The Nitrogen Fix

IV Unknown, Unless

Bones, almost frantic with excitement, was completely happy. Two areas of Unknown competed for the attention of the strange mind and senses. A human being of the hunting-and-gathering era would have felt much the same if he had been placed in possession of an indefinitely large food supply, with his only choice that of what to eat first. Adolescents from the mechanized Age of Pleasure, much later, had the same difficulty.

Sex was unknown to the Observer, and eating no particular pleasure. The fishlike body did possess a sense of taste, but selecting diet items with its aid was not even a minor intellectual problem-just a matter of being sure to consume equivalent amounts of oxidizing and reducing foods. The only real fun came in learning whether a particular food item was still the same this time as it had been before; the nitrogen real-life duplicated itself rather unreliably, and mutations were the rule rather than the exception.

The present situation, on the other hand, was really enthralling. The human Earrin had gone into the jail where there seemed to be another of his species. Could they really transfer memories only by this crude sound-and-gesture code? Bones wasn’t yet quite sure. He had suspected Earrin and Kahvi of using more natural methods, but they preferred to be alone at such times and details were lacking.

A few hundred meters away on the other side of the hill was the area which had just been burning.

What had started the fire? What had furnished the fuel? Had it stopped merely because there was nothing else to burn, or had more human beings been involved? Bones had seen the region before, but nothing in memory offered answers to these questions. Like the jail; the far side of the hill was a blank on the knowledge map. The only real emotional drive Bones’ species knew was the urge to fill such gaps, though the desire to share the knowledge when it had been acquired could at times rise nearly as high.

How to choose between two Unknowns?The jail, of course, was closer. The fact that Bones had been asked to stay and help Earrin if need arose was not a major consideration; the observer could see no reason why the man should need help.

Hillers did seem to disapprove of Observers for some reason, but the notion that human beings might deliberately injure each other was not to be driven into Bones’ consciousness for some time yet. Even Kahvi’s evident uneasiness about the situation had not impressed the strange mind in that way, though it had partially faced the idea that human beings might be separate individuals rather than a group of Observer units.

The important thing was to find out, and watching Earrin and this other being seemed to offersome chance of accomplishing this end.

The Observer therefore emerged from the water moments after Fyn had gone through the air lock and approached the jail. Keeping mind that being seen by other people would be undesirable, the fishlike being kept on the east side of the building; the most likely direction of approach for other human beings was presumably the west, where the fire had been. Why no one had yet come from that direction was merely part of the other tantalizing blank which the Observer had deliberately scheduled into second priority.

Looking from the east did have a major disadvantage with the sun low in the west, but it was possible to make out the two human figures. They were obviously using the sound code — there were practically no gestures, and only an occasional word could be grasped, so there was no way of telling what thoughts were being exchanged.

Bones considered entering the air lock and observing from just below the surface inside, but this did not really promise an improvement and would prevent the reception of any warning of the approach of others. Kahvi might be persuaded to come and listen; she could translate — no, she had clearly intended to remain with her bud for a time. Bones’ patience was comparable to that of a stable human being, and it was therefore not unlimited. Important as this observation was, the temptation to do something more productive grew stronger by the moment. Both mind and eyes began to wander, and Bones failed to notice when one of the human beings donned outdoor equipment and entered the air lock. It was sound rather than sight which attracted the Observer’s awareness to the pool a couple of meters away.

The sound was an exclamation in a human voice, muffled as usual by a breathing mask. Bones’ nearer eye swivelled down in time to see a head jerk back under the water. The sky was still bright enough for reflection to obscure things below this surface too, and for a moment the streamlined body stood tense with indecision.

Then motion inside the building caught the other eye.

The figure still standing alone suddenly fell, though no reason could be seen. Another human being emerged from the inner pool and bent over the prostrate one, apparently removing the latter’s breathing mask, though details were not clear. This seemed interesting enough to change priorities, and Bones entered the air lock.

There was no question of helping Earrin; there was no question of helping anyone — Bones did not even know that Earrin was the one who had fallen, though it seemed likely. There was no question of personal violence. There was just Question, another blank area on that incredible mental map. Something was happening which did not fit any previous experience, and an explanation had to be found.

Though much taller than that of any human being, Bones’ form was slender enough to get under the wall without trouble; two or three seconds sufficed to traverse the lock. The shadowy jail would have forced human eyes to delay for adaptation, but those of the Observer reacted more quickly. Even so, little information came through at first.

The person on the floor was Earrin Fyn, but what the other was doing — helping or hurting — was still not obvious. He stopped doing it instantly on perceiving the newcomer, and sprang to his feet.

His mask was off and his words unmuffled, but they meant nothing to Bones. The actions which followed did carry information, however; the Observer was clearly unwelcome. The fellow seized a meter-long sponge rod and swung it violently.

Bones ducked quickly enough to save an eye, but got a painful jolt on the left jaw. The second came much lower, and its force was absorbed by the cartilaginous ribs of the broad fin which ran down thesame side. Neither blow did serious damage — not nearly enough to start a budding reaction — but both hurt, and neither brought any consolation in the form of new knowledge. Bones’ reaction was almost human, and the third swing was stopped short of its target.

The tentacles which sprouted just below each eye and above the lateral fins lashed out. One seized the stick, and the other snapped whiplike against the man’s bare chest. It did not actually break the skin, but left a red welt a centimeter wide and ten or twelve long, and the man fell back with a wordless shriek.

Then he uttered two or three more syllables at Bones, several others which seemed to be directed at Fyn’s still motionless body, and snatched up a breathing mask and set of cartridges from a nearby table.

He seemed to have some trouble adjusting these; Bones had never seen a human being in a state of panic and was tempted to offer help, but fortunately made no actual move before the job was done.

The fellow disappeared into the lock pool, edging around to keep out of Bones’ reach as he approached it, and uttering a final burst of syllables as he submerged. Bones was tempted to follow, but Fyn’s motionless body offered an equally attractive mystery and the Observer stayed.

In several years’ companionship with the Fyn family the Observer had learned much.

Unconsciousness at night and after heavy exertion was a familiar phenomenon with these beings, but it was unusual for it to come on this suddenly.

Besides, while Fyn had been working quite hard during the last few hours, he had shown none of the usual preliminary symptoms, and it was not yet quite night. The man was clearly alive; his body was undergoing the endless inflation-deflation cycle which Bones now knew to be its oxygen-feeding mechanism. The discovery that this life form could use only gaseous oxygen, rather than nitrates, in its redox energy machinery had driven the Observer on a frantic search for another unit to which the knowledge could be transferred. It had fitted so neatly into the old hypothesis that livable planets always went through a stage when they had free oxygen in their atmospheres, before they acquired their permanent gas envelopes. .

The Fyn family had never found out why their strange companion had disappeared for a month.

Bones had no information on which to base effective first aid for the unconscious man, and did not really help him. The lump on the back of Earrin’s head was not pronounced enough to be seen by the great eyeballs or noticed by the strange, fluid nervous system which operated them. It was probably the over-oxygenated air of the jail which was the main cause of Fyn’s rapid recovery, but this never occurred to Bones. A gas analysis was, from the Observer’s point of view, something which could be accomplished easily enough with the appropriate physical and chemical equipment; but having no breathing equipment, the species had never evolved a sense of smell. Receptors analogous to taste buds existed on the outer skin as well as inside the mouth, and operated well enough under water, but Bones was not equipped to detect oxygen personally.

It was nearly dark when Earrin opened his eyes.

He could make out the figure of the native standing over him, but gestures could not be made out and communication was therefore limited. The man knew of course that the other had no vocal apparatus, and he and his wife had both come to realize that there was some limitation to the creature’s hearing, though neither could make out just what it was. Most of the scientific knowledge still retained by humanity was chemical rather than in the more general physical sciences, and neither Earrin nor Kahvi, well-read as the latter was, knew anything of the physics of sound. An explanation, however detailed, that Bones’ kind lacked both pitch and timbre discrimination would have meant nothing to either. They knew only that their strange friend seemed unable to distinguish words which seemed quite different to them, and that it was necessary to supplement vocal communication with gestures.

Even without real conversation, Bones could tell that Earrin was having trouble getting to his feet, and after a moment the tentacles helped.

Earrin, confused and with no recollection of just what had happened before he had been stunned, groped in the near-darkness for his breathing gear, found and donned it, and led the way outside.

Here it was bright enough to communicate, though the sun had set. Unfortunately, Fyn had little to communicate. He tried to get across the notion of an oxygen addict, and the native was delighted with the indirect information thus provided. It now seemed well established that human beings were in factindividuals, genuinely incapable of direct communication. This brought up so many unthought-of implications that the Observer was almost dazed at the new Unknowns opening up. What happened to a human mind before it had learned the communication code?

Earrin and Kahvi had kept the bud Danna-how had they known that it was a true copy? Two others had been produced since and had not been kept, though the units had been buried rather than eaten — why? Was there no risk from inaccurate copies? How did the human mind face the fact that nearly all the knowledge it acquired could not be transmitted and must be destroyed when the unit which had acquired it terminated its action? Psychology was an entirely new idea to a being which had hitherto known only a single mind.

Fyn, of course, was not concerned with anything abstract. He wondered where the jailbird might have gone, but there was no way to tell. The nearest place where he could have disappeared was over the ridge to the west, toward the fire site.

However, the darkness showed that Earrin himself had been unconscious long enough to permit the other possibilities — northward toward the end of the Canton peninsula, or south toward the Blue Hills and the city. Kahvi might have seen him go, of course, but this seemed doubtful — in that case she would have come to learn what had happened to Earrin.

There seemed nothing to do except go back to the raft, and tell the others what had happened — Danna was included in family discussions as a matter of course.

There was no family discussion that night, however.

Bones, far taller than Fyn’s one and two-thirds meters, saw the motion first and reacted instantly as had long ago been agreed with the family. The slender form vanished almost soundlessly into the sea, without giving any signal of intent or explanation. The man needed none.

The most likely direction was still westward. He looked that way, and saw six human heads rising from behind the ridge. They were clearly visible against the still bright sky; it seemed worth hoping that they had not seen Bones.

However, it must be obvious to them that Fyn himself had been in or near the jail. Had the oxygenwaster gone to get them? Were they friends of that rather strange character? Earrin still had no idea what had knocked him out; maybe the fellow had gone for help. In any case, there was nothing to be done except wait and see what these Hillers wanted, and hope they asked no embarrassing questions about natives. As a Nomad, his social status with Hillers was already low enough; if they thought he were actually associating with the animals, it might make a living harder to earn.

So Fyn, still not quite to the pile of cargo they had brought ashore, stood and waited for the newcomers. When they got close enough to identify figures, it became evident that the jailbird was not among them. However, all six seemed to be in the same general age group, perhaps sixteen or seventeen.

Two of them were women. It was one of these who spoke when the group came within two or three meters.

“You’re the Nomad Earrin Fyn, aren’t you?” she asked.

“That’s right.” The Hillers used only spoken words, shouted through their breathing masks, like other city dwellers. Fyn did not attempt gesture language, which was essentially a family development unknown even to other Nomads. “We brought the copper and glass you wanted,” he added.

“So we see. Is this all you could get?”

“All in the time you gave us. We had to enlarge the raft to carry this, as it was. We can make more trips if you want, but you know there is nothing to be done about the rate copper comes in from the sea.

Glass we can get as fast as we can pick it up.”

“Where do you get it?”

Fyn’s smile was concealed both by mask and darkness, but the Hillers might as well have seen it. The question was not repeated.

“Well, this will help us start over,” the woman went on after a moment. “We’ll certainly need more, though, so you might as well start after it as soon as you can.”

“There is payment for this load.” Fyn was not at all diffident about making this point.

“You’ll get it. I’m afraid there is no place ashore where you can relax, however, while you wait. Thejail here is no longer suitable-perhaps you have noticed.”

“Yes. My wife and I have both been there. Education is not working very well, I judge.”

“Did you have trouble?”

“Not exactly. My Wife went first and was frightened by the situation, but not by anything he did. She promised him glass for growing patch tissue — his roof was damaged by the fire this afternoon — and I just delivered it. I gathered from what he said that the person there — I’m afraid we never got his name — is one of your group.”

“True. He is.” One of the young men was speaking this time. “Did you visit him alone?”

“Yes. I told you Kahvi was frightened. Why does it matter?” The man paid no attention to this question.

“No one else was in or near the jail — no one but Rembert?”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know if Rembert was there, unless that’s the oxy-waster we’ve been talking about. Something knocked me out — ”

“That was Rembert. He said he thought you were associating it Invaders when he saw — ”

“What’s an Invader? And what did your friend Rembert do afterward?”

“He came to us.” It was the woman again, still paying no attention to Fyn’s questions. “Was anyone with you when you regained your senses?”

Earrin hesitated. He was quite incapable of lying, like any Nomad, but he did not want to admit the presence of Bones. Perhaps, since Hillers did not regard the natives as people, the word “anyone” would not include the Observer; but that would still be deceit — misleading communication. It was this, not the mere word “lying,” which triggered Fyn’s righteousness reflexes.

The hesitation lasted too long.

“Was your wife with you when you awakened?”

“No.”

“Was anyone — human or not — there?” That wording left no choice, nor any ground for hesitation.

“Yes.”

“Rembert was right,” snapped the woman to the others. “There’s one of them following this Nomad.

We don’t need to know where it is now — even if it’s in the jail it won’t matter. Bring this Nomad to the Hill.”

“But my — ” Earrin made a gesture, nearly invisible in the deepening darkness, toward the raft.

“Your wife can do without you for a while. We’ll bring her the payment that was promised. You are coming with us. We need bait!”