Acorna's World Part 17

"There've been a number of other ships here. Similar trails all. I'm reprogramming so -we can follow them but the trails are confused."

"Think it's Khieevi?"

"Who else? It's not us, that's for sure."

"Follow that ion," Becker said.

"What?"

"You have just got to watch more of my antique vid collection, honey," he said.

Acorna and Aari had the Condor fitted for the sap sh.e.l.ls first. They could use their installation as a prototype to show the others. After a few glitches, which the Com)or accepted with its usual savoir-faire, the modifications were made and the Condor -was p.r.o.nounced Khieevi-ready.

The most effective way to persuade all of the other merchants to go along with the plan, Acorna decided, was to have a meeting and show the vids to all of them at the same time.

Once the vids had finished playing, the boardroom was absolutely still as the lights came up.

Then Holland Barber, the lawyer for Cascade shipping company, which had won the bid to transport merchandise to and from MOO, spoke up. "Ms. Harakamian-Li," the thin-faced blonde in the abbreviated silver synsilk power suit said, "Your allegation that we need to modify our ships in such a drastic way to deal with an alien race that clearly, from your own film, has been almost annihilated by those sticky things, appears to us to be unfounded. You are overreacting to a ridiculous degree. With Mr. Harakamian missing, there is actually no reason even to suppose that MOO will continue to be operational. Why, therefore, should we risk unnecessary modifications to our ships when we could simply claim because of your lack of foresight in providing a satisfactory business climate, we are no longer bound by our contract? We shall simply withdraw and return to Federation s.p.a.ce."

"That is certainly your choice, Ms. Barber," Acorna said sweetly. "But I'd like to remind you that the AcaSecki has disappeared while attempting to do that very thing-return to Federation s.p.a.ce, that is."

The bony blonde gave Acorna a supercilious look and said, "That was one small ship, Ms. Harakamian-Li. We control a fleet. I hardly think these c.o.c.kroaches would consider us as easy a target."

"It's entirely up to your client, Ms. Barber," Acorna said.

At that moment Aari and Mac broke into the meeting. "Excuse us, Kh.o.r.n.ya. But Mac has just intercepted a transmission we thought would have bearing on this meeting."

"Yes?" Holland Barber, who had yet to sit down, acted as if she were in control of the meeting.

Mac earnestly repeated all of the klackings and klickings he had heard and Aari translated.

"The Khieevi are ma.s.sing an attack on narhii-Vhiliinyar," Aari said.

"And that is?" Holland Barber asked.

"The Linyaari homeworld," Aari said. "Our homeworld."

"I can't see that your homeworld, however dear it may be to you, has anything to do with my client," the lawyer said.

"It doesn't actually," Acoma said. "Except that narhuVhiliinyar was the primary planet Uncle Hafiz hoped to entice as a trading partner when he established MOO."

"In short, Holland," said Michaela Glen of Hudson Interplanetary Realty, Inc. "Customers. If you want to sit around quibbling about a few modifications House Harakamian has agreed to pay for in order to save your client's penurious corporate b.u.t.t while these c.o.c.kroaches eat some of the most potentially profitable trade partners in the history of the Federation, feel free. But Hudson is willing to follow in the footsteps of our glorious voyageur founders and not only modify our ships to fight, but fight to protect our trade."

The rest of the merchants in the room applauded.

Becker and Nadhari were having a difficult time following the ion trail when they received a hail and Acorna's face appeared on the screen. "Captain, Mac has picked up a signal from the Khieevi fleet. They've located narhii-Vhiliinyar."

"On our way, Princess," Becker said. "Your uncles getting those sap torpedoes filled?"

"Yes, Captain. All available personnel have been collecting and diluting the sap and Gill says the engineers have made some very business-like torpedoes and are fitting the ships with them now. The Condor is ready to go. Have you found any trace of the Acadeckil"

Becker looked at Nadhari. He didn't want to break the news to Acorna.

"We haven't found a trail, Acorna," Nadhari said crisply, "But there are other trails that correspond with those of Khieevi ships. We were about to follow, but it seems we now have a good idea -where to find the Khieevi."

"Yes," Acorna said. "Though it's odd that you're finding traces there when the coordinates are so far from those of narhii-Vhiliinyar." , "Those bugs get around," Becker said.

The s.p.a.ceport on narhii-Vhiliinyar took the first hit from the Khieevi missile attack. The third wave took out most of the techno-artisan's compound, including the huge evacuation ships the Linyaari had used to escape their former homeworld.

Due to the Linyaari ability to heal infirmities as well as injuries and disease, even the old were not feeble and the staggered lines of refugees heading for the caves in the hills -where the Ancestors lived moved along smartly.

The com-shed officer of the day barely escaped with her life and the portable remote link as her duty station exploded behind her.

Trees were few on narhii-Vhiliinyar but the gra.s.ses beyond the primary grazing areas -were taller than the heads of the people, and provided visual cover. Council members directed people to the proper path and shepherded them through. The attendants of the Ancestors met the refugees at predesignated places to guide them to the caves.

At first, once the cities and chief settlements were behind them, the refugees faced little danger from the bombardment, They made their way quietly toward the caves. Only the occasional whimpering of a child or the cough of an elder interrupted the m.u.f.fled pounding of hard feet and the shush of the gra.s.ses as bodies wound quickly through them. The thought that guided everyone was, "Calm. Peace. Go swiftly but silently. Help your neighbors if they fall." The voice in -which everyone heard these thoughts was that of the one they loved best and trusted most. The best loved and most trusted heard the thought in the voice of Grandam Naadiina.

Then suddenly the bombing fanned out from the city and ignited the tall gra.s.ses, where hundreds of people still travelled. People ran, and screamed, and fell, and some were trampled.

Circling the planet, the Khieevi -were pleased at last to feel the terror rising in nourishing -waves from the surface. The transmission of it -would appease the Young for a -while longer, until the ships could land and begin loading the prisoners.

The House Harakamian ships rallied under Nadhari's leadership. Most of the security ships needed only to load the torpedoes in their own bomb bays to be ready to fly into battle. Cascade shipping company's lawyer -was overruled by her bosses, although one ship was allotted to take her and some of the other less committed executives and employees back to the company's headquarters. What Ms. Barber had failed to realize, Rafik told Acorna, -was that her company -was actually a subsidiary of one owned by Hafiz's second cousin, "whose holdings were dependant on the backing of House Harakamian.

Acorna and the other Linyaari meanwhile spent time with the plants of the vine world. The vines actually seemed to flourish in the sea of sap they had created, growing from it at an amazing rate and sending forth a pleasant floral smell as if the *whole planet was merely a large innocuous bouquet. "Apparently the sap that kills the bugs has regenerative properties for the plants," Miiri said. "Fortunately it doesn't work that way for the Khieevi," Aari said with a small, tight smile.

Some of the less battle-worthy ships brought up the rear of the makeshift fighter squadron. They formed a supply line back to the vine world to reequip ships that, it was optimistically hoped, would expend all of their sap sh.e.l.ls destroying Khieevi and their vessels.

Becker meanwhile was giving the skippers and navigators a crash course in gonzo astrophysics.

"If we use the folds in s.p.a.ce as cover, we can pop in and out around the bugs and sap them before they have any idea *where -we come from. But with this many of us, we have to do it in strict rotation or we'll be ramming each other and lose the battle to friendly fire."

Becker was originally going to return to the Condor, flying it into battle and leaving Acorna and Aari with the other Linyaari back on the vine world, which was the only place certain to be safe from Khieevi attack.

But the Khieevi ma.s.sed quickly around narhii-Vhiliinyar and, instead of sending in ground troops and shuttles as they had before, began a ma.s.sive bombardment of the helpless planet. Becker stayed with Nadhari as she flew reconnaissance, spying out the Khieevi position, which was basically encircling the planet with ships, as it had done with the vine world.

"You're on your own, kids," Becker told Acorna and Aari in his last transmission to the ConSor before the battle was joined. "I'll miss my old bucket of bolts, but the I frit is lighter and more maneuverable and Nadhari needs me with her to *weave her troops in and out if we're going to have a prayer against the klackers. Aari, make sure Mac reports to you what he's getting from the Khieevi communications and if there's any break. ..." "Lately they've been almost impossible to read. Captain," Aan said sadly. "So many are klacking at once that Mac cannot decipher individual messages. And the sound of the missiles is also disrupting our sensors."

"We're going to start making a lot of noise ourselves pretty quick," Becker said. "Be safe, people."

"Be safe, Joh," Aari said, and touched the corn screen.

"Be safe, Becker, and keep the others safe as well," Acorna said.

But she felt so powerless. In the other battle, there had been something she could do to help, but this one, well, it almost went without saying that this was a lost cause. The sap was effective against the Khieevi. Perhaps they could be driven off in time to save the Linyaari people, if not narhii-Vhiliinyar, but it was hard to believe the combination of corporate security and civilian ships stood a chance against the Khieevi hordes.

More immediately saddening was that in the course of their reconnaissance, Becker and Nadhari had seen no sign of the AcaSeckl, and Mac could discern no mention of them from the Khieevi transmissions filling the Condor with their staccato.

The driver of the Khieevi ship designated Fourteen Klaclu am) Two KLiclu was not, as his non-Khleevi enemies sometimes presumed, incapable of independent thought and action. Quite the contrary. The driver, now trying to control the ship with only five feet, having sacrificed his sixth, knew that once he rejoined the other Khieevi, he -would not last long.

When the main swarm discovered the true home of the One-Horns and began bombarding it, the driver was so dismayed he sent an extra jolt of energy to the Young. His wonderful capture, so fortunately come by and so willingly carried to the Young, was about to be rendered insignificant by the might of the swarm. Unless, of course, he and his fellow strag glers delivered their contribution to the diet of the Young before the swarm was able to return with captives.

Some of the other stragglers were little more than dead weight. There had been six of them in his limb originally and he knew for certain that three of the ships no longer contained living personnel. No one was at the com units, and the ships were guided only by the tractor beams attached to the captive vessel from Fourteen Klaclu an() Two Klickd and the other two vessels whose crews still contained some living members.

The only comfort that the driver had was that he knew many of the ships in the swarm were as badly off as his own - as the others of his limb. The communications he received, and ignored, were quite often disordered and nonsensical and he suspected that only the structure of the swarm kept many of the ships in place.

Fourteen Klacfu ano Two Klic/u would not remain in place. It sped, with as much momentum as possible pulling one alien and three Khieevi vessels plus two others whose drivers, he suspected, were suffering more of the effects of contaminated shuttle soldiers than him, toward the homeworld and the Young.

As the bombardment of narhii-Vhiliinyar continued, so did Acorna's healing duties.

The first to show the long-range effects of the damage done to the Linyaari was Aari's mother. Miiri, gathering sap on the vine world, grew more and more distracted and incoherent. Kaarlye said she was receiving telepathic signals from the homeworld, reading the suffering of her people. The time came when she cried out and fainted, falling face forward into a lake of sap. By the time they pulled her out, she had nearly suffocated.

Acorna, Neeva, Melireenya, and Khaari, as well as Kaarlye, all laid horns on Miiri to revive her. But the physical effect of her fall was not what caused her to thrash and cry out in her unconsciousness.

"This is how she was while Aari was a prisoner," Kaarlye said.

"I don't see why," Liriili said. "She's no good to anyone that way."

But as time wore on, and reports were relayed back along the supply channels of the fires in the fields, the decimation of the cities, the saturation bombing of the planet's surface, the bad news took its toll. First Melireenya, then Khaari, then Neeva and finally Kaarlye himself began to succ.u.mb to the disorientation and panic that had marked Miiri's decline in health.

Even Aari attempted to use his newly grown horn to soothe his parents and the Balakiire crew. He had no more luck than the others.

Acorna had not lived on narhii-Vhiliinyar long enough to develop a bond strong enough to affect her the way it did the others, but she missed Calum, and Maati, Grandam, Hafiz, and even Karina. Not to mention all of the children she had helped to rise from slavery only for them to fall victim to a more deadly peril. Jana would be taking care of the others now, she knew, and Maati would help. So would Thariinye, -who was not a bad sort, just a bit callow sometimes.

Calum had helped raise her and at times had been her closest friend. If she -were to bond with anyone out there, she thought, it would be with him. But she felt nothing from him. Nothing. Unfortunately, the hardheaded Caledonian, while as pragmatic and ingenious as the best of his race, had not fallen heir to their more magical qualities.

Grandam had lived through much in her long life, but even the Khieevi attack on Vhiliinyar had not been this horrible. The people had escaped then. Now they were ambushed on their own world, their escape routes cut off, the ground quickly being bombed from beneath their feet.

The noise outside her head was no worse than the clamor inside. Her people were dying. Dying. Dead already, many in the tall gra.s.ses, and she could do nothing. The keening of death songs in the caves was as loud in its way as the bombing.

Not just bombing either, but ships falling from the sky, huge chunks of them plummeting everywhere, blazing comets of death.

She healed burns and fractures, crushing injuries and shock, all the time trying to exude calm and control, as all the other elders -were also doing. But never had she felt so keenly every year of her age. The Ancestors attempted to help, but their energy was older than her own and they were not immune to the chaos and tragedy thundering down upon them.

She felt a sudden jolt of alarm and looked up from the badly burned body of young Hiiri, who had been caught in the first gra.s.s fire. One of the Ancestors bolted from an adjoining cave and galloped across the charred stubble that remained of the tall gra.s.ses, easily, gracefully leaped the small river fed by an underground spring in the hills, and charged into a remaining stand of tall gra.s.ses on the other side. Grandam watched as the gra.s.ses parted, and a line of figures, much burdened with cases and cages, humbled through the gra.s.s to meet the Ancestor. (Aagroni lirtyef) Grandam called in thought-speak. (Your laboratory should have been among the first to be evacuated!) (We could hardly leave all of the new younglings we've been growing from the remains of the animals from Vhiliinyar, could we?) the aagroni demanded indignantly. (It took a little time to pack them out but everything has gone very well indeed.) The Ancestor had gone to offer her services as a pack animal. (Of course, you couldn't,) Grandam replied. (I commend your dedication to your charges.) She turned back to the smoky den behind her to recruit some of the able bodied to a.s.sist with the bundles.

The ball of flame flashed across her eyes as she turned and *when she whirled back to look, it had landed in the tall gra.s.s. She could no longer see the Ancestor or the aagroni but she heard the screams and the frantic whinnying of the Ancestor. An attendant ran from one of the caves but he had Grandam's heels before him.

She tried to outrun the flame, circling around it to reach some of the scientists behind it, or the Ancestor. All of these precious beings must not die. So much had been lost in such a short time. This must not go too.

But she could see nothing but fire. She heard the roar of the flames and the screams and she saw the Ancestor leap from the fire with specimens upon her back, her mane and tail on fire before she leaped into the river. Grandam leaped into the river herself and soaked herself thoroughly and then gave a great leap of body and mind and plunged into the flames.

After countless hours of healing work, trying to soothe and sedate Neeva, Khaari, Melireenya, Miiri, and Kaarlye, Acorna was resting. Aari helped by holding the hands of his parents, speaking in a low voice to them of his boyhood, and also remembering some bits of Linyaari spiritual teachings, of how beloved souls returned with the new spirits of the young.

She had finally fallen asleep listening to him herself. His horn was not mature enough to use for healing, but what he was doing truly helped. More than Liriili, who wrung her hands and demanded that somebody <)o something.="" she="" seemed="" most="" distressed="" that="" all="" of="" these="" outsiders="" now="" knew="" the="" location="" of="" narhii-vhilnnyar.="" irrationally,="" she="" was="" somehow="" not="" understanding="" that="" the="" khieevi="" had="" already="" found="" the="" planet.="" and="" something="" wo,)="" being="" done.="" the="" khieevi="" bombardment="" of="" the="" linyaari="" world="" was="" now="" meeting="" with="" resistance="" from="" the="" outside,="" from="" the="" darting="" mosquito-like="" attacks="" of="" moo's="" combined="" forces.="" reports="" traveled="" back="" down="" the="" supply="" channels="" that="" the="" attacks="" were="" effective.="" once="" a="" khieevi="" vessel="" was="" sapped,="" it="" did="" not="" remain="" aloft="" for="">

On the other hand, another odd rumor was reaching the vine world. Many of the Khieevi ships that had not been hit, in fact, even before the MOO ships began their attack, were falling out of orbit and crashing onto the surface of narhiiVhiliinyar. Direct communication with the front wings was infrequent and terse, so Acorna had not been able to speak to any of the actual combatants about this, but she suspected that some of the Khieevi swarm had been infected with the sap from the swarm's previous attack on the vine -world.

The MOO forces had actually been firing a relatively short time-less than forty-eight hours-but the psychic damage from the telepathic bonds between the Linyaari on narhii-Vhilimyar and Aari's parents and the Balakiire's crew had been occurring since the first Khieevi bomb struck the planet's surface.

Acorna's dreams were fitful and troubled, she was running, hiding, ducking, while the world fell apart all around her. Some part of her mind knew that this was not only a dream. Nevertheless, the bonds of empathy that tied her to her own friends and kin were beginning to drag her into the mora.s.s of emotion experienced by the Linyaari under attack.

Suddenly, screams shattered her fragile rest and her eyes flew open. All of the Linyaari, including Liriili and Aari, cried out.

"What is it?" she asked, struggling to her feet.

"Grandam," Neeva cried.

"Grandam," Kaarlye and Miiri echoed.

Aari added, with wonder in his voice. "And Maati."

At the moment Grandam leaped into the flames, Maati was also sleeping. She and Thariinye had their hands full calming children, trying to heal them of fears they shared. It didn't help that Hafiz and Karina were so obviously frightened.

"Look," Maati had told the others. "I think the Khieevi really like it when they scare us. They get some sort of special kick out of it. So the scareder we are, the more they like it. Can we try not to give them the satisfaction?"

Jana nodded her understanding, "Some of the overseers at the mines were like that. And-Kheti said that some of the clients in the pleasure houses -were like that, too. They enjoyed scaring and hurting the girls because that was what they wanted really, not the s.e.x."

"I can't help it," Chiura said, cuddling close to Jana. "I'm scared."

Karina Harakamian stopped trembling and tried to rally them. "I know what. We could group sing. Does anyone know the song 'k.u.m-bye-ya?' It's from an ancient Earth culture and very hypnotic."

n.o.body did. Karina sang it with them. It -was slow and everybody swayed to it like she showed them to, but it was repet.i.tious. It didn't change their mood or lighten their fears.

Calum Baird, who now had nothing to do, finally said, "That's a nice wee song, Karina, but we've sung it twenty times. Shall we try something else? I know a few. I learned this one from Giloglie one time when -we were drunk as skunks. His people were great ones for songs. We used to sing this one and some of the others to Acorna when she'-was little."

While he taught them, "The Rocky Road to Dublin" and they were all shouting, "One, two, three, four, five! Hunt the hare and turn her on the rocky road all the way to Dub-uh-lin one, two, three, four, five!" Maati and Thariinye were finally able to fall into an exhausted sleep.

And then she felt the flames and heard, for the first time ever, Grandam shriek, and she woke up shrieking too. Thariinye was screeching right back at her. Then Grandam was gone, somehow, but someone else was there, in her mind with her.

"Maati? Maati, where are you? It's Aari. Keep sending. I'm coming to get you."

Maati's thought was loud and clear and If Aari and Acorna both heard it, though Miiri and Kaarlye almost immediately lapsed back into their telepathic nightmares. (There's Khieevi ships all around us. They're taking us somewhere.) (Can you read them, Maati?) Aari asked her.

(A-a little. I know they want to hurt us, but I scared one of them by rubbing sap on the screen.) (That's good,) Aari told her. (You kept them from taking you off the ship.) (Maati, ask Calum what your coordinates are,) Acorna said.

(Can't,) Maati replied.

(Is he hurt?) Acorna asked anxiously.

(No, nothing like that. He's doing a lot of clapping his hands and stomping his feet and bellowing. Everybody else is doing it too so I wouldn't be able to make him hear me. But I can read them.) She was silent for a moment, then recited the coordinates.

(Keep sending,) Aari told her. (We're on our way.) The coordinates were nowhere near those of narhiiVhiliinyar.

The Khieevi swarm spiraled in rings twenty deep around narhii-Vhiliinyar. Blossoms of red fire bloomed from the innermost ships as missiles silently connected with the surface of the planet. Then the ships that had fired spiraled back out to the outermost layer to be replaced by fresh ships.

Up until recently, no one who had witnessed this battle formation had lived to tell about it. One hundred percent saturation, domination, and decimation were guaranteed. Usually the innermost ships dispatched shuttles with ground troops instead of bombs, but sometimes the bombs came first, to soften up the enemy before the troops landed. This time the ships themselves intended to land and gather up the prisoners.

The strategy was time tested and utterly perfect against planets without missiles or other defenses of their own. Planets such as narhii-Vhiliinyar.