Acorna's Search Part 33

She didn't allow herself to brood, however. She knew that wherever he was, he would find a way to return to her. Or she would find him. It was just a matter of time.

As the irrigation systems hydrated more and more of the sites where Linyaari explorers had vanished, Acorna helped to retrieve the missing Survey teams by working with the time machine, locating the appropriate dots of light, and helping the crews make sure that the fresh water flowed where the people were landing in this time.

Neeva and the crew of the wii-Balakiire returned with their pockets loaded with detailed drawings and notations about the planet as it had been before the Khleevi, with soil, plant, and gra.s.s samples even examples of insect life.

When their collecting met with the admiration of the hydraulics crews, Melireenya said, "We simply treated it as another diplomatic expedition, gathering all the information we could about our surroundings. We knew where we were, although we didn't know when the area was totally unpopulated, which was certainly not the case shortly before the Khleevi came."

"You must have been there sometime between the period when ancient Kubiilikaan disappeared and the period when our people became more populous," Yiitir told her. "Of course, we now know the city didn't actually disappear. It was deliberately buried and covered over with meadow."

"We've been studying the writings on the walls of the old city, and when he has time, Maak has helped us with his translations," Maarni said. "And we've made copies of the glyphs and their meanings "

"Which she just happens to have in her shipsuit pockets," Yiitir said with a wry smile. "In case you'd like to see. Along with the holos of the grandchildren."

Maarni stuck out her tongue at him.

The crews were busily realigning the hydraulics to cover the distance between the sea and the former base camp. Neeva, Khaari, Melireenya, Hrronye, Maati, Thariinye, RK, Yiitir, Maarni, and Acorna remained within the protected area atop the buried city. Already the increased flow of fresh clean water was causing small, healthy plant life to pop up all over the sites they had irrigated. Tiny star-shaped white and yellow blossoms, furry coverings of lichens on blasted stone, even a bristle of gra.s.s formed a meadow of sorts. Here the lot of them sat, munching on packaged leaves and seeds, while Maarni pulled out her findings and smoothed them on the ground for all to examine.

"You see here, this falcon-headed glyph with a woman's body? Up to this point she is in the guise of the Leader, or Highmagistrate and scientist/mage."

"Highmagister," Acorna supplied. "She was called High-magister HaGurdy."

"Yes. Oh! I see. That's what this character here means. It's a proper name. Thank you, Kh.o.r.n.ya. Well, as you can see, here she is wearing the coat of high office and that light around her head indicates power. We see in this panel what looks like the punishment of a Linyaari criminal, significant because until this point, no other Linyaari appear in any of the glyphs."

"That was no criminal," Acorna said. "That's Aari. She wanted to use him as a shortcut to building our genetic structure. But she tried to do it without his consent."

"Ahhhh well, yes, that begins to explain things." Maarni waited, in case Acorna had anything further to add. She had not spoken or projected thoughts to anyone since her return about what had happened to her on her journey. While she did not appear to have been injured in any way, her att.i.tude of thoughtful withdrawal worried her friends. These comments were the first any of them had had from her indicating what had happened in the Hosts' chambers once she had returned Maarni, Maati, and Yiitir to their own time.

"The figure that was Aari simply disappears and is not seen again in any of the glyphs. However, the female Linyaari figure who appears here why, that must be you, Kh.o.r.n.ya!"

"Yes," she said simply.

Maarni said, "I want you all to know that I obtained permission from the Ancestors and the Attendants to share this information with our people. Prior to this time, even this record has been kept as the sacred secret of the Ancestors. I believe in light of what we know from our personal experience that perhaps from the most ancient Ancestors to the present ones, they were wise enough that they did not wish their descendants to think badly of half of their lineage."

"So the stories Grandam told me and the ones told to her were the versions the Ancestors edited to make them suitable for children?" Maati asked.

"Yes," Maarni told her. "The Ancestors place a high value on peace and contentment, as do most of us, and knowing about the tempestuous side of the family would be upsetting to some and perhaps have had a bad influence on some of the youngsters. Now the Ancestors feel that the truth has come out, but that our race has endured times that make us long more than ever for peace and contentment. Enough time has pa.s.sed that much can be forgiven. Perhaps, also, the Hosts don't seem so bad when one knows about the Khleevi."

"No," Acorna said, closely scrutinizing one of the star-shaped blossoms as she spoke. "Though it seems more of a betrayal when it comes from those who are kin than those who are clearly enemy and alien."

"You see here now the story I told you of the origin of the falls. At least we thought it was the origin of the falls, but it seems the story was actually a creation story of the pool. The version we found on the walls shows the falcon with the woman's body and all of these other strange-looking creatures, interspersed with Ancestors, chasing what looks like a two headed ancestor "

"That would be Great-Grandsire Areel with me on his back," Acorna said. "The Ancestors intervened when Highmagister HaGurdy would have used me to replace Aari in her experiments."

"Here," Maarni's finger stabbed at a picture of the two-headed unicorn with a wave halfway up his body to indicate the river. "We see the pursued creatureAreel and Kh.o.r.n.ya, in the water but not until here " she tapped a later picture, where a pool surrounded by Ancestors received the body of a falling Linyaari superimposed on what was clearly supposed to be a waterfall, "do we see that there is a Cascade there. This glyph must have come from a private story of the Ancestors..."

Behind her, a standing figure cleared her throat. "After your

visit, the Ancestors recalled the prophecy of Grandam Gladiis. It was she who saw you fall into the future, to be saved from the waters of the past by those of the present day. Everyone thought Grandam Gladiis had gone a bit gaga when she made her prophecy, but the Ancestors decided differently when they heard of the time machine. Once they knew that you'd gone missing, they realized that they were the ones to do the saving, and you were the one to be saved and they sprang into action, after their fashion, that is."

Acorna smiled broadly for the first time since she'd returned and Maati smiled even more broadly in appreciation of it. "Once more I benefit from their wisdom and insight," Acorna said.

Maarni said, "And as you can see here, once this waterfall glyph appears, the light disappears from around the bird-woman's head and she is always shown with wings folded. Here she and her fellows help with the birth of the Linyaari you can see a line of them there. But then there follows a glyph this one, which says that all lab-conceived Linyaari were sent immediately to the Ancestors for nurturance for their first few years. Later, those who wished to returned to the city for their education. But you see from this other figure this one here, the woman with the bear's head, that the bird-woman's power was diminished and soon she is shown entering one of the ship glyphs. More and more of them disappear. There are three panels of what appear to be grown Linyaari inside the city building towers and carrying sun-shapes on their shoulders along with the Hosts."

"Those are the globes at the top of the buildings!" Thariinye said.

"Other Linyaari figures," Maarni continued, "meanwhile, are shown building the ceiling and covering it over with soil and trees. Even the sea is divided between the upper world and the lower."

'And then the last of the Host figures are shown entering the ship glyphs and are not seen in further drawings. For a time the city is shown to be lit by the globes with some of the Linyaari involved in technological activities below, while others, in ships much as we know them now, are shown coming and going from the planet, and engaged in a different level of technical activity on the surface. Here is the final glyph of the city, indicated by the column with the rayless globe, no longer accompanied by Linyaari figures. And this symbol here," she tapped a horizontal doorway, "which appeared earlier in the open position between the caverns and the city, is shown locked, or sealed shut."

Acorna turned to the Attendant who had spoken earlier. "Do the Ancestors recall any other apocryphal material about a Linyaari like Aari entering at any other time?"

The Attendant shook her head. "I'm sorry, Kh.o.r.n.ya. No. If they remember anything, I will notify you at once." "How about the sii-Linyaari?" Maati asked. "After the initial glyphs, they are not mentioned again," Maarni said. "Of course, we know now it's because they vanished in time."

"Oh, I hope they didn't go to a time when the water was too foul for them to live," Maati said. "But but they should have come out at the same time as Aari, right? So he could have purified it for them."

"The entire sea? Always?" Yiitir shook his head. "Doubtful, I'm afraid."

With a roar, the Condors, shuttle landed nearby and Becker alighted. RK yawned, stretched himself off Maati's lap, and sauntered over to greet the Captain. "We have the water in place, Princess, if you want to go work the way-back machine and see if you can find Aari and the aagroni and the rest of your scientists and bring 'em back alive."

Before becoming involved with the rescue efforts, Acorna had barely known many of the people who disappeared, but that had changed. Now she carried a palm-held computer stocked with pictures, anecdotes, resumes, preferences, pa.s.sions, and stories from loved ones about each person. Now she felt she knew each of them much better than she had known any of them to begin with. If she was to use psychic energy to help locate and bring them home, she had to know who they really were.

She found the base camp location, near the old graveyard and Aari's cave. Then she concentrated mostly on the aagroni, Kaarlye, and Miiri, at first, then on Lareel and Liimi, Faarli and Paari, Seela and Kewmii.

As she concentrated, she held her hand against the map and watched carefully. Her reward was fourteen white lights widely dispersed from the original area, which no longer bore the topography of the ruined planet, but instead included rivers, streams, foothills, and forests as well as pastures. Other life-forms, indicated by lights of different colors and intensities, moved among the white lights. Why were they so scattered? That was going to make them much more difficult to bring back.

The heavy shielding that had confounded the surveillance ships when Acorna and the others first explored the caverns and city had been partially removed. Through the breach, Acorna was able to send the Linyaari engineers at the base camp a picture of where each white light was, so they could distribute their irrigation ditches appropriately. But if these people kept moving, it would be hard to bring them home.

Once she located the lost Survey team members, she returned with Becker to the base camp. By the time they arrived there, so had several of the missing people. She saw at once why they had been so scattered when she'd seen them. They were scientists. They'd been collecting specimens, of course. Their hands were full and pockets stuffed with all manner of plant life, and any animal small or cooperative enough to come along. The aagroni and Kaarlye and Miiri arrived with three species of birds nesting in their manes and some small furry rodent-like creatures in their shirts. Miiri was leading what looked like some kind of baby deer, while Kaarlye had a pair of bear-like creatures clinging to each hand. The aagronis shirt was stuffed with the Vhiliinyar equivalent of rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and a large bird, a gooselike creature which had fouled or perhaps fowled? the inside of the aagroni's ship-suit.

The aagroni didn't seem the least bit unhappy about that, however, nor did he seem particularly surprised to find himself once more on post-Khleevi Vhiliinyar surrounded by his fellow Linyaari, Becker, and Mac.

"It's about time you brought us back," he told them. "I hope you can send us back to the past again soon. We'll take proper enviroshelters for the animals and collection bags for the plants next time."

The aagroni wanted to go back out again right away, but finally agreed that other lost people had to be found first. Though he didn't like it.

Acorna was a patient person, but by now she was more frustrated than she could ever recall being. In between searching for the teams, while the equipment was being moved from site to site, she searched the time map for Aari. It hadn't been that difficult to find a location similar to the one she had memorized in the past, the one he had left behind when he fled. But the area on the map contained no little lights of any sort, neither white nor aqua. So she concentrated as hard as she could and kept searching but she couldn't seem to find the right time or place in the s.p.a.ce/time continuum.

The night after the base camp team was located, however, she saw, at last, a collection of aqua lights in the sea as it had been above ground. The crews were moving the hydraulic equipment to another site and no one manned the pumps tonight. When a ship came to collect the aagroni and his team, Neeva and her crew had gone along, as did some of the other recently returned people. Yaniriin's lifemate was among them, and eager to see him once more.

Becker camped with the engineering team and even Maati had returned with her parents to MOO. Acorna was glad Kaarlye and Miiri were safe but didn't like to face them, feeling as she did, irrationally responsible that Aari was lost again.

She kept the screen where she could see the blue-green lights, and walked down to the sea. The water level was much lower now, and the buildings which had been covered were once more exposed and had resumed their proper place as dock-front real estate.

At least now, when she walked into the water, it was clean and clear.

She dove, submerging herself totally, thinking of the aqua lights and Aari. As she surfaced, she knew she was not alone.

(Sister! POP!) a horn-headed sea creature with humanoid features cried a friendly greeting that had a bubble around it. The bubble popped when the words emerged.