Acorna's World
by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Published   circa 1999/2000


One


Roughly six 'weeks after she had joined the crew of the Condor, flagship of
Becker Interplanetary -SLmRecycling and Salvage Enterprises, Ltd., Acorna sat
on "salvage watch" at the helm of the ship, surrounded by the softly glowing
console lights in the cockpit and the billions of stars beyond. She felt
contented, almost as if she were once more home-back in the first home she
could really remember, the mining ship she had shared with her adopted uncles.
Behind her for the moment were the intricacies of Linyaari society and
culture. Before her instead were the intricacies of the universe as recorded
in the notes, tapes, and files of Captain Jonas Becker and his illustrious
parent, astrophysicist and salvage magnate Theophilus Becker.

To give herself something to do during the long watch, she was charting those
notations methodically so that the planets, moons, wormholes, black holes,
"pleated" space, "black water" space, and other locations visited by the
Beckers could be easily relocated, and the sites where they had once been
could be revisited if the need arose.

Becker had grumbled at first when she started this chore. Since the death of
his adoptive father, Theophilus Becker, from whom he had inherited both the
ConSor and the salvage business, Jonas Becker had been lord and master of the
Condor, with only Roadkill (or RK for short) the huge Makahomian Temple Cat he
had rescued from a wreck, for company. Becker didn't like his belongings
tampered with or moved. But Acorna had found plenty of evidence that RK
periodically made nests out of the hard copies of the notes, often shredded
them when he felt the urge, and, in a few sorry instances, had added his own
personal ( and remarkably pungent ) contributions to them when he was
displeased with the state of his shipboard toilet. Though she could easily
eradicate the odor and the stains, nothing could make the shredded notes
legible again. It was high time someone charted the notes before RK had his
way with the lot of them. After a few "reasonable discussions," Jonas had
stopped grumbling and let Acorna get on with her task.

At first RK had stayed at the helm to assist Acorna with her job, but later
had wandered off in search of food or a sleeping companion, probably Aari, the
only crew member other than Becker currently aboard.

Like Acorna, Aari was Linyaari, a race of humanoid people -with equine and
alicorn characteristics (including a flowing, curly mane and feathery hair
from ankle to knee, feet with two hard toes each, and three-fingered hands
with one knuckle on each digit instead of two. The most striking
characteristic of the Linyaari, to humans anyway, was the shining spiral horn
located in the center of their foreheads. But in Aari's case, the horn had
been forcibly removed during tortures he'd suffered while he was a prisoner of
voracious bug-like aliens) the Khieevi. While Aari's other wounds had been
healed on narhiiVhiliinyar, the world to which the Linyaari had fled when the
Khieevi had invaded their original homeworld Vhiliinyar, Aari's horn had not
regenerated.

This was an appalling wound for a Linyaari. A Linyaari's horn had amazing
(almost magical, even) properties. The horns had the ability to purify
anything-including air and water and food, to heal the sick, and also acted to
some extent as an antenna for psychic communications among the Linyaari.
Acorna had learned a great deal more about the powers of her horn and about
her people when she had returned with a Linyaari delegation to
narhii-Vhiliinyar. Unfortunately, once she had arrived, her aunt and two other
shipmates had been dispatched into space again to deal with an emergency, and
Acorna had been left among strangers to try to adjust to her native culture, a
culture she'd left behind while she was still a baby.

Her only two real friends on narhii-Vhiliinyar had been the eldest elder of
the Linyaari people, Grandam Naadiina, and Maati, a little girl -who was the
viizaar's messenger and the orphaned younger sister of Aari.

When Becker had made his unauthorized landing on narhiiVhiliinyar to return
Aari and all the bones from the Linyaari graveyard to the new Linyaari home
planet, Acorna, Grandam, and Maati had been in the greeting committee. Aari at
that time had still been terribly deformed from his ordeal with the Khieevi,
and the viizaar Liriili and some of the less sensitive and compassionate
Linyaari had not made his return easy.

Acorna, perhaps because her own loneliness had helped her identify with his,
had been drawn to Aari. When an emergency signal had called Becker away from
narhii-Vhiliinyar, Acorna and Aari had shipped out with him. They had been
able to help in a crisis that had threatened some of Acorna's human friends as
well as the Linyaari. As a result of their intervention, a branch of a
Federation-wide criminal organization had been destroyed and many off-planet
Linyaari, including Acorna's beloved aunt, had been rescued, along with all
the other captives of the criminals. Acorna, Becker, Aari, and Acorna's Uncle
Hafiz, who had also been on hand for the rescue, were now in great favor among
her people.

Acorna could have stayed comfortably on narhii-Vhiliinyar once her aunt and
the other ship-bred and ship-chosen Linyaari returned to the planet. But she
had decided instead to leave with Becker and Aari.

She wasn't sorry. She might have been born on a peaceful planet populated by
beings who had the ability to understand one another telepathically, but her
upbringing had made her different, and that was sometimes a problem, both for
her and for her people. Space was familiar to her, and its diversity of races,
species, and personalities stimulated her. Of course, right now, just being
here, quietly charting coordinates, resting her eyes by watching the stars,
wasn't very stimulating, but the serene surroundings felt wonderful. She was
comforted by the routine watch, at peace with the universe.

Perhaps, she thought, happily ever after, the permanent version, only happened
in fairy tale, bat happy every once in a while wa^ r&ftful ane) healing.

The cabin lights flicked on, bringing the harsh light of the day shift to her
starlit world. She blinked a few times until her eyes adjusted.

"Yo, Princess!" Becker said. "Your watch is over. Whatsa matter with you
sitting there typing in the dark? You'll ruin your eyes that way, didn't
anybody ever tell you?"

He strode up to stand behind her, peering over her shoulder so intently his
brushy mustache, which closely resembled RK's ruff, brushed her horn. Becker
smelled strongly of the aftershave he had begun to use about the time he began
to shave again, shortly after she arrived. It wasn't that he was trying to
impress her in a courtship. and mating fashion, she knew. It was simply a
rather old-fashioned, by human standards, sign of gender acknowledgment and
respect. "Hey, now, how about that? You've charted the whole journey from the
time we left narhii-Vhiliinyar the first time, to that moon where Ganoosh and
Ikwaskwan held your people captive, and all the way back again! I figured,
with all the excitement we ran into, and all the hopping around we had to do,
nobody would ever be able to figure that one out. How'd you 2o that?"

"You kept good notes, Captain," she said, smiling.

"Well, it's terrific! And you did it so fast, too. Where'd a sweet young thing
like you learn that?"

"Elementary, my dear Becker," Aari said, sauntering up behind the captain and
towering over him. Tall, slender, and graceful now that his injuries had
healed, Aari -was whiteskinned and silver-maned. These were traits he shared
with Acorna and the other Linyaari space travelers.

Aari had been reading a trashed-out copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
lately. Becker and Acorna could see the immediate result of his current
venture into fiction in the -way that Aari had layered two baseball caps from
Becker's collection, so that the bill of one hat stuck out in back above his
long silver mane, the other in the front. It was not only a pretty good
imitation of a traditional deerstalker, but the hat covered the indentation in
Aari's forehead where his horn had once been. Aari also clutched a Makahomian
ceremonial pipe between his teeth. It was a bit longer than an antique
meerschaum, but with Aari's height, he could carry it off. The Holmesian
effect was only spoiled by the RECYCLER'S RONDY '84 logo on the front of the
cap facing them, along with an embroidered trash container rampant beneath the
lettering.

"Space-bred and space-chosen Linyaari," Aari said, "develop a heightened sense
of navigational interrelationships between space and masses, even energy
fluctuations. Many of those relationships are imprinted telepathically upon
our brains by our parents when we're young. That is partially how I was able
to guide you to narhii-Vhiliinyar though I had never been there myself."

"Hmm," Becker said, surveying his shipmate's latest odd outfit. "You make me
wonder if my old man might not have been part Linyaari. You're sure finding
your way to the planet wasn't simple deduction?"

Aari looked puzzled. "No, Joh. We do not use footprints, types of mud, or
tobacco ashes to do this thing. It is a matter of the mind."

"Must be," Becker said. "Acorna's indicated the wormholes and black space with
a precision that you don't see on regular charts, given the instability of the
features being charted and the dangers of getting close enough to map them
thoroughly. Even got the whole wormhole system we ducked back through to blast
Ganoosh and Ikwaskwan to kingdom come."

Acorna glanced up from her charting and shrugged. "We were there. The
notations of the holes and folds are roughed out in your notes, and made
precise in my mind." She paused to consider something else Jonah had said.
"About your father-he is probably not part Linyaari. I do not think it is
possible for our two species to interbreed. In the pictures you have shown me
of your father, he certainly doesn't look Linyaari, though I will admit his
intuition about such matters as spatial relationships, as well as yours, seems
to me to be similar to some of the psychic abilities our race possesses. I can
certainly understand that, lacking a crew and managing all phases of your
operation alone, as you do now and as your father did ·when you were a child,
you did not take the time to properly collate and chart your observations.
But, frankly, only psychic ability would explain how you were ever able to
find anything in this chaos." Her spread hands took in the mounds of papers,
chips, and recorded tapes scattered around the console.

"I usually know which pile or computer file to access for what I need," Becker
protested. "At least, I did once," he muttered. Then he added graciously, "But
I'm sure it'll be helpful to have it all nice and orderly."

Roadkill jumped up on one of the piles of hardcopy and sent the papers into an
avalanche that slid clear across the deck.

"RK, you silly cat, you already had your chance at these," Acorna said, madly
grabbing for the flying papers.

The cat chased the furthest sheets until they settled to the floor, pounced
upon one and shredded it with his back feet, then abruptly lost interest and
began washing his brindled belly instead.

Acorna bent down and shuffled the papers, somewhat the worse for wear, back
into order.

"I'm pleased you approve, Captain. The task needed doing and it keeps me
productively occupied."

"Yeah, I guess you must have been pretty bored after you reprogrammed that
junked replicator I had in Cargo Hold Two to make all my favorite dishes, so I
wouldn't have to eat cat food when I got busy, and after you and Aari turned
Deck Three into a hydroponics garden for your own noshing needs, while you
meantime inventoried and catalogued all my remaining salvage."

"It was not so much, Captain. It's not as if I am new to this sort of thing. I
used to replicate food and help grow my own meals when my uncles and I lived
aboard our mining ship. I also catalogued our specimens and assisted with
charting. I like to be helpful."

"No kidding! Between you and KEN," he said, referring to the all-purpose
KEN-6^0 android unit that they had acquired, more or less by accident, during
the Condor's last voyage, "the way he keeps the ship soooo-"

"Shipshape, Joh?" Aari offered. "I have been reading the nautical works of
Robert Louis Stevenson, and that term is employed to describe a flawlessly
maintained vessel."

"Yeah, what you said," Becker agreed. "Between you two and Aari, I could take
up knitting or basket weaving in the spare time I got these days."

"A very good idea, Joh," Aari said. "You have some excellent references on
crocheting, beadwork, handweaving, pottery making, and origami, as well."

"You should know, buddy. I'm glad you've been getting so much out of the pile
of old books I found in that landfill, not to mention the vid collection. But
let me "warn you-steer clear of the do-it-yourself veterinary books." Becker
glanced down at RK who had one leg poised in the air and was looking up at him
with suspicious, wide, golden eyes. In a stage whisper Becker continued, "I
once tried some stuff out of one of those vet guides on the cat there. Bad
idea. Neither of us came out whole."

Aan looked puzzled. "Why would I read veterinary books, Joh? If 'Riidkyii'
"that was as close as Aari's Standard could come to pronouncing Roadkill's
name"becomes sick, Acorna could heal him. We have no need for the invasive
measures described in those books."
"Damn good thing, too," Becker huffed. "The problem with using invasive
measures on ol' Riidkyii is he can't get it straight ·who's the invader and
-who is the invadee. We were both short a few bits of choice anatomy after
that little adventure. Luckily, Roadkill and I eventually got put back
together, courtesy of the Linyaan." He turned to Acorna and said, "While we're
on the subject, you know you're welcome to the library, too. Princess.
Anytime."

"Yes, Captain Becker, that is very kind of you, but I already accessed most of
the reading selections you have available during the time I lived with my
uncles and guardians. I was raised by humans unlike Aari, who had no previous
exposure to human culture until he met you. So I won't be using the books. The
vids are another matter. However, I regret very much that we have only vid
goggles available to view the films. It would be such fun if we could all view
them together."

Becker gave her a sly look from under his brushy eyebrows. Her psychic powers
had been increased while she lived among her own people, but she didn't need
them to know that he understood what she really meant. Teasing, he said, "Of
course, really, only two people oughta watch at a time because somebody should
be on salvage watch."

He knew that she wished to share the books and vids with Aari so that he
wouldn't spend quite so much time alone, and so that they would have something
to enjoy together. She blushed a little. "I simply thought it would be more
companionable."

"Yes, Joh," Aari said, "And, as far as salvage watch goes, you once performed
all the ship's duties alone, and your metabolism requires that you sleep for
long periods. You must have let the ship's computers take over occasionally
then. You could certainly do so now. I do not see the difficulty of sharing
these vids."

Becker chuckled and shook his head. "What is it with you guys? Mutiny? But,
okay, "we'11 keep an eye out for something we can convert to a full screen
setup for vids instead of the goggles."

"Thank you, Captain," Acorna said. She believed Aari would be much better off
if he didn't spend nearly all of his time on his own. He had spent years alone
in a cave on the deserted planet Vhiliinyar, hiding from the Khieevi who'd
tortured him, before Becker had found and rescued him. Aari hardly knew how to
speak to people anymore. And every time he disappeared while she was not on
'watch and Acorna decided to go to him to try to initiate a conversation,
Captain Becker always seemed to have some task he needed her assistance with
or some errand for her to run. RK, too, tried to deter her. His claws and
piercing cries could be quite eloquent, even to one who possessed no higher
understanding of cat language than vulnerable skin that could be spoken to
with fang and claw. She sensed her friends were possessed by some sort of male
protectiveness toward Aari. She was sure it -was not a reasoned response to
her actions, but she was hard-pressed to understand it. She meant her fellow
Linyaari no harm, and sought only to lead him to a deeper healing than had
been necessary with the wounded she had previously treated.

She was also as perplexed as she "was amused by Aari's "literary disguises,"
as Becker called them. They were funny and sad at the same time. As he adopted
the headdresses and costumes of various characters in the books and vids he
was exposed to, Aan looked less like a maimed Linyaari and more like an
interesting, if rather oddly dressed, human. Of course, she herself had at
times donned disguises that covered her horn and feet so that she could pass
for human, and it had been a useful skill. But in Aari's case, she sensed a
huge chasm of loss underlying his attempts to be someone else. It was as if he
no longer considered himself fully Linyaari. The horn transplant the doctors
had attempted on narhii-Vhiliinyar had not taken. A living horn transplant
from a close relative might be possible with a specimen from Maati when she
was older, but could not be attempted just yet while her horn -was still
growing. They'd have to wait until she'd reached full adulthood before they
could risk harvesting enough tissue for a successful transplant for Aari.

The com unit button lit and emitted a beep as Aari replaced the fallen papers
on the console, lifted RK to his shoulders, and headed back into the hold to
continue his reading.

"You get it, Acorna," Becker said. "It's probably for you anyway."

She flipped the toggle, fully expecting to hear the voice of either her aunt,
viife()haanye ferliii Neeva, checking to make sure she was all right, or that
of the viizaar Liriili, spouting yet another list of instructions and requests
that Acorna was to pass on to her contacts in the Federation in general and to
her Uncle Hafiz in particular.

Since the rescue of all the off-planet Linyaari spacefarers, ambassadors,
teachers, students, scientists, engineers, healers and their families, and the
subsequent return of those rescued to narhii-Vhiliinyar, just six weeks
before, big changes appeared to be taking place on the Linyaari world.
According to Neeva, the governing council had been in almost continuous
session, trying to decide if, when, and to what degree the Linyaari should end
their isolationist policy with regard to most of the galaxy, and whether they
should open trade alliances with Federation planets and companies.

The council had already unanimously decided on a most favored trade alliance
with House Harakamian, the empire Uncle Hafiz had recently handed over to his
nephew Rank Nadezda, one of Acorna's adopted uncles. The Linyaari hadn't yet
decided whether or not to allow House Harakamian vessels enter Linyaari space,
however. At this point, the majority of the council favored off-planet trading
at some mutually agreeable location. But that wasn't a unanimous view. Some of
the more progressive Linyaari space travelers even favored entering the
Federation. As they pointed out, isolation had failed to protect their people
from the Khieevi or from capture and mistreatment at the hands of Edacki
Ganoosh, the Kezdet robber baron. The vocal minority of the council felt that
knowledge of other civilizations, both friends and foes, was better protection
for a peaceful people like themselves than ignorance and isolation.

Since most of the Linyaari diplomatic corps was currently recovering from
their ordeal on narhii-Vhiliinyar, the council was entrusting all of the
Linyaari's initial overtures to the Federation to Acorna, who was a newly
appointed Linyaari ambassador and also, conveniently, Hafiz Harakamian and
Rafik Nadezda's adopted niece. The council completely ignored her
protestations that Becker did not intend to return immediately to federation
space, preferring for the moment to search for salvage in the galaxies
occupied by the Linyaari and their current trade allies, an area neither he
nor any other Federation-licensed salvage company had previously explored.
Acorna had passed on the Linyaari council's messages to Hafiz before his
flagship, the Sharazoi), departed from Linyaari space.

Hafiz's last message to the ConSor, and to Becker in particular, had been
suspiciously expansive and nonchalant.

"Of course, dear boy," Hafiz had said, "there is no need for you to hasten
your business on our account. By all means stay in this congenial universe.
Get acquainted. Find useful refuse. As long as Acorna is happy, her Aunt
Karina and her other uncles and I are content. We'll see each other soon
enough."

Perhaps Hafiz was really serious about retiring after all? In Acorna's
experience, it -was very unlike him to fail to seize a business opportunity by
the throat and milk it for all it was worth. If he wasn't retiring, he was
clearly up to something.

So she had reason to hear from many people of her acquaintance just at this
moment. But this time the corn unit surprised her. When a face appeared
briefly on the screen, it was not her aunt, or another Linyaari, or even the
wily Uncle Hafiz. Instead, a heavily bovine face was being transmitted, male
and jowly with a curving brownish horn above each ear. It spoke in a language
Acorna didn't understand, so she reached for Aari's LAANYE, a Linyaari device
that collected samples of unknown languages, analyzed them, then served as
both a translator and a sleep-learning device to implant foreign languages
into the brain of anyone who wished to learn them. But the transmission
trailed off just as she got the machine activated.

According to the LAANYE, the last word the creature had said translated as
"Mayday" or "SOS" in Linyaari. The only other words she'd caught in the
transmission before the screen turned to white, crackling static were
"Niriian" and "Hamgaan)." She did recognize the race of the creature who'd
appeared on her com screen. He "was from the planet Nirii-the Niriians "were
regular trading partners of the Linyaari. Acorna scanned the frequencies,
trying to pick up the signal aeain, but to no avail. Becker put his hand over
hers and pointed. She followed his finger and saw that the screens of the
long-range scanners he used to detect possible salvage showed blips of white
light in several locations. One of them was backed by a mass of green light.
"There," he said. "There's a solid mass under that one. According to the
readout, it's a small planet with an oxygen-based atmosphere. If the ship was
seeking refuge, that would be the most likely place in this sector of space to
retreat to. Let's go see what we can find."

Acorna nodded. "Yes, I see what you mean. Given the direction of the signal's
probable source, it is likely that the salvage is the distressed vessel whose
broadcast we just received. The LAANYE translated the last word before the
message was interrupted to mean 'Mayday.' Possibly the signal we intercepted
was a general one sent as the ship's systems were failing during some sort of
accident or attack. I feel sure we received it only because we were within
range of their emergency transmitters. If the signal had been meant for us,
the broadcast would have been in Galactic Standard or in Linyaari."

Becker shrugged. "Yep. That's the way I've got it figured. Don't get your
hopes up, though. We're probably not going to find the cowboy who was
transmitting the mayday alive, or anybody else. None of those blips on the
scanners look like an intact ship. But we may be able to tell what got him
from the fragments. The time stamp on the message is a couple of days ago-if
the problem was indeed an attack instead of an accident, whatever nailed them
seems to be long gone."

So we will check the situation out and report exactly -what happened to the
Federation?" Acorna asked.

Yeah, eventually," Becker said. "But mostly -we'll know what to avoid
ourselves."

Intricately twisted vines and stems joined and twined, braided, knotted, and
separated before bursting into jewel-toned rainbows of richly hued blossoms,
reminding Acorna of pictures she had seen of the illustrated borders in Celtic
holy books from ancient Earth. Except that this vegetation was no mere border,
but a lush tropical jungle so interconnected that it was impossible to tell
where one plant stopped and the next began.

At first, the tangle of plant life looked impassible. She, Captain Becker, RK,
and Aari had stood on the lowered platform of the robolift, overwhelmed by the
sight of it. Becker was fingering the sharpened blade of his machete while
Aari held the portable scanner, waiting for it to indicate the hiding place of
the large piece of salvage that had shown up on the Condor's screen.

Acorna was busy cataloging the minerals and elements that made up this
planetoid. She had already notified the others that no breathing apparatus
would be required-the atmosphere was void of any substances lethal to
carbon-based life forms and far richer in oxygen than Kezdet or
narhii-Vhiliinyar, and the soil was as rich in nitrogen. Of course, that was
just her scientific opinion. In practice, once she was actually faced with it,
the air was so heavily scented with the aromas of the flowers it felt too
thick to breathe, laden with a heady mixture the like of which she had never
smelled before. She detected elements of the incenses that had perfumed Uncle
Hafiz's palace, like cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, and the kind of human cooking
known as baking, and also smells like mint, rose, violet, lavender, gardenia,
and lily of the valley, but all were much deeper and mixed together with new
scents-things she'd never smelled before. The end result was so intense that
it almost took on substance and color.

Captain Becker said the place reeked like a high-priced bawdy house, ·which
seemed to please him. Aari had sniffed curiously. "I have no basis for
ascertaining the validity of your comparison, Joh, but I defer to your
knowledge of such matters." For their excursion dirtside, Aari had removed his
Holmesian baseball caps and pipe in favor of a colorful scarf tied around the
top of his head and a plaskin patch, inked black, over one of his eyes. Acorna
deduced, Watson-like, that he had been reading Treasure Inland and -was
assuming a piratical disguise in lieu of his Holmes persona. Though he was
giving the soil a very Holmesian inspection, what he could see of it from
where they stood.

Soil was clearly foremost in RK's mind, too. The ship's cat leaped off the
platform and hopped through the vines-which parted, almost as if the cat's
reputation had preceded him, to allow him to pass easily through them. The
roots and trailers along the ground seemed to shrink away as RK pawed the
soil, turned his back on his work, and deposited his own ecological
contribution to the planet.

Acorna started after the cat but Becker touched her arm and said, "Wait. Let
us see if he gets out again okay."

The cat pawed backward to cover his work but the vines and other ground cover
were already creeping back across the pile. Roadkill looked behind him, saw
that this -was happening, gave a little shake that could have been a cat's
version of a shrug, and bounded back through the path that had cleared for him
on his way in. He then hopped up onto the robolift platform and proceeded to
wash his whiskers, as if they had been somehow affected by his previous chore.

"Okay, then," Becker said.

"That way, Joh," Aari informed him after consulting the scanner, and pointed
in the direction from which the cat had just come.

"Well, then, onward." Becker raised the machete in one of the dramatic
gestures he was fond of and pointed. RK leaped to his shoulder and the four of
them dismounted the platform. As they set out, the jungle growth shrank even
further away this time, leaving a wide lane open before them. It gave Acorna
an odd feeling to see the plants moving and shifting out of their way. Becker
walked over to one side and raised the machete to hack at a thick stalk, but
the stalk bent in the middle to retreat from him.

"Wait, Captain," Acorna said. "The plants seem to be trying to accommodate us
by getting out of our way. It hardly seems right to cut them."

Becker gave her a look. "Yeah, well, we don't know how long it will take us to
find the ship. And we don't know what ·wrecked it. We might be looking at the
cause of the trouble right now. How do we know these plants "won't close up
around the Coru)or and bury it so deep we -won't be able to get it loose
again? They're several stories high, after all. We -wouldn't even be able to
see the suns if they had decided not to part for us."

"I think 'decided' is a relevant term in this case," she said. "These plants
seem to have some kind of limited sentience, or at the very least the ability
to react quickly to stimuli. I think it might be wise to sheathe the machete.
Maybe we had better not make them angry. Besides, we could find the ship with
the portable scanner, couldn't we?"

"Yeah, but I always like to have a backup plan," Becker said, -while putting
the long knife away.

Aan dug in the pocket of his shipsuit and pulled out a ball of shining thread.
"I have just the thing, Joh." He tied one end to the robohft and held the rest
in his hand. "We can leave a trail behind us, like Theseus seeking the
Minotaur in the labyrinth. This also works very well in eaves when searching
for lost cascades of gold and jewels."

"Caskets, buddy," Becker said.

"As you wish," Aan agreed amiably, and began unrolling his ball of string.

"Ow," Becker said as his shoulder -was punctured by the claws of the suddenly
hyper-alert ship's cat, -who hunkered down and switched his brindled gray and
black tail, his ears perked and his eyes intently following the gleaming
thread as it unwound behind Aari. "Belay that, mister," Becker said.

The cat immediately leaped from Becker's shoulder to Aari's. "Aaargh," Aari
said, rolling his as instead of his rs. "Avast there! It is my faithful paro,
Pol."

RK made a dive for the thread. Acorna intercepted the cat and received a few
scratches for her trouble.

"I am sorry, Khornya," Aari said. "I think Riid-Kiiyi does not wish to be a
paro."

"It's all right," she said, cuddling RK up close to her body and scratching
him gently under the chin. He immediately abandoned his quest to play with the
string in favor of purring and rubbing the side of his face against her skin.

The small party set out into the jungle. The vegetation now made a path as
wide as the Coru)or, the stalks bending almost flat to avoid contact with the
people passing among them. The heady fragrance turned to an acrid stench.

"Sheesh," Becker said, holding his nose. "What are these, skunk vines?"
Acorna looked around. "No. They are the same sort of plants as the rest, but
see how the flowers are closing up and the scent they are emitting is
changing? It is as if they are afraid of us."

"Hmmm, well, it does smell like the last guy who tried to gyp me out of some
money he promised me," Becker admitted. He leaned closer to a stalk and the
stench grew stronger. "Joh, don't," Aari said.

"Just testing," Becker said. "Sony, plants. No harm intended."

Aari was busy unwinding twine with one hand and holding the scanner with the
other. "It should not be far now, Joh," he said. "The salvage is just ahead."

An opening in the canopy was visible before them, and Acorna saw a long
cylindrical pod lying among some twisted and charred stalks right in their
path.

Becker prodded it and turned it over. Beyond it, they could see other bits of
the downed ship visible among the stalks. Although there was nothing overtly
useful in the wreckage they could see, Becker decided he wanted to haul all of
the pieces back to the Condor. "We might be able to figure out why the
Niriians sent the mayday," he said. "Maybe find some clue to ·who exactly they
were, what kind of trouble they were in, who attacked them." He scratched his
head. "Don't think that this is a normal part of my business, Acorna, because
it's not. Finding wrecked ships, yes, but not stumbling on the wreckage before
it's cold. And I have a funny feeling about this one."

"Me, too," Acorna said.

Aari looked up, surprised at their words. "I apologize, Joh, Khornya. I did
not realize that you had not understood the Hamgaar()'s, broadcast. I would
have translated it for you if I'd known."

"Hamgaarts?" Becker asked.

"That is the name of the Niriian ship that broadcast the message that brought
us here. Niriians have been trading partners of my people for many, many
years. Like us, they are a nonaggressive race. Before I-before my brother was
lost-I traveled on more than one trading mission to Nirii."

He turned away, stepping over nearer pieces of wreckage to retrieve others
farther from the ship.

Acorna noticed as she picked up the fragments of ship that they were sticky
with some reddish fluid. At first she thought it was blood, but then she saw
that it was actually more of a deep amber in color and far too transparent to
be either human or Linyaari blood. It was clearly the source of the acrid
smell they had noted earlier, and she wrinkled her nose. "Phew," she told
Becker. "This is what is causing the stink."

Becker looked more closely at the damaged vines all around them, gleaming
with redness that Acorna had not noticed in the plants nearer the ship. "I
think you're right. Look there. They're weeping this stuff."

Acorna looked. The redness ran down the stalks, pooled at the base of the
stems, and was slowly encroaching on the wreckage.

"We're going to have to give this stuff a good scrubbing," Becker said
disgustedly.
Aari was looking, too, and nodding. Then all of a sudden he turned toward
them, leaped over the wreckage, and ran back to the ship as fast as Acorna had
ever seen him run.

"Hey, buddy, wait up, -what is it?" Becker asked as they chased after their
friend, but Aari was back on the robolift platform before they could catch
him, curled up in a fetal position on the very center of the platform, his
eyes tightly closed, and his entire body shaking. Sweat and tears ran off his
face and wet the deck beneath him. RK dabbed at him -with an experimental paw
and then looked up at Becker, wide-eyed.

Becker raised the robolift and he and Acorna shepherded Aari back to his bunk.
"You stay here with him," Becker told her. "I'll get the KEN unit to help me
load the cargo."

Acorna had leaned against Aari so that he was in contact with her horn all the
time they were loading him and he was quieter now. His trembling had stopped
and he was no longer sweating. Her healing abilities worked to some degree
with mental as well as physical wounds, but she was learning that she had
limits. There was only so much she could do with deeply embedded psychological
injuries, particularly with Aari.

When he'd been tortured, his survival had depended on being able to escape
mentally to a place where the Khieevi tortures couldn't touch him.
Unfortunately, when he was in deep pain, he still retreated to that place.
Acorna couldn't reach him there, and the healing power of her horn could not
touch him either.

She tried, but she could not read Aari's thoughts, 'which were jumbled and
incoherent. But the feelings that rolled from him were all too clear-deep
dread, loathing that was kaLinyaan in its repulsion. It was as if Aan had been
flung down into some dark and nightmarish place he could not escape from. He
no longer knew where he was or who was with him. She could only hold him, her
horn buried in his mane up tight against his scalp, trying to exude enough
soothing energy to overpower the spiraling horror that gripped him in its
vortex. Time seemed to slip away as she tried to give Aan some relief from the
mental demons that gripped him. And then, as she reached the point of
exhaustion, everything slipped away from her and the world faded to black.

When Becker returned to the main deck, he and the KEN unit both sticky with
the foul-smelling sap, he looked in to see that Aari and Acorna both slept,
she with her arms wrapped tight around him, he at last relaxed, though his
face was still damp with tears. Becker saw that Acorna's golden horn -was
looking a little transparent, as if the effort of trying to comfort Aan had
drained her healing energy. Past experience had taught him that this was how
it -was with Linyaari who pushed their limits of endurance. He had seen that
all too clearly from the effects of the tortures inflicted on captured
Linyaari by Edacki Ganoosh and Admiral Ikwaskwan. But normally it took a long
time and a lot of injuries to deplete a horn to any degree. The fact that
Acorna's horn was already translucent instead of a healthy gold told him that
poor old Aari had to be in a world of hurt.

RK, who had spent the time Becker and the KEN unit used to round up the
salvage getting the sap off his fur, plopped himself within the tangle of
Linyaari feet and buried his face in his own paws. The cat had apparently
decided that a vigil was in order.

Becker looked at Acorna lying there, and thought that if her knuckles weren't
already so pale they'd be white from hanging on to Aari. She was clutching him
like a lifeline. He was hurting, and she "was bound and determined that he
-was going to stop hurting. That was all very well on the surface, but Becker
-wasn't sure Aari was ready to be out of pain, or ready to let Acorna in to
heal him. He wasn't sure that, even with the Linyaari's legendary psychic
abilities, Acorna had enough experience of men to understand how complicated
her caring for Aari could be for both of them.

He touched Acorna's shoulder gently and -woke her, so that she turned toward
him and relaxed her grip on Aari. He didn't need to do anything else. As soon
as she saw -where she -was and what she -was doing, she rose, not as if she
-were ashamed, but like she knew it -was the prudent thing to do.

"He was very frightened of something out there," she said. "Khieevi must have
attacked that ship, Becker. Aari's mind was screaming about the Khieevi, and
he was reliving his torture when they captured him again. It was very hard for
him."

"It was no picnic for you, either, Princess. Better hit your berth and strap
in. I'll strap him in, too. I've got all the salvage stowed. We can look at it
at our leisure once we're back in space. I don't want to sit down here any
longer than necessary and give those plants time to get so relaxed about
having the CorSor among them that they decide to make us part of the scenery.
Know -what I mean?"

It was an image she could visualize all too well. She nodded sleepily and
stumbled off to her berth.

When at last the SharazaS returned to Maganos Moonbase bearing a triumphant
Hafiz Harakamian and a host of others, Rafik Nadezda was so relieved to see
the old pirate he could scarcely believe it.

While the ground crew tended to unloading the ship and servicing it, Rafik
walked beside the Harakamians to the transit lounge, which was the most
luxurious of the quarters at Maganos Moonbase. The soundproofed facility, with
its deep carpets and soft, comfortable divans and chairs in the lounge, fully
equipped business suites and conference rooms, had been designed to make a
good impression on visitors, potential employers, and clients for the skills
and goods that were being offered by the base's residents. Maganos Moonbase
was a mining, manufacturing, and training facility set up to reeducate the
former child slaves of Kezdet. The children ran the base as a business, and
were responsible for its financial and educational successes. The moonbase had
been built -with money rrom both Hafiz Harakamian and Acorna's other
benefactor, Delzaki Li, as well as with reparations seized from Kezdet's
kingpin of the child-slavery operations, Baron Manjari. But it ·was the
children's job to ensure that the investment was a profitable one.

Now the former child slaves rushed up the gangway connecting the ship and
gantry to the transit facility. They greeted the Harakamians and the ship's
other passengers with cheerful familiarity that Rafik was pleased to see Hafiz
apparently took as a compliment. He smiled and waved and spoke a word or two
to some of the children he recognized from previous visits.

Hafiz looked somewhat trimmer and fitter than he had -when last Rafik had seen
him. It was possible that this new trimness was owing to Hafiz's marital
exertions with his bride, but if so, the old man was a considerate as ·well as
an energetic lover. His new bride, her ample form flatteringly draped in an
expensive drift of violet and orchid silk embroidered with gold to accentuate
her not inconsiderable bustline and hips, had not diminished by one curve or
chin, and glowed with contentment.

As Hafiz embraced him, Rafik thought there was a renewed vigor and
purposefulness to the old man's step as well, a gleam of reinforced steel in
his eye and grip.

"You look well, my uncle," Rafik remarked. "Nearly being killed a thousand
times can do that for a man of action, 0 son of my heart," Hafiz replied with
a dismissive ·wave of his hand, to indicate that real men of action knew this
thing and found it beneath them to make too much of it.

"You were magnificent, my hero," Karina said, and turned to Rafik, -white gold
carousels glittering with amethysts and blue diamonds swinging from each ear
beneath the light veil she wore over her dark hair. She gestured dramatically
with heavily bennged hands, and the jewels at her neck and bosom heaved with
pride as she lauded her husband. "He was a lion! He saved a shipload of
children as ·well as most of Acorna's relatives!" Her hands fluttered down to
cling like plump -white doves to her husband's arm. She batted her eyelashes
and looked up at Hafiz adoringly-no small feat since she -was an inch and a
half taller than he.

"So -we have heard from the Starfarers, Uncle," Rafik said. "They, too, are
here on Maganos, recuperating."

"Are they? That is good. That is very good indeed. It fits in with my plans
exactly," Hafiz said.

"Plans?" Rafik said.

"All in the proper time, most beloved of nephews. I don't suppose you have a
few small viands at hand to comfort weary travelers?"

After Hafiz and Karina had been comfortably ensconced on a well-padded divan
and refreshments ordered, and Rafik had seated himself in the throne-like
carved chair opposite them, Rafik asked, "Back to the plans you spoke of, my
uncle. Tell me more of them." The old man might have officially retired from
the business, but when he stopped scheming, Rafik would know that Hafiz had
stopped breathing.

Hafiz clapped his hands together and shook them for emphasis. "They are
splendid plans, most splendid plans indeed, 0 son and heir of my heart! Thanks
to your efforts and those of your partners to rid the universe of our enemies,
our Linyaari friends and the relatives of our dear niece Acorna are opening
their hearts to us, and perhaps their purses as -well. But they are, as you
know, very shy. And our beloved niece, appointed by her people to represent
them in trade, wishes for a time to travel with the estimable Captain Becker
and his intriguingly tragic new first mate."

"Ye-es?" Rafik said. "Some of the Starfarers have mentioned another Linyaari-a
hornless one. They say he survived the Khieevi, but surely-"

"Survived he has, indeed! A worthy man in many ways, rrom what I have seen of
him. But that is neither here nor there, he -waved his hand dismissively.

Karma captured Hafiz's -waving hand with her own ringladen one.

"Actually, nephew of my husband," she said, "the point is, that it is not here
but there that Acorna wishes to stay for a time at least. Your uncle,
benevolent and kindhearted patriarch that he is, wisely has chosen-with my
help, of course-to view this circumstance not as an obstacle to our future
trade with the Linyaan, but as an opportunity."

Rafik raised an eyebrow politely.
Hafiz slipped Karina's hand through the crook in his elbow and patted it. "Can
you guess what I intend, scion of my house?"

"I believe there is no need for me to hazard such a guess, 0 founder of my
fortune, as it appears you can barely contain your wish to tell me all about
it."

"Even so, my boy, even so. I will give you a hint. Is it not written that if
the profit cannot go to the mountain, the mountain shall go unto the profit?"
Tea and kaf arrived, along with cool bowls of sherbet that had been flown in
from Hafiz's main compound at Laboue in anticipation of his arrival, and many
assorted pastries and savory morsels. The lounge began to fill up with people
from the ship and those who had come to greet them, among them the Starfarers,
many of whom now were young adults. The Starfarers were permanently planetless
space travelers, their ship serving them as world, country, state, city, and
family home all rolled into one. Rafik waited patiently until everyone had
exchanged greetings, then steered conversation back to the matter at hand.

"The profit will go to the mountain. ... So it is written in the third of the
three books by the third of the three prophets, Uncle," Rafik said with a
respectful inclination of his dark and handsome head. Then he looked up
sharply, a smile dawning on his face. "Uncle, surely you do not intend to . .
.? No! I can see that you do." He was not really as shocked as he sounded,
but he enjoyed watching his uncle's pleasure in his reaction. "But how? Is not
the Linyaari homeworld still closed to visitors?"

"It is," Hafiz said.

"Then how? Surely you would not risk offending them and endangering our
business, not to mention our relations with Acorna's people, by violating
their privacy?"

"Absolutely not, my son! That would be unthinkable. Inconceivable. We will, of
course, wait for an invitation-which will naturally not be that long in
coming. In the meantime, however, ·we will undertake an enterprise so
courageous, so farsighted, so monumental, that the fame of House Harakamian
will rise like the proverbial djinn from the proverbial smoke of the
proverbial bottle, and bring with it all of the riches, the luxury, the
beauty, and the bounty that accompany such great good fortune."

"You mean to establish a branch of House Harakamian beyond Federation space,
my uncle?"

Hafiz spread his hands this time, indicating his innate generosity. "Someone
must, my son. These people are surely lacking all that we have to offer and
possibly are unaware that they are even in need of it! How will they know
unless we show them what they are missing? And the Linyaari are shy. Had it
not been for their need to warn other innocent races about the Khieevi, they
might never have ventured into Federation space, might never have found Laboue
or Maganos Moonbase. While it is true they might one day venture out of their
territory again, an enterprising businessman does not leave such matters to
time and chance any more than a doting parent would the happiness 01 his
adoptive daughter. We are in good odor with the Linyaari at present-"

"Due to the bravery and innovation Hafiz showed in the rescue of all of their
important space traveling people," Karma put in, looking up at her spouse with
adoration.

"True, true," Hafiz said. "I covered myself with glory, it is true. But in my
experience, gratitude is an ephemeral commodity, and the memory of those who
are indebted to one is even more so. Therefore, we must move with the
swiftness of a desert storm if we are to take maximum advantage of our past
good works. We must organize our exhibitions, the travel for our exhibitors,
sales and support staff, security, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera."

"Nadhari Kando might be available for security," Rafik said.

"Excellent! I am glad you concur. She has been traveling with us. She should
be joining us here soon, as a matter of fact, but she wished first to oversee
certain arrangements aboard the SharazaD before we set off again."

Karina placed her silver gilt fingertips to her temples and said, "Ahh-you
see, Hafiz? Rafik said exactly what I foretold!"

"Indeed, my dear. Actually, nephew, Karina sensed that you would wish to
employ that formidable lady, so I have already offered her command of the
outpost's guard and given her full rein to recruit her own staff."

"It   is well, my uncle, Madame Karina," he said with a courtly inclination of
his   head to his 'aunt.' Hafiz's bride had a gift for "sensing" matters that
she   would have had to be comatose not to know, but she made Hafiz happy, and
for   this Rafik was prepared to regard her "powers" with tolerance, if not with
the   awe she seemed to think they should invoke in him.

Hafiz continued. "If we are to be beyond Federation assistance, I will want
the best people, even^ if Nadhari has to lure them away from Federation
forces, and naturally she will require the latest and most effective weaponry
as well. And she is one who may be trusted to acquire what is needed with the
utmost discretion and dispatch."

"True," Rafik agreed.

"Your partner and your senior wife, the ugly one, will be   required, as well
as your current light of love and her illustrious km."

Rafik grinned. Hafiz's mention of Rank's senior, ugly wife was an inside joke.
Back when Rafik had been a space miner, he and his partners-Calum Baird and
Declan "Gill" Giloglie- had found the infant Acorna adrift in space, saved her
from certain death, and raised her. The first time the three miners and Acorna
had approached Hafiz together, in order to keep Hafiz from attempting to
"collect" Acorna as a "rare specimen," Rafik had veiled and robed both Acorna
and Calum and presented them as his wives. He'd told his uncle he had
converted to Neo-Hadithianism, a radical fundamentalist branch of the True
Faith that permitted and even encouraged polygamy. He had counted on his
uncle's respect for his nephew's "wives" to protect Acorna from acquisition.
It hadn't worked, and before their visit was over Acorna had been revealed for
what she was and Calum for what he was. But before Hafiz could resort to
anything too nefarious in his quest to acquire Acorna, he had learned that
Acorna was not a one-of-a-kind creature, but only one among many of a populous
alien race. Consequently Hafiz had lost interest in Acorna as an acquisition,
and learned to value her as an adopted niece. Calum, however, had never quite
lived down posing as the senior, very ugly, wife.

I'm sure they will be most eager to assist in this endeavor, Uncle. However,
there is the small matter of Maganos Moonbase to manage, the education of the
children ..."

Details! Such ideas as mine are as the towering pyramids of the ancients, not
to be smothered in the details as numerous as grains of sand. Bring the
children! Let them learn! They can staff the new businesses, apprentice
themselves to the artisans and technicians, provide support. It will be a
marvelous experience, an unparalleled learning experience for them!" He
considered. "Also, many of the elder ones have already learned how to set up
artificial atmospheres and life support systems on life less rocks such as
this one was prior to its transformation. Their previous training -will, no
doubt, be helpful-"

"In which case, they should be paid," said Calum Baird, joining them with a
mug in his hand, into which he poured a fresh infusion of tea from the tray
between Rank and the Harakamians.

"Like all who join us, the students will be suitably taken care of," Hafiz
said. "Food, lodging, travel, richly rewarding associations, toys for the
young ones ..."

Calum rubbed the thumb and first two fingers of his right hand together in a
time-honored gesture used for many generations by his canny Celtic ancestors.
"The ready, Hafiz. If the children are to learn business, they must also learn
to manage their own money. To do so, they need to earn some. If they are to
-work, they must have a share of the profits. And even at that, I'm not sure
"we should allow it. To take innocent children beyond the protection of the
Federation!"

"Ah, yes," Karina said, regarding him with one of those flashes of sudden
shrewdness that lurked like sharks beneath the fathomless sea of mysticism
with ·which she drenched most of her utterances. "I heard how well-protected
the children were when they were employed on Kezdet as child slaves, miners,
prostitutes, human fodder for the mills of industry without decent food or
accommodation. The Federation forces protected them so well then I really
doubt the little darlings will be able to bring themselves to part with such
security."

"She has a point," said Khetala, a tall and sturdily built young woman with
dark brown skin and a serious expression. She had entered from the gangway
when the food had been delivered, accompanied by Dr. Ngaen Xong Hoa, the
meteorologist. Dr. Hoa's shyly tentative smile and the blazing intelligence in
his dark eyes had kept him from being completely invisible as he and the girl
silently listened to the exchanges between the Harakamians, Calum Baird, and
Rank.

They were not the only spectators to this conversation, even though Khetala
was the first to add her own contribution to it. As was often the case on
Maganos Moonbase, a good-sized audience of avid listeners stood around the
divan and the chair, taking in every remark and gesticulation. Which was fine
with Rafik and which seemed to give the theatrical Hafiz and Karina an
audience to play to.

Even if the children had not been included in Hafiz's plan, they would have
been welcome to listen. They were at Maganos Moonbase to learn not only useful
trades but also all of the other survival skills necessary to living
independently and well, skills which could not be acquired in an atmosphere of
adult secrecy or adult superiority. The kids needed to understand strategy and
self-government, and they learned best by example. They discovered how to be
effective adults by watching the adults in their lives make decisions, from
the beginning of the process to the end.

Khetala, or Kheti, even more than many others, was already respected as a
teacher, an organizer, and a leader. As one of the older, stronger children in
the mines, Kheti had taken beatings for many of the younger ones and shielded
them, lifted loads too heavy for them, and held them together when things
seemed hopeless. Toward the end, she had been hauled off to the pleasure
houses, and although Acorna had rescued her from that particular pit of
despair, Kheti had taken a special interest in helping girls and women who
were formerly used in those places regain their self-respect and sense of
purpose. Among those who cared about Kezdet she was as much a legend in her
own right as Acorna. All of the adults present knew her story.

Hafiz opened his hands, palm up. "I rest my case," he said.

Dr. Ngaen Xong Hoa cleared his throat politely. "I was Just discussing with
Khetala, Hafiz, which of the children have demonstrated an interest in
meteorology. If I am to help you tnaintain a pleasant atmosphere within the
compound at your outpost, energetic assistance from alert young minds -would
be most beneficial." Dr. Hoa's particular specialty -was planetary weather
control.

"And we Starfarers will go into action helping set up the communications
relays you'll be needing," said Johnny Greene, the computer communications
expert of the Haven, the Starfarers' ship.

"Good, then I think -we are all agreed," Hafiz said -with a universal beam of
bonhomie at all who were gathered around him. He rubbed his palms back and
forth, "We leave a skeleton staff to keep the moonbase running, and go to seek
adventure. It is time to begin gathering what we shall need and, of course, a
few small, essential luxuries."

"Oh, goody," said Mercy Kendoro from the edge of the gathering. "Shopping."

In far less time than anyone who had not witnessed the power of House
Harakamian in action would have supposed, the initial supplies, provisions,
and personnel were acquired, transport was organized, and a flotilla of space
vessels, headed by the SharazaS, left several respective planets and moons,
rendezvoused at a point just outside Kezdet's orbit, and began a long caravan
through unmapped space toward the site Hafiz had chosen for his new "trading
post."




Since Aari was the only one who really understood the language spoken in the
Niriian transmission, Becker hoped the guy would be in a better mood when he
woke up from his nap. There was no point in opening the pod until he did. Of
course, if there hadn't been anyone aboard who spoke the language, Becker
would have opened it, hoped the LAANYE and the computer were up to the task,
and tried to figure out its secrets on his own, but right now he could afford
to wait. Aari had to wake up eventually.

Becker had other reasons to delay that task as long as possible. Someone
needed to note the original location on the planet where each piece of salvage
from the wreck had been found, as well as where it was currently stowed aboard
the Com)or, and except for RK and the KEN unit, Becker was the only one awake.
Or so he thought.

It had only been a few hours since Becker had left Acorna sleeping next to
Aari, totally exhausted. Now she surprised Becker by walking up behind him.
I can take over again, Captain. Aari is still asleep." Don't scare me like
that. Clomp a little the next time you Wander up behind me, okay? So how's
Aari doing? You're pretty sweet on him, aren't you?" Becker asked.

Acorna blushed. "Captain, on narhii-Vhiliinyar people wear shields on their
horns, in part to avoid questions just like that. He seems to be resting
peacefully now. I am not sure that 'sweet' is the proper term for my feelings
for him. I am very interested in Aari, it is true, and I want to help him, as
you do."

"Yeah, but I'm not his type, " Becker said, running a hand through his
grizzled gray and black hair. "I am going silver maned, can't argue with that.
But I'm not a girl." He grinned at Acorna. Then he had a thought he hoped he
was keeping to himself. Aari did like girls, didn't he? Becker figured he did.
But there was no evidence here to go on. The guy had not exactly been in any
shape for courting during the time that Becker had known him, nor had he
mentioned any past loves, which seemed pretty natural considering what he'd
gone through and how alone he'd been for most of his life. On the other hand,
Aari's treatment of Acorna had been brotherly, though every so often Becker
did see him watching Acorna closely, sometimes smiling, sometimes -with a
troubled expression on his face. If he saw Becker watching him, Aari would
look quickly away. And Acorna was probably unaware of Aari's interest, if
that's what it was. He always watched her when Acorna was doing something
else.

As Becker worried about his shipmates he heard Acorna let loose a big sigh.

"I dunno, Princess, you should probably tell me to butt out," Becker said,
troubled by seeing her lovely eyes cloud.

"Oh, no, Captain, I would value your advice. My aunt intended that I should
find a lifemate pn narhii-Vhiliinyar but- perhaps because most of the space
travelers left early-I did not meet anyone I liked until you came with Aari."

"You really like him or just feel sorry for him?" Becker asked. Why did he
feel so fatherly to this gorgeous young woman-well, gorgeous young alien
woman-who was taller than he was, probably smarter than he was, and was in
full possession of a number of rather spooky powers that were her birthright
and had been Aari's, too, before some of them at least were partially looted
from him. "You don't have to answer that."

Acorna smiled and patted his hand. "I know you ask only because you care for
my happiness, Captain. You are so much like my uncles-"

"Much better looking, of course," Becker said, huffing through his mustache.
"Way better looking than Baird."

Acorna chuckled. "They say that sort of thing about each other all the time. I
do not know what I am supposed to be looking for, to tell you the truth, I
have never done this before. I am here because I like to be here and feel that
it is time for me to move away from both of my homes, at least for a while. I
care for Aari. Perhaps as a healer cares for her patient, but also more than
that. I have never decided before to linger beyond the immediate healing I can
do. Something in him calls to me. Perhaps he will be a friend of my own
species, and closer to my own age than either Grandam or Maati. Perhaps
because of Maati, who is his sister, and is almost like my own little sister,
I am here in her stead. ..."

They locked eyes and he could see that hers were disturbed in a particular way
that made his heart ache. He had fallen for a few women over the years, but
none of them -were -willing to live for long on a salvage vessel, though a
couple of them had been quite happy to take off with everything on the vessel
that wasn't bolted down and a few things that were. They seemed to consider
him a little eccentric, too. Mostly he just had his tavonte bawdy houses and a
favorite girl or two at each when he was in port. But nobody had ever looked
at him the way Acorna was looking when she was thinking about Aari.

Roadkill jumped onto his lap and dug all of his claws in, purring madly.
Becker sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth and waited for the pain to
subside. Then he rubbed the cat's thick brindled fur with his knuckles. "I
don't think so, Princess. But you know the guy has a lot of problems. And he
probably thinks a classy gal like you wouldn't like a Linyaari with no horn."

Acorna shrugged. "I was raised by men -who had no horns. And he will have a
horn again some day. But-"

That was as far as they got before they heard Aari's footsteps clanking on the
deck plating. He wore no disguise this time, and he said in -what -was for him
a brusque tone, "Now let us see what else the Niriians had to say."

"Okay," Becker   said, and reached for a crowbar he kept on the bridge, just in
case he wanted   to pry or bash one of the second-hand parts that was no longer
working. While   he was wondering which method would work best with the pod, he
heard a series   of snaps and clicks.

Turning, he saw that Aari had opened the pod and pulled out what looked(and
smelled)like the slimiest mess of cheese Becker had ever seen. It was full of
holes, covered in places with green moldy luminescent stuff, and had the
fragrancewell, RK had the right idea when he backed up to it and started
making shoveling motions with his feet.

Aari grinned up at Becker, showing his rather large teeth in a way that could
be intimidating if the guy -was pissed.

"What is that?" Becker asked.

"Niriian organic technology," Aari said. "They have developed ways to use
products of their own bodies, slightly chemically altered, for functions some
peoples achieve with inorganic materials. The biotechnology does not supply
all of their needs, of course, but with the properly stabilized balance of
biological components and nutrients, quite sophisticated functions, including
information storage and retrieval and energy generation, may be performed by
... lifeforms . . . such as these."

"Yeah, but how do you plug it in?"

Aari laughed. "You don't plug it in, Joh! But it is legible-
nreanically-based arrays can provide a remarkably compact form of data
storage. Its contents are accessible in an orderly fashion."

"Oh, sure. Mold and mildew and slime on Limburger cheese-I had an accountant
like that one time. Real orderly. Acorna, sweetheart, can you do anything
about the stench with-you know?" He was trying to be delicate, pointing at her
horn while Aari's head was bent back over the cheesy thing.

"What do you use to retrieve the data?" Acorna asked.

"Yeah, whaddaya use? An ice cream cone?" Becker asked.

Aari rolled his eyes. "No, Joh. The usual scanner the computer uses to examine
and analyze objects."

"The Anscan? I don't quite get how that would do the trick, buddy, but
whatever you say-hey, you're not putting that thing on my console, are you?"
Becker asked. He was not normally all that fastidious, but that smell was more
alien invasiveness than he could handle. And the Anscan was expensive.

Acorna set the pod upright and Aari returned the cheese to it.

Then they set the -whole gizmo on the console. Aari pulled the Anscan over to
where its probe could read the structure of the cheese.

"That is not what that delicate piece of equipment was engineered to do!"
Becker said.

"The Niriians know that, Joh. Though it is true they have not probably
encountered this particular piece of equipment, but they and their trading
partners have similar technology and they have developed this device so it
will work by this means. Ihere have been many fascinating seminars about how
Niriian organic devices can be used with conventional equipment-you should
access them sometime."

Why couldn't they just get electronics like everybody else then?" Becker
grumbled. He was getting a little lightheaded, trying to hold his nose so he
didn't breathe in those fumes.

"Because this piiyi is cheaper, more efficient, and entirely homegrown for the
Niriians," Aari answered, now using the keyboard to open the interface between
the Anscan and ship's computer and corn unit.

If Becker wasn't actually astonished to see a bovine twohorned Niriian appear
on the corn unit screen, he "was at least mildly flabbergasted.

"I'll be darned. That cheese Dou work, just like you said."

"It is a piiyl, Joh."

"It is a pee-yew as far as I'm concerned, but-"

Acorna put her hand to her mouth and made a hushing noise and they listened
again to the broadcast.

"Can we stop it and start it so you can translate for us, buddy?" Becker
asked.

"Yes. The piiyl forms a permanent linear archive, but access to information
can be controlled by your . . . Anscan."

"Okay. Stop it then. What did he just say?"

"The same thing as before. It was a recorded broadcast, a call for help, what
you call a mayday. Their ship was under attack. They identified themselves and
gave their location, but the coordinates they listed were far from here and
even farther from their home planet."

"Does it say who attacked them and why?" Becker asked.

"Not here."

"Okay, let's see if there's anything else on that monstrosity."
"Undoubtedly, Joh. The pliyi is a high-density storage device."

"Dense with stench . . . that I'll agree with," Becker muttered.

Aari went back to work. Once the static had cleared, a Niriian face appeared
and began speaking. After a few seconds, Becker asked what it was saying.

"It is the ship's log. I believe we are receiving the last entry first. It is
hard to tell, exactly, Joh. This is a different speaker- probably the
captain. His dialect is difficult to follow. Wait! Yes! By the Niriian
calendar they were transmitting-ummm, you would say, five days ago.'

Aari had made his answer quickly, and quietly, keeping one ear focused on the
Niriian voice as it droned on.

"Ah, yes." Aari said. "He says that he and his crewmates were on a scouting
expedition. You know, Niriians are always looking for greener pastures-like
us, they are a grazing people, but they are a rather more numerous race than
the Linyaari. He is referring to an earlier entry in the log, something about
a very fertile planet and then, disappointingly, signs of previous
colonization-no, present colonization. Very, very small signs. One-pod? Does
he mean this one? No, he is saying something . . . something about Linyaari."

He shut it down and turned to them, his eyes wide. "Joh, he was saying
something about a dwelling place, and a small downed Linyaari vessel, but it
was not near where they detected the mammalian life signs. His accent is too
thick, Joh."

Acorna said, excitement barely controlled in her voice, "This sounds very
important. Perhaps we should forward all this information back to
narhii-Vhiliinyar, where some of the Starfarers who have spent time on Nirii
can translate it more accurately than we can. In the meantime, we can use Aari
and the LAANYE to try to understand the rest of what is being said. I wonder
who attacked the ship. . . . And I wonder if the Niruans really found stranded
Linyaari outside our normal trade routes and, if so, how our people came to be
there?"

If it was an escape pod, maybe the Linyaari got to the planet in question the
same way you told us you reached the human galaxy-you know, ejecting from a
ship in trouble." Becker offered.

Acorna's expression became so intense, her mouth so set, ana Ihere was such a
determined look in her eyes that Becker thought she might be hoping somehow
that there had been two life-support pods after all in the space ship her
parents had been on, that perhaps they had escaped. He felt obligated to point
out to her that it wasn't the most likely possibility.

"We need to get those coordinates and do a little searching ourselves," he
said. "They could be people who escaped Ganoosh's and Ikwaskwan's goons when
the fake Federation troops were 'arresting' all your people."

Acorna's posture relaxed slightly, dejectedly, at that. "I suppose that's what
it must be."

"But you're right. Your people can probably sort this out quicker than we can,
and also, maybe somebody who's been to Nirii more recently-wasn't that where
your aunt was, Acorna?" he asked. She nodded. "Well, maybe they will know who
to notify among the Niriian authorities to let them know the Hamgaarf) ain't
coming home no more, no more. And we should probably do a little searching
around to find out who is responsible for taking out the Hamgaan) before we
make that report."

If he'd had a hat, he'd have taken it off and placed it over his heart right
then. He knew that the cowboy and his crewmates would have families -waiting
for them in vain back on the old home -world. It was one of the hazards of
spacefaring that all spacers tried not to think about.

"Yes," Acorna said. "You're right. We'll check all of the fragments of the
ship and see if any provide useful evidence. Mean-while, -we can translate as
best -we can the entire ship's log, and -while -we're at it, take the
coordinates of the place ·where they saw the escape pod."

"You're sure you don't find anything else about the attack in there, Aari?"
Becker asked.

"I will attempt to   scan throughout the device for such information." Aari
turned back to the   Anscan and the pay I. The monologue broke off, there -was a
screech of static,   and then, suddenly, there -were images on the screen once
more.   Horrifying   images.

"Holy cow!" Becker said. "Who the hell are the big bugs and what are they
doing--oh, no-Cosmos on a crutch! They're torturing that-Aari?"

Acorna's healing must have worked pretty well because Aari spoke in a very
calm, controlled voice . . . well, actually, Becker thought, his voice was
about as dead as the last fish who tried to swim in a Kezdet river.

"Those are the Khieevi, Joh. And that is me. The Khieevi transmitted the
images of my torment to this Niriian ship."

Once the Linyaari space travelers returned, everyC^ "V        thing should
have been fine again. Everybody should have been happy. Maati had thought that
she, at least, -would be happy. But first Aari had decided not to stay on
narhii-Vhiliinyar. And then Khornya, who had begun to seem like a big sister
to Maati, had left.

Maati felt left out because none of the space travelers she knew wanted to
talk to her about what had happened to them. If she'd been old enough to be
able to read other peoples' minds, then maybe she wouldn't have been so lonely
and alone, but she doubted it. From the shocked, hurt, and sometimes almost
nauseous way those who had not been in space reacted when meeting those who
had been, Maati could tell that the spacefarcrs experiences had been really
bad. You could see in their eyes that the pain lingered inside them, in spite
of all the healing ivhornya and the Linyaari doctors had attempted to do.

Because so many of the space travelers were seeking out wandam Naadiina's
counsel, since Grandam was the oldest living Linyaari and by far the wisest,
Maati couldn't even talk Grandam. Grandam was much too busy.

It was probably better that way. Maati would have hated to have to admit to
Grandam that she didn't feel especially happy to see the others, not when her
brother had left and then Khornya had left, too. It might be selfish of her,
but it was the way she felt.

If the viizaar hadn't been so mean to them, Khornya and Aari might have
stayed. Maati had really started to hate the viizaar. Hate, she knew, was not
a thing a good Linyaari should feel. It was a violent emotion and her people
were supposed to be gentle. But the viizaar was not gentle. She was mean. She
just hid it from everybody, even the people who were good mind readers.
Grandam said Liriili was a good administrator because, since she was less
sensitive than average for a Linyaari, she could make more objective
decisions.

Right. She had made one of those recently, it seemed to Maati. She had decided
Maati was an object to be pushed around and sent here and there. Nobody even
noticed how nastily she spoke to Maati. Everybody was too busy with the
returned space travelers.

When the spacefarers weren't doing some kind of therapy, they were in council,
discussing trade agreements and that kind of dumb stuff. Grandam was there,
too. At least the council kept ol' Liriili busy so she wasn't always yelling
at or for Maati.

Although once, in front of the whole council, just because Maati dropped a
piece of hard copy she was bringing from the doctors concerning the wellness
of some of the returnees, Liriili had snapped at her.

"Honestly, you are the clumsiest messenger I have ever had! And the slowest!
You would have never been given such a responsible position if the council
hadn't been softhearted about you being orphaned. And now look at how you
repay their trust!"

Everybody was so preoccupied with all the important things they were thinking
of that nobody cared "when hot blood rose to Maati's face or that her ears
rang with viizaar Liriili's hurtful words. She couldn't read their minds, but
they could read hers, and in former times people had always been kind. But now
nobody cared what one little flunky felt. They were worrying about the
grievous hurts their scientists, diplomats, teachers, and traders had
suffered.

A hundred faces -watched impassively as Maati bent to pick up the paper and
hand it to Liriili, who snatched it from her hand. Maati would have been even
more humiliated if she thought they -were really paying any attention, but
clearly almost every single one of them had used the distraction to get lost
in his or her own thoughts. Thoughts she couldn't read.

In times past, Liriili would have her stay close by during council sessions,
in case messages needed to be delivered to outlying areas, but these days the
viizaar couldn't wait to get rid of her. She sent Maati out on the silliest
errands, errands that could have been handled easily enough with a beep on the
corn unit, anything to get Maati out of her sight.

Maati had recently heard VLfec^haanye-feriiii Neeva remark to some of the
others, "I wish Khornya and the young man, Aari, had chosen to stay with us. I
cannot understand what was so urgent that they had to go collect salvage with
Captain Becker."

The notion had crossed Maati's mind that ^he knew exactly who had made them
feel like outcasts and made their lives miserable enough to drive them away.
Just as that thought crossed her mind the viizaar's voice had cut through her
musings like a laser.

Obviously our Khornya was attracted to the boy and they wished to be alone
together without the weight of custom that ^as unfamiliar to Khornya and that,
frankly, the boy is too unstable to deal with at this time. Maati, our water
has grown quite stale. Please go fetch some more and see to it that this is
^sposed of."

Maati barely stopped herself from saying, "What do you think YOU have a horn
on your head for anyway? Freshen it yourself!"

But that would really cause trouble. The half-formed thought alone brought a
hard stare from Liriili. But Maati was a messenger, not some kind of a
subspecies to be ordered to do busy work because the viizaar felt like
exercising her authority.

Just when Maati thought it couldn't get any worse, the Ancestors-the
one-horned four-leggeds who were one of two species from which, back in the
time before the Beginning, the Linyaari had ultimately been formed-sent for
Grandam Naadiina. They insisted that she bring with her the space travelers
who continued to suffer from nightmares and other emotional ills, despite the
healings of their families and physicians. All were to attend the Ancestors in
their hilly home. The personal attendants of the Ancestors called the occasion
a "retreat." Maati thought of it as an abandonment.

No sooner had Grandam and the others disappeared from sight than the viizaar
sent for Maati and informed her that, during Grandam's audience with the
Ancestors, the viizaar could not allow a young girl to remain alone in the
pavilion she shared with Grandam. Therefore, Maati would be given a guest mat
in the viizaar's tent and would sleep there until Grandam returned.

"That way you will be handy in case I need you," the Viizaar said with a false
smile. What she really intended -was to keep her own eye on Maati. Every time
Maati wanted to go visit with someone, or -was asked to graze with a group of
other youngsters, Liriili invented some urgent errand for Maati to carry out.

Maati finally realized that the only way she could have time away from the
viizaar was if she did what the viizaar was already accusing her of, and
dragged her heels on certain errands.

Like her last one. Late in the evening, in the middle of a downpour, she had
been sent to the spaceport to take Tharimye, -who was on com-shed duty, a
basket of hand-plucked greens prepared for him personally by the viizaar. A
little note was attached to make sure he knew how he was favored.

When she'd handed him the basket, though, Thariinye had groaned. "Oh, no,"
he'd said.

Maati shook the water from her mane and peered into   the basket. "What's the
matter? Don't you like those sorts? Because I'm not   going to take them back to
her. My feet are sore. She keeps me running day am)   night now. I'm tired." She
flopped back into the second corn-console chair and   sprawled.

"I'm sorry, little one. You want any of these? They're perfectly good grasses.
I'm just not, you know, wanting to accept any favors from our lady leader."

Maati's eyes narrowed and she studied him a moment. Thariinye had changed a
little since he and Khornya first returned from the galaxy of her people. He
had been sooo full of himself when they arrived, and had boasted that he and
Khornya were to be handfasted as lifemates. But later, oddly, Maati had heard
from many young females to whom Thariinye had also paid court. They were all
complaining that if only Khornya had no claim on him, Thariinye would gladly
ask them to graze with him forever. But really, as he and Maati both very well
knew, Khornya hardly liked him at all, much less wanted him for a lifemate.
Thamnye was very handsome, if you liked the tall, slim, muscular type, but
Khornya was somehow . . . older, smarter than he was, and she didn't like his
attitude-Thariinye was a bit conceited. But Maati had to admit that any male
who could successfully string along so many females who could read minds "ad
to have something going for him. A lot of nylirl, Grandam said. Which meant
something similar to courage, except that it meant he was courageous enough to
act on things he shouldn't actually be acting on and say things he shouldn't
really be saying.

Maybe she's just letting you know she doesn't think you're so bad, even though
those ladies complained about you wooing both of them," Maati ventured, with a
little of her own nyliri, watching him to see what he would say.

A crack of thunder heralded a gust of wind that sent rain splashing in huge
puddles against the viewports of the comshed. In the distance, jagged
lightning sliced through the blackened sky, strobing the night with brief but
brilliant flashes.

Thariinye snorted and gave her a smile as phony as the one he gave his extra
girlfriends. "Such a sweet little youngling you are, Maati. Of course she
doesn't think I'm so bad. After hearing all those other girls tell her what a
splendid specimen of manhood I am, she's courting me herself."

It was Maati's turn to snort. "You've been away from space too long,
Thariinye! You've got ground-sickness!" It was the sort of joke the spacers
made about ground people and ground people made about spacers to explain their
peculiarities. It was the only thing Maati could think of, other than
Thariinye's high opinion of himself, to explain -why he would imagine that the
vllzaar capable of any softer, more female feelings at all.

"No. No. It's true. She fancies me. Always says so. Told me she thinks I need
a more experienced woman to guide me, keep me in line, and yet be able to
indulge my little flights of independence. Youngling, that is the last thing I
need. No Khieevi will ever scare me as much as that woman!" He shuddered so
hard his mane shook and his skin twitched.

Maati was shocked. "But Liriili is really oG>. She's almost as old as Grandam,
I bet as old as Neeva, anyway and you're well, I'm just a kid and even I
remember when you were still a dapple gray!"

Thariinye made a wry face. "Maybe you see her as being old, but when I'm
around her, Liriili acts' like a frisky filly. I don't think narhii-Vhiliinyar
is big enough for both of us."

"I know exactly what you mean," Maati replied, remembering her own troubles.
She wouldn't tell Thariinye about them, though. He'd get all adult and bossy
on her if she did, she was sure. It was never a good idea to let him have the
upper hand. She had figured that out because she knew several of those silly
girls he'd been involved with. As long as they didn't seem to notice him, he
sought them out and was very polite, even humble with them. But as soon as
they started to like him, he didn't care for them anymore and went trotting
off after somebody else. That was part of why he kept after Khornya even
though the two of them basically didn't get along very well.

Maati gave him a sly look, "I guess that's what you get for being
irresistible! So, all right, I'll help you get rid of your gift if you'll pass
me one of those thiiifi). They're my favorites." He handed her one of the
tender yellow-green grasses which smelled spicy and tasted sweet with a little
tang to it.

He gnawed absently on one himself. "I should have known what she was doing
when she wouldn't let me go with Neeva and Melireenya. Now everybody who was
anybody among the space-chosen has had a traumatic experience that will
probably bond them forever, and because Liriili kept me planet-bound, I alone
was left out."
"I can see why you would be mad at her for making you miss being mistreated
until you almost died," Maati agreed.

"You're far too young to understand," he said loftily.

"Receiving transmission from the alien salvage vessel Condor," a quiet
computerized voice said from the corn set. "Please stand by."

The lightning flashed again and again, the thunder crashing Just after.
Thariinye turned up the volume on the corn unit.

"We have just recovered the wreckage of a Niriian vessel," Aan's voice said,
sounding strange and flat. "Among the ship's artifacts is a piiyi containing
the ship's log and several other messages. Please stand by to record the
material you are about to receive." There was no visual transmission, but
Maati was pleased to hear Aari's voice, no matter how fleetingly. This message
-was evidently sent several hours ago, according to the time stamp, so that
real-time exchange of communication now Wouldn't be possible. Maati wished she
could talk to her brother, but that clearly wasn't going to be possible on
this night.

"It is extremely urgent that the information on this piiyi be fully translated
and interpreted immediately by an expert in the Niriian language. It contains
evidence that the Niriian ship made contact with the Khieevi"-Aari's voice
faltered for a moment-"and prior to that perhaps discovered a Linyaari escape
pod and survivors on an uncharted planet. Once translation is made, please
respond immediately to the Condor." Aari signed off and silence filled the
com-shed.

Maati jumped to her feet. "I'll go try to find a specialist." Looking out at
the slashing rain, she hated leaving the warmth and dryness of the com-shed.

"Where do you think you'll do that?" Thariinye said. "The spacefarers are on
retreat, remember?"

"This is important enough to call them off retreat. I mean, if the Khieevi are
involved, we'd better let Liriili know right away. She can call them back."

"I speak excellent Niriian," Thariinye told her. "My first off-planet mission
was to Nirii and I have always been good at languages."

"Well, that's good," Maati said. "Get started right away on that broadcast.
But Liriili will have my horn if I don't let her know at once."

"I'll let her know. Just stay put for a naanye, will you?"

He switched to the domestic corn unit. "Vuzaar Liriili, this is Thariinye at
spaceport communications. We have just received a message from Aari aboard the
Conoor concerning a recovered Niriian piiyi with information about a probable
recent encounter with the Khieevi as well as something or other about a
Linyaari escape pod with survivors left stranded on an uncharted planet. We
are being asked to translate and advise the Conoor of the contents
immediately."

"Then do so," Liriili said. They could only hear her voice. The uiixaar did
not switch on visuals at her end. She sounded grouchy and sleepy. "You speak
Niriian, do you not, Thariinye?"

"You wish me to do it, then, ma'am? You don't -wish, for instance, to send for
Melireenya or vifeShaanye-feriiii Neeva?"

Liriili's voice took on a softer lilt as she woke up enough to realize to whom
she -was speaking. "I have every confidence in you, dear boy. If Aari's
impression that there is urgent information contained in the piiyi is
confirmed by your translation, please alert me at once. If it is indeed as
important as Aari says-though you know his experiences have made him somewhat
. . . unstable, shall we say, mst between us? -then of course you should send
the messenger girl after another expert. But I would prefer not intrude upon
the retreat the Ancestors have declared vital to the recovery of our
spacefarers unless I feel it is absolutely necessary."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And, Thariinye?"

Maam?

"I shall expect a personal and confidential report of your findings in my
quarters as soon as you have finished."

"Yes, ma'am." He signed off, shaking his head in frustration.

It was a good thing Liriili couldn't see Thariinye's face, Maati thought. He
gave the most awful grimace and bared his teeth something fierce.

"You probably should go back and sleep," Thariinye told her pompously. "I'll
be too busy to baby-sit you while I have duties to perform."

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 anally 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 twanging 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 button 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 passengers, 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 Khornya and her
friends had freed the space 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 space. 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 shell-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
Khornya 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. Nobody 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 Khornya 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 spaceport,
and fly it to wherever I have to go to so Khornya 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 Khornya 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 Khornya 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 spacefarers for generations, just
like yours. I will do fine in space. 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 spacefarers, 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 spacefarers for alienating Khornya 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 spaceport 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 spacecraft 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
circumstances 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 spacefarers 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 damn 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 hoarse 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 space, 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
space 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 space 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
space travel like a kQaaki to water. Her favorite hiding places back home had
been the techno-artisan village and the spaceport, 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 spacecraft. 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 spacecraft. 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 nobody could find them out here in space,
unless they chose to be found.

Being on shipboard when the vessel was in space 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 grasses 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 grass 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 grassy fields compare with the beauty of deep space? She was lost in
wonder. The galaxy gleamed like a jewel box before her. And she'd barely begun
to taste the joys of space 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 spacefarers 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 Khornya 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 Khornya's parents were killed-when their ship
self-destructed along with the Khieevi chasing them. She thought Khornya's
folks must have used it on themselves after Khornya's pod was ejected. The
force of the blast was the only way to explain how far away Khornya 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."

Why, of all the people she'd ever met, did she have to be on the ship with
himi Nobody else among the spaceport personnel, the techno-artisans, or the
spacefarers treated her like she was inferior just because she was younger and
shorter than they were. In contrast to Liriili and her political friends, the
spacefarers had, with rare exceptions, treated her with respect.

But she was stuck with Thariinye and supposed she'd have to make the best of
it, at least if she wanted to get to Khornya and Aari, and maybe, just maybe,
her parents. It -was an unfamiliar feeling in her heart, the thought that
there was a possibility they -were still alive.
When Maati wasn't arguing with Thariinye, she -watched the tutorials that came
with every new ship's complement of programs and she took herself through a
simulation of Captain Becker's course.

The human employed unusual navigation methods, diving into unplotted wormholes
and through unexplored folds in space rather than following conventional
spaceways. If she and Thariinye were going to manage to rendezvous with the
Condor, they -would have to do the same. Thariinye confirmed her hunch, -when
she asked him point-blank about their course.

Now Thariinye looked nervous as the entrance to the wormhole loomed before
them, but then he grinned and got a strange gleam in his eye. He shifted to
manual controls. "Strap down, youngling," he said.

"I am strapped in," she said. "Hurry up, will you?"

"Okay. Yeeeeeeeheeee!" he cried, a little anticlimactically. She really didn't
notice much. There was nothing to see. One moment the opening -was ahead of
them and the next it was behind them. The stars were in different places. That
was all.

And-something else.

"Well, look at you, little girl," Thariinye said, when he turned to glance at
her and the glance became a stare. "You are now a bona fide star-clad
spacefarer."

She was! She really was. Her skin had been getting a little lighter since they
left, and the pale spots in her mane broadening to overcome the black parts,
but now, her hands below the cuff of her shipsuit -were -white! Completely. As
white as Thariinye's, or Khornya's, or Aari's. She -wanted to run for the
nearest reflective surface but got tangled in her safety restraint straps, her
fingers fumbling as she tried to release the catch. At last she got free and
was able to examine herself in the grooming device. Her face was as pale as
the second moon, her mane pure silver, and her horn golden, though still of a
childishly stubby length. She frowned at her reflection.

"Does this color make me look plumper?" she asked Thariinye, and immediately
regretted it.

He laughed. "Of course not. And even if it did, there's nothing to be done
about it. You're star-clad now, youngling."

"How come it happened so fast?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Usually the change is more gradual. Maybe the
shift of light inside the wormhole accelerated the process."

"There wasn't any light--was there?"

"Of course there was light. You're confusing your basic physics. That was a
wormhole, not a black hole."

"I know that," she said. "I'm just young, not stupid. But I didn't see any
light till -we came out on this side."

"You probably blacked out," he said. "Fear will do that. Your first time in
space and all that."

"I Did not," she told him. "I just didn't see any light. Did YOU? Honestly?"
"Well, no, but then, probably I couldn't pick it up. We were ravelling so fast
and it~"

"Forgotten your basic physics?" she asked sweetly.

"What's next on the course?"

"Cross this planetary system from here," she put her finger on a purplish
planet that -was farthest from its sun, "to over here," this was past the
seventh planet from the sun, "and then there's a sort of funny part of
space-bumpy, as if it's pleated. ..."

"You can see that?" he asked, peering at her finger as if it had eyes.

"I did the simulation, silly. Maybe you should, too. Oh. I forgot. Experienced
Starfarers don't need to do that stuff."

"We'll have no insubordination out of you, youngling."

"Fine. You asked. I told you."

She left him alone on the bridge and stomped down to the hydroponics area to
do some serious grazing. And pouting, if the truth be known. The Condor had
been gone for six weeks before the Nlikaavri launched. They had only been in
space for ten sleep periods. Maati tried to think about what she would say to
her parents if she saw them again, how she -would convince Khornya and Aari to
let her stay with them instead of returning to narhii-Vhiliinyar. But even her
vivid imagination began to run out of ideas after a while. She thought about
it, analyzed the jittery feeling that made it hard for her to sit still. That
wasn't all. Her attention wandered at any excuse, and everything Thariinye
said was sounding even stupider than usual. She had a thousand questions about
how everything on the ship worked, but lacked the patience to listen to
Thariinye's lectures on the subject. She wanted to climb behind the panels and
see how things worked instead of just sitting and waiting. And waiting. And
waiting.

She was bored. Here she was on the greatest adventure or her whole life and
she was sooooo bored. She was used to having the run of Kubiilikhan, keeping
so busy she was exhausted at the end of the day. To having conversations with
people from all walks of life all over the city and surrounding countryside.
Here on this ship she mostly sat. And talked to Thariinye. Who treated her
like a baby. By the Ancestors, something had better happen soon!

Her wish was granted in seven more sleep periods. She had been using the
LAANYE Thariinye brought along to brush up on Khornya's language-Standard. She
wanted to be as fluent as possible when she saw Khornya, Aan, and Captain
Becker again. If she could speak the language, maybe they wouldn't fuss too
much when she announced she intended to stay with them, wanted to go back with
them to that moon Khornya had mentioned where all the children lived and
learned new skills.

It was her watch and she was tired of studying. If only the Condor weren't
still so far awayl Linyaari ships were faster than those of the humans, so
they should be overtaking the salvage vessel before long, but she wished
fervently that they were there already. She ran the course simulation again,
wondering if maybe she could plot a more direct route Instead of simply
following Thariinye's extrapolation of the Condor's course.

As she calculated and plotted her various trajectories, she noticed some
familiar-looking coordinates among her calculations.

Thariinye?" she said, speaking into the onboard hailing system.

He huffed and snorted, from which she gathered that she'd awakened him.

It we just deviate two degrees from Captain Becker's course for a few hours,
we'll be at the point where the Niriians 8aw the planet with my parents'
escape pod on it." "Hmm? Oh. Good."

I think we should alter our planned route and find my parents before we go see
Captain Becker and the others. Shall we change course?"

"Oh, yeah, okay. Fine, kid. Don't bother me," he said and then before she
could draw another breath said, "What? No no, Maati, wait. Don't you <)are
touch anything! I -was asleep. I'll be right there!"

She shook her head when she saw him, rubbing his eyes his mane all flattened
on the left side. He stumbled a little when he walked.

"You-didn't touch anything, did you?" he asked.

"No. That's technically your job. That's why I called. But I do think we
should try to get my folks since they're sorta on the way." She tugged at his
sleeve, and pointed to the screen where the course she had been plotting
intersected with the familiar coordinates.

"Absolutely not." He looked again, tapped a button, compared her course -with
the original tracing of the Condor's. "What's this all about?"

"I was trying to make our trip shorter and faster. The Condor is just looking
for junk. They are not in any hurry, and they are rambling all over the place
while they are looking. They are not trying to take the most direct route
through space. But we do not have to follow their path. We could reach them
faster by plotting a more direct course."

"Oh, -we could, could we? I suppose now that you're starclad, you think you
know as much about navigation as seasoned spacefarers, do you?"

"It's not that. It's just that if those horrible things that hurt my brother
are out here too, I don't want them to find my parents all stranded on some
deserted planet. I wanted to come with you so that I could help you save them.
And if we keep on our present course, it will take forever to reach where the
ConSor ·was. Then we'd have to try to find it from there and, meanwhile, my
parents could die."

"Ummm," Thariinye said again, tracing each route simultaneously with both
hands. "If we take this shorter route, we could rescue your parents on our way
and still rendezvous with the ConDor in half the time I figured." Maati looked
up at him with wide, approving eyes but inwardly she was laughing about how he
was making this whole thing sound like his own idea. "Very well then. I'll
change course now."

He did, putting on quite a show for her benefit-embellishing his movements
with graceful little flourishes, humming to himself the "Hero's Gallop" song.
He evidently thought that, instead of being grounded for life when he returned
to narhiiVhiliinyar, he would receive a hero's "welcome for the rescue of her
parents, his account of which would no doubt be as embroidered as his current
implementation of the course change, or maybe even more so. Let him be the
biggest fraaki in the pond if he wanted to. Maati didn't care. She would
finally get to see her parents again.

Maati was at the helm once more when the ship prepared to enter the orbit of
the planet whose coordinates matched those described by the Niriians. The
planet was a pretty one from this distance. Overall it was the color of the
small lavender flowers that grew in the best grazing grounds. Large pools of
deep indigo appeared through the powdery blue clouds that swathed the world.
It even had several blue moons. She wondered what they would look like from
the surface. She'd find out soon enough. . . .

Maati was about to summon Thariinye when the corn unit Game alive. She heard,
not words, but sounds like rocks being ^nged together, "Hick Klack,
klick-klick-klickety-klack-klackklack."

Thariinye must have been on his way to the bridge already ecause suddenly he
was beside Maati. The color completely famed from his horn and he looked like
he was watching something terrible. "What's the matter, Thariinye? We're
here!" she said.

"Yes," he whispered, nodding at the corn unit. "And so are the Khieevi."




Captain Becker, look," Acorna said, when he arrived on the bridge for his
watch. She pointed out to him their present course back to narhii-Vhiliinyar,
and a slightly altered one. "If we deviated here slightly, -we would intersect
with the coordinates the Niriians mentioned in their vid. The ones where the
escape pod was seen. Do you wish to make that detour? From the looks of the
vid, at least one person survived. Even if that's no longer the case, perhaps
you would find the pod valuable salvage?"

Becker beamed and patted her on the shoulder. "You're gonna make a junker yet,
Princess. That's a great idea. While we re at it, we'll see if there's anybody
there who can tell us more about the wrecked Niriian ship, and if so, we'll
see if they d like a ride. If not, "we have salvage that looks like something
your people would like to have back. Even if they don't, bet your uncle Hafiz
knows somebody who would ·want to view it as a curiosity."

Slight as the course change was, it had a profound effect on Aari, who stared
at the pliyi broadcast continually while he was on the bridge, and
particularly focused on the picture of the pod.

He had gone over the broadcast so many times that Acorna ·was surprised he
could still stand to look at it. He didn't even flinch away from the scene of
his own torture anymore. True he went into an apparent trance while watching,
but since he could be distracted from it if necessary, Acorna decided he was
simply thinking deeply about his experience, trying to face up to it and
process it, which surely meant he was growing stronger and healthier and
better able to deal with it? She hoped so.

Becker rolled his eyes now whenever he looked at Aari. He had tried some
conversational gambits with no success. Aari ·would answer a polite "Yes, Joh"
or "No, Joh" and return to staring at the screen. Acorna usually met with the
same response.

Had it not been for the cat and the KEN unit, the situation might have never
been resolved.
Once his initial curiosity about the pliyi had been exhausted, RK paid no
attention to it for several days. As the same images playing over and over on
the screen meant that Aari, who was one of the cat's favorite people, would be
on the bridge, RK started spending more time there. But enough, in RK's
opinion, was enough. When Aari refused to focus exclusively on the cat, RK,
tail lashing, began watching the screen, too. Acrorna noticed that every time
the Khieevi appeared on screen again with Aari at their mercy, the cat -would
enlarge himself to twice his already considerable size, flatten his ears, and
hiss. The first time Becker had witnessed RK's reaction, he'd laughed until he
fell out of his chair. The cat then hissed at Becker, too.

Even Aari couldn't help laughing.

But RK, as his apparent understanding of what he was watching grew, became
even more agitated when the scene appeared on the screen. One day, when they
-were all on deck and the scene appeared, the cat flung himself at the screen,
claws and teeth bared. The force of his collision with the hard, smooth, and
totally uninjured surface of the screen knocked RK onto the deck, where he lay
for a moment. Then he sat up and licked the fur on his left side as if that
had been his intention all along.

Aari picked the cat up, stroked his fur, and laughed. "You got yourself a
defender there, Aari," Becker said. Acorna reached over and scratched RK under
his chin. The cat graciously permitted her ministrations, though he did not go
so far as to actually purr.

During the long hours when she was not on watch and the others were busy or
sleeping, Acorna undertook to "educate KEN," as Becker put it.

The android was being underutilized, she told Becker. Though he was programmed
essentially as a servant or at least an employee, he had a vast amount of
unused memory.

"It would greatly expand your ability to collect salvage, Captain," she told
Becker. "If you landed on a world rich in salvage but with an unbreathable
atmosphere, for instance, the android could collect your salvage for you long
after the limited oxygen supply in your pressure suit forced you to return to
the ship."

Becker nodded. "Sounds good to me." I'll need access to the Condor's memory
banks." ML ccua e<) ^u. ccua," Becker said. "Is that Standard?"

Only to the Pallomellese," Becker said. "It means 'my house is your house, my
ship is your ship.' Go for it."

During most of this programming, the KEN unit was turned ' "ut during the
rest, he remained conscious and participated ln e '^rk. Acorna was surprised
at how natural he seemed. He was not, after all, a particularly new model.

Were you originally programmed to feel or display emotlon?" she asked the
robot.

"No," he said. And then, half a beat later, he asked with seeming anxiety,
"Was that the wrong answer?"

She smiled to reassure him. It seemed silly to think that someone who was
basically a machine needed reassurance- but, on the other hand, she had heard
her uncles talk to their ship, she'd seen Becker talk to the ConSor in the
same way he spoke to RK, so there was really no reason to think that machines
didn't respond in some way to emotional input. Particularly machines -which
appeared to be human. "I do not think that there is a wrong answer to that
question," she said. "But I'm interpreting your responses as being emotionally
motivated. This makes me more comfortable with you."

"I hope you are comfortable with me, miss," the KEN unit said. "You have
taught me a great deal these last few days. I know many more things. I
understand a great deal more about the people here, this ship, this universe.
Kisia Manjari did not wish me to think for myself."

Acorna frowned. "Kisia Manjari -was a very troubled person. And she had the
unfortunate habit of passing her trouble around to everyone she met."

"She was a very difficult user, miss. I believe I perceive ·what you mean.
Captain Becker, on the other hand, keeps me shut off most of the time. This
recharges the batteries but does not add greatly to my knowledge."

"I don't think the captain realized your potential, KEN640," Acorna said.
"I'll ask his permission to leave you on continually while you are
assimilating the data I have added to your banks."

"Miss, I note that the captain, and you, and the other being like you, and
even the fur-bearing creature call each other by casual appellations. KEN-640
is my model number. But it is not the same sort of appellation."

"I'm sorry, KEN-640. You may call all of us by our given names. Although Aari
calls me Khornya, as do others of my race, my original name is Acorna and I
prefer it. Do you wish to be known by a different appellation than KEN-640
yourself?"

"Yes, Acorna. I have scanned the selection of names for humanoids of Terran
origin, which I resemble, and have decided it would be appropriate for me to
be called MacKenZ. Mac means son of, which sounds more human than modeled by,
does it not?"

"It does."

"And although my model number indicates that I was not the latest or most
sophisticated unit made to date, I feel that your programming has put me on a
par -with the most recent and updated of my series. And if an "A" indicates
the first or earliest model in the Standard alphabet, then Z surely means the
most recent upgrade. Hence MacKenZ."

"Fine, MacKenZ. If you'll accompany me to the bridge, I will reintroduce you
to our crewmates."

She did so. After that, Becker readily agreed to leave the MacKenZ operational
most of the time and began some programming of his own, teaching MacKenZ some
of the important points to remember in collecting salvage. "I think Mac is
selfprogramming to some extent anyway," Becker said, scratching his head.
"Otherwise, I don't see how he could come up with some of the stuff he does."

Becker was nonetheless reluctant to trust MacKenZ at the helm alone, although
he didn't mind tutoring him in Becker Enterprises navigational methods when he
stood his own watch.

MacKenZ spent much of his time on the bridge, when Becker didn't have any
other specific assignment for him. Acorna -was glad of the company. She used
the time to input more data, using the books that Aari had now abandoned in
iavor of studying the piiyi.
She discovered, as she came on watch to relieve Aari, that KEN, too, had taken
an interest in the broadcast.

Aari was involved in the liveliest exchange he had engaged in since they
recovered the pod. He and MacKenZ were conversing in Linyaari. Acorna had
programmed the android for Standard. The Linyaari was either the android's own
idea, or perhaps Aan had taught him.

"From observation," MacKenZ was saying, nodding at a frozen frame of the
Khieevi torture scene, "I have deciphered the meaning of some few of the
utterances Khieevi make by rubbing their legs together, Aari," MacKenZ was
saying in a puzzled tone. "But these sounds, while they have a definite
pattern and twenty-one thousand four hundred fifty-two distinct combinations
which can predictably be determined to have specific meanings, are not
translatable -with the use of your LAANYE device, which I find odd. Can you
enlighten me as to the meanings of these clickings? Are they the only form of
communication employed by these beings?"

Aan sat back in the command chair and closed his eyes, rubbing the area around
the cavity where his horn once grew. He looked very, very weary. "They use
thought-speak," he told MacKenZ, sighing deeply. "I didn't realize it at
first, but they touch their antennae together and thought transference takes
place. The audible communication they perform with their leg rubbings is
apparently a code for more complex thoughts they are able to transmit in full
by antennae contact. This is what has made it so difficult for the LAANYE to
make sense of their verbal communication in the past. I suppose I am the only
living being who has spent enough time with them to comprehend their mode of
data transference." He paused, then added dryly, "I suppose that dubious
distinction also means I may be the only Linyaari qualified to try and program
the LAANYE to decipher the Khieevi utterances."

"So the Khieevi have to be physically present to employ such a mental means of
communication," the android said. "So they use the clickings of their legs
rubbing together as an audible means of communication for longer distances,
such as ship to-ship transmissions. Fascinating. What else did you learn while
you were with the Khieevi?"

"How loudly I could scream. How long before my voice crave out," Aari said.
"How I could be reduced to a mass of searing pain, with no thought, no higher
purpose than to make it cease."

"And yet, clearly, from what you say, you were able to

withhold the location of narhii-Vhiliinyar, as well as your brother's hiding
place. Was that not an act of will?"

"Willful memory loss perhaps," Aari said with a very faint   smile.

"What meanings did you attribute to these various click ings "

"Perhaps on my next watch we will attempt to interpret them, Maakinze. Here is
Khornya, come to relieve me."

He smiled at her, but she was looking beyond him, to the screens that were, as
Becker would say, lit up like pinball machines. "Look, Aari! Signals from
everywhere! And we are nearing the coordinates of the lost pod. Perhaps we
should alert Captain Becker."

"I'm right here, Mac!" Becker called out from down the corridor, his bare feet
clanking as he jogged across the grated deck plating. "What's up?"

"A diffuse sonar signal is emanating from the area around the planet where the
Linyaari escape pod is located, Captain," Mac replied.

A strange feeling came over Acorna as she looked at the thousands of tiny
blinking lights spread across the sonar screen. She had seen this pattern
before. "I know what that is, Captain!" she said. "It's the sonar-blocking
signal given out by cloaked Linyaari vessels. One of the techno-artisans
showed me how it worked recently."

"So," Becker said. "If it's a cloaked Linyaari vessel, what's that?" He
pointed to a substantial and solid blip rapidly entering the sonar array.

As if in answer, the corn unit began a "Klick-klack-klickklack-klick-klack"
noise.

"Khieevi," Acorna and Aari whispered, while Mac said the same word in a
matter-of-fact, almost cheerful tone.

"Those guys?" Becker asked, peering at the dot as if he could make out the
shape of the ship from it.

"Scope," Acorna said, and the viewscreen suddenly zoomed so that the
mantis-shaped Khieevi vessel was indeed readily identifiable, though still
quite distant.

"So that's what one of the little buggers looks like." Becker said, quietly,
as if afraid they would hear. Meanwhile the klickings and klackings continued.
"We seem to have intercepted one of their transmissions. Anybody have any idea
"what it's all about?"

"Klickety-klack," the Khieevi vessel's message seemed to be tapping directly
onto Maati's spinal cord. She sat for a moment with her eyes squeezed shut.

"You don't have to close your eyes and pretend they can't see you," Thariinye
said, but not as scornfully as he might have. "We're cloaked."

"What does the noise mean?" she asked.

"I don't know. I didn't hear a lot of their language when we were up against
them on Rushima. And I wasn't alone. So far, nobody has gotten enough of a
sample into the LAANYE for reliable translations. All our contacts with them
have pretty much been at the wrong end of a 'weapon. Maybe it's Khieevi for
'come out, come out, wherever you are.' But don't worry, youngling. We may not
be coming out, but we're moving out right now. I'm putting us into the nearest
wormhole and-"

Maati's eyes blinked open and she reached to intercept his hand on the
controls. "But . . . my parents! They're still on that planet! The Khieevi
will get them." A brief struggle ensued, which Thariinye won.

He gave her a pitying look and reached again for the navigation controls. "I'm
sorry, Maati, but we don't know for sure they're still alive. If so ... well,
they've escaped the notice of the Khieevi so far. Perhaps they can continue to
do it until we can find help. We-"

He never finished his sentence.

A heavy blow thudded against the Niikaavri, knocking both of them forward,
straining the straps that held them into their chairs. At the same time, the
lights on the control panel flared and two blinked out.

"Oh, no!" he cried, and punched frantically at the board again.

"Oh, no, what?" Maati asked.

"Somehow, in that little maneuver of yours, -we turned our camouflage off.
They know our position now."

"Put the cloaking device back on and move, then!"

"I'm trying to, but the ship is not responding!"

A bolt of light shot in front of the viewport and they were once more rocked
by the force of some sort of energy weapon striking their starboard bow.

Suddenly the egg-like ship was spinning dizzily, and the blue planet grew
larger and larger in their viewscreen.

Thariinye grabbed the corn unit and yelled, as if it could carry across space,
"Mayday, Mayday, we are the Linyaari vessel Niikaavri and we are under attack
from a Khieevi vessel."

Maati thought he had lost his mind. Surely no one would hear them, but then
she cried, "Tell them -who we are, Thariimye. In case my parents can hear us.
Tell them it's me, so they'll know what happened. Tell them to hide!"

I am Ensign Thariinye of clan Renyilaaghe. My second in command is Maati of
clan Nyaarya. We are under attack by a Kleevi vessel. Our coordinates are . .
."

Maati thought she was hearing things for a moment when the klickings and
klackings and sound of failing systems were replaced suddenly by a familiar
comforting voice.

"Thariinye, Maati, it's Khornya. You've been badly hit. Use the escape pod.
We'll pick you up and get us all out of here."

Another, harder thud and the ship was spinning dizzily, the blue planet
looming larger with every revolution.

Maati floated up from her seat. "G force has been cut."

"Khornya, the Khieevi! Save yourselves!" Thariinye bellowed into the corn
unit. To Maati he said, "No time to deal with it, youngling. Unstrap. Climb
into the pod!"

The pod was located behind the command chairs. Maati snapped her restraint
open and did a handstand on the back of the chair, flipping herself down to
the top of the pod and popping its catch.

"No sweat, sport," Captain Becker's voice was saying. "We got 'em covered."

"Thariinye, the escape pod," Khornya said again.

Maati climbed inside the pod. She suppressed a nervous giggle. The zero G
popped her up to the top.

"Oh," Thariinye said, and she saw the top of his head as it swrveled to take
in the wildly flickering console lights, the sparks flying from the board at
many points.

Maati waited. It felt like forever. She felt sick from the spinning and
thought that the stars swirling past the viewport looked like what she'd
thought she would see in the wormhole.

She heard the snap of Thariinye's restraint, and saw his feet, then his legs
as he bounced over the top of the chair and off the deck.

Maati held on to the pod lid with one hand and grabbed his foot with the
other, pulling him in. He was barely inside the pod when all of a sudden the
canopy slapped closed and locked, and they felt a bump as gravity returned,
but increased fivefold, pressing the pod against the deck.

Thariinye pressed the release button to eject the pod and activate the
recirculating oxygen supply. Oxygen flooded the ood with a hissing sound, but
they were still stuck inside the ship. The ejection mechanism -was
malfunctioning, just like everything else on the ship! And the gravitational
force was so strong they couldn't pop the hatch again to see why the pod had
failed to eject.

Thariinye's heart boomed against her ear.

"It's okay, Thariinye. The pod will help protect us during a crash. They're
amazingly resilient, you know."

His breath rasped in and out a few times.

"Unless, of course, the ship burns up on entering the atmosphere or we're
smashed in the wreckage when it slams into the planet," Maati said, and
realized that what she was voicing was Thariinye's thought. He hadn't said a
-word. What a time for her psychic powers to kick in!

The pod insulated them a bit from the noises around them, but she knew they
-were still inside the ship because she hadn't felt the explosive acceleration
that would indicate the pod had separated from the mother ship. They were
still stuck.

(I could open the hatch and . . .) she thought she said aloud.

Tharnnye hugged her close to his chest. "Not if it's stuck, you can't. I'll
keep hitting the firing mechanism. We'll just have to hope that the relay
decides to engage before the crash-or maybe even during."

(Oh, no, we're trapped!) Panic welled up inside her and tears began to flow
from her eyes. She couldn't spend the pitiful traction left of her life cooped
up in this tiny shell. She couldn't. She just couldn't.

Then suddenly it was as if they had hit a bump. They felt themselves sliding
and then their pod was launched so that at rst they were flying, then
dropping.

(It will level out, won't it?) she asked. Or did she? They were wrapped so
closely in each other's arms that it was no -wonder she could suddenly hear
his thoughts and he could hear hers.

(Yes,) he said. (But I am doomed anyway. Even if -we survive the crash and the
Khieevi, Liriili will kill me for stealing and losing her newest ship.)
Becker jerked his thumb backward, gesturing for Aari to surrender the command
chair. The Condor's hiding place behind one of the moons kept it out of range
of the Khieevi ship's sensors, giving the crew a little breathing space to
make plans.

Aari got up, but gave the captain a level look. "I am fine, Joh. The Khieevi
no longer freeze my ability to think."

"I know that, buddy, but you don't know my bird like I do." He clasped his
hands, intertwining his fingers, straightened his wrists and flexed his
knuckles, then shook both hands out and applied them to the buttons. "Let's
deploy those Winding laser cannons we picked up last year."

"Sorry, Captain," the computer said, "but you have not yet found the right
mountings to affix them to the gun ports."

"Oh, yeah. Then fire the Apatchipon micron splitters."

"You have not been able to fashion suitable ports, Captain, to accommodate
both the micron splitters and your latest hull modifications.''

"Well, I've had all these people around and-okay, so we'll just go for the
plain old atom blasters Dad installed years ago.

"You removed those and stored them, Captain, when you traded for the Windigi
laser cannons."

"Fraggit! So what have we got? Spit? We fired the last big load of cargo into
Ganoosh's bird and we haven't acquired enough new stuff yet to do any good."
He shook his head and said, "I guess we could board 'em and go mano a mano
with the side arms and laser rifles. It worked on Rushima."

Acorna leaned forward, "You used the tractor beam before, Captain. How much
will it hold?"

"A bunch more than we've got to throw at these buggers," Becker replied. "This
was supposed to be a nice, simple cargo run. . · ·" He and Aari exchanged long
looks. Acorna did not care for the grim set of Aari's jaw or the glazed,
doomed look in his eyes. Nor could she bear to think of Thariinye, much less
Maati, at the nonexistent mercy of the Khieevi. She had sensed some difficulty
with the pod before their ship crashed, but she had no true reading of what it
was.

"Joh, listen to me and do exactly as I say," Aari commanded, interrupting
Acorna's train of thought. His voice was clipped and hard and she was amazed
to see he had appropriated Becker's side arm, and was raising it in Becker's
direction. "You have an operational shuttle in Bay Two. You will take Khornya
and Riidkiiyi and board the shuttle now. I will give you five seconds to clear
and then I will ram the Condor into the Khieevi ship."

"Over my dead body," Becker growled, whipping around in the chair to face
Aari. "That's mutiny."

"Over your stunned body if necessary, Joh. Khornya, you understand this is the
only way to save Thariinye and my sister, don't you? The Khieevi killed me
long ago. I live only to prevent them from doing to others what they did to
me. So unless you wish to lose your horn to them as I did, and worse, you and
Mac will take Joh and Riidkiiyi now and evacuate."

You're not gonna crash my ship!" Becker said belligerently, his jaw stuck out.
Ir you will all just listen to me for a moment," Acorna interjected. "Aari,
give the captain back his weapon. We will need the ConSor to rescue Thariinye
and Maati and your par61118. I have a better idea. Remember in that old vid,
when the evil western agricultural workers dragged the good quick-draw waITlor
the indigenous inhabitants had hired to save them?

Tksy dragged him through cactus, and over hardened trails, a he was much the
worse for wear as a result. I remember thinking that actually it was highly
unlikely he would have survived, especially maintaining his headgear as he
did, had the event been an actual occurrence rather than a fictional one.
Well, it seems to me that we could do much the same thing here. The
atmospheric rim on this planet is quite dense and the gravitational pull
strong. If the tractor beam will hold the Khieevi ship ..."

"Gotcha, Princess! You're brilliant!" Becker spoke to the computer. "Okay,
Buck, engage the tractor beam. Hook onto that big, nasty piece of salvage off
our starboard bow." He chuckled and said to his crew members. "Heh-heh. This
is a great idea! They can't shoot us or anybody else while they're locked onto
the tractor beam's gravity -well."

The beam locked onto the Khieevi ship and hauled it toward the Condor until it
vanished from view beneath them.

"At least, I don't think they can, unless they got some new technology that
lets them." Becker continued in a slightly more worried tone as he maneuvered
the beam so that the Khieevi was in tow behind and at an angle from the
Condor, riding between the salvage ship's belly and the planet's rim.

The klick-klack noise on the com unit was now loud, angry, and very obviously
intended for the crew of the Condor.

"They are telling you to surrender, Joh. They have us in their pincers," Aari
said. He was baring his teeth, and it was not a friendly grin. Acorna reached
up without thinking to wipe the sweat where it was suddenly dripping off his
chin. He touched her hand lightly, his fingers stroking hers once,
regretfully. She knew from the touch that he still could not imagine they
-would come away from this encounter alive, much less unscathed.

"Strap down, crew," Becker said.

Acorna grabbed RK and strapped him in with her. Aari and Mac did likewise in
the seats Becker had scavenged so that the entire crew could be together on
occasion-though none of them had thought that such an occasion as this would
ever arise.

"Buck, give us a visual of the cargo in the tractor beam, Becker told the
ship's computer." Once he could see the Khieevi ship, Becker accelerated and
the Condor shot toward the blue planet, past where the enemy vessel had
originally hovered while watching the crash of the Linyaari craft. The screen
showed the mantis-like ship dangling beneath the Condor's belly, while the
klicking and klacking from the corn unit rose in volume and variation.
Threats, no doubt.

Becker dove and the blue planet grew larger and larger, until its vaporous
cover seemed ready to swallow the Condor. "Manual," Becker said, and pulled
back on an actual lever among the buttons of his control panel, with the
effect that the Condor's nose swooped up, slinging the Khieevi ship behind it.

Acorna felt a bump as they changed course, and on the screen the Khieevi ship
jumped and shook as it dipped into the atmosphere and was pulled out again.
Becker did this three times. Diving and swooping, and-at the end of each
swoop- a bump. As they pulled up, the pressure of acceleration pressed all of
them to their seats. RK's lips pulled back from his teeth in a fierce grimace,
as did Aari's. Acorna -would have laughed but her teeth were bared, too. Only
Mac's face remained just the same, robotic flesh impervious to the force.
Acorna's stomach could not decide whether to go into her throat or her legs,
and the variations in gravity made her lightheaded and giddy.

Just as the Khieevi ship bumped the third time, Becker commanded, "Disengage
tractor beam, Bucko. We're gonna play a little game of crack the ship."

The Khieevi ship -was flung wide from the Condor and skipped three more times
against the resistance of the outer atmosphere, almost as if the ship was a
flat rock and the atmospheric rim was a pond. But the ship wasn't solid, and
the Mantis's legs and antennae broke off with the first skip, while large
cracks appeared with the next before it plunged spinning toward the surface.
It disappeared into nothingness as the Condor flew deeper into space.

"Whoa, Buck," Becker said.

When the Condor had slowed, Becker returned to the atmosphere and reversed
thrusters. The Condor's screens were picking up signals from the Lmyaan escape
pod as well as several from the Khieevi ship.

The planet appeared even bluer than it had from the air as the ship approached
the surface.

Acorna didn't know she was humming until Aari asked, "You are singing-is it
your death song?"

"Gill used to sing it sometimes," Acorna said. "It is an old Terran folksong
of military origin."

Becker laughed and sang in a gravelly and tuneless voice, "Off we go, off into
the wild blue yonder."




Seven

Thariinye?" Maati said. "Tharnnye, we've landed. JVly arms are pinned. Can you
open the canopy?"

His heart still beat in her ear slow and steady. He was alive, anyway.
"Thariinye, are you okay?"

He blasted her other ear with a loud snore. She elbowed him in the ribs. "You
fell asleep! We could have been killed and you fell asleep!"

He stirred and groaned. "Not asleep. More like unconscious, I think."

"Unconscious people don't snore. You were snoring." Where are we, anyway?" he
asked, changing the subject. "I don't know. But it feels like we landed. That
was too much of a thump for us to be still in space. Can you open the canopy?"

What if we have landed on some hostile planet where there is only nitrogen to
breathe?" he asked. "If I open the canopy, we die."
Look at the sensors, you dope. The air's fine. Remember, "y parents lived here
for long enough for the Niriians to find roem. They must have breathed the air
and still survived. And if you don't get us out of here, I wet my pants now
and we both die of hunger or worse later anyway," she said. "Do you just want
to sit here and wait for the Khieevi to snatch us?"

"Okay, you've got a point." He   opened the hatch. While he was at it, he turned
off the locator beacon. "Don't   know who'll be looking for us, do we?" he
asked. Through the open hatch,   they saw periwinkle blue sky, lacy fronds of
vegetation, one sun and half a   dozen moons simultaneously, and some large and
very beautiful birds with blue   and green iridescent plumage soaring above
them.

"How could you fall asleep -when the Khieevi were after us and maybe even got
Khornya and Aari, too?"

"I couldn't do anything about it, could I? When you are older and more
experienced, youngling, you will learn to utilize whatever quiet moments you
can grab from the constant excitement of a spacefarer's life to conserve your
energy and mend any damage done by life's travails."

"Right," she said, and tried to sit up. The pod moved under her, bouncing up
and down. "Whoa, stop!" she said, and looked over the edge to see what was
causing the motion. Lacy, fernlike growth held them in the air. "Thariinye,
look. These are the tallest bushes I have ever seen!" All around them and high
above them, blocking off the view in most directions, other lacy fronds fanned
briskly back and forth.

He sat up, too, and the pod rocked even more perilously.

"They're not bushes, youngling. These are treetops. Can you climb down? If the
branches support your weight, then maybe they'll support mine. I don't think
we're up very high. All of the other trees appear to be higher."

She leaned over the edge and touched something solid, big enough it let her
spread her whole hand. Thariinye leaned against the opposite side of the pod
to balance it as she felt her way along. When she was sure the support was
wide enough for her to step out on, she did, slithering her belly, pelvis, and
legs over the side to follow her outstretched hands and arms.

She crawled along the limb on hands and knees, peering through the fronds to
try to find more sturdy branches. When she reached the trunk, she had to lift
more fronds to find the way down. "No wonder it wasn't very tall," she crawled
back to Thariinye.

"Be careful, you'll . . ." "Oooops!" she cried, windmilling her arms as she
let her legs shoot out from under her.

"Maati!" Thariinye cried, and toppled the pod reaching for her. It fell from
the nest of fronds and landed below-about three feet below. Thariinye had
covered his head with both hands anticipating the crash.

Maati laughed and laughed, and stood up. The fronds and the part of the trunk
still in the ground rose only as high as her waist. "Gotcha!" she cried,
clapping her hands. "We broke the tree when we landed and its branches
cushioned our fall!" "Brat," Thariinye grumbled, extricating himself from the
pod.

"Now what, 0 experienced spacefarer?" Maati asked cheekily.
"Standard protocol is to stay near your pod," Thariinye told her. "Which would
be a good idea if Khornya and her crewmates are looking for us."

'But a bad idea if they lost out to the Khieevi, and it's the monsters who are
looking for us," Maati said.

"Yes," he admitted. "I know what we can do," Maati said. "Oh, you do? Who put
you in charge of the mission?" "The same power that put you in charge," she
replied, We're in this together. If I get saved, you get saved. If I get
caught, you'll-"

If I get caught I'll try to make sure they don't know you're alive,' Thariinye
told her with unexpected gravity.

Right. Well, all I need to do is climb up one of the taller "ees, if it's
climbable, and look around. I can maybe see where the wreckage of our ship is
and if anybody is checking it out. That is the first place anyone will look
for us, and it isn't like we can't tell our friends from our enemies in this
situation. One look, and we'll know what to expect."

"Why, that's a very good idea. You learn quickly, youngling."

Climbing these trees was easier said than done, however unless you were one of
the small blue-furred scampering things constantly running up and down trunks
and through the underbrush. The trunks were smooth and thick-it was the broken
off end of the trunk that Maati had crawled along when she first left the pod.
But the frond branches were not very strong and snapped under the pressure of
even Maati's small feet.

She made it halfway up one of the trees, and that was as far as she got. She
felt around for handholds or footholds but found none.

Thariinye called up to her from below, "Keep going."

"Can't," she said.

"Well, what do you see from there?"

"More trees. But I think the ones over that way," she pointed to the west,
"are on a hill, maybe. And there is some kind of clearing at the top. If we
could go climb that hill, we could see more." When she'd pointed, she'd let go
of the tree with one hand, and transferred all her weight to her other hand.
That put more pressure on her grasping hand and the frond she was holding
broke. While she was searching for another, her feet bore too heavily on the
fronds she stood on, and those broke as well. She slid precipitously down the
trunk, catching her shipsuit several times on protruding fronds on the way
down. It was a sturdy synblend and didn't tear, but Maati wasn't so sure the
skin beneath the suit was as undamaged.

"It'll take us farther from the pod," Thariinye said with a sigh. "But that
might be a good thing."

"I don't think we ought to talk so loudly anymore either," Maati said. "In
case the monsters hear us."

(We wouldn't need to talk at all if you weren't such a baby,) Thariinye
grumbled.

She punched him lightly in the side with her balled-up fist. (I heard that.)
Then after a beat, (Hey, do you think we could contact Khornya and my brother
mentally from here? Or maybe even my parents? I can do that, can't I, now that
I'm able to send and receive?) The last was thought quite proudly, and
Thariinye received an image of a grownup Maati.

(Not if they're still too far out in space or too busy to listen-engaged in
battle with the Khieevi, maybe,) Thariinye sent a withering thought. Maati
realized that this was a frequent behavior with him. The idea had not been his
and therefore he was trying to make it sound "worthless.

(It doesn't hurt to try, though,) Maati pointed out.

(Unless, of course, the Khieevi can read our thoughts and find us from them,)
Thariinye said. (In case they folio-wed us down here.)

(Oh,) Maati said. (Yeah. Okay. I'll shut up. Back to the hill, then.)

They were nearly there when they heard the -whistling, roaring sounds. They
scrambled quickly to the top of the hill and found the clearing in time to see
the wreckage of the Khieevi ship falling from the sky, splashing into a sea
some distance from them. They could make out the -wreck of their own ship on
the shore.

"At least if we lost our ship, they did, too," Maati said.

"I suppose that's some consolation," Thariinye agreed. "The Khieevi ship was
-wrecked-maybe Liriili can blame the Khieevi ror the whole mess, instead of
me, if we live long enough to have to confess it." And then he pointed. For
once, even he was speechless. Maati could see why.

Also tumbling down from the sky, but in much better shape than the larger ship
had been, was a small Khieevi shuttle. As it fell, two figures could be seen
emerging from it, trailing some sort of membrane behind them that caught the
air and sailed them gently to the ground.

Maati, seeing the bug-like creatures alive for the first time, even at a
distance, was filled with horror and loathing. Tears began trickling down her
cheeks as she looked up at Thariinye.

"They landed somewhere over there," he said, pointing toward the beach. "So I
think we should run in the opposite direction as far and as fast as "we can."

"Yes," she said, "But-but-Thariinye?"

"What?"

"If their ship is crashed and in pieces and only two of those creatures are
getting out, does that mean the ConSor won?"

"We can't take that chance, youngling, though by the Ancestors I hope it is
so. We are no match for even two of those creatures. Quickly now."

He didn't have to tell her twice.

The Linyaari ship lay broken in two like a giant egg that had hatched its
chick. It was nestled deep in a beach of aqua blue sand, beyond which cerulean
blue waters stretched to the horizon. Wreckage from the Khieevi ship was
scattered like bits of large and particularly ugly seaweed on the surface of
the water and along the beach, carried in by the waves. Behind the beach was a
range of blue dunes and, beyond them, the fronds of a forest of graceful
fern-like trees beckoned the Condor to land.
Once the ship had done so, Acorna released her restraint and RK's.

"Conditions are hospitable, Captain," the Buck Rogers voice of the ship's
computer told him. "That blue stuff that looks like sand, is. The other blue
stuff that looks like the water is. Salt water, though, so take your
desalination and purification unit.

The temperature is sixty degrees Fahrenheit with moderate winds at three point
two knots. The air is breathable, even fragrant, by human standards."

"Are there-life forms?" Aari asked.

"Other than here? How should I know? I'm a ship's computer, for heaven's sake,
not an anthropologist. My heat and motion sensors are picking up something,
but it could just be all that wreckage out in the water."

The scanners showed what Buck was referring to more precisely. Becker
salivated at the sight of all that salvage.

Aari was more sober. "Does it show if there are any live beings there?"

Becker shook his head. "Don't know. My scanners are for salvage, mostly."

"I hope Thariinye and Maati were able to make it to the escape pod," Acorna
said with a little shiver that made her skin twitch. "I don't think anything
else would have survived that crash."

Becker said, "Look at the ship. I don't see any obvious signs of them or the
pod in the wreckage. They're here somewhere. And if that's the case, Princess,
we'll find them. What I'm hoping is that none of those stupid bug things made
it to a pod."

"Their ships don't have pods, Joh," Aari said. "Their carapace protects them
against many things that would kill others."

"What about that large shuttle-shaped piece of debris over there, captain?"
Mac asked.

Rrrrrowwsst!" RK responded. Cat says it's Khieevi," Becker told them.

"We heard him, Joh," Aari said soberly. 'Well, from here I'd say it's not as
badly wrecked as the Khieevi ship." He indicated the fragments of the ship
floating ^ the water. "We can at least hope that any occupants are in ^e same
fragmentary state as their transportation," Becker said.

RK bolted for his personal exit and they heard his claws scrabbling as he slid
down the cat chute to the ramp that led to the robolift.

"We better get moving," Becker said. "Cat seems to have to go real bad. Must
be that pretty blue sandbox out there just itching to have a Makahomian cat
scratch in it. Aari, you get that Khieevi earthmoving weapon you brought along
as your dowry. I've got the locator and laser rifle," he said, hefting a sleek
and deadly looking weapon the length of his forearm.

"And I have my own array of attachments, Captain," Mac said, opening his
forearm to display the corkscrew, can opener, knife blades, scissors,
magnifying glass and other small equipment that were standard with his
particular model.
Acorna made a side trip of her own. Taking a slight detour to an otherwise
empty storeroom, she gathered up a lightweight titanium cargo net she had
spotted earlier in the journey.

"Good idea, Princess," Becker said when he saw it. "We'll be able to net us
some salvage from that Khieevi ship for sure."

Thus armed, they boarded the robolift and headed down. Acorna felt something
sticky on her shoes. She took a closer look at her shoes, then at the source
of the problem. "Mac, when we get back here, I want you to scrub the lift
down. It's a mess from the plant sap on that planet where we picked up the
piiyl."

MacKenZ looked surprised-probably because she was talking about minor
housekeeping matters now, when so many more important things were at stake-but
didn't say anything. Clearly the robot had never learned the trick of keeping
fear at bay by concentrating on the trivia of life. Maybe robots didn't ever
feel that kind of fear.

Once the robolift set down, however, Becker regarded the outside of his ship
with disgust, too. "Those damn plants slimed my hull! Look at that! What a
mess."

"Joh," Aari said softly, nodding to redirect the captain's attention to the
halves of the Linyaari ship. "What if Maati and Thariinye are in the
wreckage?"

"If they're there, they'll be easy to find. We'll know soon enough what the
situation is. No sense borrowing trouble. Princess, anything to add here?"

"I was-receiving some impressions toward the last, before we picked up the
Khieevi, that the pod might have become stuck in the ship. If so, they could
still be alive but trapped in the wreckage in the pod."

"We must reach them before the Khieevi do," Aari said.

"If there are any Khieevi left," Becker said. "Come to think of it, maybe we'd
better try to head the bad guys off at the pass even before we check the
wreckage."

"There are Khieevi here," Aari said. "I can feel them."

RK, back up and tail brushed, apparently agreed with him.

They made their way cautiously down the beach, weapons at the ready. Acorna
felt a little foolish trailing behind, preoccupied by the feeling that she
knew Maati and Thariinye were here somewhere-alive-but she couldn't tell
where. She only had a vague sense of them. Why couldn't she at least reach
Thariinye? She couldn't shake the feeling that her friends were alive, but in
trouble.

They saw wrecked Khieevi shuttlecraft lying in the dunes, broken up but
considerably more intact than the Khieevi ship, lying in the dunes further up
the beach. Something brown lay crunched around the edges, and a green fluid
tinted the blue sand turquoise.

"Any Khieevi who survived were most likely in that shuttle," Becker
pronounced. "Look at their ship. I doubt they could live through a wreck like
that. The ship is toast, but the shuttle-well, that looks like it was
spaceworthy till the last minute. No convenient vacuum or decompression to
kill all the occupants for us."

As they drew nearer they saw movement and heard a sound that made Acorna's
skin twitch-the klick-klack she had heard so often on Aari's video. The light
wind carried a terrible stench-rot combined with vomit. RK stopped, dug his
claws into the ground, and hissed like a tea kettle. Aari's steps slowed.
Becker surged ahead like a missile, Mac outpacing him with nonchalance in the
face of danger that only an android-particularly one who had once been the
face of danger himself- could achieve.

"It appears we've got a live one," Becker growled as he rounded the dune where
the shuttle lay. "Though it's half buried under that shuttle. It's not going
anywhere fast. I'll just put this cockroach out of its misery,"

"Please, wait," Acorna said. "We must question it. Aari knows their language,
at least enough to get something useful out of it. Perhaps we can get more
from the LAANYE. We have to find out if this ship was alone or if others will
be coming, where the main swarm of Khieevi is now, and where they are heading
next. If my people are threatened again, they must know at once."

Aari found his voice and his feet, and in six more strides stood beside
Becker. Acorna approached cautiously, curiously. The creature snapped its
mandibles and reached for Becker with its pincers but the captain sidestepped
smartly and beckoned for Acorna to give him the cargo net.

She wondered suddenly why it had occurred to her to bring it. Then she glanced
at Aari and saw him smiling at her with both approval and triumph. That was
it, of course. Aari had sent her the suggestion. He thought he. couldn't
intentionally send any longer, but he was clearly mistaken. He had certainly
just done it. Why hadn't he asked her aloud, she wondered? It would have been
a reasonable request. How odd.

Aari was carrying the very large and heavy weapon which he'd retrieved when
his torturers fled the death throes of Vhiliinyar. He trained it on the
monster. Maybe that was it. Acorna had been the logical one to bring the
net-but, still, he usually communicated with spoken words. She looked up at
him again, frowning this time, but he was concentrating on the Khieevi.

"Okay," Becker said. "Aari, Acorna, and I are going to capture this thing.
When we have the net over it and solidly anchored, Mac, you maneuver the
shuttle off its leg and thorax, okay?"

"Yes, Captain."

Acorna was the only one who could use two hands, but fortunately the creature
was trapped and rather badly injured by the crash. Much of its back end was
crushed beneath the shuttle, from what she could see. It still gave her cold
chills to be this close to a live Khieevi, no matter how much was wrong with
it. When the android lifted the broken piece of the shuttle from the back of
the Khieevi and tipped it aside, the Khieevi struggled mightily against their
titanium net, but in vain. Mac then aided his crewmates in finishing netting
the monster's hind parts. The monster klicked and klacked and gnashed its
mandibles at them as best it could through the impediment of the net, but they
paid it no attention. Finally it -was well wrapped enough that they could risk
transporting it.

"Now, then," Becker said. "We'll put him in the brig and Mac can stay and
guard him while the LAANYE collects language samples. As mad and as noisy as
this beast is, we ought to get enough stuff to be useful. As long as he
doesn't have any friends to scream for, we should be fine. I'm told they kill
their wounded, so the fact that he's alive means he's probably alone. men,
Aari, buddy, while that's going on, you and me are going to excavate that egg
ship and make sure your little sister and that idiot punk she's with aren't
trapped inside."

'I'll start searching through the debris while you're gone, and I'll broadcast
that we're here, Captain," Acorna said. "If our friends are nearby, and
conscious, Thariinye will hear me and he'll let me know where they are."
"Good idea, Princess. We'll be right back with the plasma cutters."

Acorna climbed inside the half of the egg that should have contained the
bridge. She could see the lower edge of the crushed viewport sunken deep into
the damp sand. The sea was licking at the wreckage now, wide wet fingers
teasing loose bits of smashed equipment and carrying them out and back with
each wash of the waves. She wondered about tides-was the wreck in danger of
being flooded? Perhaps, with so many moons arrayed about the planet, that
wouldn't be an issue. Maybe they would all cancel each other out,
gravitationally, instead of amplifying the movement of the seas. She could
hope so, anyway.

The shadows were growing long now. Becker and Aari would not have much more
daylight. She began throwing everything she could over the side of the ship
facing away from the water. Becker -would certainly want his salvage. Nothing
faintly resembling the bridge was visible yet. Fragments of burnt and ripped
pavilion fabric passed through her hands, as did a mane comb, and the shards
of a mirror. Acorna saw her own slender face reflected back in the device. She
hadn't realized she was ·weeping until then.

(Thariinye? Thariinye, answer me if you can!) she thought as hard as she
could. But everything within the ship was still. The only movement was the
settling of the rubbish as it shifted beneath her feet, and the lapping of the
waves against the ruined hull of the ship.

She heard the Condor's robolift descend again. Becker and Aari soon arrived
carrying the plasma cutters with them. At Becker's signal Acorna climbed back
out of the shell. Becker gave her an inquiring -waggle of his eyebrows, but
she shook her head sadly. She had been unable to make contact.

The men worked until -well after dark, seeing by the light from their cutters.
At one point, Acorna went up on the robolift and turned on an exterior
floodlamp Becker had rigged above ,t for nighttime salvage expeditions. The
shadows it cast made t look as if the two men were mining the pits of
darkness, their grunts and the raucous scorch and sizzle of the saws adding to
the general impression of demonic digging. The tide had risen and the wreck
was beginning to flood. The men were waistdeep in water, so that they had to
dive as well as cut. Meanwhile, Acorna carried salvage to the robolift.

She made mental calls to her friends from time to time, pleading for Thariinye
to answer, but she felt nothing, heard

nothing. Not then.

When the men were up to their necks in water, Becker finally threw his plasma
cutter onto the beach over the broken hull of the shell ship and hoisted
himself out. "C'mon, Aari. We're going to have to wait for the tide to go out.
If there's anything there to see, it's too far under water now. Maybe the tide
will shift some of the junk still there so we can see more."

"My little sister might be in there, Joh. A child."
"Maybe, but I doubt it," he said. "I'm betting that she and Thariinye were
smart enough to get out." He looked toward Acorna but all she could see -were
the whites of his eyes and his teeth. "You sense anything from in there yet,
Princess?"

She shook her head. "Nothing," she said. "It is possible the pod broke free
-while we were discussing how to destroy the Khieevi ship. Thariinye and Maati
could have escaped then."

The three of them climbed onto the robolift. RK had stayed aboard the ship
during the salvage operation. "Our new guest better hope they escaped, or be
prepared to tell us where they are. Aari, I've got a few questions I want you
to translate into their kilck-klacL"

"Certainly, Joh. I can ask questions, but I do not think the Khieevi will
answer. They have never answered questions. The Linyaari sent ambassadors to
them and the only answers we ever received to our questions were vids of the
ambassadors being tortured as I was. But those ambassadors never escaped. Our
people met their deaths in those vids."

"Nasty stuff. Well, maybe your people asked the Khieevi right questions, but
didn't ask in the right way. You Linyaari have got a few scruples that don't
particularly apply to me. Aari, I want you to give Mac a little language
lesson. He learned how to ask questions when he worked for Kisia Manjari. I'm
betting our guest will be real happy to tell us anything we want to know
before Mac is done with him. But we're still going to need you to translate.
You folks are pacifists, I know. Is this going to bother you?"

Aari bared his teeth until they -were -whiter than his skin in the light of
the two moons. "No, Joh. It will not bother me."

The sole Khieevi still alive and free on this planet cut a swath through the
fern-like trees. At first it was a low swath. The creature was a bit stunned
from his emergency departure from the shuttle, but it managed to properly
decimate the undergrowth in the approved style. The Khieevi scoutship crew had
expected that the strange craft that destroyed theirs would come for them on
this planet, trying to protect the fragile little onehorns in the decorated
space-borne food container. But the strange ship hadn't been fast enough. The
Khieevi had made short work of the one-horn ship, and would have done the same
to the strange ship had it not taken them by surprise and used unfair and
totally uncalled for tactics to wreck them and cause the deaths of all of the
other swarm members but the navigator and the self of the Khieevi who now ate
Jits way through the forest floor.

That self-the inquisitor-had heard the klickmgs of the navigator for miles and
miles, but the inquisitor -was not about to go back. The navigator had been
half squashed -when the shuttle fell on him. The navigator would be recycled
into food soon. The inquisitor -would see to it.




10S

The inquisitor had a communications device. It would be difficult to activate
without the ship's power to fuel it, but organic activation could be
implemented in an emergency such as the current one. It had only to reach a
high point on the planet, arrange indigenous ingredients in a certain
proportion, and chew, and the resulting chemical reaction would provide
carrying power for the message the Khieevi wished to transmit.
The mission would not fail. The Khieevi swarm would come to this planet and
find plenty and prosperity for another short time, and then all of the
neighboring worlds and all their viable foodstuffs would also fall to his
race's relentless mandibles.

Meanwhile, the other scout ships would search out other areas. But the
inquisitor's sole purpose now was to notify its swarm of its own location, the
location of the food, and the loss of the ship.

That, at least, was its sole intended purpose until, after eating its way
through the undergrowth, it found at its very jaws a one-horn device, small
and compact and shaped like a food container. To the inquisitor's regret it
was empty, but the one-horns who had occupied it had left a trail of broken
plant matter, scent, and vibrations. The inquisitor chomped its way after them
up a steep hill and down it.

At the top of the steep hill, it looked at the seashore below it and saw the
navigator being lugged down the beach by two hornless two-leggeds into the
strange ship. The navigator was still alive and klicking. Not for long, the
inquisitor was certain. mat information would be noted when the inquisitor
broadcast the next report to the swarm. It continued eating, tracking the
missing one-horns.

As nighttime fell, the inquisitor was very full, but unsatished. It had a need
to smell alien one-horn blood. To see it flow. /vs it ate its way downhill
into a little valley, it saw how to lulhll that need, too. Leaning against a
tree, apparently sleeping, was a one-horn. The inquisitor closed on its prey.




The healing retreat in the hills of the Ancestors, under their gentle, probing
care, was meant to erase all pollution, all contamination, all taint, all
pain, all shame left behind from the dreadful ordeal the Linyaari spacefarers
had faced. The process could go on for days, weeks, months, years, by Standard
reckoning; a ghaanye or many, by Linyaari reckoning.

However, the deep healing had barely begun when personal attendants began
handing the supplicant pilgrims their wraps and saying, "Go home. You are
needed in Kubiihkhan."

Grandam had never known of such a thing to happen in all her life.

Have -we done something wrong?" one of the younger crew members from the
liliura asked. "Are we being cast out because our taint is too great?"

'Don't talk nonsense, child," the personal attendant said. Didn't you hear Us?
You are needed. And as for being cast °ut, how can We possibly be casting you
out when We are coming with you?"

Back in town, Liriili had been fidgeting, forgetting to graze, pacing until
her feet were quite rough and sore, walking up and down the road to and from
the spaceport. The viizaar had no messenger since Maati had vanished, though
she had little to do for the moment except wait. Wait for the Khieevi to find
them again. She did not know what to do. Now recovered from her anger, she
told herself she had done a service to Thariinve and Maati. When the Khieevi
came here, those younglings at least would be spared. If they hcu)n't alreaSy
been coruumeS, a small voice inside her head pointed out. She ignored it.
Walking down the road from the spaceport, where she had once more been
checking with the com-shed officer of the day, refusing to believe that the
remote reports to her office were frequent or rapid enough to alert her in
time for an attack, she saw the stream of her people, two footed and four
footed, flowing down from the hills on the opposite side of the bowl-shaped
valley containing Kubiilikhan.

Alarmed, disturbed, frightened, and yet, somehow, relieved as well, she
returned to her office to await the return of the pilgrims-and of the
Ancestors.

The thought of questioning of the Khieevi prisoner bothered Acorna. Despite
her fear and loathing, she knew she would not be able to watch without wishing
to heal any hurts inflicted upon the Khieevi in the line of questioning. She
also knew that trying to heal the destructive monster was not reasonable.

She could, however, feel its pain from two decks away. Despite Becker's
threats to the contrary, no one had touched it since it had been brought
aboard and .its net locked into place where cargo nets were normally strung
up. It hadn't been necessary to lay a hand on the creature. It was answering
their questions sporadically, in between spasms of pain. But it was dying. She
could feel it dying.

The feeling was so intense, it was as if she could feel herseli dying, too.
She couldn't stand it any longer. She had to leave she'd be forced to
interfere with what Becker was doing. A^J they needed the information he -was
extracting. She abandoned the bridge for the robolift, stopping on the way to
tell the others what she was doing-that she was going to see if the tide was
out yet, and if it was, she'd load some more cargo. She'd also continue
calling for Thariinye and Maati while she was at it.

She got a "Yeah, ummm hmmm, okay," from Becker. Aari and Mac were totally
absorbed by the Khieevi's rapid-fire klick-klacking'.

The door edged open for a moment and the impression of the pain within
staggered her. RK pushed himself through the door, flipping his tail up along
his back as the hatch automatically snapped shut behind him. With a light
leap, he was on her shoulder.

She scratched his chin. "Thank you, my friend. It will be good to have
company."

Ghostly blue vapors billowed across an indigo sky and the turquoise light of
two of the planet's moons strobed across the sea, the beach, and the forest
beyond. Sand skidded against Acorna's ankles and calves. Out here she could
still feel the captive Khieevi's pain, but distance helped attenuate it. It
also helped knowing that none of her crewmates was inflicting the terrible
torture; they were only taking advantage of the monster's agony to obtain
answers that might save her people, and any other creatures whose path the
Khieevi crossed.

She breathed deeply of the night air. The fragrance of the sweet and spicy
grasses and the fernlike trees, exotic and cit^sy, filled her nostrils. She
realized she hadn't grazed yet that ^y, and was hungry. She didn't worry about
venturing beyond "e dunes. Her Linyaari navigational instincts gave her an
excelent sense of direction, and the light of the two moons above her was
sufficient to see her -way to the grasses between beach and forest.

She was relieved to put some distance between her and the Condor now. When she
had eaten, she would return, see what progress her friends had made, and, if
they -were finished, ask them to let her examine the prisoner and tend to its
wounds. She had not offered to tend to it so far out of fear that once she
healed the thing, one of her friends would then have to reinjure it, in all
likelihood, to obtain the vital information they needed. This could well be
one of the very same Khieevi who had caused the death of her parents, but it
was against her nature to cause or endure the suffering of another living
creature. It -was against Aari's nature, too. Despite what the Khieevi had
done to him, she could not help but feel that participating in actual torment
of another creature, even one of the species who had all but destroyed him,
would impede his inner healing, perhaps even prevent it altogether. He, more
than she, was born and bred to the Linyaari ·way, which was nonviolent.

Back on the beach, Aari had brandished his Khieevi weapon with authority and
deadly intent, however. She didn't blame him or judge him for that, but it
worried her that he had undergone such a tremendous change, one that -was
completely contrary to his upbringing.

She tested the grass with her horn-it was suitable for her to eat. So she took
a mouthful of grass. It was peppery, not quite what she had in mind. She
searched for another plant and found, growing sparsely among the peppery sort,
a little reed with nodes on the stem. The nodes had a pleasant sour tang that
offset the sweetness of the reed. They, too, were edible, and much tastier.
She searched selectively for these, while RK slithered through the grassland
as though he were a large jungle cat stalking prey.

She visualized Maati, who had been practically her only friend from
narhii-Vhiliinyar. The child was just approaching puberty-funny, enthusiastic,
lively, hard-working, inquisitive. She pictured Maati's soft pale brown skin
and white and black spotted mane and feathers, her brilliant smile, short
nose, and wide golden eyes below her little spiraled horn. She thought of
Maati's immediate acceptance of Aari and her unquestioning love of her
long-lost brother. The child's sadness and disbelief at being left behind by
the ConSor when it had taken both her newly found brother and her friend away.
They could have brought her along, even though Liriili had objected violently
when the subject came up. If they had done so, Maati wouldn't now be lost,
maybe dead, along with poor Thariinye, who, although he -was about the same
age as Acorna, had not had as much experience or adventure in his life as she
had, and so was still rather callow. Irritating, conceited, and arrogant, but
not a bad fellow, really.

Her thoughts were anguished and regretful. She especially worried about her
little friend, so sensible and knowledgeable about Linyaari ways but more
willing than any to help a stranger. (Oh, Maati, Maati, I am so sorry,
youngling. I thought you should stay with Grandam. I should have listened to
your own thoughts more and not tried to decide for you. . . .)

(Khornya? Khornya! You're here! Oh, Khornya, come quickly. I can't find
Thariinye and there is something awful out here in the bushes. Please,
Khornya. I'm scared.)

(Maati! It's all right. I'm here. Where are you?)

(Looost!) The thought was a long 'wail.

(I'll come and get you. Just keep sending and I'll find you and bring you
back. Can you see the beach from where you are? Can you see the Condor7)

(No, I'm in the woods and it's dark and Thariinye was right ^re standing guard
while I slept. Now he's gone and the noises ^e terrible, Khornya.)
(Can he read you? Have you tried?)

(No. I think he must be unconscious. Knocked out, maybe )

Acorna was galloping through the grass now and into the trees, following
Maati's thoughts as if they were spoken words tracking them to their origin.

The footing was treacherous in the dark but she leaped over bushes and roots.
She had to pause frequently, however, to listen again for Maati's thought.

(Keep sending, Maati. I can't follow you unless I can read you.)

(I'm sooo tired, Khornya. And I'm almost afraid to think too loud for fear
whatever it is that's thrashing around out there will hear me like you do.)

(I understand, dear, but if I'm to find you, you have to keep sending. If
whatever it is hasn't bothered you yet, it probably can't read us.)

Acorna was halfway up a steep hill when she slipped and fell in a trail of
slime. As she picked herself up again, she saw that she had fallen on the
broken branches of what must have been brush. The raw ends of the branches
were sharply severed at just above ground level for a long swath as wide as
Acorna was tall. Where the foliage had been, a trail of foul-smelling slime
covered the ground.

From the smell, she knew this -was a Khieevi trail, the creature eating,
digesting, and excreting as it went. No wonder they could trash entire planets
in such a short time!

Had the wind not been from the sea, and blowing the smell of the slime away
from her, she easily would have picked it up earlier. Now she had a spoor to
follow and she lost no time scrambling after it.

(Maati, I think it is a Khieevi who has Thariinye. Stay right where you are
and do not make a sound unless you know it is me. Have you moved since he
disappeared?)

(No, I was too scared of the things out in the bushes.)

(Okay, then, that is good. Just stay put. Somewhere right    near you there is a
trail of broken brush and smelly Khieevi slime.)

(Eeewww, is that what it is? I thought maybe this planet    just smelled really
bad in some places.)

(No, that's Khieevi spoor. They excrete as fast as they eat, apparently. You
sound stronger. I'll be with you in a bit.)

Acorna scrambled further up the hill and down it, following the trail until,
though she hadn't heard from Maati in some time, she suddenly caught a very
loud thought. (Ouch! You stepped on me!)

Looking down, at first she saw nothing but more pale blue brush but then she
saw, white and lustrous among the leaves, a face. She stared.

(Maati?) she asked uncertainly.

"Yes, it's me, Khornya," Maati whispered, and rose to her feet and threw her
white arms around Acorna's neck so that Acorna's nose was buried in the girl's
silvery mane. (But you look-) "Oh, yeah!"
(Think it, youngling. We don't know how near danger is.) (I m star-clad now.
Like the new me?)

(Why should I not? I liked the old you. You are beautiful! So let's keep you
alive, shall we? I need you to follow the slime trail back down the hill and
through the woods-your nose will help you if you get off track. When you get
to the beach, you'll see the Condor. You need to get Aari and Captain Becker's
attention and have them come to help Thariinye and me--)

(And leave you alone? Thariinye won't be any help. I can't read him at all.
Something's happened to him. If that's a Khieevi, you need me.)

IvK bounded up to them and sat down, seemingly to wash, though he kept his
ears cocked slightly back, as if he was lisening to the their nonverbal
conversation. At some point in "elr Journey, he had departed from Acorna's
shoulder and taken off on his own explorations. Probably -when she began
galloping.

(It L) a Khieevi. And it will be no trick to find it and Thariinye. The trail
is extremely clear. Just go back and tell the others that we'll need their
help. Meanwhile, I will try to keep the Khieevi from harming Thariinye
anymore.)

(What if there are other Khieevi?)

(Captain Becker will know if there are. He has been questioning an injured
Khieevi that -we captured. He'll be able to tell us how many of these things
we're facing. I need that information very much before I tackle freeing
Thariinye. And I'd like you somewhere safe from this one,) Acorna said simply.
And turned toward the slimy trail. But Maati wasn't done yet.

(You said you'd come for me,)   Maati reminded her. (You were thinking all those
nice things about me, and how   you and Aan should have let me come with you.
I'm not just a kid, you know.   I'm smart. I could help you. What if I get
caught on the ·way to get the   others? What if I get lost?)

(Just follow the trail.)

(You're only one person. You need help, too. -You know Thariinye won't be much
help. We could hear him if he was in a position to help us. You know, you
didn't treat me like such a child back home.)

Acorna hesitated. She didn't want to put her young friend in harm's way but,
then again, maybe that thought was a little ridiculous. Maati had already
survived the ·wreck of her space vessel and eluded capture by the Khieevi once
today. It was entirely possible, if the Khieevi were on this planet in force,
that the ship was no safer place than trooping with Acorna through the forest.

(Very well. You can come with me. But thought-speak only. And stay behind me.)

(Okay.) Acorna felt Maati searching for RK, but the cat had vanished. Maati
was a little worried, so Acorna sent her the calming thought that if anyone on
the face of the blue planet could look out for themselves, it was that cat.
Then they pushed forward, along the broken trail the Khieevi had left behind
them, hoping against all hope that Thariinye was still all right.

The Council meeting -was brief. Liriili had been questioned. The accusations
against her by comshed personnel and by Thariinye's many mourning
soon-to-be-lifemates were verified, and a proposal was made for her dismissal.
The evidence was examined, including a copy of the broadcast from the CorQor
that Liriili denied had ever been received. One of the com-shed officers, who
was also one of Thariinye's lady friends, had concealed copies of the pliyi
transmission and Thariinye's translation of it, which she had taken from the
com-shed before Liriili had given orders to have them destroyed. That was
right after the vuzaar had told the com-shed officers to stop transmitting
anything at all from the planet for dny reason. Not only did the young officer
realize that Liriili had tor some reason allowed Thariinye and a child to go
into space alone, but she recognized that the piiyi had great implications for
the Linyaari, and that the people must know about it. The combed officer had
been about to set off for the hills herself to fetch tne spacefarers when the
pilgrims came streaming home.

The Council had not been kindly disposed to having the brining of a possible
Khieevi threat withheld from them for no reason, no matter what Liriili
thought. (??ed note. not quite correct)

After the matter of Liriili had been discussed, the Council was expanded to
include Neeva, Khaari, Melireenya, and several of the ambassadors and high
teachers and merchants and officers from the returned fleet.

In lieu of Liriili, Grandam now presided over the Council. Liriili faced them
from the opposite side of the table where she'd sat for so many years, wearing
her "Everything is in order, business as usual" face.

Grandam could not help but smile. "Liriili of Clan Riivye, ^iizaar of
Kubiilikhan, you stand accused of treasonous acts against your people and your
-world. We will not ask you how you plead. You of all of us are most skilled
at concealing your thoughts, one reason we felt you -would make a good
administrator. But you have betrayed not only the trust of your people, but my
personal trust to you of the life of a young and parentless child, as well as
the life of a brave officer of our fleet."

"It -was not my fault!" Liriili said. "I told them not to go. I told them-and
this is perfectly true; any of you can read me-that we must not transmit
further communications to the salvage ship that sent the piiyi message to us,
for fear of the Khieevi tracing the signal back to us. It is perfectly
standard procedure. I have saved us all by my actions and this is the thanks I
get? That you hold me responsible because two feckless and rebellious young
people stole our newest and finest vessel and took off on a pointless and
dangerous joyride against my express orders?"

"Enough!" Grandam bellowed. "You knew very -well that the Condor had sent the
piiyi here for translation-a translation Thariinye completed before the
children departed. There is a record of the conversation in which he informed
you of his translation. You knew at that time that there was a good chance of
communicating with the Condor so that Captain Becker, as well as securing the
safety of his ship and crew, could warn our allies of the impending threat
without. Yo did nothing."

"Allies!" Liriili snorted. "Look at the Starfarers if you thin we have allies!
Did our so-called 'allies' not turn over our fines ambassadors and officers,
teachers and traders, to enemies wh imprisoned and abused them?"

"They -were deceived," Grandam said. "But you, Liriil were not deceived. You
knew that the Condor and our allie could have been notified of the threat long
before the Khlee\ were likely to be close enough to trace them. You knew tha
Thariinye also knew this, and that neither he nor Maati wouli allow harm to
come to Khornya, Aari, or to Captain Becker i it was in their power to prevent
this. You even knew, Liriil that the piiyi contained evidence of the
probability of the sui vival of Kaarlye and Miin of the Nyaarya clan, Maati's
an' Aari's parents. All of this information was problematic for yoi And so you
deliberately ordered the children to do nothing knowing that they -would be
forced to disobey you, and tha they-and all those -who depended on their
information-woul be lost."

Liriili felt a sharp pain in the middle of her back and sh was Jabbed forward
so quickly she fell to her knees. "I didn know that. How could I know for
certain? All of you spacefaren as usual, were off someplace else -when
decisions had to b made immediately. I did what I thought was best for the
peopl( Licluding you. And is this the thanks I get for my dedicatio to duty?
Some thanks ..."

She was weeping now with rage, -with fear, -with indigne lion, for she
half-believed -what she was saying herself, as Grar dam well knew, or she
could never have said it.

Oh, Liriili, my poor granddaughter," Grandam Naadiin ^id, pushing past the
Council table behind which she had bee sitting and kneeling to put her hands
on either side of Liriili ·wet face. Liriili stared rebelliously back at her.
"We have been aware of the flaw in your makeup since you were very young you
know. You, of all of us, are best able to conceal your thoughts. You alone are
capable of, if not lying, at least twisting the meaning of your thoughts to a
degree that makes them difficult to read. We decided when the old Viizaar
passed on to the land of the Ancestors that this-difference-in your makeup
need not be a flaw, but could be used for the greater good of all. And you are
correct. In general you have been an excellent and conscientious
administrator.

"Much of the fault lies with us for not realizing that your-
specialness-separated and isolated you, not only from the rest of your people
but from the truth within yourself. Now we do not punish you, child, but seek
to recompense you for the harm we have allowed you to do to yourself as well
as to others. You must face the truth of your actions, if not within yourself,
for you seem to be incapable of doing so, but by seeing for yourself the
consequences."

Liriili was very easy to read now. Caution was trying to displace fear and
disbelief in her mind as Grandam retreated to her official position, sat, then
rose again, in unison with the other Council members.

"Liriili of clan Riivye, you are relieved of your duties as Viizaar of
Kubiilikhan and administrator of narhii-Vhiliinyar by the High Council after
consultation with and in accordance with the advice of the Ancestors. You are
reassigned to duty as a junior shipman on the Balakiire, under the command of
vifeShaanye-feriui Neeva and Melireenya. Your mission will be to pursue the
information obtained from the pliyi, to attempt to warn the Condor of the
peril contained in it, to ascertain the whereabouts and ensure the safety of
Thariinye and Maati and the Niikactvn, to determine the whereabouts of Kaarlye
and Miiri and rescue them or at least retrieve the data in their landing pod,
and to warn our allies of the Khieevi danger, even if by issuing such a
warning you allow the Khieevi to trace a signal back to the Balakiire.
Vi^e()haanye-feriiU Neeva and her crew have volunteered for this mission, and
have agreed to take responsibility for you. They are prepared to make the
ultimate sacrifice, if necessary, to accomplish this mission. You are hereby
dismissed into the custody of the Neeva, her crew, and the Balakiire, and may
the wit of the Ancestors and the Grace of the Friends preserve you all from
harm."

The prisoner -was in unbearable pain. Aari had decidedly mixed feelings about
the fact. His need for revenge was at odds with his hatred of seeing anything,
even a Khieevi, suffer so. But there was one comfort to be found in the hold
of this ship, as terrifying a place as it was right now. The prisoner was
klacking out all the information Aari demanded, but neither Aari nor Becker
nor even Mac, who had been quite prepared to "slowly disassemble" the Khieevi,
had laid a finger on the creature. Whatever was causing the Khieevi so much
agony, they weren't responsible.

Instead of disassembling it, Mac was rapidly processing the information he was
given about Khieevi klackings by Aari and the LAANYE to help interpret Aari's
and Decker's questions into simulated klacks and to interpret the answers.

The thing lay within the cargo net on the deck, and the net s couplings were
securely fastened to the bulkhead. The monster was going nowhere. Aari was
grateful the despicable creature's form was somewhat obscured by the grid of
the net. ·Is titanium strands pulled tightly across the creature's protrudlng
Gyes, restrained its pincers, and bent one antenna flat against ^e side of its
bulbous head. The putrid smell Aari had first ^ticed out by the Khieevi ship
now filled the hold and seemed 0 grow worse and worse as time went on. Becker
remarked on tne green icor draining from beneath the netted Khieevi.

"It's messing itself, it's so scared," he said. "Scared?" Aari asked. "A
Khieevi? Scared? Of us?" "Sure. You were scared, when we found you for the
first time, weren't you?"

"Naturally, but I am not a Khieevi." "Let me tell you a little something about
people, buddy, any kind of people," Becker said. "These creeps," he gestured
to the Khieevi, "they like to hurt anything they come across just to watch it
squirm. It's how the buggers think. So when one of them gets caught and put in
the same position as its victims, of course it's going to figure we'll do the
same to it. Only difference is, we're after information. According to you,
when you were a Khieevi captive, they didn't seem to care all that much if you
said anything or not. They just liked to hear you scream, right?"

"Yes, Joh. I never understood any of that." "Well, understand this. As afraid
as you were, this critter is even more afraid. Because to do to someone what
the Khieevi did to you requires being a real lily-livered son of a gun at
heart. Yessir, these Khieevi may look like bugs, but they're all piles of pure
cowardice with legs, if you ask me. Cowards and bullies, every one." Becker
threw his arms around and let his voice ring to make it heard above the
piteous but irritating high-pitched sound the Khieevi was making. Aari had
never heard the bug-like beings make that sound -while he was among them.
Though perhaps he might have heard the sound, or a variant of it, coming from
himself.

"Now, Aari, if you have any more "questions, ask away. Mac, you follow and see
if you can fill in any blanks for him"What will you do. Captain?" Mac asked
mildly. "I'll be thinking up threats and-uh-persuasions, Becker said.

"Very well, Captain. Aari?" "Mac, ask it what it was doing here, how many
others like it there are close by, where the main fleet is, and the location
of the homeworld."

Mac manufactured the klacking sound of the Khieevi, using his mouth alone.
Aari was impressed.

The Khieevi let forth the high-pitched whining sound   once more.

"Tell it we'll stop the pain if it gives us the data," Becker instructed Mac,
his jaw clenched tightly, his teeth bared in what was an indisputable display
of hostility-a hostility Becker seemed to be reveling in.

Aari, on the other hand, was not enjoying his position. He had certainly
thought he -would enjoy giving back to a Khieevi what the Khieevi had done to
him, but instead he felt filled with loathing-for himself. He was now doing a
Khieevi thing. He might as -well be one. But the information was important. He
put the thought on hold when he realized Mac -was speaking, and not in klacks
this time.

"Theirs was a scout ship. The Khieevi have many such ships. Their mission was
to locate a likely world with the proper atmosphere and nutrients for
consumption by the horde. The horde's main fleet has already been notified
that this being's ship had located a large number of suitable worlds,
including this one, due to a lucky conquest of a scout ship of a twohorned
race."

Mac turned to Becker and said, "That -would be the Niriians, surely? You
understand, please, that many of the concepts this creature expresses can be
interpreted only loosely. Fortunately, because of the remaining programming
from my former i^er, I am quite conversant with the basic content of this
create s thought and language patterns and can assure you that "y
interpretations are fairly accurate. The Khieevi have a lot l" common with
Kisia Manjari."

And so it -went. To minimize the misunderstanding or trance of lying on the
part of the Khieevi, ("Well, for pity's sake, Aari," Decker said, "any
critter who would do to you what these guys did is certainly not going to stop
at a little lt£\") Becker insisted on asking the same questions over and over
in many different ways.

Mac said, "You are very good at information extraction Captain Becker. Have
you been in the business before yourself?"

"No, but my dad was great at giving pop oral exams on the subjects I was
supposed to be learning when I was a kid " Becker said. "I never could put
anything over on him. Who knew it would come in so handy? So let's go over it
all one more time ..."

Aari found himself sweating during the questioning, remembering himself in the
Khieevi's place and hearing the squeal ooze out of the creature along with the
stench.

At some point during the questioning, Khornya stopped by. When she left, Aari
noticed that RK was no longer in the room with them. By then, among them, they
were trying to explain to the Khieevi that they wanted the coordinates of the
horde fleet and of the Khieevi home planet, as well as the codes that would
allow them to crack Khieevi communication devices.

The thing had just given them a useless string of babble that none of them
could decipher when the stench suddenly became much worse, the klacking much
more muffled, and the squeal thinner, higher, shriller. Then, suddenly, all
was still.

Mac kicked at the creature. "I think it is unconscious, Captain."

"Sissy," Becker said. "We never touched it. Some people will do anything to
get out of having to answer a few simple questions."

"Joh, you told it we would stop its pain if it told us what we wished to
know," Aari said.
"Looks to me like the pain has almost stopped," Becker said.

"No, it is worse. The thing is dying. We must have Khornya heal it. I would
but-1 cannot."

"Ain't it just too bad for old klacker here that they took out your horn,
then?" Becker said, and Aari felt a flash of anger toward him.

"We must call Khornya back in to save it, Joh. It may ^ye _ more information."

"Hmm, true. You look like you can use a break anyway, buddy. Go ahead then.
Get her."

Aari left quickly. He was surprised to see that he had to call the robolift to
return to the deck for him to descend. Its deck was stickier than ever,
despite the heavy traffic, and when he tried to move his feet made a sucking
sound. The patches of sap were -yes, they actually were larger than they had
been when he and Becker ascended to the ship with the prisoner. He bent down,
curious, to touch the stuff. It seemed innocent enough, but when he tried to
right himself, he found that the hand he had been using to steady himself on
the deck stuck to it. He lost his footing and fell, getting sap all over the
front of his shipsuit. He unstuck himself and regained his balance with some
difficulty. He also resolved to clean the deck as soon as they had disposed of
the prisoner.

As the lift continued to descend, he saw that the bright blue day had become
indigo night, lit only by the pale blue moons. The wind soughed through the
tall sapphire grasses. Khornya was nowhere to be seen, but as he looked, he
suddenly heard a raucous "Mrowl" and saw RK bounding across the field between
the beach and the woods.

As soon as the cat saw him, RK turned and leaped back in the direction from
which he had come. Sprinting a few steps, ·\J^ turned and stared meaningfully,
his gleaming eyes twin molten gold coins. He mrowled again and Aari followed,
reluctantly. rle had planned to take a slight detour and try to clean off the
^icky, irritating sap with sea water, but the cat was trying to lead him to
Khornya, of that Aari was certain. "Where is she Riid-Kiiyi?" he asked.

RK ran another few feet and glanced back again, mrowling for Aari to follow
him. The cat was conveying a sense of urgency that worried Aari. Through the
long grass and to the ferny trees, Aari followed the cat's lead. Khornya. The
cat was leading him to Khornya. She was in some sort of trouble, perhaps
wounded, or maybe she had found Maati and Thariinye and they were 'wounded and
she had sent the cat back for help and-

Aari smelled the Khieevi spoor before he was actually upon it. Old and cold,
it had hardened to a nasty shiny trail. The Khieevi. The Khieevi had Khornya.

He vomited what little food he had eaten that day into the underbrush.
Returning for Becker now was out of the question. Every moment counted-he
remembered -what the creatures had done to him and his blood ran cold at the
thought of Khornya in their clutches. Precious time would be lost if he went
back to the ship-moments Khornya would pay for in unimaginable pain if the
Khieevi did indeed have her. Somehow, somehow he had to find her, to free her,
to protect her. No one must go through what he had. Especially not
Khornya-beautiful, graceful, gentle Khornya. So kind. So caring. Practical and
intelligent too and very strong, but no one could hold out against the
Khieevi. That they should have a chance to break her into pieces as they had
him was unthinkable.
Perhaps he couldn't yet feel what he, sensed she -would have liked him to feel
for her-he still felt hollow inside, numb and cold, when he wasn't filled with
pain and fury. He had nothing to give to someone like Khornya. But he owed it
to her to make sure she lived to receive it from someone else someday.

He followed the spoor uphill and down again and then into another section of
forest, up another hill. He did not notice when the cat disappeared once more.

But when he heard the screams, the steady jog with which he was following the
sign lengthened to a full gallop.

As far as Acorna could see, the problem was not   finding the Khieevi. The
thing was not stealthy.

Its excremental trail led straight to it. The only problem was how to get the
better of it before it could harm Thariinye.

They found Thariinye first. He was at the end of the trail, wrapped up in the
end of the trail in fact, pinned by a hardened twist of it to a tree. In the
chill of the night air, his breath made a vapor, so they knew he was not dead.
But neither of them could pick up any thoughts from him, not even a snatch of
dream.

The Khieevi stood slightly uphill from him, its moondrenched shadow falling
over them, mingling with the shadows 01 the trees. Its bug eyes were lifted to
the moons, its head bobbing. Two of its legs tended what seemed to be some
sort or electrical contraption. Sparks flew periodically between its legs and
the machine, while two more of its legs burned a bit °i the excrement, with
predictably nauseating results. After each bit of legs had gone through the
ritual, the pincers made a series of klacks, much like the Morse code Acorna
had learned on the mining ship.

Maati and Acorna thought at the same time, (It's callingthe mother ship. We
have to stop it.)

(Free Thariinye first,) was their next simultaneous thought. Maati saw
Acorna's teeth shining in the dark-humor and hostility mixed.

(Work your way behind the tree, Maati. See if you can get him loose from that
stuff. Here, take my laserknife. I'll see if I can create a diversion.)

(Okay. Be careful, Khornya.)

The two split up, and Acorna circled wide in the forest and up the crest of
the hill to one side of the Khieevi, who was actually within a slight
clearing. Peering at the creature through the trees, she could see that it was
busy with its work. Still, she had the feeling it was only trying to make
contact, not that it had achieved its goal. Its pauses were to adjust the
machine, not to listen. The Khieevi creature must be stopped before it brought
an entire invasion force down upon them.

She needed to draw him off, away from whatever it was he was using to
communicate and away from Thariinye and Maati. And she needed to have a plan
to get away herself, if possible, once they were a safe distance from her
friends. She thought for a second, took a deep breath, and started moving.

She picked up a stick, flung it at the creature, and raced off down the hill
at a diagonal from Thariinye's position.
"Neener neener neener!" she yelled at the Khieevi, using an expression she'd
picked up from the kids on Maganos Moonbase as she galloped down the hill. She
glanced back to see if it was paying attention.

It gave two hops and was almost upon her.

She took off at a dead run, thundering down the hill, screaming at the top of
her lungs, with the Khieevi hopping behind her, covering two or three yards
with each hop.

(Khornya, run!) Maati cried inside her head. (I can't get   through this stuff
without Thariinye's help. And I can't wake Thariinye.)

(Try harder. Use your horn if you have to.)

(What if I hurt Thariinye?)

(Better that than what the Khieevi will do to him.)

Thinking and running at the same time was not easy. Acorna stumbled across a
broken tree and fell sprawling among the branches. In two short hops the
Khieevi was practically upon her. She dove under the fronds and wriggled her
way to the trunk, then hopped up and tried to run again, only to find her leg
wouldn't -work. Sharp pains -were running up it.

The heat and stench and klack of the Khieevi were all around her as she tried
to squirm and touch her horn to her leg.

The huge bug appeared nightmarishly dim through the fronds as it jumped-and
landed on her hurt leg.

Acorna had not cried out for help, mentally or aloud, because she did not wish
for Maati to run to the rescue and try to fight the Khieevi. But the sudden
pain was so intense she let out a piercing scream.

"Hey you! Big old bug!" Maati sang out, followed by Thariinye yelling, "I'm
over here, you slimy hulk of a feces machine!"

The Khieevi stepped back for a moment, uncertain. Then Acorna could swear it
bared what passed for teeth in that gaping maw, and deliberately brought its
foot down again on, well, on the area where her leg had been, because she had
pulled the broken limb out of the way.

"Maati, you silly child, run!" Acorna cried.

"Don't you hurt her again, you dung-eating pile of-of dung!" Maati yelled.
Footsteps ran in closer.

"Maati, no," Acorna screamed. And so did Maati. Acorna Gouldn't see what
happened, but she heard a crunch and a yelp, wen a sound as if the air was
being let out of something.

'You pick on little girls, you bag of excrement!" Thariinye hollered. "Why not
tie me to a tree with your slimy trail again!"   He profited by Maati's
example because his voice grew a bit fainter and Acorna heard the sound of his
feet crushing brush as he retreated. The Khieevi gave a hop-and she was free.
At least for a moment.

Bending from the waist she rubbed her horn against her leg once she had the
bone properly aligned. The pain eased at once, but she was forced to
concentrate on the healing of the limb rather than on anything around her. She
had no idea, for a precious few moments, whether or not Maati was living
-whether Thariinye had escaped capture while leading the Khieevi from her, or
even if the Khieevi was about to step on her head this time.

As soon as the pain stopped and the bone had knitted, Acorna raised herself up
to see the Khieevi grab for the dancing Thariinye with its front pincers.
Thariinye screamed, and Acorna grabbed the nearest object-a rock from the
ground beneath her-and threw it at the Khieevi.

The big insectoid was not so quickly fooled this time. It grabbed Thariinye
and began slashing at him with its razorsharp pincers, leaving gruesome wounds
on Thariinye's upraised hands and arms. Acorna leaped across the fallen trunk
of the tree and pounded on the carapace of the creature with her fists -while
her old shipmate's heart-rending cries rang in her ears.

"Let go, let go, let go!" she bawled.

The Khieevi did let go, and Thariinye, bleeding from many wounds, fell like a
limp doll very close to Maati's still form. Acorna turned and ran.

The Khieevi rounded on Acorna, its pincers snapping. Only a single tree hung
between them. Then, with a chomp and a noisome burst of gas, the tree -was
gone. Acorna turned and ran, leaping over the fallen tree this time, putting
it between herself and the Khieevi. She dashed past frond after frond, only
to have them vanish down the Khieevi's maw to reappear behind the creature as
another smelly bit of trail.

The Khieevi seemed to smile as it took its last bite from the tree trunk,
taunting her with its deliberate progress as it ate away her only barrier. She
kept moving, mentally calling to Maati and Thariinye, hoping to hear a
response but urging them to lie still.

The Khieevi finished the tree trunk. Acorna backed up against another tree. It
followed her slowly, taking first one chomp and then another from fronds she
thrust between them. It was clearly enjoying the game.

She shrieked as a pincer came within a centimeter of her face. The Khieevi
snapped at her, then brought its pincers up again, close to her horn. She
dodged and tried to dive between its lower legs.

All at once, from the corner of her eye, she saw a white blur. The Khieevi
fell over backward, a Linyaari form bearing it to the ground, surrounded by
its flailing legs and pincers.

(Khornya, run!) Aari's   voice was mental, but far from a whisper. (Get Joh. Get
weapon. I will keep it   here as long as I can, but you must save yourself and
my sister.) (You can't   fight it alone, Aari.) (No, but I can Delay it. Go!)
(It will kill you!) (I   am carrion already.)

She ran through the woods screaming for Becker, screaming Ae names of her
fallen friends.

Much to her surprise, Becker and Mac, brandishing weapons, bounded toward her
through the woods, Becker yelling, "Where is he? Point and duck!"

She turned and ran back toward Aari, who, much to her ^rprise, was raising
himself unharmed from among curled ^leevi legs and pincers. The creature made
no attempt to stop him or damage him. Instead it stayed on the ground,
emitting the same high-pitched "eee-eee-eee" sound their prisoner had made
back on the ship. Decker paid none of that any attention at all. As soon as
Aari -was clear, Becker pressed his rifle against his hip and fired. A huge
crackling hole opened up in the creature and it was still.

The echo of the shot had not yet faded when a pair of Linyaari figures
carrying what looked like strips of metal came running over the hill. (Maati?
Aari? By the ancestors, are they ()ea()1)

Acorna grabbed Aari's arm and heard the mental call when she touched him.
(Mother? Father?) he said, stunned.

Maati sat up, groggy. "Did somebody call me?"

Acorna released Aari and moved to kneel beside Thariinye. Her old shipmate did
not look up, but she could see he was breathing. His shipsuit was a bloody
mess. One of his hands dangled from a scrap of skin protruding from his
sleeve. A chunk was missing from his right cheek and one of his eyes ·was
swelled shut, the lid and brow lacerated. His horn was an inch or so shorter
than it had been.

"Thariinye!" Maati cried, and rose to her hands and knees to do a very fast
crawl to Thariinye's other side. "Oh, no, look at his hand."

"Maati? Baby, is that you, all grown up?" the male Linyaari who had appeared
during the fight asked.

Maati's face rose to look at the two tall Linyaari strangers. Once she got a
good look at their faces she ran to them, crying. "Mother? Father? Help us!
Thariinye's hurt bad. He made the Khieevi fight him so it wouldn't kill me."
She dragged her parents back to Thariinye's side.

"My goodness," her mother said. "The young man certainly is in a bad way, but
this young lady is doing a fine job or healing him. Maati?"

The male Linyaari gently shoved Acorna aside and bent his own horn to
Thariinye's hand. "Allow me, my dear. This boy was little more than a toddler
when we left narhii-Vhiliinyar. And now he's been wounded protecting our
little girl."

Acorna willingly surrendered Thariinye's care to the man. She was weary beyond
belief from her own ordeal, but she needed to see to Aari. He hadn't appeared
to be greatly harmed by his own encounter with the Khieevi, although he had
been locked in its multilegged embrace. But there had been something odd about
their "parting."

Becker and Aari were both bent over the corpse of the Khieevi, studying it.

"The Khieevi -was dying when you shot it, Joh. It could not hold on to me. See
how its legs are curled?"

"Lead poisoning -will do that to you," Becker growled.

"Lead poisoning? Where was the lead?" Aari asked. "You used the laser canon."

"Figure of speech," Becker replied.

"Aari, are you hurt?" Acorna asked, looking him over careful. "The front of
your shirt-it's a mess."

Aari looked down and said with satisfaction, "Khieevi blood, mostly. You or
Thariinye must have wounded the creature before I reached it. I had no
-weapons."

"Neither did we," Acorna said. "We weren't expecting trouble here." She knelt
to examine the dead Khieevi. Gingerly, she touched its chest along the edge of
the wound made by Becker's laser cannon. "What is this? It's not the same
color as the Khieevi blood."

"Oh-that's from me," Aari said, "I fell in the sap on the robohft when I left
the ship. It was all over the front of my ^ipsuit."

Acorna tried to remove the sap with her finger but it had ^tually sunk into
the Khieevi's carapace. In fact, she saw as ^e pulled some of the sap aside,
it had eaten away a portion or the creature's shell-like protection.   She
looked up at the two men who were frowning down watching her. "What became of
the other Khieevi?"

"It was dying when -we left the ship," Aari said. "I came to get you to heal
it."

"Did you harm it?"

"No-no, we did not have to harm it. It seemed to ... believe we were harming
it, though, and we let it think so," Aari said.

"We really were going to let you heal it up, honest," Becker said. "As soon as
-we got all the information we needed. Figured maybe the scientists could
study the thing-" He tried to sound innocent. Acorna knew? that Becker had
just thought of the scientists studying the Khieevi. He had been very much
against healing its wounds. "Maybe it was hurt worse in the crash than we
figured. It told us what we wanted to know and then- really, pretty
conveniently-it keeled over. Aari was coming to get you to see if you could
maybe heal it or something."

Both men looked very uncomfortable. Acorna looked from one to the other. "I
don't think it was the injuries in the crash that killed that prisoner-and I
suspect this one was mortally wounded from the moment Aari jumped on him."

"You jumped that thing, buddy?" Becker asked Aari, clapping him on the back.
"Way to go. I didn't think you had it in you. Not bad for a pacifist."

"You miss the point, Joh. Khornya just said I killed the Khieevi. How did I do
that, Khornya?"

"The sap on your shipsuit," Acorna told him.

"Ye-es," Aari said. "Yes. That makes sense. I remember the first time we saw
the sap. It killed small insects preying upon the vines in the home-world."

"Yeah, the plants thought -we were a bug, too," Becker said. "They slimed the
Condor, trying to get through its shell. Lucky us, it didn't work."

"The sap probably only destroys selected organic sub stances. Judging by the
results, I would guess that the polysaccharides in the Khieevi's chitin
carapaces are susceptible to it, Joh," Aari said.

"Good. Anything that eats up Khieevi shells is fine by me," Becker rejoined.

Acorna glanced over and saw Maati and her parents were helping Thariinye
stand. His clothing was still bloody, but he was moving the fingers of his
formerly injured hand, and all of the gashes and gouges were cleaned up. His
horn, however, remained shorter than it had been.

Aari deliberately turned his back on the Linyaari quartet as he, Becker, and
Mac began pulling another of the titanium cargo nets around the dead Khieevi.
Acorna, panting and catching her breath, stared at his back, and shook her
head. He was clearly not going to fall on the necks of his long-lost parents
and rejoice at their presence. In fact, it looked like he was going to avoid
dealing with them at all, if he could.

Miiri-Maati and Aari's mother-was the first to discover the rash on Aari's
hands. While Aari's palms -were now mostly cleaned of sap, they were red and
itching, swelling in places. He kept pausing in the journey to rub his palms
on the legs of his shipsuit. His mother, who had been trying to run along
beside him to talk to him, noticed.

Aari tried to ignore his mother but Acorna stopped him, turning to rest a hand
on his arm, raised his palm and examined it. I had an itchy red place like
this on my finger just now, from where I examined the sap on the edge of the
Khieevi's wound, but I put it up to my horn and it healed. Let me see if I can
help you," she said, lowering her horn to Aari's palms and touching them
lightly, first one hand and then the other.

The pain he was in was all too evident in his rigid posture and the look in
his eyes. Finally he let out a sigh of relief and gave her a look half of
irritation, half of gratitude.

"That sap, which eats into the Khieevi shells and kills them in short order,
apparently merely causes an allergic reaction in our species," Acorna said.
"It's irritating, but the sap doesn't appear to be lethal to us."

"Mac," Becker said, "-when we get back to the ship, priority one is for you to
scrape all that sap off the robolift and collect it, then stow it in one of
the unpressurized cargo bays. I want samples of it analyzed as soon as
possible. This stuff could be useful."

The next few hours were a blur of activity. Maati and Aari's parents
thought-spoke with the other Linyaari while everyone worked, telling a little
bit of their adventures while stranded on this planet. Their survival here was
a testament to both their courage and cleverness. But Maati had so much to say
to her mother and father that she chattered away like a magpie, using her
newfound telepathic abilities. So, consequently, most of the conversation
centered on Maati's recent escapades, rather than on her parents doings since
they left their home-world in search of their children. And, despite the need
to reconnect with the -wanderers, there was too much to accomplish to truly do
justice to the occasion. All the Linyaari, as well as the remaining crew of
the Comfor, bent their backs to the tasks at hand. They wanted to load both
the crashed Khieevi shuttle and the remains of the Nilkaavri aboard the
Condor, as well as any other cargo they could reach or Mac could -wade out to
retrieve. The main Khieevi ship was simply shattered, most of the resulting
fragments of debris too small to be of interest even to Becker, though they
salvaged what they could.

(Why are we bothering with this trash right now?) Kaarlye, Maati and Aari's
father, asked Maati. (Don't we need to get in contact with our people? The
Khieevi were here.) The parents, without time to sleep-learn standard Galatic
from the LAANYE, could make no sense of Becker's or Mac's thought patterns,
though RK-as always-managed to make himself understood.

(I will see what I can find out,) Maati told him.
"Captain," Maati said in Linyaari, following Becker down the beach until -when
he turned back to pick up another piece of salvage he nearly stepped on her.
"If the Khieevi are scouting this area and the swarm is near, shouldn't we
leave this stuff until later and return to narhii-Vhiliinyar to warn the
people ~ "

Becker tried to answer, first in Standard, then in the broken Linyaari he had
picked up from Aari. Before Kaarlye's confusion became total, Acorna hurriedly
translated Becker's answers as physically transmitted by Maati.

"Well," Becker said, "except for finding you and Thariinye here, we haven't
had any communication from your planet since we sent the pilyi data, honey. We
told 'em to get back to us with a translation, remember? I don't think they're
listening to us, and I'm sure they're not talking to us. I don't imagine
that's going to change now, even though -we've got things to tell them. I hate
to say it, but for all we know, the Khieevi could be there already, maybe even
been there and left.

"That monster we -were able to question only knew the position of the fleet as
of the last transmission he'd received, which was days ago. If it helps, as
far as the prisoner knew, the Khieevi -weren't on your -world yet at that
time. But -we dont know what's going on at your home, nor can we give them any
solid information other than the warning about the iMueevi maybe being in the
neighborhood that we already sent-you know, the one that made you and
Thariinye go hur"ing into space? We gave your people that warning when we
fansnutted the piiyi contents-though from what you've told us about that
horse-faced vilsmar of yours, it might not have °Re any good. All we can
really add to our first broadcast is at we've found your parents here.
Whatever's happening back your planet, our help's too far away and will arrive
too late to change anything. That's why I'm not in any hurry to talk to your
planet.

"Right now, I'm more worried about us. That bug we talked to told the rest of
the bugs exactly where this planet is, and how rich it is in Khieevi food. The
swarm could be on their way here, for all we know. We could have a lot of
time, or -we could have very little, before they arrive. My scanners don't
show anything, but that's not conclusive. So that's why I -want all the
salvage we can manage to get aboard the Condor before we take off. If the com
system in the Khieevi shuttle is undamaged-it looks pretty good to me-and if
we can turn it on and get it working, there's a chance it could still be
getting signals from the fleet, which would tell us where they are, and maybe
even where they're going."

So everyone pitched in and worked for hours gathering the cargo and
transporting it to the ship. After they got it all stacked ready to stow, they
watched Mac open his forearm and extract a paint-scraping tool. Then the
android punched a button just under the skin of his wrist that switched him to
what looked like a holovid on fast forward. With rapid sweeps, he cleaned the
robolift of sap and stored the sticky stuff carefully in one of Captain
Decker's ceramic yogurt containers-after first evicting the yogurt and
cleaning the dish, of course. "What am I to do with this, Captain?" Mac asked.
"Stow it in one of the outer holds, not a temperaturecontrolled one. The sap
was doing just fine out there in the cold vaccuum while we traveled here. I
don't want to mess with a working system. Great stars and asteroids, -will you
look at my hull?" The ConSor was normally a silvery metallic color but now was
covered with broad trails of the yellowish sap as vines would cover a quaint
cottage. "I guess this stuff "was frozen in space and is having a field day
here thawing out."
Acorna stopped relaying his words to the non-Standardspeaking newcomers, and
suggested, "Captain, -we should make certain none of the sap is left behind
since it is alien to this ecology, and may greatly damage it."

"I was gonna say that next," Becker told her. Once the lift was cleared and
they were sure no sap remained on the ground, everyone helped load the cargo.
Mac returned from stowing the sap and carried the heavier items such as the
nearly intact Khieevi shuttle. Becker cast a regretful glance at the hull of
the Linyaari vessel. "I really want to take that with us, but I can't justify
the time it would take to grab it, disassemble it, and stow it. Well, I guess
since you guys came with it, it's not really salvage anyway."

Acorna thought he was going to cry in his mustache at leaving such a valuable
item behind, so she patted his arm and said, "When the crisis is over.
Captain, we can always return for it."

"That's right," he said, and brightened up immediately. She translated for the
newcomers again and Kaarlye said, "Yes. Perhaps when he returns the captain
could retrieve our escape pod as well. We're very fond of it. It saved our
lives, you know."

I think -we'd all like to know how you came to be here and what has happened
to you since you left narhii-Vhiliinyar," Acorna said much later to Kaarlye
and Miiri. Becker, RK, and Mac were manning and catting the helm. Aari and
Acorna led their new guests to the hydroponics gardens to graze.

"There's not much to tell really," Miiri told her. "We left as soon as Maati
could be cared for by someone else." She ran her hand over Maati's mane. "You
do understand, my dear, that we didn't think we would be gone long, and we
didn't wish to endanger you, should the Khieevi still be in the area of our
old home. We hoped somehow our boys-you, Aari, and-"

"Laarye died. Mother, -while I -was a prisoner of the Khieevi," Aari said.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't save him."

"Yes," she said simply. "I felt it."

(Did you feel me, too, Mother? Did you feel my suffering?) At his mother's
shocked look, the stolid, mildly bored look Aari wore as a mask left his face
and he, too, looked shocked. "I didn't say anything," he said a little
pleadingly to Acorna. She let out the breath she had sucked in when he spoke
to his mother.

(You used thought-speak, as you did with me earlier -when the Khieevi attacked
me.)

(I-did not think anyone could hear me. I did not realize-)

(I heard you,) Acorna said. (I heard you this afternoon ·when the thing -was
attacking me. It gave me courage, knowing you were coming.)

"I heard you, too, my son," his mother said. The light in the hydroponics
gardens was dim now, simulating nighttime to give the plants a rest. The air
smelled sweet and fresh down here. The rest of the ship'd had a very pungent
odor when the six Linyaari boarded. Even though Mac had dragged the Khieevi
corpses into another outer hold, and cleaned the sap and the Khieevi blood
from the decks, the Condor reeked. Of course, the Linyaari horns cleansed the
air. But it still seemed like the dead Khieevi could stink up the place a
little faster than the Linyaari horns could clean it.
This area of the ship was something of a showplace, one Acorna and Aari had
worked hard to bring into being. They had draped drop cloths from the bulkhead
above the space so that they resembled clouds and sky. The ship's artificial
lighting now shone down on them, filtered gently by the "sky." All six
Linyaari were squatted in grazing posture, in a circle, staring at each other
through eyes shining with the reflection of the simulated moon. A little
enclosed pond Acorna had created to make the area nicer as -well as to
maintain the humidity needed for optimum plant growth sent rippling shadows
across the billowing drop-cloth clouds.

"I heard you across the galaxies, Son. I heard your brother die and I heard
your screams," his mother said. "Why do you think we left Maati with Grandam
and returned?"

"To join me in the Khieevi torture chamber?" he asked. Aari's bitterness -was
all too visible then. He could not choke it down, and Acorna knew that this
was some of the buried pain she'd been unable to touch in him. "What a waste
that would have been. You would have done better to have parented Maati, even
if you hadn't given up on Laarye and me."

"Hear me," his mother said. "I heard you. We came when we could."

"She heard you," his father said, his face solemn and his eyes deeply sad.
"She screamed at night along with you. She lost all sleep and appetite as she
endured with you what you endured. Did you. not hear her as our enemies killed
not only your brother Laarye, but the twins she lost before she carried
Maati?"

Acorna gazed at Miiri more closely. She was very thin, but then, Linyaari
-were inclined toward slenderness as a rule. Her eyes were a beautiful copper
color, but set deeply in her head. The color and texture of her skin -were not
good. Not sickly- her lifemate would have healed her if it had been merely an
illness that troubled her-but unhealthy nonetheless. Strain had etched deep
lines from her nose to her mouth, and other lines formed a diamond with points
at the base of her horn and the bridge of her nose.

"And you, Father?" Aari asked. "You felt nothing."

"You know I have very little of the empathy that is your both your mother's
gift and her curse. I concentrated on sending. Sending you the directions to
our new world, suggesting ways to escape, and praying to our ancient friends
that somehow you would be saved, that Vhiliinyar itself might cast out the
invaders and preserve my sons."

Aari looked aghast. "But-I did know how to get to narhiiVhiliinyar. Were we
not all programmed that way?"

Kaarlye shook his head, his mane flying and settling again, briefly silver in
the lamplight, a slight whuffling snort emitting from his nostrils and lips.
"Of course not. I am a strong sender."

Aari looked abashed for a moment, then defiant. He inclined his head briefly
in acknowledgment.

"But-you had me," Maati said, almost wailing.

"Yes, youngling my own," her mother said, stroking her cheek with the back of
her fingers. "We had you. It was your birth that delayed us. Grandam would not
permit me to move, she kept me sedated with good herbs and sang me soothing
songs through the night and a circle of women laid horns on me for hours a day
until you were safely into the world. But then, oh Maati, my love, we haS to
go. With you there to carry on the clan name, safe with Grandam, we had to go
find your brother. I heard him no longer, you see, once you were born. And yet
I had not felt his death. As terrible as his torment had been, I knew what it
meant "while it continued. It told me Aari lived and he felt and that I was in
contact with him. But then he was lost and I did not know what to think. I
could not feel him, I could not-"

"My horn," Aari said, touching the slightly indented scar on his forehead.
"They had taken my horn. It nearly killed me. No doubt the loss also . . .
lessened . . . my ability to transmit to you, Mother."

"Yes," his father said. His mother could not speak for the tears choking her.
Acorna was rapidly wiping away her own. Maati sniffled and snuffled.
Thariinye, strangely quiet, put his arm around her. Maati's mother also held
her daughter close. Acorna laid a hand on Maati's knee and one on Aari's. He
lifted her hand and held it against his face for a moment, bending his head to
press it between his jaw and his shoulder. His face was damp, but she thought
it was perspiration rather than tears. This confrontation was very painful for
him, but a good pain, she hoped, a healing pain. Aari's nerve endings burned
with life again.

"To lose a child to untimely death is almost the worst thing there is for a
parent. To know a child is being deliberately and terribly injured is even
·worse. But when I lost you, when I didn't know where you were or what was
happening to you, to know you were there but not to feel you-that was
unbearable.

Had it not been for the twins, and then Maati, we -would have left to find you
long before we finally departed."

Miiri reached out to Aari, but he flinched away from her touch. She withdrew
her hand and rested it on her knee. Raising her chin, she continued her tale.
"When -we could, -we flew back to Vhiliinyar. We maintained radio silence lest
the Khieevi trace the signal. But our old home planet had been violently
altered, and it seemed it was now fighting back. From our vantage point in low
orbit -we could see that the beautiful greens, blues, and purples of our world
were gray and black now, with angry red sores and craters all over. The seas
had dried up, leaving behind cracked and broken soil, and where once streams
had flowed through mountain meadows the barren riverbeds flowed instead with
magma from the ravished peaks. Indeed, many of our mountains had hurled
themselves into the heavens, erupting violently. One of these eruptions
destroyed our spacecraft before we could raise our shields. It came from
nowhere. We took heavy damage. Knowing that the ship was likely to break up at
any time, -we headed toward the nearest habitable planet. As we approached the
atmosphere of this world, we barely had time to slip into the pod and eject
before the ship was destroyed. We landed here, much as Maati and Thariinye
did, the pod's sensors guiding us to a safe landing. Here there was food and
water, and breathable air. We survived and waited for rescue, so that we could
continue our search for our son." Mini's voice grew small and stilled, her
hands clasping and unclasping on her knees, her eyes dropping from Aari's.

Acorna, her hand still in Aari's, with her other hand took one of Miiri's and
joined it with her son's. They did not clasp hands, but they touched. Miiri
raised her eyes again and searched Aari's.

Kaarlye took up the tale. "There was little we could do but survive, and wait,
and hope that you would somehow free yourself from the Khieevi. And here you
are."
He ruffled Maati's hair. "And here you are, too, our beautiful daughter,
starclad and a young lady now."

Aari's hand clutched his mother's now, and Acorna slipped away as the family
reunited. Thariinye sat there watching, so quiet it was hard to believe he was
Thariinye.

Acorna joined Becker on watch. Mac had shut himself down to conserve his
batteries. RK sat cleaning himself, warming his underside on the lights from
the console. The piiyi that had played constantly on the corn screen was
blessedly shut off for the moment.

Becker looked around as Acorna slid into the chair beside his.

"Family reunion stuff, huh?" he asked.

Acorna nodded, feeling happy but subdued. The emptiness that was in Aari was
filling in like a dry spring after a dam had broken, and to a lesser extent,
the same thing was occurring with Maati. It made Acorna feel wistful, wishing
that perhaps her own parents had escaped somewhere, could rejoin her. But no,
she did not feel that would happen. She had not known them, had missed them as
a baby only long enough for dear Gil, Calum, and Rafik to learn her Linyaari
baby names for mother and father, and then she had been wrapped in the loving
care of her three "uncles" who -were actually her fathers, and all of her
other new friends, who were her family. Now she had an aunt and a planet and
so much more-and she did not begrudge Aari finding his parents and learning of
their continued love for him and Maati. And yet-

Becker leaned over and patted her shoulder. "Makes you wonder, doesn't it,
Princess?"

"What?" she asked. Becker was better at reading thoughts than she'd realized.

"What your own folks were like, what it would have been like to be with them,
you know. I knew my mother a little- she was a scientist someplace, I'm not
really sure where. I was about three "when there were a lot of explosions and
gunshots and she fell down with blood all over her and then I was taken to the
slave farm on Kezdet. Maybe it's because I -was only three then, but what I
remember most about it was, it was boring being with my mom. And one thing
about Dad-Dad Becker, I mean-there was nothing boring about him. I don't
reckon I've missed anything, come to think about it." But she saw, in his
heart, where that creek in him "was still dry, 'waiting for the dam to break
and water it.          ,

And she knew that in spite of all of her friends and her adopted parents and
her real Linyaari kinfolk, she had a similar dry creek inside herself. But
dwelling on such things was pointless. Besides, she had work to do. She looked
out at the stars and asked, "Where to now, Captain?"

For the Balakiire, tracing the signal to the blue planet -was not difficult.
The coordinates had been on the piiyi, and the NiikcLavri's ion tracings led
straight to the planet. But none of the crew was prepared, as the Kalakiire
began to home in on the beach where once the Condor had landed, for the site
of the Niikaavrl's broken shell, lying open to the elements as if some massive
chick had hatched from it and abandoned it there.

They saw wreckage bobbing in the sea as well, and washing up onto the beach.
After a closer look at it, Neeva recognized some of the fragments as coming
from a Khieevi vessel. A quick trip back to the ship to consult the scanners
gave no indication of a continuing Khieevi presence on the planet. From there
it was just a matter of figuring out exactly what had happened. Beginning at a
debris-littered indentation in a sand dune, they followed a trail of Khieevi
excrement. Liriili was given the honor of walking in front, ·which she did
with the poor grace Neeva expected of her. The broken trees, the large,
coagulated pool of blood surrounded by many other blood-stained fronds and
ruined trees and crushed leaves, drew a low, painful groan from all them. They
followed the trail further up a hill, until they came to a place where a tree
was surrounded by broken heaps of the solidified dung. They searched farther
still, and found that beyond this last hill, the woods thinned once more into
a low marshland of reeds, and beyond that stretched the "wide blue sea. Only a
few pieces of debris bobbed on the -waves on this side of the landspit. But
tucked up next to the trees, in a small clearing that showed signs of
occupation, lay an eggshaped vessel covered with a symbolic design. Liriili
gasped as if this came as a surprise to her, which of course it should not
have done.

The Linyaari made their way to the shuttle and examined it.

"This is the design registered to the . . . the ship Kaarlye and Miiri took
when they went in search of their sons?" Neeva asked.

Liriili nodded reluctantly.

"You are sure?"

Liriili's eyes were reddened and slightly bulging, as they had been since the
return of the pilgrims and the ancestors. She had not been a pleasant
shipboard companion. No number of Linyaari horns could cleanse the atmosphere
of her energy field, which was so discordant as to upset the harmony of even
such a close-knit crew as the Balaklire's.

"I should know," she said hollowly. "I watched that transmission and checked
over the information Thariinye had gathered from the files over and over
again. It's not as if I made my decision lightly, you know. I was doing as I
always have done, acting with the good of our people in mind, and this is the
. . ."

"Yes, yes," Khaari, who was not a diplomat, said shortly. "Thariinye and
Maati's ship lies in pieces, and we have found traces that indicate the
Coru)or, containing Khornya and Aari, was in the vicinity of the armed Khieevi
ship that wrecked the Niikaavrl. Khieevi spoor is all about, and here is the
pod belong ing to Kaarlye and Miiri, but this -whole situation is still all
about how badly misunderstood you. are."

Liriili gave her a sullen look and sniffed. "Whatever . . . but since everyone
you've mentioned except the Khieevi -who made these trails are no doubt dead,
perhaps -we could end this futile mission and return home?"

"I'm surprised you want to," Neeva said. "In your place I would be considering
a long mission that sent me to the farthest galaxy imaginable, preferably one
where no one ever heard of me."

"That is your nature," Liriili said. "It is not mine. I am not a spacefarer."

"You are now," Melireenya said. "I can't believe you can look at all of this
without some feeling of compassion, some sadness perhaps, even remorse in the
case of Maati and Thariinye."

"If you think the arbitrary decision of a council influenced by an influx of
my enemies is going to make me feel guilty, you are very much mistaken. I did
what I thought best for the good of the planet. If harm befell anyone because
of my decision, then it is the Khieevi who are at fault, not me."

Khaari rummaged in the pod and pulled out the tiny capsule that kept a record
of its flight.

In the ship's shuttle, they did a low flyby circling the planet. Though they
looked carefully, they never found another biped lifeform on the planet's
surface, dead or alive.

Back in space once more, they discussed what should next be done.

"We must -warn our allies of the impending Khieevi threat," Neeva said.

"The same -way they warned us of the fake Federation troops?" Khaari asked
-with a trace of bitterness lingering from that betrayal.

"Those enemies -were only human beings," Neeva said. "Bad ones, admittedly,
but still merely human. And they tricked our allies. It "wasn't right, what
happened to our people as a result, but letting the Khieevi overtake any
civilization without -warning would not be right either."

"I suppose not. Should I begin a broadcast?" "No!" Liriili said, "You will
lead them straight to us, and from us to narhii-Vhiliinyar."

Neeva sighed. "I'm afraid I have to agree -with you, Liriili. No, silence is
still necessary this close to recent Khieevi depredations. I'm afraid we must
deliver at least the Erst of our warnings personally."

They returned to their ship, docked the shuttle, and plotted a course that
would take them toward the inhabited planets closest to their homeworld.

The ConDor transmitted broadcasts on all channels to all worlds and spacecraft
within range about the Khieevi threat. The Linyaari response to their message
proved to be typical- not a single reply came from any of the planets they'd
targeted. But three days and a two wormholes away from the blue world, Acorna
was startled and delighted to see Calum Baird's face on the corn screen and to
hear him say, "This is the Acadecki, Con<)or. Read you loud and clear. Acorna,
what in the cosmos are you and that ;unk ship up to now? Didn't we teach you
better than to play with the Khieevi? They're not nice."

"Roger, Calum," Acorna said, baring her teeth at her beloved foster father,
who was likewise baring"his teeth at her. Before they could say more, however,
other faces and signals replaced Calum's in quick succession.

Becker, hearing the unfamiliar voices, came running to the bridge, followed
quickly by Aan and their Linyaari guests and Mac.

"Damn, are we back in the Federation already?" Becker bellowed. "We musta
taken a wrong turn at the last wormhole. I told you that was a left, Aari."

Aari, who was used to Decker's odd expressions said, had picked up a couple of
them himself. "I am sorry, Joh," he said. "I must have done the wrong thing
while attempting to determine which turn signal to activate."

Maati stared wide-eyed at the faces on the screen, while Kaarlye and Miiri
looked alarmed and Thariinye began translating with only a trace of his former
pomp.

The younger male had changed his attitude quite a bit since being captured by
the Khieevi. At first, right after he'd been rescued, he had retreated into
himself, uncharacteristically tremulous and reticent. All Maati's goading,
Becker's scolding, and Acorna's kindness couldn't reach him. But Aari had been
wonderful with him, encompassing him in an exclusive wordless empathy extended
from the first and heretofore only Linyaari to survive capture by the Khieevi
to the second. Thariinye had responded to Aari's help with relief and
something like hero worship. He'd had a taste of -what the Khieevi were
capable of, and couldn't begin to imagine what Aari's ordeal had been like.
The bond was clearly healing for them both.

Aari had begun to speak with his parents and Maati of his time alone and with
the Khieevi on Vhilnnyar. Some of what he described was new to Acorna and even
to Becker. Now that all of them had had such a close shave-Becker's
description, but an apt one-with the Khieevi, everyone understood Aari's
experiences much more fully. They were horrified for him, of course, but their
reaction was one of grim comprehension, not shock or squeamishness.

With his new air of self-assurance, Aan faced the parade of faces on the com
screen with a degree of comfort he'd never exhibited in the past.

Once everyone had been hailed, Acorna switched back to Calum. "Delighted as I
am to see you, what are all these ships doing here?" Acorna said.

"We re en route to join Ha£z and his caravan at the House Harakamian Moon of
Opportoooonity," Calum said, deepening his voice into a parody of a Scottish
brogue. "It's on that moon you used as a base of operations to rescue the
folks Ganoosh and Ikwaskwan captured."

Becker chuckled. The wily Hafiz's lust for trade reminded him of his own for
salvage. "His timing coulda been a little better," Becker told Calum.
"According to-uh-our informant, this whole sector will be crawling with
Khieevi before long. On the other hand, if the old pirate had waited till
later, there wouldn't have been anybody to trade with, so we'll just have to
deal with it, I guess. I presume you're up for a bit of haggling over rescuing
the galaxy once again?"




Caravan Harakamian had come to rest at its destination after sailing through
vast distances of space. Along the way it stopped at various watering holes
and oases to refuel and pick up a few forgotten but essential supplies,
experts in various fields, security personnel, and general shopping. Its
space-going "camels" were fat with the finest cargo by the time they arrived
at the desolate moon.

In less time than it took the genie to build the castle of Aladdin, Hafiz and
his colleagues in commerce had erected a gigantic trade center. Hafiz used his
own hologrammatic magic to disguise the envirobubbles as giant Linyaari
pavilions, such as those described to him by Acorna and Aari. From the inside
the bubbles were all blue sky and flying birds, -waterfalls and forests and
mountains in the distance. In the foreground was the flowering vine of goods
and services, the commercial center that House Harakamian erected solely to
attract the Linyaari and their allies to what Hafiz fondly hoped would be an
exclusive trade agreement.

Calum Baird had taken charge of leading a second expedition of technicians who
set up relays between the new sector and the old one, specifically Laboue and
Maganos Moonbase.
Rafik, Gill, Mercy, Judit, Pal, Johnny, and Ziana ensured that the kids who
came from Maganos Moonbase and the crew of the Haven were given all possible
learning opportunities. Some of the older children were now of age for
university training. Those whose brains had been damaged by deprivation or who
had been kidnapped into slavery so young that they were still catching up on
their educations remained on Maganos Moonbase in the care of trusted teachers
and some of the more gifted older children. They would help coordinate future
supply caravans, and the transmission of orders from the new Moon of
Opportunity, as Hafiz had dubbed his trading colony.

Dr. Hoa's weather wizardry created a climate both varied and pleasant, cycling
through a temperate change of weather every thirty days. With the resident
botanists, he came up with species well adapted for several days of warm rain
with intermittent hard rain, interspersed with brilliant warm sunshine,
followed by crisp autumnal days that caused the special trees to turn bright
red and gold and drop their leaves before the snow that fell only on the lawns
and in the mountains on the recreational portion of the moon, where residents
and guests were provided with skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, sledding, and
ski lodge activities.

In another part of the resort area, specially tailored palms swayed above a
"white sand beach onto which surfable waves glistened and slid under sailable
winds. Provisions were made for the alien recreational activities Hafiz had
knowledge of as well, vine swinging (for the Limurian jungle dwellers),
mudrolling (for the Porcinian beings of the Greater Ursine constellation), and
of course, high and low gravity events-long distance jumping sports and soil
diving among them. Hafiz's brochure promised that more exotic entertainments
would be offered later.

His hologram wizardry also made the hotels playgrounds for both the children
and the sophisticates, offering a variety of fantasy-oriented suites and
facilities, even holographic houris. He was a bit surprised that Khetala, who
had been reeducating former pleasure house employees, took it upon herself to
visit the holographic harems of the houris. While there she attempted to
convince the denizens they were being exploited and should perhaps take up
courses in accounting or business management to empower themselves.

That was his first inkling that perhaps his colony was beginning to seem a bit
too frivolous for some of his associates. But of course, the guest facilities
had to be in place before the university and healing centers could be
completed.

Karina ordered up the initial hologramatic ambience for the healing center.
She also spent a fortune on crystals, candles, gauzy draperies, drums,
incense, amorphous music, and real greenery and fountains. Hafiz was allowed
to embellish her setting with his holograms, but she insisted on the genuine
article as far as plant life and water features went, "for the ozone and the
extra oxygen, beloved. One doesn't get that from a simulation."

A large portion of that pavilion was kept barren however, awaiting the arrival
of the first Linyaari trade partners, who would of course have their own
specifications.

Thus was all in readiness for the first trading partners. Hafiz and his staff
waited. And waited. And waited.

Signals had been sent on all frequencies to all planets in the sector. Calum
Baird and his technicians finished their work installing the appropriate links
and relays to allow swift communication with Maganos Moonbase, Laboue, and all
other previously known Federation worlds, moons, and space stations. But until
Calum and his fleet intercepted the Condor's signal, not a single response did
the newly created facility receive.

Finally these last ships docked and by the time their crews were welcomed and
rested, the Condor, its sides virtually bulging with cargo and expanded crew,
waddled into port to squat beside the other, sleeker vessels.

Becker gave a low whistle as the crew, including RK, descended on the spanking
clean robolift.

"Will you look at this spread?" Becker asked. "Your old uncle has done himself
proud, Princess."

Acorna wasn't listening. She didn't even wait until the robolift touched the
ground before jumping off and flying into the collective arms of her uncles
and old friends from Maganos Moonbase.

Hugs, kisses, tears, and exclamations flowed freely and to Maati, seemed to
sadly contrast to her own reunion with her brother, mother, and father.

Finally, Hafiz Harakamian, mindful of the presence of four horned Linyaari and
Aari, whom he had met before, detached himself from the storm of sentiment and
greeted his new guests.

He was flanked by Karina on one side and Nadhari Kando on the other. As chief
of security, Nadhari considered it her job to be with Hafiz in any crowd and
put herself between him and harm.

"Welcome to my pavilion, and to this Moon of Opportunity, honored guests,
Captain Becker, and er-crewman?" Hafiz said with a glance at Mac.

RK leaped onto Nadhari Kando's shoulder.

"It's that Makahomian warrior lady again. Hello, there," Becker said, perhaps
a bit eagerly.

Nadhari gave him a slow smile and streked RK's plumed tail. "I see the sacred
cat has brought you safely through another journey, Becker."

"Yes, he was a lot of help," Becker said, reaching over to stroke RK too, and
incidentally brush his fingers against Nadhari's sculpted cheekbone resting
against the cat's side. RK growled and batted at him. "The hero of the whole
thing actually," Becker continued. The growl lowered. "In fact, if he hadn't
alerted Aari to the fact that the Khieevi was after Acorna, and then come back
to lead me and Mac to where the Khieevi and Aari were duking it out, we
probably would not be the hale and healthy party standing before you now."

RK was purring now.

Hafiz, who had been trying to ignore Becker to court the Linyaari, suddenly
turned to him, very pale despite the artificial sunlight in his offices.
"Khieevi? You encountered Khleevi!"

"Yeah, got a couple of dead ones up top," Becker said, jerking his thumb
toward the Cow)or.

Acorna rejoined the crew, her friends and relations surrounding them all now
as they strolled off the robolift and toward the sumptuously appointed
reception area. "Uncle Hafiz, we will need to establish some sort of
laboratory to study the dead Khieevi and to analyze a substance we discovered
on another world."

"You need establish nothing, 0 flower of my family tree," Hafiz said. "We have
the best of all laboratories here at your command complete with all the most
advanced devices and equipment."

"And we have some top Linyaari organic chemists in our crew, Uncle," Acorna
said with a nod to two of the newcomers, "Allow me to present Kaarlye and
Miiri, father and mother of Aari and Maati."

"We are honored," Hafiz said. "And our laboratories of course are at your
disposal. Just across the garden of a thousand succulent sweetgrasses and
flowering fountains you will find luxurious pavilions designed with Linyaari
tasks and requirements in mind." He clapped his hands and porters appeared.
"When you have rested from your journeys, we will dine."

"No time to rest," Kaarlye said brusquely. "We must analyze this substance at
once. When it is warm, it spreads rapidly."

Becker stopped the porters at the robolift. "Wait a minute, folks. We didn't
come with a lot of baggage and I think my crew and I had better unload the sap
and the -uh- prisoners. You might want to stand back. They stink. A lot. As
for RK, Mac, and me, -we're staying aboard the Coru)or."

Nadhari lifted an eyebrow and made a very unconvincing pout with her mouth. RK
laid his ears back and wrapped his tail possessively around Nadhari's neck.
"Unless of course the cat has other ideas," Becker finished lamely.

That night a sumptuous meal was laid before them.

Under an open canopy, silvery platters of meats and sweets nestled among
opulent arrangements of flowers and plumed grasses upon a long low table
nestled within a bank of tufted divans covered with poufs of paisley silks and
velvets. These topped thick soft rugs of various harmonious patterns and
jewel-like hues.

Becker and his new crew sank into the divans and following Hafiz's lead,
Becker, Karina, Dr. Hoa, Acorna's non-Linyaari family, and Nadhari Kando
plucked succulent items from the trays on the table. Meanwhile Acorna, Aari,
Maati, and the parental units grazed on the flower arrangements. Becker was a
little startled until he realized that this was the intended purpose of what
he had thought of as an overabundance of centerpieces. The old man had simply
seen to it that the Linyaari "dishes" were arranged as appealingly as the
savory morsels offered to the other guests.

"Uncle Hafiz, you are amazing," Acorna said. Becker was pleased to see that
after the strain and danger and hard work the girl had recently endured, she
looked as fresh as some of the flowers she was eating, glowing with happiness
at being among her old friends again. "How long did it take you to build this
installment, anyway? " Her eyes took in the gently lit garden with its
fountains and mountainous background, the spired and domed palaces that formed
Hafiz's chief residence and several of the hotels and office buildings
besides. Overhead stars twinged-not any stars Acorna had ever been among but
artful stars, placed with an artistic interpretation of constellations and
formations Karina had deemed auspicious.

"Little more than the twinkling of an eye, dearest child, that and many, many,
many trillions of credits, of course."

Becker was seated on the end of one divan, Nadhari Kando on the adjoining end
of another, the Condor's first mate still wrapped complacently around her neck
like a living fur collar. Every once in a while a forkful of fish eggs or meat
didn't make it all the way to Nadhari's mouth, however, as a paw or a set of
feline teeth intercepted it.

"But enough of my little pastimes," Hafiz was saying while Becker was admiring
the line of Nadhari's jaw and the curve of her neck, "I am consumed with
curiosity to know how it is that you actually have two dead Khieevi with you?"

"Oh. Them," Becker said. "Well, they're survivors. I mean, they were
survivors. From the crash of their ship. The one we caused since, you know,
they had just finished shooting the kids' ship out of the sky."

"And by kids you mean . . . ?"

"Maati and Thariinye," Acorna put in. "They apparently decided at almost the
same time we did to search for Maati's and Aari's parents on the blue world.
But the Khieevi had the same idea, and had already launched an attack when we
arrived."

"Tell me, Captain, I am intrigued," Nadhari said. "What powerful weapons do
you carry on that salvage ship of yours that vanquished a Khieevi vessel?"

"Yes," Hafiz said. "Please, tell us. If they are that effective, I will order
many for the protection of our moon."

Becker gave Nadhari a smile that urged her to wait a moment and answered
Hafiz, "Well, sir, it is true that I have a bunch of very lethal weapons on
the Condor. Some of them even work. Or would, if I had them assembled and
installed. Which I didn't. So then Acorna here says, what about using the
tractor beam?"

A smile played at the edges of Nadhari's mouth, which was the only thing about
her with any extra flesh-her lips were sculpted but pleasingly plump, at least
they were when relaxed. He seemed to recall seeing that same mouth set in a
hard grim line above the jut of that firm and shapely jaw. It would have had
him quaking in his gravity boots, if he thought she had any quarrel with him.
But she didn't, and RK's tail tip flitted playfully from her shoulder bone to
jawline to eartip, as flirtatious as a courtesan's fan.

"Captain, surely you have not acquired enough cargo by now to act as another
slingshot bomb with which to fell your enemies?"

"Oh, no, ma'am. Not slingshot this time. We-uh-skipped 'em like a rock and
then played crack the ship with their sorry carcass. Worked good, too, didn't
it, crew?"

"Yes, Joh. Good," Aari said.

"Except for the survivors. We didn't know there were two at first," Becker
said.

He regaled the table with the story of the questioning of the injured Khieevi
while interweaving the story of Maati and Thariinye as if he had understood
every word they spoke of their ordeal or had been with them while it was
occurring. He gave it a few flourishes here and there and ended by saying
modestly, "So I blew a hole through the bugger, but Aari here had already
pretty much finished him off."

"How?" Karina Harakamian asked.
"Why, by giving him a great big old hug. See, that Khieevi was so purely
mortified by all that Linyaari sweetness and light Aari was extending to it
just because he's of such a highly evolved nature, that I figure the Khieevi
came down with a monstrous case of sugar diabetes on the spot and it was such
a shock to its system it curled up its toes and died."

Karina clasped her plump, beringed hands over her heaving amethyst-veiled and
amethyst-encrusted bosom and sighed, "How thrilling! And what a triumph for
the light!" Then she glanced around at the stolid Linyaari faces, and at
Becker's determinedly innocent one. He was trying to keep his mouth from
twitching. "Wait a moment. Is that true?" she asked.

"Not a word of it!" Becker exploded with laughter. Karina was exactly the kind
of audience he loved. Gullible. "Well, the thing did curl up and die and it
was because of something sticky as sugar, but not sweet. It was this sap stuff
we picked up on some planet full of vines. But I had you going there, didn't
I?"

Nadhari shook an admonitory finger at him, "Naughty, naughty, Captain. But I
must say, I'm very impressed. You and your crew of pacifist ·warriors
vanquishing such formidable foes without so much as a real weapon among you-"

"You're forgetting that I blew a hole the size of the cat through that thing,"
Becker said, slightly offended at being lumped with the pacifists.

She shrugged like a panther rippling its muscles in preparation for a longer
stretch. "Oh that. A mere coup de grace. But your ingenuity and wit amaze me.
Anyone can win by force of muscle or superior firepower. But winning because
of strategy and the ability to turn whatever you have at hand into a weapon, I
find that-very, very impressive."

"You W Becker was surprised at first, then amazed, followed by stupefied. Him?
Impress heri She was absolutely the most impressive woman he had ever seen in
his entire life and fascinated him at the same time she scared the bejesus out
of him. He hadn't done anything she couldn't do with both hands tied behind
her back, but it was nice to hear it anyway.

"Absolutely." He couldn't tell if it was her or RK purring. Both of them were
regarding him through slitted eyes.

"I certainly do. You and I should discuss-strategy."

He -was flummoxed. The truth was, he never stuck around for courtship or
seduction much past the brief encounters in the pleasure houses-hadn't since
he was younger and encountered all the ladies who wanted a good time but
thought spending any part of it on a salvage ship beneath them. Nadhari Kando
knew where he lived. She'd been there. "I-uh-I'd really like that. I need to
check in with Mac though-that's the KEN-640 unit-he's repairing the corn unit
on the Khieevi shuttle so we can maybe monitor their movements-"

"By the sacred whiskers, you think of everything, don't you?" She moved closer
and offered him an olive. He held out his hand but she held it with two
fingers and her thumb and waved it teasingly till he opened his mouth, then
she popped it in. He could definitely get used to this. Her scent was a
mixture of musk and citrus, and something like a forest after a rain. He liked
it. He held out an olive for her.

"And I-uh-I guess I should get RK back, too. He hasn't had his usual eighty
hours of sleep today."
"Oh?" she said. "That's funny. He's been communing with me. He -wants to stay
with me tonight."

"Well, if that's not just like a cat!" Becker exclaimed, dropping the olive
back onto his plate in his consternation at his first mate's defection.

Nadhari smiled. Her smile reminded him of RK-he just hadn't realized that was
what a cat smile looked like. "What's that?" she asked as the cat rubbed
against her cheek. "Oh, yes. He wants to stay with you tonight, too."

"Divided loyalties?" Becker asked.

Nadhari swung her sturdy but very shapely legs down from the divan with a
sinuous slither and stood looking down at him. "Hardly. RK is a sacred temple
cat. His wish is my command. If he wishes to be with me, and with you ..." her
hand reached down to cup Becker's chin and with slight pressure on it, raised
him to his feet. "I am not the one to gainsay him. Are you?"

"Disappoint my old buddy?" Becker asked, slipping her hand through his crooked
elbow. "Perish the thought. Mind telling me where he wants to spend this time
with us tonight?"

"Aboard your vessel," she replied, and he was surprised to see that she
actually had to look up at him. How did she do that? He could have sworn she
was taller. "In the hold -where you questioned the first Khieevi."

"Really?"

"Yes. The sacred cat thinks I would find that environment rather -
stimulating."

"Kitty knows best," Becker said.

fourteen

Hafiz -would not hear of the Linyaari remaining aboard the Condor. Acorna was
glad, particularly -when she saw Becker, RK, and Nadhari strolling arm in arm
in the direction of the ship.

A self-contained trio of pavilions triangulated around a garden/grazing area.
Kaarlye and Miiri were billeted in one, and although Maati could have stayed
with her parents, she asked if she might share a pavilion with Khornya
instead. This left Aari and Thariinye to share the third.

Acorna spent most of the rest of the evening with her adoptive fathers/uncles,
describing what had befallen her since they had last seen each other.

"This Aari guy," Gill said. "You and he . . . ?"

"We're friends," Acorna said, off-handedly.

"Evidently, if he's willing to wrestle bug-eyed monsters on your behalf,"
Calum said.

"We -were all in danger," Acorna said, reasonably enough. "And Aari was trying
to save us all."

"He didn't know that stuff smeared on his shirt would kill the thing though?"
Gill asked. "He just dove right in and tackled it?"
"Well-yes."

"Sounds kinda suicidal to me," Calum said.

"I don't really think he is-at least, not now," Acorna said.

"But he was before?" Gill asked.

Acorna suddenly felt more uncomfortable than she had ever before felt in the
company of these beloved men. "Why are you questioning me this way?" she
asked.

"Why do you think?" Calum asked, exasperated. "Because we care about you, of
course, and we've talked it over and it looks to us like you care about him."

"But we wish to make sure," Rank said, "That-well, you're not just feeling
sony for someone who cannot be a good mate for you, to put it bluntly."

"You must admit, pet, that we know a few more things about men than you do,"
Gill said, smiling.

"Human men, yes, but Aari is Linyaari," she said. "And we are friends. Nothing
more."

"Not-yet?" Gill asked.

"No, nor will we be until he's-"

"Until he'^f ready, darlin'?" Gill pressed. "What about you? Are you going to
crew on a salvage ship until the guy makes up his mind whether or not he could
stand being mates with a beautiful, intelligent, funny, talented, warm, and
loving girl? You must excuse us, but it's a no-brainer. Which makes us wonder
about how intelligent or warm he is."

"Frankly, we thought you'd get snatched up by some young stud the minute you
landed on your home-world," Calum said. "We're a bit surprised at this turn of
events."

Acorna dimpled at them suddenly. "Is this one of those situations where you
are going to ask me when I'm going to settle down and give you grandchildren?"

"Yes," Rafik said, "Usually mothers do it, well, used to, but you have no
mother and we weren't sure your aunt would think of it, besides which she's
not around, is she? So we thought- that is, Calum and Gill thought-maybe
between us, we should discuss this."

"Ha£z started it, really," Calum said. "Hey, we did pretty well, I think. Gill
"was all for calling the guy outside and asking him what his intentions were
when we saw how he-how you- how things were. But then we figured a guy -who
tackled a Khieevi bare-handed might be the sensitive type, so we decided
asking you-"

"Was safer," Rafik finished with an impish grin.

Acorna laughed. "You've asked. We've discussed it," she said, giving them each
a hug. "And I have nothing more to say-honestly, there if nothing more to say
right now. Meanwhile, when am I going to get to give my fathers away in
marriage is what I'd like to know? Judit and Mercy will not wait forever while
you busy yourselves speculating about my love life."
"Actually," Calum said. "We um, have an announcement to make. But I will wait
until she can-"

The other two started thumping him on the back. Talk turned to how the
nuptials were to be handled and then all of them began to feel the need to
talk to their mates and Acorna slipped away, back to her assigned pavilion.

Maati was not there. Acorna thought perhaps the girl was spending more time
with her parents. That was fine. It would be nice to be alone for a while. As
light as she had made of her dear friends' questions, they echoed questions in
her own mind, and she didn't want a youngling new to thought-speech to read
her, even accidentally.

Du) she care for Aari simply because she had pitied him, or was there more to
it than that? How would she know? She had never chosen a mate before. She knew
her uncles had only her best interests at heart and it was quite true that she
hadn't noticed all that much difference between human and Linyaari males. And
she felt, being raised by men, that she understood them as well as a female
could. At this point in her life anyway. But she couldn't say she understood
Aari at all. She could read his mind when he let her and she knew he cared for
her. She could empathize with his pain. But she hadn't a clue why he behaved
as he did. She wished Grandam Naadiina or Aunt Neeva "were here to consult
with. She would have asked Gill, Calum, or Rafik about the matter but they
seemed to be predisposed against Aari.

With a sigh, she settled down to an uneasy and dream-filled sleep in which she
-was being courted by a Khieevi.

Aari, on the other hand, was getting no sleep, nor was he able to progress
very far in the book he had chosen from the Condor's ancient hardcopy library,
a collection of ancient European literature by various authors. Aari was
currently reading an excerpt from a play called Romeo am) Juliet by William
Shakespeare. The language was not easy but Aari had read another book that
referred to Shakespeare as inventing the language of love, so he thought it
might be interesting to see what the Bard of Avon had to say. Although he
could not imagine why a cosmetics firm from the twentieth century (the ship's
library also contained a number of small brightly colored pamphlets from this
company) would choose to sponsor an ancient poet unless it -was because he
"was also an actor and they, as Aari was learning, also used makeup.

But ·while he was struggling with the language, Thariinye was chattily giving
him the benefit of Thariinye's spectacularly successful career (according to
the young male) as a wooer of females. Aari had not had the heart to ask him
to be quiet, as he knew that the loss of the tip of Thariinye's horn had made
him feel disfigured and the younger fellow was relating his past exploits
simply to bolster his own confidence.

But in that estimation, Aari was using the projection of his own feelings
about the loss of his horn and empathy for Tharii nye's distress, not
thought-reading, which he found impossible to do -while he was trying to
unravel Shakespeare's thees and thous. So he was taken aback when Thariinye
suddenly rolled over on his own pallet and poked Aari playfully in the ribs.

"That Khornya is quite a reed, isn't she?" Thariinye said with a wink.

"A--reed?" Aari asked, looking up from his book at the mention of Khornya's
name.

"A-slender and succulent desirable mate, to old-timers like you," Thariinye
translated with a tolerant wave of his hand.

"I-yes. Maati mentioned that you had considered yourself pledged to her. Is
that-still true?" His voice was steady and controlled.

"Me? No! No, no, no. By the ancestors, no! Oh, I was smitten, of course. She
is beautiful-quite a reed, as I said. But, well, it really was just that I was
the first Linyaari male she met and she -was so dewy eyed and innocent I felt
protective, so I -wanted to warn off other males lest they not . . .
appreciate her finer qualities . . . properly. No, now that I know her better,
she is not for me."

"No? And -why not?" Aari asked, suddenly feeling protective himself, and
rather angry at Thariinye dismissing Khornya. Who wouldn't want Khornya?

"Frankly?" Thariinye said. "She's too smart for me. And well, a bit too
idealistic. And a little too strange, being raised by humans and all. She has
peculiar ideas about things so I can't begin to guess what she's going to do
next. That makes me nervous around her."

"I admit I am nervous around her, too," Aari said thoughtfully.

"I noticed. But you're crazy about her, aren't you?" Thariinye's voice was
insinuating and his eyes sly. "You want her, don't you?"

"I ... have no right," Aari said. "She deserves a mate who is whole in mind
and body. And horn," he said, a bit cruelly, since Thariinye was being cruel
and discourteously invasive, to his way of thinking.

"Ouch," Thariinye said. "I guess I deserved that. But I'm told mine will grow
back, in time."

Aari was quiet. Thariinye had responded to cruelty with cruelty of his own.
That was one reason why the Linyaari usually eschewed cruelty. It was not only
unkind, it was unwise to start the spiraling descent that would lead with all
parties having fallen to a lower level.

"Sony," Thariinye said again. "I'm trying to tell you something here and I
keep on upsetting you. You're pretty touchy, you know that, don't you?"

"Perhaps it   is because for so long, when anyone touched me, it was to cause
pain," Aari   said through gritted and bared teeth. Then he relaxed, "I am sony
too. I have   begun to think of you as a friend. Grandam says friends come
together to   teach each other. I sense you are trying to teach me something.
Proceed."

"What I'm saying," Thariinye said, "Is no matter what YOU think she deserves,
the females I know seem to feel that what they deserve is whatever their
little female hearts decide they ·want. I think it's pretty clear she wants
you."

"No," he said. "She is a kind and loving person. She feels sympathy for my
injury, for what happened with the Khieevi. When she is sure I am as healed as
possible, for she is a healer above all, she will return to her human people
for good as our ambassador-stopping by narhii-Vhiliinyar to communicate with
the government perhaps. By then Joh and I will be far away so I -" <)o I will
not have to watch her leave again, he thought to himself.

"You're just making that assumption!" Thariinye said "Why don't you ask her?
Talk to her? Take her some of these beautiful, delicious flowers! Recite
Linyaari love poetry to her!

She's never heard it, you know. I was going to try it out on her but I could
tell she wouldn't believe me."

"What would it tell her that I bring her flowers from a garden that is also
hers to graze?" Aari asked, shaking his mane.

"That you brought her breakfast in bed?" Thariinye suggested. "No, no, go back
to your book. Forget I said anything."

But the next morning, Thariinye slept in while Aari went to see if he could
assist his parents in the laboratory where they were analyzing the sap that
had killed the Khieevi. Upon awakening, Thariinye saw the book Aari had left
behind. His journey with Neeva, Khaari, and Melireenya to collect Khornya from
her human foster parents had given him a superior knowledge of Standard, he
felt. With the help of the LAANYE he had carried -with him from the Niikaavri,
he was able to translate one of the stories, although the words fell in odd
places. This particular tale, by a human named Rostand, told of a fellow with
a disfiguringly long nose-which sounded perfectly attractive to Thariinye,
since long noses were considered elegant by Linyaari tastes. The long-nosed
chap was in love with a female also desired by a more attractive male, a
friend of the longnosed chap. Finally, because he -was a kind person and
wished to see both his friend and the female he loved happy, and also because
it allowed him to speak his own -words of love to the female, the long-nosed
male hid and spoke his love words while the handsomer male pretended to speak
them to the female.

Thariinye knew that it obviously would never work out. There were a few
similarities in the personalities involved of course, but considerable
mutation would have to occur before such a solution would in any way serve the
present situation.

Maati was a youngling, but in her capacity as a messenger, she had been
receiving a great deal of vicarious experience since she was very small. The
only other females available to discuss this with, unfortunately, were Khornya
and Aari's mother, who was quite busy and besides, Thariinye didn't know her.
Maati would have to do.

Maati was thrilled to find herself among human younglings approximately her
age. They had been alive much longer, as Linyaari children developed very
rapidly and, once adult, maintained a healthy maturity of great longevity. The
youngest of these children had been alive at least eight years, which was much
longer than Maati's single ghaanyi. A ghaanyi was about one and a half years,
by Standard time, which was how these humans measured their days.

But the younglings were barely sentient for a very long period in their early
lives, so their experience, while different, was not much greater than Maati's
own. Certainly none of them had been messengers for their governments,
although Laxme, one of the boys, had developed unusual skill with the com
units. Nor had they been shot down by a Khieevi ship, fought a Khieevi
hand-to-hand, and lived. But the Maganos Moonbase children, she was sorry to
hear, had all endured horrible lives as child slaves. The Starfarer children
of the Haven had watched their parents die at the hands of hijackers, had
defeated and dealt decisively "with the same hijackers, and now were in
command of their home ship, with only a little help from a few adults. The
thing all of the children had most in common was that they loved and admired
Khornya, though the human children called her "Acorna," "Lady Epona," or "The
Lady of the Light" and regarded her with ·worshipful adoration Maati found
strange.
"She's just a really nice girl, like us, only a little older," Maati told
them.

"Like you, you mean," Jana corrected her. Jana was really nice and had been
asking Maati lots of questions about healing. At first Maati had been
unwilling to answer. Linyaari did not usually let outsiders know they healed
directly through their horns. Doing so could lead to incidents like the one
where bad humans took many Linyaari ambassadors prisoner and tried to force
them to heal and cleanse water and air under horrible circumstances. Linyaari
raised on the homeworld knew this, but Khornya had not.

"Don't be so cagey," Jana had said when Maati tried to play innocent. "We know
all about how you can heal people. Acorna healed all of us when we were in the
mines and other bad places. If it hadn't been for her, most of us would be
crippled. I don't know why you wouldn't want people to know what you can do.
It's wonderful! I wish I could do that. I -want to be a doctor."

"I'm going to create holograms, just like Mr. Harakamian," Annella, a
redheaded girl from the Haven, said. "He's shown me a lot of what goes into
it. It's not as hard as you'd think but then, he says I have a natural talent
for it." Then she realized they weren't talking about careers, they were
talking about Acorna's ability to heal and she added, "But it must be
wonderful to be able to heal the way your people can."

Maati made a wry face. "It comes in pretty handy, like when the Khieevi
attacked us. Thariinye got hurt real bad trying to save me and Khornya. He
probably would have died if he wasn't Linyaari and we hadn't been there. Or at
least lost a hand."

"That was really brave," Jana said. "Kheti is brave like that. And Acorna is,
too."

"My brother was the bravest though."

"Which one is your brother? Thariinye?" Annella asked.

"Oh no-Thariinye is a friend, sort of, when he isn't being a hdnye."

"I don't know what that means," Jana said, "But I bet it's not good."

"No, it's not, but he's not that way as much anymore. My brother is the one
-who doesn't have a horn. The Khieevi, um," Maati found she had trouble saying
it, even now, "When they captured him they tortured him and, you know-"

"We get the picture," Jana assured her hastily, hearing the choke in the voice
of the Linyaari girl. "Your brother must be very brave. We heard he tackled
that monster bare-handed."

"He did. But the monster was about to get Khornya. That was a fatal mistake,"
Maati said with satisfaction unbecoming a member of a nonviolent race.

"I've seen how Lady Epona looks at him," Jana said with a sigh.

"Everybody sees but him!" Maati said. "He is so smart and so brave but he just
thinks because he doesn't have a horn, Khornya would be getting a bad
deal-that she might not accept him, even though everybody can see she really
likes him."

"Why doesn't she tell him?" Annella asked.
"Cause she's afraid that even though he likes her, he would still maybe reject
her and I think, well, actually, I sort of peeked. She is afraid that
rejecting her would cause him more pain and she doesn't want to do that.
Grownups are sooooo complicated."

"You'd think they'd realize that life is pretty short to be so backward about
good stuff," Jana said wistfully. "Everybody is being so careful of everybody
else's feelings they're never gonna get together."

"That's what Thariinye said," Maati agreed, heaving a deep and   dramatic sigh.
"He was talking about 'some male with a large nose who did the   talking for
some other male to a female they both cared for. Do males with   long noses play
the role of go-betweens in your society? Are there any of them   here we could
get to talk to Khornya for Aari-or the other way around?"

"Nooo," said Jana. The other kids shook their heads too.

Their educations on Maganos Moonbase had tended to the practical and technical
and neglected the arts. Their former masters hadn't exactly provided them with
cultural opportunities either.

However, Annella's mother, before she had been spaced by the invaders, had
been very fond of theater. "He's talking about a character named Cyrano,
Maati. It's from an old earth tale."

"I see," Maati said wisely. But she didn't.

"I think he's hit on something," Annella said. "Maybe they need a go-between."

"A matchmaker," put in Markel, another of the kids from the Haven who had been
listening carefully to what -went on. He considered himself a very special
friend of Acorna's, since it was with his help she was able to save herself,
Calum Baird, and Dr. Hoa and help the youngsters of the Haven overthrow the
hijackers. "Only, it sounds like a lot of people have tried to be one from
what you say, Maati."

"Yes," Maati said. "Khornya's foster fathers talked to her about it and she
didn't want to talk, Karina Harakamian can't read her mind, Thariinye said he
knows she -won't talk to him, and she thinks I'm just a kid and can't
understand. But I 9o. I understand they are both being dumb not to talk to
each other. They don't really need to talk to some third person because
neither of them will believe anybody else. They need to talk to each other.
Aari needs to talk to Khornya and Khornya needs to talk to Aari or they won't
believe it." She shrugged. "Not even a long-nosed male could help."

"Maybe there's a way for that to happen, kind of," Annella said slowly.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Markel asked.

"I think so. Do you think we could pull it off?"

"Maybe. It can't hurt to try anyway. Hafiz isn't going to care. He probably
'will even find a use for them later."   "What?" Maati asked. The other kids
looked at the two Starfarers as well.

"Come with us to the holo lab. We'll try to show you. It'll take a while,
though."
In the days that followed, Becker staggered around the ship humming marching
songs. While Nadhari was on duty, RK stayed on the ship. She was on duty a
lot, but still found time almost every day for a little visit. Becker was
chronically surprised that she really seemed to like him, and the Corufor.

And of course, Mac was conducting, under Becker's guidance, an extremely
critical security operation. He could now receive signals from the main fleet,
although he could not yet send them. While Mac was working, Becker regaled him
with cute stories about Nadhari. The captain figured if he was going to be
crazed about the woman, the android -was the perfect party to hear his
jabbering. That way he wouldn't make a fool of himself to anyone who -was
likely to gossip.

He was just getting to the part where Nadhari, in a fit of passion, had
inadvertently reintroduced him to somersaults and handsprings, when Acorna
arrived, looking bemused and distracted, but as usual, determined to be
useful.

"Any luck with the corn unit, MacKenZ?" she asked.

"I have had some contact with the main fleet. They are wondering where this
scouting shuttle is. They apparently re ceived some communication before the
crash onto the blue planet. However, these beings are on the whole unperturbed
by peril to individual members or even vessels, from what I have learned from
our captive, from what Aari has been able to tell me of his experience, and
from what I have gleaned from their communications."

"Where are they? What are they doing?" Acorna asked urgently, hunkering down
beside the thoroughly exhausted Becker and Mac.

Acorna looked down at the corn unit, still mounted on the control panel, and
at a mess of other hardware from the shuttle. "What did you do with the rest
of the shuttle?" she asked.

"Smells like Khieevi," Becker said. "Without you and the others on board, the
smell was enough to gag a maggot. Maybe the smell w<u a maggot, for all -we
know. Khieevi are bugs. They could have maggots."

"Ye-es," Acorna said. "We really should investigate their life cycle. We would
have a better idea of their vulnerabilities if we knew more."

"True," Becker said. "Wonder if Hafiz has got any entomologists in this bunch
of settlers he's imported."

"From what I can tell, Khornya," Mac said, "The fleet may be en route to the
Niriian home-world-where the piiyi came from."

Acorna nodded. "The Niriians have been warned already that their ship was
intercepted and that the Khieevi are in this general area and still at large.
Surely they will have taken defensive measures."

"In case they haven't," Becker said, "Nadhari was going to get Hafiz to
dispatch a light drone with a prerecorded message to broadcast from space-well
away from here. We still haven't heard from narhii-Vhiliinyar, Princess, but
it looks like the bugs haven't got there yet."
"What's needed is technology that prevents transmissions from being traced
back to their origins, at least by Khieevi devices," Acorna said. "Do you
think we could do a diagnostic that might help some of the engineers develop
something within the near future?"

"Yeah, if we survive that long," Becker said. "Anyhow, it won't hurt to ask
Hafiz about it."

"If the Khieevi find the drone and destroy it, that would give my beloved
uncle an economic motive anyway," Acorna said. "He just hates to lose
something he'd hoped to make a profit on."

"You know, me too," Becker said. "Your uncle and I have got quite a bit in
common."

Acorna smiled mischievously at him. "I know."

Becker gave her a sideways glance from under his bushy eyebrows. "Seen much of
Aari lately?" he asked innocently.

"Not too much," she said, feigning lightness. "He has been assisting his
parents in the laboratory, from what I can tell. They've determined that the
sap contains a spore which, -when it comes in contact with an insect's
carapace, metamorphoses into a fungal infection of great virulence."

"I knew it had to be something like that," Becker said. He didn't mention that
she'd changed the subject away from Aari. "So all we gotta do basically is
lure them to the place where we got the sap and tell them to eat their fill."
He chuckled. "I'm getting good at this decoy business. We faked Ganoosh into
thinking the Federation Outpost was the Linyaari homeworld and now all we have
to do is convince the Khieevi fleet that whaddayacallit-vine worlds is full of
yummy bug food and let them and the plants fight it out to see who eats who.
Piece of-you should pardon the expression-cake."

"First, however," Mac said, "I must fix the transmitter on this unit. While I
have no problem with concentration or distractions, Captain, you do happen to
be sitting against the access panel. Perhaps you would consider moving?"

"Mutiny!" Becker grumbled. "C'mon Acorna, I'll treat you to a bouquet or
something dirtside."

They ate together in one of the little bistros Hafiz had set, one to a
building, circus, or block, for times "when people did not want to meet in one
of the several great dining halls. All of the ones in the main compound, which
contained the Linyaari compound, opened onto gardens for al fresco mixed human
and Linyaari grazing.

"Have you tried any of the activities around here?" Becker asked Acorna
casually. "Nadhari and I are going to take a room in one of the fantasy suites
at the hotel. Complete holo landscapes in every suite." He sighed. "She's an
amazing woman, Nadhari."

"You really like her, then?"

"That's a little mild. I mean, there's not many women I'd   let take RK with
them while they're working, but she said he wanted to see   what she did. She's
the first Makahomian he's been around since the crash. He   likes being
worshipped. I guess everybody ought to try it once. Being   worshipped, I mean."
Becker did not need RK. He himself looked like the proverbial cat who had
swallowed the unfortunate proverbial canary.

"I am pleased for you, Captain. Have the two of you made any long-range
plans?" Acorna asked.

"It's a little early yet," Becker said complacently, "But I figure after we
save the universe as we know it, -what with her brawn and my brains ..."

Acorna didn't warn him, but Nadhari herself, clad in her green security forces
uniform, crept through the garden until she was directly behind Becker, where
she caught his head in a hammerlock, "And then what, oh brains of the outfit?"
she asked. RK, slipping through the weeds behind her, stopped at her feet and
wound around her ankles.

"Whatever you want, babe," Becker said, removing her arm without difficulty
and distributing kisses up the crease in her uniform sleeve.

Nadhari actually wrinkled her elegant, if oft-broken nose at Acorna. "Isn't
that cute? He called me babe. Nobody ever calls me babe. If most men did it
I'd have to break at least a finger. But from Jonas, it's not lack of respect,
it's protective." She put both arms around his neck and gave him a half-comic
noisy smooch before melting back into the garden as if she were one of the
plants, the cat's plumed tail the last vestige of their presence.

Becker sat there with a silly grin on his face. Acorna remembered the word
used for someone whose internal dam had broken so that the banks of their dry
stream -were filled to overflowing. Besotted. Becker and Nadhari were besotted
and Acorna was glad for them.

But she had to excuse herself before she choked on the lump in her throat.

Maati made Thariinye close his eyes as she led him by the hand into the
holo-lab. Opening them, he saw a number of the youngsters from the station
grouped around Aari and Acorna.

He looked confused. "Is this some kind of an instructional meeting or what?
Where's Becker and the cat and your

parents?"

"Look closer," Maati told him, now letting go of his hand and herding him in
among the children. "Aren't they awesome?"

He saw now that Aari and Acorna were standing in little pools of light.
Neither of them greeted him and once in a -while, though very seldom, one of
them would flicker slightly.

"Holograms?" he asked.

Annella Carter beamed at him. "Yes! What do you think?"

Thariinye scratched his chin and circled the two familiar figures. "Well, they
do flicker sometimes. What are they? Tourist attractions?"   "Noooo," Maati
punched him lightly on the forearm. '"Course not. They're to, ·well, be
go-betweens for the real people."

"Go-betweens to what?" Thariinye asked.

"What's the matter with you?" Maati demanded. "Have you gone soft in the head
from too much easy living? Go-betweens to each other, of course!"

Thariinye groaned. "I was afraid of that. You don't think it will actually
work, do you? These things wouldn't fool either of them for more than a moment
or two if they have their wits about them."

"That's why we wanted your help," Maati said. "You're the one who made me
think of it. How do we make it work?"

"Work?" he asked. "Why ask me? I don't know anything about holograms."

"No," Maati said, "But   according to you, you know all about loooove," she drew
the word out mockingly   and he gave her a look that would have sent older and
more susceptible girls   running away in tears. She just laughed back up at him
and the other children   giggled.

"Of course I know more than a lot of infant younglings," he said. "What is it
that you need to know about it? And how does it concern your little holo
dollies?" He flipped his fingers at the life-size holograms as if they were no
bigger than his foot.

"We need to know what Khornya should say to Aari and what Aari should say to
Khornya to get them together, of course!" Maati said. She did not seem to be
getting the idea that she was a mere child being put in her place. She acted
as if he was the one who was being stupid. He didn't much care for it, but as
her words sank in, he did see -what the children -were trying to do.

"Oh," he said. "Well, she should tell him that she loves him and why and
he-er-should do the same."

"But how would they say it ·without sounding corny?" Jana asked. Maati and
Thariinye had both been speaking in Standard for the benefit of the others.
Maati's Standard was quite good by now, he noticed, no doubt the result of her
prolonged association with the other younglings.

A young male the others called Laxme tapped some keys on his control pad and
the Aari figure swung toward the Acorna holo and said, in a comic mockery of
Aari's own voice, "Oh, kiss me, my sweetie pie," and made sounds like hooves
pulling out of a mud puddle.

Thariinye was indignant. "Stop that at once!" he said.

Laxme shrank back into himself as if he expected to be hit.

"He was just playing, showing you how it worked," Jana said softly.

"I know, but Aari is a brave man, the bravest man my people have ever produced
probably, and I'll not have him and Khornya ridiculed, not even by friends."

"That's -why we wanted your help," Maati said. "To make them do and say the
right things."

"What right things?" Thariinye asked.

"You know-to get them together. You say you're this big expert on luu-uuve. So
you should know, right?"

He glared at his former shipmate. "I know how to attract a girl to me," he
said. "But, uh-" he lowered his voice and spoke out of the side of his mouth
so just Maati could hear, "as you'll remember, it didn't work with Khornya."
"Maybe not, but she's already attracted to Aari. We just have to have his
hologram to encourage her, and vice versa. So what things should they say?"

"First of all," Thariinye told her, "You'll have to have the holograms appear
to them after they've been sleeping for a while so that they're groggy and
won't notice the shimmering."

"That's what we were going to do," Annella said. "But they don't shimmer that
much."

Thariinye ignored her. He was thinking hard. "I know," he said. "I think I can
find just the thing. Wait a bit."

He returned about a half hour later carrying the book of ancient European
literature Aan had been reading.

For the next several hours, Jana read aloud and the others argued the use of
this passage or that, 'while -Maati and Thariinye, with the use of the LAANYE,
attempted to translate the agreed-upon phrases into Linyaari. Once they
decided on the phrases, they had to program the holos to move properly.

"They should look seductive, but mustn't touch a real person, of course,"
Thariinye said. "They should lead Aari and Khornya to a real place together to
continue in person ..."

"Or a holo place!" Annella said, "None of the holo suites in the hotels are
filled yet, since we haven't had a single new guest, just the people who came
with the caravan and they all have their own quarters."

Mac's performance and function had been greatly increased by his recent
upgrades and education, and he knew the captain was pleased. Becker had
puzzled him somewhat when Mac had shut himself down in the captain's absence
with Nadhari Kando. "I thought you'd keep working on the shuttle, Mac," the
Captain had said. "Not exactly a self-starter, are you?"

"No, sir, though I do shut myself down to conserve energy."

"I want you working on that shuttle day and night, whether I'm here or not. So
program that and don't 'worry about conserving energy. There's energy to burn
in this place and I don't think Harakamian will begrudge you some if it saves
our butts in the long run."

"Yes, sir," Mac had responded. And he had of course been following
instructions ever since. If he could have felt regret, it was that now most of
his social interaction was in the Khieevi fashion. He had repaired the
transmitter some time ago, though he had not used it yet, as he had not been
instructed to do so.

But he practiced, nevertheless, imitating, interpreting, assimilating, and
integrating the klicking and klackings until he used them-if only to
himself-quite as easily as he conversed in Standard and Linyaari.

He 'was left alone a great deal these days. The captain and the cat spent
increasing amounts of their time with the denizens of the Moon of Opportunity,
particularly with Ms. Kando. Sometimes they had their get-togethers aboard the
ConPor, but since Ms. Kando needed to be available to her staff, many times
the three of them shared her off-duty time -with her in her quarters or in one
of the hotel rooms available in the compound. Aari and Acorna were busy
elsewhere as well, and the few times -when any of the Linyaari had come
aboard, the initial smell, the noise emitted by the shuttle, its corn unit's
volume on high so Mac could hear it as he moved about the ship, seemed to
distress them and they left again quickly, particularly ·when Mac accidentally
greeted Aari with Khieevi klackings.

So it was that he was alone when he heard the ships sounding off, a roll call
of attack, heard the staccato klickety-klackklack of orders passed from one
unit to another. The essence was that the planet of Nirii, around which the
fleet had been gathering, was now being attacked, the fleet swarming down upon
it much as hungry insects were said to do on some particularly appropriate
foodstuff.

Mac listened with interest. Had he been capable of it, he might have been
excited. He was still listening when Becker returned.

"Hi, Mac, can you turn that damned thing down? It sounds like an army of tap
dancers landing on a flat wooden planet."

"Oh, no, Captain, nothing like that. The sound is simply that of the Khieevi
invading the planet of the two-horned bovine beings. They are passing
communications among their various ships, attempting to first conquer major
cities and defense outposts, and to an extent prevent any possible escape by
inhabit ants. Their efforts are concentrated primarily on the attack however."

"Great galloping gravity, Mac, why didn't you say so?"

"You did not instruct me to do so. Captain."

"Do I have to tell you everything?"

Mac was pleased to now be able to employ one of the captain's own idiomatic
phrases, "Yes, sir. Pretty much."

"Right. Okay. You keep monitoring that thing-remember everything you hear. I
gotta go see a man about a drone."

Hafiz was explaining why the drone -was not yet in space as he had assured
Becker it -would be with all possible dispatch. "I was preparing my message,
dear Becker."

"Your message? How long can it take to say, 'The Khieevi are coming, the
Khieevi are coming, lock and load or get the hell out now7.' "

"You don't understand, my boy. Even such public service messages carry
delicate nuances. And of course, we did not know exactly -when or where they
were coming, did we?"

"Now we have a pretty good idea, though. They're chowing down on the cowboy
planet right now."

"Cowboy planet?"

Becker stuck a forefinger from each hand up beside his temple and wiggled
them. "Two horns like cows, get it?"

"Ahh, the Niriians. Yes, I have heard they have excellent organic technology."

"It stinks, if you ask me, but nobody deserves to have the bugs on top of them
and that's what's happening right now. So, is the drone going up or do I have
to take the ConSor up and make like Paul Revere?"
"Paul who, dear boy? And what was he revered for, exactly? "

"Getting his drone up before the enemy had a chance to eat every planet in
the galaxy, that's -what. Now then, do you think you can finish your message?"

"Certainly."

"Good. I'll just wait then and carry it out to the drone for you."

Hafiz turned on his recorder and rewound. "Let me see, where was I, oh yes,
'This urgent humanitarian -warning is brought to you through the kindness and
beneficence of the Federation's foremost philanthropic economic ambassadorial
firm, House Harakamian.' "

"A commercial'}" Becker demanded. "You held off putting the drone into space
while you made a commercial?"

Hafiz spread his hands -with an elegant shrug. "I am in commerce after all,
dear boy."

"Not for long if the bugs attack us," Becker said grimly.

"Ah, an excellent point. Very well, I shall continue."

The message concluded, "The dastardly insect creatures of torture, doom, and
enormous appetite, the Khieevi, are known to be attacking the Niriian
homeworld. Any who dare assist the Niriians, feel free to do so, please, -with
our commendations and blessings. All others in the same quadrant might think
seriously about evacuation or defense, as your culture dictates."

Becker gave him a disgusted look, but said only, "Good. Now then, that should
be translated to all of the languages of the nearby races. I don't expect,
since -we're making first contact here, more or less, their Standard is going
to be really up to par."

"Ah! A good point." He clapped his hands. A servant appeared. "Please fetch
our Linyaari guests-all of them. Ask them to bring their clever translation
devices and tell them it is a matter of some urgency."

Hours later, -which seemed like months to Becker, each Linyaari had
contributed a translation of the message in all of the languages each of them
knew. Since all but Maati and Acorna had spent considerable time visiting
nearby planets at some point in their lives, they felt they had pretty much
covered it.

Meanwhile, Nadhari and her staff went on red alert, and to the whine of the
sirens, the first evacuation drill began, just as the drone was shot into
space.

The Balakiire had not yet landed on the first planet on the list of those to
be warned when they heard a broadcast that at once made their mission and
their caution futile and provided them with a new mission.

Oddly, this new mission began in a similar fashion to their present one.

"Mayday, Mayday! This is the Niriian vessel Fo^en broadcasting a Mayday to all
worlds and ships in the area. Our homeworld is under attack. The Khieevi have
landed. Our ship escaped before the invasion. Mayday! Come in, please." With a
glare at Liriili, Neeva picked up the communication device.
"Please give us your coordinates, Fo^en. The Linyaari ship Balakiire, is
reading you loud and clear."

The Niriian gave the Fo^en's coordinates. "Hurry, Balakiire. We are nearly out
of fuel and air. We were on our way in for both when the Khieevi attack
commenced. The Khieevi have covered our cities like sweet-bugs converging on
their hive."

"We are coming, Fo^en. Please do not send additional communication unless we
request it or you are in further distress. To do so may alert the Khieevi to
your-and our-position. Signal that you have understood and then please,
silence unless we contact you."

"Understood, Balakiire. Be swift, be swift, please."

Liriili snorted. "I suppose we will join them just in time for a Khieevi
attack."

"Perhaps," Neeva said. "But I, for one, hope not. At least their signal should
be heard by nearby worlds and other craft, so our personal warnings to those
worlds will not be necessary."



"I wonder what they will make of it on narhii-Vhiliinyar," Liriili said with a
bitter smile. "I warned them."

"Yes, you did, and fortunately, with you no longer in charge, they will
probably ready the evacuation ships, refuel the fleet, gather the lifeforms,
and prepare to leave narhii-Vhiliinyar in the direction farthest from the
Niriian world. I suspect they may fly into Federation space. That will be the
recommendation of those of us who have been in contact with the peoples of
that alliance."

"Yes, and they "will come with their weapons, disrespecting the principles the
Ancestors taught us."

Melireenya turned in her seat and stared at the former viizaar, "What is it
with you? You are not satisfied one way or the other. Would the destruction of
our people please you now that you have been deemed unfit to lead them?"

Liriili gave her a superior smile but didn't answer. Neeva was becoming
alarmed by the woman's attitude. Instead of helping her heal, this entire
experience was driving her more and more into herself. She -was so aloof there
was no question of touching her with a horn to try to heal her and besides,
she seemed to be resistant to the usual bonding that cohered the Linyaari.

The next hours were spent in preparation to take the Niriians aboard. The
Balakiire had no fuel to give them, and their ships were fueled somewhat
differently. Extra berths were prepared, the gardens hyper-planted with
varieties of plants the Ninians "were known to favor.

The Niriians were pathetically glad to see their Linyaari allies, and also
somewhat shame-faced. "VLfe^haanye-Ferlili Neeva," the captain of the Niriian
ship began. "We heard you and your crew had been taken into custody by false
authorities. Please know that our lives are yours from this day forward and we
will defend you always to any-"

She choked, sputtered, swallowed, and continued. "I was   about to say, to any
who seek you on our planet. But it is unlikely we will have a home to return
to."

"Which brings up a good question," Khaari interjected. "Where should we go
now? Return to narhii-Vhiliinyar?"

"Yes, but we should emulate Captain Becker and take evasive action, don't you
think, rather than returning directly? In case the Khieevi have spared any
ships to follow the Fo^en."

"A lot of good it did the junk man," Liriili sneered.

"How do you know what good it did him?" Khaari demanded. "We don't know what
became of anyone yet."

But they were to learn very shortly. On the other side of the wormhole, they
picked up a broadcast.

The first portion was in Standard, and while the Balakiire's crew were putting
their heads together trying to remember enough of that language to decipher
the message, it was rebroadcast in other languages.

The Niriians became agitated, "They know! They know about the attack! Perhaps
they will send help. They are speaking our tongue!"

Neeva looked up. Khaari said, "I know that voice! That's Thariinye speaking!"

"He's alive!" Melireenya said.

"Of course he is," Liriili said. "I told all of you that he would be perfectly
all right, and no doubt the brat is as well."

The language switched again, this time to Linyaari, and Neeva smiled widely.
"That's Khornya."

They recognized other voices as the broadcasts were repeated in other
languages-Aari's and those of Miiri and Kaarlye, which made Khaari, who was
related to Kaarlye on her mother's side, sigh with relief.

When the Standard broadcast was repeated, Neeva said, "I know that voice, too.
Doesn't that sound like Khornya's kind and generous uncle Hafiz? He spoke
before we parted of start ing a trade colony on that moon where we went to
recuperate after-"

The other two nodded, indicating she needed to be no more specific. "That must
surely be where they all are now."

"I have the coordinates right here, Neeva," Melireenya's voice practically
sang. "Perhaps he can contact the Federation and they will drive the Khieevi
away." She smiled up at the Niriians. "Your world may be saved yet."

They clasped each other so tightly their horns locked. "Only let it be so,"
the captain said fervently.

Acorna 'was awakened by a brilliant light shining in her eyes. She opened them
wide. She was very tired, having spent the day formulating evacuation plans
for the children. The first shipload carrying the youngest ones was to leave
in two days' time with Calum on the AcaSecki. The crew of the Haven would send
their youngest along too, but the older ones insisted they would stay and
fight. Acorna had also done translations of follow-up messages to broadcast in
the languages she knew-Linyaari of course, but also Federation-based
languages. The Khieevi had invaded Federation space once in search of
Linyaari, who was to say they would not do it again?

The tension and her efforts both had ·wearied her until she had fallen onto
her cot too tired to say goodnight to Maati.

Now the light awakened her and her first thought was that she was being
wakened because the compound was under attack.

Aari knelt beside her, a few feet from her sleeping pad. He looked rather odd,
but not especially alarmed. Maati, on the other side of Acorna from her
brother, was rolled onto her side and covered completely by her blanket. She
did not seem to notice the light. Acorna rubbed her eyes. "What is it, Aari?
Is something the matter?" she whispered.

"Hark!" he said.

"What?" she asked, thinking for one ridiculous moment that he might break into
a holiday carol, though she had no idea why he would unless he had been
inspired by something he had been reading. But the archaic term was the only
word he uttered in Standard. The rest was in Linyaari.

"What light is breaking through the pavilion flap over there? It is the suns
and Khornya is the moons!" he asked in a very soft version of their rather
nasal native language. Evidently this was not, then, an alarm, unless it was
perhaps in some sort of code.

Otherwise, oh dear, she had to wonder if perhaps he might have a fever? An
infection perhaps? Or a poisoning? She had no idea really which dangers he
might be more susceptible to, without his horn, than the average Linyaari.

"Aari, are you all right?" she asked. "You look ratherwell, no pale, but
see-throughish. I don't like the texture of your skin. And what you are saying
does not entirely make sense. Here, let me feel your pulse. . . ."

But he backed away a bit, babbling, "A reed is a reed by any other name and
would still not smell very much but be as graceful and delicious as Khornya."
He beckoned her to follow. Which she did because whether his strange
utterances were a code for danger or because he was ill, she could hardly
ignore them.

Aari thought at first he must be dreaming. Khornya knelt a short distance from
his sleeping mat. She was surrounded by a very bright light, as if perhaps
she'd taken .radiation, and was looking at him with a yearning that echoed
that he felt whenever he looked at her.

"Khornya!" he said, when she did not speak. "Khornya, is something wrong? Are
the Khieevi attacking?" He looked for Thariinye, to waken and warn him, but
the other man was not on his mat. This was not unusual for Thariinye. He had
been gone a great deal lately, working on translations and evacuation
procedures and also apparently chatting up females, even if they were the
wrong species, just to keep in practice, as he said.

Khornya did not answer him directly but instead said something very strange.
He thought it might be code, but if so, no one had given him the key.

"How do I love you?" she asked in Linyaari. "Let me count the trails! I love
the very ions scattered behind your vessel. I love the fragrance of the grains
on which you sup. I love the-"
"You do?" Aari asked, comprehending that what she said was complimentary if
not particularly coherent, evidently not code, but her own pent-up feelings.
Her tone of voice was rather declaiming and he could not read her at all. But
then, there were times when that happened to him. "But-I have no horn."

"I love the horn you do not have and the horn you used to have and the horn
you will have again," she continued, rather than answering him. "Come, my
love, let us wander into a secluded bower and there take our ease, if you know
what I mean?" Very un-Khornya-like, she waggled a silver-white eyebrow and
winked at him. He wondered if perhaps Hafiz's gardens had inadvertently been
planted with a stand of what was called "loco weed" in the ancient Zane Grey
novels of the wild western America.

Either that or it was some peculiar female mating ritual his mother had
neglected to tell him about. Well, there was no time to consult her now.
Khornya was wafting away and he could not let her wander around this huge
alien compound in such a state. Someone might take unfair advantage of her. He
rose to follow her.

She flitted ahead of him like one of the ectoplasmic entities of the
wraith-haunted ruined -world of Waali Waali his parents had taken him to as a
child. Back in the early days of terraforming technology, a powerful company
had rapidly terraformed planets, raised great cities upon them, and settled
·whole transplanted civilizations upon their surfaces, where they thrived and
bred, loved and warred for several eons. And then the terraforming
destabilized, the ice caps melted, the seas froze, the mountains erupted, and
the ground opened and buckled. The cities were ruined and the people were
killed, but the heavy gravity kept them bound to the surface, which had an
indelible memory of the former grandeur of its cities imprinted upon its
ruins. A similar, more tangible memory of its inhabitants, now bodiless
spirits seeking some solid vessel in -which to be reborn, flickered about the
ruins in the same "way Khornya's white form was now kindled, now quenched, as
she wound her way through the ornamental back alleys of Hafiz's compound.

He could only follow, the winds and rain of Dr. Hoa's climactically generated
monsoon soaking through his mane, his steps clicking quickly up cobbled steps
leading through narrow passages and by doorways shrouded -with night-velveted
rugs and blankets, their patterns picked out golden with the light of the
holo-torches from the main thoroughfares. Suddenly he saw Khornya's -white
form disappear through a doorway and he found it, concealed by a waterfall of
luminous beads, then he too quickly entered.

He threaded through -what seemed a maze, except that instead of blank walls,
there were more often curtains, blankets, rugs, beads, and once, the side of a
large gray beast with flapping ears, long curving fangs, a nose like a snake,
legs like pillars, and small, disinterested eyes that regarded him mildly,
then returned to contemplating the infinite. Aari passed the beast, but when
he looked back, all he saw was blackness.

He began to -wonder and to fear. Perhaps he was still in the Khieevi torture
machine, and his mind -was playing cruel tricks on him, all of this a mere
illusion to build his hope, to give him a dream they could cruelly dash?
But--well, no. He didn't hurt. That was a sure sign there were no Khieevi.
When he had been with the Khieevi the pain -was always -with him and now there
-was nothing but his body, feeling whole and quite astonishingly alive, and
the night, and Khornya flickering ahead of him, a beckoning candle.

Abruptly, her white form twinkled out ahead of him and then, much farther than
he thought she could have gone in such a brief instant, he heard her call,
"Aari?" in a rather plaintive and childish voice. He rushed forward.

"Khornya? "

"Aari, where are you?" she sounded not frightened but anxious.

"Right behind you. I'll be there in a moment," he called, and he -was.
Suddenly he found himself facing her across not a room, but a moonlit field,
much like the ones he remembered from Vhiliinyar when he -was a boy. The moons
shone down through mist rising from a free-flowing stream, and night birds
crooned softly from the boughs of scattered trees. Khornya stood near one of
the trees beside the stream, and noted his arrival with relief.

"There you are!"

"Of course I am." He went to her. He -was relieved to see she seemed healthier
and more substantial than she had at first appeared in his pavilion. Her skin
radiated warmth and the sweet clean floral smell she carried with her. But
there -was another more enticing scent emanating from her as -well. She looked
up at him -with her eyes wide and shining as the moons and her mouth moist.

"I feared you wouldn't come back," she said softly.

"Against love's fire fear's frost hath dissolution," he said.

"Excuse me?"

"It's something I read recently," he told her, his hand running through her
mane, the backs of his fingers stopping to feel the curve of her cheek. "It
seemed appropriate."

She sighed. "It sounds better in Standard."

"I will ask my parents to tell me Linyaari love poetry and fill your ears with
it, if that's what you -want," he said, realizing that the language of love
must have been what she'd been trying to speak when she -was in his tent. She
was right, even with the meaning rather unclear, the poetry from the books
he'd been reading did sound much better in Standard.

"That is not all I want," she said, her voice husky and her breath sweet.

He felt parts of himself he'd thought dead rushing to fill his veins with life
as hot and strong, as urgent as magma seeking to escape a volcanic fissure.
She lifted her arms, almost as if in a trance, and he took her into his own
and held her. Her sweet musky scent swept over him as they slid together into
the wildflower sprinkled grass, which was not damp and dewy as he expected,
but as warm and comforting as a blanket.

Annella and Maati let out a sigh at the same time. Jana pulled them away from
the control booth for the holo suite. She had Laxme by the ear. Thariinye
lingered a little until Maati reached back and snagged his arm.

"They deserve a little privacy," she said.

"I maybe should have given him a few more pointers before we started this,"
Thariinye said.

"There was no time," Laxme said. "They're going to make us leave pretty soon
and we had to finish it-get them together before whatever is going to-happen,
happens."
"Looked to me like he was doing-they both were doing- just fine, without your
advice," Maati told Thariinye. "And we should leave them to do it."

Jana grinned at her. "I think you're wise beyond your years, Maati."

"Someone has to be," Maati said, with a meaningful look at Thariinye.

Feeling quite pleased with themselves and considering their good deed a job
-well done, the group of young people emerged from the Spanish-Moorish castle
that housed the grandest of the holo hotels. The curtain swags and bead-draped
maze of back streets through which Aari and Acorna had followed each other's
doppelganger was the hotel lobby. The suite Aari and Acorna occupied now was
on the second floor. The field of fragrant flowers and grass was actually a
rather nice Turkomoon carpet, the stream an en suite lap pool, in case they
wanted to bathe after their . . . activities.

No sooner had they emerged however, than Maati realized the air smelled subtly
different-she recognized the smell too. It was the smell of ships landing.
Linyaari ships. She recognized it even before she heard the boots pounding in
concerted double time down the street from the spaceport.

With each stroke of the hand, each gentle nip of teeth or lap of tongue,
Acorna felt more and more bonded to Aari, as if they -were exchanging their
very molecules, which of course, they -were, romantic as the thought might
sound. It didn't feel unromantic however. The urges that had been mysteriously
rising in her, troubling her dreams, thrilling her at inappropriate moments,
were all about thi). This exquisite agonizing ache that made her feel as if
she would burst from her skin if something didn't happen. She knew Aari felt
the same -way and yet, he hesitated.

"If we-continue," he said. "There will be no going back."

"Why would I want to go back?" she asked. "You are my lifemate. I think I've
always known that."

"Really? I didn't think-I couldn't hope-"

She shushed him with a kiss and they moved so that she was poised above him,
his hands on her waist.

"Now, beloved?" he asked.

She bit her lower lip and nodded emphatically, "Yes. Now."

The double-quick pounding boots rounded the corner and the security forces
halted with two quick and perfectly synchronized stomps. Nadhari Kando paced
effortlessly at the head of the cadre and Captain Becker pantingly trailed
behind the buff and ready cream of planetary militia from Federation -worlds.

Nadhari glared at the children. "It is long after curfew."

"What curfew?" Jana asked, innocently.

"Were you not at the briefing at twenty hundred hours this evening?" Nadhari
asked. "We have a red alert situation and a curfew is in effect until further
notice."

"So what're you gonna do, shoot us?" Laxme demanded. He liked being free after
his childhood in the mines. He did not take kindly to orders, even from the
good guys. Or gals.

Nadhari pursed her lips and regarded him seriously. "No, but you could ask
Becker's friend Aari how much fun it is to not be where you're supposed to
when the evacuation starts and be left behind when the Khieevi attack."

None of the kids said anything and Nadhari continued. "Now then, Maati,
Thariinye, you are to report to the reception area. The Balaklire has just
landed and they are very anxious to see that all of you are alive and well. I
need to find Aari and Acorna, too."

Becker grimaced and told Maati, "That witch of an administrator came on the
Balakiire, too. I bet the Linyaari couldn't take her on the planet anymore.
But Neeva really wants to see everybody and make sure you're all okay."

"I'll go tell her Khornya is okay," Maati said. With a wicked grin she added,
"Thariinye can fill Liriili .in."

"No, that's okay," Becker said. "Just tell us where Acorna is and I'll get
her."

Thariinye's glance strayed toward the hotel entrance and Becker asked, "Are
they still in there? Why didn't you say so?'

"Good. I'll fetch them," Nadhari said, and before anyone could stop her she
pushed past them and entered the hotel. Moments later she emerged, looking
most uncharacteristically embarrassed and shame-faced. "Why didn't you tell me
they were-uh-occupied? " she demanded. "I thought you had all been playing a
game or having a meeting or something! What were you doing, using their
rendezvous as a training class?"

Maati's face fell. "Noooo, we were trying to get them together. And we did,
too. And now it's all ruined!"

"Uh-not entirely," Nadhari said. "Not from what I saw. But I certainly spoiled
the mood."

Annella groaned. "It took us weeks to set that up."

"Set what up?" Becker asked suspiciously, but Annella, Markel, and Jana were
shaking their heads slightly that Maati should say no more.

In a few minutes, Aari and   Acorna walked purposefully from the hotel, as if
they hcu) been interrupted   in nothing more personal than a meeting, except
that every once in a while   one of them would steal a look at the other one.
And smile. Or sigh. Or get   lost in looking and stumble.

Nadhari said nothing as she led the way back to the spaceport. Becker talked
rather a lot.

The Niriian refugees endured the Linyaari reunion and the subsequent confusing
introductions as well as they could, until at last they met someone whose name
they recognized. "And this," Vi^ec>haanye-ferUU Neeva said, "Is Mr. Ha£z
Harakamian."

"The Hafiz Harakamian of the message?" they cried, and faced him with broad
smiles. "Ah, it is you, exalted sir, who will save our world and our people.
But it must be done quickly. Many die even as we stand here -wasting time with
these formalities."
Neeva translated and Hafiz smiled broadly back at   his guests. "I am very sorry
for the plight of your planet, dear alien beings,   but you see, I am a
merchant. While it was within my power to provide   you and the neighboring
worlds with a warning about the Khieevi menace, I   am not a -warrior or a
warlord, merely a humble tradesman."

This was the point when Khornya was sorely missed. Neeva understood Niriian
very well indeed, but she missed many of the nuances of Hafiz's speech.

"He says he can't save them," Neeva said. "He is no -warrior, merely a rich
merchant."   Hafiz caught her look and saw that he had fallen somewhat in her
estimation. The Niriians weren't buying it, however. They set themselves even
more squarely in front of him and stuck their round jaws out a bit and smiled
even more broadly and determinedly.

"Sister-child's father's sister-brother Hafiz," Neeva said, for had he himself
not said he felt as if he were related to the Linyaari as he was to Khornya
herself-therefore he would naturally also be related to Neeva. "I must tell
you that these Niriians are very stubborn people. Once they put their minds to
a thing, they do not budge until they have achieved their goals."

"Most admirable," Hafiz said nodding and smiling still. "But their tenacity
cannot change the facts."

At this impasse, Nadhari Kando and Captain Becker and the little cadre of
security troops Nadhari commanded marched into the reception area. With them
were a gaggle of children including Maati, as well as Thariinye, Aari, and
Khornya.

"My husband is a merchant, as he has explained to you elevated alien beings,"
Karlna Harakamian now addressed the Niruans with an apologetic flutter of
lilac-and-violet draperies and a sparkle of amethyst-jeweled hands. "Surely
you would not wish him to subject himself and those he protects to the same
fate your planet has met? Hafiz is a genius at accumulating and distributing
useful things and services. The idea of the sort of mass destruction the
Khieevi wreak is abhorrent to him, but also totally incomprehensible. I don't
know how you could possibly imagine he could be of assistance."

Liruli had a fine curl to her lip and to " Neeva, said in Linyaari, "It is as
I suspected. Your great hero-our adopted 'uncle'-is perfectly willing to trade
with us but as far as being a true friend of anyone but himself-hah!"

Neeva tried valiantly not to let the disappointment show in her eyes as she
murmured to the unflinching Niriians.

Acorna was roused from her bemusement by this exchange,    and separated herself
from Aari and the others to go stand next to Hafiz.

To Liriili she said, "That is not fair. Uncle Hafiz is responsible for the
lives of all of the people here and their welfare has to be his first
consideration. And he and Captain Becker have been making some strides in
perhaps finding a way to combat the Khieevi without risking more lives."

"Is that so?" Liriili demanded. And before anyone could stop her, she
translated a version of what Acorna had said to the Niriians. The result of
this was that one of them, following Acorna's glance to where Becker stood
beside Nadhari, reached out a muscular arm and hauled Becker into a great
crushing hug.

Liriili smirked. "Our allies say the junk man is their hero and surely if he
knows a way to fight the Khieevi, he will use it quickly to save what is left
of their world."

Acorna translated to Becker, "They want you to use the methods we have
discovered to fight the Khieevi now, Captain, to save the rest of their
-world."

"Okay, okay!" Becker hollered. "Just tell them to let me go! We'll talk."

This time Thariinye stepped in to translate, adding his usual flourishes.

The Niriian did not loosen its grip on Becker.

"What did you say?" Aari asked Thariinye. "It's not   working."

"I told them the captain was a great hero and had already slain many Khieevi
and would save their homeworld with the help of the philanthropist Uncle
Hafiz."

"Tell them they have to let Captain Becker go before he can help them," Acorna
suggested.

Thariinye spoke to the Niriians again and the one who held Becker released him
with such an enthusiastic clap on the back that the captain staggered into
the arms of Nadhari Kando, and stepped on the cat's tail as he stumbled.

RK rewarded him by opening his leg from kneecap to ankle.

Nadhari patted Becker absently and shoved him gently aside to pick up the cat
and croon to it. "Your servant meant no disrespect, sacred feline. Is your
magnificent tail broken?" She looked at the nearest Linyaari, -who happened to
be Liriili. "Please heal the tail of the sacred temple cat."

Liriili, much to the surprise of anyone who was paying attention to her,
abandoned her goading behavior of the rest of the humans to add one of her
hands to Nadhari's in RK's thick fur, cradle his tail in the other hand, and
gently lowered her horn to touch it. The cat immediately began purring and
rubbed his cheek against Liriili's.

"If that isn't adding insult to injury!" Becker yowled, clutching his bloody
pant leg.

Aan scowled at Thariinye, who quickly stopped jabbering to the Niriians and
knelt beside Becker. "Sorry, Captain, allow me." He placed Becker's foot upon
his own bent knee and ran his horn the length of the cat scratch.

Becker let out a long sigh of relief.

Liriili was crooning to RK. "I had a little pahaantiyir once and you are very
like him, sacred temple cat, yes, you are, you lovely creature!" Tears were
actually coming to her eyes now. "Oh, how I wish he were with me now, my
little friend, when I am surrounded by ill-wishers."

RK purred as if he had found a new best friend.

"Traitor," Becker growled.

Come, my friends, let us refresh ourselves in the gardens and discuss this
brilliant plan of ours." Hafiz waggled an eyebrow at Becker, but the eye under
the brow was extremely skeptical.
Of course, Becker didn't really have a plan. Acorna knew that. But between the
experiences the current crew of the Condor had and the skills and resources of
Hafiz Harakamian, Acorna saw the components of a rather good plan taking form.
All it took to formulate -was for everyone involved to pool their resources.

As the others trailed off behind Hafiz, Acorna fetched Mac. "The captain told
me I should remain here, Acorna, and monitor the Khieevi broadcasts."

"You are recording them, aren't you?" Acorna asked.

Yes.

"Then you can listen to the recordings when you return. We need you now,
MacKenZ. Captain Becker is going to explain to Uncle Hafiz how we can defeat
the Khieevi."

"Oh, that would be most instructive. I am grateful you thought to bring me,
Acorna."

She smiled and eased him away from the Khieevi shuttle. He had spent so long
with it the smell had permeated him and she had to stop and give him a
once-over -with her horn to erase the unpleasant odor.

"Of course you must come, Mac. Without you and your skills, we would not have
a hope of defeating the Khieevi."

"Now then, Captain, we are all eager to hear your plan," Neeva said.

"Ye-es, dear fellow," Hafiz said. "Please enlighten us."

"Oh, you're part of it, too. Uncle Hafiz," Acorna assured him. "In fact, we
can't do it without Uncle Hafiz's holographic magic can -we, Captain Becker?"

"Uh-no, of course not," Becker agreed.

They sat on low cushioned chairs positioned near the fountain. Servers brought
delicacies for the humans, while the Niriians and the Linyaari -were invited
to pluck -whatever appealed to them from the bounty of the lush gardens
surrounding the pool into -which the -waters splashed from the horn of a
unicorn, rampant. The Linyaari who had not yet seen this fountain re garded it
with wonder, even Liriili. This was not the usual way in which homage was paid
to the Ancestors, but no doubt the Ancestors would approve.

"And as I was telling Mac, we can't do without his skills. Of course, if Aari
had not made an effort to recall all he knew of the Khieevi, had not
concentrated so hard on the piiyl that was, I am sorry to say, Toroona and
Byorn, the legacy of one of your brave crews, we would never have learned
their language or anything about how they function." The Niriians were
actually a mated couple, female and male, rather than two males as those
unacquainted with the species had assumed. Becker was surprised to find that
his ribs had almost been broken by Toroona, the female.

"Yeah," Becker said, "Aari found out about another important part of the plan
too. Namely that a substance we discovered while on a salvage mission is toxic
to the Khieevi. And what Kaarlye and Miiri have been doing is analyzing the
damage to the corpses as well as the effects of the substance on other things.
What have you folks come up with anyway?"

"We are still exploring possible ways to synthesize the substance, Captain,
and to utilize it in a controlled fashion outside its native environment."

"That's okay," Becker said. " 'Cause the truth is, there's nothing wrong with
using it in its native environment. See, it's this vine world, full of these
big plants that secrete the sap that eats through the Khieevi shells. The way
I figure it, if Hafiz here can make use of his holos to make the vine world
appear to be like a Linyaari outpost or something,'and Mac can persuade the
Khieevi that he's one of their guys who survived in the shuttle we've
been-well, Mac's been-studying, and we can set up drones and such to make it
seem inhabited, then the Khieevi will maybe leave the Niriians to come to the
vine world, and the vines will attack 'em, sap 'em, and no more Khieevi."

Everyone agreed that it was a brilliant plan. Almost all of it could be
carried out by remote control, once the vine world had been prepared to look
inhabited. The only danger was that the vine world was closer to both the Moon
of Opportunity and to narhii-Vhiliinyar than the Niriian homeworld, but they
could not, of course, let that weigh too heavily against the lives of any
Niriians still surviving the initial Khieevi attack.

The Niriians listened anxiously to the translations, their faces stoic, but
when they spoke at last their words sounded urgent.

"Time is of the essence," Neeva interpreted. "They implore us to begin
implementing the plan immediately."

The Moon of Opportunity shut down its recreational functions and trade
centers. Personnel were reassigned to emergency functions. If the plan worked
as everyone hoped it would, security, medical, and reconstruction teams would
be sent to Nirii following the destruction of the Khieevi.

Aboard the ConSor, Mac reassembled the Khieevi shuttle.

Kaarlye and Miiri continued their experimentation with the sap and their
studies of Khieevi anatomy and physiology in the laboratory.

The children were assigned to either the AcaBecki or the Haven for evacuation.
However, Annella Carter, Markel, and Jana were remaining as long as possible
in order to help Hafiz prepare the necessary holograms.

"We must simulate a civilization sufficiently luscious to induce salivation
among the Khieevi," Hafiz instructed his pupils. "We shall transfer the holos
of Linyaari pavilions to nestle them among the vines. We will also need to use
the Baiakiire as a model for simulating other Linyaari vessels of different
designs."

"Oh, goody," Annella said. "It will be like decorating giant Easter eggs!"

"Also, we must have holos of individuals-Linyaari and the Nirnans. We can do
several sims of each of the Linyaari guests and hope the Khieevi will not be
aware of the duplication."

"We already have done ones of Aari and Acorna," Annella told Hafiz.

"Have you?" Hafiz asked. "That is excellent. Excellent indeed."

"Yes, and we can do me and Thariinye next," Maati said. "Except I want my holo
to be really large and fierce."

"Why bother?" Thariinye said. "All they have to do is make an ^altered holo of
Liriili and she'll probably frighten the Khieevi into leaving a slime trail
all the way back to their homeworld."




Seventeen




The first invasion of the vine world was both human and Linyaari. Acorna,
moving gently among the fragrant vines, felt remorseful for what her people
-were about to bring upon this self-contained ecology.

The plants felt far less alien this time, and far more friendly, now that she
knew what their sap could do to Khieevi. She had scarcely noticed before how
exquisitely beautiful the flowers were, with their petals shaded from cream to
ivory to milky white and translucent, with the barest hints of pink near the
stamen.

The scent did not seem so overpowering as it had before. Instead it was rather
hypnotic, permeating her other senses so strongly that it seemed to be a
color, a taste, a voice, as ·well as a smell. As technicians and scientists
barged through the vines so quickly the plants whipped back and forth as if in
a strong wind, Acorna merely held her hand aloft and the ropes of leaf and
flower parted for her like a curtain. Perhaps she was thinking of these vines
as saviors, champions, defenders of her kind against Khieevi kind, but they
were altogether more attractive to her than on her last visit.

Kaarlye and Miiri led teams of volunteers in the harvesting of the sap. They
brought containers, of course, but all the really needed was their own
footwear and gloves, which collected plenty of the sticky substance as the
people plowed through the vines.

Technicians carefully placed the drones that would transmit signals to lure
the Khieevi away from the Niruans. These would be overlaid with holograms of
Linyaari ships and pavilions being projected by other technicians while the
programmed Linyaari holos began milling around among the holo-structures like
so many ghosts.

Acorna found it quite startling -when she parted the vines ·with a small
gesture to face herself on the other side of them, a self apparently kneeling
to collect sap and murmuring oddsounding words. Acorna retreated two careful
steps and the vines closed back over the projection.

"Hmmm," she said to herself, and returned to where the ships that had brought
the technicians, scientists, and equipment were almost totally wrapped in
vines.

"Captain, I think I may have learned something about these plants," she began.

"Yeah, well, save it, Princess. We got us a situation here. Most of the holos
are being hidden by the vines. Except for the projections we can make from
above, of the tents and the ships, and only the tops of them are showing, this
is still looking pretty much like -what it is, a vine world. It's going to
take either some earth-moving machines or some heavy machete work to clear
spaces for the holos and then these things have a way of growing back. The
only good thing about it is that mowing a few of them down will produce more
sap. But how it's going to work for a decoy, I dunno." He scratched his
mustache in a thoughtful way.
"Wait, Captain. Perhaps that won't be necessary. Perhaps we can communicate
with them."

The Captain looked at her as if she were insane. "Acorna. Darling. Sweetie.
Princess. Honey. Excuse me. You're a real bright kid, but they are plants. You
eat them. You <)on't discuss strategy with them."

"Perhaps not. But if you use heavy equipment or even machetes to clear the
area around the holos, then won't that defeat the purpose? Especially if the
vines do not regenerate quickly enough in this area? Then the Khieevi will
simply land in an area filled with holos, and once they discover that the bait
is indeed, merely a collection of holograms, they will go back to the
Niriians, or what will be worse for all of us, follow the projections back to
the source and prey on the Moon of Opportunity instead."

The mustache bristled and Becker scratched it again. "OK. Guess we better have
a council of war here."

Acorna made the same speech to Rafik, Gill, and via transmitter to Hafiz,
orbiting the planetoid in the Ail Baba, one of his more modest vessels. Karina
Harakamian, who had come along as the mission's "spiritual adviser," answered
for Hafiz. "Of course, Acorna, dear, you are quite right to try gentle
persuasion first. I will have the first officer transport me to the surface at
once so that I may assist."

"How kind," Acorna said, quite insincerely, but there was no point in hurting
Kanna's feelings. Fortunately, her new "auntie" was a mind reader only on very
sporadic occasions, and those were never the ones Karina predicted or
anticipated.

At Acorna's signal, the Balakiire landed beside the holos of the other
Linyaari ships, some of them decorated with bunnies and flowers as well as the
more usual rococo designs that symbolized the great families and heroes of the
Linyaari people.

Thariinye and Maati, who had been setting up the smaller holos and who had
also noted the problem of the vines obscuring them, responded to Acorna's
mental summons, and Aari, who had been keeping her within sight as much as was
possible, joined them.

"I don't suppose the LAANYE will be of any help here," Acorna said. "But I
think we must try thought transference with the beings on this planet."

"The vines?" Aari asked.

"Yes," she said. "It came to me while I was out among them that they may
communicate by their scent. Remember, the first time we came here, it was
almost overpowering."

"It still is right around the ships, and where Captain Becker and the
scientists are working," Maati said. "But I noticed as we got a little farther
away, planting some of the holos, that the smell was actually kind of pretty."

"Sexy," Thariinye said.

-Maati put an elbow in his ribs. "Trust you to think so, even about vines!"

Aari shrugged. "I don't see what help I can be. I'm not very psychic without
my-"
Acorna had to turn to face him as he was behind her, one hand resting lightly,
reassuringly on one of her shoulders. "Aari," she said, staring, not into his
eyes, but slightly above them.

The other Linyaari, including his parents, who had just arrived, panting,
hefting their collection bags, followed her gaze. "Aari, what is that on your
scar?" she asked, a little breathless with hope as she reached up to touch,
thinking realistically that she would probably encounter a piece of a petal
from one of the vine flowers. Her finger and his touched the little white
protuberance at the same time.

"It's horn!" he said. "My horn is regenerating. The graft is finally taking."

(And I'll bet I know why,) Thariinye whispered, laughing.

Both Acorna and Aari blushed and Maati, who also picked up the whisper,
stomped hard on Thariinye's foot.

Acorna embraced Aari and his parents and Maati touched him briefly.

Karina arrived. "I suppose we should start by everyone forming a circle!" she
said brightly.

"Why?" everyone else asked, almost in unison.

"The better to commune, of course!" Karina said.

"With our species or yours maybe," Acorna told her gently. "But I think
perhaps with these beings we might need to use different methods. One thing I
do feel we must do, however, is to distance ourselves from the main part of
the camp. The odor given off by the vines is the most overpowering and noxious
near the ships."

Acorna led them into the vines, which parted almost politely before her and
the others. They walked perhaps a half of a kilometer from the ships before
Acorna stopped and inhaled.

"What do you smell?" she asked.

"It's nice here," Maati said. "Does that mean the plants here aren't as upset
as the ones near the ships?"

"I don't know really," Acorna said. "It's just something I thought -we might
try."

"It sounds pretty silly to me," Liriili said, though she had been unusually
quiet until then. "How ever can you imagine that something can communicate
with smells?"

Miin laughed. "What do you think -we do when -we're ready to mate, Liriili? Or
other species for that matter? With pheromones!"

"It's not unheard of for species to communicate with something other than
sound, after all," Neeva said. "Many do by sight, or touch, or, as we do
ourselves, by thought alone. Had you spent more time investigating the
universe around you, Liriili, you would know that."

Acorna said, "Now I remember! Ants! Little ants communicate by pheromones
too-a fairly complex set of smells to give ", each other signals, indicate
path-ways, that sort of thing."

"Ye-es," Liriili said, sounding almost pleasant, "Of course.

Paha,ntiydr<f also leave scent marks on their territory, or for mating. I just
never thought of it as communication before."

"Yes, well, live and learn," Neeva said as diplomatically as possible, clearly
not wishing to discourage Liriili's willingness to consider for once that
something someone else said might actually contain merit. "The problem is how
we should interpret the scents given here."

"That probably won't be as hard," Acorna said, "As somehow managing to
communicate with the plants themselves. But I wondered-if the scents symbolize
their thought forms, perhaps we can find some common ground to teach them
something about ours."

"Why?" Thariinye asked.

"There are many good reasons why one would wish to communicate with a new
species, Thariinye," Neeva said. "But the specific one Khornya has in mind, I
suspect, is so that we might

ask the vines to part and allow the holograms to be seen by the Khieevi."

"But first "we must find a common vocabulary," Khaan said. "What do we know
about the vines? How could we show similarity?"

"We-ell," -Maati said, "If-we want them to part, maybe she should start with
that. They come together and they spread apart. Maybe we can show that with
each other."

"But they don't communicate by what they see," Liriili said, and for once she
-was using a reasonable, if impatient, tone that only slightly hid the fact
that she was as puzzled as any of the rest of them. "They communicate by
smell."

"But they convey a thought, sort of," -Maati argued. Acorna thought the girl
had matured a great deal since she had stopped being Liriili's messenger. She
was much more confident now.

(Showing off for her parents,) Thariinye, catching Acorna's thought,
-whispered to her uncharitably. But Aan scowled at him, as if he read the
thought too, and Thariinye looked away as if the thought had been sent by
someone else.

"Yes," Acorna agreed with Maati. "It is a thought form, however they express
it and who knows? Maybe to the vines, we exude a scent too when we are
thinking certain things. Only we'd be a lot more complicated for them to read,
maybe, than they are for us. Let's try to simplify it for them. Everyone
spread apart and concentrate, as we do so, that we are spreading apart."

"Our essential apartness," intoned Karina.

(Move gently, spread wide,) Acorna whispered. "Karina, think, 'Move gently,
spread wide.' "

"A mantra! I love it!" Karina squealed. "Move gently, spread wide. Move
gently, spread wide,"
"Softly," Acorna said. "In fact, don't say it, think it."

Karina nodded gravely and only moved her lips to the words.

The whisper was taken up by the others, in unison, (Move gently, spread wide).
Their line spread until they could not touch outspread hands. As they moved at
first the plants only parted to let each individual pass but gradually, as the
people kept whispering, the vines softly lay themselves down upon each other
until there was a large rectangular area open around the Linyaari and Karina.

When this concept seemed to be understood, Acorna said softly to Karina, who
was on her right, while whispering to the others, (Close up, gather together,
twining, tangling, plaiting).

The others took it up and gently came together, then pressed themselves in
closer, Joining hands, lacing fingers, wrapping knees and feet around legs,
hips, and waists as tightly as possible-and then more tightly as the vines
locked in around them, squeezing until Acorna gasped, "Move gently, spread
wide" again and the others picked up the thought. It took the vines a
breathtaking moment to realize that this time, they must spread first, but
their scent lightened from the suffocatingly close aroma it had become while
holding the Linyaari, and the vines spread once more.

"These plants are definitely sapient beings," Neeva said approvingly-and
apparently somewhat fragrantly. The vines swayed gently back and forth, as if
pleased, and emitted a light, sweet aroma.

"Good," Acorna said, "Because now we have to tell them about the Khieevi."

"Why?" Thariinye asked.

"And how," added JVlaati.

"Because," Aari said. "We are bringing the Khieevi among them to be killed,
but the Khieevi may also kill many of the vine people. When we thought they
-were not possessed of intelligence, then it seemed good to let the Khieevi
graze here and be killed by the sap. But now that we bring this evil upon
these beings, the least we can do is -warn them."

"Where are they going to go if they object?" Liriili asked archly.

"That is not the point," Neeva said. "Now that we know they are beings who
would suffer from the Khieevi as we would, we naturally will continue Captain
Becker's plan only with their cooperation."

"Which we will obtain how?" Liriili demanded with the same archness.

"My collection bag!" Miiri said suddenly. "Where is it?"

"There-among the vines," Kaarlye said. "Mine too. They're open. Do you suppose
the plants mind that we are taking the sap?"

"Perhaps they don't mind so much as-wonder -what we are doing with it," Acorna
ventured. "After all, they know what function it serves for them, but it must
be hard for them to understand why we would wish to take some away."

"Mother, Father," Aari said, "I know of one smell that is very evocative-that
might demonstrate to them exactly what ·we are trying to convey. Do you have
anything with you that smells like the Khieevi?"
"Oh no," Miiri said. "We bathe very carefully after our laboratory work."

"I'll bet MacKenZ does," Acorna said. "The ship still reeks horribly of
Khieevi when you first board it, no matter how many times horns purify the
air. That shuttle has the stench hardwired into its structure, I believe."

"I'll go ask him," Maati said.

She returned a short time later holding a peculiar looking object at arms
length in one gloved hand, while she held her nose with the other.

"I guess I'm not old enough yet to purify it," she said.

"Good. Don't anyone else try to erase the smell till we can show the vine
beings what it means," Acorna said. "Now then, set the thing down, Maati, and
let us all allow ourselves to react as we would to a Khieevi with it-fear,
disgust, horror, anger, feel them as hard as you can and send. Work yourself
up into a sweat if possible."

They all did as she suggested. Aari grew particularly rank with sweat and the
stench of fear so that even she could smell him, though usually the Linyaari
had only a pleasant odor, if any.

The vines shook and trembled at first and then all at once they swept past the
people and converged on the Khieevi object, pouring sap over it, almost
shooting the viscous fluid from their stems and blossoms until the thing was
entirely covered.

"They get it!" Thariinye cried. "They understand."

"Either that or they're simply acting from self-protection," Liriili said.

"Maybe we should make a holo of the Khieevi to show them?" Maati suggested.

"If they communicate by scent, they'll know the Khieevi -when they smell
them, and apparently they know what to do with them too," Melireenya said.

"We need our collection bags back," Kaarlye said.

Acorna frowned. "Perhaps they'll understand now. Try to take it back. They
know we are afraid of the Khieevi and they have probably noticed that -we
can't exude sap as they can. That might be clear enough to them-we fear
something they have a defense for that -we don't."

Kaarlye reached for the sack and met with no resistance as he reclaimed it and
then Miiri's from the vines that had been curled protectively over it.

"Back to the original problem of the holos. I suggest that we simply go to the
various holos and ask the plants to spread apart where they are. We will have
to work on suggesting that they remain that way until the Khieevi are among
them."

Neeva shook her head. "The initial problem isn't the main question now. With
beings as intelligent as these, we have no right to sacrifice them to spare
the Niriians, or ourselves for that matter."

"So, let's show them the piiyi," Thariinye said.

"If they can't see it, how can they judge?"
"Can they smell it?" Aari asked. "Becker -was complaining of the smell of the
piiyi. We still have the capsule in which we found it. Perhaps the smell of
that will convey information to the plants that it does not to us."

"I suppose it's worth a try," Acorna said. "Though I hope we're not giving
them the wrong smells."

Thariinye and Aari duly boarded the Condor and emerged with the piiyi. They
were trailed by RK, who ignored the smelly organic communications device to
sniff the plants, after which the cat turned his hoisted tail to the nearest
vine and, with a mighty shudder of his magnificently furred appendage, let fly
a bolus of eau ^e chat that momentarily overpowered the scent of the flowers.
The vines bent down and for a moment Acorna feared they would perhaps attack
RK, but they seemed instead to be bowing to him.

"Look!" -Maati cried. "They recognize his scent! They know he's a sacred
temple cat! It's like he's blessed them!"

Neeva wrinkled her nose. "If that is the blessing of the sacred temple cat, I
should hate to smell the curse!"

The piiyi was attached to a portable scanner and played for the plants. The
vines reacted to nothing until the Khieevi appeared on the piiyi. Then, to
everyone's surprise, the plants sprayed the piiyi with sap.

"Well," Acorna said, "they clearly recognize the Khieevi. Even when Captain
Becker behaved aggressively toward the plants, they didn't spray sap at him or
us, but just the image and the klacking of the Khieevi cause the plants to
attack."

Aari nodded. "Yes, I think it is because the Khieevi seem to the vines to be
larger versions of the insects their sap is created to destroy. That first
time -we were here-when I- when I had to return to the ship? I saw the
resident insects in the sap and they reminded me of the Khieevi. Very much."

Neeva frowned. "If the plants regard the Khieevi as natural enemies, and
respond aggressively automatically, then I think perhaps this plan will work
and still be within the bounds of diplomatic integrity. Now then, all -we have
to do is get them to spread themselves away from the holos."

With the communication they had already established, this did not prove
difficult. Even Becker was impressed by the cooperation of the vines. When the
last drones -were planted, the crew of the Cow)or looked down to see a little
frontier outpost of the Linyaari, nestled among flowering vines. Tall unicorn
people scurried to and fro among the buildings and vines.

"That ought to be enough to fool the Khieevi," Becker said, and turned to Mac,
"Are you ready to transmit from your shuttle?"   "Aye, Captain." -Mac said.

"Then stand by. As soon as the area is cleared, you can invite your friends to
our garden party," Becker said, his mustache bristling as he bared his teeth
in what Acorna decided was not a show of friendship.

"Uncle, I thought we agreed that the children were to be evacuated here to the
Moon of Opportunity immediately," Rank Nadezda reminded Hafiz.

"Ah, but that was before the excellent Becker devised his excellent plan,"
Hafiz said. "And Ambassador Neeva and the eminent Lmyaari scientists Kaarlye
and Miiri assure me it will succeed, as does our own beloved Acorna. So why
send the kiddies home? And if they go, why not all of us? And if "we go, so
goes a large portion of the assets of House Harakamian, which I have invested
in the establishment of the Moon of Opportunity." Seeing his nephew's eyes
snap and his mouth open, Hafiz added hastily, "I know, dear boy, I know, of
course, that human-and Linyaari-life is not to be measured against mere
profit. Naturally. But is it not true as well that these people, Acorna's
people, have come to rely upon us for a certain measure of protection-·well,
perhaps, support is a better word? And if we begin sending away our own
children, indicating that we believe danger still exists, does this not imply
that ours are more important than their loved ones? Such an implication hardly
sets the right tone, you see?"

"Tone be damned!" Rafik said. "These kids have already been through a thousand
kinds of hell and^we have definitely promised them our protection. The
Linyaari are home, as are their children. Our kids should return to Maganos
Moonbase and stay there until the Khieevi are no longer a problem. And the
Haven has no business here either."

"The Haven is free to go whenever it wishes. Thus far the Starfarers have
decided to remain with us."   "You can't allow it. Uncle Hafiz. It's much too
risky."

"Nephew, dear boy, listen to me. Life is risky. Business- successful
business-is even more so. We are pioneers, son of my heart. If we are to tread
the surface of planets -which have never known a human footprint, if we are to
trade in currency as yet untouched by human hand, risks are necessary."

Rafik's eyes narrowed and his tone -was filled with disgust he didn't bother
to conceal. "You say this to me, you who cowered in the underground shelter of
your compound at Laboue when you first saw what the Khieevi did to their
prisoners?"

Sweat broke out on Hafiz's forehead despite the sweet and mild day Dr; Hoa's
weather iriagic had provided. "The shock of first contact, dear boy." Hafiz
blotted the moisture with a monogrammed scarlet synsilk tissue. "But, very
-well, if you insist, your aunt and I will personally escort the children back
to Federation space, while you as my heir and representative will naturally
conduct business as usual until the crisis has passed and it is safe for us to
return. At which time you will see the wisdom of your old uncle's counsel and
realize how hasty you have been."

Rafik smiled ruefully, to let his uncle know he had been outmaneuvered. Hafiz
could now take Karina and the children and retire from the field, leaving
others to face danger for the sake of his profit. On the other hand, with the
old man and the kids safely out of the way, Rafik could command the
dismantling of the Moon immediately if it looked like Becker's plan to
eradicate the danger from the Khieevi might fail.

Hafiz knew this, of course. And furthermore, he knew that Rafik knew that he
knew. But it was much easier to handle matters this -way, allowing Rafik to
make the decisions that would preserve or risk life, determine profit or loss.
After all, Rafik was now head of House Harakamian, -while Hafiz was
technically retired. But these things -were very difficult and must be
handled delicately. If the Moon of Opportunity failed, it would be on Rank's
head, and not Hafiz's.

Thus as soon as the holo team returned from the vine "world, the Acadeckt and
the Haven were loaded with the children of Maganos Moonbase. As a mark of his
faith that he would be returning shortly, Hafiz left the Sharazad on the Moon
of Opportunity and submitted himself and Karina to the far less commodious
accommodations of the AcaSeckl. Rafik had suggested the gesture, both because
the plans were already in place to use the AcaSecki for evacuation and also
because, should general evacuation become necessary, the Sharaza<) was larger
and ·would hold more personnel.

With Aari translating, Kaarlye and Miiri approached Hafiz just before he
boarded. Miiri spoke first and Aari said, "My mother implores you to take my
sister with you and the children. My parents vow to remain here and continue
searching for a way to exploit this biological 'weapon the vine world has
provided, although you understand of course that no Lmyaari can actually
deploy it as an implement of aggression, even against the Khieevi. However,
they say they can work better if they know that Maati is safe. They wished for
me to join her, but Khornya and I wish to remain with Captain Becker. My
sister is young and longs for new experiences, and would very much like to see
the Federation worlds. So take her with you. Take Thariinye as well so that
one of her own kind bears her company." He looked back to his mother for
further words but she was swallowing hard and looking away.

As Maati and Thariinye transferred ships, Thariinye complained that he wanted
to stay -with the Condor but he drew only a stern look from Neeva, who
silently indicated he should obey.

What no one said, or even whispered, was that if the Khieevi prevailed,
despite the plan, and once more attacked narhii-Vhiliinyar, at least there
would be one young male and one young female of the Linyaari safe in
Federation space, as hope for the Linyaari. Meanwhile, the Balakiire's
remaining crew worked on coordinating with other teams of volunteer rescuers,
in the event it became possible to take a relief mission to Nirii once the
Khieevi had been lured away. Distressing transmissions from the Khieevi showed
them torturing stoic two-horned beings who were obviously in great pain, but
refusing to utter a sound or show any fear at all. Even stranger, Toroona and
Byorn, "who had been so emotional on their planet's behalf when asking for
help, watched the transmissions -with the same stoicism. Their emotions showed
only when they turned away as the frustrated Khieevi increased their efforts
until their prisoners, still silent, died.

Becker and RK enjoyed a brief reunion with Nadhari. She, as security chief,
was now second in authority on the Moon of Opportunity only to Rafik Nadezda.
Since she was supervising the security arrangements for the evacuation, she
had time only for a quick half hug with Becker, and to 'welcome RK as the cat
draped himself around her shoulders while she worked.

As the passengers finished loading onto the Acaoecki, Miiri and Kaarlye
supervised the loading of canisters full of sap into the cargo hold. Hafiz
wished to take it to his corporate laboratories for further analyses and
study. Should the Khieevi ever attack ·within Federation space, the Federation
would pay well in terms of influence and power, as well as great sums of
money, to the holder of a secret weapon against this terrible enemy.

Aari surprised Hafiz by clasping the older man's round synsatin clad form in
his own large embrace. "Farewell, Uncle Hafiz. Look after my sister and
Thariinye and our friends and be well. Joh, Khornya, Riid-Kiiyi, and I too
will let you know when it is safe to return."

"Er, farewell, my nephew."

Karina gave him a somewhat more effusive hug. "Farewell, Aari, and oh, my, is
that a horn you're growing there?" She reached up to touch it and with
difficulty he endured what she probably didn't realize was an inappropriate
intimacy. "Oooh, I just had a flash. The plan will succeed but there will be
difficulty-and danger! Be careful, dear friend-friends!"
Ready, Captain," -Mac said. The android was in the cockpit of the Khieevi
shuttle. It was still in the hold of the Condor, which was now orbiting the
vine world. The holograms moved below in their randomly programmed patterns.
Some of them were speaking, some were not. It didn't matter. The Khieevi
wouldn't understand anyway.

Becker   rubbed his hands together as gleefully as a landlord about to foreclose
on the   heroine's mortgage in a vid melodrama. "The trap is set, the bait's in
place,   now all we need is to wiggle the string a little to make the bait look
lively   to the rats."

Acorna looked up from the console, smiled and stroked RK's head. "Captain, it
occurs to me you've been hanging out too much with RK lately."

"Yes," Aari said. "You are beginning to think like a cat."

Becker shrugged. "I could do worse. Cats are good at strategy. " He flipped
the toggle on the ship's intercom. "Okay, Mac, do your thing," he said, then,
recalling how literal minded the android -was, added, "I mean, make the speech
-we discussed to the Khieevi and try to lure them over here."

Acorna frowned. "I wish we were able to wait until the evac ships have time
to reach Federation space." She let the words hang in the air. It -was a vain
wish. All of them had seen the broadcasts of pain-wracked Niriian prisoners
being tortured. All of them knew what the planet would look like when the
Khieevi were finished. All of them knew that every moment they delayed cost
more Niriian lives. They had to act quickly. And really, the evacuation ships
would be heading toward Federation space, not near the vine "world. There
should be no problem at all. Acorna wondered why she remained anxious,
nevertheless. When her question popped out, it surprised even her. "I wonder
why they do it, really."

"Who, hon?" Becker asked.

"The Khieevi. Why do they torture people? Did you ask the prisoner that?"

"No. I figure it's just cause they're mean mothahs and they enjoy it. Isn't
that about right, Aari?"

Aari frowned. "I did not think of them as enjoying anything, Joh. In fact, now
that you mention it, I don't believe they 9u) enjoy torturing me, as
relentless and thorough as they were. It seemed more as if they were very
anxious to be wringing from me every bit of pain and fear they could. The few
questions they asked me did not seem to be important to them and they did not
bother to try to understand enough Linyaari to be able to express themselves.
And I am afraid that one thing our observers and diplomats have learned of the
Khieevi is that they are very scientific about their torture. The first few of
our representatives they captured and tortured died almost at once, so the
Khieevi refined their techniques so that they would only cause maximum pain
for the longest possible time without fatal results."

He shuddered suddenly and Acorna reached for his hand and held it. She knew
from his thoughts that he had been shamed by his fear of the Khieevi, and by
the pleading he had no doubt done with them to stop hurting him, natural as
such responses were. He did not feel any of the merit Thariinye attributed to
him for enduring what he could not escape. Acorna agreed with his assessment.
It was pitiable what he had been through, horrible, but did not, in itself,
make him a better person. No, he himself did that by his strength of character
in facing what he feared most, and with reasons stronger than anyone around
him could possibly understand. He faced the Khieevi, and their torture, and
examined it to try to find answers and solutions that would help others.

Becker grunted. "Whoever said 'know your enemy' was right, even if he couldn't
have known the enemy was going to be big, nasty, alien bugs. If he had known,
maybe he would have told us how we were supposed to know them."

"Receiving reply from the Khieevi now, Captain," Mac said. "On our -way, Mac,"
Becker said. The crew clattered across the grated deck plate and down to the
hold containing the shuttle. Klackings and klickings emanated from the freshly
repaired corn unit.

"What do they say, Mac?" Becker asked. "They are coming here now, ^Captain!"
Mac said. "Wow, that was fast. Already?" Becker asked. "The Niriians do not
make satisfactory victims, apparently," Mac said. "The Khieevi expressed
preference for Linyaari prey. They scream better, apparently. This is a
desirable trait in a host race for the Khieevi. They have been quite unhappy
with the lack of response from the Niriians, despite their best efforts. The
Niriian response has been judged inadequate." "Inadequate for what?" Becker
asked.

Mac said, "I do not know, Captain. I repeat only the- scuttlebutt-I am picking
up from their intership transmissions. Shall I ask?"

"No," Aari said. "If you were a real Khieevi, you wouldn't have to."

"True," Becker said. "So, they're on their -way. Let's fall back smartly,
gang." It had been necessary for them to transmit from the proper physical
location to lend verisimilitude to their transmission, but the remote cameras
located on the vine world and its moon would provide visuals of the Khieevi
invasion. The Condor could detect the approach of the Khieevi from
considerable distance, thanks to the bank of long-range scanners Becker
normally employed for detecting ships in peril, recent disasters, and other
juicy salvage situations. Once the Khieevi swarm was all focused on the vine
world, the Condor could creep back into position for a ringside seat to the
"the squishing," as Becker colorfully referred to it.

Once the swarm approached, radio silence would have to be maintained. However,
the Condor's shuttle had been repaired and readied to act as a relay between
the Moon of Opportunity and the Condor, to carry news of the mission's
progress. Once the Condor was in position on the far side of the vine world's
nearest planetary neighbor, their position was transmitted to headquarters on
the moon.

The Condor lurked, waiting for the Khieevi to become carrion.

When the swarm's vanguard arrived, Becker, who was on watch, let out a whoop.
"-Mercy gracious, boys 'n' girls, the scanners look like Kezdet's pleasure
district on a Saturday night when the fleet's just docked! My oh my oh my!"

Acorna and Aari joined him on the bridge. Mac was still monitoring Khieevi
communications from the wrecked shuttle.

The vid screen came to life as the remote cameras switched themselves on to
record the landing of the Khieevi fleet. A shark-like school of the
mantis-shaped vessels circumnavigated the smallish vine world as if they were
the rings of Saturn. From the innermost ring of ships, shuttles shot to the
surface, after -which those ships spiraled away from the planet to be replaced
by others with a fresh supply of shuttles and troops.

"We're going to need something to destroy the ships too," Becker whispered
fiercely. Acorna knew why he was whispering. The attack was ferocious. She
feared anew for the sapient vines. "If they don't land, the sap can't make
contact."

"Perhaps they will land to investigate and infect each other," Acorna
suggested.

But they did not.

The vines parted to permit the landing of the shuttles, each of -which
disgorged an amazing number of ground troops.

At first the vines allowed the Khieevi to pass until it seemed there were as
many Khieevi on the ground as there -were vines, all marching relentlessly
upon the holo compounds.

Acorna trembled at the sight of multiples of herself, Aari, Neeva and the
Balakiire's crew, Aari's family, Thariinye and Liriili, going blithely and
peacefully about their business while endless lines of Khieevi, ever
reinforced by more shuttles dropping through vine-world space in lines of
their own, deposited reinforcements.

The staccato klacking of pincers and mandibles was louder than any -weapon's
fire.

"Why aren't the plants closing on them?" Becker demanded.

"I don't know, Captain," Aari answered. "In the communications we had -with
them, the mere scent of the Khieevi caused the vine-beings to shoot sap upon
the offending objects."

"They're waiting," Acorna said, excitement and awe in her voice. "We knew the
plants were intelligent and they're proving it! I think our -warnings about
the Khieevi -were understood much better than -we had reason to hope. The
plants actually have formed a plan. They -want to trap the largest possible
number of Khieevi before they counterattack."

"You're kidding!" Becker said, and whistled.

RK leaped onto the console. His fur stuck straight out on his body so he
appeared to be twice his normal size. His tail bristled and switched so fast
it slammed Becker's kaf cup to the floor -with one swipe, Aari's with the
next. A low growl from RK's throat grew to a high-pitched caterwaul that made
Becker cover his ears and Acorna lift the spiky creature into her arms to try
to comfort him. He didn't attack her, but neither did he calm down. There was
nothing to heal in his response. It was natural and healthy for a Makahomian
Temple Cat to go into battle mode under the circumstances. Acorna understood
this and when the cat remained stiff and distinctly uncomforted, she set him
down again where he stood with his tail lashing the air like a saber.

The first phalanx of Khieevi reached the holo-compounds and opened fire on the
holos, which responded by breaking up and reforming, continuing the postures,
journeys, movements, and apparent tasks in -which they had been engaged before
the attack.

Khieevi klacking escalated to an even higher volume. Shuttles no longer
streamed from the skies. The ground troops, heedless of the klacks of the
vanguard, charged forward, trampling some of those in front of them.

Mac looked up at the rest of the crew. "The Khieevi are very frustrated and
dissatisfied," he said. The android could have saved the speech. The tone of
the klacks accompanied by the activity of the klackers was more than eloquent.

Then suddenly, and seemingly simultaneously, the Khieevi exploded into action,
all of them at once diving into the vines with open mandibles. The attack had
been so typically single minded that it had drawn their attention-and the
attention of Acorna and her friends-completely away from the plants, -which
had been docilely shrinking away .from the Khieevi, allowing roots and stalks
to be trampled. Even before the Khieevi attack changed course, however, the
plants slowly began thrusting upward again, unbending from being trod
underfoot, as if reaching for sunlight, all very innocent and plant-like.

But as the first mandibles closed on the first stalk, the vines whipped into
action, shooting sap from each fresh wound and from sap sacs hidden in the
stalks and under the leaves as well. The Khieevi were surrounded, as they had
previously surrounded the holo-compounds.

The cameras became ineffective as sap squirted everywhere. Becker switched to
the moon-linked camera. A close-up of the planet's surface showed it
glistening with turbulent swells and peaks of slimy sap. The Khieevi shuttle's
corn unit squealed -with high-pitched eeee sounds. Acorna reached over and
flipped the toggle, and the sound mercifully ceased.

The remote camera showed a handful of shuttles with rapidly dying Khieevi
piloting them erratically towards the mother ships. Once the stragglers had
been reabsorbed by the swarm, the ships veered off.

"Are they going back to the Niriians?" Becker asked Mac.

Mac flipped the toggle back on again and monitored the noises emitted by the
ships. "No, Captain. They are in disarray. This has never happened to them
before, I think."

"Predators who prey on pacifists probably don't run the risk of getting beaten
all that often," Becker allowed. "So what are they up to?"

"I do not think they know at this time, Captain. There is talk of returning to
the homeworld. They are-unlikely as it may sound-I believe they are very
frightened, Captain."

"Of the vine world?" Becker grinned. "They should be. Serves them right."

"Yes, but they are already discussing -what might be used to neutralize it.
Actually, from what I can detect, I believe they are afraid of returning to
their homeworld. That seems odd, don't you think?"

"Maybe the King bug is going to chop off their heads," Becker said with a
shrug. "I hope he does and that teaches them not to mess -with us again. So,
gang, I guess that's it. It's over. We win. Or the plant critters do. End of
story."

Acorna could not think of a logical objection to this conclusion, though she
felt it was somehow all-anticlimactic. So much horror so easily conquered. Who
would have believed it. But she could tell from Becker's tone and his
expression that he felt the same. Aari too appeared perplexed and unsatisfied.
"What's the matter?" she asked him.
He shook his head, "Perhaps, after living with fear of the Khieevi for so
long, it is hard to believe we have put an effective end to them. Perhaps I am
merely having trouble adjusting to the idea that they are gone, that our
people, and I in particular, no longer have the terror of them looming over
us."

"Maybe that's it," Acorna agreed. But she remained uneasy.

No brass band greeted the ConSor, but everybody looked happy to see it return
safely. Rafik Nadezda, Declan Giloglie, and Nadhari Kando were waiting at the
landing bay, as were Aan's parents.

Before the robo-lift had touched the ground, Aari's parents were saying, "We
made a significant breakthrough with the sap! Wait till you see. It's quite
simple but very effective."

"That's good," Becker told them. "But I'm afraid we won't be needing it."

He deliberately pulled a long face and Acorna and Aari, picking up their cues
from him, tried to keep their thoughts to themselves.

"Why? Didn't it work? What happened?"

"The plants pretty well annihilated the Khieevi army, that's what!" Becker
said, grinning. "We-or rather the plantswhipped their buggy butts."

Cheers went up among the reception committee and as the word passed all
through the compound. Outlying recreational areas had been closed for the red
alert and the main city was bloated with anxious people, some of them bored
because their functions had been related solely to the closed areas, some of
them pumped with adrenaline, ready to take action against any threat.

The Linyaari delegation pressed forward, the Niriian couple preceding them by
a step or two.

Acorna smiled at them and told her aunt, "According to the Khieevi broadcasts,
they won't be going back to Nirii either. Mac says from what he can figure
out, the Niriians did not make very good victims."

Neeva translated and Toroona smiled beatifically. "She says that's something
they can be proud of," Neeva said.

Rafik was smiling too. "Whew. This is a wonderful turn of events! We had
better call Uncle Hafiz at once, Acorna, so he can come back and broadcast a
new message taking all the credit!" Acorna and Rafik exchanged knowing grins.

Aari's mother had taken his arm on one side and Acorna's on the other. "And we
thought we had so much to show you.."

"We are most interested in your discoveries, Mother," Aari assured her. "While
most of the Khieevi army was destroyed, there were still many ships aloft and
we are unsure how many troops may have remained onboard."

"Yeah," Becker said. "Besides, they're bugs." Acorna translated.

Kaarlye looked puzzled. "Of course they are insects. Does the captain think we
are unaware of this?"

"I believe what he means," Acorna said. "Is that insects reproduce rapidly and
in large numbers. The danger from the Khieevi is not yet over."
Rafik, dear boy, and my good Captain Becker, this news!" Hafiz Harakamian
said. The   crew and passengers of the AcaSecki were cheering, holding hands,
and hopping up and down, even as Calum reversed course in preparation for the
AcaSecki's, return to MOO, as the children now referred to it. "You have
vanquished the enemy, saved the Niriian homeworld, made the universe a safer
place to do business, brought honor to House Harakamian, created the
opportunity for much favorable publicity for the Moon of Opportunity, and all
at a relatively low price point! Commendable, gentlemen, most commendable
indeed."

The next hail was from the Haven. "I presume you've heard the news!" Johnny
Greene said.

"We have indeed and splendid news it is!" Hafiz replied. "We are returning to
the Moon of Opportunity even as we speak."

"We're within Federation space right now, and I haven't heard what the general
vote was, but the Counsel is pretty sure the kids will want to come back to
the Moon, too. Once the vote is in, if that's the case, "we'll caravan with
you again."

"Very well, Johnny, but tell the children not to dawdle.

Uncle Hafiz has a great deal to do now that his staff has made space safe for
our new friends and neighbors to travel freely once more."

"Uh-yeah, we knew that," Johnny said. "Catch you in a few."

"So that means we need to wait for them?" Calum Baird asked.

"Yes, indeed," Hafiz said. Laxme and some of the other children made impatient
noises.

"Are they going to be long?" Laxme asked.

There was not actually a lot to do on the Accu)ecki and the rations weren't
that great either. It wasn't as big as the ships they had come on, and there
hadn't been time to prepare properly for a long journey. Nutritious ration
bars took up little space, did not require heating or freezing, and provided
all of the basic requirements. Laxme knew he shouldn't quibble. Working in the
mines, he and many of the others had far less to eat, nothing really, just
enough to keep them upright and working. But now that he had tasted enough
food, tasty food, lovely desserts and butter for the vegetables and even the
succulent meats-he wasn't happy to give that up.

Maati had been indignant at being herded onto the evacuation ship as if she
wasn't the former copilot of her own ship, the survivor of two battles, one in
space, one on the ground, with the Khieevi. She knew that her parents had
insisted she go because they wanted her to be safe, but part of her felt that
they really just wanted to be rid of her again, when she had only just found
them. And Thariinye was even more impossible than usual. Recently their mutual
teasing had been playful and friendly but he was so angry at being kept out of
the action again and treated like a child that he took it out on her with
deliberately nasty and hurtful remarks. She snapped back just as angrily, and
their mood made the other children angry and nasty or depressed too so there
was already a lot of fighting on the ship. This didn't improve Calum Baird's
temper any either, and Karina Harakamian fluttered about calling for peace and
light. When she wasn't hiding in the berth she had to share only with Uncle
Hafiz.
As for Hafiz, he could not but wonder how he had come to taking leave of his
senses so far as to allow himself to undertake a long journey in the company
of so many children. He was not a fatherly man, nor, if the truth be known,
even an avuncular one unless it proved profitable to appear to be. He could
not stand whining children actually.

Of course, the unsettling thing about this lot is that they didn't whine. For
the most part they were disturbingly adult. The larger ones seemed to be used
to looking after the smaller ones, and even the youngest didn't cry, just
looked at him with wide eyes that managed to be hopeful and suspicious at the
same time.

Returning to the Moon of Opportunity seemed to please them, and he felt more
gratitude than was strictly reasonable that they had perked up so much. Even
the two Linyaari young ones stopped scowling at each other to cheer. But as
the wait for the Haven grew longer, the children became impatient again.

Hafiz did not like the hostile silence. Karina disliked it even more,
apparently. Complaining of a headache, she took to their berth.

"What troubles you, my little ones?" Hafiz asked finally, bravely, his own
mood at least much improved by relief at not losing his corporate shirt.

"Well," Jana said. "There's not a lot to do here. I think they're bored." She
herself, her tone implied, was above boredom.

"Bored?" The concept was not one with which he had much familiarity. Being
fabulously rich and imaginative as well, he could usually avoid such
unattractive moods.

Calum turned in his command chair and said, "In order to get maximum
passenger space, we had to dispense with some of the amenities-there's only
one set of phones and goggles for vids, the hardcopy books were offloaded to
make room, and I'm getting sick of nutrient bars myself. Of course they're
bored. Aren't you?"

"I've been enjoying the rest, frankly," Hafiz said. "And then, my beauteous
Karina and I have not been married long."

"Uh-huh," Calum said, rolling his eyes.

"She has her trances and meditations and continuous search for what she refers
to as enlightenment to entertain her," Hafiz said. "Perhaps you could tell the
children a story, Baird?" he suggested in a helpful tone.

"Or maybe you could, Hafiz. I'm busy skippering this bird," Calum said,
turning his back on him again.

"Me? Ah." Hafiz looked around him. "Very well, then. I shall need to employ
the remote link to the ship's computer, dear boy."

"To tell a Story?' Calum asked incredulously.

"Audio-visual aids, homely former senior wife of my illustrious nephew,
audio-visual aids," Hafiz said, and clapped his hands. "All young persons
wishing to become unbored will now assemble in the hydroponics garden where
your beneficent Uncle Hafiz shall entertain you so thrillingly you will
completely forget to sulk and fret and otherwise contort your faces and voices
into infelicitous conformations."
"That should charm 'em all right," Calum said.

"I shall also require the next meal's supply of luncheon bars and liquid
refreshment," Hafiz said.

"Gee, I'd have the chef give them to the mattre'd to deliver personally, but
they're both busy with this evening's banquet," Calum replied sarcastically.
Hafiz knew, very well that if he wanted the damned bars he'd need to take them
from the food locker himself. The replicator worked, but even it required sup
plies from which to manufacture foodstuff and those supplies took up more room
than the nutrient bars and caps.

"Very well," Hafiz said,   and beckoned imperiously to Jana and Chiura, who were
following in the wake of   the other young ones headed toward the hydroponics
garden, which they would   soon, Hafiz knew, come to regard as a garden of
delights. "Young ladies,   you will accompany me to the food locker and assist
in conveying supplies to   our destination."

The girls looked at each other and shrugged.

The driver of Khieevi ship designated by Fourteen Klaclu am) Two KUdu was
greatly agitated.

Partly this -was from the pain in his sixth foot, which had come into contact
with the damaged shuttle pilot who managed to dock aboard Fourteen Klaclu am)
Two Klicfu before the crew of the large ship realized that both shuttle and
the operator of same were infected with an alien substance that ate them. Once
they had made this discovery, members of the crew attempted to neutralize the
infected personnel in the customary way, by stomping them to death.
Unfortunately, this brought feet, pincers, and in some cases other delicate
body parts into contact with the alien substance.

The driver really didn't feel well at all and neither did the affected crew
members, who could now truly be called a skeleton crew, if not an exoskeleton
crew, since the exoskeletons were the first parts eaten away by the substance.

The high-pitched pain sounds they were producing made the driver's brain ache
as well as his foot, ·which he realized would have to be sacrificed before
long or it would involve his entire leg. Unlike the crewmembers, he had not
done any actual stomping of the infected shuttle soldier. He had merely nudged
the soldier with his foot to tag the tainted one for elimination.

He feared that he would be the next to be eliminated. If the disease didn't
claim him, he would surely be stomped by the other, healthier ship drivers,
or worse, his damaged part -would be severed and he -would be fed to the
Young.

The Young would be even angrier and more ferocious than usual, as they had not
received a good feeding in many, many lengthy time units. The Niriians -were a
stingy, selfish race who kept their pain to themselves and did not beg or
plead or weep, no matter how meticulously and slowly they were disassembled.
They were so retentive of their feelings that they refused to writhe even
under the worst provocation. They also were rather frail things and tended to
die. Quickly. Quietly. No nutrition for the Young there.

When the shuttle from scout ship Fifty-three Kliclu am) Sewn Kiack.<) reported
a juicy colony of the One-Horns, the swarm had been hungry for conquest, and
more to the point, the Young had been even hungrier. The lair of the One-Horns
had proved elusive and was much sought after, since the members of the race
thus far encountered possessed a particularly satisfying capacity for
emotional projection. Shock, fear, outrage, loathing, and an unplumbed depth
of capacity to suffer and emote anguish -when correctly manipulated made even
one of these beings a sweet feast for the Young.

But this time the Khieevi had been -worse than thwarted. According to the
shuttle soldiers -who survived, the -world -was filled -with nothing but
shadows of One-Horns and their buildings, shadows that could not be touched or
hurt or killed and had no redeeming nutritional value to either soldiers or
the Young. Worse, there were the growing things with the prominent white
sexual organs, similar in appearance to stationary growing things on other
-worlds. These emitted pheromones of fear which had seemed promising, but when
the shuttle soldiers attacked them, the growing things had the temerity to
attack back! The entire ground fleet had been lost and many of the swarm ships
infected by contaminated shuttles, which nonetheless returned to their ships.
The Young knew. The fear and pain of their own elders had been fed to them as
a substitute for the alien food, but it was not enough. So much time had
elapsed since a proper feeding, nothing -would satisfy the Young now but the
actual physical bodies of their elders, whom the eldest of the Young would
replace.

This -was The Path, the driver knew. In time, the elders, such as him, grew
weak and unable to serve, and had to be eliminated and replaced with fresh,
fierce Young, who in turn served the even more vicious, malicious, and
avaricious Younger. So now the swarm would return with nothing to offer but
themselves, their own bodies, their own pain and anguish and fear, to be
devoured by the slavering hordes of their offspring.

The driver regretted this with a deep bitter regret that the Young -would find
added a nice tang. He himself had replaced a used up, -worn out elder -whom he
personally devoured only a few brief time units ago. His turn at the Gathering
should have lasted many, many more time units. It was not right. It was not
fair. It did not suit him. But it was The Path.

Between his agitation and his pain and the lack of attentiveness on the part
of the other crew members due to similar distractions, he veered somewhat off
course, folio-wing several other members of the swarm -who were also affected
and also deviated from course.

His was the first ship to spot the alien vessel. It did not appear to be
accelerating, nor orbiting, nor moving in any way. Nor did it appear to be
damaged. The equipment detected life signs. The other ships of the swarm also
spotted it. It -was still a great distance away and if it -was fast, it might
yet evade them. But if it was not, here was food to offer the Young, -who
might be so busy feeding, they -would forget to consume a few stringy old
elders.

The hydroponics garden of the AcaSecki now blossomed with exotic flowers of
crimson and orchid, lilacs so real they seemed fragrant, jasmine and roses of
all descriptions vying with frangipani, plumena, and lush lotus blossoms
floating in a pool of crystal water, fed by a sparkling fountain.

As each child looked at the others, he or she saw not another child but either
a beautiful (if rather plump; Hafiz always made his holograms in the images of
his own desire) houri or a dashing thief. The ladies were scantily clad in
clothing that included many layers of silken veils and skirts, balloon-legged
pants with slits down the sides to show shapely limbs, and lots and lots of
clanking silver and gold coin jewelry. The thieves "were clad in Berber blues,
their skins dyed by the indigo in their clothing, or in striped robes colored
in the soft golds, saffrons, russets, and browns of a desert most of the
children had never imagined. Now it stretched out before them, just beyond the
boundaries of the gardens. Each child was alone among fascinating strangers,
all of them listening respectfully, attentively to the voice of Hafiz
Harakamian. Ouds and doumbeks, tambourines and zills, a whining flute spiraled
and curled around Hafiz's words, illuminating each as colored inks adorned the
alphabets of ancient holy books.

And that was only the backdrop!

Hafiz's tales came to life between him and the children.

The story began, "There was once in days of yore and in ages and times long
gone before, on Kezdet, before the Federation, a poor but enterprising lad, by
name Habib, son of a lowly designer of inexpensive gaming software. Sadly for
Habib, before he had reached his fifteenth year, his father passed into the
land foretold by the Three Books and the Three Prophets, and Habib, whose
mother had long ago run off with a smoothtalking merchant of space travel
insurance, was left alone."

He went on to demonstrate how the young Habib found his fortune in a magic
lamp - a lamp that, -when used in the sleep pods of space travelers in
cryosleep, prevented deaths that had been occurring due to lack of vitamin D.
But Hafiz made the lamp look like an ancient magic lamp and coming from it was
a genie-in cryosleep.

He was just coming to the next plot turn in this tale when Calum Baird called
down, "Hafiz, will you cool it with the special effects? You're draining the
power of the ship's computer."

"Nonsense, my boy," Hafiz said. "My holograms take up very little power."
Normally, he might have taken Baird's warning under advisement but he had yet
to perform his best trick.

Finishing the story, he laid out the nutrient bars on an ordinary table, then
had dancing girls in tinkling costumes cover the unappetizing fare with roast
swan and hummingbird tongues. Discerning from the puzzled silence that met
him, even through the holo-disguises he had cast upon the children, he tapped
the computer pad and replaced the swans and hummingbird tongues with burgers,
fries, onion rings, milkshakes, soft drinks, and ice cream treats.

The children lunged for the table.

The lights went out.

The burgers, fries, rings, and banana splits and sundaes turned back into
nutrient bars and the sloe-eyed houns and slyfaced thieves turned into
disappointed children suddenly shivering in the dark.

Soon another light appeared on the circular metal stairway no one used because
the lift was more convenient. "Come on back upstairs, everybody," Calum said,
"while I get the computer back up. Don't worry. Even if it proves to be
difficult, the Haven will be here soon and we'll have help.

Unfortunately, the Haven was not the next ship to reach the stranded AcaSecki.


"What do you mean, you lost them?" Rafik demanded of an uncharacteristically
flushed and flustered Johnny Greene.

"Just what I said," Greene replied. "After we got the allclear to return to
MOO, we agreed to rendezvous at the AcaSecki's coordinates. But by the time we
arrived, there was nothing there but empty space. We hailed them over and over
but didn't get a blip. They just disappeared."

Rafik held his breath for a long moment before he replied. "Johnny, you folks
turn the Haven around and get back to Federation space on the double. We know
the Khieevi left the vine world, but we don't know where they went from
there."

"You think they got the Accufeckil" Johnny asked. "But- we talked to them just
a few hours ago."

"I don't know what happened. But one vessel full of kids has disappeared with
Calum and my uncle. We can't risk the rest of you. Go back. Get the posse if
you can-after all, Hafiz's baksheesh provides a lot of private schools and
widow's and orphan's pensions for Federation forces, and even though this
isn't their turf, we are under their protection. I hope."

"Gotcha," Johnny said. "But get word to us the minute you know something,
okay?"

"We'll try," Rafik said grimly.

"Saltwater?" Acorna asked. "Is that all?"

Miiri nodded. "Simple saline solution. It breaks down the sap enough for it to
liquefy but it doesn't seem to harm the sap's ability to alter to its fungoid
form and destroy insectoid tissue. We replicated some of the remaining
carapace tissue and the liquefied sap was if anything more virulent than in
its original form, just as an acid's potency may be increased by mixing it
with water."

"That makes sense," Acorna said. "Though it wouldn't be as tenacious as the
sap."

"No," Becker said, scratching his mustache, "but you know if we could have
had some in aerosol torpedoes to shoot into the orbiting Khieevi ships, we
could have taken out more of them."

Miiri shuddered. "How horrible," and looked at her work as if she had given no
thought as to how it would be used.

But Aari said gently, "Mother, these are Khieevi we're talking about,
remember. You've seen them. You say you felt what they did to me."

"Your mother knows, Son," his father said. "It's just not the Linyaari way."

"Which is why you need people like Hafiz and Nadhari and me," Becker said.
"There are still Khieevi out there. I think it's a good idea, in our copious
leisure time, to whomp up a batch of sap and sea water. I can scrounge around
here and see if I can find the makings of some aerosol torpedoes. You Just
never know when that kind of thing will come in handy."

Acorna frowned. "Maybe it would also be wise to return to the vine world and
collect more sap there. The plants not only buried the Khieevi in their sap,
but also submerged themselves. I'd like to make sure the plants are
regenerating properly too. If they need any special climactic conditions to
help them grow, perhaps Dr. Hoa could be of assistance."

"Good idea, Princess," Becker said. "But you know RK. He wants to spend a
little time with Nadhari before we ship out again."

"I see," Acorna said, smiling. "It doesn't have to be done right now."

But at that moment, Nadhari Kando burst into the lab. "Becker!" she said
urgently, then nodded slightly to the Linyaari who were also present. "I have
to ship out right away. Sorry."

"I'll go with you," Becker said immediately.

"No. You can't. This is my responsibility. Hafiz hired me to protect him and
his people and now the AcaSeckl has disappeared."   Acorna grabbed Nadhan's
muscular forearm to get her attention, "What do you mean, disappeared? Calum
was on that ship as well as Hafiz-"

"And Maati," Kaarlye, Miiri, and Aari said at once. "I know, I know. I should
have gone with the Harakamians

but he wanted me here to protect his investment," Nadhari said.

"But time is wasting. I've commandeered the Ifrit. It's the fastest

ship in Hafiz's security fleet and well-armed."

She took the time to explain about the Haven's transmission. Becker frowned.
"If they're not -where they're supposed to

be, I'm not sure fast is going to do you any good, Nadhari. I've

got those banks of long-range scanners on the Condor. And the

Khieevi communications device. And Mac."

"It's too slow, Becker. And you already told me, it's not

packing firepower." She hesitated and then said, "Although ..." "What?"

"You've had good success defeating the Khieevi without weapons and you do have
that unconventional navigation style. Your tactics might come in handy. If you
still -want to join me."

"No ifs ands or buts about it, lady," he said.

"Good," she said and turned on her heel, as if expecting him to follow.

"Captain," Acorna said. "We can follow in the CorSor and keep the scanners
working and Mac monitoring the Khieevi transmissions. That way if we learn
anything, -we can transmit to Nadhari's vessel and you'll have the advantages
of both ships."

Becker leaned back and gave her a kiss on the cheek before Nadhari snagged his
hand and yanked. "Thanks, Princess. But you can do that from here and we can
read you. No sense you taking unnecessary chances. Besides, I need you to make
sure the sap shells get made and Condor, at least, is outfitted with them.
Don't want to get caught with nothing but a tractor beam to fight those
klackers again." Nadhari released his arm and threw the door open. He
followed her calling, "Hey, wait up, Punkin. Just a sec."

"What?" she asked sharply.
"What about the cat, is he going or staying?"

"He is already aboard the Ifrit but wouldn't allow the checkout procedure to
proceed. I divined his purpose was that you should be told of the mission."

"I should hope so!" Becker huffed into his mustache. "That's the only reason
you came for me?"

"Of course not," she said. "But -we -will discuss that later. "Yes, ma'am. I
know. It's of the essence," Becker said, and -waved to the others as he
allowed himself to be hauled away.

Acorna and Aari conferred -with Gill and Rafik.

"Do you think you can locate the materials for making the aerosol torpedoes
Becker described?" she asked.

"Are you kidding?" Gill asked. "We have the best engineering help available in
all areas."

"And Uncle Hafiz has never been one to turn his nose up at the lucrative
business of arms manufacturing," Rafik added. "I can think of at least six of
our friendly neighborhood merchants -who could supply what's needed
immediately."

"Good," Acorna said. "Miiri and Kaarlye cannot be a party to turning the sap
into -weapons, you understand, but since it's a simple matter of mixing sap
and saltwater, there should be no problem with others mixing the formula. We
need to return to the vine world. We Linyaari must communicate -with the
vines, heal them if the Khieevi attack truly injured them."

"Good thinking," Gill said. "Some of the non-House Harakamian merchants may
resist having their ships fitted with the torpedoes, but I think from -what
we've seen, as long as they're in this sector it's really the only smart thing
to do. Maybe if we show the vids the moon camera took of the sap's effect on
the Khieevi, it will be easier to persude the skeptical owners to accept the
modifications."

"I'll talk to any of them who have reservations and make sure they've seen the
vids," Acorna said. "After all, having the modifications made would be useful
for their own protection from Khieevi attacks." She paused for a moment. "Of
course, it would probably help persuade them if House Harakamian offered to
pay for the modifications."

Rafik laughed. "You're beginning to think like a merchant, but not one who's
the adopted daughter of Hafiz! However, I'll authorize it if only to aggravate
the old boy into showing up again just to tell me off. Meanwhile I'll
appreciate any help you can give me persuading the merchants to think like a
team, at least during crises. I'm doing my best but I haven't Hafiz's gift for
imperiousness."

"I'll see what I can do," Acorna promised. "And Aari and I have a somewhat
different perspective on pacifism where the Khieevi are concerned. Both of us
will be glad to help supervise the preparation-and maybe the deployment-of the
torpedoes and the ships to carry them in case they're necessary to rescue the
AcaSecki," she said, and her voice had a catch in it.

"Of course," Gil said reasonably. "We've no evidence yet to suggest that the
Khieevi were responsible for the disappearance of Calum and Hafiz and the
kids."
"No," Rafik agreed. "But it's a pretty big coincidence that they should
disappear so soon after a Khieevi attack. I think that whether we have
evidence or not, we have to be prepared for the worst."

"Of course," Acorna said thoughtfully, "The sap isn't the only thing that will
kill Khieevi. For the merchants who can't be persuaded to modification, as
long as they are otherwise armed, they have some protection."

"Yes," Aari said. "The Khieevi are used to preying upon people like mine and
the Niriians, who do not fight back with any sort of weapon."

Gill grinned. "We all saw that they blow up as easy as anybody if somebody
lobs some ordnance at them."

Rafik grumbled into the little goatee he was affecting these days, to make
himself look more lordly in the performance of his administrative duties as
head of House Harakamian. "True, but the sap works better than anything we've
seen."

Acorna and Aari rose. Rafik felt a bit sad. Their little girl was all grown up
into a beautiful young lady, and from the look of it, had chosen her mate
already. He hoped they'd all live and prosper long enough for him and Gill-and
Calum and Hafiz-to have Linyaari grandbabies.

Acorna's voice caught, "I hope they're okay. I can't bear to think the Khieevi
have them."

The crash of the computers was a temporary matter, of course, and Hafiz was
rather put out with Calum for making such an issue of it. The man's panic had
spoiled Hafiz's story for the children, who had been blessedly quiet while
Hafiz had held the attention of all, which was practically his favorite way to
interact with anyone, especially children.

For two such wizards of the keyboard as him and Baird, not to mention a
certain amount of help from some of the children, who were quite talented in
that area, restoring the ship's computer to operation was scarcely a
challenge. Without the additional load of the hologram programs, the power
soon returned along with all of the other amenities.

Including the com screen and the telescopic viewport. Hafiz was making final
readjustments to certain navigational calculations when Baird tapped him on
the shoulder and pointed at the viewport.

"Yes, yes," Hafiz said, glancing up. "It is good that it is operational ..."
and then he stopped and stared, as a sinister looking vessel began filling the
viewport. "Hut-hut, my boy!" Hafiz said. "Get us out of here this instant!"

"I'm way ahead of you," Calum said. "But we're going nowhere. They have us in
a tractor beam."

The children were exclaiming, and some crying. The two Linyaari, the girl
Maati who was so talented herself with holograms, and the youth Thariinye,
crowded close to the console.

Suddenly the corn screen lit up and one of the ugly bug faces leered at them,
before being replaced by a scene of the Khieevi torturing a Linyaari prisoner.

"Oh, no, you don't. Not again," Maati said.
The driver of the Khieevi ship designated Fourteen Klack^i am) Two Kiiclu was
the first to put his tractor beam on the vessel containing the life forms.

As soon as he had them, he could not resist looking into their vessel to see
what his courage and intelligence had netted. He could hardly believe his
luck. The ship was filled with humans-most of them immature! How the Young
-would love that! And even better, there were two tender One-Horns aboard.

With considerable glee, hampered only a little by the arrival of his fellow
stragglers, he began running the demonstration of Khieevi diplomatic methods
when dealing with aliens. The Niriians had proved so unsatisfactory that the
driver decided to give the One-Horns a little preflight fright by showing what
had been done to dismantle the body of the last One-Horn captive.

That should tenderize their youthful emotions, get them ready to scream all
the way back to the homeworld, providing a substantial emotional appetizer
before what was left of them could be physically delivered to the Young.

The driver could not resist, before boarding the ship and scooping out the
sweet One-Horns and humans from the hull, taking a look to see their fear and
horror at the film he had just transmitted. The smaller of the One-Horns
stared back at him, baring her teeth, Then she raised a metal canister of some
sort, dipped a gloved hand into it, and pulled out a glob of the horrible,
carapace-eating sap, which she smeared across the corn screen.

Perhaps the Young would rather extract the One-Horns and humans themselves.

The AcaBecki had simply disappeared.

Nadhari shook her head in disbelief. "How could it have just vanished?"

"There's a lot of space out there," Becker pointed out, sounding a lot more
nonchalant than he felt.

"Of course there is," she said, her voice overly sweet, as if talking to
someone with a bad case of stupid. "But the Ifnt and the other security ships
have the ion trail ID for the AcaSecki and all of the other ships on MOO. And
the trail ends here. Poof!"

"I wish I had my maps to check," Becker said. "Maybe they have a Bermuda
Triangle in this quadrant."

"A what?"

"Well, long ago back on Mother Earth, there was this area in the ocean where
airplanes and ships disappeared without a trace. It was called the Bermuda
Triangle and people thought-"

"Yes?"

"That maybe aliens from outer space were responsible." His voice faded off at
the end.

"That certainly stands to reason in this case," Nadhari said dryly.

"Can your ion trail ID thing check for other kinds of ion trails-those not
left by Hafiz's or his allies' ships?"

"Like Khieevi ships for instance?" she asked. "I don't know, to tell you the
truth. We only had one encounter with the Khieevi in Federation space and
that was rather brief. I'll check for any strange trails however."

She worked at the control panel for a bit, the colored lights bouncing off the
planes of her face, and then said, "Got it."

"What?"

"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 shells 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 pronounced 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 space."

"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 space, 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 cockroaches
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, Khornya. 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 massing 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 butt while these cockroaches 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 spaceport 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 grasses 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 muffled pounding of hard
feet and the shush of the grasses 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
grasses, 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 shells
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 space 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 massed quickly around narhii-Vhiliinyar and, instead of
sending in ground troops and shuttles as they had before, began a massive
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 succumb 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 grasses, 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 grass fire. One of the Ancestors
bolted from an adjoining cave and galloped across the charred stubble that
remained of the tall grasses, easily, gracefully leaped the small river fed by
an underground spring in the hills, and charged into a remaining stand of tall
grasses on the other side. Grandam watched as the grasses parted, and a line
of figures, much burdened with cases and cages, humbled through the grass 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
assist 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 grass. 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 long.

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 morass 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 sex."

"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 'Kum-bye-ya?' It's from an ancient
Earth culture and very hypnotic."

Nobody did. Karina sang it with them. It -was slow and everybody swayed to it
like she showed them to, but it was repetitious. 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.

The attention of every ship was focused inwardly, on the target, though in
many cases in this particular formation, individual ships were distracted by a
substance brought onboard by disabled shuttles and wounded crew from the
battle with the vine world. The substance was as intractable as the Khieevi
themselves, creeping, infiltrating, oozing over any and all surfaces, and
where it met with susceptible carapace or Khieevi exoskeleton, burning and
eating all that it touched, growing ever more rapidly as it fed. Much like the
Khieevi. Very much like the Khieevi.

The ships that had been infected and remained within the swarm did not request
assistance from the other ships. They did not know exactly -what was weakening
them and causing them to suffer, but they knew that weakness -would be met
with elimination, so they gave their suffering to the Young and carried on as
usual.

Nine Klackt am) Seventy-two Klick<) had just returned to the outermost spiral
ring when its hull imploded and the bridge was filled with burning, clinging
yellow sap and the high pitched eeee's of the crew.

Nine Klack<f an3 Seventy-two Klictu was not one of the ships that had been
infected on the vine -world. But it had seen that many other ships haS taken
back shuttles and crewmembers damaged in that battle. No doubt one of them had
become defective. The driver of Nine Klack.) ant) Seventy-two Kliclu thought
in the split second before the liquid sap covered him that this -was just the
sort of thing that made it necessary to strictly enforce the policy of
eliminating the -weak.

Seventy-two Klackd and Nine Kiick^, on the other hand, had six crewmembers in
various stages of being devoured by sap. When it<f hull imploded with ordinary
explosive missile material, the driver thought to wonder, just before he
crashed his ship into sixteen other vessels, which crashed their ships into a
like number on the -way to the target's surface, how the swarm had known his
ship was infected. And why they had not waited to eliminate him until after
the battle. But, of course, by then the question was strictly rhetorical.

"This is like shooting ducks in a barrel," Nadhan complained, but not
unhappily.

"More like shooting pool," Becker said. "Lookit that ricochet!"

"Somebody call for Ryk O'Shay?" the corn unit asked. "I'm right here with
Cap'n Glen in the Hudson IT sapship Bananas. And we read you, wing command!
One of the bugs just slipped on one of our peels and crashed through the
Khieevi inner formation taking out, oh, maybe ten or twelve of its little bug
buddies, and each of them bumped off at least ten more apiece.

"It hardly seems sporting," Captain Glen opined. "And I -wonder if we aren't
wasting the sap. Whatever they're hit with, it looks to me as if it's their
own tactics that are defeating them.

They seem to be totally unprepared for an attack from outside their
formation."
"That's a roger, Cap'n Glen," Becker said. The scan scope on the Ifrit showed
a long view of the Khieevi formation.

"Au contraire, ma capitaine," broke in Andina Dimitri of Domestic Goddess
Intergalactic Cleansing Corporation, manufacturers of a multitude of cleaning
products and providers of the most comprehensive housekeeping and interior
design services in the Federation. "We've been compiling statistics here and
according to our figures, the ships hit with sap shells hit three times as
many of their companion vessels as the ships hit with conventional ammo. The
sap shells are demonstrably superior."

"This is the Condor calling the Ifrit. Come in, Ifrit," the remote link
crackled.

"Aan! Acorna, we're kicking butt here. Wish you were here."

"Joh," Aari's face on the corn screen -was both serious and hopeful. "Khornya
and I are taking the Condor to find the AcaDeckt. My sister just sent us the
coordinates."

"Oh, good, I'm glad they're okay," Becker said.

"They're not okay, Captain," Acorna said. "They're held in a Khieevi tractor
beam. Maati is afraid they're being taken to the Khieevi homeworld. But the
Khieevi haven't touched them yet."

"Mr. and Mrs. Harakamian?" Nadhari asked. "How are they?"

"Fine, except Maati says Karina has a lousy singing voice. Calum was teaching
the kids Gill's drinking songs, Maati said."

"I'll pass it on," Nadhari said. "Keep us posted on the coordinates of the
Khieevi vessels."

Acorna's voice was unsteady when she asked, "Do we- know how the people on the
surface are doing? Any idea what happened to Grandam?"

"Something happened to Grandam?" Becker asked.

"I forgot you wouldn't know," Acorna said. "All of us felt it. I think maybe
she-she's gone."

"We'll check it out as soon as possible, honey," Becker said. "Nadhari wants
to shoot something so we gotta go now. Give me those coordinates again," he
said. She did and they signed off just in time to hear a very staticky call
from Hudson IT Bananas.

"What the devil!" Captain Glen called. "Wing command, ·we've been hit!"

"Fall back!" Nadhari cried, as a missile exploded to the port bow of the
Ifrit.

"They finally shooting at us instead of the Linyaari?" Gil asked.

"Cloak and shield, people" Becker said. "Do it now."

The mosquito fleet obeyed the command, leaving the space surrounding
narhii-Vhiliinyar to the Khieevi, but still the firing continued. The spiral
of ships, formerly as tidy and symmetrical as a water ballet, already had
gaping holes torn in its pristine formation from the crashes. All pretense of
order vanished as the ships on the lower layer fired upward, the ships on the
upper layer fired downward, and both hit the ships in the intermediate layers,
which crashed. Fire blossomed and ships disintegrated into thousands of
pieces, buffeting the shielded ships of the makeshift MOO fleet like a meteor
shower.

"Holy smokes," Ryk O'Shay said. "Would you lookit the fireworks."

"Fireworks hell," Becker said, his voice thick with longing. "RK, wouldja look
at that salvage, and us without the ConSorV

Nadhari snorted, "The Khieevi apparently decided what we threw at them was
friendly fire-no longer so friendly. I don't know how they could have figured
the crashes were deliberate as well but it looks as if they did, and good
riddance. They're saving us the trouble of killing them by turning on
themselves."

"I like that," Adina said. "It's economical."

"Banaruu, how bad are you hit?"

"I think we've contained it for now, Ifrit, but we'll need a tow back to
base."

"Hang on. This ·will be over soon from the look of it."

It was. In a matter of less than an hour, hundreds of Khieevi ships destroyed
each other. A few managed to flee the scene.

With the ships gone, however. Decker could see what was left of
narhii-Vhiliinyar. The planet's surface, once a study in blue-green landscape
and charmingly colored cities, was now a smoking black, cratered wasteland.

The Condor's computers found every shortcut between itself and the Acaoecki.
Mac, no longer troubled by the cacophony from the fleet, easily picked up the
signals from Fourteen Klacfu an<) Two Kticfu and its cohorts.

"They have injured aboard, Acorna," Mac said. "And they are returning to the
homeworld-the captain of the limb, as the six ships are referred to, is
attempting to precede the remainder of the fleet to the homeworld to appease
those he calls "the Young" with the sacrifice of the AcaSecki's personnel."

The long-range scanners had enabled to Conclor to stay a safe distance from
the limb of Khieevi ships without detection, and now Aari asked, "Shall we
close on them, Khornya?"

"Hmm, not yet, I think," she said. "Mac, let us know if you can get the
coordinates of the homeworld from the Khieevi vessel-or at least some idea
when we're close enough that we have an idea where to locate their homeworld
before we free the Acaoecki."

"Yes, Acorna." Mac said, and returned to his post at the Khieevi shuttle's
corn unit.

Maati continued to send the coordinates every hour.

(Lots of the kids are sleeping now,) she said. (I told Calum and Hafiz that
you were behind us and Calum says please don't get caught. I told him you had
sap shells and he's worried you won't use them because of us Linyaan being
pacifist and all.)
(A minor technicality in this case,) Acorna said as cheerfully as possible.
(Mac can use the launch controls and he is no pacifist. But I suppose this is
one case where even Liriili might be glad Aari and I are somewhat alienated
from mainstream Linyaari culture.)

(Hmph!) Maati sent a picture of herself snorting and giggling (Are you
kidding? If Liriili thought it would save her, she would pull the toggle
herself.)

(I think you're right about that.)

(Khornya? Do you know any more about Grandam yet? I didn't even say goodbye.
Do you think she might think I ran away from heri I'm glad I found my-Aari's
and my-folks, but Grandam is-Grandam was my real family, you know?)

(I felt -what you felt too Maati but I don't know any more about it. We'll
just have to go to narhn-Vhiliinyar when you're free and find out. Captain
Becker says the Khieevi mistook MOO's attacks for some kind of internal
warfare and turned on each other and blew each other all across the quadrant.
I could tell Captain Becker was slavering over all that salvage.)

(He if coming now, Maati. RiiS-Kiiyi if coming, too,) Aari said.

(You thought-talk to RK?) Maati asked.

(Yes, but you, know him. He doesn't Lit ten to me or anyone else. But we have
hao a special relationship since I helpeo heal him on Vhiliinyar. Don't tell
Job. He gets jealous. But 'RiQ-Kiiyijust scratched at the ()oor of my mino. He
wants you, to know he is coming an9 he will claw the eyes out of the Khieevi
ani) spray their sockets.)

Maati giggled.

And after a while she said, (I think we're getting nearer. The Khieevi just
came back on the corn screen even though I scared him off once with the sap.
He's showing that-you know, Aari, that vid of you from the piiyi, to frighten
us again. But we turned the sound off. Nobody speaks Khieevi anyway and many
are sleeping now. Calum's songs are very energetic and involve much stomping,
clapping, and hollering. He wore himself and everyone else out.)

(I missed those versions,) Acorna said. (Or at least the stomping and
hollering arrangements. Gill did sing me an Irish lullaby or two.)

As they spoke, they narrowed the gap between themselves and the Khieevi limb
until they were within firing distance.

(Calum says you should know that he thinks each of the ships have a tractor
beam on us. But I think at least three of the ships are dead already.)

(That's what I call good news and bad news!) Acorna said. (But I have an idea.
Tell Calum to be ready to accelerate and fire upon the Khieevi as soon as the
connections are broken. Then to put up the shields and cloak and take you all
away as fast as possible.)

(I don't think he will leave you.)

(He must to save the children.)

(They will all feel safer with you, Khornya.)
(That's touching but not helpful. Just tell him, Maati, and wish us all luck.)

She went to Mac's station and asked him, "Can you use the Khieevi shuttle's
controls to remotely operate controls on their ships?"

Mac examined the controls and said, "No, Acorna. I cannot find such a
mechanism on the shuttle."

"Oh," she said. "Hmm. There are six ships with tractor beams locked onto the
AcaSecki."

"I could try to send them a command to release the ship," he said.

"Three of the ships are dead," she told him. "But if we    fire on them to break
the beam, I'm afraid 'we might damage the Acaffeclu."

"Perhaps the other Khieevi ships in the limb ·will have a remote mechanism to
control the tractor beams of the dead ships," he said.

"I suppose there's no harm in trying."

He transmitted command-style Hacking and klicking using the identification
code from the mother ship of the shuttle.

Four ships fell away from the Acaaecki at once and when he repeated the
command, so did the fifth.

But the sixth ship sent back a message saying, "This is the driver of the ship
designated Fourteen Klaclu aru) Two Klicki). How is it that you escaped the
Planet of Doom, Fifty-three Klaclu am) Seven Kliclu, when most of our shuttles
were lost?"

Mac shrugged. "What do I say?" he whispered.

Aari had joined them and suggested, "Respond with this message," and he gave
Mac a series of klacks and khcks to transmit.

The last ship immediately released the Acaoecki, which shot away from it and
fired a round at each of its captors. Three of the ships were hit at once and
flew to bits but the other three maneuvered out of range and returned fire. By
then, however, the Acaoecki had cloaked and shielded, as ordered.

"That worked," Acorna said. "What does it mean?"

"I have no idea," Aari said. "Except that it is not very polite and those in
charge seemed to say it when they were particularly annoyed-although with a
Khieevi if was difficult to tell, of course."

The other three ships accelerated away from both the Aca<)ecki and the Condor
along the same route they had been folio-wing, and were out of range before
Aari and Acorna could return to the bridge.

"I am picking up strange signals, Aari," Mac said. "They   do not sound like
any of the Khieevi transmissions I have heard before."

Acorna and Mac heard a higher pitched sound, containing klicking but also
something that sounded more like "snip snip" than a klack.

"However," Mac said, as klick-klacks began transmitting and new blips appeared
on the scanner, "ThoM do. And they are homing in on us. Fourteen Klack) ana
Two Kllclu is transmitting data regarding our position."

"I think it's time to sap Fourteen Klaclu ana Two KUclu," Acorna said firmly.
"They have caused enough trouble for one journey."

The driver of Fourteen Klachf and Two Kllckd -was in agony once more. Behind
him the debris of four ships of his limb blew apart. He alone had realized
that Fifty-three KlacLf and Seven KUdu was behaving in an irregular manner.
But when the driver called him an eater of his own eggs, he thought the driver
must be of very high rank, as such an insult to any but the lowliest inferior
was an invitation to be devoured. Thus had he been tricked into releasing his
prey. His only hope now was that he would leave the nestworld alive once more.

And then that last vain hope also was eaten.

Another of his crewmembers had become infected while tearing off the legs of
one of the previously infected members. Now this crewman crawled up to the
driver while the driver was arguing -with the false driver of the shuttle from
Fifty-three Klack<f and Seven Kilclu. Laying half-eaten pincers upon the
driver's carapace, the crewman begged to be slain. The driver obliged at once,
but not before the sap began eating through to his internal organs.

Meanwhile, signals arrived from several returning members of the swarm.
"Deserter!" their klicks and klacks said, more or less. "The swarm has
perished and now you will perish as well." That was the message from behind
him.

And just ahead, on the nestworld, the Young were clamoring for their prey,
demanding it be brought to them.

On the -whole, it seemed easier to oblige them after all. The driver of
Fourteen Klaclu anc) Two Kliclu raised his acceleration and shot for the
surface of the nestworld without bothering to initiate a landing procedure.

"He crashed it!" Mac said. "Fourteen Klackf and Two KUcLf crashed his vessel
onto the surface of the nestworld. He killed some of the Young. The others
seem to be-from -what I can tell, swarming over the dead to feast upon them."

"At least it seems we won't have to worry about destroying innocent children
when we sap the nest," Acorna said.

"No," Mac said. "But you had better sap them fast and leave. The Khieevi ships
behind are gaining on us."

"Khieevi ships to your starboard stern," Calum said. "We'll cover you,
Condor."

"No!" Acorna said. "Take the children out of here, Calum. Now. You can't risk
them."

"This is Wing Command Ifrit," Nadhari's crisp and authoritative voice came
through. "You heard the lady, Acaoecki. Move smartly from the field at once."

"Do it," Becker's voice seconded the motion. "We got 'em in our crosshairs,
Calum. Vamoose and don't let any salvage hit you in the stern on your way
out."

The rest "was a bit anticlimactic for Acorna and Aari. The squad from the MOO
fleet closed rapidly on the few survivors from the horde's self-destruction
and demolished them with a combination of conventional fire and sap shells.

The majority of the sap shells were saved for the nestworld, where the Young
had already begun to die from the sap oozing out of Fourteen Klaclu and Two
Klick.

"Dimitri, Glen, and Giloglie each keep your wing here until you're sure it's
over," Nadhari commanded.

"Don't worry, Nadhari," Andina Dimitri said, "I've just the cleanser to take
care of this mess."

"Acorna? Aari?" Becker asked plaintively. "I don't suppose you could pick up
any of this salvage on your way back to MOO, could you?"

For the first time since the Linyaari inhabited narhiiVhiliinyar, hordes of
people of other species joined with the Linyaari and the Ancestors.

It had taken much imagination and very precise navigational memory to find the
site of Grandfather Niicari's grave. It had once been marked by being located
a few steps from the back flap of Grandam Naadiina's pavilion but now all
pavilions were little more than pools of molten ash in the lake of such ash
that had once been Kubiilikhan.

Neeva swallowed hard and spoke, "Friends and clankin, we are gathered to lay
our beloved Grandam, mother, protectress, and wise counselor to our many
generations of Linyaari, friend to the outsiders, to rest beside her lifemate,
our Grandfather."

Maati was weeping quietly, supported on one side by Aari and Acorna and on the
other by a dry-eyed but solemn-faced Thariinye. Miiri and Kaarlye stood behind
their youngest, Miiri's hands resting lightly on her shoulders.

Grandam looked so beautiful lying there. The char had been cleaned from her
silvery mane, the lines were smoothed on her face, her hands resting
peacefully, naturally at her waist. And her mouth was curved in a firm and
exultant smile. She had not died in the fire, as it seemed when Maati and the
other Linyaari felt first the fire and then the extinguishment of Grandam's
life force.

Grandam's leap at the fire had been a complete act involving not only her
body, but also her extraordinary strength of heart, mind, and will, as she
dragged the river waters from their bed to flood the fires threatening the
scientists and the precious new species they had risked their own lives to
save.

Never had anyone done such a thing in Linyaari history or fable, as long as
any of them could remember. But Grandam Naadiina had lived longer than any
two-footed Linyaari and had grown in -wisdom and skill with every ghaanyi of
her life. Unfortunately, her heart, which had grown in the strength of its
love and kindness, had not improved structurally, and the strain of her final
telepathic struggle to save others had been too much for it.

"Those who -were with Grandam at the end said she wore the same smile you see
here. Aagroni lirtye, do you wish to add something?"

"I do," he said. His mane was very short and irregular where the char had been
chopped off, and he had no brows or lashes. His skin was reddened and peeling,
as was that of several people around him. "Grandam died as you were just told,
saving me, my staff, and most important, the young we have been growing from
cells of species lost with our own beloved Vhiliinyar. I understand that her
passing was felt by her foster daughter Maati and Spacefarer Thariinye across
several galaxies. I was privileged to be nearest to her at her death and
received her last thoughts. They were of you, Maati, full of pride for your
bravery in risking your life to save your family and friends, and for all of
us, her other children, and most of all, for Vhiliinyar. Just as Grandam knew,
somehow, that we would be saved, she also knew that the destruction of narhii
Vhiliinyar was not the end of a Linyaari homeworld. Viife<)haanye-feriilt
Neeva?"

"I think Grandam would be pleased and proud now to hear the message brought by
my sister-daughter, VueShaanye Khornya, called Ah-khorn-ah by those humans who
saved her as an infant, and saved us from the Khieevi. Khornya?"

Acorna gracefully extracted herself from Aari, with a last caress to his
fingers and a lingering touch on Maati's shoulder, and knelt beside Grandam to
kiss her forehead before standing, quite close to Grandam, and saying, "As
some of you know, the Khieevi -were defeated by people my Uncle Hafiz brought
into this quadrant in hopes that you -would trade with them. I -want you to
know that when these people, merchants, tradespeople, learned that you were in
danger, they hastened to help you however they could. Not all could destroy
Khieevi. Like the Linyaari, many are good only at building, not at destroying.
Dr. Ngaen Xong Hoa, in particular, has long sought to escape from those who
would use the -weather-control science he developed for martial purposes. He
feels a great kinship -with the Linyaari.

"He, along -with the most expert terraforming specialists available in the
Federation, have been brought to House Harakamian's Moon of Opportunity by
Hafiz and Rafik Harakamian for the express purpose of helping us restore
Vhiliinyar to its former life and beauty.

Her voice lowered for a moment and her silver eyes were covered by their long
pewter lashes before she resumed, "I do not recall having seen Vhiliinyar with
my own eyes. But in my dreams, since I -was a baby, I have seen a beautiful
world of rolling hills, snow-capped mountains, tumbling waterfalls and
forests, and great tracts of delicious grasses. I am told that is what
Vhiliinyar was like.

"Grandam's final sacrifice, -which kept Aagroni lirtye and his staff's heroic
efforts to preserve native species that would have otherwise been
extinguished, was her last contribution to the restoration of this home I have
never known, but many of you remember. Her first contribution, of course," and
she smiled impishly, "Was to have her many children and grandchildren, all of
us.

"My adoptive fathers have requested me to ask you if the Linyaari would please
direct Dr. Hoa and the other specialists in a joint effort to restore our
ancestral home to us. For those of us who require the solitude and seclusion
of a peaceful world, Vhiliinyar's location ·will remain a highly classified
secret. My uncles further propose that narhii-Vhiliinyar and Kubiilikhan also
be restored as a trade base for Linyaari skills and goods, ·where our people
may interact freely with people of all planets and species so that we may each
learn the good the other has to offer.

She knelt once more beside Grandam and, laying her hand upon Grandam's folded
hands, said, "Grandam, when the restoration is complete, you and Grandfather
will be brought home to join your children on your world."

It was perhaps the first funeral in the history of the Linyaari in ·which the
beloved deceased was interred to sobs of rejoicing and cries of hope for a
better world to come.


End Acorna's World edited by MerryLady minus the book! please excuse any
errors. Scanned by none