Third Watch (16 page)

“Uh—hi, Elviiz?”

“No, I mean silently, in thought-talk.”

“Elviiz, you have no idea how concerned we have been about you. Ariin and I have much to tell you.”

“What?”
he asked, but a huge smile lit his organic lips, which opened over his molecularly bonded ceramic-and-steel teeth.

“I
t was Ariin’s idea,” Khorii said later, as the family stood as near to each other as they dared, having a celebratory graze. Even Elviiz tore up grass and chewed it, but his enhancements were too strong. He tended to rip away the roots as well as the grass and end up with big clots of dirt dangling from each mouthful.

Ariin explained in great detail how her observant nature and discerning eye, not to mention her instinct for behavior patterns and her sense of danger, had led her to notice the similarities between the mutable dwellings of the Friends and the newest form of alien menace.

“That’s my girl,”
Aari said proudly, although until recently he hadn’t known that she was, of course.

“Very clever of you, dear,”
Mother said.
“So did you find out why that was?”

Ariin had to admit that they hadn’t really, but mentioned casually that while they were detecting, they had helped rescue the unicorns who would eventually become their Ancestors. She didn’t say a word about Pircifir. After giving Elviiz a welcoming ankle-twine, Khiindi made himself scarce. He did not want to be around, apparently, when the girls told their parents that their daughter’s pet cat was their old trickster nemesis, Grimalkin. However, Ariin didn’t mention Grimalkin either. If their parents noted any holes in her story left by the absence of the shapeshifting brothers, they said nothing.

When Uncle Joh returned from the
Condor
’s galley to join them, he was carrying a plate of long white noodles and round fragrant balls in some sort of red sauce. He sat on the ground while her parents grazed beside him. “So what did I miss?” he asked. “And say it out loud, people. It’s not like I have ears in the back of my head—or—well, you know what I mean.”

Ariin started telling her story again, but Uncle Joh had trouble with her Linyaari accent when she spoke Standard. Khorii started to interpret for her but caught a warning thought from Ariin. She was afraid Khorii’s version would include the parts she had purposely omitted. So their father gave their friend a quick sketch of Ariin’s story.

“So the damned thing ate my treasure, did it?” was Uncle Joh’s first response. “That’s a shame. Good thing you girls found its homeworld. I know you Linyaari don’t believe in killing stuff, but could we just track it down and hurt it a little? That was a really good treasure.”

“We don’t know for sure it was the same thing, Uncle Joh,” Khorii said quickly. “The dwelling creature is not hostile or harmful in any way, and the serpents were cooperative and intelligent beings. Certainly they did not seem to have a connection with the plague—just the resemblance Ariin noted.”

“They do have something to do with it,” Ariin insisted. “You know they do, too, Khorii.”

“Well, you girls did say you traveled back in time to find it—it would have been a long time ago on their planet, too. It kinda makes you wonder what they’ve been up to lately, doesn’t it?”

“We’re going back there,” Ariin told him. “We have our own ship now, but we wanted to return and tell you first.”

“And to invite Elviiz to come with us if he feels well enough,” Khorii said quickly. She had caught a fleeting thought from Elviiz that now that she had a sister, she seemed to think she didn’t need him any longer.

“If I won’t be too much trouble,” he said, with an unandroid-like tone of resentment.

“On the contrary,” Khorii said. “I’ve really missed you. Khiindi, too.”

“You have?” He sounded more surprised than she would have believed. He had always seemed so arrogant to her before, but she wondered if it wasn’t just that he enjoyed and was proud of being needed. Of course, now that he was more organic, he probably experienced emotions like pride and pleasure more than he had in the past, but still, her own jealousy of his abilities had always shaded her feelings about him.

“Yes,” Ariin said, with uncharacteristic warmth. “It is so good to have you to turn to for information and guidance when things go wrong and to be able to count on your strength.”

That was enough to stop him in midgraze. He stood there thoughtfully chewing a clump of dandelions into his mouth while dirt showered off their roots.
“Thank you both,”
he told them mentally, since his mouth was full.
“It is of course my primary function to inform, guide and protect my sister—sisters. And Khiindi, of course.”

“Of course,” Khorii agreed.

“And good luck with that!” Ariin said, referring to Khiindi.

Chapter 13

J
ust so he knew they really wanted him, they asked Elviiz to fly the
Pircifir
to MOO. “It will be excellent practice with my new modifications,” Elviiz agreed enthusiastically. “On the whole, it seems that my injuries have provided me with the opportunity for a significant upgrade, even though it functions somewhat differently from my former artificial systems.”

The
Balakiire
caravanned with them. As
visedhaanyi ferilii,
or ambassador to alien races, Neeva said she felt it was within the scope of her duties to accompany them to the alien world and enter into diplomatic relations with the inhabitants, serpentine or tunneling. Khorii also secretly believed that Neeva was coming along to keep an eye on them at her mother’s insistence, but said nothing.

The
Mana
had remained on MOO, where their friends, Captain Asha Bates, Jaya, Sesseli, and Hap Hellstrom, who had returned to the
Mana
after helping a borrowed Federation tanker deliver the LoiLoiKuans to Vhiliinyar, met them along with Uncle Hafiz and Karina. Hafiz was very enthusiastic when he heard about the mutable dwellings. “Think of what such places would be worth!” he said, rubbing his hands together.

“But Uncle Hafiz,” Khorii told him, “the reason we went to find out about them is that we fear they are what’s eating everything else in the universe now.”

Hafiz nodded sagely, “This indicates to me that far from being an alien menace, they are an intelligent and perceptive species well aware of the need to eliminate competition in the marketplace.”

Melireenya could not suppress a long, expressive snort of derision. Hafiz had been very generous to the Linyaari, but sometimes his viewpoint was far more alien to them than that of the mutable dwellings.

Captain Bates also guffawed. “Mr. Harakamian, it’s hard to figure you and the Linyaari allied together—sort of like the Warlord Attila at a Quaker meeting.”

Hafiz huffed through his long, curled, and meticulously waxed mustaches. He wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or insulted. “Attila was a delightful person, once one got to know him. I sold him many, many caches of armaments in the past. I am unfamiliar with the people that he was meeting in your analogy, Captain, but I assure you my relationship with the Linyaari people is one of perfect harmony and understanding and eventually, I hope, mutual benefit.”

Captain Bates sobered. “I didn’t mean to offend you, sir. Khorii has told me so much about how wonderful you have been to her people, and of course your assistance in providing support for them as they battle the plague is praised throughout the universe.” The captain was redeeming herself now. “I have a strange sense of humor sometimes. Must be my upbringing.”

“Think nothing of it, dear lady,” Hafiz said graciously. “Now then, before the next phase of your mission, we must enjoy one last feast together, yes?”

Khorii was pleased to fortify herself before they set out again. Flitting about in different times and spaces, she sometimes forgot when she had last grazed, and Uncle Hafiz always provided such delicious and beautiful floral centerpieces for his Linyaari guests.

When Khorii asked if anyone had heard from Jalonzo about how things were going in Corazon, the city that had been her family’s headquarters in the Solojo system, where the plague seemed to have begun, her friends looked at her oddly. “He’s not home yet, Khorii. The tanker only left two days ago,” Jaya said. Of course. Unlike Hap, Jalonzo was returning home after tanker duty.

Khorii felt disoriented, experiencing temporal vertigo. She, Ariin, and Khiindi had traveled light-years back and forth and many years, centuries even, in time and yet in her own time line only two days had passed since she left her friends on MOO.

How did the Friends manage to keep this all straight? Especially the ones like Grimalkin and Pircifir, who traveled through time and space so frequently? Maybe that was part of why Grimalkin had been so careless of the feelings of others. He passed through people’s lives, arriving before their births and after their deaths, so they were rather like moving shadows for him. Khiindi jumped onto her lap and yowled at her. Except for Pircifir. Losing his brother can’t have been unexpected, since Grimalkin had already outlived his sibling when he first stole Ariin. But the loss was fresh now, and Khiindi was not letting her forget it.

When the meal was done, Ariin said, “We should be off now. It’s been nice to see all of you again, but I think that my family is all the help I’ll need to solve this puzzle. Naturally, you’ll be the first to know when we’ve figured out how it happened and deliver the solution.”

“We’re going, too!” Jaya said.

“Why? Your ship is large and clunky. And you can’t travel through ti—” She stopped. She had been about to say that they couldn’t travel through time, but she didn’t want to share the secret of the cronos, Khorii realized. Khorii thought that a bit over-cautious. She trusted these people.

Neeva didn’t care what she was going to say. “I think it would be wise to travel as a fleet to this planet. If the mutating creatures are indeed connected with the plague by-products, then it makes sense to have a ship in orbit in case the creatures devour the ship on the ground.”

Even Ariin couldn’t argue with that. Once both the
Mana
and the
Balakiire
had downloaded the serpent world’s coordinates from Pircifir’s ship, and all three were reprovisioned for the journey, they set off.

Khorii had missed her friends and spent a lot of time on the com unit filling them in on how they had located the creatures. Captain Bates was especially interested in their time travels and their encounter with Sileg and Pebar. “Coco and I belong to the Selegiznas,” she said. “There’s also a Pebarzigna tribe, and they’re supposed to be related.”

Ariin, who had been eavesdropping while Elviiz piloted the ship, looked over Khorii’s shoulder into the com screen, and snorted, “It wouldn’t matter to Pebar and Sileg if you were their own daughter. They’d still sell you if they were offered enough.”

Captain Bates grinned. “And that observation, my dear, gives you stunning insight into my almost native culture.”

“But you’re not like that, Captain,” Sesseli said, leaning affectionately against her. The little girl patted their former teacher’s hand. Sesseli was almost seven now, Moonmay’s age, but she seemed younger than the freckled and redheaded Moonmay. Sesseli’s wide blue eyes and blond curls (presently braided and beaded by Captain Bates into the distinctive coif she had created for the
Mana
’s crew in the approved manner of the shipgoing tribes) and her rounded, soft features made her look even younger. “You’re nice,” she assured Asha Bates.

The captain hugged the child. “You’re pretty nice yourself, kiddo. And the thing is, even if the tribes live by their wits, to put it politely, there are as many good people among them as in any other group. They just hide it well with outsiders.”

“Sileg wasn’t bad,” Khorii said. “I think he’d have been willing to let us go if it hadn’t been for Pebar.”

“They both got Pircifir killed,” Ariin said, as if Pircifir had been her relative rather than Grimalkin’s.

Khorii started to correct her and say that it was saving the unicorns that got Pircifir killed, but Ariin knew that already.

Khiindi mewed piteously, and Sesseli looked as if she’d like to pick him up and kiss him between the ears as she so often had when they’d traveled together.

Khorii patted Khiindi consolingly but refrained from any of the more extravagant gestures the little girl would have offered. Although it was hard to believe her little cat was also Grimalkin, even when she’d seen him turn, it was also hard to forget how much trouble he’d caused for her family. But Khiindi didn’t seem to think what he did in another form counted. He rubbed his head against Khorii’s jaw and pawed at her while mewing in a heartbroken fashion. Relenting, Khorii hugged him and petted his head. As Khiindi, he seemed to have the emotional needs of a small cat as well as its form, and she and he had been babies together. The first time he suffered a loss, no matter the circumstances or who he actually was in another guise, was not the time to rebuff him.

T
he journey seemed longer with the three ships caravanning, and Ariin was disgusted to realize that the other two, much newer vessels, were faster than the
Pircifir.
Even the clunky old
Mana
had to reduce its power to keep from outstripping the ship.

“Elviiz, can’t we go any faster?” she asked.

“We are utilizing the same flight plan you used in the past,” Elviiz said. “If my father and I had had the opportunity to upgrade this vessel, possibly we could achieve greater acceleration, but I cannot do it in midflight. I could not ever have done it in midflight,” he added. “It is not that I am still impaired from my traumatic experience. It is not that I am reluctant to go near them again. Fear is not part of my programming. I—”

“I get the point,” Ariin said.

At length, they reached the serpent planet’s outer atmosphere.

“We will land, and the rest of you can orbit and wait for us,” Ariin told the personnel on the other two ships. Before anyone could protest, she said, “After all, the serpent race knows us.”