Birthright

Tanayoka gave the appropriate orders, and three hours later Consuela was attempting to make some

sense out of a new subject. By the dawn of her sixteenth day on Beelzebub, she had released the second alien as well.

“We can bring you a third one if you think it will do any good,” Tanayoka said gently. She shook her head. “If I've done nothing else, I think I've proved that no one is going to communicate with these fellows in the time remaining to me.” “Then you're giving up?”

“Not at all. I'm just going to have to attack the problem from a different angle. Either our two subjects were going out of their way to be uncooperative, or else they don't give a damn about what we do to their mineral wealth. Since the Republic finds the former conclusion untenable, I'm going to have to assume the latter.”

“I'm not quite sure if I follow you, Mrs. Orta,” said Tanayoka. “Since you're not going to stop mining anyway, and since the aliens don't seem to care about mining, I'll have to proceed as if something else precipitated their attack. Now, I'm not as versed in the physical sciences as I should be, but could any of our equipment have emitted a sound, possibly beyond our ability to hear, that could have driven them wild with pain or fury?” “No,” said Tanayoka. “We considered all possible physical causes before we contacted you. There were pungent odors, of course, but they had existed for weeks. There wasn't enough in the way of harmful radiation to have killed an insect. None of the miners went hunting aliens or anything else for sport or meat. We never used a megaphone or microphone in case the volume might startle them. We landed the ship in a totally deserted and desolate area to make sure we didn't damage any life forms.” “The men visited the ship during the first thirty weeks?” asked Consuela. “Yes.”

“Then what,” she said, more to herself than to him, “could they possibly have done differently?” “I wish I knew,'’ said Tanayoka.

“Let me take another look at the site,” said Consuela. They took the groundcar and arrived a few minutes later. She walked around, certain that the answer was staring her in the face if only she could rid herself of her preconceptions long enough to see it. “You seem distressed,” said Tanayoka gently, after some time had elapsed. “I'm just trying to clear my mind,” she said. “You see, there is an enormous tendency on the part of alien psychologists to anthropomorphize, to give human traits and values to aliens who simply don't possess them. I've got to force myself to stop wondering what would makeme want to attack the miners, and start attacking the problem of why an alien would do so.” “I see,” said Tanayoka.