Third Watch (20 page)

“Me too,” Khorii said.

“Yes!” Ariin agreed, “Even though it is very frustrating to be able to speak to them only by com or from a distance.”

Grimalkin said, “I have someone I wish to see here as well. And I would prefer not to do it in Khiindi form, which I would have to do if I went forward to your parents’ time with you.”

“We’re not going to be all that long,” Ariin cautioned.

“Nor will I!” he said cheerfully, and vanished from the ship. Oddly, his robe stayed behind.

“That Khiindi!” Khorii joked. “He forgets his coat if you don’t remind him!” She picked up the garment and replaced it on its hook.

But Ariin was looking eagerly at her crono. This time when she used it something unusual happened. As usual, the scenery from the viewport blurred into streaks of color. However, this time the ship shuddered and shook as well.

“What’s the matter?” Ariin demanded. “The crono says we should be when I set it for, but where’s the field?”

Elviiz said, “I fear we may have to walk. The ship has arrived at the correct time but its construction has been unable to withstand the strain. From the log, it seems that the jumps we have made since Pircifir’s death were much longer journeys in the temporal sense than the ones he customarily made. The Friends may be exceptionally long-lived, but apparently their inorganic devices have mortal limitations.”

“Wonderful!” Ariin said. “So now we have a good idea how the plague began, who was responsible, and where he went, but you’re telling me we have no way to get there?”

Chapter 16

W
e’ll speak to Uncle Hafiz about it,” Khorii said to calm her sister. “I’m sure that for such an important journey he will have a vessel he can lend us.”

“Hail him now!” Ariin said.

But when Elviiz tried the com unit, he shook his head. “I am sorry, Ariin, but this vessel seems to be as deceased as its former pilot. I could resurrect the com unit given time, but first, I really do wish to see our parents.”

Although Khorii agreed with her brother, she found his repeated insistence on the matter a little odd. Perhaps it was due to the increased proportion of organic matter in his makeup. He was telepathic now, after all, even though he seldom used thought-talk, perhaps because he had not yet become accustomed to doing so.

The three of them left the ship. It was resting—and rusting, Khorii noted sadly as they departed, between the planet’s main port and the burgeoning techno-artisan complex.

They stopped to graze on the outskirts of the complex. Nothing anywhere was as good as the grass and wildflowers of home, Khorii decided. As she rose from her grazing posture, a shadow passed overhead.

“A flitter,” Ariin said. “Perhaps we can catch a ride.” She waved at the vehicle, which circled back and settled on the meadow. The hatch rose and the familiar face of Maati, their father’s younger sister, peered inquiringly out at them.

“I thought you three were off on a secret mission somewhere. Back so soon?”

“Yes, Linyaari Father-sister Maati,” Elviiz said. “A portion of our mission dictated our return to Vhiliinyar, and we wished to see our family before embarking on the remainder of our journey.”

“Besides which,” Khorii added, “our ship seems to have kind of fallen apart. Could you give us a lift?”

“Certainly. I was actually on my way there with supplies and to say hello. We just returned from our own mission. Was your ship attacked by the new menace? Many have been. It has become difficult to maintain vessels in working condition.”

“I believe ours simply succumbed to age and overuse,” Khorii said. But she wondered if passing so close to the planet where they believed the plague had originated might have contributed to their ship’s malfunction. If it had Elviiz should have been aware of it.

They crowded aboard the flitter, Khorii sitting on her brother’s lap with the security strap across both of them, Ariin holding a large bag of imported cat food, no doubt bound for the belly of RK, the
Condor
’s feline first mate.

Maati landed just outside the pavilions that had been erected for the twins and Elviiz. The
Condor
remained in the middle of the quarantine field, and when they arrived, Uncle Joh was chewing his mustache as Maak beat him at Multilingual Scrabble
^®
while the twins’ parents looked on, amused. “Numerical equations don’t count as words!” Uncle Joh growled.

“You are incorrect, Captain,” Maak replied. “Mathematics is a language and therefore its expressions are allowable under the rules of Multilingual Scrabble
^®
.”

“Never mind him, Maak,” Mother said. “He tried to claim that the Linyaari words we constructed during our turns didn’t count either because he was unfamiliar with them. Oh, look! The children have returned!”

Maati, Elviiz, and Ariin advanced to the quarantine barrier—an area of trampled grass—while Khorii followed. Approaching the others while watching her parents, Maak, and Uncle Joh abandon their board to trot toward the barrier, Khorii was aware of something out of place. Not exactly wrong, just different. Then she decided it was not something out of place but something missing. None of the people beyond the quarantine barrier had blue dots dancing around them any longer.

She gave a delighted gasp, bounded past Elviiz and Ariin, and leaped the barrier to run to her parents. “You’re cured!” she said.

“Khorii—?” Elviiz began to protest.

Belatedly, Khorii turned back, took her twin’s hand, and pulled her toward their mother and father, then threw herself into her mother’s arms. “Oh, Avvi! I thought I would never feel your gentle touch or Father’s strong arms again!”

Father had scooped Ariin up and was twirling around and around in the grass. RK danced around them, meowing excitedly at the happy reunion.

“Don’t I get a hug, too?” Uncle Joh asked Elviiz, who, having firmly shaken hands with Maak so that neither of them damaged the other with their great strength, gingerly patted Captain Becker on the back.

For a fleeting moment, Khorii maintained a light finger touch with her mother while replacing Elviiz to give Uncle Joh a one-armed embrace. Then Mother broke contact to join Father in hugging Ariin. Khorii piled on. Elviiz patted each of them tenderly on the shoulders and backs, so as not to break them.

Then everyone, including Elviiz and Maak, who had worn his special bionic horn adaptation during his stay on Vhiliinyar, touched horns. Only Uncle Joh and RK were left out of that. Then Uncle Joh wrapped his arms around as many of his friends as he could while RK twined around their ankles before becoming annoyed by their lack of gratitude for his attention and climbing the leg of Khorii’s shipsuit. RK was a massive Makahomian Temple Cat, so she could not ignore him. Although his claws did not penetrate the cloth, he almost pulled her to the ground.

When the interlude was over, Uncle Joh clapped his hands and rubbed them together, saying, “Okay, we’ve all been sprung. Now what? Wanna go up to the com unit and tell Hafiz to kill the fatted cauliflower in your honor? I’m thinkin’ party time!”

Mother said, “Maybe. Certainly we should stop by and be briefed on the latest events, but I am anxious to get back to work.”

“Yes,” Father said. “The family that stops plagues together—” He looked at Uncle Joh. “It is a Terran aphorism. Can you finish it appropriately for our situation?”

“Sorry, buddy. ‘Drops eggs together’ is the closest I can come. Somehow I don’t think that conveys quite the sentiment you’re trying to express.”

Those remarks and a lot of other giddy nonsense marked the occasion, but once all of them were again aboard the
Condor,
Khorii sobered enough to check the ship for blue dots. She was relieved to find none. Perhaps, since the plague had not been able to kill anyone here, it had also been unable to continue its course and mutate into the matter-eating monsters. Certainly everyone present who had been infected was alive, healthy, and unavailable to provide ghostly collections of molecules to consume the inorganic matter that would eventually provide them with mass similar to that of the shapeshifting dwellings.

Ariin roamed as far from the others as she could while staying in sight, inspecting the ship’s interior. “What kind of ship is this?” she asked. “I haven’t seen one like this before.”

“Of course not,” Uncle Joh told her. “The
Condor
is a unique synthesis of the best bits of the best technologies of many worlds and cultures. Right now she’s in tiptop shape because I have passed lo these many Standard months tweaking her. She’d be even better if I could have had access to my salvage stash.”

“About that, Uncle Joh,” Khorii said. “I’m sorry our news about the
Blanca
and your other salvage there was so upsetting to you.”

“I can’t be upset today, sweetie,” he said, brushing it off. “My buddies Aari and Acorna have been reunited with their kids, and we are all free again. Nothing can mar that. I’m ready to celebrate!”

“The latest phase of the plague ate the
Blanca
, and probably by now has eaten the rest of your salvage,” Ariin told him. “We have not checked lately, but it may have destroyed much of the inorganic matter in its path, including the derelict ships it attacked in its plague form.”

At first they thought the low growl was coming from RK, but it was actually coming from the
Condor
’s captain. “First it almost kills me and my friends, then it locks us up and away from all the action, now it’s eating my salvage? It must be destroyed!”

“We are in agreement,” Ariin said. “And that is a good thing. You have a ship. Ours is no longer functional.”

“Is it salvageable?” Uncle Joh asked with an acquisitive twitch of his left eyebrow.

“I believe so,” Elviiz said. “Parts of it at least. Perhaps among us, you, Captain, my father and I may be able to save some of the electronic data in storage, which I think will provide much valuable information pertaining to our current mission and to the history of the Linyaari people.”

Uncle Joh then showed one of the rare flashes of sensitivity that often took Khorii by surprise. Taking Ariin’s hand, he asked, “That okay with you, Little Girl? I know you claimed that ship. Okay if we salvage her in exchange for transport for all of us to go kick this miserable medical monster in its star-farting behind?”

Without hesitation, Ariin nodded gravely. “I only hope it won’t take too long.”

“Don’t you worry about that, honeybun. The Droid Boys and the cat and me have got a system.”

They lifted off and flew the
Condor
back to the spaceport, close to where Khiindi/Grimalkin had left them.

While Uncle Joh, Elviiz, Maak, and Father worked at dismantling and hauling away the most useful bits of the
Pircifir,
Khorii grew increasingly nervous. No one noticed because Ariin was busy regaling Mother with somewhat edited tales of their adventures. While she kept in the cronos and
Pircifir,
this time Khorii noticed gratefully that she omitted mention of Grimalkin. Mother and Father had their own issues with Khorii’s erstwhile kitty, and she was glad that Ariin didn’t add any more fuel to that fire just now.

Chapter 17

G
rimalkin faced an unexpected dilemma. Actually, he should have expected it. If he returned to the
Pircifir
and the young people in their chosen time destination, he would be in small cat form again. That he knew. But when he consulted the time device to try to determine when his people abandoned Vhiliinyar and where they might have gone, he also accessed the time the twins and Elviiz had visited. He hoped there was some way of connecting with them during an earlier era that predated his cat curse.

That was when he saw the avatars for Aari and Khornya, as well as their children, Maak, Becker, and Khiindi’s perpetually grumpy alleged sire, Roadkill, coagulate within the
Condor
’s avatar and leave the quarantine area, arriving a short hop later at the spaceport. Where the
Pircifir
’s avatar should have been was only a marker, and it decreased further after Aari, Becker, Maak, and Elviiz made repeated trips from the marker to the
Condor
.

Obviously while pursuing his own interests and investigations, Grimalkin had missed something important. Skipping forward on the time map a few hours, he saw all the avatars back aboard the
Condor
, and very little left of the
Pircifir.
Then, amazingly, the
Condor
departed, with his own avatar not aboard.

Quite correct. He had no intention of returning to be trapped in small cat guise aboard the
Condor
with a cured Aari and Khornya. The youngsters had undoubtedly confided to their parents all about Khiindi the small cat’s part in Grimalkin’s rather convoluted role in their lives, history, and current predicaments. He couldn’t think they’d be pleased to see him.

Poor him. Always misunderstood. What to do? He yawned, stretched, and turned from the time device, walking out of the building. He passed the few people on the street, reached the seashore, and continued toward the spaceport and, beyond that, the lovely meadow where the unicorns grazed.

A nap. That would settle his mind, and a dream might suggest a course of action, or at least be pleasant enough to delay any action at all while he prolonged the nap to enjoy it.

U
ntil the last moment before departure, Khorii watched for Khiindi’s return. Even though she knew he was also a powerful and troublesome being many times larger, older, and stronger than she was, in her heart he was still the Khiindi cat who had grown up with her and whom she loved. Even seeing the transformation to the hulking and devious Grimalkin had not erased the tenderness she felt when she thought of the fluffy little face with its pink nose, bright eyes, tufted ears, and thickets of whiskers. Why couldn’t Khiindi have just been her cat? Why did it all have to be so complicated?