Didi shrugged. "Name's ‘Honored Pedure.' She talks funny. I think she's a Tiefer. And that cleric's shawl she's wearing? It's not just our crummy view from the control room: that shawl really isdark, across all colors but the farthest reds."
Hmm. Expensive. Mom had a dress uniform like that, only most people never saw her in it.
A wicked smile grew across Didi's aspect. "I bet she pukes when she sees the babies in your father's fur."
No such luck. But when Sherkaner Underhill came in a few seconds later, the Honored Pedure stiffened under her shapeless cowl. A second later, Rappaport Digby trotted onto the stage and grabbed an earphone. Digby had been with "The Children's Hour" from the beginning, long before Jirlib and Brent had started on the show. He was an old coot, and Brent claimed he was really one of the station owners. Viki didn't believe it, not after the way Didi sassed him.
"Okay, everybody." Didi's voice came amplified now. Daddy and the Honored Pedure straightened, each hearing the words from the speaker on their side. "We're coming up on fifteen seconds. Will you be ready, Master Digby, or should I play some dead air?"
Digby's snout was stuck in a wad of written notes. "Laugh if you like, Miss Ultmot, but air time is money. One way or another, I will—"
"Three, two, one—" Didi cut her speaker and stabbed a long, pointed hand in Digby's direction.
The cobber picked up his cue as if he'd been waiting in patient alertness. His words had the usual smooth dignity, the trademark that had introduced the show for more than fifteen years: "My name is Rappaport Digby, and this is ‘The Children's Hour of Science.'..."
When Zinmin Broute spoke in translation, his motions were no longer fitful and compulsive. He looked directly forward and smiled or frowned with emotions that seemed very real. And maybe they were real—for some armored spider creature down on the surface of Arachna. Occasionally there was some hesitation, a glitch in the intermediate conversions. Even more rarely, Broute would turn away, perhaps when some important cue appeared off-center in his head-up. But unless you knew what to look for, the fellow seemed to be speaking as fluently as any human announcer reading from notes written in his birth language.
Broute as Digby began with a little self-congratulatory history of the radio program, then described the shadow that had fallen upon it in recent days. "Out of phase," "perversion of birth." Broute rattled off the words as if he'd known them all his life. "This afternoon, we are back on the air as promised. The charges made in recent days are grave. Ladies and gentlemen, these charges of themselves are true."
The silence was a dramatic three beat, and then: "So my friends, you may wonder what gave us the courage—or the impudence—to return. For the answer to that, I ask you to listen to this afternoon's edition of ‘The Children's Hour.' Whether we continue in the future will largely depend on your reactions to what you hear today... ."
Silipan snorted. "What a money-grubbing hypocrite." Xin and the others waved at him to shut up. Trud sailed over to sit beside Ezr. This had happened before; he seemed to think that because Ezr sat at the edge, somehow he wanted to hear Silipan's analysis.
Beyond the wallpaper, Broute was introducing the debaters. Silipan anchored a comp to his knee and flipped it open. It was a clumsy Emergent thing, but it had ziphead support and that made it more effective than anything Humankind had created before. He punched the Explain key and a tiny voice gave him background: "Officially, the Honored Pedure represents the traditional Church. In fact—" The voice coming from Trud's comp paused, presumably while hardware searched databases. "—Pedure is a foreigner to the Goknan Accord. She's probably an agent of the Kindred government."
Xin looked around at them, momentarily losing track of Broute-Digby. "Pus, these people take their fundamentalism seriously. Does Underhill know about this?"
The voice from Trud's hand comp replied. "It's possible. ‘Sherkaner Underhill' is strongly correlated with Accord's security communications... .To date, we haven't seen any military message traffic discussing this debate, but the Spider civilization is not yet well automated. There could be things we're missing."
Trud spoke to the device: "I have a lowest-pri background task for you. What would the Kindred want from this debate?" He glanced up at Jau and shrugged. "Dunno if we'll get any answer. Things are pretty busy."
