Starquake.pdf

"Speckle-Top is a genius with the animals. She can just look at the animals and tell how they are feeling.
The herds are multiplying rapidly, and Zero-Gauss finally let us have some fresh meat four turns ago. I'm
getting pretty good at tending the plants. The grounds of the Inner Eye Institute are now full of fruit and
nut bearers, and I am starting wild patches outside the city."
"I've got some good news, too," said Cliff-Web after the long wait. "We were finally able to establish
contact with the rejuvenation robot at the West Pole Rejuvenation Center by sending commands with a
tight X-ray beam from West Pole Space Station. The robot has been unable to restore more than one
enzyme machine, but within five greats there should be enough enzyme collected for the rejuvenation of a
male or a small female."
"Wonderful!" exclaimed Qui-Qui. "I can take Heavy-Egg there and get his sight back. Then you'll have
someone who can tell you what is wrong with the gravity catapults, and I'll have someone to help share
the burden of tending plants."
07:03:32 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE 2050
This time Qui-Qui activated the communicator early. Her voice was solemn. "Heavy-Egg has just
flowed. I guess the strain on his body was too much."
"Our last engineer gone! We are doomed!" came the wailfrom Hohmann-Transfer. "We might as well
give up."
"I'mnot giving up," said Qui-Qui. "Let me speak to Cliff-Web. I want the next assignment for
Heavy-Egg's beginning engineering class."
As she waited for Cliff-Web to respond, she mentally began to go over the parentage of the oldest of
the younglings in the creche-school. If they were to keep the small group on Egg growing until the females
became old enough to lay eggs on their own, she and Speckle-Top would have to start teaching the older
males something other than reading, computing, farming, and engineering.
07:08:13 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE2050
Sacrifice
Qui-Qui had left her engineering class working on their lessons and was now out in the fields teaching the