Anne McCaffrey - Decision at Doona

“Hey, should he be allowed to listen to all this?” wheezed Gaynor, jerking a thumb at Hrrula.

“Why not? It concerns his future as much as ours,” Lawrence replied. “And I doubt if his command of Terran is sufficient to follow all this.”

As Lawrence continued to read the new message, Reeve watched the Hrruban surreptitiously. How much does he understand, Ken wondered. There was no tell-tale flicker of comprehension on Hrrula's calm face. He sat in polite silence, Todd nestled against him companionably. But, thought Ken, he is listening very hard.

''They forget, I guess," Lawrence was saying, "that we have only the one copter and not much fuel for an around-the-globe search. How long would you reckon, Eckerd, it would take to check on all continental masses for landing traces?"

Eckerd made a rude noise. “In a copter with an air speed of 150 miles top? Hmm,” and he laughed. “Months. Assuming, of course, that the craft these so-called aliens used leaves a burn-off.”

“What else would they use?” queried Ramasan.

“Hell, they could use magic for all of me,” Eckerd retorted derisively, looking sideways at the imperturbable Hrruban.

“A broomstick?” suggested Pat with a giggle. “For a clean sweep.”

“We're supposed,” Lawrence went on, raising his voice over the ripple that followed Pat's remark, “to institute a search, soonest, until such time as a ship can be detached to aid the 'indigenous personnel.' Now, which personnel shall be considered to be the 'indigenous' one?”

Lee put the reader down carefully and looked around the hall until he came to Hu Shih. With a little bow, he gave the floor to the metropologist.

“We are causing quite a stir,” Hu Shih remarked with a disparaging smile. “We certainly have had no clear orders from any of the departments interested in us. While we do know we must leave and Codep has so directed us, the only available transport refused to wait. Alreldep says stay and observe and now Spacedep tells us to beware of aliens.” Hu Shih smiled benignly toward Hrrula, who gave no suggestion of hostility as he grinned down at Todd beside him.

“All right, so what do we do now?” Gaynor demanded bluntly.

“I want to move into the house you built me and start enjoying apartness,” his wife said decisively.

Her feeling was unanimously seconded by all the women.

“I would like to know if there are more of these berries from which to make this jam,” Phyllis Hu remarked when she could be heard.

“The Hrrubans know where to get 'em,” Ramasan told her.

“Yeah, what do we do about them?” Gaynor demanded loudly.

“Why, we continue as we started,” Hu Shih replied, “in honest friendship. Always keeping in mind that we are visitors and cannot abuse their hospitality.”

Ben rose to his feet.

«Shih, we do have to make some provision for the animals. After all, there is a distinct possibility that we'll have to leave them here, which wouldn't be too bad a thing. It will keep their species from being extinct everywhere. And the Hrrubans may profit by it – call it a payment in kind for the rent of the colony estate. Hrrula has shown a keen interest in the horses and I'd say he would make a good stockman. I'd like to teach him what I can.»

“I see no harm in that at all, Ben. What about you, Lee?”

“Hell, I can't see any harm. They've already domesticated the urfa and they milk them. They could sure use the cows. Why not? We can't do any more harm than we've done already!”

“I'll need more than just Hrrula to help with the stock,” Ben announced, his deep voice filling the quiet room. “You, Ken, and Macy have just volunteered.”

“And I'll need volunteers for the KP details. These dishes aren't disposable,” Phyllis piped up in her clear light voice.

AS KEN ROSE to follow Ben, Pat caught his arm, smiling up at him with an expression he knew all too well.

“Aren't you forgetting something?” she asked very sweetly.

Ken looked puzzled.

“Your son,” she reminded him, indicating Todd with a dramatic gesture.

“He can help with the dishes,” Ken replied firmly.

"Don't duck out, mister," Kate Moody said, sternly reinforcing Pat. Kate punctuated her remarks with her index finger jabbing at his breastbone. "He – is – now – your – responsibility, my friend. That boy needs a father's loving care.

Hrrula and Todd watched this exchange. Silently the two rose and joined Ken. Ken, who wanted nothing more than to have Todd out of his sight after the morning's antics, glowered down at the small serious face. There was nothing of apology in Todd's expression; no remorse for scaring his father or for putting Hrrula's life in danger, not to mention their relations with the Hrrubans.

To a child only the present and immediate future are relevant, Ken reminded himself.

Beyond them, other youngsters were clearing tables, their voices, as usual, subdued. Years of training in whispers held strong in a place where a shout died unheard. Even their walk, the mincing steps of those who learned the skill in small spaces and crowded sideways, reflected their earth-bound conditioning.

It occurred to Ken that Todd had never recognized such restrictions. His voice last night had been audible throughout the festivities. His clear requests at the breakfast table had stopped other conversation. On the walk back from the Hrruban village – until Hrrula had taken him pickaback – his stride had matched his father's when he wasn't dancing ahead or jumping over obstacles. He had not unlearned earthways overnight, Ken realized, he had never had them. And Reeve shuddered to think of Todd caroming off bodies and on toes on the city sidewalks, of his voice echoing through an entire level of Aisle flats, of Pat's desperate measures to control the rebel they had released on the world and to minimize the penalties exacted for such social misdemeanors.

Sighing, Ken held out his hand for Todd's. The boy's face lit up with a tentative smile and the small grubby hand curled into Ken's. The other hand, Ken noticed, was firmly gripping Hrrula's.

The three started for the barn.

Of the colonists only McKee and Ben had much experience with live animals. Once ticketed for Doona, McKee had been given extensive practical animal husbandry as the livestock allotted to Doona would have been partly in his charge. He would also have been responsible for the domestication of the urfa, the deerlike species of Doona. Samples of urfa milk proved rich in butterfat and calcium, and was not unpalatable; the Hrrubans used it to make cheese as well as for beverage. The short-coupled body of the urfa suggested that it would be uncomfortable as a riding animal – rather like the now extinct Terran zebra.

The major husbandry effort, however, was to have been the revitalization of the declining equine, bovine, porcine and fowl; the first two particularly.

Reeve had volunteered to learn horse breeding as one of his jack-of-all-trades skills. He had studied the theories but had had no occasion to pratice them. Vic Solinari, the second volunteer for this facet of the colony, was too busy with stores and supplies to help today. In fact, as Ken, Hrrula and Todd walked down to the plastic shed-barn, Vic was already busy with the forklift, directing his workers.

“Hrriss!” Todd's shriek of pleasure split the air and the boy shot like an arrow toward the bridge which the small Hrruban was crossing with a group of adults.

“Your people need not feel they must help us,” Reeve protested courteously to Hrrula.

“There is much to do here and little of importance at our village now,” Hrrula replied.

“Todd,” Reeve called, realizing as he did that the child couldn't possibly hear that polite summons. “TODD,” he bellowed. Everyone stopped work and turned to look at Reeve.