extensive. You'd have to go to Earth and spend more than a year in surgery
and therapy. You couldn't do that and raise this chick, so I told you about the surgery first. My first obligation is to you. True, part of me was relieved when you didn' t want it . If you have doubts ..."
"I can have the surgery anytime," she signed firmly. "I need to go to Trinity now."
Rob looked at Tesa skeptically. "You're hedging. You think you've found an
excuse your parents will accept."
"Is that so terrible?" Tesa asked, annoyed. "This will lessen
31
their disappointment. It's not that I'll never have it done ...
just not now ." So why did she feel like she was lying?
"Well, when Meg comes she'll interview you. The final
decision is hers. If she agrees, you'll leave immediately. You've got to get to
Trinity before that egg hatches."
Tesa looked over at Trinity, imagining herself there.
The scene shifted to a massive forest full of monstrous multicolored trees,
larger than Earth's redwoods. Tesa thought this was how the Earth might
have looked when her people kept their own ways. But that was hundreds,
even thousands of years ago, and those old buffalo days were only stories
now.
She recalled her last night on Earth, hugging Grandmother and crying,
fearful she'd never see her again. The old woman had brushed Tesa's tears
away and told her, "Somewhere there's a world where the way of life we
loved, the old ways, a re not just interesting relics of the past. You could find that world, takoja, but you can't find it sitting here."
Suddenly a huge, dark form swooped across the holo's scene, skimming
the treetops, snapping Tesa from her memories. The image grabbed her by
the heart, startling her so much
that she stood up and bumped into the table with the doughnuts. Tesa
stepped closer to the hologram. The creature alighted on a monstrous nest
built on a limb of that gigantic tree. "What is that?" Tesa asked Rob, pointing.
"We call them the Aquila," he signed.
The bird was clutching prey in its talons, tearing it apart with its hooked
beak, feeding it to a chick huddled in the nest. " It's intelligent ," she signed.
Rob frowned. "No, the data hasn't indicated that."
Tesa couldn't explain why, but she knew she was seeing an intelligent
being.
The Aquila had a bronze body with a golden head and tail. Sunlight made
the bird seem as though it were made from molten metal . The creature
raised its head and its fierce red eyes stared straight through the young
woman. She gasped and stumbled back onto the couch.
Rob was alarmed . "What' s wrong? Tesa, you okay?"
" It's the Thunderbird ," she signed , pointing to the Aquila. S he was shaking all over , not knowing why, the feeling of dread she'd waked with now smothering her. The baleful
eyes of the Aquila continued to bore into her.
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"That," Rob informed her, "is one of the most formidable predators on Trinity.
They kill and eat Grus."
Enemy to the Grus? Tesa thought numbly, the terrible sense of deja vu
almost suffocating her.
He nodded. "Those big babies pose a king-size problem for the First Contact
team." She looked at him dazedly as Rob continued, smiling. "But, you've
got experience with raptors. You might be able to find a deterrent to keep
them away from the camp. You might even be able to tame one like the old
falconers did."
Tesa smiled wanly. The Wakinyan was not a creature to be tamed. She
turned to meet the gaze of the red-eyed Aquila, its wings stretched against
the wind, its beak open in a scream. Tesa still could not hear the thunder.
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CHAPTER 3
Blanket Advice
"Tesa! Pick your feet up!"
Giving her Simiu instructor a sour look, Tesa pulled one stilt laboriously out
of the marsh muck, set it down, then struggled to lift the other. She didn't care
if the gravity was less than Earth's, this was hard work. Her calves and
thighs ached and she was covered with a gray goo from numerous falls.
Awkwardly, she trudged behind the baboonlike alien she had long ago
nicknamed, in sign, "Dr. Noisy." They slogged through a mock-up of a
freshwater marsh, balanced on four-foot-high, lightweight, black,
mechanized stilts, while the Simiu's rapid-fire commands flashed from her
voder.
The stilts had been invented by a Simiu and, Dr. Noisy had
proudly informed her, were "intelligent."
The word is "possessed," Tesa had thought, the first time she'd flexed her foot to give the "walk" command only to have both stilts collapse beneath
her. They folded almost flat for storage , and that seemed to be their
favorite command. The
stilts made her feel like an awkward giantess, but they would allow her to
walk the marsh while she lived with the Grus.
It didn 't help that Meg Tretiak was sitting on a dry hummock,
34
her clear blue eyes closely observing Tesa's progress.
The constant flash of the Simiu ' s commands on the voder screen made
Tesa question her decision to take this assignment. You can still back out, she thought. A ship leaves for Earth tomorrow. Gritting her teeth , she plopped around grimly.
Tesa not only had to torture her body, but there were hours of lessons to
master the Grus' signs. The Ashu language had been difficult enough, but
the Grus language sometimes re quired a four-foot neck, the ability to tu rn one 's head 360 degrees while standing on one leg, and feathers!
Glancing at Dr. Noisy, she realized that the P.E. teacher was shrieking.
She'd gotten so used to the flashing voder she'd stopped paying a tt ention to it.
"I said, pick your legs up! Up, UP, UP! You'll be spending the next year on these things, so get used to them!"
Enough was enough. Meg or no Meg, Tesa turned the voder off and made
sure the Simiu saw her do it. She was lucky not to have to hear his
maniacal screaming; she didn't see any reason to aggravate herself further
by reading his shouted instructions.
The infuriated teacher leaped up and down, waving to get her attention .
His salmon -colored crest, marked with darker red mottling , flared erect, and his violet eyes were blazing.
Talk about earning your name! Tesa thought. "Don't you know it's silly to shout at a Deaf person?" she signed. Carefully, she turned her back on him.
Now he can scream away.
A ball of mud landed squa re in the middle of her back, throwing her wildly off balance. Desperately she windmilled her arms and tried to slow her
inevitable fall by weaving back and forth. This activated the "collapse"
command, and Tesa fell flat on her face in the shallow water. Pulling herself
out of the mud hand over hand on the mock weeds, she turned to see the
alien hugging himself with mirth while Meg covered her own mouth.
Balancing precariously on the collapsed stilts, Tesa moved her toe to
activate the "rise" command. If she'd ever considered giving up, that thought was gone now. She advanced on the Simiu.
She was almost on top of him when he stopped laughing long enough to
catch his breath. Opening his mouth with what must've been a tremendous
shriek, he scooted out from under
35
her threatening advance and began s
campering all around the mockup.
Tesa chased him, walking faster and faster. Finally, he doubled back,
dodging in and around her stilted legs to throw her off balance. She lifted
one leg, then the other high out of the water , determined to stay upright.
When he finally latched onto her leg, she was forced to spin around like a
caricature of a ballet dancer, arms outstretched for balance. But when she
fell, she had the pleasure of taking the alien with her in a tangle of furred and
bare arms, legs, and mechanical stilts.
When Dr. Noisy pulled himself out of the water, he extended a long arm to
help Tesa up, but by that time she was laughing too hard to move. Finally,
they sat together, trying to catch their breath as they unstrapped their muck-
covered, intelligent stilts. The Simiu sat on his haunches, gray goo and water plastering his mane flat, but wearing that unmistakable Simiu twinkle
of amusement. He pointed to Tesa's voder, and she turned it back on.
"I knew you could master those stilts," the voder read. "After a while the only hard part will be remembering how to use your legs without them." That was from Meg, smiling at the two mud-puppies from a safe distance. Tesa smiled
back a li tt le shyly, still not sure of what Meg thought of her or how the older woman felt about having her on this project.
Dr. Noisy picked up his own stilts. "I know you will earn much honor on this
assignment ," the Simiu said formally. "And as you humans say, I wish you luck, as do many of my people." Tesa looked at him with a little surprise.
"I wanted you to know, Tesa," the Simiu continued, "that while some of my people have bitter feelings about the past, many more respect your people's
differences and do not judge you by our code. As your teacher, and your
friend, I wanted to wish you well. I'll miss you."
"Your friendship has always been a great honor to me. Dr. Noisy," Tesa
signed, clouding up. "I'll miss you, too."
"You're scheduled to meet with Dr. Xto in an hour," the
Simiu reminded her abruptly. The wasplike Apis was scheduled to teach
Tesa how to handle the diamond-shaped portable flying sleds . "Now, flying
an air scooter is my idea of real fun!" Without another word, the Simiu turned and left the mockup in a typical Simiu wordless departure.
Tesa realized he was trying to give her something else to
36
think about, instead of dwelling on their farewell . Glancing at Meg, she
saw the older wom an reading the Simiu ' s words on her own voder .
Tesa would be glad when she and Meg had enough of a l an guage
base to dispense with the damned things.
At least that was one are a where Tesa knew she'd impressed the
biologist. Her almost - instinctive grasp of the Grus language had
allowed Tesa to meet Meg with the appropriate Grus greeting when she'd
arri ved . That ' d been a g re at icebreaker and, the younger woman hoped, had shown Meg just how much the chance to go to Trinity meant
to her.
"Don't look so forlo rn," Meg said in Russian , while signing in Grus.
Tesa's voder showed the literal translation--"Your feathers are needlessly
fluffed"--plus the English equivalent. The humans on Trinity also found it
necessary to use the English m an ual alphabet to spell words like "Miza ri" that had no literal translation - at le as t until the Grus would c re ate new signs for them.
"This is a good mock- up," Meg continued , " but the gravity's not right.
Maybe it's psychological, but when you're on Trinity you feel ... well,
buoyant. Like you could fly away with the Grus." She brushed wispy, silver-gray curls from her face. " Rob said you used to work with birds, doing
rehabilitation work."
Tesa nodded. "On the plains when I was a kid. There's a big rehab place
near our summer tipi camp - where the powwows are held . We had
raptors , songbirds, and sandhill cranes. One year I helped with some
peregrine falcon studies in the Grand Canyon and got to do some old-
fashioned rappeling." She'd ea rn ed one of her eagle feathers there
when she'd saved a pe re g ri ne chick from becoming a mountain lion snack.
"That experience will certainly help you on Trinity." She gave Tesa a long , appraising look. "I think you' re going to do just fine with Taller's chick."
With that casual statement, Meg confirmed that Tesa was indeed going.
There would be no formal tapping ce re mony, but she didn ' t ca re- the thought of Trinity' s untamed l an d filled her with a deep yea rn ing.
"I checked on our tran spo rt," Meg signed . " We're leaving tomorrow."
Those words hit Tesa hard, an d she felt her emotions go to war, th ri ll
and re g re t all at once. "Tomorrow?"
37
Meg nodded. "You'll have time for that flying lesson, then you'll have to pack.
We'll have two months on the ship ..." The older woman looked drawn. "Two
months to cram three years of research into you. I bargained, but we'll have
to spend the last month in hibernation. It's the best I could do. We'll arrive
about five days before the hatching."
"Meg," Tesa asked curiously, "why didn't you want to raise Taller's chick yourself?"
"A couple of reasons. For one, I'm too old."
Tesa looked shocked. It was the first time Meg had ever referred to her age
as a restrictive handicap.
"Don't look like that, it's true. I love living outdoors, but these days I'm only
good for a week on the ground and then it starts affecting my mobility.
"Besides, I raised my own kids a long time ago and found out I wasn't great
parent material even then. Every time I go home and one of lil' darling'
descendants calls me babushka, I want to slug the little beast. I've got most
of them trained to call me by my first name, even though the in-laws
disapprove." Her expression clearly said, "too bad about them," and Tesa had to laugh. Meg returned it goodnaturedly.
"Scott used to tell people I was `nobody's grandma,'" she continued. A
shadow crossed her face at the mention of his name. "And, besides, the
person who raises the chick should be more of a sibling than an elder."
Meg looked at the young woman solemnly. "I want to tell you how much I
admire your willingness to postpone your ear surgery for this project. There
aren't that many people who would make that kind of a sacrifice. I couldn't
wait to get to Shassiszss. It's hard enough to have to wear sound nullifiers,
but when I thought I'd lost my hearing forever ..." Meg shook her head as she
trailed off into her own thoughts.
Tesa kept her expression under control with an effort. She wished Meg
hadn't brought that subject up.
"And your parents were so supportive when you explained why you wanted
to delay the operation! They must be wonderful people. They'll be very proud
of you, Tesa, and don't worry--the time will go by fast. Grus chicks are fully
grown in six months, and by then he'll be flying. I'm confident that even
before that we'll convince the board of the Grus' intelligence. Before a year's
over, you'll be free to go. Just think, when you're hearing, we can have a real
talk. I'll bet you have a
38
lovely voice. Your laughter is almost musical."
Tesa knew Meg would interpret the flushed look on her face for a modest
blush when in fact she was fighting anger and frustration . Hearing people were al
ways so smugly convinced that their language was better than hers, that speaking was superior to signing , that sound was critical to the
enjoyment of life-that theirs was such a better way to live! Gritting her teeth,
she forced a smile . Meg couldn't understand how she felt, any more than
other hearing people could. Tell them how you really feel, prompted
something inside her.
What for? she responded bitterly. It wouldn't do a damned bit of good.
"The transport will be leaving StarBridge Station tomorrow afternoon," Meg
said, pulling Tesa's attention back. "I hope that'll give you enough time to
say good-bye to your friends." Say good-bye? Tesa thought inanely.
Meg patted her shoulder comfortingly. "I know how hard it is to leave people you love." She brushed herself off, preparing to leave. She was small, and
Tesa tried not to loom over her.
The Indian woman picked up the stilts, feeling overwhelmed. In twenty-four
hours she'd be leaving StarBridge! She'd always hated good-byes.
Wrenching her mind from the thought of saying farewell to so many people
that she'd come to love, she quickly changed the subject. "When the First
Contact's completed, would it be possible for me to get involved in another
project on Trinity, so I could stay two years instead of one?"
Meg looked thoughtful, then shrugged. "Well, it's a big planet, there's a lot to
learn."
"I was thinking ... with all my work with raptors ... maybe, when there was
time, I could study the Aquila, their ..."
Meg's blue eyes suddenly blazed with fury, surprising Tesa so much she
stumbled, slipping on the mud.
"Aquila!" Meg's rapid mouth movements and the way her head moved told
Tesa she'd spit the word out. "Those filthy carrion-eaters! Tesa, you have to
understand that those creatures are taboo on Trinity. The Grus don't even
have a sign for them-they use the sign for death and move their heads as
though they were throwing up a casting. Didn't Rob tell you about them?
About what they did?"
39
"He said they were ... predators ... He said T ri nity had lots of pre dators ..." Tesa ' s signs trailed off.
Meg visibly tri ed to calm herself, but her anger was still so palpable ,
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