Starbridge

by A. C. Crispin

  Mahree nodded. "Dhurrrkk' and Rhrrrkkeet' are taking Rob and Uncle Raoul and Esteemed Ssoriszs and me on a tour of this station. I can hardly wait to have Uncle Raoul meet a Mizari-- they're such nice people!"

  "You run along, then," Joan said, and her niece stood up. "You don't want to be late. Will you . . ." she hesitated. "Will you tell Raoul that I said hello?"

  "Sure," Mahree said, around a lump in her throat. "And I'll come back to see you again ... if you don't mind."

  "I don't mind," she said. "You can tell me all about your tour. Have fun, Mahree."

  Mahree glanced at Dhurrrkk' unbelievingly. "You mean the whole Council came up to this station just so they could meet Doctor Blanket?"

  Her friend nodded. They were standing in the connecting tunnel, outside Desiree's airlock, waiting for the others to join them for the scheduled tour of Station Three. "Several of the oldest members had never been off-planet before, FriendMahree. You should have seen them trying to make the greeting gesture in the low gravity the Avernian requires! One of them overbalanced and fell over!"

  She smiled at the image his words conjured up. "So, how did you do,

  'interpreting' for Doctor Blanket?"

  Dhurrrkk' gave her a sideways glance. "I honestly believe that the Blanket was able to pick up their thoughts for itself, FriendMahree, and did not need me for that. But it is still difficult for the creature to project thoughts into an unfamiliar mind. When it 'spoke' to the assembly on Shassiszss, it was a tremendous effort for the Avernian."

  "Did Doctor Blanket say how long it wants to stay here?" she asked. "The way its plants are growing, it could stay for a while

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  longer. And Rob told me about you bringing it over to the infirmary for a nice X ray 'bath.' "

  Dhurrrkk' nodded. "Such a concentration of X rays would kill one of your people or mine," he said. "But our friend found it as refreshing as a thorough grooming!"

  Mahree chuckled. "All the comforts of home!"

  Her Simiu friend nodded. '"I am glad to see you have not totally lost your ability to smile, FriendMahree. I sensed when we first met today that you are not your usual self. Your good spirits seem lacking. It was the same yesterday with FriendRob. Has something happened between you two?"

  She sighed. "It's hard to explain, Dhurrrkk'. We had a . . . disagreement. I guess you could call it a fight."

  "He struck you?" Dhurrrkk' bristled indignantly. "He is my friend, but I cannot in honor allow--"

  "Oh, no, no!" she interrupted hastily. "This was a word fight, only, please believe me! And it was my fault, as much as Rob's. We disagreed over something very important to him."

  "What is that?"

  "This hard to explain . . . you know how my people take permanent mates?"

  "Yes," the Simiu said. "For companionship, as well as offspring, correct?"

  "Correct. Well, Rob wants me to become his wife--for us to be permanent mates."

  "And you do not want him?"

  She made a helpless gesture with her hands. "It's not that, exactly. I think someday I will want him. But I don't want him right now. I'm just too young to get married--mated permanently."

  Dhurrrkk's violet eyes were sympathetic. "I understand. You are too young, just as I am too young to mate, still. No wonder you have not yet conceived.

  These things should not be rushed, FriendMahree. You need to allow your body time to mature."

  Mahree rolled her eyes at the ceiling. "Uh . . . yeah. It's not quite like that, FriendDhurrrkk', but the end result is the same. But FriendRob is hurt by what he sees as my rejection of him."

  "You will just have to explain it to him," Dhurrrkk' said, reasonably. "He is a good person. He will understand, eventually."

  "I hope so," she said, with a sigh. "If he doesn't, I--

  She broke off as the Simiu airlock opened, and Rhrrrkkeet and the CLS

  Mediator entered the tunnel.

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  Even as the four of them were exchanging greetings, Desiree's airlock cycled, and Raoul Lamont and Rob Gable joined them.

  Mahree introduced her uncle to Esteemed Ssoriszs, and was proud of the way the Captain remembered the greeting-bow and "a pleasure and an honor to meet you" in the Mizari language.

  Raoul was wearing his voder, so the group, by mutual consent, conversed in Simiu so Lamont and Rhrrrkkeet' could both understand what was said. As the human Captain and the CLS representative exchanged pleasantries with each other and with Rhrrrkkeet', Mahree glanced cautiously over at Rob, only to find him looking at her. When their gazes met, he looked away.

  She sighed, wishing she could skip this tour; it was torture to spend time with Rob when things were so strained between them. A hand touched hers, comfortingly, and she looked down to see Dhurrrkk's sympathetic eyes on her face. A wave of affection for her Simiu companion made her swallow.

  He's the best friend anyone ever had, she thought, touched.

  After a few minutes of conversation, the party set off on its tour. Mahree walked beside Dhurrrkk', listening to Rhrrrkkeet' describing the sights as they encountered them.

  Station Three was even larger than Station One, although constructed along the same "abacus" design, and the group spotted various signs of the interstellar trade currently docked there--they passed several Chhhh-kk-tu from a vessel carrying ore, and one of the Vardi from the Dawn Wind greeted them via voder, simultaneously filling the corridor with scents reminiscent of hothouse flowers, frying bacon, and a beach at low tide.

  Mizari ships, Chhhh-kk-tu ships, and a ship belonging to the insectoid people Rob and Mahree had dubbed the "Apis" were in port, and several times they stood by huge viewports, exclaiming over the different designs of the assorted space freighters.

  Raoul and Esteemed Ssoriszs, Mahree noted, seemed to be jetting along famously. She kept an ear cocked in case either of them needed help with translations, but they appeared to be managing well. Ssoriszs spoke tolerable Simiu, and while Mahree and Rob had been gone, Paul Monteleon and Ray Drummond had refined and expanded the translation program.

  Once she found herself walking beside Rob, and had to fight he urge to slide her fingers into his. He was the same as he'd been for the past two days--

  polite, even friendly, but impersonal. He still refused to meet her eyes.

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  Tonight, Mahree thought, with grim determination. If we can't get this resolved tonight, I'm moving out. I can't go on like this.

  "Where's Rosinante, Dhurrrkk'?" Rob asked. "I'd like to pay my respects."

  "I'd like to see that ship, too," Raoul said. "After all the adventures you had aboard it, it's a famous vessel."

  "RosinanteT' Rhrrrkkeet' said. "What is that?"

  "Your ship, Honored Rhrrrkkeet'," Dhurrrkk' said, with a sidelong glance.

  "The one we ... borrowed."

  "My vessel is currently having its engines overhauled," the former First Ambassador said, with a twinkle.

  "Rosinante is in ..." Dhurrrkk' paused. "Inside. When a ship is taken into a structure so workers do not have to suit up to work in vacuum ... what is that called?"

  "Drydock?" Mahree suggested.

  "Yes, drydock," Dhurrrkk' said. "Bay 29. We are not far from there."

  The group followed the Simiu down the corridors, until they reached an area in the outer "frame" of the abacus. The cavernous, pressurized area had movable raised platforms and catwalks for the convenience of workers, and could be depressurized when a ship was cradled and brought in for work. It was accessed by means of an airlock, just as the connecting tubes were.

  After cycling the lock, the visitors stepped into the docking bay.

  There sat hammerheaded little Rosinante, deserted now that the workers were off-shift, her engine housings opened. A spidery lattice that was the Simiu version of a ladder trailed up her side to a small, raised platform placed over the top part of the hull, so workers could reach all parts of the vessel easily.

  "There she is," Rob said.
"Hard to believe something that small could make FTL voyages."

  "Poor thing, it looks like a beached bloat-fish," Mahree said. "Not in its proper element at all."

  "The Council has already asked me whether I would relinquish ownership,"

  Rhrrrkkeet' said. "They would like to display the ship in which Honored Dhurrrkk' and Honored MahreeBurroughs and Honored HealerGable made the Avernian Contact."

  Rob grimaced. "Give them the credit, Honored Rhrrrkkeet'," he said, in his careful, labored Simiu. "If it had been left up to

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  me to discover that the Blankets were sentient, we still wouldn't know they were anything but patches of fungi."

  "Do not be too sure, Robert," Ssoriszs said. "From what Esteemed Mahree tells me, you--"

  "Stand and face death like a civilized person, human, if you would prove your honor.! a snarling Simiu voice rang out from behind them, followed by the soft, thud of the airlock door cycling. There was a fizzing sound, then the smell of ozone as something shorted out.

  Mahree whirled around to see two Simiu, a huge, scarred male and a smaller, middle-aged female, confronting them. Totally taken aback, she gaped at them as they paced slowly forward across the deck of the drydock bay. "Who?" she gasped. "What?"

  "It is Kk'arrrsht'!" Dhurrrkk' muttered, horrified. "And with her--that is Hekkk'eesh!"

  Khrekk's aunt! Mahree recognized both names. And the famous gladiator, the one who maimed Dhurrrkk's teacher so horribly!

  "What are you doing here?" Rhrrrkkeet' was demanding. "You must both leave immediately!"

  The former Council member ignored her. "RaoulLamont!" The human name sounded nearly unrecognizable as she spoke it. "I challenge you in the name of my clan and sept, so that we may regain our honor! Prepare to do battle with our honor- vessel, Honored Hekkk'eesh!"

  "Kk'arrrsht'!" Rhrrrkkeet's voice cut through the resulting stillness like a laser as she stepped out to face the other Simiu female. "You are creating a grave diplomatic crisis here--you must leave immediately! Your actions are contrary to all honor and law! Leave! Now! Or I will summon security personnel!"

  "I have shorted out the locks and the intercom system," Khrekk's relative replied, gesturing at the airlock door. "So do not waste your time trying to leave or call for help. No one will depart this place until our business with this human is concluded. Stand aside, Rhrrrkkeet', because this does not concern you. It concerns the human only." She looked past the Simiu/Mizari liaison to Desiree's Captain. "Step forth, RaoulLamont, to meet our honor-vessel! Or run, and be hunted down as the coward you are."

  "You cannot do this!" Rob protested, speaking Simiu as he moved to a position between Lamont and the two Simiu. Then

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  he addressed the Captain in English. "Raoul, get the hell out of here. There must be another exit!"

  "He's right, Uncle Raoul!" Mahree said. "Dhurrrkk', is there another way out of here?"

  "I am sorry, FriendMahree, but I do not know," her friend said.

  Mahree turned in a dizzy circle, blinking in the overly bright Simiu illumination, trying to spot another exit. "You've got to get out of here, Uncle Raoul! He'll kill you!"

  "I'd be happy to run, cherie," her uncle said tightly. He was sweating, not only from the humid Simiu heat, but from fear. "But I only see the one exit."

  "Honored Kk'arrrsht'," Ssoriszs said, in his most persuasive tones, "let us discuss ways in which your injured honor may be restored without resorting to lawless acts. Perhaps I can act as mediator--''

  "Keep silent, scaled one!" Kk'arrrsht' snapped. "It is you and your kind that are weakening my people, making them doubt the honor-codes we have lived by for centuries! Stay out of what does not concern you!" She beckoned with one hand at the gladiator, and he slowly approached Raoul, ignoring the doctor, his muscles rippling beneath his flame-colored fur, his violet eyes blazing with excited eagerness.

  "As honor-vessel for the clan"--and he voiced the growl of Khrekk's family name--"I, Hekkk'eesh, challenge you. I demand reparation for the injuries you have given--you will pay in blood, in bone, with life itself. I voice death-challenge!"

  Raising himself onto his haunches, he snarled, his mane bristling out in a stiffened flame-colored halo, his enormous fangs gleaming as he offered the ritual threat-display. "Come to meet me, RaoulLamont, or continue to hide behind your underling, it makes no difference. Stay, or run--it will be the same. I am Hekkk'eesh, and you are the path I will take to restore my honor, as well as the honor of my client."

  Rob bent his knees slightly, assuming a boxer's stance, fists up and ready.

  He was pale, but resolute. Behind him, Raoul also clenched his fists as he braced his body for the anticipated rush.

  The Simiu gladiator's dappled hindquarters quivered as he tensed for the leap designed to carry him into battle with his chosen opponent.

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  "No!" Mahree cried desperately. "No, don't!" She moved to throw herself at Hekkk'eesh.

  'Wo.'" A flash of flame blurred by her, slamming into Mahree's calves, sending her stumbling back. Her feet flew out from under her, and she sat down hard on the deck. The impact was doubly jarring in the high gravity, and her breath whooshed from her lungs.

  "I challenge!" Dhurrrkk' skidded to a halt before Hekkk'eesh, his mane bristling nearly as full as the larger, mature male's. "In the name of my friend, MahreeBurroughs, I challenge! She and I are honor-bound, and nobody touches her or her kin while I live!" he growled, then yawned his own threat-display full in the other's face, his fighting fangs nearly brushing the astonished gladiator's nose.

  "Stand aside, youngling," Hekkk'eesh rumbled, putting out a hand to push the smaller male aside. "My fight is not with you."

  "I say it is! In the name of my friend, MahreeBurroughs, and in the name of my teacher, K't'eerrr--he whom you so dishonorably maimed--I say that before you will touch any human, you will first kill me!"

  At the mention of K't'eerrr's name, the gladiator's violet eyes narrowed angrily, but still he hesitated. Dhurrrkk' gestured at the platform over top of Rosinante's hull. "If you ingested even the smallest measure of true courage or honor with your mother's milk, you will meet me on that platform, so we may settle this between ourselves, without interruption. Follow me, if you have any honor left you, Hekkk'eesh--or be forever named Hekkk'eesh the coward!"

  Then, without a backward look, Dhurrrkk' loped straight over to the lattice-ladder and swarmed effortlessly up it. Hekkk'eesh, despite Kk'arrrsht's rumbled protest, followed him, his strides quick and furious, his mane bristling with indignation at Dhurrrkk's insults.

  With Rob's help, Mahree stumbled to her feet, barely aware of the doctor's steadying hand on her arm. "My God!" she gasped, half sobbing with fear.

  "He'll be killed! He can't face a professional fighter like Hekkk'eesh!"

  Frozen with shock, the observers watched as the two Simiu squared off to face each other atop the platform. Both combatants made the greeting gesture, formal as a martial arts expert's

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  bow, then began the ritualized movements so familiar to her from the holovids she'd watched aboard Rosinante.

  "We have to stop them!" Rob muttered, gripping her arm.

  But how? Mahree thought, watching the two maned figures. Hekkk'eesh is determined to regain his honor by killing Uncle Raoul, and Dhurrrkk' is determined that he'll die trying to prevent that! I know he won't declare ritual hence this time, no matter how badly he's injured! I know it! He'll keep fighting until he's too maimed to continue ... or until he's dead.

  She wrung her hands, thinking furiously, her mind grappling with the problem even as the two fighters eased into the ritual circling that would end with a mutual rush and the true beginning of the battle. Hekkk'eesh sees this as his return path to true honor, he said so . . . but Kk'arrrsht' and her clan are really using him as a dupe, because this fight won't restore their honor, and they must know it . . . the whole planet will turn against them. They're just seeking
revenge . . .

  Her mind cleared as she managed to push aside her terror, her fear for Dhurrrkk', the emotions that were clouding and slowing her thinking. Mahree constructed the problem again, searching for a solution.

  Searching--

  Turning, she grabbed Rob's arm. "I think I know how to stop them!" she hissed, in a tense undertone. "But I've got to get up there with them, so Hekkk'eesh can hear me! Don't let anybody stop me from climbing up there, Rob, understand?"

  "But you could be--"

  "No buts!" she insisted. "This may be Dhurrrkk's only chance! Don't let anybody stop me, no matter what!"

  Reluctantly, he nodded, then Mahree dashed toward the platform, before anyone realized she'd left the stunned little group of observers. She heard her uncle shout for her to stop, heard the pound of human footsteps, but she forced her aching legs to cover the hard deck in record time.

  In seconds, she was at the lattice, her hands going out to grasp the curved sections, her feet feeling for the first steps in her upward climb.

  "Mahree!" she heard Lamont's yell.

  She swarmed up the lattice like a pirate going up rigging, thankful that she'd never been bothered by heights. The platform was at least fifteen meters high.

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  "Mahree!" Raoul bellowed, from below her, and a hand snagged her ankle.

  She clung frantically to the lattice, trying to jerk her foot away.

  Raoul tightened his grip, just as Rob's full weight slammed against the Captain's side, breaking her uncle's hold. Mahree scrambled a little higher, then glanced down, seeing Rob dart in front of Lamont as he recovered himself. Looking dangerously slender and boyish in comparison to the Captain's height and bulk, the doctor braced himself against the lattice.

  "Raoul--no!" "Get out of my way!" Lamont roared, sweeping the younger man aside as effortlessly as a bull would bat a sparrow. But Rob skidded, regained his balance, then came in again, yelling wordlessly.

  Absently, Raoul reached out to thrust him away again, and the doctor ducked under his arm, slamming a vicious left into the Captain's stomach.

  Lamont's breath went out in a whoosh and he grunted, doubling over. In a blur of motion Rob punched him again, a hard right to the jaw, wringing cries of pain from both men as the doctor's knuckles impacted on bone. Raoul staggered, and Rob gave him a short, sharp left in the eye. The bigger man buckled at the knees and went down. Gasping with pain and exertion, Rob looked up, cradling his right hand. "Get going!"