First Warning: Acorna's Children

Chapter 30

As the Mana left Paloduro space, Khorii watched the speck that was the Condor, then the speck that Paloduro became fade into the distance. Finally, the Solojo sun itself became just a very bright star, but not so bright as the red giant that illuminated the entire Solojo system. The planets themselves were harsh and full of noxious gases, but the twin moons that orbited the third planet, Calaca del Muerto, had been bubble-colonized like Maganos Moonbase. The purpose of the colonies was to cultivate and tend experimental genetically engineered crops, according to the general information the Mana's crew had downloaded from Federation data banks.

The com unit beeped, and Khorii saw her mother and father again. "Khorii, we heard you're on your way to heal some people on two different moons," her father said. "You know we would never want you to withhold compassionate aid to others, but do not let them exhaust you. This is very difficult to say, yaazi, but even if a few people die while you rest, you must risk it, or you may have the same problem your mother and I have now-and you could infect your human companions."

"Don't worry, Dad, Mom," she said, again using terms she'd learned on the Moonbase. Although she understood why it had to be, she was still hurt and also angry with them for refusing to see her. "I have it under control. Also, you should know that the boys have a theory, which so far has been borne out by all of our observations. We think that the plague has been deliberately engineered so that it attacks beings with certain hormone levels. We think it has something to do with being able to reproduce. Most of the plague victims aren't kids my age or elders. The farm animals and pets who were altered also mostly survived. So we think I'm immune. But we could be wrong. So I guess if I come back tainted, I'll go in with you, and we'll just have to get Captain Bates to lock herself airtight in the cargo bay or something until we can cure this. Jaya's already had it, and, if we're right, Sesseli is immune. But we need you to send blood and tissue samples down to the planet for analysis, so they can work on understanding how the plague in you has been changed."

That would show them they should not underestimate her! She had grown up a lot since she saw them last and they needed to realize that. Already she knew more about this plague they were supposed to cure than they did.

"Yaazi," her mother said, holding her gaze through the com unit as if she were right beside her. "Captain Becker and RK should have been immune, too. Remember, they were exposed aboard the derelict which, as we all found out from Elviiz's data, did carry the plague. They had it and we cured them and that should have made them immune if immunity is conferred by recovery from the disease. So Jaya could still catch it again if you become exhausted enough to expose her. We certainly hope you and the boys are right and that you are all immune because of your age and hormone levels, but we were immune as well until we became very tired. I'm very proud to hear you thinking this through, but the things causing these illnesses can mutate, Khorii. They can change the rules on you before you know what game they are playing. Promise us that you will rest when you need to."

Chastened, Khorii nodded, and again felt like crying because she couldn't see her parents when she needed them the most. But she swallowed her tears and gulped hard, then looked out the viewscreen again. She had too many other things to do to sit here and wallow in her misery.

Captain Bates touched her hand. "It's time, honey."

Khorii had never felt so alone in her life as when she finally got her wish and piloted the shuttle down to Luna Diego Rivera. But she had formed a plan even while discussing the risks of this mission with her parents. A figure clothed in what looked like a helmeted shipsuit waited for her at the entrance to the nearest bubble.

"Senorita, we are so grateful you have come. Your people are said to be able to work miracles with this disease. We have many afflicted now, and two have died."

As politely as she could, she said, "Then there's no time to waste. Do you have a pool?"

"Pool?"

"Um-water-large body of water. A pond, lake, pool, sea?"

"Si!" he said. "Oh yes, we have a reservoir for watering our plants and for drinking water for ourselves."

"Good. Please take me there and bring everyone else, too."

"But we have quarantined the sick ones, senorita, as the Federation ordered."

"If you don't want them to die, unquarantine them. Have the older children-but no one over thirteen Standard years, and any elders who live with you bring them to the water. I'll treat everyone before I'm done-um, how many of you are there here?"

"Six thousand, senorita."

"And how big is the reservoir? How many people would it hold?"

"We do not put people in it normally, senorita, so I do not know," the man said. He was no doubt a senior scientist, and he was looking at her as if reconsidering the idea of having her help them.

"I suppose we'll find out. Which way is the reservoir?"

"Straight ahead, following this street to the last bubble."

"Fine. You gather the sick ones and bring them there, and I'll meet you. Please trust me, and bring them as soon as you are able."

Khorii realized her reassurance might not be enough, so she broadcast a silent psychic message and hoped the colony had enough people who were sufficiently receptive that they would not have to rely on word of mouth alone. "Hola, people of Luna Diego. I am Khorii, of the Linyaari race from the planet Vhiliinyar. I have the ability to help cure your colony of the illness, but I must treat many of you at once. That is why I want you to bring your sick ones to the reservoir. When you arrive, help them into the water. Assist the ones who cannot support themselves so they don't drown."

As she broadcast, people came, at first in pairs or trios, then a steady flow from the rows of small flat-roofed dwellings lining the street. Beyond the buildings, to the edges of the bubble's horizon, were greenhouses and fields, untended and empty.

When Khorii arrived at the reservoir, she could see two or three hundred people already in the water. She stripped off her shipsuit and jumped over the side of the round sunken pool. She clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "When I dive, duck the heads of the sick people into the water at the same time," she told them with both her voice and her mind. She saw nods of understanding, heard a few spoken or shouted replies of "Si'," and many questions from many minds she could not take the time to answer.

She nodded and dived under the surface. At first she could not see even the nearest faces and bodies, only the countless plague specks that clouded the water around her as if dirt had been poured into it. But almost at once, the specks flowed away and vanished, and she beheld the faces and bodies of a lot of people who were having trouble holding their breath. By then she knew that once the specks were gone, the people would be cured.

"Up!" she ordered, and surfaced herself.

Once the others saw the condition of their friends and loved ones, the main problem was to keep them from drowning each other in their hurry to get into the water with her.

It took about thirty immersions to free everyone of the disease. At the end she felt a bit soggy but nowhere near as exhausted as she had been after purifying the ocean for the LoiLoiKuans.

"Does Luna Frida have a pool like this?" she asked the nearest convalescent.

"Si, senorita, gracias, you are an angel, a saint . . ."

Khorii shook her head, water droplets flying from her silver hair. "Gracias. That's very nice of you, but I'm not. I simply have access to powerful alien medicine that works the way you just saw. Would someone please get on the com unit here and tell the people of Luna Frida I'm coming and what to do? But tell them not to dunk anyone until I get there, okay?"

Someone met her on the path in a little curt. "Senorita, we do not normally swim in our pool. How can we clean it so we can use it again to drink from?"

"I think you'll find it cleaner and more pure now than it was before we went for our swim," she told him with a smile. "My medicine also has that effect."

The healing process on Luna Frida began in much the same way. But it was a larger colony than the one on Luna Diego, with fifteen thousand people, and by her twentieth dunk, Khorii realized that she was too exhausted to continue. More people were ill here because, since she visited Diego first, more had had a chance to become infected or to get sicker. She couldn't bear just to let people die, but her parents were right. Could she really risk the lives of Captain Bates, Jaya, and maybe even Sesseli, not to mention the people who were expecting to be saved and might not be because of her overextending herself? Also, if she became too tired to finish this job properly, the ones she had already cured could become reinfected if her parents were correct about Uncle Joh's and RK's first contact being no protection.

She felt protest from some of the minds of the more receptive Luna Fridans who were aware of her conflict. How could she let them down? She was as good as killing them!

Khorii thought and thought, then came to a decision. If she exhausted herself trying to save as many as possible, she could be with her parents again. That was a better alternative than what these people had to face. She took a deep breath, readying herself to plunge back into the water.

"Hey, Khorii! Are you going to hog the swimming hole or can anybody play?"

"Great-aunt Neeva?"

"Right behind you, youngling. Flying around trying to decontaminate all of those smelly old Federation outpost relays is dry work. Can we come swimming with you and your friends?"

"We?"

"Melireenya and Kharii of course, and Maati and Thariinye. We contacted the Condor, then the Mana, to find you. Don't worry, little one. We, as the humans say, have got your back. And we heard what you did on LoiLoiKua, so we have cleverly divined the moistened nature of your master plan."

The hard footfalls of two-toed Linyaari feet clattered behind her, and what parts of her had begun to dry while she was debating her decision to continue healing were soaked all over again as five Linyaari bodies dived gleefully into the reservoir, leaving a grateful Khorii to sink to her knees, smiling and crying with relief at the same time.

Standing outside her parents' cabin door aboard the Condor once more, Khorii came to believe something she had always thought was mere folklore concerning the origin of the Linyaari people. It was said that the Ancestors who lived in a secret place on Vhiliinyar were part goat. They looked very much like small, bearded, cloven-hooved, horned horses, and Khorii had never wanted to believe they could be related to a lowly animal from old Terra mostly known for providing smelly cheese. But now her parents' stubbornness made her think of the legendary hard heads of the goats, and she was pretty sure that she numbered those humble animals somewhere in her evolutionary chain.

"Okay, I understand. You are trying to protect me and everyone else in the multiverse, as usual. But, look .. . There's something I forgot to tell you, probably because you haven't let me see you yet and it slipped my mind. I can see the plague."

"Are you sure?" her father asked. "How?"

"The same way Mother can tell the mineral content of asteroids and that sort of thing. I can see the life-forms that make up the plague. I've been able to ever since we found the derelict. I see all these little specks, and when they see my horn coming, they run for it and just vanish."

"I'm very proud of you, darling," Mother said.

"But the thing is, if you are still infected or affected or whatever, if you'd just let me see, I could tell you for sure. Then you'd know."

"Khorii," her father said a little sternly, "we've already explained."

"Si, si, si," she said in the rather mocking singsong she'd picked up from Jalonzo over the last few days while she'd been trying to decide what to do about her parents and the mission in general. "But as I've already explained, and the boys assure me that this is true, and furthermore Grandsire Kaarlye and Grandam Miiri think they are using sound scientific logic, kids don't get the plague. At least, not yet. The odds are we don't get any mutations either because we think this was deliberately set to attack active healthy adults during their reproductive years, not kids or elders. So-so you should let me in so I can tell if you are carrying the plague." Khorii's voice quavered for just a moment, and she sucked in a deep breath, trying to be strong.

What if they still refused? Would she ever see them again? Don't be silly, she scolded herself. Of course you will.

Very much to her surprise, the door irised open. Although Khorii wanted to rush inside, she stepped in slowly, and the door shut behind her.

"Oh," she said. Blue specks floated around each of her parents as they moved. None seemed to be trying to drift toward Khorii, but they didn't vanish either, despite the fact that her parents' horns were once again their usual color and shape.

"Blue specks," she said.

Her mother nodded. "We told you. It's a mutant strain. It would almost have to be. And it could infect you or other Linyaari."

"Not me," Khorii said. "Not yet. And not elders or other Linyaari kids. So I want a hug. If you infect me, the worst that can happen is I get to stay with you. But I'll know if I'm okay."

Stiffly at first, then with great enthusiasm, all of them hugged and kissed and cried, and Khorii tried to tell them all of her adventures in one long thought.

When she finally stepped away, none of the blue specks clung to her but neither had any been removed from either of her parents.

Captain Becker's impatient voice boomed over the intercom. "So, what's the verdict?"

"Guilty as charged," Father said, with a sad smile.

Uncle Joh took a deep breath. "Okay, then. Well, as your captain and your social secretary today, I need to tell you that there are some other people here to communicate with you."

"People? Who?"

"It's us, Aari dear," Grandam Miiri's voice said. "Your father and I have a plan we need to discuss with you."

Two Standard days later, Elviiz, Khiindi and Khorii waved goodbye as the Condor headed back to Vhiliinyar, accompanied by Kaarlye and Miiri.

Khorii could hardly breathe for the tightness in her chest that had nothing to do with the plague. Her parents and the Condor crew were returning to their homeworld, where Kaarlye and Miiri would guide them to a special private enclave built for the Ancestors, who were the oldest beings on the planet and said to be the wisest as well. Khorii had reassured everyone that the strain of the plague Mother and Father carried could not attack her grandparents any more than it had attacked her. Therefore, they and the elders should be safe. Although she had been able to cure Captain Becker and RK of the mutant strain, her horn had no effect on the strain surrounding her parents, nor had she been able to disinfect the Condor totally. So all of them, Mother, Father, Uncle Joh, RK and even Maak, would wait with the Ancestors while she and her friends, human, feline, and Linyaari alike, searched for the malevolent entity who had created the plague and for a permanent cure.

It was only a temporary measure, Khorii told herself. She had no doubt that soon they would all be together again for good, but it could never be soon enough to suit her. And woe to the person or persons or beings or whatever who had caused so much suffering throughout the galaxy, for as she stood on the bridge watching the Condor fade into space, Khorii vowed to find the entity that had done this and bring that entity to justice.

It was her mission. And it was a mission that she would pursue if it took her to the end of the galaxy or beyond.