50 in 50

But the pleasure could not last. Even the stupidest fargi, fresh from the sea and unable to talk, could see that the nights were growing colder, days as well. The fish were no longer as plentiful as they had been. The clouds did not part, the sun did not shine, the plants were dying. The animals they ate were leaner and tougher as the grazing grew harder. Still they ate very well, for the enzyme vats were kept filled with meat. Which was a very bad sign indeed, for they were not being killed — they were dying. This was the time when the Eistaa summoned the two scientists to join her in the ambesed where she waited with Velikrei.

"Listen to what this hunter tells me," the Eistaa said, darkness in her speech.

"The onetsensast that they butcher now, that goes into the meat vats. It is the last one. All others — dead, the fields empty."

"What is happening — what is going to happen?" the Eistaa asked. "You are Yilane of science, you must know."

"We know," Akotolp said, fighting to keep calmness in her words and motions. "We will tell you, Eistaa." The hunter did not see her quick motion of pointing and dismissal.

"You have brought the information, Velikrei. Return to your forest."

Akotolp waited until the three of them were alone before she spoke. Now she made no attempt to keep the dread and despair from her speech.

"It is the sun that brings us life, Eistaa. If the sun does not shine we die. The clouds kill us."

"I see wiai is happening — yet I do not understand."

"There is a chain of life," Essokel said. "It starts in the cells of the plants, where the sun's rays are turned into food. The fish and the ustuzou eat them and live. We in turn eat their flesh — and we live." She leaned down and pulled a clump of yellowed grass from the ground and held it out. "This dies, they die, we die."

The Eistaa looked at the grass, immobile, her muscles locked hard as the thought echoed again and again in her brain. In the end she turned J;o Akotolp and signed a short query.

"True?"

"Inescapable truth."

"Can we not fill the vats, store food, wait until the clouds open up and the sun shines again?"

"We can — and we will. Seed will be stored as well, to plant and regrow when the sun returns."

"This will be done. I will order it. When will the sun return?"

The response to this question was only silence. The Eistaa waited, her anger growing, until she could control it no longer.

"Speak, Akotolp! I order you to speak! When will the sun return?"

"I — we — do not know, Eistaa. And unless it returns soon the world as we know it is dead. Species once destroyed do not return. We are one of those species. We are important only to ourselves. In the totality of biology we are as important — or unimportant — as that clump of grass. It is of no help to us to know that even if the clouds remain forever life will go on. But it will not be the world we know. There exist life forms that are very persistent and can endure a great range of temperatures and environments. We cannot. We will not survive on this world unless things remain very much as they always were. I fear, Essokel and I have discussed this many times that we have already passed the time of survival…"

"That is not true! Yilane live."

"Yilane die," Essokel said with grim movements. "Fargi die already of cold. We have examined them."

"We have cloaks."

"The cloaks will die as well. It is already too cold for them to breed." There was a great feeling of despair in Akotolp's shuddered movements. "I fear that all will be ended, all Yilane dead, everything we are, everything that we have done, vanished. It will be as if we have never been. When the clouds break, if they ever break, it will be the ustuzou who will live."

"What? These vermin-crawling filthy things underfoot? Your speaking is an insult!"

As though in further insult an ustuzou scuttled through the dead grass close by, paused an instant to glance at them with tiny dark eyes, scratched quick claws through its fur. The Eistaa stamped out with her foot but crushed only dead stems as the creature vanished from sight.

"You say that these vile things will live — why?"

"Because of their nature," Essokel explained patiently. "All complex creatures require regularizing of body temperature, they are all warm-blooded. But there are two ways of staying warm. We Yilane are exothermic, which means we must live in a warm climate and take in heat from outside. This is very efficient. The ustuzou are very inefficient since they are endothermic, which means they must eat all of the time and turn their food into heat…"

"You speak like this only to confuse me — all this talk of hot or cold, inside and out."