch it,
Ari cautioned her silently.
Remember, I'm in the same body, so if this stuff screws you up I won't be any help.

I think we can stand one or two of these. Most Kalindans can, and we've had
some
of this stuff before.

Neither of them knew what a stuska was, though.

The bartender came back with two containers, one with a pastel-blue spongy compound, the other a red-and-white-striped concoction that came on a stick. Kalimbuch gestured toward a table away from anyone else, and they drifted over to it and hovered there. Ming was surprised to find that the blue stuff was hers and the thing that looked like a confection was the consul's. He stuck the thing in his mouth so that only the stick showed, sucking on it as he slowly breathed in the water. She wasn't sure what to do with the blue stuff, and Kalimbuch quickly realized it.

"Apologies," he said. "Just take a small piece and pop it in your mouth and chew. Swallow when it gets to be just a substance in the mouth giving nothing else off, and then take some more. It's quite mild and very flavorful."

She broke off a small piece, popped it in her mouth, and chewed on it slowly. At first it seemed to release a mostly sweet taste like licorice, but as it dissolved and went back through the gill area, it had a surprising, pleasant kick to it. This was something you went slow on if you didn't want to get very high very fast.

"Now, then," Kalimbuch said, settling in and appearing more relaxed, "you must tell me the latest news from Kalinda. As you might guess, it has been a while since I've been home. Frankly, the way things are going at the moment, it is hard to say
when
I can return. All Kalindan men are specifically prohibited from entering the nation."

"It's pretty bad," Ming told him. "There are virtually no births left to go, and no men left to cause them. I hadn't even known that
any
men failed to turn until we got here."

"Well, it's not much security even with that," he replied. "I mean, there are about 3,500 Kalindans working throughout Yabbo, perhaps another like number in all the other hexes we send people to. Of those, perhaps a third are men, so it's about 2,200 men for—what? Two million population back home? I assure you that when I was younger that kind of situation was a fantasy, but the hard reality is that it scares me to death. Scares
all
of us men, I fear. Those who went back before it was no longer allowed changed, and, apparently, it doesn't take much time at all in the hex before it happens. We do what we can here, but these domes are not the best places to raise children, and Yabbo's heavy soup can be dangerous to babies.

The Yabbans are sympathetic, but I'm sure they fear that we'll be using their land as incubators, and they don't like that idea at all. There is fear even now that the Yabbans may demand that we all get out if this—situation—continues."

"Would they do that? I mean, they really need a lot of stuff that we can make and maintain. I'd think service on that steam pressure train and their message system alone—if we don't service it or make the spare parts, who would?"

Ming took some more of the blue stuff. It was quite nice; it made the tiredness and aches and pains of the trip vanish and gave her a kind of nice buzz.

"Who indeed?" the consul replied. "The plans are now well-known, and any high-tech hex could fabricate the basics when they run out from the spares they have now, which, of course, is a good supply. We were essential once; now we are merely—convenient."

"What do you think is causing the problem?" she asked him, guessing his thinking.

"Oh, there have been times within the historical record where this has happened in the past," Kalimbuch pointed out.

She was surprised. "I hadn't heard that. Everyone seems to think it's a deep, dark plot."

"It very well could be. Still, it has happened before. One of the survival traits of our species is our ability to change sex as the population needs dictate, although, of course, most of us never did. At times we grow in population until we have as many people as our nation can adequately feed and house and care for, even allowing for imports. We're at that point, or close to it, now. When this happens, a shift to all female is quite pragmatic. It stops population growth, of course, but without interfering with any young already developing. When deaths begin to lower the population by attrition, things begin to slowly get back to normal."

"Interesting. How does it work in other hexes? I'd guess they had to keep their population balanced as well."

"Well, yes. Normally it's simply a decline in the birth rate that keeps things on a fairly even level for them. Most don't have our ability to change sex, and so controlling the birth rate is the only way to do it. One wonders how it would be done in the greater universe."

"Pardon?"

"I mean,
out there,
among the stars. I know there are civilizations out there—some of them fall into Gates and wind up here. But they're not under the control of a computer-regulated biosphere. I wonder how they control their population, that's all."

She laughed. "They don't. Some of them just keep over-populating until famine and war and disease pare them down, and others have been known to virtually die out because they stop reproducing at all." It was only after she said this that she realized it was information she shouldn't have known. So much for undercover. It had to be this blue stuff . . .

"Indeed? And how do you know this?"

She tried to clear away the brain fog and recover. "We had two outsiders appear as Kalindans not long ago, and my parents were among those who had to evaluate them and where they would fit into our society. I had a chance to talk to them myself. A lot of chances, really, since they were held for so long by the security forces because they didn't know what to do with them. Just hearing about their worlds made it clear that things go their own way out there."

Quick thinking,
Ari told her.
Wonder if he'll buy it?

Kalimbuch made a face. "How terrible to live like that! It makes situations like the one we're now in bearable, knowing that the Well will correct things over time. Life is chaotic enough for all that
here;
I can't imagine adding more randomness to life."

She shrugged. "I dunno. This world was set up to develop and test races for real places out there, and, I mean, there has to be
some
reason for intelligence."

"Eh?"

"Well, think about it. Most species aren't really intelligent, let alone civilized. It's all just food-chain stuff. Why are we smart? Why do we build cities, create all sorts of projects and all that? I mean, if the idea is just to keep the race going, then giving us sharp teeth and nasty dispositions would be enough.

Intelligence, too, is a survival trait. I'm not sure we'd ever have developed it on our own in Kalinda, but it's obviously needed on the world the Makers were intending to send us to. You've got to figure that the home world out there was a pretty mean place if we had to develop the smarts and tools and weapons and all to make it. Of course, I wonder if we did?"

"What's that?"

"Make it. I mean, have
you
ever heard of any of our kind coming here from the stars? You've got to wonder if our kind made it out there even with the smarts."

Kalimbuch thought a moment. "There were stories, tales, but no, I can't recall anyone who have come through resembling us." It struck him then what she'd been saying. "Oh, my goodness! Then we—we might be
it
for our people!"

"Exactly. You never know, though. My parents said that far fewer water breathers came through than gas breathers by maybe four or five to one. They just might not have developed spaceships yet."

"Urn, yes. I suspect you're going to give them fits at university. Providing you get there, of course."

She suddenly tensed, in spite of the mild drug. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, our instructions are that all female Kalindans outside of the country are to remain outside, and that it is every Kalindan's duty to bear children, particularly males. That means remaining outside for the term. Perhaps longer. That's what the Yabbans are worried about, you see."

"You mean we won't be allowed
back
?
But that's absurd! We came from the border only a day ago and there was a lot of cross-border traffic!"

"Yes, but official business, including commerce, must continue even in the emergency. For females, this applies primarily to those who are not here on a governmental or commercial mission or who aren't essential to one. Like you, in fact. Our government states that it is your patriotic duty to copulate and bear young outside of the hex. It is for the preservation of our race and culture."

"I thought you just finished telling me this was a natural occurrence!"

"Perhaps it is. I do not make these decisions. I merely am here to help pass them along and, if need be, enforce them."

Now,
that
was the damnedest, boldest pickup line I ever got in my whole life!
Ming said mentally to Ari after she managed to act shocked and shy enough to get away from the consul on the make.

They were now up high, at the top of the dome, where the folks without money for comfort could stay, kind of like a public park.

I'm not sure it
was
a line,
Ari told her.
We saw a number of women in and around here since then, and I've yet to see one who's not carrying an egg or a kid.

You're joking! I'm not patriotic enough for
that
yet, I can tell you!

Well, neither am I, although neither of us are anything like virgins.

We are in
this
body!