[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
."Norby stalked into the dragon's home and Jeff fol-lowed.Norby passed the food as safe."Good protein," he said."High in fiber, lowerin cholesterol.It will do you good, Jeff."Except for something blue and mushy that he decided not to try, Jeff thoughtit was delicious.The dragons' furniture was another thing.It was not built for humandimensions and angles and almost nothing looked the least bit comfortable.Theexception was something in one corner that looked like a battered old greenhassock."May I sit on this, Zi?" Jeff asked."Certainly.It's an antique tail rest that has been in our family forgenerations.It's still quite useful.Of course, you don't have a tail, youpoor thing, but you are certainly welcome to rest the place where the tailought to be."Jeff sat down and found it comfortable enough.It had a small design on topthat resembled a diamond-shaped figure on the dragons' collars.A moreinteresting design of compli-cated wiggly patterns circled the sides of thehassock.Jeff said, "Where is your husband, Zi?""What is a husband?""Well, the male of the species who-that is.""Male? Oh, you mean a different variety of a life form? I've read that such aphenomenon occurs on other planets.We don't travel, as I told you, but theMentors have provided us with good galactographies.When I read about thepeculiar customs and habits of other worlds I can only be grateful that weJamyns live on a civilized planet.""But if you don't have males, how do you have children?""Ah-you need males for that on other worlds, don't you? I've never reallyunderstood that.We bud, you know, and I don't see how it can be doneconveniently any other way.Zargl was such a cute bud, right here under mywing.You should have seen her.But actually," she brought one wing forwardand covered her eyes with it briefly, "we don't really talk about buddingamong ourselves.It's private.You're not Jamyn, of course, so you don'tmatter."Page 57 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"But if you bud," said Jeff, a little argumentatively, "there's very littlealteration of inheritedcharacteristics, and you can't evolve.In our species, the genes always getmixed up so that children aren't exactly like their parents and we evolvequickly.""See," whispered Norby to Jeff, "it's good to be mixed up." Jeff glared athim, and Norby closed his eyes and pretended he hadn't said anything."According to our traditions, the Others helped us to stay the same.Isuppose, since the universe itself is changing, that there should be creaturesthat change.I wish you and your species well, for while we Jamyn contributestability, perhaps you Terrans contribute exciting change.""Exciting, indeed," said Norby, bouncing up and down slightly."You have noidea how mixed-up all the Terran life forms are"-he glanced quickly at Jeff ashe emphasized the word-"especially human beings.Their history has all theex-citement of nasty wars and wicked persecutions and foolish plots and.""Norby! How can you say such things about your own world?" Jeff asked."You'rejust ashamed of being mixed up yourself.""I told you I couldn't help the lion.I explained it all to you while we werein hyperspace and you're not helping me in the least with my new secret.Itscares me."What new secret? thought Jeff.He tried to remember and failed.Just then the dragons' computer made a chiming noise."Oh," said Zi."What an honor! It's a direct signal from the Mentors' castle.I've never been worthy of a direct signal be-fore.How my friends will envyme." She spread out both her wings as far as they would go and bowed deeply inthe direction of the chime.The computer said, "The aliens are summoned for an au-dience.Only the aliens.They must come at once, and alone."Norby ran over to Jeff, his hat so low that you could barely see his eyes."Idon't want to go.I'm afraid.""Why? You think part of you may be from here, don't you? Jamya may be whereyour alien portions were formed.""I don't care.Let's go back to Earth and find Fargo.Or maybe we coulddisguise ourselves and join a circus traveling through the solar system.""The Inventors Union will find us if we do," said Jeff."Do you want to betaken apart?"Suddenly the dragons' computer screen swirled with an eerie color.When itcleared, a cold light shone on a monstrous shape standing in a cavernous spaceon two thick lower limbs.The figure had four arms, a head that bulged on top,with a slit below the bulge that could have been a mouth, and threeiri-descent patches on the bulge that could have been eyes."Mama! I'm scared!" wailed Zargl, leaping into her mother's arms and foldingher wings.Jeff realized, a bit uneasily, that he felt the same way.And yet he waslarger than Zi and, for all he knew, he might be larger than the creature onthe computer screen.He flexed his arm muscles to reassure himself that hestill had them, and wished he knew as much about karate asAlbany Jones did.He grabbed Norby and stood up straight [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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."Norby stalked into the dragon's home and Jeff fol-lowed.Norby passed the food as safe."Good protein," he said."High in fiber, lowerin cholesterol.It will do you good, Jeff."Except for something blue and mushy that he decided not to try, Jeff thoughtit was delicious.The dragons' furniture was another thing.It was not built for humandimensions and angles and almost nothing looked the least bit comfortable.Theexception was something in one corner that looked like a battered old greenhassock."May I sit on this, Zi?" Jeff asked."Certainly.It's an antique tail rest that has been in our family forgenerations.It's still quite useful.Of course, you don't have a tail, youpoor thing, but you are certainly welcome to rest the place where the tailought to be."Jeff sat down and found it comfortable enough.It had a small design on topthat resembled a diamond-shaped figure on the dragons' collars.A moreinteresting design of compli-cated wiggly patterns circled the sides of thehassock.Jeff said, "Where is your husband, Zi?""What is a husband?""Well, the male of the species who-that is.""Male? Oh, you mean a different variety of a life form? I've read that such aphenomenon occurs on other planets.We don't travel, as I told you, but theMentors have provided us with good galactographies.When I read about thepeculiar customs and habits of other worlds I can only be grateful that weJamyns live on a civilized planet.""But if you don't have males, how do you have children?""Ah-you need males for that on other worlds, don't you? I've never reallyunderstood that.We bud, you know, and I don't see how it can be doneconveniently any other way.Zargl was such a cute bud, right here under mywing.You should have seen her.But actually," she brought one wing forwardand covered her eyes with it briefly, "we don't really talk about buddingamong ourselves.It's private.You're not Jamyn, of course, so you don'tmatter."Page 57 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"But if you bud," said Jeff, a little argumentatively, "there's very littlealteration of inheritedcharacteristics, and you can't evolve.In our species, the genes always getmixed up so that children aren't exactly like their parents and we evolvequickly.""See," whispered Norby to Jeff, "it's good to be mixed up." Jeff glared athim, and Norby closed his eyes and pretended he hadn't said anything."According to our traditions, the Others helped us to stay the same.Isuppose, since the universe itself is changing, that there should be creaturesthat change.I wish you and your species well, for while we Jamyn contributestability, perhaps you Terrans contribute exciting change.""Exciting, indeed," said Norby, bouncing up and down slightly."You have noidea how mixed-up all the Terran life forms are"-he glanced quickly at Jeff ashe emphasized the word-"especially human beings.Their history has all theex-citement of nasty wars and wicked persecutions and foolish plots and.""Norby! How can you say such things about your own world?" Jeff asked."You'rejust ashamed of being mixed up yourself.""I told you I couldn't help the lion.I explained it all to you while we werein hyperspace and you're not helping me in the least with my new secret.Itscares me."What new secret? thought Jeff.He tried to remember and failed.Just then the dragons' computer made a chiming noise."Oh," said Zi."What an honor! It's a direct signal from the Mentors' castle.I've never been worthy of a direct signal be-fore.How my friends will envyme." She spread out both her wings as far as they would go and bowed deeply inthe direction of the chime.The computer said, "The aliens are summoned for an au-dience.Only the aliens.They must come at once, and alone."Norby ran over to Jeff, his hat so low that you could barely see his eyes."Idon't want to go.I'm afraid.""Why? You think part of you may be from here, don't you? Jamya may be whereyour alien portions were formed.""I don't care.Let's go back to Earth and find Fargo.Or maybe we coulddisguise ourselves and join a circus traveling through the solar system.""The Inventors Union will find us if we do," said Jeff."Do you want to betaken apart?"Suddenly the dragons' computer screen swirled with an eerie color.When itcleared, a cold light shone on a monstrous shape standing in a cavernous spaceon two thick lower limbs.The figure had four arms, a head that bulged on top,with a slit below the bulge that could have been a mouth, and threeiri-descent patches on the bulge that could have been eyes."Mama! I'm scared!" wailed Zargl, leaping into her mother's arms and foldingher wings.Jeff realized, a bit uneasily, that he felt the same way.And yet he waslarger than Zi and, for all he knew, he might be larger than the creature onthe computer screen.He flexed his arm muscles to reassure himself that hestill had them, and wished he knew as much about karate asAlbany Jones did.He grabbed Norby and stood up straight [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]