Acorna’s Search

by Anne McCaffrey

  “Just joking,” said Thariinye. “When you’re around people who have been raised by humans, as Khornya has, showing one’s teeth can be taken as joviality and courtesy. Sometimes it’s fun to confuse people.”

  Yiitir did not appear to hear him, however, for the historian and his lifemate were already starting their flitter.

  Four

  Neither Acorna nor anyone else on her team got much sleep that night. They were too busy worrying. As soon as the sun shed its murky light over the landscape again, they resumed their explorations.

  Maati was the one who found the artifact—the hard way. “Ouch!” she cried, hopping around while trying to hold onto her foot.

  “Maati, what’s the matter?” Acorna asked. She quickly ran to the girl and knelt beside her, applying her horn to Maati’s bruised flesh. The source of the bruise, an oblong piece of a hard black substance, protruded from the soil.

  “That thing!” Maati pointed. “It attacked me.”

  “She means she stubbed her foot on it,” Thariinye said.

  Acorna began digging the object from the ground. As she ran her hands along it, dislodging the dirt and plant life twined around it, she noted—much to her surprise—that it was not a natural rock. Nor did she recognize it as an artifact of Linyaari design—though she was hardly an expert.

  “Can anyone tell me what this might be?” she asked. “It’s definitely manufactured—see, how smooth and even it is in texture and thickness?”

  Thariinye shrugged. “Could be a broken bit of anything—a wrecked flitter, a piece of a pavilion support.”

  Aari joined them and Acorna handed him her find.

  “No, that’s nothing I’ve ever seen from our people,” he said.

  “Oh, come now,” Thariinye said. “How can you be so sure on such a short examination? Maybe it’s a piece of one of the off-world items the techno-artisans were working with before the planet was overrun.”

  “No,” Aari shook his head, his mane flying up from his neck and shoulders and tossing in the wind. “The techno-artisans took as many of their projects with them as possible and I am familiar with the things we were working on at the time we were invaded. This is natural to some extent, Khornya. It is a substance formed by the skeletons of small dead sea creatures. But it has been shaped intentionally by sentient hands.”

  Maati leaned forward and touched the thing with a fingertip. “There’s something on the surface—it’s very light, but it’s there. Don’t you see it?”

  “Those are just the random marks made by passing fish or erosion,” Thariinye said, glancing at it.

  “No, absolutely not,” Maati said. “See, some of these marks are exactly the same. The designs are repeated.”

  Acorna examined it more closely. “Yes, yes, they are, Maati. And here’s another pair, and another. These ones look vaguely familiar. I think I have seen them somewhat larger, somewhere on narhii-Vhiliinyar.”

  “That’s not Linyaari,” Thariinye said emphatically. “Maybe it’s Khleevi. A fragment from one of their craft.”

  “Their craft were all intact,” Aari said bitterly. “As far as I could tell each and every one flew away from this place under its own power without so much as a scratch on it. Not one suffered by Linyaari hands.”

  “Oh. Uh—true—true,” Thariinye agreed. He had come to like Aari and secretly regarded him with something close to hero-worship.

  “I have seem something similar before as well, yaazi,” he told Acorna. “This mark,” he indicated a lightly etched design that reminded Acorna of a stylized sun with long rays.

  “And this one,” he said, pointing to a swirl with a hook on the end.

  “Are they—Khleevi, Aari?” Maati asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

  “It does seem to be an artifact or a document or a sign of some sort,” Acorna said. “It’s covered with these symbols. Well, bag it and take it with us. As soon as we get to camp, we should consult with Yiitir and Maarni and base camp about it. Maybe someone will recognize it.”

  They continued working, cataloging with an electronic tabulator all the various forms of plant life and minerals they came across.

  When Maarni and Yiitir returned from helping Melireenya’s survey crew search for the missing Linyaari scientist, they had no news to report. The man was still missing, with no explanation for his absence. Still, the return of their friends was a welcome break for the four younger Linyaari, who showed them the artifact.

  “Ahhh,” Yiitir said.

  “You know what it is, then?” Acorna asked.

  “No. But I sounded very much as if I did, didn’t I?” Yiitir’s eyes sparkled with good humor.

  Maarni took the stone from him and examined it minutely, but her “aaaahhhs,” and “ummms,” and “Oh, I sees,” were genuine.

  “I can’t be entirely sure without corroboration,” she said, “but I believe this may be from the ancient culture of the sii-Linyaari.”

  “Who?” all four asked at once.

  “Another early race on this planet, also developed by the Friends. They were much like us,” she said. “Except that they evolved into aquatic beings instead of two-leggeds who walk on land, as we do. This swirl here? The one that forms a row from smallest to largest all curling the same direction? That denotes the white spume of the waves of the sea, which were said to be the manes of the sii-Linyaari.”

  “I never heard of them,” Aari said.

  “Me, neither,” Thariinye agreed.

  “The Ancestors don’t speak of them much, although my understanding is that they were as much the descendants of the Ancestors as we are.”

  “Grandam mentioned them once in passing, when she was telling a story,” Maati said. “But when I asked about them, she said it had nothing more to do with the story and not to distract her.”

  “That doesn’t sound like Grandam,” Acorna said, mildly surprised. The eldest of Linyaari Elders had taken Acorna under her wing when Acorna first arrived on narhii-Vhiliinyar. Grandam was the only one willing to tell Acorna about parts of Linyaari society nobody else would speak of.

  “There are overtones of something a bit shameful about them,” Maarni said. “But they were long gone by the time the Khleevi came—the Ancestors say they vanished into thin air one day, or so their Elders told them. Though, in ancient times, from some of the stories I’ve heard, the seas were teeming with them.”

  “Can you read their language?” Acorna asked, nodding at the long black artifact in Maarni’s hands.

  “I could probably translate it, with a little help. I’m afraid that many of the books and computer files that would have helped me were lost in the Khleevi attack. But I’ll see what I can do.”

  Thariinye had lost interest. “So, tell us about hunting for the missing person.”

  “Not much to tell,” Maarni told him. “It was the same as with Liriili.”

  “Hmph, not at all,” Yiitir said. “Fiiryi was respected and useful. He is much missed.”

  Acorna was puzzled. How could Fiiryi vanish so completely? All Linyaari except the very young were telepathic. Every Linyaari on this planet was able to hear and broadcast thought-voices. Surely any Linyaari in difficulties would send out a mental cry—just as Thariinye had done when he’d gotten stuck in the quicksand. Those mental cries for help would be heard by the nearby crews, if not by those farther away. Liriili’s mental powers were somewhat less powerful than most other Linyaari, but mostly because being able to read minds had never endowed her with empathy for her fellow beings. But Fiiryi surely would have the same abilities as most Linyaari.

  “Has no one heard Fiiryi’s thoughts calling out?” she asked.

  “No, apparently not.”

  “But that’s very strange, isn’t it? My experience with Linyaari thought-speak is that we can sometimes, especially under emergency circumstances, read each other across great distances—even across the vastness of space.”

  “Perhaps Liriili
and Fiiryi are no longer able to send their thoughts,” Maarni suggested.

  “You mean they might be dead?” Thariinye asked.

  “Possibly. This is a dangerous place since the Khleevi destroyed it. Or they might be unconscious,” Maati said.

  “We should still be able to get a reading, even if they weren’t conscious,” Aari said.

  “Well,” Acorna said. “It is clear our usual methods of locating the lost don’t work on this planet. Just as a fail-safe, I think we should ask Uncle Hafiz to send us down some personnel locators that my human friends use in times like these—the tiny ones that send out constant signals. That way, if someone else disappears, we will have a backup means of communicating our position to rescue parties, regardless of whether we are conscious or not.”

  “That is a very good idea,” Maarni agreed. “I think it might also be a good idea for those of us on the survey teams to avoid being alone at any time—we should always be paired when we are apart from the main group. That way, if one person is unable to call for help, the other one will perhaps be able to take action or call for assistance.”

  “I suggest Acorna goes to communicate that to the base camp right now, my dear,” Yiitir said. “In the meantime, we will take our own advice, heh?”

  So Maarni, Yiitir, Maati, and Aari continued their examination of the artifact while Thariinye and RK accompanied Acorna back to the flitter.

  Before long Acorna was on a relay from the base camp to MOO, where an unexpected and familiar voice greeted her. “Hey, Princess, it’s me, Becker. I heard that the cat met something that eats even worse stuff than he will.”

  Acorna had to smile. These borrowed flitters had no vid screens, but she could imagine Becker’s bristling mustache and—in spite of his words—the worried expression in the back of his twinkling brown eyes. “Your concern is most touching, Captain. I will convey it to your first mate, who now looks completely recovered, and is purring beside me as we speak. Ah yes, he understood your message. He is lifting his leg to cleanse his rump.”

  Becker chuckled. “That’s my boy. What can we do for you?”

  “When did you become the communications technician for the Moon of Opportunity, Captain? Have you run out of salvage?”

  “Oh, no, I just brought a load in. Hafiz had arranged to have some buyers look over the goods when I showed up. They wanted me to send an inventory before they bothered to come all this way, so I came in to send them a message that I sold the salvage already.”

  “Did you?” Acorna asked, as she could tell he wanted her to. Most of the time, it didn’t require telepathic powers to know what cue Becker wanted you to take.

  “Not yet. But I will. These guys are clowns. I don’t think your ol’ unk really understands the salvage business, Princess. He thinks it’s just junk, so he thought he was helping me out when he asked these bozo buddies of his to take it off my hands. Cost me a trip to the MOO for nothing, except I think I may be able to supply one of his architects with a few odds and ends for the Linyaari pavilions.”

  “I’m sure you will manage to prosper, Captain, despite my uncle’s interference. It’s very good to speak with you. As a matter of fact, I was calling to ask Uncle Hafiz if he would send down some personnel locators to Vhiliinyar. We seem to have mislaid two of the people who landed here.” She explained why she thought the locators might be useful.

  “Well, don’t that beat all? Liriili is missing and that other guy, too? Princess, Liriili can’t still be on the planet. You can hear that woman grousing three solar systems away whenever she’s conscious. If you can’t find her, she ain’t there.”

  “Maybe not, Captain, but there is another person missing as well, and we cannot hear thought-talk from either of them. We need enough locators for every person here. Uncle Hafiz has the records from our expedition, so he will know the quantity of receivers to send. Do you think that can be managed?”

  “I think if you think it’s necessary, old Hafiz will make it so. He dotes on you, Princess. But it’ll be better if you explain it to him yourself. Let me patch you through to his mobile unit. And—Princess?”

  “Yes, Captain?”

  “Look, in case there’s some bogeyman or Khleevi scum left there kidnapping Linyaari, don’t you take any chances. Mac has a few tricks that even some of your folks don’t, as you know. You want me to send him down to help?”

  “No, Captain, you need Mac to help you with the salvage.”

  “Not really. I got whole messes of brawny young stallions wanting to show off their muscles to the Linyaari ladies by helping me out. And—I think Mac misses you. I’d feel better if he was there looking out for you and Aari and the little girl.”

  “That’s very kind, Captain. I think it best, however, if we try to solve this problem ourselves for now. You know how some of the traditionalists can be about off-world people coming here.”

  “Yeah, you’d think we all were Khleevi. But technically speaking, you should pardon the expression, Mac is not a people. Mac is a device. I mean, you and I know he’s got a lot more personality than say, Liriili, but some folk wouldn’t look at it that way.”

  At that point Hafiz’s voice said, “Acorna, dear girl, how delightful to hear from you! Your scientists at the base camp let us know of the unfortunate disappearances. I certainly hope you are not calling to relate more such news to me?”

  “No, but it is related to why I’m calling, Uncle,” Acorna said. Becker made a loud smooching sound into the transmitter and broke his own connection, and she told Hafiz her reason for calling.

  Hafiz promised to send the locators at once to as many Linyaari as were on the planet’s surface, and also assured her that all future personnel who came to Vhiliinyar would be similarly equipped.

  Then Karina came on and said, “Acorna, darling, be careful, be very careful. My spirit guides tell me there are mysterious forces at work on Vhiliinyar.”

  Acorna thought of several things to say to the obviousness of Karina’s “prediction” and was very glad that Karina could not read minds as well as she claimed. Instead, she thanked the Harakamians, asked how her Uncles and their wives were and where they were at the moment—all well but off planet—and signed off.

  Or tried to. Immediately the light on the console was blinking for her attention again.

  Aari’s mother’s voice said, “Khornya, we cannot locate Kaarlye or the aagroni.”

  “Miiri,” Acorna said, “I’ll get Aari and Maati. We will come and help immediately.”

  She left the flitter and found Thariinye dozing lightly against the outside hull, RK fast asleep with front paws and chin laid proprietarily across Thariinye’s outstretched leg. There was no need to disturb them right now, of course. She could thought-call the others easily from here.

  (Aari? Maati? Come back to the flitter. Your mother wants to speak to you,) she broadcast her thoughts into the late afternoon storm. The tops of the carnivorous plants dipped and bobbed in a freshening wind. The sky was boiling, and jagged bolts of lightning flashed green nearby. There was no rain yet. It was hard for it to rain with the surface water so diminished, Acorna supposed while she waited for her lifemate’s answer.

  As they terraformed, possibly they would need to bring in water from the outside first, to “prime the pump” as humans said in some of the old books she had read, the ones about life in the desert.

  There was no answer from Aari or from Maati. Acorna told herself to be calm, that they might be preoccupied or conversing with someone else, not receiving. She stepped back into the flitter and said in a carefully level voice, “Miiri? I’ll have them hail you as soon as I can. I know it’s hard, but try not to let anyone go look for Kaarlye and the aagroni before Hafiz’s ship arrives with the personnel locators.”

  But the voice that answered was not Miiri’s and was, in fact, strange to her.

  “Khornya? Miiri said she had to join the search for Kaarlye and the aagroni, so I am now communications officer. This is Fiicki. Was t
here some message you wanted to give Miiri?”

  “Fiicki,” she said. “Try to call the search party back, please. Tell them to wait for personnel locators from the Moon of Opportunity. We must think of the safety of the searchers as well as of trying to find those who are lost. In fact, I may be missing two of my crew now.”

  “I’ll see if I can find them to tell them, Khornya,” Fiicki agreed, rather nervously. “No one seems to be around at the moment, though.”

  “Call them—with thought-speak,” Acorna suggested. “Before you leave the building.”

  “That’s odd,” Fiicki said after a moment in which Acorna followed her own suggestion, calling out for Aari, Maati, Maarni, and Yiitir. She could still see the tip of Thariinye’s toe and RK’s tail out the flitter window. “Silence.”

  “That’s what I’m getting too. Fiicki, there is something very peculiar going on here. Do not leave the com unit under any circumstances until those locators arrive, and call me at once when they do. Meanwhile, patch me through to Hafiz again, please, I am going to awaken the rest of my crew and do an air search for our missing people en route to base camp. No, no,” she said, feeling the panic in the erstwhile communications officer even through the vast distance between them. “Please don’t be overly concerned. Whatever is happening is certainly curious, and cause to investigate. But remember that we have heard no alarm or fear from any of those missing. Whatever is happening, it may not be at all harmful or dangerous. I think we should recall all personnel to base camp, dispense the locators when they arrive, then regroup and redeploy each team in continuous communication with MOO if possible. It’s either do that, or evacuate—and personally, I have no plans to leave this place without my family and friends. We will find them.”

  “I—”

  “If you feel differently, then of course you must do as you think best,” she added quickly.

  “It’s as if they’ve been swallowed whole,” Fiicki whispered hoarsely, sounding as though he was afraid the very building could hear him. “I have never felt such—silence, Khornya. Even in space there were the other crew members. Please don’t sign off.”