Acorna's World Part 3

You want me to leave? In this stuff?" she asked, nodding to the weather, which seemed to grow wilder by the moment. -No way! I am not bailing out just when something interesting 18 a.n.a.lly happening. Let's have a look."

I don't think this material is fit for children," he argued.

"If the Khieevi are in it-I have seen them in action. Trust me. They'll give a youngling like you nightmares."

"Aari said 'urgent! Thariinye. Don't you think you should stop arguing with me and get to -work?" she asked.

"Are you sure Liriili isn't grooming you to be the next viizaarl" he grumbled. "You're very bossy for a youngling."

"The/wi//?" she pointed to the com screen, tension tw.a.n.ging through her body so hard she thought she'd snap. It worked. Thariinye turned back to the console. She watched the visuals and listened to the Niriian voice speaking as Thariinye began the painstaking work of translating and transcribing the Niriian broadcast from the beginning. Of course, he brought up a computer translation of the broadcast on screen almost immediately. But verifying the translation and interpreting the nuances of the broadcast took time and concentration. He listened to the alien -words *while watching the accompanying visuals and the streaming machine translation on the corn screen. Sometimes he would amend the machine translation, and other times he let it proceed unchanged. Because he was working with a recording, he could halt the broadcast and back it up when he needed to. He was a lot better than she expected him to be at the work, actually. He didn't have to stop very often, and it was clear he took it quite seriously.

When he got to the shots of the escape pod lying in the greenery by the makeshift shelter, Maati got a funny feeling in her stomach. As the shot went by, she felt as if a part of her was still there, with the pod, wherever it had landed.

She was almost sure she knew? those markings. In fact, the *whole pod looked familiar, though it was hustling by on the screen too fast to be sure. Even though she didn't make a sound, Thariinye hit the stop b.u.t.ton on the broadcast and turned to her.

"What was that?" Thariinye said and then she knew for sure that he was reading her.

"The pod," she said. "Whose pod was that?"

"I don't know. And I'll need that information for my report. Go look it up for me, will you? There's no one at the other computer." He gestured to the opposite wall. All Linyaari ships were unique, and it -was a simple matter to match the markings to the master list of ships. She also wanted a listing of the people aboard the ship on the date that the Niriian broadcast indicated the shot had been taken. Lists of crews and pa.s.sengers, projected and actual itineraries, manufacturing and maintenance records-in short, anything that affected the ships throughout their time in the Linyaari fleet could be found in the government computers.

So compelling was her feeling of connection with the pod that she didn't even wait to see what else was on the pdyi, but did as Thariinye asked and opened the flight records.

She started scrolling through the files, after telling the computer to check the most current entries first. Surely, she thought, the pod belonged to one of the ships whose crew? had been attacked by the criminals Kh.o.r.n.ya and her friends had freed the s.p.a.ce travelers from. But the computer didn't list the pod as being registered to any of the ships now in active service and currently in s.p.a.ce. That was odd.

She expanded the boundaries of her search. And kept digging, listening to the thunder crash and crack outside while inside the Niriian monologue mumbled away, and now and then Thanmye would say, "To the-sanctuary? No. Hiding place? lhats not it either-" as he tried to find the proper Linyaari translation.

Then she heard him say something about "Khieevi" and turned to look. She had never seen a Khieevi. She was curious, in a horrified sort of way. What did such vicious and voracious beings look like?

She turned her chair around to view? the screen over Thariinye's shoulder. The bug-like Khieevi were only visible as feelers and legs and sh.e.l.l-like carapaces around the margins of the vid. In the center of the screen was the main subject of the transmission. His face was distorted with blood, sweat, and agony, and his body was even more broken than it had been when she had first seen him. But she could not mistake her brother.

"Thariinye," she said, her voice tight with emotion, "that's Aari! The Khieevi have Aari! What can we do? Are we too late? We have to help him. Where are Kh.o.r.n.ya and Captain Becker? Have they been killed already?"

Thariinye turned slightly and looked at her, his face as serious as she had ever seen it, and perhaps a bit green, too. "This is an old vid, Maati. Probably a Khieevi broadcast to the Niriian ship. The Khieevi like to do that-send pictures of old tortures to the people they plan to make their next victims. n.o.body knows why. But that's what this is. Look there-see-Aari still has part of his horn. Long slices have been carved away, but it's there. This is what happened to him before you saw him."

She didn't recognize the emotion that was making Thariinye's voice sound so strangled. Perhaps he was trying not to throw up. Abruptly, he switched off the visuals.

Maati felt as if her heart had been clutched in a tight fist and then suddenly released to fall thudding to the floor. Her breath came out in a rush. "That's horrible. Horrible. Are the Khieevi-are they coming-h-h-here?" She was stuttering now through chattering teeth and felt cold all over, a reaction that had nothing to do with the temperature in the room, and everything to do with what she'd nist witnessed.

"No. I told you. It's an old vid. They sent this to the people aboard the ship that carried this pliyi. Any luck on that registration design?"

"Not yet," she said, and turned back to her task with a new sense of urgency, widening the parameters of her search. The ordinariness of looking for information steadied her and gradually her hands stopped shaking. And, at last, there it was-the design, the number, and the name of the ship that had carried that pod. And the names of the people aboard when it shipped out on its last flight. A chill engulfed her again.

"Th-Thariinye?"

"I'm almost done, Maati."

"B-but-Thariinye. I found it."

"Good. Just a moment."

"No, now. It's important. The ship the pod was on? It was registered to my parents. To mine and Aari's parents. The people on the Niriian ship found them. I thought they were dead- but if the Niriians are correct, maybe they're not. At least, not both of them, at least not when this pod -was found."

"That is 'wonderful," Thariinye said. "We need to let Liriili know at once. I thought this piiyl was bad news, but it seems we have at least one cause for celebration among the information it brought us!" He put the final touches to his translation and uploaded it to the vlizaar.

"We have to tell Aari and Kh.o.r.n.ya and Captain Becker," Maati said. "They can go get our mother and father."

"Yes, yes, but first Liriili must know. It's procedure," he said, going all adult again. Thariinye turned back to the com station.

He hailed Liriili and told her what they had discovered.

I just thought it prudent," he finished, "to let you know the contents of the message before transmitting my interpretation to the Condor."

Thank you, Thariinye. That is very interesting. In light of your information, I think that tomorrow I shall send an emis^ry to the Ancestors to let them know what has been discovered. However, there will be no further transmissions from the Gom station. Not to the Condor or anywhere else."

But, honored lady! Aari, at least, should know immediately-the pod is apparently that of Aari and Maati's parents, to have been missing-"

"I know that very well, Thariinye. I also know now, from hard past experience, that any transmission we send may endanger this planet. If Khieevi are out there, we will not let them know our current location. It is simply too dangerous. The evacuation ships must be prepared, and steps taken for all Linyaari to escape the planet, if necessary."

"Again?" Thariinye said. "Where will we go this time? And what about Acorna-she and Aari are out there near the source of the message. They sent it to us, in fact. Do they not deserve to know what we've learned?"

"As soon as possible I will consult the aagroni and make the decision as to where we must go. Dear boy, I know this is difficult for you to understand," Liriili said. "But you simply must trust my judgment. We cannot send transmissions, and that is that. I will not put this planet in any further danger, no matter -what. If anything else pertinent comes in, let me know."

Thariinye ended the transmission with an exasperated snort. "I can't believe that! Can you?'

"From her? Sure," Maati said. "The question is, what are we going to do about it?"

"We?" Thariinye asked with maddening superiority. "We will do nothing, youngling. I, however, am going to borrow one of the ships from the s.p.a.ceport, and fly it to wherever I have to go to so Kh.o.r.n.ya will know how much danger she and her friends are in, and how much hope there is that Aari's parents are still alive. And then I'll rescue your parents. If Kh.o.r.n.ya and her friends want to come along, well, so much the better."

"I'm going, too." Maati said.

"No, you're not."

"I am, too, and you can't stop me."

"I can, too. I'm bigger, in case you hadn't noticed."

"As if you'd let me forget. But if you try to go without me, I'll tell Liriili what you're doing in time to stop you." "You wouldn't do that. You -want to save your parents and your brother and Kh.o.r.n.ya as much as I do."

"More," Maati said firmly, crossing her arms across her small chest. "That's why I'm going. So you don't mess it up."

"So I don't-"

"That's what I said. My family have been s.p.a.cefarers for generations, just like yours. I will do fine in s.p.a.ce. And you need backup. To get it, all you have to do is teach me the controls. Two will be better than one. I think we should leave right now."

"In this storm?"

"The ships are built to handle worse. Once we leave the atmosphere, the weather won't be any problem, will it?"

"It's easy to see you haven't had the parental discipline you need."

"At least I don't tell the same lie to six different girls and expect them all to believe it and like me afterward."

Thariinye didn't say anything to that, and Maati didn't need to be able to read minds to know she'd won.

"Come on, then. We'll take the Nilkaavri. I've been checked out on her already and she's loaded and fueled and ready to go. We can be out of here before anyone can stop us."

In her quarters, Liriili mentally followed Thariinye as he and Maati boarded the Nukaavri and prepared for take-off. She was not ignoring the threat of the Khieevi. But if the information from the piiyl was correct, their enemies were at the far end of the galaxy-weeks away even in the worst possible extrapolation of risk, and with many likely targets between them and the Linyaari to slow them down. Tomorrow-today, actu^ty, as it was early morning now, she -would send another, rnore trustworthy messenger than Maati to the Ancestors-one could control. She would ask for another translator, one e would hand-pick for discretion, and when Thariinye's find ings were either verified or modified, then would be time enough to send runners to the general populace, to alert the s.p.a.cefarers, possibly even to prepare the evacuation ships if necessary.

But at present, she felt sure the Khieevi did not know where the new Linyaari homeworld was, and she had protected their position by disallowing all outgoing transmissions from narhiiVhiliinyar. Becker's vessel was hardly a Linyaari ship, and once the troublesome Maati and Thariinye had joined the ConSor they could all look after each other.

The girl had become a hazard, her very existence menacing Liriih's position by threatening to "expose" her to the s.p.a.cefarers for alienating Kh.o.r.n.ya and Aari. The child didn't understand the delicacy of Liriili's task in leading the planet, the careful balance that had to be maintained for the good of all. And, as for Thariinye . . . Who did he think he was, ducking away from her delicate overtures? He, too, was a hazard, disrupting the peace of so many of the young females, and not realizing that he obviously needed a mate who could guide him and help him control his less responsible impulses. He blamed her, she knew, for she could read him even when his horn was shielded, just as if he was made of plasglas. He had wanted to go on the Balakiire's last mission, and he thought she had robbed him of glory. Very well, let him seek it now. Perhaps when- and if-he returned, he would be much wiser, would understand that her counsel had been for his own good. But, as for now, her two most difficult charges were, headed off-planet, possibly never to return. She'd sleep well tonight.

She arose the next morning at a leisurely pace, and halfway through cleansing herself, answered the call from the s.p.a.ceport com-shed. "Yes?"

"Vuzaar, I am here to relieve Thariinye, only Thariinye is . here. The equipment is on and there is a strange message 1 opine through the monitor, but Thariinye is absent."

"How strange," she said. "In this weather, where can he have p-one? It's hardly fit outside for grazing." Thunder was once more booming outside the pavilion and the cracks of lightning could be seen indistinctly through the fabric of the walls. Liriili shivered lightly, and pulled a blanket across her shoulders.

"Also, ma'am, one of the s.p.a.cecraft is not in its berth."

"How strange. Was it there yesterday? Perhaps it has been taken for repairs?"

"No, ma'am. I-wait-there u a note here from Thariinye. He says that he and Maati-surely he cannot mean little Maati the messenger!"

"Surely not," Liriili agreed.

"-Have gone to look for the girl's parents. He also wishes to warn others of a Khieevi presence detected in this galaxy by a Niriian vessel-that's the message on the com screen."

"How very extraordinary," Liriili said. "Stay at your post, then-is it liril this morning?"

Yes, maam.

"Stay at your post, liril. Be alert for incoming messages, but under no circ.u.mstances are you to answer them. There will be no outgoing messages of any kind from this planet until rurther notice from me. Do I make myself clear?"

'With Khieevi in the vicinity? Yes, ma'am, absolutely."

I will send to the hills of the Ancestors and ask those s.p.a.cefarers on retreat to return for a special meeting of the Council on this matter."

I'll be right here, ma'am. Even if we're not to respond, ^harnnye may report back to us with more information about Ae Khieevi."

My thoughts exactly, liril," she said, and ended the transmission.

"I don't get it," Becker snapped, glowering at the corn screen. "For six weeks that d.a.m.n thing is squawking at all hours with messages from everyone from your grandma and your aunt, Acorna, to that-woman-who runs the place. 'Pick us up a nice trade alliance when you go home, honey. See if you can get us good terms on joining the Federation. And don't forget a pint of milk and a loaf of bread while you're at it.' "

Aari and Acorna looked at each other and shrugged, then returned their attention politely to Becker's rant.

"And now, when we have something really important to tell them, when we need to hear back from them right away, we get zip for a week and a half. What i) it with those people, anyway?"

He was not the only one who wanted to know. Aari and Acorna had spent every waking hour with the LAANYE and the Niriian logbook, then, while sleeping, learning the nuances of the Niriian language from the LAANYE's sleep-learning programs. They listened over and over again to the mayday message and the ship's log entries. If the captain had given specifics about the transmission from the Khieevi, the details of the ship's final hours, or any findings pertaining to the location of the vessel pictured on the verdant planet, they had not found them. They hcu) deciphered an entry that was a personnel list of the crew aboard the downed Niriian vessel.

The Com)or had picked up more of the wreckage of the Niriian ship in the meantime, but very little of the equipment *was intact.

All of them had been listening, even in their sleep, for a signal from the corn unit, but not a single -word out of it did they hear the entire time.

"Well, RK doesn't seem to have any opinion about this, and normally I'd flip a coin," Becker said. "But since I have a crew I guess I better ask-what do you guys think we ought to do?

"Do?" Aari asked. His voice was a little hoa.r.s.e from disuse.

He and Acorna had been concentrating so hard on the translations he would have neglected to eat if Becker hadn't finally become worried about his crewmates and tromped down to the hydroponics deck to pluck some greenery for them. He had no idea what a tasty or nutritious combination was composed of but figured if they'd planted something, it was supposed to be edible. They both took his offerings, nibbled abstractly, and kept translating. Even after Acorna was as certain as she could be that they had made good sense of the messages, Aari continued to go over and over them.

Acorna could not help but read the anxiety Aari was broadcasting as surely as the com system was not. Her head pounded -with the strain he was experiencing, as well as her own pain. She couldn't usually read him literally, but this sense of anxiety was more of an emotional maelstrom spinning around him and enveloping her than a conscious stream of thought. Even Becker and the cat were out of sorts, all from dealing with the heavily charged atmosphere inside the ConSor.

Becker was continuing. "Yeah, what do you think we should do-you know, as in action? Here's our options, the way I see it. Number one," he ticked off the fingers of his right hand with the forefinger of his left. "We head on out of here, back to Federation s.p.a.ce, and warn people about this. However, this area ain't Federation and they aren't going to come all this way uninvited by the locals. Two, -we can turn around and go back to narhii-Vhiliinyar and ask 'em face-to-face why they aren't speaking to us. Of course, it could be that the Khieevi's got their tongue-sorry, Aari," he said. "In which case, we'll hope we see some evidence of the damage before we reacu the planet and get our own derrieres in a sling or slings, as the case may be. If we do, we will return to option one and call out the posse. If we can round one up in time. Option three appens if there are no Khieevi and everything is cool on the P anet. I kick some administrative heinie and make them prom ise never, ever, ever to ignore us like that again, no matter what. Or option four-we try to figure out what's going on for ourselves, keeping our eyes open so we don't get ourselves killed, and see what's needed before we hare off and run for help. End of options, unless you can think of any others. Aari? Acorna?"

"Joh, we must go back to my planet," Aari said. "They must know. The Niriians must be warned, as well."

"Yes," Acorna said. "You know, it i) possible we have gone out of range even for a delayed relay to narhii-Vhiliinyar. There are several wormholes and s.p.a.ce distortions between us and them, and we are. very far off the traveled routes where communications are routinely boosted at regular intervals. We cannot be sure they have received our broadcast. The likeliest explanation for their silence is that they have not heard from us. It's essential that they be aware of the presence of the Khieevi in this part of the world, and also of the possibility that Aari and Maati's parents are still alive somewhere. If the Khieevi are in the neighborhood, our people need to have the evacuation ships ready, and a plan to board them prepared. After we "warn the Linyaari, we should return to Federation s.p.a.ce and alert the authorities that my people, who have been considering applying for membership, will possibly soon be under under attack by the Khieevi. The Federation has already seen the nature of the Khieevi-after the battle on Rushima they're aware of the sort of creatures we are dealing with here-and know that they pose a threat that cannot be ignored. Also, we should consult with Uncle Hafiz and the others and ask them to prepare a new haven for my people, should it be necessary to evacuate, some temporary place where they may stay until the situation is resolved."

"That makes sense," Becker said. "But somehow I cant help but thinking that they're okay for now and it's that snotty lady-dog of a leader of yours who is behind this."

"You could be right," Acorna said, "but we cannot risk it. If our people are to be safe, they must get those ships ready, and that will take time."

RK, who had been sleeping with one eye open, idly flipping the end of his tail up and down, suddenly yawned and stretched. In a casual way his outstretched, kneading claw hooked Beck er's arm.

"Ow!" he said. "Okay, the fourth member of the crew has voted. We're changing course."

Thariinye tracked the Codors erratic course from the data sent with the transmission. Maati watched him while he made his computations. Maati took to s.p.a.ce travel like a kQaaki to water. Her favorite hiding places back home had been the techno-artisan village and the s.p.a.ceport, and with a child's curiosity she had examined the interiors of all the ships, even the big evacuation vessels. She'd asked questions constantly, so many that she was afraid the workers would tell her to leave, or call Liriili and ask her if the government didn't have something better to do with its messengers than have them bother people.

But actually she had made friends with most of the people she talked to. Aarliiyana, a motherly techno-artisan, had explained all about the colorful designs on the hulls of the ships, how they were based on the banners of the most distinguished Linyaan clans and individuals. Aarliiyana had also told her that ne techno-artisans had developed a new and more advanced eloaking technology for Linyaari s.p.a.cecraft. The very craft Maati was now riding in, named after her dear friend Acorna's grndmother, was the first craft to incorporate the new system.

Hidden among the brightly pigmented coatings used on the hulls were a field generator that could create the illusion of invisibility and a radiation absorption matrix, or RAM. The two *would, between them, defeat sonar, radar, infrared, and all other traditional detection methods used to trace the location of a s.p.a.cecraft. These systems could be turned on and off at will. In addition, the techno-artisans had developed ways to deal with the engine exhaust, the ship's communications, and so on so that the ship's location could not be determined by any means. Even the ship's locator beacon was routinely cloaked to both friends and foe, unless the ship's captain made the decision to turn it on. That had to be done occasionally so that the craft could move through crowded shipping lanes without running the risk of being rammed by vessels that had no idea she was there.

It made Maati feel odd, knowing that n.o.body could find them out here in s.p.a.ce, unless they chose to be found.

Being on shipboard when the vessel was in s.p.a.ce as opposed to being inside it when it was docked at the technoartisan's village was very different. For one thing, the air was drier, and it smelled peculiar, almost canned. Perhaps because of the drier air, she found her sense of smell was diminished, blunted in some -way. It gave her a curiously light feeling. And also, consequently, the gra.s.ses in the hydroponics gardenmany fewer varieties than grew dirtside-were not as tasty as they were at home. Well, the tastes were subtler, maybe. She figured she'd get used to the change soon enough.

With her sense of smell reduced, her sense of sight seemed to be more important, somehow. The inner, surfaces of the ship were made of brightly colored materials softer to the touch than metals, and the crew's quarters were designed to look like small traveling pavilions. Sort of cozy, really. At first she missed the horizon, and the sweeping vistas of gra.s.s and town and distant hills she was used to at home, but when she went to the bridge and looked out the viewport into the stars, her homesickness of dead. How could those gra.s.sy fields compare with the beauty of deep s.p.a.ce? She was lost in wonder. The galaxy gleamed like a jewel box before her. And she'd barely begun to taste the joys of s.p.a.ce travel. How would it look at night on a planet with one moon? What about a planet with rings-how would that look from the ground? How thrilling to think she would soon be seeing for herself! Even with the looming threat of the Khieevi hovering in the back of her mind, she felt freed, somehow, for the first time in her life.

And if she was going to have adventures, she'd picked the right ship to have them in. In addition to being comfortable, the Nakaavrl was equipped with all of the newest devices her techno-artisan friends had demonstrated. Maati already knew that because Thariinye had shown off the ship's features when he returned from his first brief flight, greeting the Condor and the many Linyaari ships when they returned carrying the s.p.a.cefarers from captivity.

"Does this ship have any weapons?" Maati had wanted to know then.

"What would you know about weapons?" Thariinye had asked in that tone that made her feel like a total child.

"Grandam told Kh.o.r.n.ya that her father had developed a defense weapon that would destroy our enemies if they attempted to capture one of our ships. Grandam said it was how Kh.o.r.n.ya's parents were killed-when their ship self-destructed along with the Khieevi chasing them. She thought Kh.o.r.n.ya's folks must have used it on themselves after Kh.o.r.n.ya's pod was ejected. The force of the blast was the only way to explain how far away Kh.o.r.n.ya was when she was found by her the men ^o raised her." Maati had been wondering at the time if that ^a-s how her parents died, using a similar weapon to destroy themselves and their ship before the Khieevi could capture them.

"Yes, the Nilkaa vri is equipped with the defensive system," Thariinye said. "But no offensive -weapons. That would be kaLinyaari, against everything we believe in. The ship does have all the very latest innovations, of course. You ask too many questions."