PEARL

Chapter Six

On our way back to Climfa's dining hall, we stopped at the nursery and met Future Tender and made silly faces and sounds at all the infants. It occurred to me to ask, "Surely there are children as well as infants?"

"Not at the moment" was Egglu's reply.

After the evening meal, Nyssa and Tegan were shown to a room to share for the night and I had one of my own. Lying on a decent mattress with plump pillows and a handmade duvet, I found myself wide awake, staring at the ceiling. We could have slept in our own beds; the TARDIS was not far off. We did need to track down that call for help, after all. We knew where but not when. We needed to get moving. That's not what was keeping my eyes wide open, though. I was trying to figure out the connection between a fertility program on hold because its only expert had died, a hologram of that expert controlled by an anonymous person of unclear intent, and infants dying of a brain hemorrhage. None of it made any sense. What was I missing?

Eventually my mind wandered, my body relaxed and I was almost asleep. I rolled over to the wall, onto my right side, not my left as I more often did, and my eyes flew open. My knowledge of human bodies, already limited, might not be useful here. I have a right heart and a left heart. Humans tends to carry their lone such organ on the left, although exceptions have been known. I had missed the postmortem; I hadn't a clue as to the internal construction of the Pearlians, or even whether the people I had met were the only species, intelligent or otherwise, on the entire planet. Maybe other cultures existed which did not rely on underground facilities. Maybe twice a year it rained cows. What assumptions I'd been making! Mythical Pearl hadn't even supported humanoids; it was full of dragons and other such wonders. In fact, I'd forgotten all about the mythical Pearl once we had arrived on the real one – a small planet, but then so is Earth, and look how big that small planet is.

The only element of this whole puzzle that pointed to there being an actual villain was the hologram of Honey Gatherer, and any connection between that element and the conclusion that children were being murdered was tenuous at best. I rolled away from the wall, sat up on the edge of the bed, mindless that I was dumping a tangle of bedclothes on the floor, stood up in the nightdress I had been given and, without bothering to change into my own suit, there neatly laid out upon a rocking chair, I went to the door. I said "the" door; it was but "a" door and I had no recollection of where my room was in relation to anything else in Climfa. I did change into my own clothes then, and as I did so, I remembered that Tegan had said "the usual way." Egglu hadn't blinked; in fact he had mentioned sex. But was sex defined the same way on Pearl as it was on Tegan's world? "A kiss is still a kiss," I murmured, remembering a lovely Earth story Tegan might be too young to remember. All right, I decided, adjusting my coat collar and making a mental note to ask Egglu for a fresh stalk of celery. It was time to get good and lost again.

Naturally, as soon as I decided to get lost I couldn't. The room into which mine let out was the one shared by Tegan and Nyssa. I hadn't meant to awaken them but there they were, rubbing their eyes and looking blearily up at me. Tegan sat up. "What's wrong, Doctor?" Nyssa slowly rested her feet on the little rug by her bed and wrapped her duvet around her.

"Nothing, nothing," I hastily assured them. "Just passing through." I started toward another door.

"Are you sure there is nothing you need, Doctor?" Nyssa stood up, the duvet still around her.

"I didn't mean to wake you. I am awfully sorry."

"I was having a bad dream," said Nyssa. "I am glad you woke me."

I hesitated. "I wonder if we could talk about that autopsy, then."

"Sure," she said. She gave Tegan a little wave so I did too, and we both went through the door for which I'd been heading. It led to a small lounge, with a sofa, so we sat side by side on the sofa, me fully dressed and Nyssa wrapped in her duvet so that I couldn't see what she had on under it at all. (I make note of it now; it barely registered at the time.) "What do you need to know, Doctor?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "Just… I know the bleed was all you found that was a possible cause of death, but what about the rest? Stuff that isn't an injury or sign of illness but might be unusual, or different from your anatomy, or mine, or Tegan's?"

Nyssa thought. "Apart from your having two hearts and being able to regenerate, I don't know much about your anatomy, Doctor." I thought I saw her blush; I might have been mistaken. "I am also not well conversant with the difference, apart from size, between adult and infantile anatomy. I am afraid I might not be of much help."

"Were lab samples taken? Blood and that?"

"Yes, of course."

"Okay, we will have to ask to see results. Did Bodies Detective say how long that would take?" Nyssa shook her head. "We should get going but I can't leave this."

"I know, Doctor." Nyssa touched my hand as she opened the door. I could see Tegan still sitting up. "I need to sleep some more. I'll see you in the morning." She closed the door, leaving me alone in the little lounge.

"Unless I get lost again," I said, to no one, but before I could proceed to get lost, Bean Tender came in and slapped something onto my neck. I started to protest but then realized that I now somehow knew the layout of the entire settlement, as well as of its two allies. "Thank you," I said, instead of what I'd been about to say.

"I thought you might need this," said Bean Tender. "In fact, I just assumed you had one. I apologize for not checking."

"Thank you," I repeated, feeling my neck; there was nothing to feel, as whatever it was had dissolved and become a part of me. Then I asked, "Can we talk?" Beanlu and I repaired to the sofa. "Tell me all about Honey Gatherer. When he was alive, I mean. You knew him, right? This is a small community. Everyone knows everyone, right?"

Beanlu nodded. "Yes, I knew him well. He gave me my baby."

This startled me. "He's the father?" I didn't want to assume that marriage or its equivalent was the custom on Pearl.

"No!" she laughed. "Egglu collected my eggs and Honeylu gathered honey and when we had made an embryo and it was fine, he put that inside me and I had a baby."

"What happened to your baby?"

"She grew up and moved to another settlement. She said there is no future in Climfa, after her baby died."

"Franlu was your granddaughter!"

"No, Columbinelu. She died a week before Franlu."

I was silent for a moment, then asked, "Were all the infants who died female?"

"Yes," said Beanlu. Her eyes were clear and dry. I don't know what I would have done had she been crying; I was glad she wasn't.

"And they were all fertilized outside the body?"

"That is our way."

"Tell me more about Honeylu. What kind of man was he?"

"He was an impatient man," said Beanlu. "He always wanted things to be just right. He sulked when he made mistakes, as we all do."

"Sulk?"

"No, make mistakes. He was forgiving of others and not of himself." She paused. "I loved him."

Very softly I asked, "Did he love you?"

She shook her head. I looked down, sorry I had asked. "He was… busy. He was worried about extinction. I understood. I didn't bother him."

"How did he die?"

Beanlu stood up and walked away; I thought she was offended and leaving the room, but she stopped a few steps from the sofa. Her back still to me, she said, "He couldn't forgive himself." Then she did leave the room.

I had to digest this. If I understood correctly, Honeylu, who had made some kind of error, had killed himself. What error could have been so unforgivable? I decided to ask Bodies Detective… now that I knew the way.