Chapter 13 - Ella

Miro: The pigs claim to be male, but that's just their word for it.

Ouanda: Why are they lying?

Miro: I know you're young and naïve. But there are some "equipment" that are missing.

Ouanda: I've taken physical anthropology. Who said they had to do it the same way we did?

Miro: Obviously they don't do it the same way. (Speaking of which, we haven't done it at all.) Maybe I already know where their genitals are. The lumps on their abdomen, the hairs there are lighter and finer.

Ouanda: Trace organs**. You don't have it yet.

Miro: I saw the Leaf Eater and the Jar yesterday, about 10 meters apart, so I can't see it very clearly, but the Jar is rubbing the Leaf Eater's abdomen, and I think those abdominal lumps may be *.

OANDA: Maybe they don't.

Miro: One thing's for sure. The Leaf Eater's belly was wet—the sunlight reflected from above—and he enjoyed it.

Outanda: That's perverted.

Miro: Why not? They're all bachelors, aren't they? they're adults, but their so-called wives don't give any of them the joy of fatherhood.

Ouanda: I think some hungry xenologist is projecting his own frustration onto his subjects.

——

Macos Fatimir" Miro" Ribeira von Jesse and Ouanda Kunhata Figoyla Machumbi, Working Notes, 1970:1:430

It's quiet in the clearing. Miro knew immediately that something was wrong. The pigs weren't doing anything. Just sitting or standing here and there. And it was quiet, barely breathing. Keep an eye on the ground.

In addition to the humans, he emerged from the forest behind them.

Slowly, stiffly, he walked around to the front. Miro felt Oanda's elbow push against him, but he didn't look at her. He knew she was thinking the same thing as him. Is the time has come for them to kill us, just as they killed Lipo and Pippo?

The human stared at them for several minutes. It's really panicked that he's been waiting so long. But Miro and Oanda are well trained. They didn't say anything, and even their expressions remained the same relaxed, meaningless expression they've had for years. The art of non-communication was the first thing that Lipo had to learn before he could agree that any of them would come out with him. Until their expressions don't show anything, until they don't even see beads of sweat when they're nervous, they won't meet any pigs until then. As if it really worked. Humans are too good at turning evasion into answers, picking up facts from empty statements. Even their complete stillness undoubtedly conveyed their fear, but there was no exit from the circle on all sides. Everything conveys something.

"You lied to us," said the human.

Don't answer, Miro said silently, and Oanda seemed to hear his words, and was just as silent. There is no doubt that she is sending the same message to him in her heart.

"The root speaks, the deceased speaks, and man wants to come to us. ”

This is the most maddening thing about the pig people. Whenever they were going to say something ridiculous, they always blamed it on some dead pig-like person who couldn't possibly say it. There is no doubt some kind of religious ritual involved: go to their totem tree, ask a question that suggests their surname, and then lie there staring at the leaves or the trunk or whatever, until you get the answer you want.

"We never said it wasn't," Miro said.

Oanda's breath was a little shorter.

"You said he wouldn't come. ”

"That's right," Miró said. "He's not coming. He had to obey the law like everyone else. If he wants to go through the gate without permission—"

"It's a lie. ”

Miro was speechless.

"It's the law," Ouanda said calmly.

"The law has been twisted before this," the human said. "You could have brought him here, but you didn't. Everything depends on you bringing him here. The Root One said that unless he came, the Queen of Worms would not be able to give us her gift. ”

Miro pressed his surname. Didn't he already tell the pig people a dozen times, that all the Zerg had been killed? and now the dead queen spoke to them just like the dead roots. The pigs would be much easier to deal with, if only they could stop taking orders from the undead.

"It's the law," Ouanda repeated. "Even if we just ask him to come, he may denounce us, and then we will be sent away, and we will never see you again. ”

"He will not denounce you. He wanted to come. ”

"How do you know?"

"The Root One said. ”

More than once, Miro tried to cut down the totem tree that grew at the spot where the Root One was killed. Maybe then they'll shut up and don't say anything about what the Root One said. But most of them will refer to another tree as the Root One, and then do the same thing as before. Don't show that you doubt their religion, it's a textbook rule, even aliens from other worlds, even anthropologists, know it.

"Go ask him," the human said.

"Rooter?" asked Ouanda.

"He won't talk to you," the human said. "Go and ask the speaker if he will come or not." ”

Miro waited for Oanda's answer. She already knew what his answer would be. Haven't they argued about it a dozen times in the last two days? He's a good guy, Miró said. He's a liar, Ouanda said. He was nice to the little ones, said Miró. The same is true for child molesters, Ouanda said. I believe him, said Miró. Then you're an idiot, said Oanda. We can trust him, said Miro. He will betray us, Ouanda said. Every time you get here, the argument ends.

But the pigs have changed the balance of power. The pigs put considerable pressure on Miro's side. Usually when the pigs make unacceptable requests, he will help her push them back. But it wasn't impossible, and he didn't want them to be pushed back, so he didn't say anything. Force her, human, because you're right, and this time Ouanda must give in.

Feeling alone, knowing that Miro wouldn't help her, she took a small step back. "Maybe, if we only take him to the edge of the forest. ”

"Bring him here," the human said.

"We can't," she said. "I'll see you. Wear clothes. Making jars. Eating bread. ”

The human smiled.

"Yes. He said. "All of this. Bring him here. ”

"Nope. Ouanda said.

Miro shuddered, barely stopping himself from reaching out to pull her. It's something they've never done before – just reject a request outright. They always say "we can't because ......" or "I wish we could". Rather than just saying a negative word to them, I don't want to. I, as myself, refuse.

The human smile is gone.

"Pippo tells us that women don't make the final decision. Pippo tells us that human men and women make decisions together. So you can't say no unless he says no too. He looked at Miro. "Are you going to say no?"

Miró did not answer. He felt Oanda's elbow on him.

"You can't say nothing," the human said. "You say, yes or no. ”

Miró still didn't answer.

Some of the pigs around them stood up. Miro had no idea what they were doing, but the action itself seemed to be threatening when Milo's silence and non-cooperation were used as a prelude. Ouanda, she will not be intimidated by any threat to herself, and she succumbs to the faint threat of Miro.

He said yes. She whispered.

He said yes, but for your sake he was silent. You say no, but you don't keep silent for his sake. The human pulled a thick lump of slime out of his mouth with a finger and flicked it to the ground. "You really don't know what to do. (Note: The meaning of the original text is vague, combined with the above I think this understanding is more appropriate)"

The human suddenly flipped backwards in a somersault, twisted in mid-air, turned his back to them, and walked away. The other pigs immediately resumed their activities and quickly moved towards the humans, leading them towards the farthest side of the forest from Miro and Oanda.

Humanity stopped suddenly. The other pig, instead of following him, stood in front of him and blocked his way. It's a leaf eater. If he or a human were talking, Miró couldn't hear them, couldn't see the movement of their lips. But he did see the Leaf Eater reach out and touch the human's abdomen. The hand paused there for a moment, and then the leaf-eater spun around and scurried into the bushes like a child.

In a few moments, the other pigs were gone.

"It's a showdown," said Miro, "between humans and leafeaters." They are on opposite sides. ”

"For what?" said Ouanda.

"I wish I knew. But I can speculate. If we bring the words that people come, humans win. If we don't, the leaf eater wins. ”

"What to win? Because if we bring someone to speak, he will betray us, and then we will all be losers. ”

"He will not betray us. ”

"Even you would betray me like that, why wouldn't he?"

Her voice was like a whiplash, and her words pierced him to the point of screaming.

"I betrayed you!" he whispered.

“eunǎo。 jamais。 "I won't. When hell freezes over.

"Father always said that you should be united in front of the pigs, and never let them see that you have differences, and you-"

"And me. And I didn't say yes to them. It was you who said no, and it was you who chose to express a position that you know I don't agree with!"

"But when we disagree, your duty is—"

She stopped. She realized what she was talking about. But stopping also won't make Miró unaware of what she's going to say. What he should do is do as she says until she changes her mind. It's like he's her apprentice. "I think we're on the same page on that. He turned and started away from her, into the forest, and back towards Miracle Town.

"Miro," she called behind him. "Miro, I didn't mean that-"

He waited for her to catch up, then grabbed her arm and whispered viciously, "Don't shout! Or do you not care if the pigs hear us?"

"I'm not a mentor, I-"

"Yes, you're not. He turned his back to her and started again.

"But Lipo is my father, so of course I'm—"

"Alien, by blood," he said, "blood, huh? What am I by blood? a drunken wife-beating idiot?" he grabbed her arm and clenched it hard. "You just want me to be like that, a trumpet copy of my dad?"

"Let it go!"

He pushed her away. "Your apprentice thinks you're a fool today," Miró said. "Your apprentice thinks you should trust his judgment of the speaker, and your apprentice thinks you should believe how seriously he thinks about the pigs, because you've made a stupid mistake on both things, and you may have just cost the human his life. ”

It was an accusation that shouldn't have been spoken, but it was something they both feared, and now the human might end up with the Rootman, like some of the other pigs over the years, having his intestines pulled out and a sapling growing on his corpse.

Miro knew it was unfair for him to say that, and knew that she couldn't be too angry with him. He had no right to condemn her, in a situation where none of them could know what humanity's bet was until it was too late.

However, Oanda did not get angry. Instead, she made herself noticeably calmer, breathing steadily and with a blank face. Miro did the same by her example.

"The important thing," Ouanda said, "is to try to achieve a good outcome." Executions are always carried out at night. If we want to save humanity, we have to bring the Speaker here this afternoon, before it gets dark. ”

Miro nodded.

"Yes," he said. "Also, I'm sorry. ”

"I'm sorry for you too," she said. "Because we don't know what we're doing, it's not anyone's fault that we messed things up. ”

"I can only hope that I believe that there is a right choice, and that's right. ”

——————————————————————

Ella sat on a rock, soaked her feet in the water, and waited for the deceased to speak. The fence was only a few metres away and was built on top of a steel grating to prevent people from swimming underneath. It's as if someone really wants to do that. Most of the people of Miracle Town pretend that the walls don't exist. Never go near it. That's why she called the speakers to come and meet her. Even though the weather is warm and school is out, children don't come to the end of the town for a swim, where the wall is by the river and the forest is not far away. Only soap makers and potters and brick makers come here and leave again at the end of the day's work. She can speak freely without worrying about anyone eavesdropping or interrupting.

She didn't have to wait long. The man rowed a small boat up the river, like the peasants on the other side, who never walked. The skin on his back was frighteningly white, and even the few light-skinned Grape Men known as the Golden Retriever were much darker. His whiteness made him look delicate. But then she noticed how fast the boat was swimming upstream, how deep the oars were with each stroke, how long and steady the oars were pushed, and how strong the muscles were hidden under his skin. For a moment she felt struck by grief, and then she realized that it was for her father's grief, no matter how much she hated him, and she didn't realize anything about him that she loved him a moment ago, but she was grieving, for the strength of his shoulders, the drops of sweat that made his tan skin glisten like glass in the sun.

No, she said silently, I'm not grieving for your death, Kao. I'm just sad that you didn't speak a little more like a talker, that he had nothing to do with us, but that he gave us more good gifts in three days than you have given in your whole life; Which translation does the reader think is better?) and grief.

The speaker saw her and let the boat skim over the water to the shore, where she was waiting. She waded through the reeds and garbage to help him pull the boat to shore.

"I'm sorry to get you covered in mud. He said. "But I haven't moved in two weeks, and the river tempts me—"

"You're paddling so well," she said.

"The world I came in, Trondheim, is basically ice and water. There are rocks and soil here and there, but a person who can't row is more immobile than someone who can't walk. ”

"Is that where you were born?"

"It's not. But that's where I spoke last time. He sat down on the grass with his face facing the water.

She sat down next to him. "Mother is angry with you. ”

A smile tugged at his lips. "She told me that. ”

Without thinking, Ella immediately defended her mother. "You want to read her files. ”

"I read her file. Most. All but those that are critical. ”

"I know. Kim told me. She caught a hint of pride in her mother's security system being superior to his. Then she remembered that she was not on her mother's side in this matter, and that she had wanted her to open those documents to her for years. But the habitual surname told her to go on and say what she didn't want to say. "Orhado was sitting at home, closing his eyes and bombarding his ears with music. Very upset. ”

"Yes, well, he felt that I had betrayed him. ”

"Didn't you?" that wasn't what she was trying to say.

"I am a man of the dead. As long as I speak, I have to tell the truth, and I don't shy away from other people's secrets. ”

"I understand. That's why I called a speaker. You have no respect for anyone. ”

He looked annoyed. "Why did you invite me here?" he asked.

It's all a mess. She was talking to him as if she was against him, as if she wasn't grateful for what he had done for the family. She was talking to him like an enemy. Is my mind so controlled by Kim that I say things I don't want to say?

"You asked me to come to this place by the river. The rest of your family stopped talking to me, and then I got a message from you. To complain that I'm violating my rights? To tell me that I have no respect for anyone?"

"No," she said bitterly. "That's not how it shouldn't be. ”

"Didn't you ever think that if I had no respect for people, I would almost never choose to be a speaker?"

In her frustration, she allowed words to blurt out.

"I wish you had broken all her papers! I wish you had taken every one of her secrets and printed them all over the world!" there were tears in her eyes, and she couldn't think about why.

"I see. She won't let you see the documents either. ”

“souaprendizdela，n?osou？eporquechoro，diga－me！osenhortemojeito。 (Note: "I'm her apprentice, aren't I?? Why am I crying, tell me! "The doll was excited, all in Portuguese)

"I don't have a knack for making people cry, Ella," he replied softly. His voice is caring. No, stronger, like a hand that grasps her hand, supports her and reassures her. "It's telling the truth that makes you cry. ”

"Souingrata, Soumafilha—"

"Yes, you are ungrateful, a terriblely bad daughter," he said, smiling softly. "After so many years of chaos and apathy, you have kept your mother's family intact, with little help from her, and when you follow her into her business, she is reluctant to share the most crucial information with you, and you crave nothing but trust and love from her, and she responds by shutting you out of her life, both at home and at work, and at last you tell someone that you hate it. You're pretty much the worst person I know. ”

She found herself laughing at her self-deprecation. Childishly, she was reluctant to laugh at herself. "Don't protect me. She tried to add as much contempt as possible to her tone.

He noticed. His gaze became distant and cold. "Don't spit on a friend. He said.

She didn't want him to alienate her. But she couldn't stop herself from saying that, coldly, angrily, "You're not my friend. ”

For a moment she was afraid that he would believe her. Then a smile appeared on his face. "You see a friend, and you still don't recognize it. (Note: Again, alluding to Christ.) See John 21:4, Luke 24:15-16)

No, I recognize, she thought. I see one right now.

She smiled back.

"Ella," he said, "are you a qualified xenobiologist?"

"Yes. ”

"You're eighteen years old. You can take the qualifying exam at the age of sixteen. But you didn't participate. ”

"My mother wouldn't let me go. She said I wasn't ready. ”

"You don't have to get your mother's permission after you turn sixteen. ”

"An apprentice must have permission from her mentor. ”

"And now you're eighteen, and you don't need that anymore. ”

"She's also a Lusitanian assitologist. That's still her lab. What if I pass the exam and she won't let me into the lab until she dies?"

"She threatened like that?"

"She made it very clear that I couldn't take the test. ”

"Because once you're no longer an apprentice, if she accepts you into the lab as her fellow alien, you'll have every right to use—"

"All the working documents. All locked files. ”

"That's why she's trying to stop her own daughter from starting her business, and she'd rather leave a permanent stain on your records — you're eighteen and not ready for the exams — just so you can't read the papers. ”

"Yes. ”

"Why?"

"Mother's madness. ”

"Nope. Whatever Nuo Wanhua was, Ella, she wasn't crazy. ”

“elaébobamesma，senhorfalante.” (Note: Portuguese, that's stupid, Mr. Speaker)

He smiled and leaned back on the grass. "Well, tell me what a stupid she's doing. ”

"I'll give you a list. First: she did not allow any research on cycloflexion. Thirty-four years ago, cyclotronia nearly destroyed the colony. My maternal grandparents, His Holiness, deusosaben?oe, (Note: Portuguese, God bless.) They barely managed to stop the spin. Apparently the pathogen, the vortinosome, is still there – we have to take an additive, like an extra vitamin, to prevent the plague from striking again. They're telling you that, aren't they? As long as you have this thing in your body, you're going to have to take that additive for the rest of your life, even if you leave here. ”

"Yes, I know that. ”

"She didn't let me study the tortorum at all. Either way, that's included in some locked files. She locked up all of Garsto's and Sida's discoveries of the distortion. Nothing is given. ”

The speaker's eyes narrowed.

"That's right. It's three points stupid. What about the rest?"

"More than three points. Whatever the distornation is, it successfully adapts to evolution (Note: Biological terminology. Refers to the process of evolving into organisms adapted to certain external conditions) as organisms parasitic on humans, ten years after the establishment of the colony. Ten years! If it can adapt to evolution once, it can adapt to evolution again. ”

Maybe she doesn't think so. ”

"Maybe I should have the right to make my own judgment on this. ”

He held out a hand and placed it on her knee, comforting her. "I agree with you. Still, go on. The second reason she's stupid. ”

"She did not allow any theoretical research. There is no classification. There is no evolutionary model. Whenever I wanted to do one, she said I was obviously okay and gave me extra until she felt like I had given up. ”

"You didn't give up, I bet. ”

"That's the job of an xenobiologist. Oh yes, she can make a potato that maximizes the nutrients in the environment, and that's good. She created an amaranth plant that could provide the colony with enough protein for itself on just ten acres of arable land. But those are just molecular tricks. ”

"It's about survival. ”

"But we don't know anything. It's like swimming in the ocean. You feel comfortable, you can swim around, but you don't know if there's a shark down there! we're probably surrounded by sharks and she doesn't want to find out. ”

"Third?"

"She doesn't exchange information with heterologists. That's it. Nothing communicates. It's crazy. We can't leave the area inside the walls. This means that we don't even have a tree to study. We don't know anything about the animal and plant populations of this world, except for those who happen to be enclosed in walls. A bunch of cabra and a bush of grass, and then a slightly different riparian ecology, that's all. Nothing is known about the species of animals in the forest, and there is no information exchange at all. We don't tell them anything, and if they send us data we delete the file without looking at it. It's like she's built this wall around us where nothing can pass through. Nothing comes in, nothing goes out. ”

"Maybe she has a reason. ”

"Of course she has a reason. There will always be a reason for the madmen. For example, she hated Lipo. Hate him. She wouldn't let Miró talk about him, wouldn't let us play with his kids — China and I had been best friends for years, but she wouldn't let me take her home or go to her house after school. When Miró was his apprentice, she did not speak to him or give him a place at the dinner table for a full year. ”

She could see that the speaker was suspicious of her, thinking she was exaggerating the truth.

"I mean, a year. On the day he first went to the alien station's apprenticeship to Lipo, he came home and she didn't speak to him, didn't say a word, and when he sat down to have supper she removed the plate from him and put away his silver cutlery as if he weren't there. He sat there the whole dinner and looked at her. Until his father got angry at him, saying that he was rude, and told him to leave the room. ”

"What did he do, move out?"

"Nope. You don't know Miró!" Ella smiled bitterly. "He doesn't argue, but he doesn't give up either. He never responded to his father's abuse, never. I never remember hearing him respond to anger with anger in my life. And the mother—well, he came home from the heterologist station every night and sat in front of the plates that had been put away, and every night the mother took his plates and silver cutlery, and he sat there until his father drove him away. Of course, within a week, the father yelled at his mother as soon as he took his plate. Father liked this, that bastard, he thought it was great, he hated Miró so much, and his mother was with him against Miró. ”

"Who threw in the towel?"

"Nobody throws in the towel. ”

Ella looks at the river and realizes how scary it sounds, realizing that she is exposing herself to herself in front of a stranger. But he's not a stranger, is he, is he, because Koyula is talking again, Orjardo is concerned about his surroundings again, and Gregor, who for a short time was almost a normal boy. He's not a stranger.

"How did that end?" asked the speaker.

"It's over when the pigs kill Lipo. That's how my mother hated that man. When he died, she celebrated by forgiving her son. When Miró came home that night, dinner was over, and it was late in the night. A terrible night, everyone was so scared, the pigs looked so scary, and everyone loved Lipo so much - except for the mother, of course. Mother waited for Miro and didn't sleep. He came in, went into the kitchen, sat down at the table, and his mother put a plate in front of him, and put food on it. Silent. And he ate it. Not a word about it. It's as if nothing happened the year before. I woke up in the middle of the night because I could hear Miro vomiting and crying in the bathroom. I don't think anyone else heard it, and I didn't go to him because I don't think he wanted anyone to hear him. Now I feel like I should have gone, but I was scared. There's such a terrible thing in my house. ”

The speaker nodded.

"I should have been with him," Ella said again.

"Yes," said the speaker. "You should have gone. ”

That's when something strange happened. The speaker thought she had made a mistake that night, and she knew that what he said was true and that he was right. But she strangely felt healed, as if just saying her mistake was enough to partially clear the pain it had caused. Then, for the first time in her life, she got a glimpse of what the power of words could be. It's not a confession, penance, forgiveness and the like that the priests offer. It's something completely different. Tell the story of what she experienced and realize that she is no longer the same person. She made a mistake and that mistake changed her, and now she won't make that mistake again because she has become a different person, a less timid person, a more compassionate person.

If I were no longer the frightened little girl who heard her brother in excruciating pain and did not dare to come to him, who I am? But the flowing water that passed through the grate under the fence gave her no answer. Maybe today she doesn't know who she is. Maybe it's enough to know that she's not what she used to be.

The speaker lay quietly on the grass and watched the dark clouds come in the west. "I've told you everything I know," Ella said, "and I've told you what's in those files—the data on cyclotronia. That's all I know. ”

"No, not yet," said the speaker.

"Really, I promise. ”

"Are you trying to say that you are subservient to her, when your mother tells you not to do any theoretical work, you really shut your mind and do what she wants?"

Ella laughed heartily. She had always thought so. ”

"But you didn't. ”

"I'm a scientist, even if she's not. ”

"She was," said the speaker. "She passed her exam at the age of thirteen. ”

"I know," Ella said.

And she had been sharing information with Pippo in the past, before he died. ”

"I know that too. All she hated was Lipo. ”

"Tell me then, Ella. What did you discover in your theoretical work?"

"I haven't found any answers yet. But at least I know what the problem is. That's a starting point, isn't it? No one else asked. How ridiculous is that, isn't it? Miró said that the aliens were always pestering him and Oanda for more information, more data, but the law forbade them to know more. But none of the alien xenobiologists have asked us for any information. They only studied the biosphere on their own planet and never asked their mother a single question. I'm the only one asking, but no one cares. ”

"I care," said the speaker. "I need to know what the problem is. ”

"Well, for example. We have a group of cabras in the wall. Cabra can't jump over walls, they don't even touch it. I checked every single one of the cabra and marked it, you know? All of them are female. ”

"Bad luck," said the speaker. "You thought there would be at least one male left among them. ”

"That's not the point," Ella said, "I don't know if there's really a male surname." In the last five years, each adult capula has been produced at least once. But none of them have ever mated. ”

"Maybe they're cloning and breeding," said the speaker.

"The offspring are genetically different from the mother's. That's all I could do in the lab without my mother's attention. There's some kind of gene transfer going on. ”

"Do you have two surnames?"

"Nope. Pure female surname. There is no male genital organ at all. Is this a big deal? Somehow, the cabra had some kind of gene swap and no surname. ”

The theological implications alone are shocking enough. (^_^ A crowd of Jesus...... ）

"No kidding. ”

"No kidding, science or theology?"

"None of them. Would you like to hear more questions from me?"

"I think," said the speaker.

"Then think about this. The grass you're lying on now – we call it Grama. All the water snakes hatch here. Tiny bugs that you can barely see. They devour the whole grass and then devour each other as well, molting each time they grow up. Then all of a sudden, when the grass was all sticky with their dead skin, all the snakes slipped into the river and left, and then they never came back out of the water. ”

He's not a heterobiologist. He didn't immediately see the implications.

"Water snakes hatch here," she explains, "but they don't come out of the water and come back here to lay their eggs. ”

"That is, they mate here before entering the water. ”

"Good, of course, obviously. I've seen them mate. That's not a problem. The question is, why are they water snakes?"

He still doesn't understand.

"Look, they're perfectly adapted to aquatic life. They have lungs and gills, they're strong swimmers, they've got guide fins, and they've evolved entirely for life in the water as adults. How could they evolve like that, if they were born on land, mated on land, bred on land, and bred on land? Anything that happens after you reproduce is completely irrelevant in terms of evolution, unless you raise your offspring, which the water snakes obviously don't do. Living in water does not improve their ability to survive before breeding. It doesn't matter if they slip into the water and drown, because the reproduction is already complete. ”

"Yes," said the speaker. "I understand now. ”

However, there are also very few transparent eggs in the water (note: the word "little" here is translated as "less". If it is translated as 'small', it contradicts the bigeggs in the following text. ）。 I've never seen a water snake lay these eggs, but since there are no other animals in the river or near the river that are big enough to lay them, the eggs are logically water snake eggs. It's just that these large, transparent eggs – a centimeter in diameter – are completely incapable of hatching. The nutrients are there, all the conditions are ready, there is no embryo. Not at all. Some of them include a gamete — a cell with half a set of genes in it, just waiting to cooperate — but none of them are alive. And we've never found water snake eggs on land. There is nothing but the denser Grama today, and tomorrow the Grama grass stalks will be full of baby water snakes. Sounds like a question worth exploring, right?"

"I think it sounds like it happened naturally. (Note: "Spontaneous generation" is a popular theory of biological creation before Pasteur, which holds that some (small) organisms can be automatically generated by non-living things, such as "rotting grass for fireflies" and "white petrified sheep". ）

"Yes, well, I'd be willing to gather enough information to test some alternative hypotheses. But my mother wouldn't let me go. I inquired about it with her, and she asked me to take over the whole process of the amaranth examination so that I didn't have time to wander around the river. There is another problem. Why are there only so few species here? On all the other planets, even those that are almost desert like Trondheim, there are thousands of different species, at least in the water. There are just a handful of them that I can count. Singadora was the only bird we saw. Sucking flies are the only flies. Cabra is the only ruminant that eats kapim grass. Aside from the cabla, pigs are the only large animals we have ever seen. There is only one type of tree. There is only one species of grass in the grasslands, Kapim, and the only other plant competitor is Tropega, a long vine that winds its way along the ground for many meters and many meters – which Singadora uses to build its nests. That's all. Singadora eats only sucking flies and nothing else. Sucking flies eat algae that grows near rivers. And our garbage, that's all. Nothing to eat singadora. Nothing to eat cabra. ”

"Very little," said the speaker.

"It's impossible to be less. There are tens of thousands of vacancies in the ecosystem that have not been filled at all. Evolution could not have made this world so sparse. ”

"Unless there's been a cataclysm. ”

"Exactly. ”

"Something has swept away almost all species, leaving only a handful of species that can adapt. ”

"Yes," Ella said. "You see? And I have proof. Cabra has a pattern of group behavior. When you get close to them, as soon as they smell you, the adult will head inside in a circle so that they can kick away the intruder and protect the hatchling. ”

"A lot of social animals do that. ”

"What do you protect them from? The pigs are completely wood-dwelling - they never hunt on the grasslands. Whatever the predator that forced Cabra to develop this pattern of behavior, it no longer exists. And that wasn't that long ago — probably in the last 100,000 years, in the last million years. ”

"There is no evidence of any meteorites falling in the last 20 million years. "The man who speaks says.

"Nope. That kind of catastrophe would kill all the large animals and plants and leave hundreds of small ones behind, or it could kill all the land life and leave only the sea life. But the land, the sea, the whole environment have been scraped, but there are still some large creatures that survive. No, I think it's a disease. A disease that crosses all interspecific boundaries and adapts itself to any living organism. Of course, we won't notice the disease now, because all the species that are left alive have adapted to it. It will be part of their normal life pattern. The only possibility we'll notice this disease is—"

"It's us who get it," said the speaker. "Cycloflexia. ”

"You see? All the problems go back to Cycloflexia. My maternal grandparents found a way to stop it from killing humans, but that would require top-notch genetic engineering. Cabras, water snakes, they've found a way to adapt, and I suspect it could be some kind of food additive. I think it's all very intimately linked. The grotesque reproductive anomalies, the vacancies in the ecosystem, all of which had to be traced back to the Cyclotron, and Mother wouldn't let me investigate them. She wouldn't let me look into what they were, how they worked, how they might have affected—"

"Pigs. ”

"Well, of course, but it's not just them, all the animals—"

The speaker looks like he's holding back his excitement. It was as if she had just solved a problem. "The night Pippo died, she locked up any files showing any work she was working on, and she also locked up files that included any unwinding research. What she showed to Pippo must have something to do with the Cyclopour, and it must have something to do with the pigs—"

"Did she lock up the papers back then?" Ella asked.

"Yes. Yes. ”

"Then I'm right, am I. ”

"Yes," he said. "Thank you. You've done me a great favor you can't imagine. ”

"Does that mean you're going to talk about your father's death soon?"

The speaker looked at her cautiously. "Actually, you don't want me to talk about your father. You want me to talk about your mother. ”

"She's not dead. ”

"But you know, I can't talk about Marcau without explaining why he married Now, and why they remained married for so many years. ”

"Exactly. I want all my secrets to be revealed. I want all my files to be unlocked. I don't want anything to be hidden. ”

"You don't understand what you're talking about," the speaker said. "You don't know how much pain it would take if all the secrets were revealed. ”

"Look at my family, talk about people," she replied. "How can the truth cause more pain than the secret has already caused?"

He smiled at her, but it wasn't a pleasant one. This is – loving, even compassionate. "You're right," he said, "exactly, but by the time you hear the whole story, you'll probably regret knowing it." ”

"I know the whole story, I know everything that can be known. ”

"Everybody thinks so, but they're all wrong. ”

"When are you going to speak?"

"I'll do it as soon as possible. ”

"Then why not now? Today? What are you waiting for?"

"I can't do anything until I talk to the pigs. ”

"You're kidding, aren't you? No one can talk to the pigs except the Xenologist. This is a decree of Parliament. No one can get past that. ”

"Yes," said the speaker. "That's why it's hard. ”

"It's not difficult, it's impossible—"

"Maybe," he said. He stood up; "Ella, you've helped me a lot. You poured out all your money to me. Just like Orjado. But he didn't like what I did with what he taught me, and now he felt like I had betrayed him. ”

"He's still a kid. I'm eighteen years old. (I've always wondered if this is a reminder that he's of marriage age...... ）

The speaker nodded, put his hand on her shoulder, and tightened it. "Then we're fine. We're friends. ”

She was almost certain that he said it with some sarcasm. Taunts, and, most likely, some pleading. "Yes," she insisted. "We are friends. It always will be. ”

He nodded again, turned away, pushed the boat off the riverbank, and followed it through the reeds and garbage. As soon as the boat was floating, he sat down, stretched out his oars and rowed away, looked up again, and smiled at her. Ella smiled back, but the smile didn't convey the joy she felt, the perfect sense of ease. He has listened to everything, understood everything, and he will put everything on track. She believed it to be so, so thoroughly that she didn't even realize it was the source of her sudden sense of happiness. All she knew was that she had spent an hour with the deceased speaker, and now she felt that she had never been so energetic in all these years. (Theory of Relativity: Time with a Lover ......)

She retrieved her shoes, put them back on her feet, and walked home. Mother was supposed to be at the Xenobiologist Station, but Ella didn't want to go to work this afternoon. She wanted to go home and cook dinner; She hoped no one would talk to her. She hoped that there would be no problems for her to solve. Let that feeling stay there forever. (Take a look...... Isn't this a girl in love...... ）

However, only a few minutes after Ella arrived home, Miro rushed into the kitchen. "Ella," he said. "Have you seen the deceased speak to anyone?"

"Yes," she said. "On the riverside. ”

"Somewhere by the river!"

If she had told him where they had met, he would have known that it was not a chance encounter. "Why do you ask this?" she asked.

"Listen, Ella, there's no time to suspect now, please. I had to find him. We left him a message, and the computer couldn't find him—"

"He was rowing down the river and going home. He'll probably be home soon. ”

Miro rushed from the kitchen to the front hall. Ella heard him typing on the terminal. Then he returned. "Thank you," he said. "Don't wait for me to come home for dinner. ”

"What's so urgent?"

"Nothing. ”

It was so ridiculous that Miro was clearly agitated and flustered and said "nothing" at the same time, so much so that they both burst into laughter. "Well," said Miró, "it's not nothing, there's something, but I can't say, okay?"

"Okay. "But soon all the secrets will be known, Miro.

"I don't understand why he didn't hear from us. I think the computer would have called him. Didn't he have an implant in his ear? The computer should be able to reach him. Of course, maybe he closed it. ”

"No," Ella said. "The light is on. ”

Miro raised his head and squinted at her. "You wouldn't have seen that little red light on the implant in his ear, if he had just gone out and rowed in the river by chance. ”

"He went ashore. We said something. ”

"What are you talking about?"

Ella smiled.

"Nothing," she said.

Even though he smiled back, he still looked annoyed. She understood: you are right to keep a secret from me, but it is not right for me to keep a secret from you, right, Miro?

However, he did not argue with this. He's too busy right now. Gotta go to the speaker, go now, he can't have dinner at home.

Ella had a hunch that the Sayman might soon be able to talk to the Pigs, faster than she thought she would. For a while she was excited. The wait is coming to an end.

Then the excitement passed, and something else took its place. A creepy dread. A nightmare, the father of China, dear Lipo, lies dead on a hillside, disemboweled, disemboweled. It's just that that's not Lipo, the usual protagonist of that horrific scene she had imagined before. That's Miro. No, no, that's not Miro. That's the man of speech. It is to say that people will be tortured to death. "No," she whispered.

Then she shuddered, and the nightmare departed from her mind, and she turned around and tried to spice and season the dough so that it tasted better than amaranth paste.