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gaping, toothless mouth. Like a frog's tongue, the tentacle drew the sac
inside.
"Nemo, what-T'
"I cannot speak with you now, J.D."
Nerno's adult body was slender and mobile, unlike the ponderous squidlike
juvenile body. The legs and the feather-gills and the rippling horizontal fin
had vanished -transformed into wings? Or was that too simple an analysis?
Nemo's wings began to beat, in a wave from front to back. The motion of the
wings eased the bulge of the sac through Nemo's new form, expanding the
translucent, peacock-hued skin before the sac, contracting behind it. The
colors changed over the bulge of the egg sac, flowing from iridescent red
through orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.
The egg case hesitated at a second, smaller bulge in Nerno's. body, beneath
the last free pair of wings. The two shapes touched, merged, engulfed each
other; and then the egg case continued to move.
Nerno's wings fluttered faster, harder, creating a low, trilling whirr that
filled the air. The giant sowbugs streamed from their congregation and
surrounded Nemo's body where it entered the floor. Using their front
appendages, they massaged the egg sac and pushed it along. It disappeared
beneath the level of the floor. The whirring wings relaxed, and drooped.
The attendants fell away and crawled blindly around, undirected, slowing as
they touched, till they lay again in a compact, pulsating mass.
"You may help," Nemo said again.
J.D. hurried to the pile of satchels and brought another. Again, Nemo engulfed
it. The wings stretched,
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pulsed, and resumed their flowing, steady beat, pumping the sac on its long
traverse.
J.D. fetched another egg case.
"Not yet, not yet," Nemo said.
She stopped.
Maybe it's a reflex, engulfing the egg sac, J.D. thought. Maybe that's why the
tentacle is so slow. Maybe the timing is critical.
Another bulge began to form beneath Nemo's posterior full wings. By the time
the second sac reached it, it had stopped growing. Again the bulges merged,
again the sowbugs pressed the egg bulge out of sight.
Time passed.
J.D. continued to bring the egg sacs to Nerno's mouth, leaving the tentacle to
conserve its strength for the engulfing. Nemo remained silent, eyes closed,
body and wings pulsing with exertion.
J.D. was in awe of the effort Nemo expended. Of course the squidmoth could not
talk to her now. But the silence of J.D.'s enhanced link felt huge and empty.
She wondered if the change had been futile, just enough to give her a glimpse
of Nerno's complete communication.
With each egg sac, the traverse through Nerno's body occurred more slowly. The
secondary bulge, the egg, took longer to form.
J.D. helped, and waited, for several hours. Her friends back home would be
worried by her silence.
After the fifth egg sac, Nerno's wings drooped. J.D. stroked the heavy,
chitinous head. Nemo's tentacle curled; the wings rose, and stretched.
J.D. picked up another egg sac and brought it to the tentacle.
I must be getting tired, too, she thought. These things are beginning to feel
heavier and heavier.
Nerno's tentacle wrapped around the egg case, dragging it weakly in. J.D.
stood anxiously by while Nerno's mouth worked around it. The iridescent wings
sagged nearly to the floor, and their colors had begun to dull.
Right after the metamorphosis, Nerno's body had looked sleek and well-fed. Now
it had begun to shrivel.
306 VONDA N. McINTYRE
Nemo's sunken flanks defined the egg case in more detail. The long wings
labored to continue their beat. Even the attendants moved slowly, tentatively.
The egg case merged with the egg bulge, and disappeared, and the giant sowbugs
tumbled away from each other in response to the renewed throbbing of the
wings.
The tentacle sagged out of Nerno's mouth, twitching and searching. J.D.
hurried to bring the seventh sac. Nemo engulfed it, and the first set of wings
moved it with agonizing slowness.
Six more egg cases remained in the pile. J.D. felt frightened, because Nemo
could never ingest them all before Starfarer hit transition. She should give
herself at least an hour to get back.
Nemo quivered, exhausted. J.D. stroked Nerno's tentacle, the pulsing flanks.
Nerno's wings swept down, trembled against the floor, and lifted themselves
slowly, painfully.
The passage is going to take at least an hour, J.D. thought. If I'm quick-
She touched her link to Nemo. "I'll be right back." She gently squeezed the
furred tip of Nerno's tentacle. Hoping the squidmoth could hear her, could [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]