Acorna's Quest

by Anne McCaffrey

  “It’s all right, Acorna,” Calum said, “and so is Markel, if he’s hanging out with this worthless space drifter.”

  The man with Markel chuckled in his turn. “Might have known if there was trouble, you’d be mixed up in it somehow, Calum. But what were you thinking of to get young Acorna into it?”

  Acorna gasped in surprise, and the man turned to her. “No, you don’t know me, but I’ve heard plenty about you.”

  “Oh?”

  “Gill used to send me holos of you, before we lost touch. Even the Brain, here”—he jerked his head toward Calum—“occasionally mentioned you. When he bothered to write, that is!”

  “You can’t be…”

  “Johnny Greene, very much at your service, ma’am.”

  Acorna took a deep breath of relief. “Of course! Gill has a holo of you in his office, but…”

  The man in the holo looked much younger, his head thrown back in carefree laughter. This man’s features were the same, but now they were drawn in the lines of strain and watchfulness that seemed to mark everybody who had survived Nueva Fallona’s coup on the Haven.

  “You could have told me,” she scolded Calum.

  “Didn’t have time,” Calum defended himself. “Look, I didn’t know he was going to show up here.”

  Markel looked about anxiously. “Where’d you stash Dr. Hoa?”

  Acorna reached over and gently raised a corner of the cover to show the exhausted doctor sleeping, the tiniest of smiles in the corners of his mouth.

  “Is that a relief!” Johnny exclaimed, when he saw the scientist. “I don’t know how you did it, Markel….”

  “Very carefully,” the boy said, sitting with his arms resting casually on his knees, totally relaxed and very, very pleased with himself. “I got them out through the air vents. They fit diagonally through the openings once I took the grates out. Only this one”—he jerked his chin toward Calum—“needed a little encouragement.” He frowned as he took a closer look at Calum. “Say, how’d you stop the bleeding? I could’ve sworn you lost some skin back there!”

  “Oh, it was A—” Calum began, then stopped as Acorna gave him a warning shake of the head. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Markel, but he was being asked to assimilate a lot at one time. And if something went wrong…she refused even to consider that. There would be time enough to explain her unique healing capabilities when they got out of here—and they would! “—a fuss about nothing, as it turned out,” Calum substituted for what he’d been going to say. “I sure thought I was going to get scraped raw on the way out, though!”

  “Markel,” Acorna said urgently, “can you get messages out as well as eavesdrop on their communications? We ought to alert the Shenjemi Federation about what’s happening to Rushima—and send to Maganos for help, too.”

  “Might could,” Markel allowed. “Have to tap the main power lines to boost a message, though, and they just might notice the surge. Lemme check on who’s on shift now….” He tapped his earphone back in place and listened for a moment. His eyes lit up like those of a much younger child planning some mischief.

  “Ooooh, is Nueva furious!” he said. “She’s giving all of them what-for and threatening to space the next incompetent who manages to lose a prisoner. ‘They’”—Markel thumbed his chest bone—“have got to be found. Oho!” And he sat bolt upright a moment, then relaxed again. But the sparkle was gone from his eyes. “Sengrat’s just pointed out that I was never accounted for in the original coup…and Ximena reminded him that I used to know ways about the ship in the tubes and stuff.” The way he emphasized her name warned Acorna that Ximena was, or had been, someone special to Markel. “They really are on Nueva’s side; they’re not just going along to save their own skins,” he said. “Even Ximena…I used to like her. I don’t understand people like that.”

  “Neither do I,” Acorna told him.

  “You’re a couple of charming innocents,” Johnny told them, “but I for one would like to know what they plan to do with this information and how Markel thinks he’s going to stall them—because I know what that look in your eyes means, kid,” he said, ruffling the top of Markel’s head.

  “Nueva was just going to send someone through that big tube, which would have been a fine game of hide-and-seek in this maze. We could’ve run the searchers ragged,” Markel reported. “Then Sengrat suggested they should use gas. He’s still underestimating me.” Even as he spoke, he was rooting through yet another hiding place and came out with one hand clasping breathing masks and the other emergency oxygen bottles.

  Acorna smiled. “We won’t need those.”

  Johnny shot Acorna a wondering look.

  “She is Ki-lin,” murmured Dr. Hoa, who had awakened during Markel’s excited report. “Her horn purifies water and air and heals. Does it not, most gracious lady Ki-lin?”

  “I am not Ki-lin, Dr. Hoa, but the rest of it is accurate,” she said.

  “See? She has healed my hands and arms from what they did to me.” The scientist shoved one sleeve up to show a slightly wrinkled but healthy forearm with a few patches of paler skin replacing the deep burns. “And the rest of me, too,” he said with some surprise as he realized he could sit up and move without pain.

  “And my knuckles,” Markel said, eyes wide as he finally noticed. “My knees don’t hurt either, nor my back.” He looked at Calum accusingly. “Hey—you did get scraped bad, getting through that vent hole, didn’t you? And tried to persuade me I’d been imagining it, when the truth is Acorna healed you?”

  “We thought it might be hard for you to accept,” Calum said. “Some people don’t believe….”

  Markel looked reverently at Acorna. “Even with a demonstration? What an asset for our side! They’re never going to get their hands on you, lady. Not while I can still breathe.”

  “I’ll see that’s a long, long time,” Acorna said.

  Then Markel pressed the earpiece and held up a hand to stop any further talk. “Yes, that’s what they’re going to do. Ximena is small enough to make a search once the air has cleared up.” His face clouded over. “She doesn’t want to…I thought maybe she wasn’t as bad as the rest of them…but she doesn’t care about what happens to us, she’s just afraid I’ll survive the gas somehow and go after her in the tunnels. I couldn’t hurt her,” he said sadly, “not Ximena, no matter what she’s done. I thought she would know that much, at least.”

  “Well, let’s not wait to meet her,” Johnny said, changing the subject briskly before Markel’s emotions could overpower him. “Markel, can you get us from here to the hangar deck?” He glanced at Calum. “I’m thinking that your ship would make a better command center than this tunnel…we could send our messages for sure, and maybe even get clean away if Markel can disable the Haven’s grapples.”

  “No problem! Can’t you see, we’re already at Red 32 x Blue 16, all we have to do is take a side route through Blue 16–24 and cut across at the intersection of Green 48…well, never mind,” Markel slowed down as he sensed the bafflement of his companions.

  “I’m just a simple techno-nerd,” Johnny said. “I don’t happen to keep a 3-D color map of the ship’s maintenance tunnels in my memory.”

  “It’s real easy,” Markel said. “I’ll tell you all about it when we have time.”

  “That,” Johnny said hollowly, “is exactly what I’m afraid of.”

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind!” Johnny gave Markel a friendly push. “Get going, O friendly native guide. Let’s hit the road…or rather,” as Johnny caught Markel’s startled look of warning, “let us make noiseless progress away. Do we need anything you have stashed here, Markel?”

  “Water?” Markel took down the fabric that had held the water bottles to the wall and it folded out into a sleeveless tunic, the water supplies on the back of it. “Ration bars. My headset. These…no, too heavy…but I gotta have these,” he mused over a collection of tools, rapidly making his selection. He stuffed the necessary items into anoth
er backpack, draping thermal covers over everyone’s shoulders, even Dr. Hoa’s, and then, lifting up a corner of the tube wall, shoved whatever remained into the opening. It took a few hard pushes to get the opening to resume its normal shape. The area was back to normal. Markel had left no signs of his presence.

  “This way, now,” he said, pointing before he took Dr. Hoa’s hand.

  Later Acorna would wonder how they had managed that exodus. The healing properties of her horn were prodigious, as well as its air-purifying abilities; but the constant effort of making the air around them breathable eventually exhausted even her. And there were other problems. They did not have the luxury of sticking to the “safe” routes Markel had mapped out for himself; now they had to follow the passageways that held least risk of detection or offered the shortest path to the hangar. Some of the walls they crept through felt cold, others almost unbearably hot and, over one section—the coil to main drive—Acorna went from one member of their group to another, to heal blistered knees, hands, and other portions of their anatomies they could not keep from touching the hot metal.

  “Lousy insulation,” Johnny muttered, as Acorna laid her horn up and down his thigh where the material of his pant leg had been seared away.

  They rested every time they reached a double tube crossing because there Acorna and Johnny could stand upright and ease their backs.

  “You do know where you’re taking us, young’un?” Johnny asked.

  “I told you, Johnny Greene, I know this ship like no one else, First or Second Generation. What’s the matter, can’t you take the heat?” Markel asked so fiercely that Johnny held up his hands in mock self-defense.

  “Lay on, Macduff,” the spacer said with a smothered laugh, “and damned be he who first cries Hold, Enough! That is,” he added, “if you and Dr. Hoa can manage, Acorna?”

  Acorna wanted nothing more than to be through with this claustrophobic journey. She fervently assured Johnny and Markel that there was no need to slow down on her behalf.

  Markel had indeed known exactly where he was taking them, a storage room for tools on the hangar deck itself. Through the grill on the narrow window, they could even see the Acadecki, clamped tight to the deck but still in front of the other smaller vessels that were part of the Haven’s force.

  “And that is their first mistake,” Markel said with great satisfaction.

  As if he hadn’t been crawling for days through narrow tubes and inspection conduits, Markel made space on the worktable and started plugging his equipment into some of the power-tool sockets. Everyone else flopped down, exhausted, on the metal floor. Acorna was certain she would retain the honeycomb pattern of the room’s floor on the tender parts of her anatomy, but it was worth it to stretch out at last. The cramped journey through the tunnels had tried her sorely; for once she envied Calum his lack of inches.

  “Ha! They haven’t found anything, and it’s going to take them days to inspect the entire network,” Markel said. He rubbed his hands together and glanced in the direction of the Acadecki. He tried to peer in other directions, but his view was restricted. “Ooops.” He pulled back as if someone could have seen his face in the window. “Guards.” He peeked out again. “No more than three that I can see. There’re usually ten or twelve on hangar duty.” Gleefully he washed his hands. “We really have them running up their own…sorry.” Markel caught himself at Johnny’s sharp nudge and shot a quick apology in Acorna’s direction. “But that doesn’t get us out of here.”

  “If we could get to the Acadecki and power up,” Calum asked Markel, “could you patch into the Haven’s command centers from there and disable their communications and other systems?”

  “Nothing to it,” Markel nodded, preening a little.

  Calum stood, shakily, and pointed at the window. “Lemme have a look?” Markel moved aside. Calum grunted. “You’re sure there’re only three here now?” Markel nodded. “What we need is a diversion…that is, if you can get us out of this storage room.”

  “No problemo,” Markel said, and, taking an odd-shaped bit of plastic from a thigh pocket, inserted it into the door. They could all hear the light “snick” as the lock was opened. “Only now what? Soon as I open the door, we’re in clear sight of at least two of the guards.”

  “And each of them would like to take credit for the recapture of Dr. Hoa,” Johnny said, with a gleam of malice in his eyes. “If you don’t mind acting as bait, Doctor?”

  “I owe the universe whatever action will repair my disastrous misjudgment,” Dr. Hoa said with a slight bow, “even should it require the sacrifice of my life.”

  “Oh, I don’t think it will come to that,” Calum said cheerfully, hefting a length of thick steel bar which he had quietly “acquired” during their passage through the tunnels. Acorna looked around the supply room and found a heavy mallet, which she swung about to test its balance.

  “That looks good,” Johnny said, reaching for the mallet, but Acorna shook her head.

  “Find your own weapons,” she told him. “I like the heft of this.”

  Johnny’s eyebrows shot up, but he made no further protest.

  “I did mention, didn’t I, that she’s very independent?” Calum asked drily.

  “You didn’t tell me the half of it,” Johnny muttered, rummaging around the cluttered room for something he could use as a weapon. He settled on a length of thin cable that he carefully knotted around a pair of screwdrivers.

  “I’ve got a better idea than using the good doctor as bait,” Calum said. “Markel, you said you could hack into hangar security and disable the grapples on the Acadecki? If you did it now, that’d distract them for a moment right when we make our break and give us a head start on getting out of here.”

  “Start opening the door and get ready,” Markel said, pressing more key pads. “I got the hangar security on line and…”

  The sound of the grapples retracting echoed throughout the large hangar. The guards went running toward the ship, and Markel and his followers were out of the storage room before the guards spotted them.

  One of the two guards on the catwalk pounded on a device on the wall before he followed his companion down to the hangar floor. The three guards made straight for the Acadecki, and the attackers made straight for them.

  Acorna let her hammer fly at the nearest guard as he lifted his stunner. Her weapon shattered his hand and sent his stunner skittering across the metal floor, right to Markel’s feet. Markel picked it up and downed the top one on the ladder, while Johnny, coming out from behind the bulk of a small shuttlecraft, tackled the third guard before he could raise his weapon. Calum looked around, puzzled that there was no one for him to attack.

  “That was too easy,” he said.

  Markel was taking the stairs to the catwalk two at a time, and running along it, checking the unlocked hatches leading into the interior of the ship.

  “We’re secure in here now,” he called, and sauntered to the farthest ladder, sliding down it without using the actual steps. The boy had had a lot of practice in such acrobatics. The others followed him in more conventional fashion but with scarcely less haste. Even though until Calum powered up they could not lock the hatches, Acorna felt more secure once she and all her friends were inside the Acadecki.

  “Well done, Markel,” Johnny said, throwing an arm about the boy’s shoulders. “But what do we do now? Once they see us leave, they merely latch the tractor beam on us and haul us back aboard. Unless you can disable that…”

  “Yes, that much I can still do,” Markel said, “but…”

  “The Acadecki’s fast,” Calum said, “but, even with the tractor beam useless, I’d be surprised if the Haven doesn’t have laser cannon and missiles.” Markel nodded, looking mournful. “Both—and there’s no way I can get into those controls.”

  “You mean there’s some security on this ship you haven’t worked around?” Johnny pretended amazement, but Markel looked so hangdog that he patted the boy on the back and told him
it didn’t matter; there was more than one way to skin a cat.

  “We may not be able to get clean away,” Calum said cheerfully, “but we can activate the ship long enough to send out a spurt for help in all possible directions, then lock down again and…well…”

  They all looked at one another for a long moment, acknowledging that they might have come to the end of this particular road. Their takeover of the Acadecki was not likely to go unnoticed for long, no matter how cleverly Markel disguised his jamming of the communications between the harbor and the main deck; and they could hardly hold the little ship like a besieged fortress.

  “Well, we’ll jump through that spacewarp when we come to it,” Johnny said with a shrug, accepting the inevitable. “Better get on with it—no telling exactly how much time Markel can buy us with his system manipulations.”

  Calum started the reactivation sequence while Acorna was busy framing a spurt code message, which she thought should go to Maganos, Kezdet (in case Mr. Li was at home), and Laboue.

  “I’m thinking of Rafik’s Uhuru, too,” Calum said. “Won’t take more than three seconds a spurt, and it’ll quadruple the chances of one message getting through.”

  “First of all we send one in clear to Shenjemi Federation,” Acorna said, and when Calum opened his mouth to protest, she added firmly: “We promised.” Calum sighed. “So we did.” And looked up the direction code for the Federation. The other destinations he had already long memorized. A low whistle startled them both as Markel, with Johnny Greene assisting Dr. Hoa, came into the main compartment.

  “This is some ship,” Markel said, awed.

  “You can say that again,” Johnny added, equally impressed as he helped Dr. Hoa into one of the conformable chairs. “You got a galley on board?” he asked.

  Acorna pointed.

  “Is there a shield over the hangar entry, Markel?” Calum asked. “Our messages could bounce right back at us if there is.”

  “I took that off when I disabled the grapples,” the boy said absently, far more intent on prowling around the room, running his hands over the soft fabrics and looking into compartments in the furnishings. “There’s so much space for everything,” he said, standing in the middle of the room, arms outspread and turning slowly around.