Ancestor's World (6 page)

Her daughter, Claire Burroughs-Gable, stood waiting for her just inside the corridor leading to the passenger quarters. Seeing her, Mahree smiled tentatively, wondering what kind of mood Claire was in; these days she changed her mood more often than her clothes.

The girl responded to her mother's smile with an impatient.

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"Come on!" wave. Mahree sighed, and the heavy duffel bag seemed suddenly to double in weight as she started toward the girl.

Claire resembled neither of her dark-haired, dark-eyed parents--at fourteen, she was as tall as her mother, nearly as tall as Rob, and fair-skinned, with reddish-gold hair and changeable gray-green eyes.

At the moment she wore a greenish-gray jumpsuit that clung to every line of her slight, newly developing figure, and turned her eyes stormy gray. The girl's scowl and rigid tension as Mahree approached spoke volumes. Claire had never been separated from her mother for more than a few weeks before this, and Mahree could tell she was uneasy at the prospect.

"Mom, the Captain's been holding the ship for you for the past half-hour!" she scolded. "C'mon, the CLS won't fall apart just because you're gone for a few weeks!"

Mahree sighed. "I already contacted Captain Salzeess, and he was able to alter the flight path. I apologized to him, too. Let's go put my stuff away."

Claire gave her a sidelong glance, but said no more as Mahree hoisted the duffel bag higher on her shoulder and started off toward their cabin.

"Did you finish that essay assignment Esteemed Rissaszs sent you last week?" she asked, fighting fire with fire. "Remember, you're going to be seeing her in just a little while, and she's going to expect it to be done." The moment the words were out of her mouth, Mahree regretted them. She'd hoped that this trip to StarBridge could be spent regaining some of the closeness she and Claire seemed to have lost lately.

Coppery hair swung like a curtain as the girl shook her head, her expression surly. "No. What difference does it make? I won't be able to give it to her until we get to StarBridge, and that'll be several days. I'll get it done, Mom...

c'mon, can't you get off my tail for two whole minutes?"

Her daughter's insolent tone brought a wave of warmth into Mahree's cheeks. She halted so abruptly the duffel slid

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off her shoulder and thudded to the deck. She glared at her daughter, her temper rising. "Now just a minute, Claire. You have no call to speak to me like that. Esteemed Rissaszs told me that you're behind on several assignments. She said that--"

Claire folded both arms over her coveralls, and managed to look both tolerantly superior and sullen at the same time. "I know what she said. Just like I know you're not really mad about a stupid homework assignment.

You're not mad, you're worried. You're thinking about--"

Mahree frowned at her daughter, then bent over to retrieve her duffel bag.

"Stop it, Claire! I brought you up to be a polite telepath. You know better than to snoop like that! If they catch you doing that at StarBridge, you will be in really hot water!" Turning away without waiting for a reply, she strode off down the corridor.

Claire's footsteps sped up behind her as the girl worked to match Mahree's angry strides. "Mom! Wait up." Realizing that her daughter was trying to be conciliatory, Mahree slowed down. "No wonder you can't keep up with your old mom; you're wearing your new shoes," she said, eying the spike-heeled, glittery sandals studded with Ri gems.

"I wanted Esteemed Ssoriszs to see them, since he gave them to me," Claire said, walking with great concentration on the high heels.

"Esteemed Ssoriszs has been in a generous mood lately," Mahree agreed.

"If it hadn't been for him, we couldn't have gotten Emerald Scales to transport the expedition."

Funding and a transport. The Mizari, led by her old friend, had really come through, and quickly. Everyone was excited by the idea that this time there might be genuine clues as to where the ancient Mizari Lost Colony had gone.

"Let's compromise," Mahree said, returning to their original subject. "You can have the next hour or two to explore the ship, but as soon as we enter metaspace, you finish that assignment. Agreed?"

"I guess." Claire stopped before the door to their suite 37

and touched it open. Mahree followed her in, tossing her duffel on one of the narrow bunks. Emerald Scales was, after all, a freighter, and the ship boasted few luxuries.

"It'll sure be different, going to regular classes at the Academy," Claire said quietly. "After being tutored longdistance from StarBridge for so long."

"I think it will be good for you," Mahree said, speaking with a confidence she didn't entirely feel. "Your father and I have been planning for you to do this for a while. This new assignment just moves up the timetable a little, that's all."

Claire regarded her image in the reflective panel built into the wall. Mahree stared at her doubtfully. How would Claire react to being among so many other young people? Aliens she was used to; she'd grown up among them and spoke seven alien languages as fluently as she did her own tongue. But young people of her own species were as alien to her as a Mizari eggling would be to a child who'd grown up on Earth.

And there was no doubt that Claire was pretty. She'd attract quite a bit of attention at the Academy. Mahree sighed. Was Claire ready for this? Was she? Was Rob?

Boys. Dating. Sex--or, at least the potential for it. Mahree repressed a worried frown. The subject couldn't be avoided forever; sooner or later Claire would have to learn to live with her own species.

The CLS Ambassador-at-Large busied herself hanging up a few items of clothing from her duffel, then she wandered into the other room and sat down in one of the cushiony chairs, feeling it automatically adjust to her body contours. Kicking off her boots, she leaned back and crossed her legs, trying to relax. Claire followed her out of the bedroom and sat down on the small couch opposite her, her expression uneasy. "You're worried about me, aren't you, Mom? Worried that I'll get hurt by those other human kids? Especially the boys, right?"

Mahree fixed her with a stem look. "Have you been--"

"No, I'm not eavesdropping this time," Claire protested, flushing with indignation. "Anyone could tell you're worried;

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it wouldn't take a telepath. All moms worry about sex and stuff. But I'll be okay. At least... I think I will." Her voice, so sure at first, grew hesitant. "Do you... do you think the other kids will like me?"

"Of course they will, honey," Mahree said, smiling at her daughter. "What I'm worrying about is that you and they have come from such different backgrounds, it may be hard for you to adjust in the beginning, that's all. You know what it's like, building cultural bridges between people, right?"

"Yeah," Claire agreed. "It can be hard."

"We'll talk about it during the trip. It'll help if you're prepared. You might also want to study up a bit on Earth and its colonies."

"You mean study them like I would a new alien world we were going to visit?"

"Exactly. In a way, their cultures are just as alien to you, since you've never actually been to Terra, or Jolie, or any of the other colonies. It can't hurt, right?"

"Okay, I will," Claire agreed. "But, Mom... I'm not the one you should be worrying about. You 're the one who might be in danger, right?"

"Danger? Me?" Mahree shrugged. "All alien worlds have their own hazards, but--"

Claire shook her head, her expression grim. "Damn it, Mom, don't be so dense. Bill got killed there. Somebody smashed his head in, right? What makes you think you'll be safe?"

Ahhhh, yes. Blunt Claire. Mahree licked her lips, thought of repeating the

"duty, honor, and CLS" speech she'd given Rob, then refrained as three bell-tones sounded from the ceiling. "We're undocking. On our way at last."

Claire sat back on the couch, nodding slowly, her eyes fixed on Mahree. "I wish you weren't going. Mom ... I'm scared you won't come back."

"Claire ..." Mahree hesitated. She'd been on the verge of offering her daughter automatic words of reassurance, adult words spoken to a scared child, but as she looked at

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her daughter's expression, they died unspoken. Claire was too old for empty promises.

Instead she said, "Claire, there's no reason to believe that what happened to Bill had anything to do with his being the Interrelator on Ancestor's World.

There are lots of other people there, and he might have made an enemy. As a matter of fact, the preliminary police report indicated that he'd been in some kind of argument with one of the Nordlund officials the day before he died."

"But you don't know anything for sure. What if someone just doesn't like having an Interrelator on Ancestor's World?"

"I've been in danger before, Claire," Mahree said, and as she spoke she had a sudden, vivid memory of the time they'd made the First Contact with the Simiu aboard the Desiree, long years ago. Those had been tense days, terrifying hours, especially when it seemed the Simiu would attack the ship, her Uncle Raoul would try to escape from Hurrreeah's space station, and war between the two species would prove inevitable.

But the war had been prevented. She, Rob, and their Simiu ally Dhurrrkk'

had seen to that, escaping from the Simiu space station in a stolen ship and heading out blindly for Shassiszss to seek help from the CLS. They'd succeeded, Earth had joined the CLS, and she'd become the first person to ever be offered an individual membership in the Cooperative League of Systems.

Rob and Esteemed Ssoriszs had founded StarBridge eight years later.

Mahree and Rob had lived together until the Academy was mostly

completed; then their careers took them in opposite directions. If it hadn't been for Claire, born three years after the Desiree's First Contact, when Mahree was twenty, they might have drifted apart. But their daughter had held them together, become the touchstone of their love. Mahree looked at Claire, noting the fear in her daughter's eyes, the concern for her safety, and had to blink back sudden tears.

"Honey, I'm going to be fine. Ancestor's World is pretty civilized. They were well into their Industrial Age when

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discovered, and they've got police. Unlike Bill, who spent part of his time in the Interrelator's Office in the capital city of Spirit, I'm going to be staying full time in the archaeologists' camp. I'll be surrounded by people all the time."

Claire stared at her, unconvinced. Her daughter's lower lip trembled. Mahree sighed tiredly. Being a parent was like trying to communicate with aliens without knowing their language, tricky in the extreme.

Mahree realized that Claire had tapped into some of her own unconscious fears about this assignment she'd chosen to tackle on Ancestor's World.

What if Bill Waterston's murder wasn't the result of a personal grudge? What if it was part of something more sinister, something connected with the nearby Sorrow Sector? Would she indeed be safe in the archaeologists'

camp?

Rumor had it that the head of the dig, Mitchell, was an irascible man with a reputation for drinking hard, working himself and others hard, and not suffering fools gladly. The report she'd requisitioned on him had mentioned a messy divorce and numerous problems in dealing with his peers, especial y in the past couple of years.

On the other hand, rumor was a notoriously unreliable thing. When Mahree considered the wild things she'd heard about herself over the years, she was inclined to give Mitchell the benefit of the doubt.

Her daughter's haunted expression brought her back to the moment at hand.

Claire needed reassurance, truthful reassurance, not a sharing of worries.

Mahree took a deep breath and gazed directly into the girl's gray-green eyes.

"Claire, I promise you. I'll be careful--and smart--wherever I go and whatever I do."

Slowly, Claire nodded, but her eyes remained shadowed with uncertainty.

Mahree got up, swayed as the ship's grav fields chose that moment to adjust minutely, and walked over to sit beside Claire. Turning, she put her arms around her daughter's narrow shoulders. "Honey, I love you, and I swear to 41

you on my honor I'll do whatever I must to return to you. Okay?"

Claire nodded, her expression still somber, but Mahree could feel some of the tension go out of her. She rested her head against her mother's shoulder.

"Mom, do you think Dad will be happy that we're all together again, even if it's only for a few days?"

Mahree gave her daughter a startled glance. "Of course he will! Why wouldn't he?"

The girl sighed. "When we're together, Dad wants it to last forever, Mom.

He's sad when he thinks that it will only be for a few days or a few weeks."

Claire's statement hardly constituted a revelation to Mahree. She'd known for years that Rob wanted her to give up her position as CLS Ambassador-at-Large and settle down with him on StarBridge. He felt that Mahree could make an even better contribution as an instructor at the Academy than in her current work troubleshooting for the huge, interstellar confederation. After all, StarBridge was their best hope for a peaceful and prosperous Orion Arm.

Mahree could see Rob's point, and thought that he might even be correct, but the idea of staying permanently in one place was unthinkable. She'd roamed the stars for too long now. Alien contact and the delicate work of interspecies negotiation was in her blood, her greatest personal joy. Much as she loved Claire and Rob, even the prospect of being with them all the time couldn't compare with the sense of accomplishment she gained from her work. When Mahree was a young girl, just setting out aboard the Desiree on her way to Earth to attend college (a voyage that had never yet been completed), she'd wished fervently that she could be special. She didn't want a humdrum, ordinary life.

And, unlike most people, she'd achieved her dream-- she was special. Her skills as a First Contact Specialist were legend; her rapport with aliens was a unique ability that had never been equaled.