Silent Dances

by A. C. Crispin

  stones.' They have designs on them that our ancestors said were

  drawn by birds. The designs disappear after a while and then , it's said , only the birds can see them."

  Lauren looked confused. "What do birds see that we can't?" No one seemed

  to know.

  "Szu-yi' s taken some simple medical scans of the Grus," Meg told

  Tesa , " but nothing as specific as opthalmology studies."

  " She'd never get that close to their faces," Lauren agreed. "They act pretty silly when you sta rt waving scanners around them ," Bruce agreed , " even when they're not try ing to eat them."

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  " Of course, they want to eat it," Meg chided him, annoyed. " One way they recognize food is by how it reflects sunlight. Shiny things are

  delicacies." That made eve ry one look at one another as though they '

  d just discovered another key to the puzzle.

  "It's not just shiny things," Tesa signed . " And what's the connection between their food and their a rt ?" She picked up the woven cloak and

  stared at it.

  "Specialized vision helps animals find food ..." Peter mused , " see enemies , recognize one another ... but there's a big jump between that and "-- he picked up the cloak--"creating a rt ."

  "When the Simiu met the Desiree," Tesa signed, "they showed the crew a film they'd prepared in all available light spectrums , many of which

  were invisible to humans."

  "But," Bruce argued, " that was one technologically advanced race

  meeting another. The Simiu and the Mizari both see in a slightly

  different light spectrum than we do, yet we can see most of their a rt ,

  even if some colors are a little b ri ght. Why would the Grus create art

  only in a spectrum we can't see? You said you thought you could see some of the image, but not well enough to be sure ."

  Tesa' s brows furrowed - she felt stumped.

  "If there' s something there," Meg said , finge ri ng the cloak, "then it ' s got to be in their feathers . We could analyze the feathers , ask the

  computer."

  Bruce looked doubtful. "Lots of chemicals in feathers."

  "So, let ' s get sta rt ed ," Lauren said impatiently , and taking a feather from one of the bags, she pulled a scanner from Peter's pocket and

  asked the computer for a chemical breakdown. A list of complex ,

  impossibly long words rolled across the sc re en.

  "Now, ask it how those chemicals show up under different light spectrums,"

  Meg said.

  Lauren talked to the computer. "There are a couple ," Lauren said , " but this one stands out. Porphy ri n . It's visible under ultraviolet light ." The computer diagrammed the feather, with the porphy ri n highlights lit up

  in a distinctive pa tt e rn .

  Laure n asked the computer how many avian species throughout the

  Known Worlds could see in ultraviolet.

  "Sixty- five point six two percent of all known avian species can see

  ultraviolet markers," the computer replied.

  " Like insects ," Peter said, smiling.

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  Lauren asked what else avians could see in comparison to human

  beings. "Ninety- four point eight th re e percent of all avi an species can see polarized light."

  "Well, ultraviolet markers would help them find food," Bruce said, "an d polarized light probably helps them navigate. But what has that got to

  do with a rt istic expression?"

  Tesa grew excited at the information about ultraviolet light, rememberi ng

  how Doctor Blanket had looked draped over her shoulders . " Is there a

  light damper on board ?" she asked.

  "No," Meg told her, "but Szu- yi has a hand - held ultraviolet lamp. She uses it to check for ce rt ain fungi on the native food, like aphlotoxins .

  Lauren , call her an d ask her to b ri ng it."

  Tesa considere d asking Lauren to page Thorn as well, but thought be tt

  er of it . He'd just have to find out later.

  " What ' s going on ?" Szu-yi asked when she ente re d. "Have a seat ,"

  Meg said , taking the instrument . " You might get to see something inte re sting."

  Meg handed Bruce the light, then gestured at Lauren to darken the room.

  As soon as the lights dimmed , Tesa felt cut off, since she could no

  longer see if an yone was speaking. Suddenly Bruce pushed the lamp

  into her hand, indicating she should be the one to shine it on the cloak .

  She took the small device and thumbed its switch , flooding the cloak

  with a dark, purple light . She could just make out the surrounding c re

  w's interested exp re ssions.

  " Oh, shit ," Tesa breathed , making the others laugh.

  The cloak lit up with bri ght orange markings that formed stylized ,

  pictographic designs, formed by weaving feathers so that the chemical

  markers made specific patte rn s . How many cloaks are on Earth ?

  Tesa wondered . What secret literature has been back there all along , under their noses?

  Tesa turn ed the light onto her shi rt. The feathers of Water Dancer ' s skin had their own colorful pattern , while the patchwork weaving

  showed family images-a nest shelter, an egg, a chick, each diffe re nt , yet with a definite theme . The shi rt was more like a quilt than Tesa had ever realized.

  Peter' s repairs showed up garishly , the UV markers placed eve ry

  which way, totally haphazard . They had seemed almost invisible under

  white light.

  Lauren lit the room again, dimly enough so the designs could be seen .

  Eve ry one was talking , but Tesa igno re d her voder. She w an ted to fly down to T ri nity , to splash through the marsh

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  and tell Taller that she could see now , she could really see. She felt someone staring at her and looked up to meet Bruce's eyes. There' d be no cities on Trinity now, his eyes said. I want to be glad, his eyes said, I want to be ...

  Somewhere inside him, Bruce was still arguing with the spirit of Scott

  Hedford. Tesa found that comforting. Where she came from, spirits usually

  won.

  Meg touched her shoulder. "We need to document all this, Tesa, but if we

  don't start for Trinity soon , Taller will be banging on the airlock door.

  Thorn's downloading data in the control room. Go tell him what we've

  learned-I'm sure he'd rather hear it from you-then ask him to get the shuttle

  ready. You can keep that lamp, Szu-yi has others."

  Tesa nodded numbly and limped out of the room.

  By the time Tesa reached the computer room, she wanted to run. Excitedly,

  she imagined the look on Thorn's face. We've done it, Thorn! she told him in

  her mind. This'll prove the Grus are intelligent beyond a shadow of a doubt!

  She saw herself hugging him ... she imagined them kissing. She limped

  faster.

  The computer-room door opened at her touch. Thorn was at a console by a

  terminal, his back to her, looking down at a hand-held screen, while the

  large holo-display flashed, strobelike. Tesa glanced down at her voder. It

  was flashing as it had that night in the shelter with classic downloading

  images. She touched the voder to turn it off when a message line abruptly

  trailed across the bottom of its screen.

  "We'll go over it again later, Peter. In the meantime, check sectors twelve

  and fourteen along Black Feather's flock's migratory route. Both areas are

  extremely isolated, and favorite roosting grounds for that flock. Next to Taller,

  his eldest son carries the most diplomatic weight. If we're careful, we might

  get lucky. It'll be harder from now on, with Tesa
around, but the right plan

  could really pay off."

  Something twisted inside Tesa when she read that, something sick and

  frightening. It was one thing for Thorn to lie about cameras and Aquila but

  this sounded like a conspiracy.

  Thorn started, suddenly aware of her presence. She hit the "save, off"

  sequence on her voder, so he'd see only a blank screen if he looked.

  Casually he shut the computer down as though he were done with his work.

  "How long have you been there?" he asked, obviously

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  surp ri sed . He was so ra tt led that he ' d forgotten to sign.

  " Does it matter?" she asked.

  "No," he said, " of course not ..." Clumsily he beg an to sign . " You're a pre tt y quiet person."

  "Did I scare you?"

  He shook his head, amiably - hiding his real feelings.

  "I always think hearing people can hear every thing - I never expect to surpri se them."

  "Did Meg send you after me?" He glan ced at the time on one of the

  computers . " I guess we've got to get back." His eyes stole a quick gl an ce at her voder . " I was just leaving some notes for Peter on a

  program he's working on. Taller's eldest son is the leader of a nearby

  migrato ry flock an d we' re t ry ing to keep track of his travels, you know, just for insurance. If anything happens to Taller , he might be

  another contact for us.

  Tesa nodded , struggling not to let her suspicions show. Thorn

  suddenly took a long look at her. "Peter did some

  job on that garment ... and by the looks of things, Doc did a good job on

  you. Those small shiners won't take long to fade." Tesa modeled the

  tunic an d her relatively wound - free body.

  "Almost good as new- both of us ." Her hea rt wasn ' t in the light banter , though . Thorn seemed to be studying her as though he were t ry ing to see through her brain . No wonder he has trouble with " the look ," she thought bitterly.

  Tesa smoothed the feathers of her shirt , as a nearby ventilator draft made

  them wave gently . The repairs , garish under the UV light , had disappeared again . Just like some people, she thought, who appear to be one thing in your presence, and something different when alone.

  Thorn gestured to get her attention. " You're upset with me. Is it about ...

  what happened before ? I mean between me an d Bruce? I can tell

  something ' s wrong, Tesa."

  She shook her head. To distract him, she pulled the small UV lamp off

  her belt an d shined it onto her shi rt , explaining

  b ri efly how they ' d made the discove ry .

  He seemed genuinely stunned. " This will change eve ry thing!"

  "Once the documentation is done," Tesa answered, "the First Contact

  confirmation will just be a technicality . My place in Taller ' s family is established , so our diplomatic mission

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  looks prett y successful . I can ' t see what could go wrong after this."

  His brow furrowed pensively.

  Why isn' t he happy ? she thought . Unless he didn't want their

  intelligence confirmed. "You don' t seem pleased," she signed. Thorn regarded her thoughtfully. "When this First Contact is confirmed , they

  might decide your work is finished . as soon as Sailor goes on his

  flyaway. They could send you home, then." He smiled wistfully. "That might

  break my heart, Good Eyes."

  He was looking at her so appealingly that it almost broke her heart- but not her resolve . She'd study that message again. What could she do if Thorn--and Peter?--were involved with the murders of the Grus?

  "Let's not talk about my being sent to Earth," Tesa signed. "We've got to get the ship ready, and I want to go home." Instead of bristling at the reminder

  that Tesa wanted to be with the Grus, Thorn seemed to relax. Acting like his

  old self, he offered his arm and she made herself take it. As they strolled to

  the docking bay, the weight of the small Mizari voder seemed to increase

  with every step.

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  CHAPTER 14

  The Death

  Tesa watched Trinity through the shuttle's small viewport and tried to think

  only of Sailor. But somewhere there were killers on Trinity, killers who would

  strip the skin off his back. Was there a connection between those murderers

  and a man she found so desirable? She didn't want to believe that.

  Trinity wouldn't be the first planet where privateers had come in before

  contact was firmly established. Those planets and their native peoples bore

  the brunt of suffering, victims of bureaucracies that were too far away to give

  adequate protection. Someday, StarBridge graduates might be able to end

  such senseless exploitation-but that was years away yet.

  It still took time to properly establish First Contacts. Even with the new

  information about the cloaks, Sailor would, no doubt, be fully grown before

  the CLS board would finalize the Grus' First Contact. How many skins could

  the killers collect in that time ... especially if they had allies on the Singing Crane?

  Tesa shoved those thoughts away. She didn't want to think about that ... or

  about Thorn, sitting with Meg in the pilot's

  section , his back to the passenger seats. She chewed her lip,

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  160

  160 A.C . Crispin and Kathleen O'Malley re membe ri ng his last remark -

  would they send her back to Earth as soon as Sailor left on his

  flyaway ? That was only six months away! She ' d have to find some

  reason to stay.

  They hit atmosphere, an d Tesa ' s hea rt quickened , eager to be home again , eager to see Sailor . But her eyes kept retu rn ing to the Mizari voder on her w ri st, and its secret information. Assu ri ng herself that Thorn and Meg were absorbed in flying the Patuxent , Tesa tapped into the voder , an d it began strobing.

  She suddenly felt cold all over as she added another code and the strobing

  slowed, showing a collection of biological data , notes, an d maps.

  Thorn hadn ' t lied about one thing--this information was about Taller ' s son Black Feather and his flock . There were satellite maps of the

  various routes this elder Grus took in his w an de ri ngs. They knew a lot about this flock.

  Thorn' s message to Peter beg an to trail across the bottom of the

  screen. Tesa froze it. There were older notes w ri tten above the trailing

  message that had gone by too fast to read before.

  "These are two of Black Feather's favori te stopping points on the retu rn t ri p," the note read . " It's also a good spot for Aquila to pick off sub-adults separated from their families." That re ference only wor ri ed Tesa mo re . The earliest skins had all had Aquila marks on them . "

  When Taller ' s chick matures," the note continued , " he may sta rt his flyaway jou rn ey with Black Feather ' s flock at this location."

  The mention of Sailor's future disturbed Tesa, and she looked away , t ry ing to so rt through conflicting emotions. Then, suddenly , a flash of white outside the window caught her by surp ri se . She strained to see what it was she ' d glimpsed.

  The escort flock spiraled about the Patuxent as it descended, now

  thousands of feet above Tri nity ' s surface . Tesa happily recognized Taller in the lead. There was a long, dark line down his neck , but his

  wounds didn ' t slow him.

  Elated, Tesa recognized Flies-Too-Fast, fou rt h in line from the leader .

  His pa rt ner on the other side of the vee was Taller's daughter , Shimme ri ng . Tesa felt her hea rt lifting.

  Movement at the edge of Tesa' s vision dre
w her eyes from the disappea

  ri ng Grus. There was something on the weste rn ho ri zon, like a str an ge , dark cloud . She squinted , leaning

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  against the window. Then her forgotten voder began flashing, pulling her

  attention back.

  "EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! SECURE SAFETY HARNESS!" the voder

  blinked rapidly, in red. She sat back immediately and strapped in, peering

  around the seats at Thorn and Meg, who were moving their hands rapidly

  over their control panels. They must've sent the warning to her voder. She

  looked at it again and saw a message trailing across the bottom as the voder

  overheard the two pilots. "Can we outmaneuver them?" Meg was asking.

  "We're going to get caught up here with the escort like sitting ducks!" Thorn complained.

  "Don't you think I know that?" Meg retorted. "We can only go down so fast ..."

  Oh, no, Tesa thought, her confusion clearing. She pressed her face to the

  viewport. The dark cloud was now a score of red- and gold-eyed Aquila.

  The Grus were coming into sight again. Glancing at the voder, Tesa read

  Meg's words. "I'm broadcasting an alarm call."

  "Level out," Thorn was saying, "we can use the ship to block them!" Then the voder addressed her, quoting Thorn. "Are you strapped in, Tesa? Wave,

  if you're reading your voder." She stuck up her hand, and rechecked her

  safety harness.

  Tesa felt an agony of helplessness as the dark forms drew closer to the

  escort. The ship leveled, and the Grus evened off with it. The avians were

  calling, answering Meg's recording.

  The flock dipped under the belly of the ship as the Aquila surrounded them,

  the wind ruffling the feathers on their massive wings, the suns glinting off

  their bodies, their gold, curved beaks, their lethal talons. They flew brazenly,

  as if they owned the skies. Could any of these predators be the ones she'd

  watched innocently building their nest?

  Thorn and Meg must have shut off the ship's Automatic Protection System,

  because the Aquila came so close, the APS should have already been

  triggered. Remembering that the shuttle was built for research scanning,