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Gods have plans, too

- Morgan Oakes, The Diaries

FOR A long ti the plaz-filtered light draw radial beams on the air above the cedar tree He knew Hali had been hurt by his rejection and he wondered why he did not feel guilty He sighed There was no sense in running away; this was the way he had to be

Hali spoke first, her voice low, tentative

"Nothing’s changed, is it?"

"Talking about it doesn’t change it," he said "Why did you ask me out here - to revive our sexual debate?"

"Couldn’t I just want to be with you for a while?"

She was close to tears He spoke softly to avoid hurting her even more

"I’ht hand, pressed the tips of his fingers against the tips of her fingers "Here We touch, right?"

She nodded like a child being coaxed from a tantrum

"Which is we and which the material of our flesh?"

"I don’"

He held their fingertips a few centimeters apart

"All the atoms between us oscillate at incredible speeds They bump into each other and shove each other around" He tapped the air with a fingertip, careful to keep fro her

"So I touch an atoes another, and so on unti" He closed the gap and brushed her fingertips "we touch and ere never separate"

"Those are just words!" She pulled her hand away from him

"Much more than words, you know it, Med-tech Hali Ekel We constantly exchange atoms with the universe, with the atmosphere, with food, with each other There’s no e can be separated"

"But I don’t want just any atoms!"

"You have more choice than you think, lovely Hali"

She studied hi these things up to entertain me?"

"I’m serious Don’t I always tell you when I ?"

"Do you?"

"Always, Hali I will htly "A poe me your poems? You usually just lock thelyph books of yours"

"I’ to please you in the only way I can"

"Then tell me your poe, then:

"With delicate rings of the gods

in our noses

we do not root in their garden"

She stared at him, puzzled "I don’t understand"

"An ancient Earthside practice Fars fro with their noses as well as their feet People called that kind of digging ’rooting’"

"So you’re co"

"Is that all you see in hed, then smiled as much at herself as at Kerro "We’re a fine pair to be selected for breeding - the poet and the pig!"

He stared at her, ling, then laughing

Presently, he lay back on the duff "Ahhh, Hali, you are good for ht need so that keeps you so shut away?"

He scratched his head, recovered a broig of dead cedar "I’ve been rooting into the ’lectrokelp"

"That seaweed the Colony’s been having all the trouble with? Why would that interest you?"

"I’ht down my hatchway The kelp, or some phase of it, appears to be sentient"

"You mean it thinks?"

"More than tha probably much more"

"Why hasn’t this been announced?"

"I don’t know for sure I caether the rest There’s a record of other teams sent out to study the kelp"

"How did you find this report?"

"Wel I think it may be restricted forback from me"

"You and Ship!"

"Hal"

"Oh, all right What’s in this report?"

"The kelp appears to have a language transht but we can’t understand it yet And there’s so I can’t find out if there’s a current project to contact and study this kelp"

"Doesn’t Shi"

"Ship refers me to Colony HQ or to the Ceepee, but they don’t acknowledgenew They don’t acknowledgetrouble with theet an explanation for all the gene sa? How very curious"

"Oakes is a very curious and very private person"

"How about someone on the staff?"