"'If I get one more word from you, it's back to the tanks for the lot of you!'" "I asked y' not t' remind me!" I said, raising my voice."'If I get one more word from you, it's back to the tanks for the lot of you!'" "I asked y' not t' remind me!" I said, raising my voice. "But they're still here, aren't they? The Uncia are still here. It's the past, Ken, and it was a mistake that's been corrected. Cammi is still himself, and you're still yourself." "But that... Carroll, what if I'd been serious? I mean, that goes against everything I said I believed in." The adrenaline was starting to kick in. I took another slug of scotch. "Am I that hypocritical? Am I that callous and stupid?" She smiled gently and said, "I don't think it makes a difference anymore. Pendorians are having babies and going on with their lives, and where they came from doesn't matter anymore. I mean, I know I'm never going to be a great skier, but then I haven't got the legs for it, and maybe you shaped that, but what I do with myself now is my business." I smiled for a moment at the image of a Centaur on waterskis, and the smile carried weakly as I said, "I heard you're going to have a colt." She smiled back and said, "Yeah. Ten months, Dr. Adnil says. A girl." "Really?" I asked. "And why can't you just call him 'Rhys' like everybody else? He's almost family." "Because... I don't know. I'm just used to calling him 'Dr. Adnil.'" She paused for a second and said, "Why did you make Karri?" "Because I wanted to, I really did. All that power, all that strength, and I wanted to talk to it, to her... to touch her." The words just fell from my lips, and I was shocked as my muddled brain played them back for me. The shock must have been pretty clear on my face because Carroll's smile just got a little wider. "Carroll..." She shook her head and said, "You made every Pendorian species for the same reason. Because you wanted to touch them, and you can't do that without their permission, and you can't get their permission unless they can talk to you. Now, selfish or not, you're smart enough to know that you're not going to get permission unless they've a reason for liking you and trusting you and loving you. And if everything around us is an expression of that kind of ethic, then I'm glad you're my father, Ken." "The only difference here is that, while you made the Pamthreats originally for all the right reasons, you made the present Tleil Pamthreats out of guilt- Guilt at not fulfilling your demiurge the way you should have, they way you always did. |