[Acorna 08] - First Warning: Acorna's Children (with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough)

by Anne McCaffrey

  Marl was easy to find, being the only patient in the room. And since he was yelling all kinds of things about what he was going to do to her when he got better, Khorii paid him no attention. The health teacher doubled as the medtech. Hap had told her that students were examined by doctors before they came to the moonbase. They were not sent to Maganos until they had recovered from any illnesses or injuries they had. So, for the most part, the student population was healthy and required only a medtech to see to the usual minor health problems kids had. Ordinarily, if someone came down with something more serious or got badly injured, planetside care was within less than a two-hour trip.

  Even if there had been a hospitalful of students, Marl would have been noticeable because he was so loud, what with his cursing and fussing and moaning with pain and yelling at the medtech, Mr. Singh, in a most disrespectful manner for refusing to give him more and stronger medication.

  Squaring her shoulders, Khorii marched up to his bed. She would heal him, but not before she gave him a piece of her mind along with the touch of her horn. In truth, she felt more like goring him with it than healing him, feelings she knew should shame her, but didn’t.

  Khorii addressed the sadistic Marl, adopting the same no-nonsense voice often used by her Father-Sister Maati, who was raised by the legendary Grandame Naadiina and often had to bring her handsome but rather flighty mate, Thariinye, back down to earth. She hoped that Marl, like Thariinye, had some good buried in him somewhere. She’d seen no sign of it so far. “Some of my people tried to tell me that my coming here was dangerous because humans are aggressive, warlike, and barbaric people. I did not believe them, because until today all of the humans I have known have been as kind and caring as the Linyaari. But you are evidently a specimen of the bad kind. What is the matter with you, trying to kill an innocent little cat who never did you any harm?”

  “Oh, get over it, you spoiled brat. It’s just a stupid cat. You shouldn’t have brought it here anyway. Everybody else here was lucky to arrive with their own skins. You come parading in like some kind of a celebrity with an entourage, no less. Who the hell do you think you are to judge me? All I did was give your fraggin’ cat flying lessons. At home we killed lesser beasts all the time. The ones we didn’t kill to eat we killed to keep them from eating our food. It’s survival, brat. Something you have never had to face what with your famous mama and your important human ‘family.’”

  Khorii wasn’t sure how much she was reading and how much he was saying, but the unfairness of it struck her anyway. “I can understand how you might resent me,” she said. “But Khiindi is not me, and he is not a lower beast. His fellows are worshiped on his homeworld, sacred creatures who guard temples and possess great wisdom. If you want to wound me, try throwing me in the pool. But you wouldn’t do that because you are afraid, are you not? You know if you attempt to hurt me, you might be hurt instead.”

  “Yeah, that robot of yours is vicious. I thought they were under orders in their programming not to hurt real people.”

  “That shows how much you know. I understand that at one time, Elviiz’s father, whom I have known only as a learned and conscientious person, was evil and hurt people all the time to please his mistress. Perhaps Elviiz retains some model, if not racial, memory of that aspect of his father’s past. Furthermore, I would not need Elviiz to hurt you to stop you from hurting me. I have other ways, nonviolent ways practiced by my people, of stopping aggression against my person. Right now I feel like forgoing them in favor of stomping on your broken arm with my hard ‘alien’ feet, but that would lower myself to your level. Instead, I am culturally compelled to minister to your injuries. So shut up and do not make me any angrier at you than I already am unless you wish to remain in your current condition longer than necessary.”

  “You’re lying! You’re going to hurt me! Singh! Stop her. She’s going to torture me.”

  “Alas,” said Mr. Singh, “I am much too busy to hold you down while she does so, evil punk of a boy. So be still and allow the gracious girl to heal you and get your worthless anatomy out of my infirmary.”

  Marl let out a low moan, and his eyes shifted back to her. She felt real fear radiating from him. Calla was right. He’d clearly been abused in the past. “If you are afraid of me simply because I’m standing and you are injured, how do you think poor little Khiindi, who has known only gentleness and love at the hands of bipeds, felt when you nearly killed him?”

  “Cat’s don’t have feel—” he began.

  Khorii saw her vision flicker and burn with shades of red. It was very odd, but she was too angry to think about the phenomenom at that moment.

  As she slammed the poultice container down on the table beside his bed, Marl decided that perhaps his statement was the wrong tack to take with her. “How was I to know you worshiped the damned things?”

  “I did not say I worship Khiindi,” she replied. “I said he comes from a planet where his sort are worshiped. He has been my companion since I was a baby. He is more like a brother or sister to me, as is Elviiz, than the subservient creatures you seem to think all four-legged animals should be.”

  “Well, you have a pretty mixed-up family, if you ask me,” Marl said with a grunt. “Animals are only there for people to eat.”

  Khorii felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up in shock and anger. “I do not believe that I asked you for your opinion.”

  As she spoke, she concentrated on holding his gaze with her own as she had seen her elders do, and applied the poultice to his various injuries. In a very ka-Linyaari fashion, she hoped it hurt Marl like fury.

  “I must remove part of your cast to finish the treatment,” she said as formally as possible.

  He flinched when she knelt to inspect his arm. She raised it and looked underneath it, as if looking for flaws in the cast. While doing so, of course, she laid her horn against the underside of his arm and imagined the bones mending straight and knitting whole. Then, as if still inspecting it, she took his hand and examined it. She was surprised to feel how warm and normal this hand felt. How could something that seemed so ordinary be so vicious? It had so recently held her poor cat friend in such a cruel grip and with such murderous intentions.

  Feeling that the arm was mended, she began removing the boy’s cast, smearing on the poultice as she pulled sections off.

  He panted with fear at first, but then said, “Hey, that stuff works pretty good. Bet you could get plenty for it on the black market.”

  Her healing gift was a miracle, and all this stunted monster could think of was the profit there was in the process! She glared at him and turned her back. She had taken two steps away from the bed when he said, “I guess you did this to your cat, too, didn’t you? I mean, I guess he’s still alive. You didn’t say I killed him.” The words sounded both grudging and disappointed.

  “No, he lives. But it was not for lack of trying on your part,” she said. “Without my medicine, he would have died. And, yes, fortunately for Khiindi, our medicine works for all species.” She turned suddenly and faced Marl. “For your healing to really be complete, you should attempt to make amends to Khiindi for what you did to him and to Elviiz for forcing him to deal with you so harshly.” Once again, she gave the boy a chance to show any mercy or goodness that he had inside him.

  “What? Are you crazy? Apologize to a cat? And that robot kid almost killed me!” Marl was almost spitting with his indignation.

  “Elviiz is an android, not a robot,” she said. “Your violence activated the aggression in him. He strives to be as Linyaari as I am, having been raised as my foster brother, and we do not believe in such aggressive behavior. You have done him more wrong than he did you. To feel better, you should attempt to mend the hurts you have caused.”

  “Yeah, right.” Marl snarled. “In a million years, if ever!”

  So much for Marl’s inner healing. Then she did walk away. Behind her she heard Mr. Singh say, “Now then, Marl, pick up the mess your cast has made and get
back to your classes. No malingering, no malingering. Go, go. And it would please me if you did not come back.”

  It seemed that she wasn’t the only person who didn’t think much of Marl.

  Hafiz brooded over the lists of supplies he had ordered from company headquarters—orders that were as yet unfilled, though some of them were more than six weeks old.

  Miikhaye, the Linyaari communications intern, appeared in the doorway.

  “Uncle Hafiz, sir, Comoff Harui sent me to inform you that Captain Ling and the Dervish are returning.”

  “So soon? Did they fix my relays? Did they see the supply ships en route to us? What in the name of the Prophets and Books is causing all of this delay?”

  “No, sir, they did not do any of that. As they were entering Federation space they encountered a drone ordering all vessels to return to their last ports of call.”

  “Why in the name of all that is holy and valuable? Ships do not conduct interstellar commerce by remaining in port.”

  “No, sir. The drone refers to the need for treatment, decontamination, and observation of a quarantine. What is a quarantine, Uncle Hafiz?”

  “A quarantine? Why a quarantine?”

  Miikhaye shook his head to indicate he did not know and looked expectantly at Hafiz.

  “Ah, yes, my son, a quarantine is a rule passed by health officials and other authorities to prevent those who are sick with a communicable disease from mingling with those who do not have it.”

  “Oh, well then, sir, that’s a relief. At least we do not have to worry about Acorna, Aari, and Khorii. They are Linyaari and can heal any illness.”

  “Ah, yes, true. And yet—”

  “Sir?”

  Hafiz made a wave of dismissal. “Never mind, my boy. Ask Captain Ling to report to me upon his return, please. And you did well to keep me informed. Do the same when Captain Gallico returns from Makahomia. And, Miikhaye?”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “You are the son of Khaari, communications officer of the Balakiire, the ship commanded by my adopted daughter’s aunt Neeva, are you not?”

  “Khaari is my mother, yes, sir. Why?”

  “Would you tell her for me please that I am desolate that it has been such a very long time since I have had the honor of her company and that of the rest of the Balakiire’s crew. I am a lonely old man except for my beloved Karina, and I seek the solace of the companionship of my dear Linyaari friends, especially in the absence of my daughter and her family. Please convey my desire for their presence. As soon as possible. Sooner, even, if they can manage it.”

  Chapter 13

  Hap sat beside Elviiz in the spacecraft, wondering how to comfort the droid, if he could feel comfort while he was turned off, and why a droid should need comforting at all. The droid hadn’t done anything Hap wouldn’t have done if he’d seen what Marl was up to before Elviiz did. Elviiz probably had done it better, of course. Hap wasn’t reinforced with titanium and steel.

  “Look, my friend, he had it coming. He’s had it coming for a long, long time. I don’t know why they even sent him here. Most of the kids here are basically good kids who got bad breaks and had no place to go. Marl has a place to go, if you ask me. Prison. Not political prison or anything like that—just somewhere where they put scary people so nobody else has to deal with them. A nice strong place to keep them inside and the rest of us safe out here.”

  Elviiz, of course, said nothing. But Hap liked to think he was listening.

  It was nice out in the shuttle bay. Even during “night” inside the bubbles, the stars did not seem as close as they did out in the bay, through the viewscreen. Hap had only ever taken one ride in a spacecraft. He’d been superexcited about it and talked about nothing else for days before until everyone he knew looked pained when he started telling them about it. He’d thought back then, Boy, if they think I’m full of it now, wait till I get back!

  The truth was, he probably wouldn’t have had a lot of high adventure to relate to them if things had worked out like he planned. He was only going to make the runs with the agro tech rep, Scaradine MacDonald, showing people in colonies on other worlds how to use different tools, fertilizers, feeds, and seeds. Scar was a good friend of his family and he had always had time for Hap. His invitation to take Hap with him on this run was like a dream. Realistically, Hap thought Scar might be recruiting him for the companies who employed him. Hap was good with machinery and could fix or build anything, was enthusiastic, loved to talk, loved to teach, and enjoyed agriculture best in the short term—preferably at harvest-time when it came to eating some of the produce. He loved the animals, taking care of them, helping them give birth, bottle-raising the babies. He hated the butchering part, though, and still refused to eat meat, something the other colonists thought was just plain silly.

  When he and Scar left New Fredonia, and he watched it grow smaller and smaller as they shot into the atmosphere, he thought he didn’t care if he ever saw it again. For a long time he felt bad about that, because he hadn’t meant that he never wanted to see his family again. He wasn’t really close to his parents, but he liked his brothers and sisters. But all of them had still been home when the planet blew up, as far as he knew. By then he and Scar were at Rushima. When the news came, he hadn’t been able to talk for two weeks, and for a long time after that, he couldn’t do anything at all. It was like he’d been paralyzed. Scar was very wise about people and tried to comfort him, but when Hap did something really stupid and tried to space himself, thinking that in some way he’d be going where he belonged, with everybody else he knew, Scar decided he wasn’t equipped to look after Hap. He’d needed a helper, not somebody to babysit. So, reluctantly, Scar got ahold of Calum Baird and Declan Giloglie, who were old friends, and they agreed to take Hap at Maganos Moonbase.

  That had been two years ago, when he was twelve. He was fourteen now. Before long, Scar would keep the promise he made when he dropped Hap off and come back for him. When he felt up to it, Scar said. When he was sane again, Hap thought he meant.

  It wasn’t such a bad place, though a lot of the other kids seemed sort of babyish to Hap. Not Shoshisha, of course. She felt like—well, he had never got close enough to know what exactly she felt like, but he wanted to. Or had. Having seen her throw a fit about Marl Fidd, her beautiful face twisted with what had to be an unreasonable fear and loathing of Elviiz—on Marl’s behalf, he wondered? He was beginning to think she was even more screwed up than he was, and not in a good way. What was that thug to the princess anyway? Had Marl maybe attacked Khiindi because of the underwear incident, which Shoshisha had confided to a half dozen of her best friends?

  If she put someone up to being cruel to a harmless little cat because of a bit of urinary carelessness, well, she for sure wasn’t the girl he thought she was, and she wasn’t the girl for him. Too bad. She looked like the girl of his dreams on the outside, but it was starting to look to Hap like the girl inside was all wrong.

  Some people thought Khorii was exotic-looking, but to Hap she looked too much like him, too much like the people he grew up around—that is, if you didn’t count the horn and the hooves and mane and that kind of thing. Tall, willowy, blond people of both sexes had been plentiful in New Fredonia, along with large, heavy, blond people of both sexes, and redheads of all shapes as well. His sister Fri had hair almost exactly like Khorii’s—well, she had had.

  As if thinking about Khorii had summoned her, she walked onto the dock and entered the shuttle.

  “It was very good of you to stay with Elviiz,” she told him.

  “Is he—you know, aware? When he’s turned off, I mean? It was weird leading him along behind me like—well, like a broken toy that just went where I told it to go.”

  “Elviiz is not a robot, he’s an android,” she said. “His bionic parts and attachments are powered down now, but the organic part of him is as aware as you or I would be when we’re asleep. I’m sure he appreciated your company.”

  “But you wan
t me to go now, is that it?”

  She looked startled. “No, I just thought you’d want to. That you had other things to do. I—have you seen Sesseli? She went to find Khiindi while I healed his assailant.”

  “You healed Marl?”

  “I had to. It is—um, what you would say is—a Linyaari thing. I think the only time someone was injured that we did not try to heal them—I mean by ‘we’ my parents and other Linyaari—was when Khleevi were killed. Of course, Khleevi were not like people. They were more like armed weapons.”

  “That’s what everybody says about their enemy du jour,” Hap said. “If you’re going to be better than us at being pacifists, you’ll have to do better than ‘not quite like a person.’”

  “Since I never personally met a Khleevi, I cannot effectively argue your point,” she told him. “Also, I did not realize that the degree of pacifism was a competitive issue? That seems contradictory to me.”

  She wished Elviiz were not deactivated. He could sort these things out more logically than she could, and also confuse everyone else in the process.

  “You’re right about that,” Hap said. He had been sitting still too long and, without realizing it, had begun pacing the small space inside the shuttle, looking inside storage compartments to see what was there. He was rewarded with a find. A bar of chocolate! “I didn’t know your people ate chocolate,” he said.

  “We don’t,” she said. “But Captain Becker, whose shuttle this is, loves chocolate. I don’t think he’d mind if you had that, however.”