The Rowan

by Anne McCaffrey

  ‘Isthia’s maternal sensitivity is exceedingly acute,’ Jeff agreed but his tone also assured the Rowan that he was not going to make the mistake of dismissing the incident.

  Rowan? It was Isthia’s tone, stronger than her usual mental voice, have I caught you at a bad time?

  Jeran and I are having a swim, the Rowan replied, not slow to catch the anxious undertones to that deceptive query. What’s wrong?

  Whatever IT is is getting stronger and more ominous. Her worry was deep. Rakella and Besseva concur, and every woman with any modicum of Talent on this planet is beginning to display anxiety symptoms. You’d think the planet was populated by viragoes the way tempers are flaring for no reason at all. Rakella and Besseva are merged with me to make this contact!

  And here I thought you’d yielded and taken some training! The Rowan deliberately spoke in a light vein.

  Now I wish I had. I shan’t be so perverse if we get out of this!

  Even as she spoke to Isthia, the Rowan had risen from the pool and thrown towels around her son’s wriggling body and her own.

  I take it no masculine minds have been touched by this phenomenon? the Rowan asked, deftly inserting Jeran into his padded pants. She also assembled some travel requirements for them both.

  That’s it precisely. Isthia’s reply was grim. The male minds don’t hear a twitch. Not that they won’t listen to those of us who do!

  Callisto is occluded right now so I’ll call a day of rest. I think I’ll bring Mauli with me. She’s a keen echo finder even if Mick isn’t present. Jeff’s on Procyon. Be with you soon.

  The Rowan did not find Afra or Ackerman as cooperative about what they termed a ‘rash and impulsive venture’.

  ‘Mauli will do anything you ask,’ Ackerman said testily, ‘but I’m damned if Afra and I will take the responsibility for you two, and Jeran, haring off to Deneb without at least checking with Jeff.’

  ‘I can’t disturb Jeff in that meeting on Procyon right now. And if I have to, Brian, I can also launch myself and Mauli without a gestalt,’ the Rowan replied, gesturing for Mauli to settle herself in the double capsule. She handed Jeran over and faced her critics. ‘Now, will you stop being overprotective and run up the generators? You both know that Isthia wouldn’t put me, or Jeran, in jeopardy but if she wants me on Deneb, she’s earned the right to my assistance at any time. Hasn’t she?’

  ‘At least clear it with Jeff,’ Ackerman replied in a request that was nearly a plea.

  Jeff! Isthia wants me on Deneb. The situation is hotting up.

  Really? Should I come? She could sense that he was only half-listening to her. He was at a meeting but not bored.

  I’m taking Jeran and Mauli.

  He’s old enough for a long ’port.

  Afra and Ackerman had to accede to her orders then, but she knew both were uneasy. But then, they always were when she wanted to ’port anywhere: even when she was now undisturbed by the process.

  Call this an inspection tour by the Denebian Prime-to-be, Afra, and don’t worry, dear friend, the Rowan said, lightly touching Afra’s forearm so she could impose assurance on him.

  He gave a shrug and a wry smile, then helped her into the double carrier beside Mauli. Brian’s scowl did not abate as the canopy locked shut. Then he turned on his heel and returned to the Tower, Afra following him.

  Though this would not be Jeran’s first ’port, for Jeff had taken him out beyond Jupiter on several occasions to accustom his son to the sensations, it would be his longest. He spent the transfer gurgling and enthusiastically waving his arms. He registered Isthia’s welcoming mind-touch with an extra chirrup. He liked his grandmother and his mind associated her with soothing sounds and contacts.

  Did you catch that, Mauli? the Rowan asked, sometimes unable to restrain her pride in Jeran’s obvious Talent.

  Mauli’s smile broadened into a laugh.

  Isthia brought them with no more than a light bump into the cradle at the fine new Tower, bathed in spotlights at this time of Deneb’s night, its big, new generators humming idly. The Rowan had a nostalgic moment for what she had contrapted out of sheer necessity but then Isthia, Rakella, and a third woman whom the Rowan identified by mind-touch as Besseva emerged from the facility. Besseva reminded the Rowan so forcefully of Lusena, physically and mentally, that she experienced a brief jolt at the contact.

  I am then doubly honored, Besseva said, inclining her head slightly toward the Callisto Prime.

  ‘And no problems with this fellow in a long ’port, I gather,’ said Isthia, taking her grandson from his mother and settling him on her hip as she had her own children. ‘I am truly grateful to you, Rowan, and to you as well, Mauli, for humoring me.’

  ‘Humoring you? Spare me that, Isthia!’ The Rowan let her exasperation color her mind as well as her voice. ‘Since you’ve obviously left the generators on, let’s see what we can plumb out there. I brought Mauli for that echo effect she has.’

  ‘Night is the best time to sense the presence,’ Isthia said.

  ‘And we have!’ Besseva stated firmly, and Rakella gave a single emphatic nod of her head.

  All three Denebians emanated a tenseness, a barely controlled fear that bordered on terror. The Rowan was seized with an urgent need to either deny or confirm it.

  The Tower had been enlarged as well as modernized and, judging by the blank west wall, clearly the architect intended to expand in that direction when the time came for Deneb to have a full Prime Station.

  ‘That’s right, Jeran, look about you! This may one day be your domain,’ the Rowan said, grinning archly at Isthia, trying to neutralize their fears so she could be objective. They felt so strongly that it was, for once, difficult for the Rowan to maintain her integrity.

  ‘Poor baby! What a fate!’ Isthia stroked his cheek and then placed him in one of the spare couches, lightly strapping him safely in. ‘He shouldn’t be bothered there.’ She gestured for the others to take the conformable seating grouped at the main console. Then she courteously gestured for the Rowan to initiate the gestalt.

  As the Rowan felt the ready response of the bank of generators, she grinned again at the change from that poor wheeze of an affair. Isthia had been practicing, for her mind smoothly blended with hers: then Rakella, Besseva, and a little timidly, Mauli merged.

  Where? the Rowan asked.

  Isthia pointed to her right, slightly west of true north, at one of the more brilliant constellations in the Denebian skies. The Rowan didn’t know its astronomical designation for she was more familiar with the patterns in Altairian or Callistan skies.

  Though I don’t think that star system is where it originates, Isthia added. But it is coming from that general area of space.

  The Rowan let her augmented mind range beyond Deneb’s night horizon, beyond its moons, far, far out, past Deneb’s heliopause, into the blackness of space. This merge was vastly different to the one she had led to Deneb’s help nearly two years ago. This time she was the focus. Suddenly Yegrani’s Sight came back to her, and the Rowan wondered if perhaps she had erred in believing that the Sight had been fulfilled with Deneb’s trouble and Jeff’s arrival.

  You have not yet been the focus of which Yegrani spoke, said the quiet voice of Besseva, nor was she ambiguous. Deneb’s danger was not yours. This is!

  What the Rowan felt then was not prompted by Besseva’s voice or words. There was inarguably something dangerously evil inexorably heading toward Deneb’s system.

  No, not evil! Determined! And determined in a sense that gives new potency to such a mind-set. The Isthian section of the mind merge qualified the emanation.

  Rowan: The emanation has no pain now. No anger.

  Besseva: In time all pain heals and the anger has been sublimated into purpose.

  Rowan: What IS it? Though she could discern intense and unrelenting mental activity, she could ‘see’ or ‘read’ nothing: she could detect no string of thoughts being processed, only the moil of determination.


  Rakella: ‘It’ is not single!

  Mauli, in a surprised tone: ‘It’ is a many. And they frighten me! They are … oily.

  Isthia, bleakly: This ‘many’ exudes a purpose of destruction. Enough to agitate even an insensitive mind.

  Rowan, recalling vividly that earlier merge: The survivor was sent off in that general direction!

  Isthia: The merge didn’t follow it to its destination?

  Rowan, with a sigh for that error: At the time our actions seemed sufficiently punitive.

  Isthia: All should have been destroyed.

  Rowan: Hmm, yes, a bad judgment error. We didn’t succeed in scaring them off. We should have plunged all into the sun and saved a lot of cleaning up. Were you in that merge, Isthia?

  Isthia: No, and there was a thread of droll amusement in her tone. I was otherwise occupied. This time we will see the threat removed completely.

  Rowan: We will not err this time. Only what will be a sufficient deterrent?

  Besseva: I respectfully suggest total annihilation.

  Rowan: That notion will be totally unacceptable to the League Councillors. Even the aliens are nonviolent.

  Isthia: Drastic measures must be considered. The hive mentality obviously didn’t respond to a fear stimulus. Just what sort of intelligence guides this second assault?

  Mauli: Would it be wrong to assume that, as in other insect colonies, the female, or egg-laying gender, is the guiding force? Ensuring the perpetuation of the species?

  Isthia: A logical assumption since we apparently sense what the masculine mind does not.

  Rowan: I resent reacting to a beetle.

  Isthia, drolly: Did you see the reconstruction the specialists made of one of those ‘beetles’? BIG! Even one of the smaller types would be a formidable opponent! Don’t think of them as beetles. Think of them as BIG, dangerous animosities. I should not like to have to defend myself against them on Deneb’s surface.

  Besseva, in a dry voice: Especially as Deneb has little in the way of defensive weaponry. Hunting arms wouldn’t even dint their body covering. If we can assume that we are dealing with a hive society …

  Isthia: I think we can. Remember the eggs among the debris of the ships that were destroyed …

  Besseva: And with a species that will pour huge numbers of determined troops into a surface assault, they must be halted before they reach the planet! Or we’d better think of evacuating Deneb right now.

  Isthia, in unalterable defiance: We are NOT abandoning Deneb.

  Mauli: I sense something so massive … and broke off, tucking her fear as far away from consideration as she could.

  Rowan: That has not escaped any of us, Mauli.

  Isthia, wryly: D’you think we’ll get the Fleet this time without a lengthy argument, Rowan?

  Rowan: You better believe it! Even if I have to ’port every unit myself.

  Besseva: Be a little more subtle, Rowan. Just tell Earth Prime that you refuse to leave Deneb until naval reinforcements arrive!

  Isthia, laughing: Reidinger won’t risk you!

  Mauli: Shouldn’t we withdraw? They might sense us.

  Rowan: I doubt it, Mauli. There is no sense of awareness of anything other than their purpose. Deneb. And that’s the reason we sense them: their purpose is aimed at us! Single-mindedness has certain disadvantages. I just wish I could perceive more details, unravel the mechanics of their thought processes. The Fleet will want details.

  Isthia: So will Reidinger and Jeff. But there are none. They will have to trust our perceptions. She sounded dubious.

  Rowan: Oh, they’ll believe us! Why have a dog and bark yourself?

  Isthia: Say what?

  Rowan, chuckling: One of Siglen’s little sayings.

  The Rowan began to relax the focus of the merge and was astonished to see daylight flooding through the Tower windows. Jeran was sound asleep, his right thumb pulling down his lower lip. A quick glimpse reassured the Rowan that his mind held no trace of any neglect, that he had fallen asleep unfretted.

  ‘I hadn’t realized we’d be gone so long,’ Isthia said with apology, looking at the station timer. ‘Five hours! You took us farther than we’d been able to reach.’

  The Rowan stretched, easing stiff muscles as she swung her legs off the conformer. The others were doing the same.

  Rowan! Jeff’s tone bordered the peremptory. Where have you been? I couldn’t reach you at all!

  Well, have a good look then, my love, because Deneb’s the target once again. Only this time we won’t stop with half measures, the Rowan replied and opened her mind to him.

  That’s fascinating! Jeff replied when he had absorbed the total report. Nor can anyone ignore this as a case of mass hysteria if you and my mother are involved. And Besseva, he added hastily, with a mental grin of apology. These days I know why Reidinger couldn’t just call up the Fleet when I wanted him to during the last invasion. But I also know which panic buttons to press to initiate a Red Alert.

  Isthia, at her drollest: If what we sense about the incoming vessel is even marginally accurate, the Fleet wouldn’t be of any use. Except psychologically.

  Jeff: Mother! You’ll crush their fragile egos! Surely they’re good for something!

  Isthia: Well, they might be able to spot the thing when it gets closer but, to be perfectly candid, I don’t want that thing to get much nearer! It’s causing sufficient havoc as far out as it is and I dread what it’ll do up close.

  Jeff: It would be wisest to nip its pretensions as soon as possible.

  Isthia, patiently: It’s not an ‘it’, Jeff. It’s a ‘many’, a feminine ‘many’.

  Jeff: Then we are in trouble! And he was only half-joking. Are you staying on there, Rowan-love? His thought was only for her and its wistfulness made her smile.

  Rowan, with a quick look at Isthia: No, I should return to Callisto. I can nag people just as easily from there. I’ll leave Mauli to help keep in touch. But I assure you, if we don’t get immediate action, I’ll come right back here so the League will be forced to take this seriously. These creatures may be heading for Deneb, but to have such animosities anywhere in the League’s sphere of influence endangers ALL!

  Isthia: It’s proceeding at a frightening rate of speed.

  Jeff: I know. I’ll persuade Admiral Tomiakin to lend me a fast scout ship for reconnaissance.

  Rowan: With you on it?

  Jeff: Who better? A grin tickled the edges of her mind. I didn’t call ‘wolf’ the first time so they’ll listen to me.

  Isthia said aloud and screening her thought: ‘Men! They have to have their place in the scheme, don’t they?’

  Rowan: You’d better be sure there’s a large female complement on that scout. Or better still, take Mauli with you. She knows what to listen for.

  Jeff: Your wish is my command!

  ‘I think everyone is going to have to be in on this defensive action,’ the Rowan said soberly, ‘or that thing is going to land on Deneb. And all too soon.’

  The Rowan knew she had only put into words what the others thought but saying it out loud did nothing to relieve the tension.

  ‘I will arrange a watch rota,’ Isthia said. ‘There are enough of us to do that. And Rakella, you can see about some sort of medication to dampen the reaction.’

  ‘Not every woman is experiencing it,’ Rakella remarked.

  Isthia grinned in sudden humor. ‘So we find out just how much of Deneb’s female population have traces of Talent. ’Tis an ill wind that blows no-one good.’

  Rowan, very privately: You’re amazing!

  Isthia, equally private: Take the good with the bad.

  Then Jeran awoke to be fed, so Isthia hustled mother and son back to the rebuilt Raven Farmhouse, where the stock purchased by Jeff’s paternity bonus grazed on the lush hybrid grass that had thrived in Denebian soil. What surprised the Rowan about the new residence was that most of it was built underground.

  ‘Once bitten, twice shy,’ Isthia replied with a sh
rug and a grin, ‘as well as being sound home-engineering: energy efficient, cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. And I feel a lot safer. Doesn’t mess up the landscape either. You’ll find more of Deneb City underground. We’ll overfly it on our way back to the Tower. Now, let’s feed this hungry young’un. And us! Those long night watches make me ravenous.’

  Once back on Callisto, the Rowan allowed Reidinger to scan her memories of the merge. That he was seriously disturbed was obvious by the fact that he hadn’t so much as roared over her abrupt departure. When she mentioned Yegrani’s Sight as verification, he became testy.

  You were the merge, he said. You saved Deneb and you’ve traveled.

  I was NOT the focus at Deneb. Jeff was.

  Reidinger made a rude noise. Damned clairvoyants are so clever with their ambiguities.

  REIDINGER, you are not ignoring this! It was her turn to bellow.

  Fat chance I’d have of that when that aggressive Denebian husband of yours is agitating Fleet High Command as well as everyone he’s ever met on the League Administrative Panel. Reidinger sounded disgusted yet there was a hint of pride in his protégé, which made the Rowan grin. Should never have introduced him so universally. He’s got Fleet in a flap but the units that were stationed around Deneb are insisting that they get the chance to reconnoiter.

  Rowan: Jeff said he’d be leading the way.

  Reidinger was silent for a moment. He hasn’t wasted an ounce of that ingratiating charm of his over the last six months. He smothered exactly the right egos with it. Consequently he can manipulate the various authorities and agencies that would be involved in an operation of this magnitude. And cut through delays.

  The Rowan grinned to herself at Reidinger’s grudging admission. She had learned a thing or two from Jeff about dealing with bureaucracy. More importantly, he could manipulate at a high level. With Deneb the ostensible target for this new assault, he had every reason to marshal his Talent.

  Jeff was very effective: he managed a squadron to reconnoiter. And, obeying his wife’s advice, specified a high complement of female crews on two of the ships.

  Damnedest thing I ever heard of, Reidinger complained to the Rowan, Jeff’s the most perceptive, and certainly the strongest Talent I’ve ever encountered – and he had to go some to exceed you, Angharad – Reidinger had taken to calling her by her real name since Jeran’s birth because ‘Angharad’ sounded more feminine than a tree name – so he’s got xenobiologists from all parts of the League screaming for details about these feminine menaces of yours.