Beast Master's Quest

by Andre Norton

  Logan was thinking. “So if we found that the imperfect bonds are caused by something that can be remedied, that problem of aikizai overpopulation would still be there—if that’s what their problem is.”

  “Exactly. I think we need to talk a lot of this over further with E’l’ith and their group. We may also have to go back to our first landing site and see if we can find T’s’ai to talk to him and his people about some of the possibilities.”

  He stood, still holding a mug of Arzoran swankee in his hand. With an air of decision he drained it, set the empty mug on the table, and headed for the door again.

  “I’m going to the transmitter room to talk to the captain and the xenobiologist on the Patrol cruiser. They may not permit us to do or say anything that will upset the balance or customs of the people here. I want to hear what the Patrol has to say before we start talking to E’l’ith.”

  “But what if we can help Prauo’s people and the Patrol says we mustn’t?” Laris wailed.

  Logan’s gaze met that of his half-brother and both understood. As Storm left to use the transmitter, Logan was speaking quietly to the distressed girl.

  “Listen, haven’t you heard Brad on the subject? There are more ways to kill a Yoris lizard than by pulling its tongue out and strangling it. If the Patrol says we can’t do something, then we find a way to go around that. If we know what we’re doing, and if we won’t make a bad situation worse for everyone.

  “First though, we have to find out all we can. Start thinking of questions to ask E’l’ith, work out ways around their problems, and run hypotheses. Get on the computers and run probabilities. Prauo, you may be able to help there; you can tell her if something is flat out impossible for you. Get to it right now and see what the two of you can discover for us all.”

  Laris looked at him, grinned, and dived for the door, Prauo at her heels. Before they disappeared from view the big feline paused to give Logan a huge wink. Logan grinned. Prauo would keep Laris too busy to worry about dead cubs or what might have happened if they’d returned imperfectly bonded. Laris had a good imagination, and Logan had seen her imagining Prauo murdered by his own kin before her eyes—and the picture was making her crazy.

  Tani had also gone to the transmitter room. She couldn’t talk directly to her aunt and uncle, but they were scientists who headed the team that ran the ark, the huge old spaceship that traveled from world to world carrying genetic material from old Terra—and from many other Terran-settled worlds by now. Tani had worked with them for years, and although it was rarely discussed, she had basic qualifications in genetics and xenobiology herself.

  When Tani arrived Storm was transmitting to the Patrol cruiser. She said nothing, but clicked on the main computer and started running probabilities. Storm finished his discussion with the Patrol and turned. “What are you doing?”

  “What everyone seems to have forgotten.” She smiled up at him. “When Laris and Prauo first joined us after the space-faring circus was disbanded, we ran complete medical and biological scans on Prauo: everything physical we could check, along with tissue samples. There could be something I can match against wider information we may be able to obtain from Purrraal and other aikizai.”

  “What would you need?”

  Tani looked thoughtful. “Tissue samples from as many aikizai and their liomsa as I can get. That’s from the fully bonded and the imperfectly bonded as well, with the samples clearly identified. I need to run comparisons. Something may show up as a physical reason why the bonding doesn’t always succeed.”

  “What if it does and the Patrol forbids us to share the information with these people?”

  Tani grinned. “You quoted Brad. If we make a quiet suggestion or two, to E’l’ith or T’s’ai, it could always be assumed they came up with the idea on their own—that’s if whatever shows up as a possible cure isn’t too technical for them to have thought of it.”

  “And if there is a possible physical cure,” Storm said gloomily, “I can see the path that civilization out there could be taking. It’s the sort of trail that could end up with an empty world after too many imperfect bonds have failed and there’s been a civil war.”

  “So we give them a signpost to point out the path away from that,” Tani said. “One we won’t find for them by sitting and being gloomy about it. I’ll get started here—you go out and meet E’l’ith, and see for a start if she and her group will give us tissue samples from as many of their two peoples as possible. If they will, get them back to me as fast as you can. Oh, and I’ll also work out questionnaires for them. We need background to go with the samples.”

  Storm wandered over to check the viewscreens. If E’l’ith was coming she should be showing up on a screen fairly soon. The drizzle had slowed and looked like it would stop very soon. Tani raced through complex comparison scans on the computer. Judging from the small lights on the personnel panel, Laris and Prauo were working in her cabin while Logan was down in the main cargo hold.

  He was probably flying Mandy, Storm thought. There was a game the paraowl loved that involved having someone toss small colored balls into the air at unexpected angles for her to seize as she swooped. Mandy would inveigle anyone into playing that game with her any time she could. The last he’d seen of the meerkats, they were asleep on his bed, and the coyotes had been coaxing tidbits out of Tani in the mess room.

  The long-range viewscreen chimed and he turned to glance at it. Good, E’l’ith, and three others were on the way, and he estimated that they’d arrive in ten minutes. He departed silently, leaving Tani, Laris, and Prauo working at their occupations. He decided to take Tani’s team and Logan with him. The team would enjoy time outside, and Logan wasn’t so emotionally involved. Storm headed for the ship’s ramp, pausing in his passage to call the coyotes and Mandy, and inform Logan that E’l’ith and her friends were about to arrive and to ask his half brother to join him.

  He found Logan morosely tossing a ball for Mandy and observed his angry scowl.

  “Brother, what’s wrong?”

  “Laris!”

  Storm decided to ask no more. In his experience becoming involved in such things was futile and often caused resentment in both parties, each of whom felt an outsider should mind his own business.

  “Well, come with me. I need you to help with the samples.”

  Storm arrived at the forest fringe with Logan just as E’l’ith emerged. This time, as he’d noted from a quick look at a viewscreen, she came with only her aikiza, Saaraoo, her friend M’a’ein, and M’a’ein’s aikiza. Storm and Logan both carried waterproof groundsheets, and Logan had brought a small compact rain repeller. Properly set up above the groundsheets, the repeller would keep the drizzle off everyone unless the precipitation became a full-fledged downpour.

  The two liomsa and their aikizai stood waiting while Storm and Logan arranged the items. He had another agenda here, too, Storm thought as he worked. They needed to know the scientific and technical level on this world. The natives had a number of atori, most of which looked machine made. They must have a few factories, to supply the guns, projectiles, and the propellant they used at least but—he’d like to know how wide a range of light industries they had. Showing the people some of the simpler Terran machines could help with that. It should provoke discussion of how the rain repeller worked, and in turn he could ask questions about E’l’ith’s people’s own scientific advances.

  He completed setting it up and gestured for everyone to seat themselves on the groundsheets. E’l’ith looked up to where the drizzle was shedding in a steady trickle of drops off the invisible roof above them and seemed riveted.

  *Wonderful.* With that came undertones of remembered distaste for wet clothing, a shiver at the damp chill, and a feeling of sharp curiosity about the machine keeping them dry.

  *Yes. Are you cold?*

  Her reply was an amalgam of agreement and anticipation. Storm reached to adjust an indicator on the repeller. Warmth emanated from it as well, to the l
imit of its small repeller area. E’l’ith, M’a’ein and their aikizai sighed in hearty satisfaction and relaxed on their groundsheets.

  *How does that work?* E’l’ith sent underlying fascination.

  Storm explained as best he could. Considering, he thought, that he wasn’t an expert himself, although owning a ranch, one did have to know a fair amount about basic machinery and engineering. But, as he’d hoped, the discussion on the repeller moved on to a more general discussion on machinery and basic comparisons of what each race had developed and currently produced.

  Logan was a help there. His transparent enthusiasm for the discussion—it helped him forget his fight with Laris—had all four of the others and aikizai competing to explain their own technology to him. Storm shut up and listened. Their production of small items, such as the atori and domestic items for their homes, was done in small factories or workshops owned by liomsa with four or five family members working for them.

  Storm thought it all sounded very casual, but then everything the two races needed seemed to be produced that way, and in sufficient numbers. Why should they work harder or create production lines that weren’t needed?

  He’d suggested to the coyotes that they search the beach for anything interesting, just so long as they were wary of emerging sea-beasts. Mandy had accompanied Logan, then flown off to circle lazily overhead for some minutes before alighting somewhere in the forest fringe. He suspected she was hunting, having developed a liking for a large flying insect common to the area. Mandy had found them tasty, and while the ship’s laboratory tests had said they contained no nutrition for her, they had also said the insects—even in some quantity—would do her no harm.

  E’l’ith looked up abruptly as Mandy glided by overhead in hot pursuit of one of the insects. She caught it, biting into the carapace with a brisk crack.

  *Is it safe for her to eat that?*

  Storm nodded, silently pleased that E’l’ith had asked the question he’d wanted her to ask. Now, in a moment, Logan could add the information they needed E’l’ith to have to open a useful discussion on the subject.

  “Our tests say that the insect does her no good as food, but she likes the taste and it will do her no harm to eat them,” he said aloud, sending as he did so. “Tani says that Mandy is putting on a little too much weight, so eating the insects is good. She won’t gain weight from them, and she is full enough so that she eats less of her own food, which will add weight for her.”

  Logan grinned and pounced on the opening offered him. It was a good opening, similar to others they’d discussed earlier. It would allow them to explain some of the biological sciences to E’l’ith, and it could be an opening for E’l’ith to ask for help over the aikizai’s bonding difficulties. Tani would never do what he was about to claim, but the suggestion could serve to interest the liomsa.

  “Tani also says maybe she should take a few tissue samples from the insects back with us and sell colonies of them to DuIshan, where they use paraowls a lot. We could package them as diets for paraowls and make a fortune.”

  “The Patrol wouldn’t approve of that,” Storm said, giving the lionsa time to think over the possibilities in what was being discussed.

  “They would if she genetically engineered them so they lived on something they could get only in captivity.”

  They both saw E’l’ith registering the conversation with growing interest. They picked up hints of discussion going at high speed between her and her three friends present. These seemed to have an echo, and Storm suspected that once again everything said here was being relayed to other liomsa and aikizai.

  E’l’ith spoke questioningly. *Is that something which you could do easily, or do you joke?*

  “No,” Storm said aloud. “No joke. We as a people could do that. On our ship Tani could possibly do so. She’s had training in that work.”

  Saaraoo stared at them. His gaze then flicking to his liomsa and on to M’a’ein and her aikiza. He had been lying almost flat; now he sat up, as if to impress everyone that what he wanted to say was important.

  *If you can do such things, what could you do for us and those who do not bond?*

  Momentarily Storm was uncertain whether he should jump at that or if he should appear less eager to meddle. He waited, seeming to be considering the question and his options.

  Fearing he had not understood, E’l’ith broke into his meditation. *My aikiza means that if you can change what that insect is, could you also change the cubs who do not properly bond?*

  Storm looked doubtful, sending that emotion as well. *I could not say. It would all depend on the reason the cubs bond imperfectly. If it is something in their bodies that causes it, then perhaps such a thing could be repaired. But what if it is not?*

  He knew Logan would be guessing the line of discussion, even the portions he could not hear. They had talked about this before they emerged from the ship to join E’l’ith. Logan had been given a series of cues after any of which he would bring up another possibility.

  Aloud, he added, “If the failure to bond fully is neurological, there could be a problem there, too.”

  “But,” Logan broke in, “if it is something else it might be still be possible to remedy it.”

  *Is this so?* E’l’ith’s voice broke with emotion.

  *It is.” Storm said, sending reluctance to underscore his words. “But it could be dangerous. We would need to take tissue samples from as many of your people as possible. Samples from your aikizai as well. With enough samples from those who have bonded fully, those who haven’t bonded at all, and those who are only part bonded, we may be able to find the common factor that prevents a full bonding. If it is something that could be altered, you would then have to consider doing so would be good or if it could create more problems than it solves.*

  *I understand,* E’l’ith sent slowly. *I can see some of the problems there could be, but if we give you many samples and you find nothing, there will be no problem. If you find a reason and nothing can be done, again, there is no problem. Only if we give enough samples, you find the reason, and it can be repaired, must we make decisions. I say I shall take this formally to our peoples.*

  Forgetting Storm could understand her without a sending via the aikizai, M’a’ein spoke to E’l’ith directly. *If nothing else, this information and the possibilities may stave off war between us and T’s’ai’s faction. If nothing is done, we are likely to be at war with T’s’ai’s rebels very soon. Anything is better than war.*

  Storm stopped doing anything but listening passively. He had no wish for the liomsa to know he overheard their fears, but from both aikizai he could feel sympathy with M’a’ein’s words.

  E’l’ith sent him a more emphatic agreement: *I am with you in this. At this moment I and my friends are willing for you to take samples from us. We will answer any questions you have.*

  Storm, as if he knew nothing of the discussion between her and the others, nodded politely. “We are very willing to make the tests and see if we can help. But we do need many samples and Tani is making a list of questions we shall need answered.”

  *Many shall come to you. When is the best time?*

  He answered that aloud again so Logan would hear. “My mate and my kin will do this work. Can your people start arriving in the middle of the morning, halfway between dawn and high sun?”

  “That’d suit me,” Logan agreed.

  *Then we shall send our people at such times each day, as many as are prepared to come and may gather safely. Take your samples from us now, ask what questions you have, before we must go.*

  Tani came in answer to Storm’s call, and her small sampling kit was soon put to work. She asked all the questions she could think of that might cover the situation, but knew she would have to make up a standard question list and she would need many more sampling kits. However, she could set the analyzers to work on what she had so far, just as soon as she was back in the ship.

  “Thank you, E’l’ith.” Tani
left with her samples as the liomsa turned to her friends. *We have done what we can. Let us go now, thanking these ones and promising to return with all of those who will give more samples and answer questions as is required.*

  She rose, gave the small twist of the upper body that seemed to be their bow, and departed. M’a’ein and the aikizai with her.

  Storm sagged back onto his groundsheet. “That’s that. Just as we all wanted.”

  “If only we find a simple reason for their problem, and if whatever results from a cure won’t disrupt their culture,” Logan added, “and if we can get this sorted before the Patrol arrives and forbids us to do anything. Are you going to tell them you’re testing tissue samples?”

  “Not unless we find a cure. Then they’ll have to know. Until then, we’re just conducting scientific studies with the cooperation of the natives. Right now we’d better get back inside and tell Tani she’s going to be swamped with work.”

  “She’ll be pleased. It’s what she wants to do.”

  Storm’s lips curved in a small, private smile. “I know.” He headed for the ship and his wife.

  Tani was as pleased as Storm had anticipated. He left her making up sampling kits at a great rate and went to check with the captain.

  “Any word from the Patrol or anywhere else?”

  Captain D’Argeis looked up from his book and shook his head. A captain whose ship was fin-down had nothing to do but routine checks and transmissions. That routine allowed him ample off-duty time, which he was using to study Jestin’s planetary history. History was a hobby of his, and he’d already studied Lereyne and Ishan.

  “Nothing’s come in from the cruiser since last night.” He glanced over at the personnel panel as Storm went to leave. “Everyone’s inside right now but young Laris. She went out alone for a walk along the shore about an hour ago.”

  Storm turned sharply. “What? Logan and I were outside and we never saw her leaving.”

  “She probably went down the beach to the east.” He spoke a command and the panel showed other lights. The captain said something regrettable. “I thought those coyotes were still out on the shore and she’d be with them—but they’re back inside without her.” His tone flattened. “See if they saw her out there.”