Acorna’s Quest

by Anne McCaffrey

  While the Kilumbembese ships were moving to a safe distance, Hoa studied real-time displays of Rushima’s atmosphere and terrain and hummed softly to himself.

  “Mmm, mmm, good unstable cloud masses here, yes, much instability in the troposphere, electrical potential building up…a little nudge here…. We begin with lightning,” he said, “using ship’s amplifiers to simulate action of hybrid Oscillator/ Regenerative Amplifier which I used in scientific studies. Spaceships, being tall and metal, should attract lightning before any other objects on ground. Communications and electrical systems will be destroyed.”

  “Get on with it, can’t you?” Calum murmured under his breath. “Pulling back the Red Bracelets may have been necessary for their safety, but it’s got to look to the Khleevi like we’re retreating. They’ll see if they can escape. They know they’re trapped on the surface.”

  Hoa’s fingers played over the console pad before him, and he snapped requests to Markel for confirmation of the numbers he produced.

  “Hurry!” Andreziana said from her own seat. “I’m seeing hot spots, probably ships igniting their engines….”

  “Now,” Hoa said, and the screen in front of Andreziana went wild with a display of crackling lights.

  “What was that?” she gasped.

  “Series of short pulses cause electron migration, propagation, collisions, avalanche ionization,” Hoa said. “Conduction path will be formed wherever possible. Lasers would provide more focused strikes, but in absence of information about location of ships, general ionization is best bet.”

  Three Khleevi ships had launched off-planet during the lightning storm, but two of them behaved so erratically as to make Des Smirnoff’s approach in the Jurden appear a marvel of accurate navigation. After a series of staggering loops, one failed to escape Rushima’s gravity and fell back toward the planet; the other one transmuted into a searing burst of light that left only fragments. The third ship darted through a space just recently vacated by the Red Bracelet fleet and escaped Rushima, but not to attack, only to flee. One of Ikwaskwan’s warships swung out of line and followed.

  “How did you make that second one explode?” Calum demanded, awed.

  Dr. Hoa shrugged slightly. “Impossible to predict what goes first when electrical systems are destroyed. Steering, power…in this one, I think fuel controls. It is not at all an accurate action,” he said with disapproval. “Is not science; science deals with predictable results. Now you will see! Markel, bring up titanium-sapphire lasers, please.”

  “Aren’t we too far away for laser warfare?” Calum asked. “The beam will spread until it’s so weak…”

  “Sufficiently intense light pulses are trapped in three dimensions,” Hoa replied without looking up. “Self-compensating nonlinear effects. End result, dispersion, diffraction, and scattering are balanced by self-stabilizing processes. I cannot prove how it happens,” he said, “only demonstrate results of focused high-intensity laser strikes on appropriate cloud material. Laser forms a tunnel of ions, which attracts lightning…. My intent,” he said sadly, “wasto use such tunnels to draw lightning away from structures, which needed protection. Instead…” He twiddled with controls and adjusted the focus of the laser with infinite precision. “Instead,” he repeated, as lightning arced through Rushima’s atmosphere, “I now direct it at structures….”

  “Which need destroying,” Calum reminded him gently.

  Ikwaskwan’s com technician reported that the Khleevi ship had escaped; having so little mass, it had been able to reach lightspeed long before the heavier battleship, and they had been unable to catch it within the limits Ikwaskwan had set for his fleet’s range.

  “Quite right, too,” Calum agreed. “They’d do themselves and us no good by following one Khleevi ship until their fuel was exhausted. Still, I’d like to know where they come from….”

  “Several ships have been captured,” Markel reminded him, “and we have the virtually intact pod that Smirnoff and Minkus escaped in. We can study their computers and charts….”

  “And maybe Dr. Zip can help analyze the metals,” Calum said, remembering how that eccentric astrophysicist had applied the latest upsilon-V imaging techniques to provide Calum with a basis for working out where Acorna’s home world probably lay. That world was long since laid waste by the Khleevi, and the Linyaari envoys could provide them with the location of the new home, narhii-Vhiliinyar; but there still might be a use for his computational and astroplotting program, to help locate the home base of the Khleevi. That possibility cheered him immeasurably, and while Dr. Hoa pounded Rushima with storms and floods to destroy any remaining Khleevi, he began jotting notes for an amended version of the program.

  When Dr. Hoa patently began to tire Calum and Markel both vied to take over from him. Calum was chosen but, when Dr. Hoa saw Markel’s sullen expression, he put his hand under the boy’s chin and forced him to meet his gaze.

  “There will be time for you, too. Watch and be ready to take your turn. You are well able when all is said and done.”

  Johnny Greene leaped forward to help the exhausted man who, at first, waved off the need for assistance until he stumbled at the steps leading up to the main level of the bridge.

  “Come.” Andreziana was beside the doctor, firmly taking his hand. “You may rest in the captain’s ready room,” she said, indicating the door that gave onto the bridge.

  “Your ready room, my dear, your ready room,” Dr. Hoa said, smiling as he patted her arm but quite willing to let her escort him. That accomplished, Andreziana returned to her command chair with just the slightest of smirks at having been more effective than Johnny Greene. And Pal moved just that much closer to her chair, subtly informing the older man that his efforts were redundant.

  Johnny turned away, with a broad grin that Acorna and Rafik noticed: Acorna with considerably more sympathy and relief than Rafik.

  That would certainly solve a problem for her. The way Pal had all but challenged Thariinye disturbed her even if she did see it as only the usual posturing of males for a desired female. The incident had also taken away from Acorna’s eyes the scales of infatuation over her first encounter with a male of her own species.

  However, she too was tired and wanted to retire as discreetly as she could to the Acadecki, now once again on the Haven’s hangar deck.

  So, too, was the Linyaari ship, and, as she passed it, Neeva called out to her.

  “Join us, my sister-child,” and then added as Acorna switched her direction, (You cannot know how rewarding it is to see the Khleevi overwhelmed as they have overwhelmed us for centuries. To know that we, we four, have been witness to their rout.)

  (I don’t feel much like cheering, I’m afraid) Acorna said truthfully.

  Neeva pressed her horn against Acorna’s. The scene of Acorna’s dream reappeared. (This is what they destroyed for you. But it is good to see that you are more linyarii than khlevii in the matter of dealing death. This is indeed a novel way of defeating one’s enemy.)

  (IF you can get them to land on a planet) Acorna said.

  Neeva nuzzled Acorna. (You are heartsick, my sister-child, and it is because we are not what you thought we should be. Is that not correct?)

  Acorna gasped. She hadn’t realized just how deeply Neeva could delve. (I mean no offense, truly. It’s just that you…)

  (Are what our world and genetics have made us, just as these humans are the product of their worlds and genes.) It was Melireenya whose deep voice chimed into their conversation. She appeared in the open hatch of the brilliantly decorated ship. (You wish to know HOW do we manage to keep the paint so bright? Ah, that is one of our secrets. Come. Come. Let us relieve your anxieties and confusions, dear ’Khornya.)

  Acorna was mind-weary enough to wish surcease and entered the Linyaari vessel. Thariinye was not in evidence.

  (You must have just passed him on the way to the Haven’s bridge,) Neeva said. (He wishes to know more about this most unusual and spectacular method
of dealing with the Khleevi.)

  (Huh,) Khaari said with a nasal snort of disagreement, (he enjoys seeing the ships blown up and was counting them. “That is for the Selinaaryi.” “The next kill will be for the Juveniiryi.”)

  (Who?) asked Acorna, confused, though she did realize that these were family names.

  (Ancestors and friends who were lost to the Khleevi over the centuries,) Khaari answered.

  (Will there be ships enough to satisfy that lust in Thariinye?) Neeva asked ruefully.

  She led Acorna to a pile of cushions and settled her in their comfort. Then she began to knead the muscles of Acorna’s neck, and work her fingers up and down the length of the mane, into the vertebrae themselves. More often than not, Acorna winced at the pain as Neeva touched places which Acorna hadn’t even known were sore.

  (When we bring you home) and there was a subtle triumph in Neeva’s use of the word, (we shall introduce you to the ways whereby we dissipate tension and fatigue. This ship was not large enough to contain the unit, which is why we do not appear at our best to you. We, too, have suffered from the stress of reaching your quadrant of space soon enough to give you warning.)

  (We are not always as contentious as we have been these past few weeks,) Melireenya said sorrowfully. Then her silvery eyes brightened. (What glad tidings we bring, along with one we thought lost and gone to us.)

  (Do I have many relations?) Acorna asked, though she already knew that she had been the only youngling born to her parents.

  Neeva’s silvery neigh filled the room. (Hundreds! But we shall not require you to meet them all at once.)

  (I will want you to meet a few)—Khaari smiled, her eyes sparkling—(a chosen few of mine.)

  Melireenya gave Khaari an affectionate shove. (I am the elder. I shall have the first chance.)

  (Chance for what?) The inferences were beyond Acorna, though she sensed them in the subtle nuances of the interchange.

  (Why, to introduce you to a suitable mate, of course) Neeva said, as if that should have been obvious. (You are well old enough to need a mate. In fact, I marvel that you have been able to contain yourself.)

  (She has had no one to stimulate that part of her nature yet) Melireenya said. (Or have you experienced…well, unusual sensations at all?) She turned to the other two females. (It can happen, you know, for someone isolated as she has been.)

  (I…well)—Acorna bowed her head in confusion—(there have been moments…)

  (Not for much longer, sister-child,) Neeva assured her, and continued to massage her neck.

  (It will have to be for a while longer,) Acorna said regretfully.

  (WHY?) all three Linyaari demanded, shocked.

  “Well, there are things I must attend to at Maganos….”

  (Nothing that Rafik fellow cannot handle) remarked Melireenya firmly. (We are YOUR people. You must first come with us. Then, if there are any problems that you must indeed deal with yourself, we can return with you.)

  Khaari’s neigh was closer to a snicker. (And with your life partner.)

  (WILL one find me suitable? I’ve lived so long….)Acorna stopped because even Melireenya was convulsed in Linyaarish laughter.

  (Wait and see, ’Khornya. Wait and see.) Then the other two made excuses of tasks to be done and Neeva altered the rhythm of her gentle kneading, and, before Acorna could help herself, she was dozing off.

  It was dawn on the Haven before anyone came looking for her. Calum had finally deferred to Markel and gone back to the Acadecki, falling asleep the moment he lay down. He never thought that Acorna would be anywhere but in her own quarters. So, when Gill and Rafik came looking for her, and him, to announce the arrival of Uncle Hafiz, with his voluptuous and veil-swathed Karina, they were startled and dismayed to find her missing.

  “She is here, close by,” Karina said through her veil. It wasn’t a very thick gauze, Calum noticed: much more transparent than the silks he’d once been dressed in for Uncle Hafiz’s benefit. It allowed someone to get a glimpse of a rather attractive face, if much too plump for Cal’s taste.

  Now Karina gracefully placed her much beringed hand on her forehead.

  “Very close.” She slowly turned and looked at the Linyaari vessel. “There in fact. And oh, they’re all there. And fast asleep.”

  “Uncle,” Rafik said in an undertone, “since when have you followed the outmoded and barbarous custom of veiling your women?” Only a few years earlier Hafiz had been shocked and dismayed to find Rafik apparently converted to the Neo-Hadithians and reverting to the strictures practiced by those who denied the Second and Third Prophets, keeping women veiled and refusing spirituous liquors. He had professed great relief to discover that Rafik’s apparent conversion to a fundamentalist sect had been only a clever business trick—even if he had been its victim.

  “Since I acquired this pearl without price, my lovely Karina,” Hafiz replied in the same discreet undertone.

  “Acquired? Uncle, the last time I looked, slavery was forbidden by the laws of all known states and federations. Even on Laboue, I do not think you can legally own a concubine!”

  Hafiz put on a disapproving expression. “Nephew, I might take offense did I not love you so dearly. Karina is my beloved and dearly cherished wife in the sight of the Three Prophets. We have sworn our vows upon the Three Books.”

  Rafik’s mouth dropped open. “You’ve married that…that pseudopsychic charlatan?”

  “Dear boy,” his uncle said in a warning tone that held more than a hint of steel, “you are speaking of your new aunt. It is a shame to all discerning men that such a flower of beauty should have been forced to work for a living instead of reclining upon silken cushions and being fed on marzipan and cream cakes. Her previous lifestyle,” he said grandiloquently, “is unimportant to me; the cherished gazelle of Hafiz Harakamian need never lift a finger again.”

  Rafik reflected that if his uncle really intended to feed his new acquisition upon marzipan and cream cakes, she might well be incapable of lifting a finger in a few years. Even now, “gazelle” was hardly the word that came to mind when describing her.

  “Is she not voluptuously beautiful beyond your wildest dreams?” his uncle sighed rapturously. “Even my Yasmin could hardly have compared with Karina.”

  Mention of Hafiz’s first wife, the long-dead Yasmin, reminded Rafik that his uncle had already shown a definite predilection for women whose most prominent attributes lay somewhere south of their brains. Yasmin had been a dancer in a zero-G topless bar when Hafiz abducted her.

  “Karina, my little lily,” Hafiz said to his new wife, “pray do not exhaust yourself in using your powers to contact the Linyaari. They will awaken soon enough of their own accord, and I would not see your lovely face lined with fatigue. Sit here and rest yourself, and I will see to it that some light refreshment is brought to restore your psychic energies.”

  Karina smiled up into his face with a look of such radiant love and trust that Rafik’s last objections to the marriage melted like snow on Laboue, and he was devoutly thankful that the words “gold digger” had not passed his lips. No one looking at the pair could doubt that they were truly infatuated with one another. Still, when he remembered his uncle’s cynical strictures on the subject of women and marriage, he could not but be amused to see Hafiz, of all people, swept away on a tide of sugary-sweet romance.

  “What are you laughing about?” Calum inquired out of the side of his mouth after Rafik had greeted Karina with all the respect due to his uncle’s wife and retired to the farside of the Haven’s main cabin to release his amusement.

  “Hafiz,” Rafik said. “To see him billing and cooing with that…I mean, with my beloved aunt…and if you had ever heard the Old Earth poets he used to quote on women and marriage! He used to compare marrying to buying a horse.” And he recited four lines of Hafiz’s favorite poet’s from memory:

  If it be pleasant to look at, stalled in the packed serai,

  Does not the young man try it and pace ere
he buy?

  If She be pleasant to look on, what does the young man say?

  ’Lo! She is pleasant to look on. Give her to me today!

  “And if she produces a son to cut you out of your inheritance?”

  “Is it not written in the Book of the Third Prophet, ‘Count not the light from a distant star among your assets, for that star may have been long dead by the time its light reaches thine eyes’? I have not been such a fool as to count on stepping into the shoes of a healthy man with many years to live, Calum. While trading for Uncle Hafiz I have built up quite a respectable line of credit on my own account…which, come to think of it, he may need to borrow against.” Rafik raised his voice. “Tell me, Uncle, how stands the credit of House Harakamian after these disasters?”

  Hafiz interrupted a low-voiced colloquy of his own with Admiral Ikwaskwan and Johnny Greene. “What disasters, my beloved nephew?”

  “Well…the interruption to your trade…and, ah, paying the…” Rafik stammered. He had been so flabbergasted by the introduction of Karina as his uncle’s wife that he had not even noticed Admiral Ikwaskwan’s arrival, and now he had to hastily suppress the comments that had risen to his lips about rapacious mercenaries.

  Hafiz gave the broad, closed-lip smile that many competitors had learned to dread. It usually meant he had just swallowed their pet canary.

  “I confess there were some minor difficulties initially,” he said pleasantly. “In fact, Delszaki Li and I were forced to combine our businesses in order to command enough liquid credits for the initial great expenses. But with the advantage of House Li’s trading contacts and capital added to my own superior communications system, I am happy to say that House Harakamian-Li now commands an even greater share of the galactic market than before…and from what Mr. Greene here tells me of the technology to be discovered in the captured Khleevi ships, we expect to recoup our initial losses quite quickly. There is also,” he said thoughtfully, “the small matter of trade agreements with the Linyaari. Now that Delszaki and I are no longer in competition, that should also be resolved quite profitably.”