Ice Planet Barbarians

Vektal panics when George collapses, despite the computer’s reassurance that she will soon recover. When she wakes, several minutes later, he is astonished that she can speak his language fluently. They discuss their supposed mating: Vektal is baffled by Georgie’s idea that mating should be a “mutual decision” since “the khui chooses. It always knows” (126). Vektal grows alarmed when Georgie talks of the possibility of returning to Earth; he cannot imagine a spaceship, the idea “ludicrous” when Georgie attempts to explain. When he gathers that she wants “to go back to the stars” (127), he offers to accompany her.

He explains that the humming of his khui is called “resonance” and is the way a khui signifies finding a mate. He urges her to accept a khui, but Georgie wants to consider. She asserts that she must be able to make some choices for herself in this confusing situation.

As they walk toward Vektal’s people, Georgie considers what she has learned. She considers it unlikely that the women will be able to leave Not-Hoth on their own, as Vektal’s ancestors were unable to leave using the spaceship.

This leaves the women the option of waiting for their captors and attempting to hijack the ship or taking their chances wherever the captors were taking them. The last option is to accept the khui and remain on Not-Hoth. Georgie considers the decision easy for herself, as she can imagine a happy life with Vektal, but decides that it is unfair to sway the others and vows to go along with whatever the group decides.

They approach Vektal’s home within a hidden series of caves. Before they enter, they meet Raahosh, a tribesman with a broken horn. He is astonished to see Georgie. Vektal introduces her as his human mate. As Raahosh stares, Georgie moves closer to Vektal, accidentally touching his tail and blushing when he reveals that this is considered a sexual touch among his people.

Raahosh is curious and clearly excited when he learns that Georgie has come with other women. She demands Vektal’s assurances that no woman will be forced to mate without her consent, which he readily agrees to, despite Raahosh’s insistence that this is not a matter of personal choice but something determined by resonance. Vektal is confident that his role as chief will see his dictate obeyed, however.

They enter the home caves, which branch off of a large cavern with a hot spring. The sa-khui work at various tasks, including weaving and stretching hides, but they all stop to stare at Georgie when she enters. Georgie notes that the group is overwhelmingly male. The other men are impressed when Raahosh reports that there are five human women with Georgie. She worries over how to prevent “straight-up mating season” over the women (137).

Vektal takes her to his personal cave, accompanied by Maylak, the community’s healer. Despite the rudimentary technology, Georgie finds the quarters comfortable. Vektal goes to speak to his people while Maylak attempts to heal Georgie, though she reports that she cannot do much if Georgie lacks a khui, as that is how Maylak’s healing abilities work: Her khui “can call upon [another’s] khui and encourage it to work stronger” (140). She wraps Georgie’s wrist instead, a form of treatment that Georgie finds comfortingly familiar.

Georgie asks Maylak about the process of getting a khui. While Maylak was too young to remember her own experience, as sa-khui babies receive them shortly after birth, she reports that the khui does not communicate with the person except for the vibrations of resonance. She likens the experience to an internal organ. She reports that the khui is “never wrong” about choosing an appropriate mate, even if Maylak had initially hoped to be mated with Vektal, who was her lover prior to her mating. Georgie is initially jealous and then sympathetic to Vektal, who must have been very disappointed to not be mated to his sa-khui lover.

Vektal answers the many questions of the other male sa-khui, including about sexual compatibility between his people and humans. When Raahosh disparages the differences between the species, Vektal grows angry, chiding Raahosh for being jealous and unkind. He assembles a group of volunteers to accompany him to the crashed ship the next day and tells these volunteers to assemble supplies. They plan to retrieve the women and then immediately seek a “sa-kohtsk,” the large animal from which the sa-khui harvest their khui.

Vektal returns to his quarters, where a sleeping Georgie wakes and performs oral sex on him, something Vektal finds unfamiliar but pleasant. They have sex. She notes the quietening of his khui, and he says that this is a short-term effect of their coupling but that it will continue to resonate for her “even when the kit arrives” (148). Georgie is shocked that pregnancy is possible between them and at Vektal’s confidence that conception has already occurred. She realizes that her typically regular menstruation is late, supporting his claim, and grows upset.