"Yes, Father. You command me," she drawled.
"Unless you remain attentive, my daughter, we may fail. Failing, I must
concede that I have finally grown too old for spatial duty, and be sent
to the Home. Do you want that?"
Gelerie had acquired all the attributes of a beautiful, buxom Earth
girl. She looked up in the soft light that glowed its phosphorous
loveliness from the very walls of the seed pod they occupied. Threlkeld
muttered, "Such beauty--it is beyond all that the textbooks described."
Now Gelerie butted in, "The trouble, my father, is simple. The
transition pills--"
"What about them?"
"They do more than convert us from a six-footed tree-hanging creature
of the Alpha Centauri group. They impose upon us the same emotional
stress of the human. You know, father, I have been changed into
leopards, rhinos and snoquallimie eels before; but always I retained
my own natural traits--the love of trees, the desire to return to my
native form and habitat as quickly as possible. But this time, I feel
demure and attractive and extremely vain and--"
"I warn you, my daughter. I am old. I have seen these Earth types at
work. They are a useless breed. Their extra-curricular activities are
beyond all reason. Very few of them stick to what is really important.
Very few of them understand that achievement of the goal is the only
thing there is. Now, I suggest you fight off these emotions. Try not to
succumb to human frailties, for we have an important job to do--lest
your poor father be put out to pasture."
* * * * *
The sound of empty space beside them was almost unnoticeable. The
swish, so familiar for such speeds near their own planetary chain far
out in the universe, was now missing.
As they approached the Earth, a thin crescent of daylight appeared to
their right.
"Father," Gelerie said, "I cannot help myself. I am in love with this
Earth form. I have this--this deep sense of beauty, of love, of desire.
I cannot seem to quell it."
Threlkeld tried to help her with logic. "Homekind gave us the pills for
a brief mission. I have lived long enough not to desire these human
qualities. You are much younger and have much more to learn. Homekind
devised these pills for but one purpose--you are to lure a young man of
your choosing into our vehicle. He will then be transported home, and
your father will have his old job back on the ferry to Betelgeuse. Do
not fail me, Gelerie."
A bright, mercury-like flood of daylight appeared, and Threlkeld
explained to her that it was light from the Earth's source of life,
the solar body they had passed. He explained that Homekind was now
selecting by remote control their landing site.
The pod now skittered through the skies, safely avoiding other space
craft which Earth might have sent up.
Threlkeld's mind left his daughter and consumed the view below them.
A grand chasm of blue-green, an ocean. Strips of sand here and there
along a vast continental shelf. Thick vegetation on the continent.
An excess of river inlets. All important bearings on their location
should they need to call home for help. He observed the scene with
satisfaction.
And then they were slowing to a snail's pace, and Homekind was
selecting a clearing in the sand along the shore of a river. Then the
seed pod, its shape so much like that of the zephyr of Earth, twisted
whirlybird fashion to the ground. Threlkeld lifted the rear of the
container, and stiffly the two Earth imitations stepped out.
"Now we roll the vehicle into the trees." They carefully gathered
sticks and bramble from the water's edge and made a natural pile of
debris in front of the pod, so that anyone glancing its way would
never see the brownish green vehicle for other than was intended to be
seen--a mound of dried clay.
"Now where are we, father?" Gelerie asked, as she stretched herself
into shape.
"We are but ten miles from the city harbor. We will skirt the
riverbank for a boat. Homekind left nothing untended--which is why
you--"
"Why I must not fail," she replied drily. "I know. I must not fail. But
I must be allowed to enjoy my Earth form for a while. It is beautiful."
She looked him squarely in the eye. "It _is_ beautiful, is it not,
father? Am I not more beautiful than you have ever seen me?"
"Homekind makes recordings of our conversations, my daughter ... as it
is psychiatrically right that they should. And in their analyses, I
do not want them to have to ever say that Threlkeld succumbed to the
skin-deep world of the Earth people. I must warn you again, Gelerie,"
he went on, "that Earth people base nearly all of their existence,
their plans, their hopes on how attractive they may be, how young or
how old they may look, how withered their skin. For they live chiefly
for vanity, very little else."
The way Gelerie sighed told him he had failed. "One thing more,
my daughter," he said in another attempt. "Homekind made you that
attractive merely for the purpose of luring this male Earth creature
into our conveyor. Now can you do it? Will you keep your mind on your
task?"