Man Who Used the Universe by Alan Dean Foster

Author:Alan Dean Foster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 1982-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Sharaf was right. The operation was painless. Loo-Macklin was even able to watch, disdaining general anesthetic, as the incredibly deft Nuel surgeons opened the back of his head and inserted the tiny, dark blue creature. It did not move about, resembling a scrap of blue sponge more than a living animal.

Then they sealed the opening so smoothly that within a couple of hours it was impossible to tell where the initial incisions had been made. A brief session under the programming machinery, during which he dutifully complied with all instructions necessary to sensitize the lehl to the indicated thought, and then he was up and walking about.

He put his hand to the back of his head. Only by pressing very hard could he find even the slightest hint that something other than flesh and bone lay beneath the skin. He hadn't even lost any hair.

For a few days he scratched at the spot, but the itch he rubbed was psychological only. In a week he'd forgotten about it.

Then came the day when Naras spirited him out of the central city in a Nuel ground car. Loo-Macklin had to scrunch down low to avoid bumping the curved, claustrophobically low ceiling.

Compressed air powered the car through a plastic tube, sent it speeding out into the countryside toward a distant range of spectacularly rugged mountains. It was raining outside the tube, most Nuel worlds being subject to periodic deluges. These the Nuel manufactured themselves when they did not occur naturally with sufficient frequency. The Nuel were evolved amphibians. They couldn't breathe water any longer, but they still liked to be wet.

"Where are we going?" the cramped human asked his guide.

"There are certain traditional places," Naras Sharaf explained. "New worlds give rise to new traditions. We go to one such place.

"A pregnant female has her choice of where to give birth. On the original eight worlds of our forefathers there are ancient sites, which have been used for this purpose for thousands of years. Birthing at such places is rumored to endow offspring with such virtues as good luck, fine appearance, thick cilia, sexual potency, and other desirables. Nonsense, of course, but entrenched superstitions die hard."

"We have plenty of our own," Loo-Macklin assured him.

"I am aware of that." He turned great eyes on the tube ahead. "In witnessing of a Birthing you will learn one of the great secrets of the Nuel, learn why such events are so closely guarded from the sight of aliens. You are to be the first, Kee-yes vain Lewmaklin. A great privilege. No one is worried about this. Not now, not since the implanting." One eye continued to study the route before them while the other swiveled independently to stare at Loo-Macklin.

"The implant gives you no trouble?"

"None whatsoever. In fact, I think you must have understated the beneficial side effects the lehl induces. Since the implanting I feel better than I have in years."

"No human has partnered a lehl before, so though the probable results were carefully schematized before the operation, they remained only theoretical.

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