"Now why would you suggest that, sir?" The question was innocent; her expression was not.
"I always thought Bones's tendency to insubordination was a matter of personality; now I'm beginning to suspect that it's generic to doctors." She shook her head, still smiling. "I doubt it, Captain. At any rate, I didn't learn insubordination at Starfleet Medical."
The thought of Bones had sobered him. Rising, he said, "All right, Dr. Wilson. Wherever you learned it, I'll have no more of it.... Evan, tread carefully. You weren't the only one scared out there. If Stiff Tail had delivered her reprimand, the Enterprise would be short a doctor."
She chuckled. "A tail-kinker's small, too. The one real advantage my size gives me is the element of surprise."
Recalling Stiff Tail's astonishment, he nodded. "I understand- but that's not what I meant. I want you to be careful, Evan; you're too valuable a person to lose. No more foolish chances, and that is an order I'll expect obeyed."
To his surprise, she turned a vivid shade of scarlet. With a defiant toss of her head that could not belie her blush, she said, "Captain, I never take foolish chances."
"I'll get the rest of the party," he said. Rather than call the rest in, he stepped outside; she needed time to regain her composure.
"You can't lock Evan up, Captain Kirk! You can't. You don't understand!" Brightspot bristled at the prospect. On a world where the ultimate punishment seemed to be throwing someone out of camp, that might well be frightening, Kirk realized.
"I won't, Brightspot," he reassured her, "but I did cuff her for causing so much trouble."
"Oh," said Brightspot, and her fur settled. "I have to- Jinx and I have to tell her something important. Wait," she added suddenly, as he gestured them inside. She turned to Jinx, "Evan says Captain Kirk is...is the person responsible for their camp."
"A camp within a camp?" Jinx asked. "There is very little 'of course' when it comes to custom," Brightspot quoted.
Jinx appeared to think about this. When she had, she said, "Then maybe we should tell them all."
"Tell us all what?" Kirk asked.
The two Sivaoans glanced anxiously at Rushlight, who said, "Lieutenant Uhura, you also have things to tell your people. If you will excuse me, I will return to my tent. I have a song to make. You will be the first to hear." Tail still looped in amusement, he walked away. Jinx and Brightspot looked after him, obviously relieved.
Kirk repeated his gesture inviting them into the shelter. Jinx shrank visibly and said to Brightspot, "Are you sure you want me?"
The tip of Brightspot's tail twitched. "You are Evan's responsibility, and I am Evan's friend. I think I must be your friend, too." The two stared at each other hard for a long moment, then they simultaneously offered each other their tails. Thus entwined, Jinx shyly behind Brightspot, the two entered the shelter. Kirk and the rest of the landing party followed.
Jinx rushed to examine Wilson. "Looking for cuff-marks?" Evan asked, grinning.
Brightspot said, "Humans cuff with words, Jinx. Captain Kirk says he's not going to lock you up, Evan, so it's okay."
Evan nodded. "Brightspot, can you tell me now?"
Brightspot nodded back. "I -" She glanced at Jinx and corrected herself, "We figured out why we can't find out what's going on. And you can't either."
"We weren't sure," put in Jinx. "We were afraid to tell you the wrong thing, but you accepted responsibility for me from Catchclaw -"
"And when Stiff Tail got so angry, we knew we were right!" Brightspot finished.
Wilson raised her hands. "Slow down. I'm not following any of this. Sit down, take your time and tell me how it happened."
The two glanced at each other and Jinx deferred to Brightspot, who said, "Should I tell the captain?"
"Please," said Evan, "if you can."
The two were more at ease speaking to Wilson, Kirk saw; he said, "Tell Dr. Wilson, Brightspot, I'm listening."
Brightspot made an effort to slow her words but her report was breathless with excitement. "Evan, the problem with babies is that there are some questions they don't think to ask. They don't know enough to ask." Brightspot looked again at Jinx. "We had to walk it through. You see, in our customs there are some things adults don't tell children. So even if you ask, you don't get an answer."
"We have some similar customs, Brightspot," Evan assured her. "That's no real surprise."
"One of the things adults don't tell children here is about the you-know-whos- about the Eeiauoans," she finished defiantly. "If I ask them, they smell ashamed and guilty and they change the subject or tell me to stop sticking my tail in where it doesn't belong."
Brightspot flicked out her tail and made a brushing caress against Wilson's cheek. "All the angry noises last night... The adults were having a real tail-twister of an argument about all of you." Her glance shot about the room, to include the entire landing party. "You and Captain Kirk say you're adults, Evan, and so do Catchclaw and Rushlight. Stiff Tail and some of the others say you're children, and they won't discuss the Eeiauoans with children. They're too ashamed."
Children! thought Jim Kirk, staring at his acting chief medical officer, She's done it again!
Evan Wilson said, "So that's why Catchclaw asked me to be responsible for you, Jinx?"
"I guess so. To make the rest see that you're an adult. Catchclaw... doesn't think adult has anything to do with ritual," she said somewhat defiantly to Brightspot. "She says I'm an adult. She asked my permission before entrusting me to Dr. Wilson because it was deceitful- she couldn't have done it in Old Tongue, she said. Not because of you, Dr. Wilson, but because of me."
"In that case, Jinx," said Evan Wilson, "you're on your own recognizance. I mean if I cuff you for no good reason, I expect you to cuff me back. I mean I rely on you to keep me out of trouble the same way I try to keep you out of trouble."
Brightspot shrank. Evan Wilson immediately gave the parti-colored Sivaoan her full attention. "What's wrong, Brightspot? Do my customs make you uncomfortable?"
Brightspot flicked back her ears. "What about me?"
"Oh," said Wilson, "and what happened to your wonderful memory, Brightspot? What did I say last night when you asked if I was angry at you for eavesdropping on the adults?"
"You said, 'I'm not your mother. And in my book you're old enough to take your own chances.'" Her ears pricked up. "That means the same thing! You treat me like an adult too! Thank you, Evan!"
"There's nothing to thank me for. You act like an adult, you get treated like one." She stood and laid a hand on the shoulder of each. "Now, how do we get Stiff Tail to treat us as adults? If that's why they won't discuss the Eeiauoans with us, we'd better do something to remedy it fast. There are too many lives at stake to leave the problem in the hands of children."
Jinx said, "Catchclaw may have done it. It depends on what Stiff Tail decides."
Brightspot's tail drooped. She said, "Then it didn't work, Jinx. Stiff Tail won't acknowledge it- believe me, Jinx- I know how she thinks. When her mind is made up, it stays made up."
"Inflexible," said Wilson. "Elath builds a universe on change, and then She gives us Stiff Tail. What a sense of humor!"
"Inflexibility," said Spock, speaking for the first time, "is as much a handicap to Stiff Tail as to us. If you will recall, Dr. Wilson, Rushlight referred to Stiff Tail as being 'caught in her own snare'."
"Of course, Spock!" said Kirk. "If we play by her rules, she would be forced to talk about the Eeiauoans...Brightspot, if we Walked would Stiff Tail consider us adults?"
"Oh, yes, she'd have to! Once you have your own name, she wouldn't dare treat you like children!"
"Then tell us exactly what we have to do to be legal adults in Stiff Tail's eyes. And be very careful." Kirk gave her a long, hard look. "That's a baby question. Anything we don't know could kill us- and a lot of others as well."
"Jinx," Brightspot said hesitantly, "I don't mean...I don't mean to hurt you, but you know more about the Walk than I do. And so many people depend on them.... Please, you tell them."
Jinx stiffened and stood. Without warning, she turned her back to them all. Brightspot said, "Please, Jinx." Jim Kirk opened his mouth to say something, but Brightspot's tail flicked up for silence.
At last Jinx turned. Making a visible effort to gather her thoughts, she said, "In your culture, we are both adults; in mine, both children. Either way, we're much alike. And an adult would act to save so many lives, no matter how painful. I'll tell you, if you wish to take the risk."
A child past puberty, Jinx told them, could not be denied his or her ritual Walk into adulthood. A group, in number anywhere from four to ten, went to the camp leader; they announced their intention to Walk by asking the name of another camp that needed their number of adults. They were given as their destination the name of a camp some five days' walk through deep wood.
They were allowed to take only a knife and usefuls to make shelter in the trees. They could, of course, make spears; and they all did. Everybody knew how to sharpen a stick into a spear even if she only used the skill once in a lifetime.
It was a survival test and yet it was also one last lesson, for if even one member of the party failed, the rest remained children- until they formed another party, tried and completed the Walk. It taught that adults relied on one another for their lives: that cooperation was the greater part of maturity. A lesson, thought Kirk, that Stiff Tail had failed to learn.
Jinx did not make light of what they would face: the deep woods were full of wild creatures, many of whom, like the slash-backs, traveled in pairs or packs and wouldn't hesitate to attack people. There were other hazards as well- treacherous rockfalls, flash floods. Her fur spiked and, as she paused to smooth it, Kirk suddenly knew she was speaking of things that had happened to her own party. Jinx had tried and failed; worse, she had been the sole survivor of her party.
And he understood Brightspot's attitude now. "Jinx" was not a name, it was an act of striking cruelty. Into the silence, Jim Kirk said, "I can't call you 'Jinx'!"
Her ears flicked back. "You're angry!"
"Of course I'm angry. I didn't realize the name was meant. I thought it was only..."
"Only sounds, like most of your names," she finished for him. "You must continue to call me Jinx, Captain. It's the only name I have until I earn my own." She touched his arm lightly with the tip of her tail and added as if consoling him, "When you say it, I will know that to you it is only sounds. That way it will hurt neither of us."
"Thank you," he said, for there was nothing else he could say.
Then he wrenched himself back to the job at hand. His people would be at twice the risk on a Walk- they had no long practice dealing with the hazards of the Sivaoan wilderness. He turned to Spock: "Mr. Spock, if Catchclaw's ruse hasn't done the trick, you and I will take a little Walk."
"Just a damn moment, Captain," said Wilson. She was on her feet, hands on her hips, her blue eyes blazing.
He looked at her and said sharply, "More insubordination?"
She snapped to attention; this time her body was rigid with anger. "Permission to speak, sir!"
"Permission granted."
"I should like to point out to the captain that, as a child, I would be unable to carry out my assigned mission to learn the information we need from the Sivaoan doctors. I respectfully remind the captain that I am acting chief medical officer and the bloody plague gives me the right to pull medical rank if necessary, sir!" She fairly spat the final words at him.
Spock regarded her with undisguised interest. "She is quite right, Captain, although I fail to understand the need for such an extreme display of emotion when the logic of the situation would have been sufficient."
"Enough," said Kirk. "All right, Dr. Wilson. If it's necessary, you will join us; you've made your point. But so, I hope, has Mr. Spock." He waited, watching her face; the anger went as quickly as it had come.
Still at attention, she struck a jaunty pose and said, "Mr. Spock, to a Vulcan I would make a logical appeal; the captain's human, so I thought an emotional display might be more effective."
Spock gave her a moment's consideration, nodded, then said, "I have known the captain to respond to logic, Dr. Wilson."
Giving Jim Kirk no time to respond to this, Wilson turned promptly back to him and said, with a hint of a smile, "I shall take Mr. Spock's observation into consideration for future reference, Captain. Thank you, sir."
"As you were, Doctor," Jim Kirk said. As she sat down, Kirk looked across at Chekov and Uhura and recognized their need as well. He said, "You both know how dangerous the Walk is, so I'm putting it on a voluntary basis. Those of you who do not wish to come may either remain here in camp or return to the Enterprise. Lieutenant Uhura? Mr. Chekov?"