Silent Dances (17 page)

Could they
lea
rn
to see the way she did
?
She suddenly felt sor
ry
for
them-and then felt instantly confused
.
Was this how hea
ri
ng people

viewed her?

"Who was the ship's flyer today?" Taller signed to Meg.
"It must
'
ve been
Lauren
,"
she signed
. "
She looks shaken."

"I'll speak to her, as would the yearling that caused the
accident,
if you'll
translate for me," Taller signed. FliesTooFast was standing
be
hind

him
,
making himself small.

Lauren hesitantly stepped forward, looking haggard. "What should I say?"

she asked B
ru
ce.

"
Just listen
...
uh ... read," B
ru
ce told her.

"Did any of you suffer any injury because of this one's

82

foolish act?" Taller indicated Flies-Too-Fast with his bill. "No," Lauren said,

"but I was afraid we'd killed him." Meg translated impartially.

"It was a terrible moment that ended well," Taller signed. "Please don't feel this incident means we have poor judgment."

Lauren swallowed, as though gearing up her courage. "As the ... flyer of the

ship ... I
do
question the judgment ... of allowing your people to escort the

shuttle."

Scowling, Meg hesitated, but Taller stared at her, so reluctantly she

translated the sentence.

Thorn looked startled. After reading his voder, Peter voiced a warning,

before remembering Lauren couldn't hear it. The computer tech wasn't

paying attention to her voder; she was staring up at Taller. The other Grus

began milling, excitedly. Feathers were being fluffed, crowns expanded.

"It's too dangerous!" Lauren insisted.

Bruce put a hand on Lauren's shoulder to say something, but Flies-Too-Fast

stepped forward before he could.

"Please, don't," the yearling signed. "I'm at fault here, and I'm sorry. What I did was wrong, so punish me, but don't forbid the others the joy of flying with

your ship. It's the only way we can share the sky." He lowered his head and

moved behind Taller, who dipped his own head, acknowledging that the

youngster had signed well. The yearling's parents had returned, and

huddled with him.

"If the humans feel the escort is too dangerous," Taller signed, "I will forbid it."

Oh, no,
Tesa thought, catching sight of Meg's drawn face.
This
is
their
world!

We mustn't tell them where or when to
fly
.

Lauren was about to say something when Tesa interrupted. "We'd never do

anything to make your skies small, Taller, flying with your people honors us."

Tesa glanced at Lauren nervously.

"Good Eyes signs for all of us," Meg interjected quickly into the tense pause.

Everyone seemed to relax, except Lauren, who gave Tesa a tight smile, then

turned away.

Taller had one eye trained on Tesa, but did not respond. His crown,

however, returned to its "relaxed" size and color. Flies-Too-Fast stepped up

to Lauren and held something out.

His parents were close behind him, peering anxiously. A shock

83

SILENT DANCES 83 of sparkling white stretched across his long, black

hands.

"This
is my hatching cloak
,"
he signed
,
one-handed. "My
mother wove it from my father's design. I want you to have
it."

The humans looked at one another,
surp
ri
sed
.
Lauren opened her

mouth
,
but said nothing
,
just took the cloak as carefully
as if she were being handed the Unicorn tapestry. "Thankthank you," she stammered. "
It's
beautiful. I'll treasure it."

This seemed to release everyone's pent-up emotions, and
the flock burst

into a chorus
,
forcing the humans into a flur
ry
of nullifier adjustments
.

Goose bumps swept over Tesa.

"Since that's resolved," Dr. Li said abruptly, "can Tesa
put her index finger
in here
,
please?"

As Tesa obliged,
feeling the cold
,
stinging sensation that followed the

scanner
'
s blood test
,
she watched Dr. Li st
ru
ggle
to ignore Taller, unabashedly observing the proceedings.

"Well," Dr. Li spoke
aloud
, "
going planetside was the right medicine for
her
."
She pocketed the inst
ru
ment
,
flinching away
from an avian who was covetously eyeing the shiny tool.

"So," Peter said
, "
shall we unload the ship, now?"
While the ship was unpacked, Meg brewed fresh coffee, as
B
ru
ce and Lauren assembled

new equipment
. Thorn
and Peter stayed in the shuttle
,
moving things

around and unpacking.
Most of the flock left, becoming bored or hungry,

but Taller
remained
.
So did Flies
-Too-Fast,
hanging in the background.

Meg was showing Dr. Li new food items to be analyzed,
when Thorn stuck

his head out of the ship and motioned to the avian leader
. "
They've

brought it," he signed
,
standing beside Peter in the doorway
.,
The two
men stepped out, Thorn holding a small packing case with the StarB
ri

dge logo on it
.
He glanced at Meg
,
guardedly
.
Peter looked uncomfo
rt
able.

Everyone
stopped as Thorn
placed
the case on the ground and

unsealed it. A sparkle of whiteness caught Tesa's eye. With a shock,

she realized they were unpacking the G
ru
s skin, the one Rob had

shown her back at the school.

Thorn stepped back as Taller approached. Slowly the avian spread the

tanned skin on the ground.
Tesa realized this might be the remains of

someone he'd known.

Taller touched the thing with his finge
rt
ips and the point of his bill
.
It
was too monstrous to believe
.
He smoothed the feathers, t
ry
ing to

control his emotions, not wanting to lose

84

himself before these aliens-these beings that were tied directly with this

horror. What had he ever done to bring this horror on himself, on his people,

on his own children?

He looked up, his eyes following
the sl
an
ting
rays of the
suns
and called loud and long, heedless of the humans' delicate ears. The Sun Family would

not
ignore him this time.

See this!
He sent his prayer-thought on a beam of rage to the implacable

gods.
This is
my
son.
See what has happened to all the
training
, all the preparation ... all the love. Is it not enough to allow Death to destroy
an

entire
family? How can you permit this atrocity--my son,
preserved?

He could feel it on his hands, his bill,
taste it in
his nares and on his tongue.

That stench was there, as it was on their "clothes," and on the things of the World that they would not permit to decay. And now on Water Dancer's

remains. The spirit of his child could never travel to the Sun Family if his

wings were here. And what could Taller possibly say to Dancer's mother

when he brought this sorrow home?

Facing the Sun Family, Taller called again, a short, bitter call. Then he

collapsed, folding his legs, spreading his wings across the ground, gently

touching his bill to the skin.

None of the humans moved. Bruce and Peter looked wooden. Lauren kept

swallowing as though to keep from crying, and even Dr. Li seemed gray and

shrunken. Thorn was wiping his own reddened eyes while supporting Meg

who was weeping.

Tesa had felt a numb horror as she read Meg's words. "It's Water Dancer, oh,

God ... it was packed and sealed when they gave it to me ... I never
looked
at

it ... but he
knows
... just look at what it's doing to him ... he
knows ..."

Taller's movements spoke of anger ... and hopelessness. A fat tear slid down

Tesa's nose and hung suspended off the end. Taller finally stood, seeming

smaller, shrunken. He draped the skin over the base of his neck, then turned

to Tesa, trying to appear normal, but his crown had dulled to an unhealthy

plum. "Will you come and see the egg?"

"As soon as I can," she signed to the avian.

Without another word, he started taking long, graceful strides toward the cliff

edge, his great wing flaps blowing leaves, dust, and instruction flimsies

everywhere.

Flies-Too-Fast stepped up to Tesa. "When the egg hatches

85

SILENT DANCES 85 and the son grows, there
'
ll be a dance
.
You'll

dance
then?"
She signed, "Yes, of course."

"Then every
thing will be right again
.
You'll see." He ran for the cliff
edge, the last of his people to leave.

86

Meg sat heavily in the chair, its unyielding blue plastic hard against her

spare frame. It never took long for the
Crane
crew to come inside and that

last incident with Taller had been all the excuse they needed. They weren't

comfortable outdoors, even as she and Scott had never been comfortable

indoors. The older woman shifted. She ought to get up, make tea, do

something to break the tension-to erase the vision of Dancer's skin and

Taller's grief. Right now she felt any thing but buoyant.

Bruce was busy closing the windows and activating the sound shutters.

Once they were sealed, everyone could remove their nullifiers. Meg frowned.

She and Scott hated the sound shutters. You couldn't get any fresh air when

they were down, you had to rely on air conditioners and filters. You might as

well be in a city high-rise as on a wilderness world.

Besides, watching Bruce draw the shutters was like getting one of his pre-

accident lectures.
The building should be kept shuttered for
safety.
You

might need it in an emergency.
After the accident, however, he'd said

nothing. She could

87

SILENT DANCES 87
still see his st
ri
cken expression as he'd strapped

her onto the stretcher.

She closed her eyes. It had been their choice to keep the shutters up, hers

and Scott's. They knew the risks.

A hand touched her shoulder. Thorn smiled warmly and
tapped his ears.

Returning the smile
feebly, she
tu
rn
ed her hearing on.

Tesa entered, glancing at the clear shutters. "What're they
for?" she asked
Meg.

"Sound," Meg explained. She hesitated awkwardly.

"So you
can hear
safely?" Tesa asked casually. "I didn't
know the shelter
had these
. They
weren
'
t down last night."

"I don't like them, but they make it safer"--she indicated
herself and the
others-
-"
for us."

Tesa made a motion that seemed to say, "I understand," or maybe it said,

"too bad." As though wanting to change
the subject
,
she pointed to a
cluster of small holos grouped
on a nearby shelf. "Are those people part of your original crew?"

Meg looked at the short
scenes
that replayed endlessly.
"Yes-that
'
s all of
us in this scene
."
She indicated fifteen happy people horsing around
,
ete
rn
ally making rabbit ears
over one another's heads.
Were we ever
really that confident?
Meg wondered. "We took the holo the day after we

found Trinity," she told Tesa. She named the people and described
their

duties.

Meg moved on to another holo. "I'
m sure you recognize
Scott, and myself,

Bruce, and Lauren. These other two people ..." She looked at the clean-

faced
,
sandy-haired man whose arm hung casually over Bruce
'
s

shoulders
.
Jim Maltese had been Bruce
'
s closest f
ri
end
,
and
Deborah
,
the black woman in the picture, had been like a daughter to

Meg. She missed Deborah so much
...
but they hadn
'
t been interested

in a First
Contact ... and they had never forgiven Meg and Scott for
calling

the CLS.

The elderly
woman
shook her head. "These people were
f
ri
ends of ours,
then."

Thorn came forward with a cup of hot tea. "Thought you
might like this," he
said to Meg. Smiling at Tesa
,
he said
aloud, "How about you, can I get you anything?"

Tesa met his eyes, then glanced at the voder on her w
ri
st. Shaking her