After dreaming of dripping ferns and roaring streams leaping under and over slimy tree roots, the four newcomers awoke on their fourth day in the simulated desert environment.
With a tasty breakfast of fresh grubs and cactus fruit in his belly, Boro again hoisted up the big grub basket, allowing six females to concentrate on collecting, instead of carrying.
The team of more than thirty reptiles followed a carefully-planned route through the small, rocky caves that riddled one entire mountainside not far from the cavern. The winding route visited only the insect nests that hadn’t been harvested in many days. The reptiles crept along quietly, knowing from experience going back countless generations that the insects would fly away with the fewest grubs if the gatherers arrived silently and worked quickly.
Claws were inserted into the nests of dried mud, slicing with precision where the scaly hunters knew the largest grubs could be found. The insects quickly went into action, about half attacking the lizards, the other half flying away with their wiggling young as quickly as possible.
Boro and Sata had flinched the first time several thousand angry flying creatures began hammering them, but quickly noticed that all the other reptiles completely ignored it. The reason was soon clear — the insects simply had no way to penetrate the lizard’s scaly hides.
Today, Boro was again increasing the harvest by cupping his claws for those females working on nests near the ceiling, saving them from jumping down with each load of grubs. Sata noticed, and quickly started helping with the highest nests.
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 190
On the way back to the cavern, the females told stories of grubs their grandmothers collected that were twice this size. They even muttered half-remembered tales about grubs so big that one would make an entire meal.
The younger females shook their heads in disbelief.
Kibi’s eyes were wide as the little ship approached Rontilia Star Station, much smaller than Satamia, yet glowing like a bright diamond in space.
With an effort of will, she tore her eyes away from the visual display and made the selection Ilika requested at the navigation console. With another part of her mind, she continued to monitor the watch station, often with voice commands to Manessa, occasionally just by reaching over.
The small docking tunnel only had berths for two response ships and one transport, all currently empty.
“Ssssss,” came the voice of the docking controller. “Berth one pleassse, captain. It’sss very quiet inssside. Half the ssstation isss at Sssatamia for the Great Transssformation. I wishsh I could go, but sssomeone mussst run the ssstation.”
Kibi smiled as she slipped back to the watch console. “Docking visuals on channel four. Any news about our naughty crew members?”
“Sssata now underssstands how powerful her body’sss urgesss can be, and Boro hasss been injured ssseveral timesss. Many obssserversss ththink Sssata isss on the verge of mating withth . . . whoever isss handy.”
Kibi swallowed, and remembered her body’s reaction to Toran Takil. The silver and gold docking fingers wrapped themselves around the ship, and a boarding tunnel made contact with the hull.
“Bok. Welcome to Rontilia,” the acting steward announced. “I know the Great Transformation will be challenging for your friends, bok, but understanding the lives of simple creatures is very important. Bok.”
Many more nights passed as Mati and her friends dreamed about warm rain and huge insects of all sorts. During those nights, Sata became more and more affectionate. Even though she didn’t do anything to directly invite him, or any other male, to mate with her, her indirect signals were becoming all but
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 191
impossible to ignore, both for Boro, and a hundred other male lizards.
He cared very much about her, but he also wanted to go home and be the engineer of a deep-space response ship again, and perhaps something more challenging someday, like a star station docking controller.
As evening came to the simulated desert environment once more, Boro made a decision. He had had enough. He was going home. If Sata couldn’t resist the temptation to mate with a reptile, it wasn’t going to be him.
He approached a group of males about his age who were laughing and joking as they gathered the necessary ingredients from a storage cave. “I haven’t played Bones and brewed shmur in a long time. You guys have room for one more?”
They welcomed him with slaps on the back that nearly drew blood.
Boro had to think fast that evening, as the rules to the game of Bones had not been known to the briefing team. Shmur contained several mysterious ingredients, one of which came from a different, much smaller, mushroom garden. Boro pretended that the rules and the ingredients had changed a little over the generations at his old cavern, so he humbled himself to learn theirs.
Soon a large hollow gourd bubbled with a frothy brew that went right to Boro’s head when he took a drink. The other males laughed, drank deeply, and spent several minutes arm-wrestling.
Eventually Boro learned to play Bones.
It was not the loser of a round that had to fight the others, as Boro had assumed, but the winner. It was considered an honor, and the shmur made all the players feel invulnerable, but at the same time, rather slow and clumsy.
Serious injury, therefore, was almost impossible, given their tough reptilian hides.
Boro had to reach inside himself for instincts he had never before let out.
His large size allowed him to hold his own, but it was the fifth round before he started feeling some actual joy at the prospect of winning a throw of the Bones.
During a pause to drink more shmur, one of the other males casually said,
“It’s almost midnight. That girl you were protecting — she’s probably mated by now.”
Boro tensed up for a moment, ready to run and do his duty as Sata’s
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 192
protector. Then his shmur-clouded mind remembered the situation. “I protected her as long as I could. It’s her problem now.”
The others laughed heartily.
“When you asked to join us for Bones,” one male said, “I almost offered to stay behind and . . . you know . . . try my luck!”
Boro laughed deeply and reached for the shmur.
Deep Learning Notes
Boro, by breaking tradition and helping with the grub collecting, is showing a level of intelligence and adaptability that the reptiles don’t seem to normally possess. The struggle between “tradition” and “change” has always been present in our human societies, with tradition dominant at some times and places, change at others. Tradition seems to dominate in older, larger, more complex societies. Change seems to work best when no one is watching and judging, as in a sparsely-populated “frontier” setting. Which do you prefer?
Which, in your opinion, is more dominant right now in your location?
In your opinion, did Boro abandon his promises and responsibilities to Sata?
