West of Eden

for me to see then come and inform me. Repeat."
    "Return to those with the bird. Stay. Return to the Eistaa when ready are the…"
    "Pictures, views, landscapes." Vaintè said it three different ways so the stupid creature could understand.
    "Repeat, akayil."
    Akayil, disgust-in-speech. The watching fargi whispered the terrible expression to each other and felt fear, moving away from the messenger when she left as though afraid of some contamination.
    "Vanalpè, how long will the process take?" Vaintè asked.
    "To start with, the information is available now. The memory store of the bird's ganglion array will have been dumped into a larger memory bank. I have done this myself when recording growth patterns. The first pictures and the last pictures may be seen at once—but finding one's way through the information in between is the time-consuming part."
    "Your meaning is not clear."
    West of Eden - Harry Harrison
    "I am stupid in my explanations, Eistaa. The bird has been gone for very many days. All of this time, night and day, a picture has been memorized every few moments. The memory creature may be instructed to remove all the black pictures of the night, but countless more still remain. Then each picture must be brought to the liquid-crystal screen, to be ignored or recorded. This will take days, many days."
    "Then we will be patient and we will wait." She looked up and saw the stocky, scarred figure of Stallan approaching and signaled her close.
    "The bird has returned. We will soon know if the ustuzou have been found. Are we ready to mount an attack?"
    "We are. The fargi now shoot well, the hèsotsan are well-fed. More dart-bushes have been planted and many darts have been gathered. The boats have been breeding and some of the young ones are big enough for service."
    "Ready them. Load food and water, then attend me. You, Vanalpè, your experience with pictures will be put to good use now. You will go at once to aid those who do that work."
    For the rest of that day, and all of the next, Vaintè guided the city and put all thought of ustuzou from her mind. But on every occasion when she relaxed and there was no one close to speak to, instant memory returned. Had the ustuzou been found? If they had been found they must be killed, sought out and destroyed. Her nose flaps whitened with anger when she thought of the ustuzou. When she felt like this she took no pleasure from eating, while her temper was so short that one frightened fargi died after her savagely curt dismissal. It was a good thing for the well-being of the city that word finally reached Vaintè on the third day.
    "The pictures are ready, Eistaa," the fargi said and a shiver of relief passed through all who heard that.
    When Vaintè left the ambesed even Kerrick joined the large group of followers who trailed after her, as eager as any to discover what had happened.
    "They have been found," Vanalpè said. "A large picture is being processed and is almost ready."
    The sheet of cellulose was slowly being extruded from a beast's orifice. Vanalpè pulled it free with a wet smacking sound and Vaintè seized it ifp, still damp and warm.
    "They have indeed been found," she said, and the picture trembled in her fingers at the pleasure in her movements. "Where is Stallan?"
    "Here, Eistaa," Stallan said, laying aside the pictures she had been looking at.
    "Do you know where this place is?"
    West of Eden - Harry Harrison
    "Not yet." Stallan pointed to the center of the picture. "But it is enough to know that this river goes past the site. We attack by water. I am now following their trail, it is a way that I know and the first part is already marked on my charts. With the pictures I shall follow them until they reach this place. See, it is their lair. The shelters of skins, the large beasts, everything as before."
    "And they will be destroyed as they were destroyed before." She signed Kerrick to attend her, then tapped the picture with her thumb. "You know what this is?"
    The black and white patterns meant nothing to him; he had never seen a picture before. He took the sheet and turned it in different directions, and even looked at the back before Vaintè tore it from his hands.
    "You are being difficult," Vaintè said. "You have seen these creatures and structures before."
    "With all respect, Eistaa," Vanalpè said, her interruption humble and apologetic. "But the fargi are like this as well. Until they have been trained to look at pictures everything that they