Visitors (Pathfinder 3)

“Two ships on the far world and one here have to deal with a Wheaton with a broken hip,” said the expendable. “It slowed down the decision making.”

“I thought you’d protect me,” said Wheaton accusingly.

“I can’t always anticipate the stupid choices of human beings,” said the expendable.

“Stop bickering,” said Ram. “Dividing up the world is the obvious choice. We have to decide what to do with the extra humans who won’t be needed to found a colony in three of the wallfolds.”

“We can establish more wallfolds than we have ships,” said Noxon. “Let’s make thirteen colonies on each world, ten for humans, one each for aliens and mice, and one for both.”

“Must there also be a colony that includes both mice and humans?”

“I hope not,” said Wheaton.

“Of course,” said Noxon.

“At least don’t let ours be that colony!” said Wheaton.

“You’ll get used to them,” said Noxon.

“That means you already agreed to have ours be the human colony that has mice,” said Wheaton.

“Unless you plan to mate and settle down, Professor,” said Ram, “I think all the copies of you should regularly visit all the colonies. Sleep in stasis in between inspections. See how the alien species are developing, now that they have humans and mice interfering.”

“Assisting,” corrected the alpha mouse. “At least that’s what we’ll be doing.”

“I think that’s an excellent plan,” said Wheaton. “I only wish I could publish my findings.”

“You should write down everything you see and conjecture,” said Ram, “and we’ll eventually share it with every world.”

“One more need,” said the expendable. “A name for each of these worlds.”

“‘Garden’ is already taken,” said Noxon.

“I don’t think the worlds should be named for any of us,” said Wheaton.

“Never crossed my mind,” said Ram.

“Said the man with two wallfolds named for him,” said Noxon.

“I didn’t name them,” said Ram. “I’ve never been there.”

“How about Roach and Tripod?” asked Noxon.

“‘Roach’ is hardly expressive of a desire to get along with them,” said Wheaton.

“All that ‘Roach’ will mean in a generation or two will be the name of a world,” said Noxon.

“The human settlers will know from the start,” said Ram. “They may never let go of the associations. We need them to speak of the natives with respect, at least inside the shared wallfold.”

“Melody and Harmony,” said the alpha mouse.

“Just as I was thinking ‘Noise’ and ‘Nasty,’” said Noxon, “the mice suggested ‘Melody’ and ‘Harmony.’”

“As long as this is the world that’s called Melody,” said Ram. “We came here first.”

“And we have such lovely voices,” said Wheaton.

Other suggestions were made on other ships, but in the end the idea of Melody, though attractive to most, was superceded: One world was named Treble, since the Tripods had high and piping voices, while the other was named Bass, because the Scuttles made sounds that were so low that many of them could not be heard by humans. Neither species had anything that could be called a language yet.