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

by Anne McCaffrey

  Khorii smiled back. “I think my mother will certainly have something to say about this when she finds out about it. But right now we should get those supplies moonside as soon as possible.”

  Elviiz and Khorii both piloted the little shuttle from the Condor, although it was packed so tightly the two of them could barely squeeze inside—accompanied by Khiindi, who insisted on going, too. The docking bays were barren of personnel as well as other spacecraft, and the three shuttles set down in an isolated area, with Kezdet shining huge and bright over them and her other moon floating in the sky nearby. Jaya and Hap, Asha Bates and Marl, and Khorii and Elviiz unloaded by hand everything they had used machinery to load on the Mana. Khiindi stayed aboard the shuttle and was the only one to see when the com screen, formerly containing Phador’s disapproving face, changed to show the picture of a fish. As Elviiz and Khorii reboarded the shuttle, a song poured through the intercom, a complex harmony of many voices filled with melodic melancholy.

  “The poopuus are singing,” Khorii said. After the backbreaking work of moving the cargo, she was glad to be able to slump down in the command chair, wipe the sweat from her skin, and stare into space while the chorus of beautiful voices washed over her like the scented and softened waters of Uncle Hafiz’s fountains.

  “Nice of them to entertain us,” Jaya remarked, from her own shuttle.

  “It’s not entertainment,” Hap said. “It’s like a hymn. Can’t you hear?”

  Khorii shook her head silently, but said nothing as the song on the intercom accompanied them back to the Mana. While they flew, she saw images in her head of groups of poopuus floating listlessly in their oceans. Then suddenly there was a picture of Khiindi with his paw extended to take a fish, but the fish was not shining, and it did not try to escape. And then Khorii herself appeared beside Khiindi and the fish, and she bent over the water, her body stretching as she reached out to the floating people who yearned toward her. Then she was in the water and all of the other people in it opened their eyes wide and waved their arms back and forth as the song ended on a celebratory note.

  When the shuttles emptied out into the docking bay, she told them, “The poopuus’ song contained a psychic message to me,” Khorii said. “An entreaty. They want me to go to their planet and save their elders.”

  “Oh, well, don’t let us stop you!” Marl said. “Why don’t you just hop aboard a passing meteor shower and go out and save the poopuus and the whole fraggin’ universe while you’re at it! They’re bound to make you the princess of the poopuus in gratitude, and we can all be your grateful subjects, too.”

  “Stop that, you mean boy!” Sesseli said, stalking up to him with her hands on her hips and her small chin angled belligerently upward. “Khorii was just saying what happened. She wasn’t bragging, like some people would.”

  “Get your petite feet out of my personal space, pet, or I’ll take you by the tail and throw you into the great beyond,” Marl snarled, indicating the star-spangled black bits that showed between Kezdet, Maganos, and the other moon outside the docking bay.

  “What do you think, Elviiz?” Hap asked. “I think in Marl’s case, his tongue is a birth defect. Maybe we should perform a procedure on him to correct it.” Elviiz didn’t reply, but glanced at Khorii instead, his face flushed with embarrassment.

  Marl’s eyes narrowed, and he pointed a slightly shaking warning finger at Hap, “I’m ready for you, smart-ass. And if that monster comes near me, I’ll—”

  “Yes, tell us, just what will you do, Marl?” Asha, who had been leaning against her shuttle with her arms folded, asked. “Bleed a lot and hope Khorii can understand your screams well enough to help you with another of her remedies that you’re so scornful of? I seem to remember being near her was the main reason behind your noble sacrifice of joining forces with us outcasts.”

  Khorii sighed, and said, finally, reasonably, “Marl, you do not have to be afraid. We Linyaari are peaceful people, and I will not let Hap hurt you. Elviiz is deeply ashamed he broke your arm and will not do it again. But you must not hurt Khiindi or Sesseli or anyone else either, or you will have to be isolated. I think that under the circumstances, that would be rather frightening for you.”

  “Frightening? Do I look like a sissy?”

  Sesseli glanced at Hap, who stared back at Marl. They both shrugged and nodded.

  “Hey, I don’t need this—!”

  “That is enough,” Jaya said. “This is my ship now—at least until the Krishna-Murti Company decides to reclaim it—if—if ever anything goes back to normal. And if Khorii thinks her skills can help some other people who are smart enough to let her, I say it’s just about criminal to keep orbiting and wasting fuel and wondering if we’ll die before we go dry. I think we should go and see if we can save them.”

  “That would be breaking the rules, sunshine,” Marl said.

  “Since when have you ever had a problem with that, Marl?” Asha asked. “If you do, however, I’ll be happy to let you keep orbiting in the Nakomas. Personally, I think Jaya has a point. Khorii, what do you say?”

  Relief blew across Khorii like a cool breeze. “I hate being idle when there is so much to be done.”

  Khiindi hopped onto her shoulders and twined himself around her neck, careful to keep his tail tucked. He stared intently at Marl Fidd, who—fortunately—was not looking at him, and tried willing the bully to accept Captain Bates’s offer of the perpetually orbiting shuttle. Then the rest of them could head spaceward, finding Aari and Acorna once more after many exciting but not very dangerous adventures, which would somehow, never mind the details, result in glory and adulation for himself.

  “Good,” Asha said. “Shall we tell Phador we’re leaving, then? With any luck he’ll forbid it, which will make the trip worthwhile even if we don’t manage to save another single soul.”

  Spying on people was rude, of course. Liriili would have said it was inexcusable; but then Khorii did not want to think of Liriili for a role model, as she was the least empathetic and flexible Linyaari ever born, at least according to Aunt Maati. Besides, this was an emergency situation and, except for Elviiz, Khorii was about to embark on an illegal trip to a strange world with people she did not know very well.

  She had found out a little about each of them by then. Hap, for instance, cared about animals, knew how to do many things usually done only by adults, and talked a lot. He could tell you all sorts of things in the same way Elviiz could. But did he talk about the things that were actually important to him? For instance, he seldom mentioned Shoshisha, but the way he had looked at her back on Maganos said that she was probably on his mind a lot. Khorii hoped she was mistaken. Shoshisha she knew well enough to know that she was a very selfish and somewhat hysterical person. Khorii was very thankful that Shoshisha was not on the Mana.

  Captain Bates was a teacher, and obviously a sympathetic one, since she was here. She meant well, and truly had the base’s best interests at heart. But on the other hand, she had brought Marl Fidd with her for some reason that Khorii could not fathom. And Marl was angry, selfish, violent, and a bully. Oh, and also besotted with Shoshisha, and very messy.

  Jaya had spent just enough time on the Mana to learn to operate the loaders, but though she’d managed to load the cargo back on the trip to Maganos she couldn’t really fly the cargo ship without help. She missed her parents terribly and had continued visiting their bodies until decomposition took the comfort out of that.

  Sesseli was small, friendly, and loved animals. And also stood up to bullies, even at risk to herself.

  Which left Marl Fidd, whom Khorii tried to avoid as much as possible. The last thing she wanted to do was to see what was on his mind.

  All in all, it wasn’t much to go on.

  She tried listening in to the thoughts of everyone in general, but they were so confused that she sometimes seemed to hear more inner conversations than there were people on the ship. No, if she was going to learn anything useful, she would have to do it wh
ile talking to each person.

  Or, in Hap’s case, listening to him talk to her. Since he was the first person she met and full of information, she decided to try him first. Finding him turned out to be difficult, however.

  Captain Bates sat at the console with Sesseli on her lap. A kitten was curled up in a small furry ball on Sesseli’s lap. “This is the radar screen,” Captain Bates was explaining. “And do you remember what this is? We talked about it in class.”

  “Navigational computer?” the little girl said, pointing to one of the screens.

  “That’s right,” Captain Bates said. “You’ll be flying this ship in no time.”

  She was thinking, I need to get these kids ready to be on their own. With things the way they are, any or all of us could die at any time, and whoever is left needs to be able to fly this beast. How could Phador be so pigheaded? I thought he really cared. And Khorii backed off as she got a picture of the captain and Phador Al y Cassidro, locked in a sweaty embrace that she recognized from books and vids aboard the Condor as mating, human-style.

  So that’s really why she wasn’t worried about him doing anything, she thought. “Captain, do you know where Hap is?” she asked quickly.

  “I’m not sure. He’s been hanging out in the engine room quite a bit lately, so I decided to hold an impromptu lecture down there. He was explaining to us a little while ago about how the drive on this particular model of ship works, but then Marl came in and made a remark that upset Jaya. Before I could stop them, he and Hap got into it, and Jaya ran out of the room. Hap followed her. I’m not sure where Marl went, but I’m keeping Sesseli and the cats with me.”

  Sesseli was smiling as she put a small hand on each control in turn, but her large blue eyes were very serious. Her fine curly blond hair was tied into two pigtails with bright-colored ornamental cords with little gold bells on them. Khorii recognized them as being two of the bracelets Jaya liked to wear in thick bunches on each wrist.

  Sesseli’s thoughts were transparent at that moment. Just like with Mama, she was thinking. But Mama didn’t know how to drive a spaceship, I don’t think. The little girl’s recollections of her mother were blurred around the face, but seemed to be starting to resemble Captain Bates.

  Khiindi jumped off the top of a vent and landed on Khorii’s shoulder.

  “Except Khiindi,” Captain Bates continued.

  “Yes, he will help me search for Hap. They’re friends,” Khorii said. Khiindi purred and for a moment she thought she picked up on his thoughts. “I am not a dumb beast, but I am a beast, with nothing interesting at all for you to read. Concentrate on the people. I have no thumbs. I cannot fly a ship. And by the way, feed me.” But of course he wasn’t really thought-talking to her. Was he?

  From Jaya’s cabin came the sound of weeping. Khorii had learned that it was best not to bother her while she was grieving, at least not until she gave some indication she wanted to talk. Jaya’s thoughts were broadcast through the door and unsurprisingly were of times she spent with her parents, cooking, eating, learning, fighting over whether or not she could go with them, go to a school, a dance, a friend’s house. And there were also blurred thought-forms of a very tiny Jaya hunkered down and looking up with enormous eyes at huge feet and legs of other people, happy, powerful people, going about their business all around her. They could step on her at any moment, and there was no one there to protect her.

  Khorii raised her hand to knock on the door, then sensed another feeling beneath those Jaya was projecting. Some part of the other girl was enjoying scaring herself in this way, feeling helpless and alone. That was the part that did not want to and was not ready to start living on her own again. Khorii lowered her hand and continued down the corridor.

  The door to the cabin where the bodies had been stowed was open, and the room was empty. Khorii closed it quickly, hoping Jaya wouldn’t notice.

  Was this some macabre prank of Marl’s? Didn’t that boy have any feelings for anyone but himself? Khorii strode angrily down the corridor. Hearing a lot of thumping and bumping coming from one of the cargo holds, she shoved open the door.

  Marl was lying flat on his back with a box labeled SCRUBBERS

  on his chest. “Oh, Khorii,” he said, in an uncharacteristically friendly voice. “The very person I wanted to help me. I just spotted some peanut butter on that shelf up there, but I can’t reach it. Give me a boost up so I can stand on your shoulders and grab it and pass it down to you, okay?”

  “Wouldn’t it be easier to use the loader?” she asked.

  “I don’t see it, do you?” he said. “That Hellstrom geek’s probably taken it apart to see how it runs. And I’m really hungry.” He tried to look pathetic, but in the days they’d been en route he looked as if he had put on at least ten pounds. “Please?” he asked. She had never realized he knew the word.

  However, his thoughts were anything but polite. In his mind he was huge, especially his male part, and she was comparatively small, and could be broken in half. After he did that mentally, he put her back together again. She also walked very strangely, slinking around as if she were a cat in heat. He had more violent images about what he wanted to do concerning her, before his lust for peanut butter overcame them. Khiindi, he thought, might taste good roasted and covered with peanut butter. This was followed by other disturbing images of himself with every other female on the ship. I have to warn Captain Bates about Marl, she thought.

  Khiindi dug his claws into her shoulder and tried to hide in her mane as Khorii began backing away. “I have to do something right now,” she said.

  “I said ‘please,’” he said, scowling. “What do you want anyway?”

  “Just a little time,” she said sweetly, but definitely not seductively. “I’ll come back and help you in a little while, honestly. I just have—” She decided not to tell him that she was looking for Hap. That wouldn’t go over very well. “I have something I really need to do first.” That wasn’t a lie exactly, but there was no way she was coming back alone. She’d bring Elviiz with her maybe, or just send him, but she was not going to be alone with Marl again. Not with what she saw in his mind. She would also have to make sure that the rest of the girls were never alone with him, either.

  “Your loss.” He shrugged and turned his back on her, looking for footholds among the shelves towering overhead. “I’m willing to share.”

  Khorii left in a hurry. If he fell again, she did not want to be there to feel compelled to help.

  Thumping and swishing sounds came from the next cargo bay, and she could see dim light through the open door. When she stepped inside, she saw that all of the light was concentrated in one corner. Both loaders were parked between her and that area, and cargo had been rearranged in new stacks that formed another wall in back of the loaders. The thumping and swishing sounds came from behind the new wall, accompanied by conversation.

  “You realize that this will not impede the decomposition of the bodies?” Elviiz was saying.

  “It’s not. Supposed. To.” Hap’s voice replied, grunting after every other word or so.

  Khorii could not see them and walked over to the cargo wall. But it was more complicated than that. The stacked containers did not just form a wall, they enclosed a newly created raised courtyard, a man-made hillock composed of special soils and manures intended for farming colonies that filled the enclosure to a height of about ten feet. The neatly stacked empty bags and boxes that had contained the soils and fertilizers now formed part of the retaining wall. The smell in the bay reminded Khorii of home: rich, loamy earth, and occasional whiffs of other, not so pleasant smells as well. Atop the mound sat five long wooden boxes. Behind them, Hap labored, digging with a shovel, while Elviiz dug with his entrenching attachment, flipping dirt out of his growing hole twice as fast as his human counterpart. She wrinkled her nose as she watched the two boys work.

  “What are you doing?” Khorii asked.

  “Oh, Khorii, hi,” Hap called. “There’s a ramp o
ver on this side we used to bring the loaders down. Come on around and take a look.”

  “We are creating a burial ground, Khorii,” Elviiz answered her question. He always answered her questions, that was the thing about Elviiz. Even ones she asked someone else. Sometimes even if she never actually asked a question at all. That was one of the most infuriating things about him, his almost Linyaari-like ability to know at times what she was wondering, even if she didn’t say it. Now, however, his predilection to answer her was coming in handy.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “In order to bury Jaya’s parents and the crew of the Mana,” Elviiz replied. “Hap feels it would be beneficial for Jaya’s grieving process to observe certain ceremonial folk customs humans use to dispose of the discarded bodies of their fellows.”

  Hap planted his shovel in the dirt and mopped his face with his hand, spreading dirt in a comical mask around his eyes. “I don’t think it’s good for her to keep looking at the bodies,” he said. “Her people aren’t there anymore, and the longer she looks, the harder it will be for her to remember them how they were when they were alive. I’ve been building coffins and hauling dirt all week and today, with Elviiz’s help, digging the graves. I made some nice markers, too. We can plant fast-growing flowers and shrubs and stuff and make a nice little memorial garden for her to visit.”

  Khiindi hopped down onto the mound and began digging enthusiastically in the loose dirt, then squatting over his hole with a look of feline bliss curving his crescent moon cat lips up into his whiskers.