Suzette Elgin: Native Tongue

He would settle for what he had, Thomas decided, and be grateful it wasn’t just himself and old Paul John and Aaron. They would have made a pitiful quorum, just the three of them at the table all by themselves. The table’s shape, the standard blunt-tipped A without a crossbar, was ideal for the Semi-Annuals; you could really pack the men in around it, and still have ample space for threedies and holograms in the solid area at the top of the A. But when you had only half a dozen, you either rattled around with each of you established at some arbitrary point to fill out the geometry or you huddled in a little knot at one end and felt dwarfed. Today they had opted for the rattling around. His father at his right hand, the comsets clear across the room out of the way of people’s heads, and the other four men laid out like the points of a compass. Silly ass procedure.

He got them through the first seven agenda items with dispatch, and no need for any tie-breaking. The one thing he’d been a little uncertain about, the contract for REM80-4-801, ran into no opposition at all. Sometimes there were advantages to a meeting with a substantial percentage of inexperienced junior participants. He’d had his arguments ready, just in case; but either none of the others saw the dangerous opening in subparagraph eleven or none of them cared enough about it to spend time arguing over it. The other items were routine… they went through the whole list in just over twelve minutes flat.

And now there was this last matter to be taken up. Cautiously. Thomas read it out for them, keeping his voice casual and adding no elaborations, and then he waited. As he’d expected, Aaron made a point of looking bored past all bearing; he had the Adiness Line’s skill with facial expression, plus the ease of long practice, and he managed to look excruciatingly uninterested.

“This matter is open for discussion,” Thomas said. “Comments?”

“Frankly, I don’t see any need for discussion,” observed Aaron at once. “We could have settled this whole thing by memo, to my way of thinking, and god knows I’ve better things to do with my time. As do we all, Thomas — I’m sure I’m not the only one strangling in federal deadlines.”

Thomas wasn’t ready to say anything yet; he raised his eyebrows just the precise fraction indicated, rubbed his chin gently with one hand, and waited some more — and Aaron spoke again.

“I’m willing to accept the fact that you had to add this to a formal agenda; you’ve convinced me of that,” he said. “And we’ve done it. It’s on there, a matter of record. For all the curious world to see and applaud. And that’s quite enough time wasted. I move we vote, and be done with it.”

“With no discussion at all?” Thomas asked mildly.

Aaron shrugged.

“What’s to discuss?”

That brought Paul John into it; he was old enough to find the arrogance of this particular son-in-law less than amusing, and too old to be impressed by either his brilliance with language or his astonishing good looks.

“You might find out, if you’d let somebody else talk,” said the old man. “Why don’t you try it and see?”

Thomas moved quickly, not interested in seeing Aaron and Paul John started on one of the sparring sessions they both took such delight in. That would be a waste of time. “Aaron,” he said, “this meeting is not entirely window-dressing.”

“No. We had to discuss those contracts. And vote on them.”

“Nor is this last item window-dressing,” Thomas insisted. “There is a reason, a very good reason that has nothing to do with just putting it on record, for us to give it our consideration. Because we do feel — and, I might add, we are obligated to feel — more than just a ceremonial regard for the woman in question.”

“And I would remind you that in purely economic terms the woman is fully entitled to that regard,” Kenneth put in from the far end of the table, right leg of the A. He was nervous, and he hadn’t the skill to hide it in either voice or body-parl, but he was determined. “Nazareth Chornyak has borne nine healthy infants to this Line,” he said. “That’s nine Alien languages added to the assets of this Household. It’s not as if she were an untried girl.”

Thomas saw Aaron allow the barest sign of contempt, the most carefully measured flicker of disdain, to move over his face; then it was replaced with a false and cloying kindness that would also be attached to whatever he was about to say. It wasn’t a fair contest in any way; poor Kenneth, straight from the public and brought into Chornyak Household with the public’s bottomless ignorance of all linguistic skills… and Aaron William Adiness, son of Adiness Household, second only to the Chornyak Line in the linguist dynasties. Kenneth was a duck in a barrel, and Aaron enjoyed duck-shooting too much to let it pass.

“At times, Kenneth,” he said sympathetically, “it is overpoweringly obvious that you were not born a linguist… You don’t learn, do you?”

Kenneth flushed, and Thomas felt sorry for him, but he didn’t interfere. In some ways Aaron was right — Kenneth didn’t learn. For example, he hadn’t yet learned that time spent playing Aaron’s little games was time spent feeding Aaron’s giant ego, and therefore time wasted. Kenneth fell for it, every time.

“It isn’t the woman,” Aaron said pleasantly, “who adds the Alien languages to the Household assets. It is the MAN. The man goes to the trouble of impregnating the woman — who is then coddled and waited upon and indulged sickeningly, to ensure the welfare of his child. To attribute any credit to the woman who plays the role of a receptacle is primitive romanticism, Kenneth, and entirely unscientific. Re-read your biology texts.”

RE-read. Presupposed, Kenneth had read them already and learned nothing from the experience. Neat. And typical of Aaron Adiness.

Kenneth sputtered, and flushed darker.

“Damn it, Aaron — ”

Aaron went sailing on in the conversational stream; Kenneth was scarcely there at all, except as the recipient of his compassionate instruction. “And you would do well to remember that if it weren’t for the intervention of men only females could ever be born. The human race would degenerate into a species composed entirely of genetically inferior organisms. You might want to think that over, Kenneth. It might be well to keep those very basic facts in mind, as an antidote to… sentimental tendencies.”

And then he leaned back and blew a superb row of smoke rings toward the ceiling, and he smiled and said, “Let us not confuse the pot with the potter, dear brother.”

At the other leg of the table, Jason chuckled in appreciation of the tired joke. Thomas was disappointed. Later he might have a few words to say to his son about cheering on the one who held the gun when the target was a duck sitting in a barrel. He was a good deal more satisfied with what happened next, when the reproof came from the comset screen where James Nathan’s face was wavering and flickering against the fluctuations of the household power mains.

“Damn all, Adiness,” said this other, more capable son, “the only reason we aren’t through with this and able to get to those deadlines you were so worried about five minutes ago — and the only reason I am not back in my bed, where I certainly ought to be — is because of your love affair with your mouth. None of us, and that includes Kenneth, who has my apology for your bad manners, needs an idiot recitation of information known to every normal human being by the age of three. Now I’m going to take it for granted that you’re through, Aaron… and I suggest you be through.”

Aaron nodded, all courtesy and aplomb, smiling easily, and Thomas knew he considered the rebuke well worth the pleasure he’d had toying with Kenneth, né Williams. Aaron had never considered Kenneth’s input of fresh genes sufficient justification for his presence. He’d opposed taking the fellow into the house as husband for Mary Sarah in the first place, and he’d made no secret of the fact that his opinion was unchanged, even after seven years. Kenneth, he was fond of remarking, was “positively girlish.” Not in Kenneth’s hearing, of course, but always where the insult would be sure to get back to his brother-in-law rather promptly.