"Uthacalthing," Fiben whispered, realizing the source of his mental confusion.

The Tymbrimi stood a little uphill from the others. His arms opened wide and the capelike folds of his formal robe flapped in the cyclone winds circling the gaping hypers.p.a.ce shunt. His eyes were set far apart.

Uthacalthing's corona tendrils waved, and over his head something whirled.

A chim moaned and pressed her palms against her temples. Somewhere a Pring's tooth-mashies clattered. To many of those present, the glyph was barely detectable. But for the first time in his life, Fiben actually kenned. And what he kenned named itself tutsunucann.

The glyph was a monster-t.i.tanic with long-pent energy. The essence of delayed indeterminacy, it danced and whirled. And then, without warning, it blew apart. Fiben felt it sweep around and through him-nothing more or less than distilled, unadulterated joy.

Uthacalthing poured the emotion forth as if a dam had burst. "N'ha s'urustuannu, k'hammin't Athaclena w'thtanna!" he cried. "Daughter, do you send these to me, and so return what I had lent you? Oh, what interest compounded and multiplied! What a fine jest to pull upon your proud parent!"

His intensity affected those standing nearby. Chims blinked and stared. Robert Oneagle wiped away tears.

Uthacalthing turned and pointed up the trail leading toward the Site of Choosing. There, at the pinnacle of the Ceremony Mound, everyone could see that the shunt was connected at last. The deeply buried engines had done their job, and now a tunnel gaped overhead, one whose edges glistened but whose interior contained a color emptier than blackness.

It seemed to suck away light, making it difficult even to recognize that the opening was there. And yet Fiben knew that this was a link in real time, from this place to countless others where witnesses had gathered to observe and commemorate the evening's events.

I hope the Five Galaxies are enjoying the show. When Irongrip showed signs of reviving, Fiben gave the Probie a whack to the side of the head and looked up again.

Halfway up the narrow trail leading to the pinnacle there stood three ill-matched figures. The first was a small neo-chimpanzee whose arms seemed too long and whose ill-formed legs were bowed and short. Jo-Jo held onto one hand of Kault, the huge Thennanin, amba.s.sador. Kault's other ma.s.sive paw was grasped by a tiny human girl, whose blond hair flapped like a bright banner in the whirling breeze.

Together, the unlikely trio watched the pinnacle itself, where an unusual band had gathered.

A dozen gorillas, males and females, stood in a circle directly under the half-invisible hole in s.p.a.ce. They rocked back and forth, staring up into the yawning emptiness overhead, and crooned a low, atonal melody.

"I believe ..." said the awed Serentini Grand Examiner of the Uplift Inst.i.tute. "... I believe this has happened before . . . once or twice . . . but not in more than a thousand aeons."

Another voice muttered, this time in gruff, emotion-drenched Anglic. "It's no fair. This was s'pozed t'be our time!" Fiben saw tears streaming down the cheeks of several of the chims. Some held each other and sobbed.

Gailet's eyes welled also, but Fiben could tell that she saw what the others did not. Hers were tears of relief, of joy.

From all sides there were heard other expressions of amazement.

"-But what sort of creatures, ent.i.ties, beings can they be?" One of the Gubru Suzerains asked.

". . . pre-sentients," another voice answered in Galactic Three.

". . . They pa.s.sed through all the test stations, so they had to be ready for a stage ceremony of some sort," mumbled Cordwainer Appelbe. "But how in the world did goril-"

Robert Oneagle interrupted his fellow human with an upraised hand. "Don't use the old name anymore. Those, my friend, are Garthlings"

lonization filled the air with the smell of lightning. Uthacalthing chanted his pleasure at the symmetry of this magnificent surprise, this great jest, and in his Tymbrimi voice it was a rich, unearthly sound. Caught up in the moment, Fiben did not even notice climbing to his feet, standing to get a better view.

Along with everyone else he saw the coalescence that took place above the giant apes, humming and swaying on the hilltop. Over the gorillas' heads a milkiness swirled and began to thicken with the promise of shapes.

"In the memory of no living race has this happened," the Grand Examiner said in awe. "Client races have had countless Uplift Ceremonies, over the last billion years. They have graduated levels and chosen Uplift consorts to a.s.sist them. A few have even used the occasion to request an end of Uplift ... to return to what they had been before. ..."

The filminess a.s.sumed an oval outline. And within, dark forms grew more distinct, as if emerging slowly from a deep fog.

". . . But only in the ancient sagas has it been told of a new species coming forth of its own will, surprising all Galac- tic society, and demanding the right to select its own patrons."

Fiben heard a moan and looked down to see Irongrip beginning to rise, trembling, to his elbows. A cruor of blood-tinted dust covered the battered chen from face to foot.

Got to hand it to him. He's got stamina. But then, Fiben did not imagine he himself looked a whole lot better.

He raised his foot. It would be so easy. ... He glanced aside and saw Gailet watching him.

Irongrip rolled over onto his back. He looked up at Fiben in blank resignation.

Aw, h.e.l.l. Instead he reached down and offered his hand to his former foe. I don't know what we were fighting over. Somebody else got the bra.s.s ring, anyway.

A moan of surprise rippled through the crowd. From the Gubru came grating wails of dismay. Fiben finished hauling Irongrip to his feet, got him stable, then looked up to see what the gorillas had wrought to cause such consternation.

It was the face of a Thennanin. Giant, clear as anything, the image hovering in the focus of the hypers.p.a.ce shunt looked enough like Kault to be his brother.

Such a sober, serious, earnest expression, Fiben thought. So typically Thennanin.

A few of the a.s.sembled Galactics chattered in amazement, but most acted as if they had been frozen in place. All except Uthacalthing, whose delighted astonishment still sparked in all directions like a Roman candle.

"Z'wurtin's'tatta. . . . I worked for this, and never knew!"

The t.i.tanic image of the Thennanin drifted backward in the milky oval. All could see the thick, slitted neck, and then the creature's powerful torso. But when its arms came into view, it became clear that two figures stood on either side of it, holding its hands.

"Duly noted," the Grand Examiner said to her aides. "The unnamed Stage One client species tentatively called Garthlings have selected, as their patrons, the Thennanin. And as their consorts and protectors, they have jointly chosen the neo-chimpanzees and humans of Earth."

Robert Oneagle shouted. Cordwainer Appelbe fell to his knees in shock. The sound of renewed Gubru screeching was quite deafening.

Fiben felt a hand slip into his. Gailet looked up at him, the poignancy in her eyes now mixed with pride.

"Oh, well," he sighed. "They wouldn't have let us keep 'em, anyway. At least, this way, we get visitation rights. And I hear the Thennanin aren't too bad as Eatees go."

She shook her head. "You knew something about these creatures and didn't tell me?"

He shrugged. "It was supposed to be a secret. You were busy. I didn't want to bother you with unimportant details. I forgot. Mea culpa. Don't hit, please."

Briefly, her eyes seemed to flash. Then she, too, sighed and looked back up the hill. "It won't take them long to realize these aren't really Garthlings, but creatures of Earth."

"What'll happen then?"

It was her turn to shrug. "Nothing, I guess. Wherever they come from, they're obviously ready for Uplift. Humans signed a treaty-unfair as it was-forbidding Earthclan to raise 'em, so I guess this'll stand. Fait accompli. At least we can play a role. Help see the job's done right."

Already, the rumbling beneath their feet had begun to diminish. Nearby, the cacophony of Gubru squawking rose in strident tones to replace it. But the Grand Examiner appeared unmoved. Already she was busy with her a.s.sistants, ordering records gathered, detailing followup tests to be made, and dictating urgent messages to Inst.i.tute headquarters.

"And we must help Kault inform his clan," she added. "They will no doubt be surprised at this news."

Fiben saw the Suzerain of Beam and Talon stalk off to a nearby Gubru flyer and depart at top speed. The boom of displaced air ruffled the feathers of the avians who "remained behind.

It happened then that Fiben's gaze met that of the Suzerain of Propriety, staring down from its lonely perch. The alien stood more erect now. It ignored the babbling of its fellows and watched Fiben with a steady, unblinking yellow eye.

Fiben bowed. After a moment, the alien politely inclined its head in return.

Above the pinnacle and the crooning gorillas-now officially the youngest citizens of the Civilization of the Five Galaxies-the opalescent oval shrank back into the narrowing funnel. It diminished, but not before those present were treated to yet one more sight none had ever seen before . . . one they were not likely ever to see again.

Up there in the sky, the image of the Thennanin and those of the chim and human all looked at each other. Then the Thennanin's head rocked back and he actually laughed.

Richly, deeply, sharing hilarity with its diminutive partners, the leathery figure chortled. It roared.

Among the stunned onlookers, only Uthacalthing and Robert Oneagle felt like joining in as the ghostly creature above did what Thennanin were never known to do. The image kept right on laughing even as it faded back, back, to be swallowed up at last by the closing hole in s.p.a.ce and covered by the returning stars.

PART SIX.

Citizens

I am a kind of farthing dip, Unfriendly to the nose and eyes; A blue-behinded ape, I skip Upon the trees of Paradise.

ROBERT Louis STEVENSON, "A PORTRAIT"

92 Galactics

"They exist. They have substance! They are!"

The a.s.sembled Gubru officials and officers bobbed their downy heads and cried out in unison.

"Zooon!"

"This prize was denied us, honor was set aside, opportunity abandoned, all in the name of penny-pinching, miserly bean-counting! Now the cost will be greater, multiplied, exponentiated!"

The Suzerain of Cost and Caution stood miserably in the corner, listening amid a small crowd ef loyal a.s.sistants while it was berated from all sides. It shivered each time the conclave turned and shouted its refrain.

The Suzerain of Propriety stood tall upon its perch. It stepped back and forth, fluffing up to best display the new color that had begun to show under its molting plumage. The a.s.sembled Gubru and Kwackoo reacted to that shade with chirps of pa.s.sionate devotion.

"And now a derelict, recalcitrant, stubborn one forestalls our Molt and consensus, out of which we might at least regain something. Gain honor and allies. Gain peace!"

The Suzerain spoke of their missing colleague, the military commander, who dared not, it seemed, come and face Propriety's new color, its new supremacy.

A four-legged Kwackoo hurriedly approached, bowed, and delivered a message to its leader's perch. Almost as an afterthought, a copy made its way to the Suzerain of Cost and Caution as well.

The news from the Pourmin transfer point was not surprising-echoes had been heard of great starships bearing down upon Garth in mighty numbers. After that debacle of an Uplift Ceremony, the new arrivals were only to be expected.

"Well?" The Suzerain of Propriety queried the several military officers who were present. "Does Beam and Talon plan a defense of this world, against all advice, all wisdom, and all honor?"

The officers, of course, did not know. They had deserted their warrior leader as the confusing, unhappy Molt-coalescence suddenly reversed direction.

The Suzerain of Propriety danced a dance of impatience. "You do me no good, do the clan no good, standing about in righteousness. Go back, seek out, return to your posts. Do your duties as he commands, but keep me informed of what he plans and does!"

Use of the male p.r.o.noun was deliberate. Though Molt was not yet complete, anyone could tell without dropping feathers which way the wind was blowing.

The officers bowed and rushed as one out of the pavilion.

93 Robert Debris littered the now quiescent Ceremonial Mound. Stiff easterly winds riffled the lawnlike slopes, tugging at stringy rubbish blown in earlier from the distant mountains. Here and there, city chims poked through trash on the lower terraces, looking for souvenirs.

Higher up only a few pavilions still stood. Around these several dozen large black forms lazily groomed each other's fur and gossiped with their hands, as if they had never had anything more momentous on their minds than who would mate with whom and what they would be fed next meal.

To Robert it seemed as if the gorillas were quite well satisfied with life. I envy them, he thought. In his case even a great victory did not bring an end to worry. Things were still quite dangerous on Garth. Perhaps even more so than two nights ago, when fate and coincidence intervened to surprise them all.

Life was troubling sometimes. All the time.

Robert returned his attention to his datawell and the letter the Uplift Inst.i.tute officials had relayed to him only an hour before.

... Of course it's very hard for an old women -- especially one who, like me, has grown so used to having her own way-but I know I must acknowledge how mistaken I was about my own son. I have wronged you, and for that I am sorry.

In my own defense I can only say that outward appearances can be misleading, and you were outwardly such an aggravating boy. I suppose I should have had the sense to see underneath, to the strength you have shown during these months of crisis. But that just never occurred to me. Perhaps I was afraid of examining my own feelings too closely.

In any event, we'll have much time to talk about this after peace comes. Let's let it go now by saying that I am very proud of you. Your country and your clan owe you much, as does your grateful mother.

With affection, Megan How odd, Robert thought, that after so many years despairing of ever winning her approval, now he had it, and didn't know how to deal with it. Ironically, he felt sympathy for his mother; it was obviously so very difficult for her to say these things at all. He made allowances for the cool tone of the words themselves.

All Garth saw Megan Oneagle as a gracious lady and fair administrator. Only her wandering husbands and Robert himself knew the other side, the one so utterly terrified by permanent obligation and issues of private loyalty. This was the first time in all his life that Robert recalled her apologizing for something really important, something involving family and intense emotions.

Blurring of vision made him close his eyes. Robert blamed the symptoms on the fringing fields of a lifting starship, whose keening engines could be heard all the way from the s.p.a.ceport. He wiped his cheeks and watched the great liner -- silvery and almost angelic in its serene beauty-rise and pa.s.s overhead on its leisurely way out to s.p.a.ce and beyond.

"One more batch of fleeing rats," he murmured.

Uthacalthing did not bother turning to look. He lay back on his elbows watching the gray waters. "The Galactic visitors have already had more entertainment than they bargained for, Robert. That Uplift Ceremony was plenty. To most of them, the prospect of a s.p.a.ce battle and siege are much less enticing."

"One of each has been quite enough for me," Fiben Bolger added without opening his eyes. He lay a little downslope, his head on Gailet Jones's lap. For the moment, she also had little to say, but concentrated on removing a few tangles from his fur, careful of his still livid black and blue bruises. Meanwhile, Jo-Jo groomed one of Fiben's legs.

Well, he's earned it, Robert thought. Although the Uplift Ceremony had been preempted by the gorillas, the test scores handed down by the Inst.i.tute still held. If humanity managed to get out of its present troubles and could afford the expense of a new ceremony, two rustic colonials from Garth would lead the next procession ahead of all the sophisticated chims of Terra. Though Fiben himself seemed uninterested in the honor, Robert was proud of his friend.

A female chim wearing a simple frock approached up the trail. She bowed languidly in a brief nod to Uthacalthing and Robert. "Who wants the latest news?" Michaela Noddings asked.

"Not me!" Fiben grumped. "Tell th' Universe t'go f-"

"Fiben," Gailet chided gently. She looked up at Michaela. "I want to hear it."

The chimmie sat and began working on Fiben's other shoulder. Mollified, he closed his eyes again.

"Kault has heard from his people," Michaela said. "The Thennanin are on their way here."