Second Wave (26 page)

She petted Khiindi until his small heart thumped less violently, then set him down so she could creep closer to see what was happening with the
Mana. “Captain Bates, approach with caution. A shuttle landed next to the
Mana
and from Khiindi’s reaction, the boarding party seems to be hostile.”

“We’ll be there as soon as we can, Khorii. We seem to be experiencing some problem with the fuel pump, and just now a tile fell off the hull. Stay clear meanwhile.”

“I will,”
she said, trying not to let the captain see how close she already was to the
Mana,
despite Khiindi’s batting at her ankles and sending images of Marl Fidd with fangs, horns, and accompanied by two large friends. He made it clear that the
Mana
was off-limits, but it wasn’t as if she were going to go inside. Khiindi pretended not to be telepathic most of the time, but he was unusually emphatic now. To reassure Captain Bates, Khorii told her,
“Every time I try to step closer I get an image of the
Mana
’s outer hatch with a ‘Danger! Keep Out!’ sign on it. Khiindi is herding me away from there even now.”

“Good. If they hijack the ship, we’ll probably get it back at some point and if not, there are other ships. You, on the other hand, are one of a kind.”

That was fine with Khorii. Her parents might have handled the situation more heroically, but Linyaari were
supposed
to be healers, not fighters. She wasn’t about to tackle Fidd by herself, especially if she was needed elsewhere.

Khiindi suddenly bristled and swelled while hissing as if he’d sprung a bad leak.

Before she could scoop him up again, her upper arm was clasped in a painful grip, and Marl Fidd’s voice said, “Gotcha!”

H
ow could you save him?” Maak asked Neeva when the relay was patched through. “An android is not merely an inorganically enhanced human—the organic and inorganic functions are thoroughly integrated.”

“We almost failed to do so,” she told him. “But the creatures who attacked him did not entirely destroy his inorganic parts, and with the help of Jalonzo, a young scientist here in Corazon, we were able to visualize the humanoid physiology on which you based his form and augment it to some degree with our own structures.”

“You brought him back to life!” Captain Becker said, uncharacteristically awestruck.

“No, he still had life when we found him, but he had lost some of its conduits. We repaired and extended existing organic tissue to make the required connections.”

“Thank you, Neeva!” Maak said.

Khornya and Aari also crowded into the com screen. The reception was faulty—they flickered so badly and seemed so insubstantial they almost resembled Elviiz’s attackers, except, of course, that no bits of ship showed through them.

“We thank you as well,” Aari said. “Elviiz is our son as well as Maak’s. Now he will live to meet his other sister.”

“
Other
sister?” Neeva asked.

“Yes, it is quite wonderful, but now Maak would like to speak with Elviiz.”

“Of course,” Neeva said.

“I suppose direct connection is out of the question now?” Maak said.

“It is,” Neeva affirmed, but stepped aside. The
Balakiire
remained docked at Corazon, since planet-to-planet relay was stronger than when the ship was in transit, even when the transmission bypassed the city’s com tower.

Jalonzo helped wedge Elviiz’s autocart between the command chairs on the
Balakiire
’s bridge.

“Hello, Father,” he said. “I seem to be broken. Can you fix me?”

Maak assured his son and creation that he would not only fix him, but had some new and improved modifications to make which he had been saving for Elviiz’s seventh
ghaanyi
anniversary. “It will be close to that time, if not past it, when you arrive here. We shall have to set up a remote repair theater so that I can repair your remaining injuries without breaking quarantine.”

“You think maybe the universe as we know it could spare Khorii long enough for her to come home and test us?” Captain Becker asked. “I feel great myself, never felt better, and the only thing being hurt by our presence here are the little mousie-ratty varmints the
aagroni
recently introduced to the grasslands. RK is having a—you should pardon the expression—field day with them. My guess is if the rest of the universe is over the plague, so are we. It would make it way easier for Maak to operate, and that way we could help.”

“She is on a mission with the
Mana
at the moment and unaware of Elviiz’s injuries; but as soon as we can contact her, we will suggest it.”

Captain Becker suddenly took on an expression that Neeva found difficult to describe. When she consulted the LAANYE later she found that the word she was looking for was “shifty.” He seemed to be experiencing some sort of inner conflict. Finally, he gave a resigned sigh, and said, “I can give you the coordinates of the place where they’ll be heading. It’s on your way home.”

“Thank you, Captain. However, I am sure the
Mana
filed a flight plan with us before departure—”

She looked at Khaari, who looked up from the ship’s computer and shook her head.

“Perhaps not.”

“Okay, but it’s a secret—sort of. It belongs to me, and while I know you and your crew will be cool about it, Neeva, I don’t want it to become general knowledge. It’s a sort of storage depot for my cargo, and if every yahoo in the universe can find it well—it wouldn’t be real convenient.”

“We will not divulge your secret, Captain Becker,” she promised, and he gave them the coordinates.

“We do have one other mission first, but I think given Elviiz’s state and the need to return to Vhiliinyar—”

Elviiz, reassured by his brief exchange with Maak, had fallen asleep with a childlike trust that was at odds with his usual inquisitive and challenging manner.

After disengaging from the relay to Vhiliinyar, the
Balakiire
contacted the
Huhuraani,
which had landed on LoiLoiKua in an attempt to protect or at least heal the indigenous population and to expedite their transport.

Neeva explained the situation to Yiitir, the Linyaari historian who was on duty as communications officer.

While she was explaining, he received another hail. “Wouldn’t you know it? We’ve been here for days and heard from no one and all of a sudden there are two hails at once. Hmm. The
Nheifaarir
. It has the urgency code embedded in the signal,
Visedhaanye
Neeva.”

“If there is some difficulty, perhaps we can help as long as it doesn’t take us too far out of the way,” Neeva said.

He nodded and blinked out of sight for a few moments. “Hmm,” he said when he reappeared on the com screen. “I’ll just patch you two together and let you sort out the details then, shall I?”

A
riin was amazed to see how the small, gaudily colored and gilt-encrusted egg-shaped
Nheifaarir
could tow the lumbering gray tanker. Of course, without gravity, the size difference wasn’t a significant factor with one ship dead in space and the other under full power.

The large ship followed the smaller like a pet far more docile than the Makahomian Temple Cats that lived with some Linyaari. Once she got used to the sight, the subjugation of the tanker somehow seemed disappointingly easy. Maati, who had returned to the
Nheifaarir
with Ariin while Thariinye stayed aboard the tanker, caught the thought.

“Don’t worry, Ariin, this operation will not be boring. Tedious but not boring. Once we get to Rushima’s atmosphere we will need help maneuvering the tanker in for a landing. Let’s hail LoiLoiKua now, shall we, and ask them to send a relay to another ship to join us?”

But this time there were no visuals and Ariin heard only Maati’s side of the brief conversation. Maati was so absorbed she forgot to turn on the speaker. “Neeva! Yes, we need your help with this tanker. No, it will be on your way home. I am so sorry to hear that. Yes, Khorii is on Rushima, and I’m sure she’ll want to be with him. We have a passenger who came with us seeking adventure, too, but I rather think she might change her mind and return with you as well. It shouldn’t delay you for very long, then you can be on your way. I know Maak must be anxious. Here are our coordinates.”

“You’re not sending me home again?”
Ariin asked. The journey, long and dull as it had been, was just beginning. Nothing much had happened yet except finding the tanker. She hadn’t had a chance to show how heroic she could be, or that she was just as talented and praiseworthy as her wonderful twin.

“Not sending you, but I thought you’d want to go since your sister and foster brother will both be returning home, at least for a little while. Elviiz has been injured, and only his father/creator can help him at this point.”

“If she can’t help him, why is she going home, too?”

“First of all, because they have been together since she was a baby and he a very small child.”

“Yes, I was told that but—”
Maati’s expression said that Ariin was either very dense or somehow lacking the proper concern for the injured Elviiz. That was so unfair! How was she to know? She hadn’t even known another Linyaari until a short time ago.

Maati, reading her correctly, relented,
“I’m sorry, Ariin. I forget your unusual upbringing. If it’s any comfort to you, your mother’s unusual upbringing among humans caused her to be misunderstood often, too. It’s just that in our society, and even in human society, if you are as close to someone as Khorii and Elviiz have been to each other for as long as they have been, when one of you is hurt, the other tries to be nearby for emotional support.”

“What is that? How can you support an emotion? Emotions have no mass.”

“Yes, well, perhaps when you’ve been among us longer you will understand better,”
Maati said. Underlying her words, Ariin heard her exasperated thought that those Friends had certainly confused her brother’s long-lost daughter.
“The other reason we would like Khorii to return with Elviiz is to see if the plague strain carried by her parents and the others is still active. If it is not, it will be much easier for Maak to help Elviiz. I rather thought you’d like to be there, too, if Khorii discovers that quarantine can be lifted.”

“Oh, yes! Yes, I would. I am sorry to have questioned you, father-sister. You are wise as always.”

Maati snorted, but was pleased. And Ariin, while also pleased and more hopeful than she had been in some time, wondered what it would be like to have the kind of power Khorii had to determine the fates of the people she loved. If the plague had vanished from the human universe, as people had been saying, then surely Khorii would not see the plague indicators on their parents, and the quarantine would be lifted. They would be very grateful to her sister. They would probably forget all about Ariin in their joy to see her twin home safely.

If so, Ariin would deal with that when it happened. Meanwhile, she could hardly wait for the
Balakiire
to arrive with her illustrious great-aunt
visedhaanye
Neeva, and her sister’s (she couldn’t think of him as her own) android foster brother Elviiz. And that other. The trickster who, according to the Friends’ technicians, had been responsible for dooming Ariin to life without her people and family. She was very interested indeed in meeting Grimalkin at last.

Meanwhile, Maati was on the com with Thariinye, giving him the news about the
Balakiire
.

When she signed off, she said, “Now to let Khorii know what’s happening. Can’t have the
Mana
taking off before we arrive.”

Maati hailed the
Mana
. Ariin could see her laying out the logistics for Khorii—first the
Balakiire
would arrive, with the injured Elviiz on board, and assist the
Nheifaarir
in guiding the damaged tanker to the surface of Rushima, where its tank could be emptied and any nonessential personnel would help pilot the tanker back to LoiLoiKua to pick up the locals and transport them to Vhiliinyar. Meanwhile, Khorii, Elviiz, Ariin, and Maati would return in the
Nheifaarir
to Vhiliinyar, where Elviiz could, they hoped, be healed.

When that was done, Khorii could return to the
Mana
if she liked, to complete the original mission. The crew of the
Mana
was invited to wait for her on the Moon of Opportunity.

But Maati did not get to explain any of that, because her hail went unanswered. She switched on a visual that should have shown her the bridge of the
Mana,
but instead displayed the startled faces of two extremely rough-looking characters who appeared almost monstrous to Ariin, all greasy, long, matted hair, scars, pointed teeth, and—of course—no horns. It did not take a telepath to tell that they were not local mechanics performing free maintenance on her sister’s ship, or that good intentions of any sort were as foreign to their natures as their appearance was to Ariin.

Neither did it require a telepath to understand that Khorii was probably in danger from these toughs and that, therefore, Ariin’s chances of finally making physical contact with her parents was also endangered.

“Who are they? What are they doing on Khorii’s ship? Where is she? Maati, we have to help her!”
Such an outburst would have caused the Friends to administer a sedative to her, but Ariin had apparently responded appropriately in Maati’s estimation. Ariin’s aunt looked up and took her hand consolingly.

“We will, youngling. Don’t worry, we will.”

But how? Ariin wondered. She and Maati were alone on the
Nheifaarir
while Thariinye, the only male, was elsewhere. Furthermore these strange people of whom she was a part had somehow or other, after they had supposedly (though so far no one knew how) descended from a combination of the Friends and the Others, decided that no one of their race did war or violence. Ariin had never seen bad men before but she recognized that, had circumstances been different, had he not been able to get anything he wanted without force, Odus was perfectly capable of using it. Even the Others, good as they had been to her, were ready to fight. Hruffli would have protected her, she knew. And Neicaair and Nrihiiye were definitely feisty.