"_If_, nothing," Newhouse snapped. "We got you out of a jam. We hope.
Now just relax and take it easy. See you in a while." He climbed out
the window again. He grinned to himself as he went crabwise across the
face of the wall. Di Vino thought he knew what had happened, and di
Vino was dead wrong. He couldn't have been further off base.
The Captain and her entourage departed the next morning amid a gush of
good wishes and a show of pageantry, with an invitation to return at
a later date. They got into the cars and went back into the jungle,
headed for Dynak Base. Newhouse reported to Colonel Hastings and told
him nothing except that he had made a "preliminary survey" of the
situation at Oassi. If his plan didn't work, Newhouse didn't want
Hastings looking smug.
Then Lieutenant Newhouse just sat around, looking as though he were
thinking hard, while one day after another trudged its weary way into
eternity.
One fine day, he went with the food car again, and when he returned, he
had Boccaccio di Vino with him.
* * * * *
"I still don't see what made them let you go, di Vino," the colonel
said with puzzled anger.
"Frankly, I'm not sure what happened, myself," Boccaccio admitted. He
turned toward Newhouse, and there was anger in his eyes. "But I think
Lieutenant Newhouse can explain."
Newhouse said: "What's the matter, di Vino? You still in love with that
girl?"
"Well--" Di Vino paused, and an odd look came into his eyes. "Well I
guess I am--in a way. Not that I'd go back; I'm not the right man for
her at all. But--well--she was a good kid. And--" The anger came back.
"--and what you had done to her would have gotten you hanged if you'd
done it back on Earth."
Bruce MacAuliffe, di Vino's immediate superior, was also standing
beside Colonel Hastings' desk. "What did he do di Vino?"
"He got Oanella pregnant!" di Vino said. "Or, well, _he_ didn't. But he
had someone else do it. And while she was unconscious, too! Probably
got one of the local savages to--"
"I did no such thing," Newhouse interrupted mildly. "I--"
"Now, just a minute," Colonel Hastings interrupted. "You said that she
got pregnant, di Vino. You mean that she laid a fertile egg?"
"Yes. I mean, well, no, not exactly. She produced _four_ fertile eggs.
Which is pretty darned unusual. Her mother and father got all excited.
The Shanni was all a dither, and her consort was getting so nervous
he went into a fit of the shakes. You should have seen that old gal
running around like a scalded cat. And you should have been there when
the fit hit the Shann. It's the first time any Oassi female has ever
produced four fertile eggs at once." He looked at Newhouse again. "Just
what did you do?"
"Yes," said Colonel Hastings heavily. "I think we all deserve an
explanation."
"The biotechnicians would be able to tell you better than I, sir,"
Newhouse said. "They're writing up a report on it. It's a simple
process, in effect, but a very delicate one.
"We simply had to wait until the single ovum the Shannil was carrying
had arrived at the proper stage of development--something the biotechs
had found out in checking on the local savages. They removed the
unfertilized ovum and put it through two different processes. First,
they self-fertilized it. When an ovum is formed by splitting of the
parent cell, the egg itself retains half the chromosomes, while the
other half are thrown off in what is called a polar body. The boys
simply used the polar body to fertilize the egg. Then they waited until
the fertile ovum divided the first time and separated the cells; when
the second division occurred, the cells were separated again, giving
them four. These were replaced, and in due time, the Shannil produced
four fully developed eggs. And they'll all hatch females; it's possible
to tell by the shape of the rubbery shell whether an egg will be a male
or female, so the Shanni was happy as a lark. The girls, of course,
will be exact genetic duplicates of their mother--who is also their
father, although she doesn't know it. Still--" He grinned. "--there's
an old saying: 'If you want a job done right, do it yourself.'"