Archiwum
- Index
- James Fenimore Cooper Jack Tier, Volume 2
- William Mark Simmons Undead 3 Habeas Corpses
- MARTIN FRITZ Dlaczego, dlaczego, dlaczego
- Crymsyn Hart [Devil's Tavern 04] Seduction [Aspen] (pdf)
- John Norman Gor 07 Captive of Gor
- Asimov, Isaac The Gods Themselves
- Clancy Tom Zwiadowcy 1 Wandale
- 1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
- Crosby Susan Prawie miodowy miesić…c
- barbara radziwilowna felinski a.
- zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- gim12gda.pev.pl
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I nodded.
"I didn't know." For a moment she seemed to draw back into her thoughts, as though searching for
something she had almost forgotten. "He couldn't tell me. It was a secret he had to keep. When I arrived
here and learned that his planet wasn't a charted world, was not even Human, I was a little uncertain and
lonesome. But not frightened. I knew Kalin would never let me be hurt. Even my lonesomeness left
quickly. Kalin and I love each other very deeply. I couldn't be more happy than I am now."
She seemed to see I did not consider that my question had been answered completely. "You're
wondering still if I mind that he isn't Human, aren't you?" she asked. "Why should I? After all, what
does it mean to be 'Human'? It is only a word that differentiates one group of people from another. I
seldom think of the Veldians as being different and certainly never that they're beneath me."
"Does it bother you if you'll pardon this curiosity of mine that you will never be able to bear Kalin's
children?"
"The child you saw the first morning is my son," she answered complacently.
"But that's impossible," I blurted.
"Is it?" she asked. "You saw the proof."
"I'm no expert at this sort of thing," I said slowly, "but I've always understood that the possibility of two
separate species producing offspring was a million to one."
"Greater than that, probably," she agreed. "But whatever the odds, sooner or later the number is bound to
come up. This was it."
I shook my head, but there was no arguing a fact. "Wasn't it a bit unusual that Kalin didn't marry a
Veldian woman?"
"He has married two of them," she answered. "I'm his third wife."
"Then they do practice polygamy," I said. "Are you content with such a marriage?"
"Oh yes," she answered. "You see, besides being very much loved, I occupy a rather enviable position
here. I, ah . . ." She grew slightly flustered. "Well . . . the other women the Veldian women can bear
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Give Me Liberty
children only once every eight years, and during the other seven . . ." She hesitated again and I saw a
tinge of red creep into her cheeks. She was obviously embarrassed, but she laughed and resolutely went
on.
"During the other seven, they lose their feminine appearance, and don't think of themselves as women.
While I . . ." I watched with amusement as her color deepened and her glance dropped. "I am always of
the same sex, as you might say, always a woman. My husband is the envy of all his friends."
After her first reticence she talked freely, and I learned then the answer to the riddle of the boy-girls of
Velda. And at least one reason for their great affection for children.
One year of fertility in eight . . .
Once again I saw the imprint of the voracious dleeth on this people's culture. In their age-old struggle
with their cold planet and its short growing seasons and more particularly with the dleeth the Veldian
women had been shaped by evolution to better fit their environment. The women's strength could not be
spared for frequent childbearing so childbearing had been limited. Further, one small child could be
carried in the frequent flights from the dleeth, but not more than one. Nature had done its best to cope
with the problem: In the off seven years she tightened the women's flesh, atrophying glands and organs
making them nonfunctional and changing their bodies to be more fit to labor and survive and to
fight, if necessary. It was an excellent adaptation for a time and environment where a low birth rate
was an asset to survival.
But this adaptation had left only a narrow margin for race perpetuation. Each woman could bear only
four children in her lifetime. That, I realized as we talked, was the reason why the Veldians had not
colonized other planets, even though they had space flight and why they probably never would,
without a drastic change in their biological make-up. That left so little ground for a quarrel between
them and the Ten Thousand Worlds. Yet here we were, poised to spring into a death struggle.
"You are a very unusual woman." My attention returned to Trobt's wife. "In a very unusual situation."
"Thank you," she accepted it as a compliment. She made ready to rise. "I hope you enjoy your visit here.
And that I may see you again before you return to Earth."
I realized then that she did not know of my peculiar position in her home. I wondered if she knew even
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