First Warning: Acorna's Children

Chapter 21

Jaya had never loaded the delivery shuttle by herself before, but with Elviiz's strength and Haps mechanical aptitude, the task went quickly.

Marl Fidd, unsurprisingly, was not a great deal of help. He was supposed to be hauling cargo, but instead felt it necessary to sample the more interesting varieties of food first, flinging the cartons every which way in his search for goodies. The Vermin Eradication Specialists flocked to the empties to see if there were any tasty bits left inside.

From a safe high perch, Khiindi hissed down at them. "Watch your tails!"

The team leader pulled her head out of a carton, glared up at him with gold eyes, and twitched her whiskers in disgust. "You stop watching our tails, you pervert."

"You wrong me again, female," Khiindi replied as he feigned a disinterested yawn. "Were it not for the tiny and rather charming products of your now-barren loins, which I assure you are of no interest whatsoever to me, I would not bother to warn you. But that big thug stuffing his face and tossing around the cartons and boxes from which you feast is a cat killer. He tried to drown me by picking me up by the tail and hurling me into a deep pool of water."

"I already think more highly of him," the queen said, with an upward jerk of her tail. But she called to her brood, saying, "Come along, all of you. We have vermin to catch and we don't want to spoil our appetites."

Marl didn't seem to notice the other cats at all, but Khiindi made sure that when he fell asleep it was somewhere high and hidden, but close to Elviiz and Khorii. He also made sure his tail was securely tucked beneath his belly.

When Khorii slept, he tucked himself up tightly against her, ready to defend her against Marl or anyone else.

Once the shuttles were loaded and ready to take to the surface, Mana's new crew hailed the moonbase again.

"See, Phador?" Asha said, when the other teachers were on the com screen. "Your canary in the mine is still alive and kicking. I told you Khorii's technology could overcome this, and it has. So if you're not dying to eat your shoes, could we please come back and bring these supplies?"

"We have conferred on this issue, and I have consulted the Federation directives on this subject. You may send the supplies down to us, but none of you may return until the quarantine has been lifted."

"Why?" Marl demanded. "Fewer mouths to feed, is that it?"

Phador glared at him. "The plan is this. I will expose myself to the questionable cargo. If I experience no ill effects, then we may unload it for the use of the compound at large."

"If it's not contaminated," Calla turned to him, looking nonplussed, "surely it stands to reason, since they've been handling it, that they, too, are safe to return?"

"Not necessarily," he argued. "We are still unsure about the incubation period. And some of them may be carriers. We cannot take the risk."

"Well then, you can starve for all I care," Marl said. "I didn't bust my hump so that you could take all the food and leave us up here like space trash."

"No," Khorii and Asha said together. "We'll take the shuttles down, unload them and return."

"You should leave one for our use-for later," Phador said.

"Ours belongs with this ship," Java said stubbornly.

"The shuttle we arrived in is the property of Captain Becker and the Condor," Elviiz said.

"And since you're going to be so unreasonable about this," Asha said. "The Nakomas is my personal property, and I will bring her back into exile with me. I suggest that if you need a shuttle, Phador, you do what you do best-run to the Federation."

They signed off before while the headmaster of Maganos was still spluttering a reply, with Asha muttering, "Pettifogging bureaucrat."

Khorii frowned. She didn't have to be a telepath to understand that Phador was very angry. "While I appreciate what you're doing for the people down at the base, Captain Bates," Khorii said, "aren't you worried about what Phador might do to you when this is all over?"

Asha regarded the girl for a long moment before replying. "Don't you fret about that, little one. He wouldn't dare fire me over this, or I'd spill the news about him keeping the supplies away from the moonbase, when there was absolutely no danger from it, to everyone who would listen, including the Federation. I'm sure this incident will quickly fade away once the plague has been eliminated." She pushed back from the com console and stood up with a quick smile. "Of course, if you and your mother had anything to add regarding my conduct, I would be very appreciative."

Khorii smiled back. "I think my mother will certainly have something to say about this when she finds out about it. But right now we should get those supplies moonside as soon as possible."

Elviiz and Khorii both piloted the little shuttle from the Condor, although it was packed so tightly the two of them could barely squeeze inside-accompanied by Khiindi, who insisted on going, too. The docking bays were barren of personnel as well as other spacecraft, and the three shuttles set down in an isolated area, with Kezdet shining huge and bright over them and her other moon floating in the sky nearby. Jaya and Hap, Asha Bates and Marl, and Khorii and Elviiz unloaded by hand everything they had used machinery to load on the Mana. Khiindi stayed aboard the shuttle and was the only one to see when the com screen, formerly containing Phador's disapproving face, changed to show the picture of a fish. As Elviiz and Khorii reboarded the shuttle, a song poured through the intercom, a complex harmony of many voices filled with melodic melancholy.

"The poopuus are singing," Khorii said. After the backbreaking work of moving the cargo, she was glad to be able to slump down in the command chair, wipe the sweat from her skin, and stare into space while the chorus of beautiful voices washed over her like the scented and softened waters of Uncle Hafiz's fountains.

"Nice of them to entertain us," Jaya remarked, from her own shuttle.

"It's not entertainment," Hap said. "It's like a hymn. Can't you hear?"

Khorii shook her head silently, but said nothing as the song on the intercom accompanied them back to the Mana. While they flew, she saw images in her head of groups of poopuus floating listlessly in their oceans. Then suddenly there was a picture of Khiindi with his paw extended to take a fish, but the fish was not shining, and it did not try to escape. And then Khorii herself appeared beside Khiindi and the fish, and she bent over the water, her body stretching as she reached out to the floating people who yearned toward her. Then she was in the water and all of the other people in it opened their eyes wide and waved their arms back and forth as the song ended on a celebratory note.

When the shuttles emptied out into the docking bay, she told them, "The poopuus' song contained a psychic message to me," Khorii said. "An entreaty. They want me to go to their planet and save their elders."

"Oh, well, don't let us stop you!" Marl said. "Why don't you just hop aboard a passing meteor shower and go out and save the poop-uus and the whole fraggin' universe while you're at it! They're bound to make you the princess of the poopuus in gratitude, and we can all be your grateful subjects, too."

"Stop that, you mean boy!" Sesseli said, stalking up to him with her hands on her hips and her small chin angled belligerently upward. "Khorii was just saying what happened. She wasn't bragging, like some people would."

"Get your petite feet out of my personal space, pet, or I'll take you by the tail and throw you into the great beyond," Marl snarled, indicating the star-spangled black bits that showed between Kezdet, Maganos, and the other moon outside the docking bay.

"What do you think, Elviiz?" Hap asked. "I think in Marl's case, his tongue is a birth defect. Maybe we should perform a procedure on him to correct it." Elviiz didn't reply, but glanced at Khorii instead, his face flushed with embarrassment.

Marl's eyes narrowed, and he pointed a slightly shaking warning finger at Hap, "I'm ready for you, smart-ass. And if that monster comes near me, I'll-"

"Yes, tell us, just what will you do, Marl?" Asha, who had been leaning against her shuttle with her arms folded, asked. "Bleed a lot and hope Khorii can understand your screams well enough to help you with another of her remedies that you're so scornful of? I seem to remember being near her was the main reason behind your noble sacrifice of joining forces with us outcasts."

Khorii sighed, and said, finally, reasonably, "Marl, you do not have to be afraid. We Linyaari are peaceful people, and I will not let Hap hurt you. Elviiz is deeply ashamed he broke your arm and will not do it again. But you must not hurt Khiindi or Sesseli or anyone else either, or you will have to be isolated. I think that under the circumstances, that would be rather frightening for you."

"Frightening? Do I look like a sissy?"

Sesseli glanced at Hap, who stared back at Marl. They both shrugged and nodded.

"Hey, I don't need this-!"

"That is enough," Jaya said. "This is my ship now-at least until the Krishna-Murti Company decides to reclaim it-if-if ever anything goes back to normal. And if Khorii thinks her skills can help some other people who are smart enough to let her, / say it's just about criminal to keep orbiting and wasting fuel and wondering if we'll die before we go dry. I think we should go and see if we can save them."

"That would be breaking the rules, sunshine," Marl said.

"Since when have you ever had a problem with that, Marl?" Asha asked. "If you do, however, I'll be happy to let you keep orbiting in the Nakomas. Personally, I think Jaya has a point. Khorii, what do you say?"

Relief blew across Khorii like a cool breeze. "I hate being idle when there is so much to be done."

Khiindi hopped onto her shoulders and twined himself around her neck, careful to keep his tail tucked. He stared intently at Marl Fidd, who-fortunately-was not looking at him, and tried willing the bully to accept Captain Bates's offer of the perpetually orbiting shuttle. Then the rest of them could head spaceward, finding Aari and Acorna once more after many exciting but not very dangerous adventures, which would somehow, never mind the details, result in glory and adulation for himself.

"Good," Asha said. "Shall we tell Phador we're leaving, then? With any luck he'll forbid it, which will make the trip worthwhile even if we don't manage to save another single soul."

Spying on people was rude, of course. Liriili would have said it was inexcusable; but then Khorii did not want to think of Liriili for a role model, as she was the least empathetic and flexible Linyaari ever born, at least according to Aunt Maati. Besides, this was an emergency situation and, except for Elviiz, Khorii was about to embark on an illegal trip to a strange world with people she did not know very well.

She had found out a little about each of them by then. Hap, for instance, cared about animals, knew how to do many things usually done only by adults, and talked a lot. He could tell you all sorts of things in the same way Elviiz could. But did he talk about the things that were actually important to him? For instance, he seldom mentioned Shoshisha, but the way he had looked at her back on Maga-nos said that she was probably on his mind a lot. Khorii hoped she was mistaken. Shoshisha she knew well enough to know that she was a very selfish and somewhat hysterical person. Khorii was very thankful that Shoshisha was not on the Mana.

Captain Bates was a teacher, and obviously a sympathetic one, since she was here. She meant well, and truly had the base's best interests at heart. But on the other hand, she had brought Marl Fidd with her for some reason that Khorii could not fathom. And Marl was angry, selfish, violent, and a bully. Oh, and also besotted with Shoshisha, and very messy.

Jaya had spent just enough time on the Mana to learn to operate the loaders, but though she'd managed to load the cargo back on the trip to Maganos she couldn't really fly the cargo ship without help. She missed her parents terribly and had continued visiting their bodies until decomposition took the comfort out of that.

Sesseli was small, friendly, and loved animals. And also stood up to bullies, even at risk to herself.

Which left Marl Fidd, whom Khorii tried to avoid as much as possible. The last thing she wanted to do was to see what was on his mind.

All in all, it wasn't much to go on.

She tried listening in to the thoughts of everyone in general, but they were so confused that she sometimes seemed to hear more inner conversations than there were people on the ship. No, if she was going to learn anything useful, she would have to do it while talking to each person.

Or, in Hap's case, listening to him talk to her. Since he was the first person she met and full of information, she decided to try him first. Finding him turned out to be difficult, however.

Captain Bates sat at the console with Sesseli on her lap. A kitten was curled up in a small furry ball on Sesseli's lap. "This is the radar screen," Captain Bates was explaining. "And do you remember what this is? We talked about it in class."

"Navigational computer?" the little girl said, pointing to one of the screens.

"That's right," Captain Bates said. "You'll be flying this ship in no time."

She was thinking, / need to get these kids ready to be on their own. With things the way they are, any or all of us could die at any time, and whoever is left needs to be able to fly this beast. How could Phador be so pigheaded? I thought he really cared. And Khorii backed off as she got a picture of the captain and Phador Al y Cassidro, locked in a sweaty embrace that she recognized from books and vids aboard the Condor as mating, human-style.

So that's really why she wasn't worried about him doing anything, she thought. "Captain, do you know where Hap is?" she asked quickly.

"I'm not sure. He's been hanging out in the engine room quite a bit lately, so I decided to hold an impromptu lecture down there. He was explaining to us a little while ago about how the drive on this particular model of ship works, but then Marl came in and made a remark that upset Jaya. Before I could stop them, he and Hap got into it, and Jaya ran out of the room. Hap followed her. I'm not sure where Marl went, but I'm keeping Sesseli and the cats with me."

Sesseli was smiling as she put a small hand on each control in turn, but her large blue eyes were very serious. Her fine curly blond hair was tied into two pigtails with bright-colored ornamental cords with little gold bells on them. Khorii recognized them as being two of the bracelets Jaya liked to wear in thick bunches on each wrist.

Sesseli's thoughts were transparent at that moment. Just like with Mama, she was thinking. But Mama didn't know how to drive a spaceship, I don't think. The little girl's recollections of her mother were blurred around the face, but seemed to be starting to resemble Captain Bates.

Khiindi jumped off the top of a vent and landed on Khorii's shoulder.

"Except Khiindi," Captain Bates continued. .

"Yes, he will help me search for Hap. They're friends," Khorii said. Khiindi purred and for a moment she thought she picked up on his thoughts. "I am not a dumb beast, but I am a beast, with nothing interesting at all for you to read. Concentrate on the people. I have no thumbs. I cannot fly a ship. And by the way, feed me." But of course he wasn't really thought-talking to her. Was he?

From Jaya's cabin came the sound of weeping. Khorii had learned that it was best not to bother her while she was grieving, at least not until she gave some indication she wanted to talk. Jaya's thoughts were broadcast through the door and unsurprisingly were of times she spent with her parents, cooking, eating, learning, fighting over whether or not she could go with them, go to a school, a dance, a friend's house. And there were also blurred thought-forms of a very tiny Jaya hunkered down and looking up with enormous eyes at huge feet and legs of other people, happy, powerful people, going about their business all around her. They could step on her at any moment, and there was no one there to protect her.

Khorii raised her hand to knock on the door, then sensed another feeling beneath those Jaya was projecting. Some part of the other girl was enjoying scaring herself in this way, feeling helpless and alone. That was the part that did not want to and was not ready to start living on her own again. Khorii lowered her hand and continued down the corridor.

The door to the cabin where the bodies had been stowed was open, and the room was empty. Khorii closed it quickly, hoping Jaya wouldn't notice.

Was this some macabre prank of Marl's? Didn't that boy have any feelings for anyone but himself? Khorii strode angrily down the corridor. Hearing a lot of thumping and bumping coming from one of the cargo holds, she shoved open the door.

Marl was lying flat on his back with a box labeled SCRUBBERS on his chest. "Oh, Khorii," he said, in an uncharacteristically friendly voice. "The very person I wanted to help me. I just spotted some peanut butter on that shelf up there, but I can't reach it. Give me a boost up so I can stand on your shoulders and grab it and pass it down to you, okay?"

"Wouldn't it be easier to use the loader?" she asked.

"I don't see it, do you?" he said. "That Hellstrom geek's probably taken it apart to see how it runs. And I'm really hungry." He tried to look pathetic, but in the days they'd been en route he looked as if he had put on at least ten pounds. "Please?" he asked. She had never realized he knew the word.

However, his thoughts were anything but polite. In his mind he was huge, especially his male part, and she was comparatively small, and could be broken in half. After he did that mentally, he put her back together again. She also walked very strangely, slinking around as if she were a cat in heat. He had more violent images about what he wanted to do concerning her, before his lust for peanut butter overcame them. Khiindi, he thought, might taste good roasted and covered with peanut butter. This was followed by other disturbing images of himself with every other female on the ship. I have to warn Captain Bates about Marl, she thought.

Khiindi dug his claws into her shoulder and tried to hide in her mane as Khorii began backing away. "I have to do something right now," she said.

"I said 'please,' "he said, scowling."What do you want anyway?"

"Just a little time," she said sweetly, but definitely not seductively. "I'll come back and help you in a little while, honestly. I just have-" She decided not to tell him that she was looking for Hap. That wouldn't go over very well. "I have something I really need to do first." That wasn't a lie exactly, but there was no way she was corning back alone. She'd bring Elviiz with her maybe, or just send him, but she was not going to be alone with Marl again. Not with what she saw in his mind. She would also have to make sure that the rest of the girls were never alone with him, either.

"Your loss." He shrugged and turned his back on her, looking for footholds among the shelves towering overhead. "I'm willing to share."

Khorii left in a hurry. If he fell again, she did not want to be there to feel compelled to help.

Thumping and swishing sounds came from the next cargo bay, and she could see dim light through the open door. When she stepped inside, she saw that all of the light was concentrated in one corner. Both loaders were parked between her and that area, and cargo had been rearranged in new stacks that formed another wall in back of the loaders. The thumping and swishing sounds came from behind the new wall, accompanied by conversation.

"You realize that this will not impede the decomposition of the bodies?" Elviiz was saying.

"It's not. Supposed.To." Haps voice replied, grunting after every other word or so.

Khorii could not see them and walked over to the cargo wall. But it was more complicated than that. The stacked containers did not just form a wall, they enclosed a newly created raised courtyard, a man-made hillock composed of special soils and manures intended for farming colonies that filled the enclosure to a height of about ten feet. The neatly stacked empty bags and boxes that had contained the soils and fertilizers now formed part of the retaining wall. The smell in the bay reminded Khorii of home: rich, loamy earth, and occasional whiffs of other, not so pleasant smells as well. Atop the mound sat five long wooden boxes. Behind them, Hap labored, digging with a shovel, while Elviiz dug with his entrenching attachment, flipping dirt out of his growing hole twice as fast as his human counterpart. She wrinkled her nose as she watched the two boys work.

"What are you doing?" Khorii asked.

"Oh, Khorii, hi," Hap called. "There's a ramp over on this side we used to bring the loaders down. Come on around and take a look."

"We are creating a burial ground, Khorii," Elviiz answered her question. He always answered her questions, that was the thing about Elviiz. Even ones she asked someone else. Sometimes even if she never actually asked a question at all. That was one of the most infuriating things about him, his almost Linyaari-like ability to know at times what she was wondering, even if she didn't say it. Now, however, his predilection to answer her was coming in handy.

"Why?" she asked.

"In order to bury Jaya's parents and the crew of the Mana," Elviiz replied. "Hap feels it would be beneficial for Jaya's grieving process to observe certain ceremonial folk customs humans use to dispose of the discarded bodies of their fellows."

Hap planted his shovel in the dirt and mopped his face with his hand, spreading dirt in a comical mask around his eyes. "I don't think it's good for her to keep looking at the bodies," he said. "Her people aren't there anymore, and the longer she looks, the harder it will be for her to remember them how they were when they were alive. I've been building coffins and hauling dirt all week and today, with Elviiz's help, digging the graves. I made some nice markers, too. We can plant fast-growing flowers and shrubs and stuff and make a nice little memorial garden for her to visit."

Khiindi hopped down onto the mound and began digging enthusiastically in the loose dirt, then squatting over his hole with a look of feline bliss curving his crescent moon cat lips up into his whiskers.

"Eeewww!" Hap said, shaking his head. "I was going to start on that area next! Elviiz, you've just landed pooper-scooper duty. Funny, I've never seen a cat actually smile before."

"Khiindi is not like any cat you have ever known," Elviiz said, before returning to work on his hole. Khiindi strolled off, his tail held high, the look on his face seeming to indicate that he had just blessed the entire area with his offering.

Khorii nodded as she took it all in, not knowing what to say. Between shovelsful of dirt, Hap continued. "Anyway, we couldn't just space them. For one thing, it's kind of gross because you can see the body float off into space from the ship. It doesn't seem respectful somehow, especially not with the dead person's daughter watching. And also, I would think that the Federation might worry about bodies in space being time bombs for future epidemics. Say everything gets back to normal and we go about our business. Jaya would be held responsible for the ship and what happened to the bodies by both her company and the Federation. We could cremate them, I guess, if we could land somewhere, but we can't right now. And it costs too much in power to refrigerate the room all the time to a temperature that would stop decomposition. We're definitely not storing them in the galley freezer. We don't know how long we'll have to stay on this bird or try to keep it flying. So this seems like the thing to do, you know?"

Khorii smiled and nodded. Only Hap would think something so odd and work-intensive was the logical alternative, but he meant it with a kindness that was almost selfless. She caught a fleeting thought image of him holding Jaya, comforting her, kissing her hair. Boys! Mating was certainly a big part of their thoughts. At least Hap had settled on a girl close to his own age for his fantasies and was doing something nice for her. But she also knew that one reason he was talking so much was that he was afraid it was not the right thing to do. Maybe Jaya would be offended. Maybe her people didn't bury their dead. Maybe she liked being able to look at the husks of her parents and the other crew members. He tried so hard, and yet he felt like he never quite did the right thing to make other people like him. Under his enthusiasm and outer cheerfulness, Khorii felt a great void edged by intense sadness. His life before Maganos Moon-base lay within it, she thought.

"Can I help?" she asked.

"Yeah, we've got the graves about dug now. You want to go get Jaya and let the captain know what's up?"

Elviiz said, "I will help inter the remains of the crew members, then take the helm, if Captain Bates likes, so that she may make the gestures considered culturally appropriate in this situation. She did say that she knew Jaya's parents." Khorii nodded and trotted down the ramp, heading for the crew cabins. She passed the first cargo bay at a run, half-afraid Marl would jump out and remind her of her promise. She exhaled with relief when she came to Jaya's cabin, but the smaller girl was no longer there. Khorii found Marl, Sesseli, Captain Bates, and Jaya on the bridge, staring at the viewscreen. A huge Federation ship drifted past, broadcasting the same kind of mayday pulse as the Blanca.

"What shall we do?" Khorii asked.

"We can't do a bloody thing," Marl said. "They're done for."

"I might be able to help, in case anyone is alive," Khorii said.

"No," Captain Bates told her, the tone of command firm in her voice. "It's too dangerous, and it would take too much energy. That won't be the last derelict we see before this is over, is my guess. Let's save our energy and your skills for one that shows some sign that somebody has survived."

To Khorii's surprise, Jaya agreed with them. "Anybody can use the com unit. If they're not well enough to get to it to answer our hail, they would not live until you could board, Khorii."

Khorii didn't argue. She closed her eyes and opened her mind and tried to feel if there was any life aboard the ship. Whether there was someone and her psychic skills were unable to perceive them, or whether there was nobody left alive there, she couldn't tell, but she nodded. If she had been able to sense anyone, it would have been different.

Jaya looked away abruptly, and Khorii touched her shoulder. "Jaya, Hap and Elviiz have prepared a resting place for your parents and friends in cargo bay two. They'd like you to come and see now."

"Me, too?" Sesseli asked.

"Yes, you, too," Khorii said, hugging the youngster to her side. "Captain Bates, Elviiz will relieve you so you can come back, too, as soon as he's finished helping Hap."

Captain Bates nodded, just glad Khorii hadn't made more objection about the derelict. "I would be honored to attend."

"Well, I'm coming too. I wouldn't miss this for the world," Marl said.

He almost choked on his own laughter when he saw the man-and droid-made hillock, but Elviiz took one step toward him, and he shut up abruptly. Khorii felt certain Elviiz wouldn't attack anyone just for laughing, but she wasn't sure that she could have stopped herself from smacking Marl if he didn't stop ridiculing other people's efforts to be helpful.

Hap offered Jaya a last look at her family and fellow crewmen before putting the lids on the coffins, then he and Elviiz lowered them into the holes. Elviiz filled them in with such speed and energy it detracted a bit from the somber tone of the event, but Hap helped Jaya place the markers he had made at the head of each grave. She knelt between the graves of her parents, looking lost. Khorii had an idea. She ran back to cargo bay one where she had made her 'ponies garden and gathered some of the gold and orange blooms already growing on the flowering edible species she had cultivated. Returning to cargo bay two, she climbed the hill and handed the flowers to Jaya.

Jaya stopped crying and looked up at her in surprise. "Marigolds! How did you know? These are the traditional flowers for funerals and weddings for my people."

Khorii smiled. "And they're delicious, too, so they're the traditional flowers for grazing for my people."

As touching as the makeshift ceremony was, she hoped the memorial garden would have little chance to blossom before the ship reached LoiLoiKua, then Paloduro, and she saw her own parents again. Jaya's grief made her nervous, and she couldn't help wondering where her mother and father were and what they were doing.

The gymnasium had been transformed into a makeshift clinic and emergency shelter for anyone well enough to get there. Most of the people were not actually sick, or not very sick, but did need to be decontaminated before they mixed with the others. Finally, after three days of healing, with only an occasional break for one of them to eat or sleep while the other continued to tend the new arrivals, the flow of patients seemed to be stanched.

Aari and Acorna worked tirelessly until every last person who came for their help had received it. Then they made an announcement.

"We need to let any other survivors in the city know that we're here and this is the place to come for help. We also need more supplies to take care of you all. Could we have some volunteers to come with us to try to reestablish the communications systems so we can broadcast to anyone who might be left and also to acquire enough supplies for the people here until we know it is safe for them to return home?"

"I helped design the emergency broadcast system for the entire city grid," a thin, older man with a shock of white hair told them. "I can show you where the station is, and I'm pretty sure I can get the equipment going again."

"Great. Thank you," Acorna said.

"I will help you hunt for supplies," Abuelita said.

"We can go to my son's store," a woman said. "He sells-sold- camping supplies, sleeping bags, cots, tents, dehydrated food, that sort of thing. It's quite a large place. He was leading an expedition into the jungle when the plague broke out. I-don't know how he is. But I know he would be glad to help, even if he has to start all over-if he can, I mean, I-" Flustered, she broke off as the impact of her words sank home.

"Excellent," Aari said, smoothly filling the sudden silence."! will come with you. We will need more volunteers to load and carry things."

"I own a fleet of florries. Some of my drivers-died in them. If you can make them safe enough to drive again, we can pick up stuff all over the city." This was from a tiny bird-like woman. Despite a huge, sculpted, and lacquered wave of blond hair, now a bit bedraggled, and extremely tight skin on her face with eyebrows that looked as if they'd been drawn on with ink, she looked to Acorna to be about the same age as Uncle Hafiz.

"Yes, that would be wonderful." Florries, flying lorries with a capacity to haul large loads, would be tremendously helpful.

"You two are very tired," Abuelita said. "We have many people with resources here. Let us organize ourselves, determine the priorities, where we need you first and who is to help with what. Both of you need to rest. When we are ready, we will let you know where you should go first."

"The emergency broadcast is the most critical," Acorna said. "We must let people know where to come before they lose hope. While they are making their way to us, we can be readying a place for them and for the people already here."

It took three additional days to gather other survivors, heal them, and decontaminate the means to support them. Aari and Acorna were constantly on the move except when Abuelita and some of the other elders insisted that they stop and rest. They grazed in parks and in the vegetable departments of empty supermarkets. Much of the produce was beyond saving, but some could be restored enough to be edible. Once they felt they had done all they could for as many as were able to receive their help, they moved on.

Corazon contained the largest population on Paloduro, so with help from Jalonzo, Abuelita's grandson, they flew to more remote portions of the planet. Two of the newest settlements, pioneered by a group consisting mostly of men looking for new frontiers, had been totally wiped out, without a single survivor. Some of the other less recently established had a few middle-aged women and a scattering of children, not so much sick from the plague as starving and suffering from other ailments resulting from living in such a moribund environment. This was where the freeze-dried foods and nutrient bars the parties carried with them were tremendously helpful.

But they also needed healing and a safe haven to stay at until more permanent arrangements could be made. Aari and Acorna rose to the task, until the last patient was cured and sixteen centers had been organized, staffed, supplied, and decontaminated. By the time all of that was finished, both Linyaari were utterly drained.

Jalonzo had expected them to be tired, but he was also baffled by the changes taking place in them. He had begun to consider the benign aliens as creatures much like the characters in his games-a constant set of attributes that could be applied in a certain way to achieve a certain result. In real life, he figured, the attributes should remain stable and reliable.

However, both of his heroes began to falter, despite longer rest periods and more open grazing. "Have you used up all of your secret powers now?" he asked Aari, when they were back inside the flitter, heading back to the place where they had left the space shuttle.

Near the landing site, two retired heavy equipment operators had dug a mass grave in the city's center. Using their gigantic tools with the same intricacy as a laser surgeon, they lifted the bodies from the street and took them to the site, where Aari and Acorna had decontaminated the bodies and the soil. The dead were buried, side by side in neat rows, identified when possible by their ID cards, which were attached to markers erected above each mound. Prayers were said for them, and a slow and beautiful song, accompanied by the haunting, clear notes of a nine-stringed guitar, served as a farewell.

It was an enormous task, and only one of many that still remained.

Acorna wanted to sleep as soon as she sat down in the shuttle. Jalonzo did not leave them, however, but continued to regard them with studious concern. "Is that why your horns are transparent now and kind of floppy instead of all golden like they were when you first came? Because you used up all your powers?"

"Who are you calling floppy?" Aari asked in between yawns. "Our horns are simply in their regenerative state."

"My lifemate is joking, Jalonzo," Acorna said, in response to the boy's puzzled look. "The answer to your question is yes. When we become depleted, it shows in our horns. I feel like I could sleep for weeks, but we cannot afford to do that yet."

"Are you going back to your spaceship now?" he asked.

"Yes, for a time."

"Can I just ask you one more question?"

"Of course."

"What if some of the people get sick again? Will you come back? I mean, you couldn't clean up all the plague from the whole city yet."

Acorna smiled in spite of her exhaustion. "Actually, that's three questions. We'll try. But we have to hope that meanwhile the Federation will devise a cure for this illness so people can be protected by means that do not require our presence."

"Hmm. I think I might have an idea about that, but I'd need to use the lab at the university. You didn't decontaminate that, did you?"

Aari shook his head. "No, and I do not think we could at this time. When we are rested and have seen to the other worlds in your system, we will return to check on the progress of the people here. At that time, we will clear a laboratory for you and others to work."

"It should be as soon as possible," Jalonzo said. "I should have asked you before, I know, but I only got this idea while you were curing everyone. What I was wondering was-I know I am not a Linyaari, but could you show me or tell me something about how your techniques work? Maybe until we have a lab I could use some of them to help people here."

Acorna shook her head sadly and laid her hand on his for a moment. "If only we could. You have been a great help. But it is something only a Linyaari can do."

"I'm really pretty smart," the teenager insisted.

"We have seen that. But our-methods-are built in."

"I kind of thought so, but I wanted to ask," he said with a weak smile. "I hope your methods get all solid and gold again soon."

So do I, Acorna thought but didn't say, feeling more depleted than she ever had in her life. So do I.