Alien Emergencies - James White [203]
“But now let us suppose that this group entity,” he continued quickly, “forming as it does a complete colonization project, has been artificially lengthened. The extraordinarily large number of individuals in this group entity has always bothered me, and now there is a simple explanation for it. Let us assume that there is one head or, more accurately, a fairly large number of linked elders forming the leading segments, and several tails connected one behind the other. These would be very youthful tails because it must be much easier to carry out the surgical modifications on young CRLTs which enable them to link up. So we have this colonist group entity with intelligence and experience at its head and linked to a number of young and inexperienced subgroups forming an artificially lengthened tail. The joins between these subgroups are surgically assisted and, I feel sure, temporary, because once established on the target planet they would be able to separate again, and in time the young heads would grow to full adulthood and the dangers from inbreeding would be avoided.
“Perhaps the head on this group entity has also been artificially extended,” Conway added, “so as to include elder CRLTs with specialist experience relating to the colonization project who would be available initially to protect the younger group entities, and subsequently to teach and train them and pass on the knowledge of their race’s history and science.”
Prilicla had flown closer while Conway had been speaking and was hovering a few inches above the Doctor’s head. It said happily, “An ingenious theory, friend Conway. It fits both the facts as we know them and the type of emotional radiation received from the beings.”
“I agree,” Murchison said. “I, too, found difficulty in accepting the extreme length of this group entity, but the idea of a wise old head acting as guide and mentor to an as yet unknown number of young tails is much easier to believe. However, I can’t help remembering that it was the head segments which suffered most of the casualties. Perhaps the head is no longer as wise as it should have been and an awful lot of vital knowledge has been lost to this multiple group entity.”
Colonel Okaussie waited for a moment to see if anyone in the medical team would speak, then he cleared his throat and said, “Maybe not, ma’am. Most of the head segments who were killed in the collision were very close to the stern and to the ship’s control and propulsion centres. One could reasonably expect that these segments were the beings charged with the responsibility for operating the ship and carrying out the landing maneuvers, functions which are now the responsibility of the Monitor Corps. It is likely that the scientist and teacher segments were positioned a little farther back in the chain and the majority of the casualties were suffered by the vessel’s crew, whose specialist knowledge would no longer be of vital importance to the colonization project after the vessel had landed.”
Before Murchison could reply Naydrad gave an impatient, modulated growl which translated as “Why don’t we stop talking and get on with the job?”
The screen which had been used to communicate with the CRLTs was continuously displaying distant and close-up views of spacesuited figures of various physiological classifications busily at work on the final stages of the coilship’s reassembly. Conway could not decide whether Descartes’s commanding officer was screening the material to be helpful and informative or as a means of suggesting, very subtly, that the medical team display a similar degree of industry. The attempt was a failure in either event, Conway thought, because the Rhabwar medics were far too busy to look at Okaussie’s pictures. They were concentrating instead on measuring and remeasuring the features on the CRLT interfaces and charting with their scanners the paths