Harry Turtledove - A World of Difference

He wasn’t really sure about that. After two and a half weeks on Minerva, he wasn’t really sure about much. Back on Earth, the people to whom Athena’s crew relayed data all sounded certain they knew what was going on. Irv would have had more confidence in them if the advice they sent agreed with itself more than two times in five. As it was, he was looking forward to the day when the Earth slipped behind the sun. Being out of radio contact for a while was beginning to seem a delightful prospect.

Reatur brought him back to the here-and-now by opening the door to the females’ part of the castle. As always, the din that came from the other side of the door when the females saw him was impressive. “Reserved” was not in the Minervan female vocabulary.

The din redoubled when the females spotted the three humans behind the-baron? chief? Irv still had no sure feel for the best rendering of Reatur’s title. One of the few things Minervan he did have a feel for was what the local females thought about humans.

They thought humans were hilarious.

They came crowding around, staring, falling over one another, prodding, poking, pulling their arms back in amazement every time they directly touched warm human flesh, then reaching out to do it again. “They’re like a bunch of berserk puppies,” Pat said as the wave washed over her. She was smiling; it was hard not to smile around Minervan females.

Irv jerked his head back, just in time to keep a female’s fingerclaw from poking him in the eye. The female reached up and ran the finger under the top of his cap instead, then let out an almost supersonic squeal.

“Reminds me even more of my two-year-old niece,” Irv said. The thought saddened him; Beth was three now, not two, and would be five when Irv got back to Earth. She probably would not remember Sarah or him.

“They are like toddlers, aren’t they?” Sarah said slowly.

“Not the one named Biyal,” Pat said. Sarah and Irv both had to nod. No toddler on Earth could have been so dramatically gravid as Biyal. The bulges above her legs made her instantly recognizable to the humans, where even with Reatur they had to pause and consider before they were sure who he was. Those bulges also made her move very slowly, so she was the last female to come out and see the humans. “Hello, Biyal,” Irv said, waving.

“Hello, Irv,” she answered, and waved back with three arms at once. Except for that, both words and gesture were eerily accurate echoes of what the anthropologist had said and done. Such a gift for mimicry was something young children often displayed; Irv thought his wife might have put a finger on an important truth.

Biyal was still wading through the crowd of females toward the humans when she suddenly stopped. “Reatur!” she called, and followed the chieftain’s name with a stream of what was still gibberish despite nearly sleepless efforts on the part of everyone from Athena.

Reatur and the females understood, though; they all turned an extra eyestalk or two toward Biyal. The tippling motion reminded Irv of a wind blowing through a forest of snakes.

Reatur shouted something at the females between him and Biyal. They moved out of the way, clearing a path for him to go to her. The humans followed him.

Sarah’s hand tightened on Irv’s arm. “Look!” she said. “The skin over that bud has split vertically! Reatur timed it well-she must be right on the point of giving birth!” Irv saw that his wife was right. Excitement ran through him. Learning how Minervans were born surely would give him clues to other aspects of their culture, to say nothing of the importance the knowledge held for Sarah and Pat.

Reatur seemed like any other concerned father-to-be. He took two of Biyal’s hands in his own and helped her waddle backward toward the passage out of which she had come. The other females did not go with them. Instead they called out Biyal’s name and one of the few Minervan words Irv was certain he understood: “Goodbye!”

“Do we go on?” Pat whispered to Irv. “I want to.”

“Let’s,” he said after a moment’s thought. “If Reatur or Biyal don’t want us along, they’ll let us know about it.” His first thought was that they would get far enough along behind Reatur’s back that the chieftain would let them continue instead of sending them away. But of course Reatur had no back to be behind. With eyes all around, he saw the humans’ first steps after him.

He hesitated, then used one arm to wave them on. This time Sarah and Pat both gave Irv a squeeze. “You were right,” Pat said, her blue eyes glowing.

Reatur led Biyal into a small chamber. It was crowded when the humans also came in. There was no place to sit down except the floor; Minervans were not built for sitting. All the humans stayed on their feet. Their boots were much better insulated than the seats of their pants.

Biyal reached out with a fingerclaw, scraped some ice from a wall, and reached up to put it into her mouth. Reatur got her more. He gently touched her while she crunched it up.

“He takes good care of her,” Sarah said approvingly. She studied Biyal. “She doesn’t seem to be in much distress, does she?” Sarah laughed at herself. “Of course, I have no idea whether she’s supposed to be. It would be nice if she weren’t, wouldn’t it?”

Pat moved around as best she could in the cramped space, taking picture after picture. Biyal pointed at the camera. “Noise? What?” she asked. Females always spoke more simply than males, Irv had noted; Biyal simplified still more to get her meaning across to humans.

“Autowinder,” Pat said: not an explanation, but at least a name to give to the thing that whirred. Reatur, by now, was used to the noise. Then Pat spoke to Irv and Sarah. “The splits in her skin above each bud are getting longer.”

“Six babies born all at once?” Irv shook his head. “My cousin and her husband have two little kids, a couple of years apart, and they’re ragged.” Remembering the chaos at Victoria’s house made him have trouble thinking like an anthropologist. Finally he managed, musing, “An enormous extended family like the one Reatur has here must make things a lot easier.”

“Splits are longer still,” Sarah said. “If things go on at this rate, either those babies will be born very soon or Biyal’s going to fall apart in so many segments like an orange. And she’s perfectly happy, too. When we send the data back to Earth, I think a lot of women are going to be jealous.”

The splits were growing wider, as well as longer. Minervans, Irv saw, were born feet first. Six young, each with six legs, plus Biyal’s six… Irv began figuring out how many legs that was, and found himself thinking of the man with the wives and the cats and the rats, all on their way to St. Ives. Adding in arms and then eyestalks as they appeared only brought the nursery puzzle more strongly to mind.

“They’re connected to their mother by their mouths,” Pat observed. “Very neat; they get their nourishment directly from her, and never had to evolve anything fancy like a placenta.”

“I wonder how they do dispose of their wastes, though,” Sarah said.

“There.” Pat pointed. “See those little tubes around the central mouth, the ones linking mother and infant? I’ll bet they have something to do with it. Six of them, of course. That seems to be the pattern here.”

“Yes,” Sarah said. She sounded curious, eager to find out what would happen next, trying to guess along. “How do you suppose the babies are going to separate from Biyal, Pat?”

“I don’t know, but I think we’ll find out pretty soon. Look- the ring of little tubes has already come free. She’s bleeding a little from where they went into her, do you see? Minervan blood is browner than ours, isn’t it?”