The Legend of Miaree

Chapter Six

Thank you, LaConius, you read well, even if your Tigian accent is a bit much at times. You must work on that, you know. Provincialism is the bane of our growing family of worlds. Unarrested, it could lead to dire results. Examples of provincialism, Alaxender?

Sir, the War of Zede II would be an example.

A good one. Thank you, Alaxender. Provincialism leads to nationalism. On the isolated planet of Zede II it was allowed to grow. Until, as one would cut out a cancerous growth, we eliminated it. But we are diverted. Impressions and summation, if you please, in the time remaining to us today. Cecile?

I like her. I like her very much.

Not the most astute of comments, Cecile. Why do you like her?

I don't know, really. She's young and beautiful and intelligent. Everything a woman should be.

But is she a woman?

Obviously. Different, but still beautiful.

Describe Miaree. Julius?

Idonno—

Don't know.

I don't know, sir. I see sort of a—well, she's sorta weird.

Sort of. Yes, Stella.

Not weird at all. Not like us, naturally, having evolved on a totally different planet, under totally different evolutionary conditions. I see her as being light and almost elfin.

The term elfin is not definite, but is merely a word out of mythology. Continue, Stella.

Well, sir, she's almost birdlike.

No.

Yes, LaConius?

Sir, like a Tigian butterfly.

Ah!

Even to the life cycle. She has wings. And the— what are they? The winglings. They fly. And I see the i&ings as caterpillars, crawling around the woods eating leaves.

Yes, but if you had finished your assignment, LaConius, you would have seen, although there is a certain correlativity, that ifflings are not caterpillars.

Well, sir, maybe not in the same shape. But the cycle is the same. Butterflies begin as eggs and then go through the larval stage, then into chrysalis, and finally emerge as winged creatures, fully adult.

But the writer speaks of a third change in the Artonuee.

Sir.

Elizabeth.

Since the Artonuee are much more complicated beings, perhaps the third change is necessary. In fact, in chapter—

Good, Elizabeth. Since you have obviously read ahead, describe Miaree.

I agree with LaConius, that she is like a butterfly. She has a sort of light fur. It could be like the minute scales on a butterfly. It's soft and not at all unbeautiful. And she has those long lips. She drank from a flower. Yet it was a thing she did only under cover of darkness and in privacy, indicating to me that it is only the young of the species, the winglings, who live on flower nectar. I think Miaree must be biped, for she is so described. And she apparently has only two arms. There is a hint toward her general shape in the mention of her—ah—rear. Apparently, the rear is, perhaps, more developed than in our races. And apparently, sexual connotations were present, since Miaree is aware of something, the eggs

in her.

Very good. Any additions?

She has beautiful eyes, quite like the eyes of an insect, I think, large and blue and pretty.

Yes, Leslie. John?

We have butterflies on Selbelle III. I think they were imported from LaConius' home world, because our native life forms are rather like lizards. I thought of them when I drew Miaiee. Would you like to see?

With pleasure.

Ah, you will be an artist, John?

Sir, I am an artist. I am from Selbelle III.

My mistake, sir. Yes, I agree. Class?

I think the head should be larger.

The rear should be more pronounced, like the body of a butterfly.

She should have a large head. And I think she should be slimmer, more graceful.

I think John has done a wonderful job with her. She's just as I see her. I could love her, I think.

Ah, Alfred, I see that you, too, have completed the assignment.

Already thinking ahead? Romantically inclined. We have not heard from Clear Thought.

Sir, one thing we've not mentioned. She has at least rudimentarily developed telepathic abilities. She sent a message, while on the shuttle driver, to a novice flyer.

Good point, my young Healer.

Sir, I think her voice would be of great interest. The word keening is used at least once. As a musician, I think she would sing her speech much

like the birds of the old worlds. A musical, high tone. Perhaps, as Clear Thought suggests, partially mixed with telepathy.

Very good, Elana. Now, from Miaree let us turn to the Artonuee society. Tomax?

A matriarchy, sir. With no real equality between the sexes. The males, I gather, are lesser creatures, unable to do some of the skilled things done by the females. The males are slower of reflex and exhibit some of the weaknesses usually associated with women.

Weaknesses? Ha!

Please don't interrupt, Cecile. Go on, Tomax.

The males are involved in the religion to a greater extent than the females; in fact, they seem to have put brakes on the development of Artonuee technology by imposing a set of taboos. I get the impression that since the Artonuee are acutely aware of a very slow process of destruction of their galaxy, they are an old race. We know, for example, that the city of Nirrar is almost two thousand years old, and the Artonuee went out to the planets from their home world at least two thousand years before the time of the story. So, their technology, although spectacular in some areas—notably the development of the convertors which reduce the mass and inertial forces of the flyers—must have developed slowly. I would guess that the beauty-loving females, although curious, showed little interest in technology prior to the invention of the flyer. The slow and dependable drivers are, I'd think, the products of the male mind. Yet, the males, in the hold of their superstitions, refuse to think in terms of overcoming the limitation of the speed of light, or, as they call it, God's Constant. There is evidence, in the reading so far, that the females, somewhat less inhibited by the burden of their God, are thinking in terms of advancements; but they, too, being products of their own civilization with its built-in limitations, find it difficult to accept, even in their irreverence, the possibility of God's being proven wrong in something so basic as the Constant. I think they're in for one hell of a cultural shock when the word gets out beyond government circles that someone, the men from Delan, has bested God's Constant.

Anything to add to that, Alaxender?

The females seem to be happy, sir, in their little flyers, loafing around the system like Sunday sailors on a lake. In a very feminine way, I think, they actually rather enjoy the drama of being doomed and aren't too eager to change the status quo.

Yes, Elizabeth.

I don't want to make this a battle of the sexes, but it is the females who are advancing the civilization. Not the males. They, pardon the expression, man the Research Quad and the government and they have the sense of adventure. The males plod and pray.

Who do you think wrote about Miaree? Yes, Martha.

A female, obviously. Otherwise, the flying segment could not have been so vividly described. A male who had never flown in a flyer could not have done it.

And the purpose of the book? Leslie.

It has the ring of truth. And it was obviously left purposely. One structure on a planet and one object inside. I think the Artonuee left behind the book as a history of their race. As a message to anyone who might come after they were gone.

Only the Artonuee?

Sir, since the structure housing the book withstood some considerable heat for a long period of time, since it was unlike anything described in the Artonuee culture, I think that leaving the book was a joint effort by the Artonuee and the Delanians.

Perhaps. But I see that our time is up. Tomorrow, we will study the next segment. Please reread it, keeping in mind our discussion of today. As you have already noted, no doubt, there is a change in viewpoint; before our discussion period begins, I will want you to consider why this was desirable. And give some thought, please, since this is a literature class, to the artistic integrity of the abrupt change of view. And one more request. Please remember my age, my young friends, and do not trample me on the way to the dining hall.