Juna felt a fierce, protective pride as she remembered the joy of their presences merging during Mold’s first awakening as a bami. That moment of bonding had been the most profound rapport she had ever experienced. His delight and amazement at his own awareness had lifted her out of her loneliness and isolation. Caring for him had helped her make a place for herself among the Tendu.

“Dr. Saari, is it true that the Tendu eat their young?” one of the women in Life Support asked her.

The question jarred Juna from her reminiscences. Of all the differences between the Tendu and humans, that had been the hardest for her to accept. It was even harder to explain it to others, who didn’t have her understanding of the Tendu culture.

“Each year, a female Tendu lays hundreds of eggs, producing far more young than the land can support,” Juna told her. “The surplus tadpoles form a major source of protein for the Tendu during the rainy season.

“It seems harsh to us, but at that point in their life cycle, the tadpoles are barely aware of anything except food. If all of their offspring survived, Tiangi would be awash in Tendu.”

“Doesn’t it bother you?” the woman asked.

“Yes, it does,” Juna confessed, “but this is the way that the Tendu have ordered their society for longer man we have had history. We have no right to tell them how to live their lives.”

“Could you explain a little more about the bond between yourself and Moki?” Commander Sussman asked.

’The relationship between a bami and a sitik is not the same as the one between a human parent and child. A bami can survive quite well on its own. The task of a sitik is to prepare the bami for adulthood, to create a wise elder who is well-schooled in the ways of its village. Once the bami is mature, its sitik either dies or leaves the village and becomes a hermit or an enkar. The bonding process involves a physiological link between the sitik and its bami. Without frequent linking, the bami loses its will to live. If a sitik dies before its bami is mature, the bami will die as well. Moki had to come with me, because otherwise he would have died. Ukatonen came along to help with Moki, and to learn more about us.”