Doona Trilogy Omnibus

by neetha Napew

  Then she repeated her ministrations, beginning again at the shoulder. The original application was already absorbed by the taut skin but it was obvious that the swelling had ceased its ominous spread.

  “Well, I never,” Ezra sighed as he examined the result closely. “I never.” Then, because Mrrva looked up in concern, he hastily added in hesitant Hrruban, “This is good thing. We give you all thanks.”

  Mrrva’s jaw dropped into a smile and she nodded her head in

  acknowledgment before she turned back to her patient

  Reeve and McKee left the sick room and joined the others at the table. Todd stopped eating, looked quickly at Hrrestan and Hrrula as if for reassurance.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you, Todd,” McKee said, holding out his hand to the boy. “You tried to tell me.”

  Todd took the proffered hand and nodded solemnly. He immediately took up his fork and concerned himself with eating as much and as quickly as he could.

  “I would ask a favor of you, Rrev,” Hrrestan began as Ken sat down facing the Hrrubans. “A very great favor,” he added, laying a hand on Todd’s shoulder. The boy gave him a quick wide smile. “Concerning this very small one.”

  With a pang which Ken had to admit was jealousy, he realized that Todd had never smiled at him with such spontaneous affection. Christ, what kind of a father was he, anyway?

  “I’m sorry Todd is such a nuisance,” Reeve began apologetically.

  Hrrestan’s upheld hand stilled his argument

  “No, he is not a trouble to us,” Hrrestan continued, inclining his head in a courtly gesture that robbed his remark of any hint of discourtesy. “It would seem, however, that when someone is set to watch this young hayuman, it is the watcher who comes to harm,” and Hrrestan’s glance traveled from one adult to the next around the table. “Yet it is not the fault of Zodd. The Bill misunderstood a friendly contest between Zodd and another cub of the same age and received small injuries. The second day, an older boy appeared to believe Zodd was in danger when he stepped into the stream to land a very large fish,” and Todd beamed up at Hrrestan. “Today, although warned, the watcher of Zodd plucked a flower that is poisonous. Are my facts correct?”

  The Terrans grimly agreed.

  “Already he speaks our not-so-easy-language. He understands what we

  say to him.” Hrrestan paused, his eyes carefully examining the faces of each adult before he continued.

  “My cub, Hrriss, has spent the day unhappily,” he said with a sigh. “All morning he waited for the small figure of Zodd to come down the slope to our village. All afternoon he lay in his bed, sighing deeply and sad.” Hrrestan’s jaw dropped and he shrugged in a very human fashion. “After today, I think Zodd will have no one to take him over the hill to our village and Hrriss will continue unhappy. Hrriss has ever been a lone cub -- which happens to some—but in Zodd he has found a heart that reaches to his, and a mind that understands all that is not easy to say in words. This is rare. It is too bad to part such friends. If you are willing, may Zodd come to our village each day? Mrrva has suggested it and is willing to assume the watching of this young cub. There will also be an elder who instructs our young in the traditions of the Hrruban. We hope that you will permit Zodd to listen to this elder who is wise and kind. I believe it will be of great benefit to both our villages that one of your young becomes close with one of ours.”

  Ken noticed that Hrrula was watching him intently, the green eyes of the Hrruban brilliant, the body unnaturally tense. Hrrestan on the other hand was relaxed and now smiled encouragingly at Pat.

  “Ken, that would be the most terrible imposition,” Pat temporized, but there was an incredulous hope in her eyes.

  McKee broke the impasse by slapping his thigh and letting out a muted crow.

  “Sorry, Ken,” he apologized absently, “but it’s an ideal solution.

  Honestly, I’ve got nothing against Toddy but . . .”

  Pat grimaced. “There’s always a ‘but’ when discussing Todd. Oh, I’m his mother but I’ll be honest. I’m the first one to agree with you. After all, I’ve had to put up with him longer than anyone else.”

  “Now wait a minute,” Ken said, feeling control slipping from his paternal hands.

  “Hey, man,” McKee protested, “don’t refuse. They offered, remember, so it’s their idea. And just think of it from the standpoint of colony relations.”

  “What colony?” snapped Ken. “He’s my son. It’s his good I’m thinking of.”

  “Then remember he’s a natural at their kind of life,” McKee said. “Furthermore, when Alreldep gets here your Todd’ll be an Hrruban expert compared to the rest of us. Man, your son might be your passport into improved status. Think of it from that aspect.”

  “Bargain my own son?” Ken exclaimed.

  “You’d better,” Pat said, her lips thin, her eyes anxious, “if you

  don’t want to go back to Aisle 45 and Proctor Edgar with Todd!”

  Inwardly Ken shuddered and looked across the table at Todd. The child had fallen asleep, his head resting against Hrrula’s velvety arm, his dirty, scratched hands limp on Hrrula s encircling tail. Todd back in Aisle life?

  “Please consider Hrriss.” A soft purr fluttered behind him, and Ken turned to see Mrrva, her deep green eyes pleading.

  “It is extra work for you—“ his voice trailed off as Mrrva made an impatient gesture at that protest.

  “Mrrva made the suggestion,” Hrrula spoke up. “Hrriss will come with us in the morning to meet Zodd at the bridge. That way Zodd will continue to keep his promise to me.”

  “How do you say thank you, Ken?” Pat whispered urgently, trying to smile at Mrrva at the same time.

  Shortly afterward, Ezra Moody appeared to reassure everyone that Maria’s arm was appreciably better, so Ken and Pat excused themselves and left, Todd sound asleep in Ken’s arms.

  “I have to admit it’ll be a relief to come home without worrying

  about what colony-shaking crisis Todd has precipitated during the day,” Ken

  remarked

  “You don’t think we should have discussed this with Shih, do you?”

  Pat asked anxiously.

  “He’s got enough to plague him and it isn’t as if we were giving Toddy away or anything.”

  The moonlight touched her face, pensive and withdrawn.

  Pat rebelled against putting Todd to bed without washing off some

  of the surface dirt. However, once he was tucked in for the night, Pat was, to Ken’s delight, anything but pensive and withdrawn.

  Chapter XVII

  SEARCH

  THE NEWS of Todd’s invitation was all over the camp by morning. Pat remarked acidly to Ken that she thought the general relief was almost indecent. After all, Todd wasn’t a monster and he certainly was the only one of the children who got along on Doona. She felt as if she were paroling him to the custody of the Hrrubans instead of sending him as an honored guest.

  “The Hrrubans wouldn’t have any of their mealy-mouthed kids,” she said, loftily maternal.

  “Honey,” Ken drawled warningly.

  “Well, he is my child,” and she glowered at Ken.

  “And be honest, hon, you’re the gladdest of all to get rid of him.”

  “It just isn’t natural,” she wailed, abruptly contrite.

  He pulled her into his arm, kissing the end of her nose

  affectionately.

  “I’ll get you an appointment with the colony head-shrinker for those guilt complexes,” he said. She gave a little sigh and leaned against him.

  Once Ken reached the lumber team, he took so much teasing that he began to understand Pat’s irritation. Before he reached the end of his patience a minor emergency diverted everyone’s thoughts from Todd.

  That night Todd returned from the village, relatively clean, two new cuts neatly bandaged. Proudly he handed over to his mother four brace of the small ground fowl the Hrrubans relished. He had trapped th
em all single-handed.

  “You should have seen his little face when he presented them to me, Ken,” Pat murmured, her eyes misting.

  “You should see yours,” Ken retorted.

  “Oh, you! Yipe!” because Ken had pinched her after the fashion of

  husbands who wish to prevent their females from waxing oversentimental.

  “We’ll be barn raising day after tomorrow right enough,” Ken announced at the dinner table. “Todd, do you think you and Hrriss can catch a whole mess of these whacha-callums?”

  “Brrnas? Sure!” Todd replied, his eyes snapping with pleasure at the challenge.

  Ilsa regarded him with an expression akin to awe.

  “How do you catch them?” Pat asked.

  Todd launched into a blow-by-blow description of the process that

  made Ken’s eyes widen. Pat’s face took on an expression of horrified fascination.

  “I think it’s cruel, cruel,” Ilsa cried out in anguish jumping up from the table and running from the room in tears. Pat, with an angry glare at Todd, rushed from the room to comfort her daughter.

  Todd gave his father a what-have-I-done-now look. Ken shrugged his shoulders and, for a few moments, a bond existed between the two males of the house drawn together against the vapors of their women.

  When the children were in bed, Pat settled down on the wall couch, and curled up against Ken. There was a pungent aroma emanating from her hair and Ken sniffed experimentally.

  “Oh, dear, that rlban sap stink just won’t go away,” she apologized. “Did you know, they use it as a coating on their pottery before they fire it. That’s why their pots have that high glaze we couldn’t identify.”

  “Hmmm,” Ken mumbled contentedly, settling his cheek against her soft hair. God, it was good to have your arms around a woman.

  “You know, I’d very much like to—well, do something for Mrrva.”

  “Hmmm.”

  “She had him all day and it’s just—oh, you know.”

  “Huh?”

  “But I can’t think what to give her that she doesn’t already have.

  I mean, she’s got so much more than I have.”

  “What on earth are you nattering about, hon?”

  “Nattering about? I like that!” And she struggled up and out of the

  comfortable position he had arranged.

  “I like it too,” he grinned at her. “It’s so damned good to have you . . .”

  “Just a moment, Ken Reeve. I’m talking about something important.”

  “I know, giving Mrrva something. Well, hon, we’re kind of out of

  our element here. Seems to me the giving’s all from them.”

  “That’s exactly what I mean. Really, it goes against my pride to take all the time. But what can I give her?” Pat’s voice ended on a mournful note.

  Ken ran his finger down the side of her throat to the hollow of her collarbone, across her smooth skin to the top of her tunic.

  “I tell you one thing you do Mrrva doesn’t—you do fancy sewing. There’s not a female in either village that doesn’t like something pretty to wear.”

  “Of course!” Pat sat up, delighted. “Just the thing.” But when she tried to rise, heading toward her small chest of treasures brought from Earth, Ken pulled her roughly back into his arms and silenced her protests with deliberately passionate kisses.

  The next evening, when Ken got home from laying the barn’s foundations and flooring, his house seemed to have sprouted wings. Small fowl carcasses hung in garlands from the branches of the sheltering trees. Todd, Hrriss and two other cubs who had helped transport this plenty, were squatting in the front yard, consuming berry tarts with great gusto. They looked exceedingly pleased with themselves.

  “My word is their command,” Pat greeted her husband gaily.

  “It looks as if he had organized the entire Hrruban youth for the

  dirty deed.”

  Pat looked at him curiously. “According to him, he did. And we’ll need it. Todd also bears the message that the whole village plus some extra visitors from the south are coming tomorrow to help. The men to raise the barn; the women to cook.”

  “That’s the plan,” Ken agreed, stretching wearily out on the couch.

  “Dinner’ll be a few more minutes,” Pat told him, bustling away

  toward the kitchen.

  Ken closed his eyes and the sounds around him seemed to magnify. He heard the bubbling of boiling water in the kitchen, the clunk as Pat’s spoon hit the pot, the noises of the birds outside in the trees and the chatter of the children. The Hrrubans burst into a purring laugh as Toddy corrected himself on some mispronounced word. The Hrrubans chanted it back at him until he got it right. This accomplished, the chatter subsided into a low purrish rumble and Ken drifted off into a doze.

  The next day, an early morning thunderstorm threatened to postpone the barn raising. The Hrrubans arrived, despite the storm, and took shelter from the downpour in the mess hall. They assured the colonists that the storm would abate. Suddenly the sun came out and the skies cleared of the scudding black clouds.

  By high noon, two sides of the barn were up and the skeletons of the others ready to be hoisted and joined. The womenfolk called the men to tables where steaming mounds of crisply browned brrnas awaited the hearty appetites.

  Halfway through the meal, with a suddenness that left the Terrans speechless, the Hrrubans seemed to melt away, into the forest, across the bridge, out of sight.

  “Well, howd’ya like that?” Gaynor exclaimed when the colonists realized what had happened.

  “That’s odd. I didn’t think they took a siesta,” Dot McKee said.

  Reeve caught the patronizing expression on Todd’s face.

  “Okay, young man, so you know the answer?”

  Todd assumed an innocent expression.

  “Why did they leave, Todd?”

  “You don’t hear so good, do you, dad? Not like Hrrula.” Todd

  grinned. He stuffed another berry tart in his mouth, detouring the overflow of the juices with a grubby fist. He wiped his hand carefully on his pants and pointed a berry-stained finger skyward. “Something’s coming. Something big. And loud.”

  “Stop wiping your dirty hands on your pants,” Ken admonished absently. “What’s coming?”

  In answer, the homing beacon lit up.

  “A message capsule?” Lawrence murmured hopefully.

  Ken felt Pat’s fingers twine into his, press them fiercely.

  Todd shook his head and squinted up. “Bigger’n that. I can hear

  it,” he said and blithely reached for another berry tart, utterly oblivious to the consternation his announcement had caused.

  “So soon, so soon,” Pat cried.

  “Alreldep?” Eckerd suggested tentatively and then cleared his

  throat hastily.

  Someone had enough presence of mind to get binoculars, but by that time the glint of the sun on metal was already visible.

  “Can’t you distinguish the markings yet?”

  “Too much reflection. But I don’t think it’s a big ship,” Macy

  McKee remarked and passed the glasses to Gaynor.

  “It’s not a transport,” Sam said after a long, long pause. There was an audible sigh of relief from the small bunch of anxious adults. “I think it’s Spacedep. Here, you take a look Buzz,” and he handed the glasses to Eckerd.

  “No, it’s not a transport. It must be Spacedep. They’re the only ones run that class ship.”

  “Codep said they were sending someone too,” Hu Shih reminded them.

  “Whoever it is, it’s trouble,” Gaynor grumbled.

  “You won, Sam,” said McKee when the markings on the ship were

  clearly visible.

  “I can’t call that winning,” Sam growled.

  “Why’d you suppose the Hrrubans left?” Pat whispered anxiously to

  Ken as Hu Shih and Gaynor got into the tractor to welcome the arrival.r />
  “Ask our authority,” Ken said, jerking his thumb at Todd who was slowly munching through his fifth tart. He seemed to be the only one interested in eating, although coffee was passed around while the colonists waited.

  It took an unconscionably long time, Ken thought, for the tractor to make the return trip. Maybe that was why he felt apprehensive and uncertain when Al Landreau stood up in the back of the tractor sled to be introduced. He was a compactly built man, his close-cropped hair graying. His piercing glance swept over the scene, the bird carcasses, even Toddy munching stolidly away.

  “Have you eaten, Commander Landreau?” Hu Shih asked politely.

  “No, although the offer is appreciated,” was the crisp reply. “I

  early learned to stick to my own diet. That way I don’t experience any cravings for foods I can’t have in deep space.” It was not so much a criticism as a statement of the facts of his way of life, but Reeve was certain not a single adult missed the inference. The colonists would find it doubly hard to return to the pre-processed taste of Earth.

  “Commander Landreau is here to conduct a search for signs of alien invasion,” Hu Shih remarked formally, his expression bland.

  “I’ll require the assistance of all indigenous personnel,” Landreau said, looking over the men and mentally picking out those he would recruit for the job.

  “There’s a little confusion over the exact definition of ‘indigenous personnel,’ Commander,” Lawrence said with covert humor. “You see, we feel the Hrrubans are indigenous. Now I’m sure they’ll be glad to help . . .”

  A flick of Landreau’s hand cut Lawrence off.

  “You,” and the finger stabbed at the colonists, “are the indigenous

  personnel as far as Spacedep is concerned.”