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satchel strapped to his side and directed an eye into it, searching for
Rhabwar's reconnaissance pictures.
"Allowing for the differences in size and age," he said, "the young and old
Wem are healthy and active on their diet of vegetables. The healers on the
ship, who have knowledge of such matters covering many worlds, say that your
young adults, too, would live and thrive and proliferate on the same diet. The
eating of meat is good for them, the healers agree, but it is not the only
source of health and energy for them.
We feel that the eating of meat has become a belief and a habit going back
many generations, and that it is a habit that can be broken.
"But let us not start another argument," Gurronsevas went on quickly, "because
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I
have good news for you. At their present rate of progress, which is slow
because they are heavily loaded, your hunters will be here in the late morning
of the day after tomorrow. If meat is what you want then meat you shall soon
have."
Without saying how long ago the pictures had been taken he gave a simple
explanation of the workings of
Rhabwar's casualty search vehicle and began spreading them out before Remrath.
Enlarged and enhanced, they showed every detail of the five food animals
struggling against their tethers, every fold in the sewn skins covering the
litter that was being carried by six Wem and, because the day had been heavily
overcast, the hunters had their sun cowls and cloaks tied back so that every
face was clearly visible. Even to Gurronsevas the sharpness of the images was
impressive.
"Maybe they are late arriving because they have five food animals and a
heavily loaded litter," Gurronsevas went on enthusiastically. "You can see for
yourself, so clearly that you will be able to recognize your friends. I have
no idea of how much they usually bring back, but I think I know a big catch
when I see one."
"You know nothing, Gurronsevas," said Remrath in a very quiet voice. "It is
not a big catch. The hunters should not be walking, they should be running and
tail-hopping so that the small animal carcasses in their belly-packs will not
spoil before they reach us, and dragging upwards of twenty big crellan and
twasacths behind them instead of five scrawny cubs. But many of their packs
are empty, and they carry a Wem on a covered litter, which means that one of
the hunters has been damaged and is dead or dying."
"I am sorry," said Gurronsevas. "Do you know...Is it a friend of yours?"
Gurronsevas knew as soon as he spoke that it was an unnecessary question. All
the faces in the pictures were so clear and sharp that the other could
identify the injured Wem by the simple process of elimination.
"It is Creethar, their leader," said Remrath in an even quieter voice. "A very
brave and resourceful and well-loved hunter. Creethar is my last-born."
Chapter 27
Tawsar was reluctant but sympathetic and Remrath was adamant, which meant that
it was the First Cook who won the argument. Even so, it took three hours
before
Rhabwar with Remrath on board was able to lift off on the kind of mission that
it had been expressly designed to perform.
The situation did not bear thinking about, even for a non-medical person like
himself. For an emotion-sensitive like Prilicla, he thought, it must be
ghastly.
Gurronsevas knew exactly how he felt about it, and he thought that he knew how
Remrath and the other people on the casualty deck were feeling. In spite of
the attempts they must be making to control their feelings, they must all be
emoting strongly within a few yards of Prilicla. Perhaps that was why the
Senior Physician had not prefixed any of their names with "friend" for more
than an hour.
The Wem were so short of meat that far-ranging hunting parties were sent out
to find it, and so low in technology that there was no way that the catch
could be stored for long periods unless it was brought to the mine, so the
only way to transport it over long distances was to keep it alive. If the
casualty was not already dead, it and its fellow hunters would try to keep it
alive so that the young body meat that it must give up to its people would be
fresh when it arrived home.
In spite of the continuing pain it would suffer on the journey, and of the
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fact that its selectively cannibalistic race knew little or nothing of the
practice of curative medicine, Remrath told them that Creethar would try to
stay alive until the last possible moment. As a brave and honorable Wem it was
Creethar's bounden duty to do so.
Now Remrath was standing before the casualty deck's view-screen, displaying no
visible reaction as Fletcher brought
Rhabwar down for a full emergency landing, which Gurronsevas felt sure was
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