Acorna's Search Part 8

"Miiri," Acorna said, "I'll get Aari and Maati. We will come and help immediately."

She left the flitter and found Thariinye dozing lightly against the outside hull, RK fast asleep with front paws and chin laid proprietarily across Thariinye's outstretched leg. There was no need to disturb them right now, of course. She could thought-call the others easily from here.

(Aari? Maati? Come back to the flitter. Your mother wants to speak to you.) she broadcast her thoughts into the late afternoon storm. The tops of the carnivorous plants dipped and bobbed in a freshening wind. The sky was boiling, and jagged bolts of lightning flashed green nearby. There was no ram yet. It was hard for it to rain with the surface water so diminished, Acorna supposed while she waited for her life-mate's answer.

As they terraformed, possibly they would need to bring in water from the outside first, to "prime the pump" as humans said in some of the old books she had read, the ones about life in the desert.

There was no answer from Aari or from Maati. Acorna told herself to be calm, that they might be preoccupied or conversing with someone else, not receiving. She stepped back into the flitter and said in a carefully level voice, "Miiri? I'll have them hail you as soon as I can. I know it's hard, but try not to let anyone go look for Kaarlye and the aagroni before Hafiz's ship arrives with the personnel locators."

But the voice that answered was not Miiri's and was, in fact, strange to her.

"Kh.o.r.n.ya? Miiri said she had to join the search for Kaarlye and the aagroni, so I am now communications officer. This is Fiicki. Was there some message you wanted to give Miiri?" Fiicki," she said. "Try to call the search party back, please. Tell them to wait for personnel locators from the Moon of Opportunity. We must think of the safety of the searchers as well as of trying to find those who are lost. In fact, I may be missing of my crew now." I'll see if I can find them to tell them, Kh.o.r.n.ya," Fiicki

agreed, rather nervously. "No one seems to be around at the moment, though."

"Call them with thought-speak," Acorna suggested. "Before you leave the building."

"That's odd," Fiicki said after a moment in which Acorna followed her own suggestion, calling out for Aari, Maati, Maarni, and Yiitir. She could still see the tip of Thariinye's toe and RK's tail out the flitter window. "Silence."

"That's what I'm getting too. Fiicki, there is something very peculiar going on here. Do not leave the com unit under any circ.u.mstances until those locators arrive, and call me at once when they do. Meanwhile, patch me through to Hafiz again, please, I am going to awaken the rest of my crew and do an air search for our missing people en route to base camp. No, no," she said, feeling the panic in the erstwhile communications officer even through the vast distance between them. "Please don't be overly concerned. Whatever is happening is certainly curious, and cause to investigate. But remember that we have heard no alarm or fear from any of those missing. Whatever is happening, it may not be at all harmful or dangerous. I think we should recall all personnel to base camp, dispense the locators when they arrive, then regroup and redeploy each team in continuous communication with MOO if possible. It's either do that, or evacuate-and personally, I have no plans to leave this place without my family and friends. We will find them."

"If you feel differently, then of course you must do as you think best," she added quickly.

"It's as if they've been swallowed whole," Fiicki -whispered hoa.r.s.ely, sounding as though he was afraid the very building could hear him. "I have never felt such - silence, Kh.o.r.n.ya. Even in s.p.a.ce there were the other crew members. Please don't sign off."

"I won't. Monitor the unit during my hail to Hafiz, but please keep trying to contact the others through thought-speech. And stay at your post other crews might be trying to call for help, too."

"I-I will, Kh.o.r.n.ya. Please don't break the connection."

She promised she would not. While the patch to MOO was relayed, she opened the flitter door, gave her sleeping shipmates a mental hail, and said to Thariinye, "Please come aboard now, and bring RK. We are going to base camp."

"It's not my shift," he said, yawning. "Can't a man get any sleep around here? Why do we have to go now? And where are the others?"

"I don't know," Acorna said. "Why don't you call them?" She watched his face as he did. His confusion when his queries went unanswered was all too evident.

"Kh.o.r.n.ya, I don't understand. I hear nothing. No answer, no other thoughts, nothing."

"Exactly," she said. "It happened while you were sleeping and while I was speaking to Captain Becker and Hafiz. Just like that. I remember watching them walk away from the flitter toward the bog and then I became involved in the conversation. Then, just a few moments later, when I tried to call, nothing. They've vanished. It is apparently happening all over. So get in. We will do a quick fly-over where they are supposed to be, and see if we can pick up any clues. I do not expect to find easy solutions. The aagroni and from the sound of it, nearly everyone else at base camp is gone. And we'll be no help to the people back at MOO or our friends if we find out where the missing persons are only by joining them."

The fly-over of the territory they had been covering on foot for the last few weeks showed no signs of any Linyaari, or of other animal life of any kind. Acorna flew low and in a zigzag pattern three times, covering the entire area of their study and somewhat beyond those boundaries before she would give up. Yiitir, Maarni, Aari, and Maati were all gone, if she could believe the evidence of her own eyes and the instruments of her flitter. She double-checked to make sure they had not returned to their camp or Yiitir's and Maarni's flitter, but both were sitting as silent and empty as they had been all during her conversations on the com unit.

The weather was not good for flying. Although the flitters, once airborne, had shields to protect them from lightning, the small craft was buffeted by the wind and twice lightning crashed against the shield. The flare of energy was so bright that Acorna was nearly blinded. RK huddled on the deck behind her, and she was sure his fur must be standing at attention all over his body. Thariinye said nothing, but his eyes rolled to the sides a bit, his nostrils flared, and the white of his star-clad skin blanched even further around the knuckles as

he held onto the control panel while the flitter dipped and bobbed and took heart-stopping plummets in the storm.

At last they landed at the base camp, leaving the worst of the storm crashing and booming behind them. The large laboratory bubble looked as quiet as the former graveyard upon which it was set.

Night gathered even more rapidly than usual, the storm clouds bunching with other more innocuous ones, bullying the planet's pallid sun into seclusion. Acorna feared that they would find the base camp entirely deserted, but at the sound of the flitter, Fiicki emerged from the lab bubble and pulled the flitter door open before the engines had shut down.

"Kh.o.r.n.ya! Thariinye, I am so glad to see you! Oooooh, and poor little Riidkii," Fiicki said, impeding Acorna's exit to reach behind her and scoop up the bristling, growling RK.

"At least he 's not missing yet," Thariinye said with a trace of annoyance.

"True, true," Fiicki said. "But everyone else is. Please don't leave me alone here again. The silence is enough to distress and depress me and worse, there are the noises."

"Noises?" Acorna asked. "What sort of noises?" "Underground growlings I hear through my sleeping mat, like the beginning of an earthquake, or a volcano about to erupt or-as if the ground was digesting something. Or someone.'

Acorna laid her horn against the side of Fiicki's head, but since his fear had a reason and was not pathological, it could hardly be cured as if it were a mental illness. He did grow calmer, either because of the effects of her soothing thoughts or because they gave him the rea.s.surance that he was not completely alone.

"Underground noises? Now that's something to consider, Acorna said thoughtfully. "I wonder could there be underground Khleevi installations? Or is this just another sign of Vhiliinyar's unstable geology?" She got on the com unit and began hailing the other crews, asking them if they had any further cases of missing persons or if anyone reported hearing unusual subterranean noises.

It was no surprise, and in fact confirmed her worst fears, when she learned that many more people were missing, several from some crews, one from others, and none from still others. Altogether, in the last afternoon twelve more people had vanished from Vhiliinyar as if they had never been there at all. But no one mentioned underground rumblings other than the usual ones, which seemed to be related to volcanic eruptions.

When she reached MOO and gave her report of what had happened, Hafiz said, "You must evacuate at once."

"What about our mission here?" she asked, because she knew none of the others back on MOO would. "What about our friends?"

"There is no wisdom in reviving a planet to house a race that becomes extinct in the effort," Hafiz said.

"That's true," Acorna said, "and I think it would be smart to evacuate most of the crews and all nonessential personnel, but I believe I can discover what is happening. I want to stay here, Uncle Hafiz. I need to find Aari and Maati and the others. I have no evidence to give you at all, but I can't believe they're dead. They're simply not here. If they were dead, or even in terrible, terrible trouble, I'd know that. Even if I didn't pick up actual thoughts, I'd be feeling something if I'd lost them. I feel nothing but the certainty that I can find them if I continue to look."

Hafiz, wily old merchant that he was, said reasonably, "Of course, of course, my dear Acorna, I understand completely now you feel and you may certainly stay behind to look to your heart's content and the blessings of the Three Prophets and the Three Books be upon you. But only on one condition."

What is that?" she asked, sounding vague and distant, even to herself.

That you promise on the lives of my nephew Rafik, his ugly first wife, and Giloglie that you will not yourself become lost."

"I cannot promise that," she said. "In fact, being lost taken, whatever happened to them myself, may be the only way to find them."

"You are far too precious to risk on a maybe, my dear sweet Acorna. Come now, for once listen to the wisdom of your elders, and return with the others while you are able. We will not abandon your friends and loved ones. Once you are here, we will form a plan to search for them, using all the considerable resources at my command. But please leave before you vanish with the others. When all have had a chance to compare impressions without disappearing in the next instant as if at the will of some evil djinn, when from this you have gained perhaps insight, formed an idea that may have some outcome other than the sacrifice of yourself, done perhaps some research into this matter, then shall you return with all of the a.s.sistance it is within my power to give you."

Acorna's protestations that meanwhile her loved ones could be in deeper peril were met with a philosophical, "If it is G.o.d's will, they will survive until we can a.s.sist them. It is my will that you now put your head before your heart in this matter."

She knew he was right, but leaving Vhiliinyar behind was the most difficult thing she had ever done. When they had arrived on this planet, she had finally been part of a real Linyaari family her lifemate, his parents and sister, her aunt and crew-mates. Now, all of them were suddenly gone as if they had never existed and she was alone again.

The enormity of it was completely unreal to her. She could not grasp it, and did not want to. Despite what she'd told Hafiz, she felt no fear for her companions, because she could not feel the truth of it at all. The people she loved couldn't possibly be gone. They weren't lost forever or surely they would have broadcast some kind of distress call that she could have heard. There had to be some explanation for their absence. Perhaps they all were suddenly taken on a voyage off-planet together, and were waiting for her elsewhere. Her feelings were leading her thinking, she knew, but she realized that she had often gone with her gut feeling in solving problems. She just didn't have any idea how to proceed in this case. So, even though she hated to leave Vhiliinyar, Hafiz's counsel was good. It was time to hold a planning council and decide what to do next.

Neeva and Melireenya were among the missing, though Kaari and Hrronye remained to bring the Balakiire back to base camp. The remaining Linyaari survey members straggled in with their flitters, along with their data and the precious specimens they had gathered for the aagroni. Under the supervision of Fiicki, all samples of material from Vhiliinyar were carefully packed. Aside from her personal losses, Acorna knew that aagroni lirtye's absence would be a crushing blow to any hope of restoring Linyaari life as it had once been, if he was not found again. Especially when not only the rather gruff old scientist but all of his colleagues had been taken at once. They had to find the missing Linyaari, not just to ease her own heart, but also to save her people's hopes.

For all her conflicted feelings about leaving Vhiliinyar, she was incredibly glad to see the Moon of Opportunity again, and to be crushed in Becker's bear hug. She had been holding RK, but the cat simply prowled back and forth between her shoulders and Becker's for the duration of the hug, kneading his claws in and out and purring louder than the Condor's, engines. I sure am happy to see you, Princess," Becker said. Good thing I sent that cat along to look after you. And I know it's hard, but try not to worry about Aari too much. He is what we call one tough hombre. I mean, the Khleevi messed with him, and he came out of that and look what happened to the Khleevi! Nah, anything takes a bite out of that boy is gonna need a big chunk of something else to take the taste out of their mouth! We'll find him. Mark my words.

Hafiz has got a feed and a bunk organized for all of your folks, but Mac and I would really rather you'd come back aboard the Condor with us when you're done eating." He winked at her. "You could bring some chow with you if you really love us," he said. She could tell he was as worried as she was. He was talking nonstop as fast as if he was selling salvage, and mugging as he did so. With that last request he batted his eyelashes, ridiculously long and curly on such a rough-looking character, to cajole her. His efforts to distract her drew one corner of her mouth up slightly.

"Okay. I'd like that," she said.

Thariinye, who had been consoling a young female who had lost three members of her team, left her being cosseted by a bevy of Linyaari females who had remained on MOO. He caught up with Becker and Acorna just as she was about to go eat.

"How about me, Captain?" he said. "Can I come back on the Condor as well?"