the first time, "that in all your travels you've seen or learned nothing from other whales that could give us a hint of what might have caused the obliteration of the four towns? The destruction occurred over a wide area. Surely some of the cetaceans must have been nearby. With your ability to sense and hear over con- siderable distances, it seems inconceivable that-"

"Why Should We Trouble Ourselves?" Lumpjaw muttered the question with alarming indifference. "We Care Not What Happens To Humans." The eye turned back up to Cora. "We Do Not Oppose Thee.

We Do Not Support Thee. We Tolerate. Cachalot Is Our World. As Long As Man Realizes That, We Will Coexist Here Better Than Ever We Did A Millennium Ago On Earth. The Loss Of A Few Human Lives Is

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of No Concern To Us. Less So Than Was The Loss Of Thousands Of Cetacean Lives To Thy Ancestors."

"I wish you'd stop going on about people long since turned to dust!" Cora shouted, more out of frus- tration than from anger. "I told you, I won't a.s.sume the guilt of a thousand years."

"Perhaps Not, Little Female. But Remember Al- ways That Somewhere, At Sometime In Thy Past, One Of Thy Ancestors Ate, Or Read A Book By The Light Of, Or Dressed In Part Of The Corpse Of, A Whale.

We Cannot Forgive Thee, For Thou Knew What Thee Were About."

Merced had more courage than sense, because he finally asked the unaskable question. "You say you've no idea what happened to the towns or their missing inhabitants." Cora and Rachael turned to him in sur- prise. Sam was making urgent silencing motions. But Merced ignored him. "Just for the sake of conversa- tion, wouldn't it be possible for a large, well-organized group of like-thinking cetaceans-yourselves, for ex- ample-to commit that kind of destruction?"

Rachael stared at him in horror, held her breath.

Sam's fingers tensed on the master control, ready to give full throttle to the engines if a probably futile at- tempt at flight became necessary.

But Lumpjaw's reaction was no more and no less hostile than his previous statements. "Of Course Such A Thing Would Be Possible." He considered the question dispa.s.sionately. "But Why Would We Do Such A Thing?"

"To force humans off Cachalot," Merced offered.

Another gray-brown wall rose into the starlight. A third suddenly loomed over the rear deck of the ship.

Two more huge eyes stared down at the puny inhabi- tants. The three catodons could have demolished the Caribe merely by nodding. They did not. The new- comers, however, were less controlled than Lumpjaw.

One, whose voice was translated with a distinctly

104 CACHALOT.

feminine tone by the head unit, said in outrage, "What A Bizarre Conception!"

"How Typically Human," the other new arrival agreed. "Dost Thou Believe That Because We Have Gained Intelligence We Are Doomed To Repeat The Mistakes Of Mankind?"

"We Have Heard Tales Of Things Like 'War,'" the female said. "'Tis Difficult Enough For Us Merely To Imagine Such An Obscenity. The Idea Of Practic- ing It Is Utterly Beyond Us. Dost Thou Think We Have Gained Intelligence, Improved, And Progressed So That We Might Imitate Thy Stupidities? Contra- diction, Contradiction!" Both breached slightly. An enormous volume of water cascaded over the Caribe, drenching its occupants.

"We Could Not Do Such A Thing," the younger male said. "We Do Not Hate Humans. We Ignore Thee. Were We To Engage In Any Form Of ...

Of . . ." He hesitated, searching for a word to use.

". . . Of Organized Destruction Of Human Lives, That Would Mean Paying Attention, Devoting Time, To Thee. We Would Pay Thee As Little Attention As Possible." Another gigantic double splash, and the two disappeared.

Cora wiped salt water from her face, tried to wring out her hair. Many more such physical adjectives, and she would have to don her gelsuit.

Lumpjaw pivoted on his tail, a balletic mountain.

The other eye examined them now.

"If not you, what about other catodons?" Merced inquired.

"What Holds True For Us Holds True For All," the whale declared with cert.i.tude. "We Are Not Subject To The Kinds Of Individual Madness That Afflict Humans. We Think As One. Only In That Manner Can We Hope To Aspire To Our Great End."

"What is your 'great end'?" Rachael asked curi-

105.

ously, mechanically entering a variation or two into her neurophon's memory.

"If We Knew That," Lumpjaw told her portentously, "We Would No Longer Be Aspiring."

"What about the other cetaceans?" Merced per- sisted. "The baleen whales, for example?"

Cora's earphones were filled with an eerie high- pitched whistling the headset could only make audible.

It might have been laughter, as had been that of the porpoise herd. It might have been amazement. It might have been a combination of things, but it came from many members of the pod. When Lumpjaw did not elaborate, a puzzled Merced turned to Sam for ex- planation.

"The catodons and the orcas are by far the smartest of the cetaceans. I'm sure you know that"-to this Merced nodded-"but because of the lack of informa- tion, you may not know how great the gaps are.

"There are many degrees of intelligence, and among the cetaceans the gaps seem to be widening, not closing. For reasons which our limited studies have not been able to establish, the baleens are the mental primitives of the Cetacea. They're big, but compara- tively stupid. The pod," and Sam gestured out over the dark water, "is reacting in surprise at the possi- bility anyone could seriously consider such an idea."

"I have to consider every possibility." Merced sounded miffed.

"Our Toothless Relatives Are Incapable Of Con- ceiving, Far Less Carrying Out, Such An Adventure, Even Were They So Inclined, Which They Are Not.

They Have Not The Mental Ability To Do Such A Thing. They Can Join Together To Defend Against An Attack, But The Kind Of Effort Thou Suggestest Is As Far Beyond Their Capability As Is The Thought Of Our Doing So. Thou!" His eye focused on Cora.

The head came closer, touched the railing once more.

The eye stared at her, spitting distance away, and she

106.

CACHALOT.

did not have time to consider the remarkable feat of balance.

"Touch!" It was a command.

She hesitated, glanced ^at Sam. He said nothing. In- congruously, the worst thing about the confrontation was not the proximity of enough weight to smash her flat, or the nearness of those huge teeth, but the breath that emanated from a distant gullet.

She reached out, ran a hand along one tooth a quar- ter of a meter long. Her fingers trailed down the tooth, touched the thick lower jaw. The whale pulled away and she instinctively jerked her hand clear. All bravery has its limits.

"Those Teeth Never Have Nor Ever Will Damage Anything But Food," Lumpjaw told her somberly. "To Do Otherwise Would Be To Surrender Everything The Cetacea Have Accomplished On This World, To Snuff Out In An Instant The Progress Of A Thousand Years."

"If you're not responsible, if the other whales aren't responsible, we're left with two possibilities," Merced declared. "Some variety of local life"-he hesitated, but Lumpjaw did not volunteer any suggestions-"or humans, for reasons we can imagine but cannot yet confirm."

"The Latter I Can Well Believe!"

"If that's the case, could you help us locate those who have caused the destruction?"

"Certain Jt Is That We Could," the whale said, "But We Will Not."

"Why not?" Merced asked.

"The Great Question," Lumpjaw said, not being particularly profound. " 'Why' Indeed? Why Should We? Why Waste Our Time On Such Triviality? We Live And Die. Thou Livest And Diest. Better To Spend Time Exploring Life Rather Than Death.