Starbridge (43 page)

"I know, Uncle Raoul told me. I don't think he plans on filing any formal reprimands for insubordination," Mahree said. That was the only thing she could think of to say that might comfort the elder woman.

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"That's what Doctor Gable said, when he came to see me this morning,"

Joan muttered.

"Did he?"

Rob had been gone when Mahree woke up; she hadn't seen him all day.

Even though she tried to keep her voice even and noncommittal, something must've shown on her face. Joan's eyes narrowed. "You two were out there alone for a long time," she observed mildly.

Mahree nodded. "Yeah, we were."

Joan nodded, as though she'd had her speculations confirmed. "Growing up, aren't you?" she said, with a faint smile.

Her niece smiled back. "I didn't have much choice about it. Now if I can just get the rest of the way there."

Her aunt's smile widened, but her eyes were so sad, they broke Mahree's heart. "There is no 'rest of the way,' honey. You keep trying to get there all your life, until one day you realize it's too late to try anymore."

She looked down at her hands, hard, capable, short-fingered, ridged with prominent veins on their backs--working hands. Not pretty to look at, but good for getting things done. "Raoul ..." she began, .then stopped. "He hasn't spoken to me, since that day, except ship's orders. I tried to tell him I was sorry ..."

"I know," Mahree said, remembering her talk with the Captain the day of their return. "I know he's unhappy with the" situation, but it's going to take more time." She hesitated, then took the plunge. "He still loves you, Aunt Joan."

"I know he does," she said. "And I love him ... no matter what happens, part of me always will." She gave her niece a look filled with bitterness. "I don't think we're going to make it through this one, Mahree. Sometimes love just isn't enough."

"I'm finding that out," the younger woman said, her throat aching. "Aunt Joan--when he does come to talk ... please, don't just sit there.
Talk
to him.

You two have got to communicate, so you can try to understand and accept what's happened. One way or another, you can't go on like this."

"Talk to him," Joan repeated softly. "Easier said than done," she said, with a touch of her old asperity.

She took a deep breath, then straightened, giving her niece a proud smile. "I still can't believe you can actually talk to those aliens. Tell me a sentence in Mizari."

Mahree complied.

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"What did that mean?" the older woman asked.

"I said, 'Hold onto your courage with all your grasping appendages, for there is no night that does not end in dawn, my esteemed and dear female blood-kin.' "

Sudden tears glistened in Joan's eyes. Mahree reached out and laid a hand over hers. Joan covered it with her free hand, and the two women sat in silence for a while.

Finally Joan stirred. "You'd better go," she said. "Didn't you say something about going on a tour of Station Three?"

Mahree nodded. "Dhurrrkk' and Rhrrrkkeet' are taking Rob and Uncle Raoul and Esteemed Ssoriszs and me on a tour of this station. I can hardly wait to have Uncle Raoul meet a Mizari-- they're such nice people!"

"You run along, then," Joan said, and her niece stood up. "You don't want to be late. Will you . . ." she hesitated. "Will you tell Raoul that I said hello?"

"Sure," Mahree said, around a lump in her throat. "And I'll come back to see you again ... if you don't mind."

"I don't mind," she said. "You can tell me all about your tour. Have fun, Mahree."

Mahree glanced at Dhurrrkk' unbelievingly. "You mean the whole Council came up to this station just so they could meet Doctor Blanket?"

Her friend nodded. They were standing in the connecting tunnel, outside
Desiree's
airlock, waiting for the others to join them for the scheduled tour of Station Three. "Several of the oldest members had never been off-planet before, FriendMahree. You should have seen them trying to make the greeting gesture in the low gravity the Avernian requires! One of them overbalanced and fell over!"

She smiled at the image his words conjured up. "So, how did you do,

'interpreting' for Doctor Blanket?"

Dhurrrkk' gave her a sideways glance. "I honestly believe that the Blanket was able to pick up their thoughts for itself, FriendMahree, and did not need me for that. But it is still difficult for the creature to project thoughts into an unfamiliar mind. When it 'spoke' to the assembly on Shassiszss, it was a tremendous effort for the Avernian."

"Did Doctor Blanket say how long it wants to stay here?" she asked. "The way its plants are growing, it could stay for a while

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longer. And Rob told me about you bringing it over to the infirmary for a nice X ray 'bath.' "

Dhurrrkk' nodded. "Such a concentration of X rays would kill one of your people or mine," he said. "But our friend found it as refreshing as a thorough grooming!"

Mahree chuckled. "All the comforts of home!"

Her Simiu friend nodded. '"I am glad to see you have not totally lost your ability to smile, FriendMahree. I sensed when we first met today that you are not your usual self. Your good spirits seem lacking. It was the same yesterday with FriendRob. Has something happened between you two?"

She sighed. "It's hard to explain, Dhurrrkk'. We had a . . . disagreement. I guess you could call it a fight."

"He struck you?" Dhurrrkk' bristled indignantly. "He is my friend, but I cannot in honor allow--"

"Oh, no, no!" she interrupted hastily. "This was a word fight, only, please believe me! And it was my fault, as much as Rob's. We disagreed over something very important to him."

"What is that?"

"This hard to explain . . . you know how my people take permanent mates?"

"Yes," the Simiu said. "For companionship, as well as offspring, correct?"

"Correct. Well, Rob wants me to become his wife--for us to be permanent mates."

"And you do not want him?"

She made a helpless gesture with her hands. "It's not that, exactly. I think someday I
will
want him. But I don't want him
right now.
I'm just too young to get married--mated permanently."

Dhurrrkk's violet eyes were sympathetic. "I understand. You are too young, just as I am too young to mate, still. No wonder you have not yet conceived.

These things should not be rushed, FriendMahree. You need to allow your body time to mature."

Mahree rolled her eyes at the ceiling. "Uh . . . yeah. It's not quite like that, FriendDhurrrkk', but the end result is the same. But FriendRob is hurt by what he sees as my rejection of him."

"You will just have to explain it to him," Dhurrrkk' said, reasonably. "He is a good person. He will understand, eventually."

"I hope so," she said, with a sigh. "If he doesn't, I--

She broke off as the Simiu airlock opened, and Rhrrrkkeet and the CLS

Mediator entered the tunnel.

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Even as the four of them were exchanging greetings,
Desiree's
airlock cycled, and Raoul Lamont and Rob Gable joined them.

Mahree introduced her uncle to Esteemed Ssoriszs, and was proud of the way the Captain remembered the greeting-bow and "a pleasure and an honor to meet you" in the Mizari language.

Raoul was wearing his voder, so the group, by mutual consent, conversed in Simiu so Lamont and Rhrrrkkeet' could both understand what was said. As the human Captain and the CLS representative exchanged pleasantries with each other and with Rhrrrkkeet', Mahree glanced cautiously over at Rob, only to find him looking at her. When their gazes met, he looked away.

She sighed, wishing she could skip this tour; it was torture to spend time with Rob when things were so strained between them. A hand touched hers, comfortingly, and she looked down to see Dhurrrkk's sympathetic eyes on her face. A wave of affection for her Simiu companion made her swallow.

He's the best friend anyone ever had,
she thought, touched.

After a few minutes of conversation, the party set off on its tour. Mahree walked beside Dhurrrkk', listening to Rhrrrkkeet' describing the sights as they encountered them.

Station Three was even larger than Station One, although constructed along the same "abacus" design, and the group spotted various signs of the interstellar trade currently docked there--they passed several Chhhh-kk-tu from a vessel carrying ore, and one of the Vardi from the
Dawn Wind
greeted them via voder, simultaneously filling the corridor with scents reminiscent of hothouse flowers, frying bacon, and a beach at low tide.

Mizari ships, Chhhh-kk-tu ships, and a ship belonging to the insectoid people Rob and Mahree had dubbed the "Apis" were in port, and several times they stood by huge viewports, exclaiming over the different designs of the assorted space freighters.

Raoul and Esteemed Ssoriszs, Mahree noted, seemed to be jetting along famously. She kept an ear cocked in case either of them needed help with translations, but they appeared to be managing well. Ssoriszs spoke tolerable Simiu, and while Mahree and Rob had been gone, Paul Monteleon and Ray Drummond had refined and expanded the translation program.

Once she found herself walking beside Rob, and had to fight he urge to slide her fingers into his. He was the same as he'd been for the past two days--

polite, even friendly, but impersonal. He still refused to meet her eyes.

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Tonight,
Mahree thought, with grim determination.
If we can't get this
resolved tonight, I'm moving out. I can't go on like this.

"Where's
Rosinante,
Dhurrrkk'?" Rob asked. "I'd like to pay my respects."

"I'd like to see that ship, too," Raoul said. "After all the adventures you had aboard it, it's a famous vessel."

"RosinanteT'
Rhrrrkkeet' said. "What is that?"

"Your ship, Honored Rhrrrkkeet'," Dhurrrkk' said, with a sidelong glance.

"The one we ... borrowed."

"My vessel is currently having its engines overhauled," the former First Ambassador said, with a twinkle.

"Rosinante
is in ..." Dhurrrkk' paused. "Inside. When a ship is taken into a structure so workers do not have to suit up to work in vacuum ... what is that called?"

"Drydock?" Mahree suggested.

"Yes, drydock," Dhurrrkk' said. "Bay 29. We are not far from there."

The group followed the Simiu down the corridors, until they reached an area in the outer "frame" of the abacus. The cavernous, pressurized area had movable raised platforms and catwalks for the convenience of workers, and could be depressurized when a ship was cradled and brought in for work. It was accessed by means of an airlock, just as the connecting tubes were.

After cycling the lock, the visitors stepped into the docking bay.

There sat hammerheaded little
Rosinante,
deserted now that the workers were off-shift, her engine housings opened. A spidery lattice that was the Simiu version of a ladder trailed up her side to a small, raised platform placed over the top part of the hull, so workers could reach all parts of the vessel easily.

"There she is," Rob said. "Hard to believe something that small could make FTL voyages."

"Poor thing, it looks like a beached bloat-fish," Mahree said. "Not in its proper element at all."

"The Council has already asked me whether I would relinquish ownership,"

Rhrrrkkeet' said. "They would like to display the ship in which Honored Dhurrrkk' and Honored MahreeBurroughs and Honored HealerGable made the Avernian Contact."

Rob grimaced. "Give them the credit, Honored Rhrrrkkeet'," he said, in his careful, labored Simiu. "If it had been left up to

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me to discover that the Blankets were sentient, we still wouldn't know they were anything but patches of fungi."

"Do not be too sure, Robert," Ssoriszs said. "From what Esteemed Mahree tells me, you--"

"Stand and face death like a civilized person, human, if you would prove
your honor.!
a snarling Simiu voice rang out from behind them, followed by the soft,
thud
of the airlock door cycling. There was a fizzing sound, then the smell of ozone as something shorted out.

Mahree whirled around to see two Simiu, a huge, scarred male and a smaller, middle-aged female, confronting them. Totally taken aback, she gaped at them as they paced slowly forward across the deck of the drydock bay. "Who?" she gasped. "What?"

"It is Kk'arrrsht'!" Dhurrrkk' muttered, horrified. "And with her--that is Hekkk'eesh!"

Khrekk's aunt!
Mahree recognized both names.
And the famous gladiator,
the one who maimed Dhurrrkk's teacher so horribly!

"What are you doing here?" Rhrrrkkeet' was demanding. "You must both leave immediately!"

The former Council member ignored her. "RaoulLamont!" The human name sounded nearly unrecognizable as she spoke it. "I challenge you in the name of my clan and sept, so that we may regain our honor! Prepare to do battle with our honor- vessel, Honored Hekkk'eesh!"

"Kk'arrrsht'!" Rhrrrkkeet's voice cut through the resulting stillness like a laser as she stepped out to face the other Simiu female. "You are creating a grave diplomatic crisis here--you must leave immediately! Your actions are contrary to all honor and law! Leave! Now! Or I will summon security personnel!"

"I have shorted out the locks and the intercom system," Khrekk's relative replied, gesturing at the airlock door. "So do not waste your time trying to leave or call for help. No one will depart this place until our business with this human is concluded. Stand aside, Rhrrrkkeet', because this does not concern you. It concerns the human only." She looked past the Simiu/Mizari liaison to
Desiree's
Captain. "Step forth, RaoulLamont, to meet our honor-vessel! Or run, and be hunted down as the coward you are."

"You cannot do this!" Rob protested, speaking Simiu as he moved to a position between Lamont and the two Simiu. Then

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he addressed the Captain in English. "Raoul, get the hell out of here. There must be another exit!"