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managed to free it on the upsurge, discovered it was not broken. He slammed
down the privacy curtain, hoping the Sheliaks would not look inside if they
came.
 Now, he panted,  what did you say about Nummie?
 He s dead, Ben James. They killed him. I didn t mean any harm, the chimp
sobbed.
 You know how the Sheliaks reproduce - by budding, like terrestrial plants.
The young ones sprout out of the old ones, and grow until they re mature
enough to be detached.
 I know. Pertin had only the vaguest acquaintance with Sheliaks, but
everybody knew that much. They didn t have sexes, but the conjugation provided
a union that shuffled up the genes.
 Well, that didn t look like fun to me, but I wanted to see. Nummie told me
to go away.
He couldn t; he was in one of the spare cocoons and couldn t move. But he said
they d be mad.
The chimp switched position and Pertin shouted in pain as his upper thigh took
part of the chimp s weight on a rocket thrust.
 Sorry, Ben James. It was disgusting, the way they did it! Any two of them can
get the urge. They sort of melt down and flow together like jelly. All the
body cells migrate, pair off and fuse.
Finally they form again into a sort of cactus-shaped vegetable thing that buds
off haploid, mobile creatures. Those are the Sheliaks we see.
 You wanted to watch that? asked Pertin, almost able to laugh in spite of his
discomfort, in spite of Nummie, in spite of everything.
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 Yes, Ben James. Just for curiosity. And then  There s my friend, Fireball.
He s the
Sheliak who was here all along. He was nice, Ben James. I miss him.
 I didn t know you knew any Sheliaks.
 Not well. But he was with me, helping to guard all of you, and we talked.
 You sound as if he s dead, too.
 Might as well be. That union is a sort of individual suicide. It s something
you do for the race, and because your glands push you that way. But it s the
end for the individual. It wipes out all conscious memory and individual
personality. I guess that s why Fireball couldn t understand our notions of
sex.
 Anyway, he said,  it was all right while Fireball was here alone. He wasn t
lonely; or anyway, he didn t want any other Sheliaks around. When they re in
danger, you see, they can t help conjugating. It s a survival mechanism. The
radiation was danger, and he knew that the only way for him to keep alive was
to stay away from his own people. When the new ones came aboard he was
actually afraid of them. He knew when they came close they were likely to set
off a biological process they couldn t control. And when it was over 
The chimp swallowed. He thrust himself up on an elbow, regardless of the pain,
and stared into Pertin s eyes.
 He didn t know me, Ben James! The two new ones that were half him, they came
after me. The T Worlie saw what was happening and tried to stop them - and
that s how I got away, while they were killing him. So I ran. But where is
there to run to, in this ship?
When they could move again they found the T Worlie easily enough. He was
floating upside down, purplish drops of blood, perfectly round, floating
beside him. The little vibrissae around his sphincter mouth, more like cat s
whiskers than anything on a proper earthly bat, were perfectly still. Nummie
was rigid. The pattern of five eyes was unmoving. The intricate pattern of
blotches of colour on his filmy wings was fading.
There was no one else around.  What ll we do with him, Ben James? chattered
the chimp.
 Throw him out in to space, I guess, Pertin said harshly. Normally the mass
would be useful in the tachyon receiver, but there were to be no more incoming
tachyon transmissions.
It didn t do to think of that. He stared at the T Worlie. A slow encrustation
of thick gel was matting the fluffy surface of Nummie s chest, and where it
had once protruded sharply, like a bird s wishbone, it was crushed and
concave.
Pertin felt the muscles on his face drawing taut, perhaps partly because of
the intense vinegar reek. He said,  Why would the Sheliaks break up
equipment?
The chimpanzee stared at the mess in the room. Bright green and orange
transistors and microchips were scattered like jigsaw pieces in the air.  I
don t know, Ben James!
None of that was that way when I ran out of here. Do you suppose they just
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