Acorna’s Search

by Anne McCaffrey

  “I won’t. Monitor the unit during my hail to Hafiz, but please keep trying to contact the others through thought-speech. And stay at your post—other crews might be trying to call for help, too.”

  “I-I will, Khornya. Please don’t break the connection.”

  She promised she would not. While the patch to MOO was relayed, she opened the flitter door, gave her sleeping shipmates a mental hail, and said to Thariinye, “Please come aboard now, and bring RK. We are going to base camp.”

  “It’s not my shift,” he said, yawning. “Can’t a man get any sleep around here? Why do we have to go now? And where are the others?”

  “I don’t know,” Acorna said. “Why don’t you call them?” She watched his face as he did. His confusion when his queries went unanswered was all too evident.

  “Khornya, I don’t understand. I hear nothing. No answer, no other thoughts, nothing.”

  “Exactly,” she said. “It happened while you were sleeping and while I was speaking to Captain Becker and Hafiz. Just like that. I remember watching them walk away from the flitter toward the bog and then I became involved in the conversation. Then, just a few moments later, when I tried to call, nothing. They’ve vanished. It is apparently happening all over. So get in. We will do a quick fly-over where they are supposed to be, and see if we can pick up any clues. I do not expect to find easy solutions. The aagroni—and from the sound of it, nearly everyone else at base camp—is gone. And we’ll be no help to the people back at MOO or our friends if we find out where the missing persons are only by joining them.”

  Five

  The fly-over of the territory they had been covering on foot for the last few weeks showed no signs of any Linyaari, or of other animal life of any kind.

  Acorna flew low and in a zigzag pattern three times, covering the entire area of their study and somewhat beyond those boundaries before she would give up. Yiitir, Maarni, Aari, and Maati were all gone, if she could believe the evidence of her own eyes and the instruments of her flitter. She double-checked to make sure they had not returned to their camp or Yiitir’s and Maarni’s flitter, but both were sitting as silent and empty as they had been all during her conversations on the com unit.

  The weather was not good for flying. Although the flitters, once airborne, had shields to protect them from lightning, the small craft was buffeted by the wind and twice lightning crashed against the shield. The flare of energy was so bright that Acorna was nearly blinded. RK huddled on the deck behind her, and she was sure his fur must be standing at attention all over his body. Thariinye said nothing, but his eyes rolled to the sides a bit, his nostrils flared, and the white of his star-clad skin blanched even further around the knuckles as he held onto the control panel while the flitter dipped and bobbed and took heart-stopping plummets in the storm.

  At last they landed at the base camp, leaving the worst of the storm crashing and booming behind them. The large laboratory bubble looked as quiet as the former graveyard upon which it was set.

  Night gathered even more rapidly than usual, the storm clouds bunching with other more innocuous ones, bullying the planet’s pallid sun into seclusion. Acorna feared that they would find the base camp entirely deserted, but at the sound of the flitter, Fiicki emerged from the lab bubble and pulled the flitter door open before the engines had shut down.

  “Khornya! Thariinye, I am so glad to see you! Oooooh, and poor little Riidkii,” Fiicki said, impeding Acorna’s exit to reach behind her and scoop up the bristling, growling RK.

  “At least he’s not missing yet,” Thariinye said with a trace of annoyance.

  “True, true,” Fiicki said. “But everyone else is. Please don’t leave me alone here again. The silence is enough to distress and depress me—and worse, there are the noises.”

  “Noises?” Acorna asked. “What sort of noises?”

  “Underground growlings I hear through my sleeping mat, like the beginning of an earthquake, or a volcano about to erupt or—as if the ground was digesting something. Or someone.”

  Acorna laid her horn against the side of Fiicki’s head, but since his fear had a reason and was not pathological, it could hardly be cured as if it were a mental illness. He did grow calmer, either because of the effects of her soothing thoughts or because they gave him the reassurance that he was not completely alone.

  “Underground noises? Now that’s something to consider,” Acorna said thoughtfully. “I wonder—could there be underground Khleevi installations? Or is this just another sign of Vhiliinyar’s unstable geology?” She got on the com unit and began hailing the other crews, asking them if they had any further cases of missing persons or if anyone reported hearing unusual subterranean noises.

  It was no surprise, and in fact confirmed her worst fears, when she learned that many more people were missing, several from some crews, one from others, and none from still others. Altogether, in the last afternoon twelve more people had vanished from Vhiliinyar as if they had never been there at all. But no one mentioned underground rumblings other than the usual ones, which seemed to be related to volcanic eruptions.

  When she reached MOO and gave her report of what had happened, Hafiz said, “You must evacuate at once.”

  “What about our mission here?” she asked, because she knew none of the others back on MOO would. “What about our friends?”

  “There is no wisdom in reviving a planet to house a race that becomes extinct in the effort,” Hafiz said.

  “That’s true,” Acorna said, “and I think it would be smart to evacuate most of the crews and all nonessential personnel, but I believe I can discover what is happening. I want to stay here, Uncle Hafiz. I need to find Aari and Maati and the others. I have no evidence to give you at all, but I can’t believe they’re dead. They’re simply—not here. If they were dead, or even in terrible, terrible trouble, I’d know that. Even if I didn’t pick up actual thoughts, I’d be feeling something if I’d lost them. I feel nothing but the certainty that I can find them if I continue to look.”

  Hafiz, wily old merchant that he was, said reasonably, “Of course, of course, my dear Acorna, I understand completely how you feel and you may certainly stay behind to look to your heart’s content and the blessings of the Three Prophets and the Three Books be upon you. But only on one condition.”

  “What is that?” she asked, sounding vague and distant, even to herself.

  “That you promise on the lives of my nephew Rafik, his ugly first wife, and Giloglie that you will not yourself become lost.”

  “I cannot promise that,” she said. “In fact, being—lost—taken, whatever happened to them—myself, may be the only way to find them.”

  “You are far too precious to risk on a maybe, my dear sweet Acorna. Come now, for once listen to the wisdom of your elders, and return with the others while you are able. We will not abandon your friends and loved ones. Once you are here, we will form a plan to search for them, using all the considerable resources at my command. But—please—leave before you vanish with the others. When all have had a chance to compare impressions without disappearing in the next instant as if at the will of some evil djinn, when from this you have gained perhaps insight, formed an idea that may have some outcome other than the sacrifice of yourself, done perhaps some research into this matter, then shall you return with all of the assistance it is within my power to give you.”

  Acorna’s protestations that meanwhile her loved ones could be in deeper peril were met with a philosophical, “If it is God’s will, they will survive until we can assist them. It is my will that you now put your head before your heart in this matter.”

  She knew he was right, but leaving Vhiliinyar behind was the most difficult thing she had ever done. When they had arrived on this planet, she had finally been part of a real Linyaari family—her lifemate, his parents and sister, her aunt and crewmates. Now, all of them were suddenly gone as if they had never existed and she was alone again.

  The enormity of it was completely u
nreal to her. She could not grasp it, and did not want to. Despite what she’d told Hafiz, she felt no fear for her companions, because she could not feel the truth of it at all. The people she loved couldn’t possibly be gone. They weren’t lost forever—or surely they would have broadcast some kind of distress call that she could have heard. There had to be some explanation for their absence. Perhaps they all were suddenly taken on a voyage off-planet together, and were waiting for her elsewhere. Her feelings were leading her thinking, she knew, but she realized that she had often gone with her gut feeling in solving problems. She just didn’t have any idea how to proceed in this case. So, even though she hated to leave Vhiliinyar, Hafiz’s counsel was good. It was time to hold a planning council and decide what to do next.

  Neeva and Melireenya were among the missing, though Kaari and Hrronye remained to bring the Balakiire back to base camp. The remaining Linyaari survey members straggled in with their flitters, along with their data and the precious specimens they had gathered for the aagroni. Under the supervision of Fiicki, all samples of material from Vhiliinyar were carefully packed. Aside from her personal losses, Acorna knew that aagroni Iirtye’s absence would be a crushing blow to any hope of restoring Linyaari life as it had once been, if he was not found again. Especially when not only the rather gruff old scientist but all of his colleagues had been taken at once. They had to find the missing Linyaari, not just to ease her own heart, but also to save her people’s hopes.

  For all her conflicted feelings about leaving Vhiliinyar, she was incredibly glad to see the Moon of Opportunity again, and to be crushed in Becker’s bear hug. She had been holding RK, but the cat simply prowled back and forth between her shoulders and Becker’s for the duration of the hug, kneading his claws in and out and purring louder than the Condor’s engines.

  “I sure am happy to see you, Princess,” Becker said. “Good thing I sent that cat along to look after you. And I know it’s hard, but try not to worry about Aari too much. He is what we call one tough hombre. I mean, the Khleevi messed with him, and he came out of that and look what happened to the Khleevi! Nah, anything takes a bite out of that boy is gonna need a big chunk of something else to take the taste out of their mouth! We’ll find him. Mark my words.

  “Hafiz has got a feed and a bunk organized for all of your folks, but Mac and I would really rather you’d come back aboard the Condor with us when you’re done eating.” He winked at her. “You could bring some chow with you if you really love us,” he said. She could tell he was as worried as she was. He was talking nonstop—as fast as if he was selling salvage, and mugging as he did so. With that last request he batted his eyelashes, ridiculously long and curly on such a rough-looking character, to cajole her. His efforts to distract her drew one corner of her mouth up slightly.

  “Okay. I’d like that,” she said.

  Thariinye, who had been consoling a young female who had lost three members of her team, left her being cosseted by a bevy of Linyaari females who had remained on MOO. He caught up with Becker and Acorna just as she was about to go eat.

  “How about me, Captain?” he said. “Can I come back on the Condor as well?”

  “If you think you can make yourself useful in other than a supervisory capacity, yeah,” Becker said. “Just kidding,” he added, seeing, as Acorna did, that Thariinye appeared to be genuinely upset.

  “Don’t worry about Aari,” Thariinye said. “I think I’ve figured out what happened, Khornya. Something went after those elders and you know how Maati is, she would have been in the middle of whatever it was before it knew what hit it. And Aari wouldn’t let anything happen to Maati so he went, too. To tell you the truth, I’m glad in a way that, since the others disappeared, Maati and Aari are with them. They can take care of themselves, and save the others, too.”

  “Your confidence in our friends is very sweet and I know they would both be touched by it,” Acorna said.

  “Sounds good to me,” Becker said. “I hope for once you’re right, fella.”

  The captain strode off toward the Condor with RK wrapped around his neck.

  Hafiz and Karina enveloped all the returning survey personnel in scented silken robes and solicitude as soon as they entered the dining gardens Hafiz had created especially to cater to Linyaari tastes.

  As she grazed, Acorna kept both her ears and her mind open to conversation and nuances of thought around her. The verbal conversation was perfunctory, but the thoughts she could overhear spun in circles of wonder and fear.

  (How did it happen? I’m sure I didn’t take my eyes from him for more than a moment—not even that—yet he simply was nowhere. No sound, no word…How could he leave me like that?)

  (But there were three of them! How could three people vanish? Why would they, or why would anyone else want them to?)

  (No sinkholes, no avalanches, no eruptions there. I checked before I went there. Liriili checked, too. Gone into the air, as if they had been vaporized. And yet, if that were so, surely we would have heard fearful thoughts, perhaps—a moment of startled recognition of what was happening, a cry for help from one who saw it happen to another. Surely something! I don’t see how it could have happened without a trace.)

  (How?…How?…How?!)

  Everyone’s thoughts eventually turned to that one question. No one questioned why it had happened. They assumed that the vanishings were involuntary, under the influence of some irresistible force. No one seemed to believe that any of the missing had reasons to vanish, or that anyone could possibly have a reason for wishing them to do so. They assumed that something was behind the events on Vhiliinyar, drawing them all along an unknown and possibly hostile path.

  But how had it happened? Even if the ground or the heavens had swallowed their friends up, there would have been a thought-cry, an instant’s panic, something that might have brought help, or at least a witness to the disappearance. Surely their vanishing would leave a sign of some kind on all their instruments monitoring the planet. But it hadn’t. Every single instance was traceless, leaving not a single clue behind, not even a blip on the energy or heat sensors, or the slightest joggle of the seismic detectors. No unidentified ships had been in their skies, and even the identified ones had remained just as they were in position and population before their friends had vanished.

  The Linyaaris’ unguarded thoughts at the banquet clearly demonstrated that they were as puzzled as she was, and that no one had any more information than she did to explain what had happened. But perhaps they knew things they were not aware of, had observed connections no one had yet put together. When the grazing was finished, she went to each member of the survey teams with the map of Vhiliinyar she had downloaded from the ship’s computer, detailing their various work sites.

  She asked each crew where they had last seen the missing people, where were they working when the disappearance occurred. She checked to see if the missing were in areas of the planet new to the survey teams, places that they had not been working before.

  Few could exactly pinpoint for her the spots where their comrades went missing, but Kaari at least was able to give her the location of the relatively small area where Neeva and Melireenya had been seen conversing right before they had vanished. And she discovered that Fiiryi, when he disappeared, had been only a few meters from the flitters, on ground everyone had walked over hundreds of times as they unloaded equipment. She herself knew, within a fairly close range, where the people in her party had vanished. It was close to their camp, again in a place that they’d all traversed many times.

  Little was decided at Hafiz’s banquet that night. Everyone was too tired and distraught to even think, so the planning meeting was postponed until they had a little time to recover from the shock of it. Acorna gathered all the information she could, and took it back to the Condor after dinner, where she showed the maps to Becker and Thariinye. “What I’ll have to do first is backtrack to the site where each of the disappearances happened and thoroughly investigate the terrain.”
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  “But people did that when they searched to begin with!” Thariinye said.

  “Not in all cases. The largest numbers of disappearances happened just before the evacuation. No one has searched properly for those people. And no single person has yet searched all of the sites. So I—”

  “We,” Thariinye said. “I’m going, too.”

  “Me, too,” Becker said.

  “Captain, you can’t,” Acorna told him. “The Council won’t allow it, even now. You know how they feel about humans on their planet.”

  “Blessed Mother of Invention!” he roared. “I’ve been there already—probably more than most of your folk. Who brought the bones of your people from Vhiliinyar to narhii-Vhiliinyar? Me! Who saved Aari from that cave after the Khleevi got through with him? Me, that’s who!”

  “It makes no sense, I agree, but even so, it is how they feel.”

  “You’re taking Mac with you, then,” he said. “He’s not as good as me, but if he loses you, he knows I’ll dismantle him and short out every circuit he’s got.”

  Becker had one of the command chairs turned around to face the two secondary seats he had installed at the Condor’s helm. Acorna and Thariinye each occupied one of these, with RK perched behind Becker’s head, on the back of the chair. Now the fourth chair turned and Mac, who had been monitoring the control panel, said, “The Captain is very strict.”

  “Well, please don’t be too hard on him, Captain,” Acorna said. “He might not be able to stop matters. After all, Aari, Maati, and the elders disappeared from right under my nose.”

  “If you go, he’d better plan on being with you if you vanish,” Becker said with a pugnacious jut to his chin as he folded his arms across his chest. “’Cause Mac won’t like what happens to him if he comes back alone.”