There was a book.
(everyone had wondered what
would happen at Gan's funeral,
after the surprise of T'Gatoi's)
It contained musings on the
intellectual potential
of male Tlic (who, barely
living past the larval stage,
fucking and then dying, are
unlikely to appreciate it) and
other such misguided kindness,
and for the gossips
there was an account of the
process behind the funeral
of T'Gatoi, the careful
selection of Earth seeds
that wouldn't compost her
alien chitin, and trials
to speed their growth
so they could flower
wilt and die before
surprised mourner's eyes.
Gan had promised not to tell
these to pairs who considered
that travesty to be "romantic",
but they'd been figured out
and publishing the book finally
laid the matter to rest.
There was a secret book.
Rumours spread amongst the
humans immediately: it contained
ideas for pheromonal terrorism,
or subtle chemical self-defenses
to weaken the Tlic young as they
grew in their eggs inside their
human host. Rumours were never
dignified with a response,
of course,
but it seemed like everyone,
Tlic and human alike,
speculated about it in conversation.
There was a secret.
Gan began the second book with:
"Some ideas are only
intensified the more they are
known and thought;
others can be stopped
by precautious opposition:
knowledge of them must be kept
to a small group. So I
have written a book for each,
for the one
and the other."
But yet others
are best when none at all
know them, Gan thought
as he wrote his ideas of the
second type
into the first book
and sent the second book away
with those of the first type.