First Warning: Acorna's Children

Chapter 23

So how bad is it down there?" Becker asked, as Aari and Acorna trudged from the shuttle onto the Condors lower deck.

"Joh, it is bad enough to make any Khleevi very happy," Aari told him.

Becker gave a low whistle. "Whew, that bad, huh? Sorry. You guys were down there for quite a long time. I tell ya, Mac and I have been getting kinda lonesome up here. Hell, we could have been to Vhiliinyar and back by the time you guys made it here."

"That would have been a good thing, Joh," Aari said wearily. "There are far too many sick people for just two Linyaari to take care of."

"What's worse," Acorna added, "is that in order to prevent others from getting sick or relapsing, we really should decontaminate the entire planet-any of the planets where the illness has run unchecked over the population." She sighed and stumbled as she stepped up onto the grated metal ramp.

Becker caught her as she started to fall. "I don't think I've ever seen you this tired. I wish I could tell you I've been able to get a message through to Hafiz on MOO telling him to send in the cavalry, but the relays are down. Everybody's relays. His, the Federation's, everybody's. I thought they might have sorted it out by now, but apparently not. The good news is we're not getting any more bad news. The bad news is we're not getting any news whatsoever."

"Urn," Acorna said, and she and Aari sleepwalked back to their quarters.

"They seem to have exhausted their fuel supplies," Maak observed.

"Yeah, well, if they don't wake up in about a day, we'd better wake them and make sure they refuel. Meanwhile we'll twirl around this planet a few more times."

When Aari and Acorna had not stirred exactly twenty-four hours later, Maak said, "I will go pick their favorite vegetable matter and grasses from the hydroponics garden now. Would you care for any, Captain?"

"No, but I want to talk to them if they're up to it, so let me take the salad in, okay?"

Maak returned with a Linyaari-woven basket stuffed with grasses, flowers, and vegetables. Becker knocked on the cabin door and when a sleep-muffled voice called for him to come in, he did, and was almost bowled over by a large furry body streaking to the berth of his Linyaari shipmates.

RK hopped onto Aari's lap and sniffed, then sniffed at Acorna, hopped down, and streaked off as fast as he could.

"I hope Riidkiiyi was not offended because I did not pet him," Aari said. "My mind is not working very efficiently, and my hands and legs still feel as if we are on a heavy-gravity world."

Acorna yawned and stretched, then slumped back against her mate. "Yes. My thoughts exactly."

"We just thought you kids ought to eat something," Becker said, holding out the basket. "Your horns are looking a little perkier, and I can't see the wall through them anymore, but you've got a ways to go before you're one hundred percent."

"Very kind," Acorna murmured.

"Thanks, Joh," Aari said, before stuffing succulent purple bean sprouts into his mouth.

"Look, guys, this mission really took it out of you. From what you said and the way you look, I think this is a bigger problem than the two of you can deal with. I say we head back to MOO and get reinforcements. It's going to take a whole bunch of Linyaari to stop this bug that's going around."

"Yes, Joh, but we would need to go back and get Khorii and Elviiz," Acorna said.

"And Khiindi," Aari reminded her, in their daughter's tone.

"Of course. Khiindi. That trip alone requires several days, during which more people may sicken and die when we could save them. Not to mention that even with your shortcuts, it is a long trip back to MOO. By the time we returned with other Linyaari, the entire Federation could be infected and much of it depopulated."

"Yeah, but maybe not. There were a lot of folks down there on Paloduro still alive."

"And many many dead," Aari pointed out. "It is a very strange disease. Some seem to die almost immediately, others appear to have a very high resistance, while still others take a longer period to sicken with the same exposure as those who have already died. Most of those who are left on Paloduro are elders and children."

"Hmm, and they're gonna be pretty helpless trying to run a planet without sturdy young adults to manage things," Becker said. He started to scratch his chin and felt a wave of nausea wash over him.

"Not entirely," Acorna said. "The elders have much accumulated knowledge of how their city works, and from what we saw the youngsters are very bright and resourceful. We met one very impressive boy who wants us to make the university's laboratory safe for him to work in so he can begin finding a cure. As soon as we have rested enough that our horns are back to normal, I think we should do that."

Becker, one hand covering his mouth, held up his other hand for her to wait and ran from the room with his thighs locked together. Without the benefit of their horns' air-purifying powers, the Linyaari caught a disagreeable odor from the wind in his wake.

This dissuaded both Aari and Acorna from finishing the rest of their meal and both flopped back against their berth and fell deeply asleep before their heads hit their respective pillows.

Khiindi stalked back and forth in front of the viewscreen yowling his head off. He was very upset indeed and didn't care who knew about it. The screen was filled with the huge blue-green wet planet veined with red-and-black craters and chock-full offish. How could both Khorii and Elviiz have gone off and left him aboard the Mana? They did know he liked fish, didn't they? And they knew that they were leaving him with Marl Fidd, who was just biding his time until he could get ahold of Khiindi again when there was no Linyaari girl around to heal him.

Sesseli was sweet, but she was not big enough to protect him from Marl. She could not pilot a shuttle down to the fishy planet. And worst of all, she had been seduced away from him by the feline wiles of the VES, those sexless and superior-acting animals with whom he could converse, but who had no more sentience in the lot of them than the average turnip.

Forced to find other suitable company, he had tried Jaya next. She had petted him initially, but was a little thick when it came to his signals for treats. Now she was upset with him, holding her ears and squinting her eyes tightly shut as if his quite legitimate protests made her head hurt. If Khorii had stayed here where she belonged, she could have fixed that.

Jaya hailed the shuttle. "Elviiz, any sign of Khorii yet? Will you be returning soon?"

"Is that Khiindi's voice I hear?" Elviiz asked. "My auditory sensors can barely read your voice patterns, Jaya, but Khiindi's are transmitting quite clearly."

"I'll bet! He's driving me completely nuts. If he doesn't stop, I'm going to lock him in one of the cabins or in the cargo hold."

"Here, Jaya," Marl Fidd said smoothly. "Pop him into this bag, and I'll get rid of him for you."

Sesseli heard that and jumped up, dumping kittens from her lap. "No!"

Marl fell back onto the deck as if he'd been shoved, and Khiindi found himself suddenly sailing through the air, though not in his normal jumping posture at all. He landed behind Sesseli in the middle of the senior VCS, who smacked his face and hissed at him, so his position, though improved, was still not ideal.

Marl gaped at Sesseli in surprise, then grinned, baring lots of teeth in a way that would horrify most well-brought-up Linyaari. "Whattaya know? The infant is telekinetic."

"Only when I get really mad," Sesseli said, jutting out her lower jaw. If she were a cat, her ears would have been flat and her back up.

"I guess I'll have to be careful not to let you know if I do anything I think might make you mad then," Marl said.

Khiindi decided to stay near Sesseli. Not that he disliked Hap. Hap was large. Hap would protect him. But Hap had discovered the engine room, which was full of smells that offended Khiindi's sensitive nostrils. So Sesseli had suddenly become his best bet for protection until Khorii returned.

"This is the Nakomas calling the Mana. Do you read me, Mana?"

"Jaya here, Elviiz. Yes, we read you. When are you coming back?"

"We're preparing to leave now. The LoiLoiKuans swam back with Khorii a few minutes ago, and I just strapped her in."

"How was the mission?"

"Oh, it was successful. The LoiLoiKuans are as pleased as a race that has lost a third of their population can be. But Khorii isn't well. I think we should try to contact her parents again, since we're somewhat closer now."

"I'll get right on it, if you'll give me the data. What's wrong with Khorii?"

"The problem is that she ended up not only healing the sick LoiLoiKuans, but also purifying the ocean here when she dived in. There aren't many boundaries, and it's a lot of water."

"She can do that?" Jaya said.

"Something like that," Elviiz said. "This is the Nakomas en route."

"So that's how she does it," Marl said. "Duh. It took a while to sink in, but I knew that damn poultice didn't do any good. It's the horn, right? Her handy little all-purpose tool for making everything all better. Well, well, well."

Khiindi did not like the way he said that.

"And the android's horn is just because he's a silly ass, right? He wants to look like her. I notice he never does any of the actual healing even though she always says 'we' are going to decontaminate something or other."

The scaredy-cat part of Khiindi afraid for his own tail and pelt faded into the background, and the older, more intelligent, if not wiser part took over. This fellow could be a threat to more than him. Something should be done about him, and soon. Khiindi sat and considered, his tail lashing back and forth. Marl had caught him by surprise once, but the truth was that a bully like him was no match even for merely a smart cat, much less a cat who was only apparently a cat and had Khiindi's background. The thing about bullies was, you had to stand up to them, even if you only came to the middle of their shins. Cats could leap, claw, bite, tear, ride, jump, and do many other things to protect themselves if necessary. But very few possessed the wits that Khiindi did, at least when he remembered to use them. It was alarming, really, how being frozen in cat form was causing him to sink into the bestiality of his nature, rather than remembering who he really was and using the skills that had always stood him in good stead. The mental ones anyway. He was an empath by nature and he had not even attempted to figure out why Marl hated him so much. All he could sense was that the fellow loathed felines, or maybe just didn't like HIM. He did not seem particularly bent on destroying the VES at all, did not send them the sneers and narrow-eyed threatening looks he cast at Khiindi.

That was not the point now, however. The point was that this- what was the word? Punk? Young thug?-showed signs of being a threat to Khorii. Most of the time, Khiindi let Khorii protect him, even though he was actually with her to protect her. Ordinarily if she needed protecting, Elviiz did it, and often irritated her when he did.

But while Marl had been lazy, annoying, and insensitive, he had not done anything dangerous to anyone since the incident with Khiindi at the pool room. Meanwhile, Elviiz had been shamed by his violent reaction to Marl back on Maganos. He might process twice before acting against Marl again, and that would not be good for Khorii.

Khiindi rose and stretched, putting a paw on Sesseli's leg just to remind her he was there. He would be as vigilant as the VES were at a mousehole. More vigilant, since Khorii and the secret of the Linyaari people were at risk.

Khorii drifted in her sleep, strange, deeply resonant sounds reverberating through her mind, echoing off something far away, or perhaps they were answered? This was the far talk, she realized, the LoiLoiKuan adaptation of the ancient speech of whales from millenniums ago on a world long dead. Like the whales, LoiLoiKua's people spoke to each other across the miles of water separating one community, or pod, from another. But now she thought it might be going even farther.

Then she saw that it was her parents sending a message to her through space. They were swimming through a sea of the little motes that Khorii had come to associate with the plague as they called out to her. But though their faces were straining with the effort and their mouths moving, no sounds came out. She studied their faces to try to read their lips and listened as hard as she could with her mind, but all she heard was "purrrr purrr purr." She was no longer swimming, she knew, because most cats disliked water and soft, heavy, furry weight seemed to be piled all over and around her.

"She's waking up," Elviiz said. "And she's feeling better, too. Young Linyaari recover from overexertion much faster than their elders, I've been told. See? Her horn is already translucent, and you can detect the golden color now."

"Elviiz!" Khorii said, sitting up and dumping cats everywhere. "You aren't supposed to emphasize that kind of thing to-you know?"

"Oh? You have not been very subtle about it at all," he replied. "It is not as if they can fail to see the changes in your horn, Khorii. It was right there for everyone to see."

"Of course it was but . . ."

"And these are all our friends," he said, waving to Asha, Jaya, Hap, Sesseli, and the cats. It was a sweeping gesture that even included Marl. "They will not ask questions."

"I have a few," Marl said, holding up his hand. Elviiz gave the arm, the one he had broken, a meaningful look, and Marl quickly tucked it behind him.

Khorii observed this with amusement. She was still quite tired, but also felt light and rather cheerful. "I just saved a whole planet full of people, didn't I?" she told, rather than asked, her crew mates. "Really, I did very well. Mother and Father should have taken us with them, Elviiz. We could have helped."

"Yes, we could have," he agreed. "But you must remember to heal people out of the water next time. Healing an ocean that covers an entire planet is rather ambitious."

She yawned and stretched and leaned over to pet Khiindi. "It wasn't all that big a planet really. I'm fine. And I didn't have to swim all the way out to touch the people near the reef because, when I purified the water, it carried the healing with it even to the sick poopuus far away. I must have killed all of the organisms that were in the water, and therefore in the people breathing the water."

"Too bad you can't do it with people who don't breathe water," Asha said. "That could come in handy. As it is, I don't know if anything can really be done to check the spread of this plague now."