Mac"s pupils dilated with pleasure. "A uniform? I am now an official uniformed crew member! Oh, Captain! May I have a hug?"
"h.e.l.l, no, you"d crush the life out of me! Where do you get that stuff anyway? You"ve been talking to Mrs. Harakamian again, haven"t you?"
Mac was busy stripping and pulling on the new uniform.
"Not here," Becker said. "There are ladies present."
"Oh," Mac said, clearly wondering what one thing had to do with the other.
"And pick up your old stuff on your way out," Becker grumbled. "You want this place to look like a pigsty? "
Acorna suppressed a giggle. Only through Mac"s industry had the Condor gained any semblance of order. Before the android had been restored, reprogrammed, and thus rehabilitated from his service under the treacherous criminal Kisla Manjari, Becker"s ship had more closely resembled a junkyard than an interstellar vessel. Jonas had had salvage stored and piled in every available corner and strapped overhead. The only maneuvering room around the ship had been little more than a narrow trail from one end of the Condor to the other.
She supposed Becker"s remark was compounded of embarra.s.sment and the sense of captainly importance he a.s.sumed with his fancy uniform.
With the robolift cleared for action and everything shipshape, Becker hailed the Federation post again. In a short time the ship"s outside monitors picked up a small group of uniformed people walking in tight formation toward the ship. Becker lowered the robolift, which worked perfectly.
After exchanging questioning glances at the unusual outfitting of the ship, the delegation followed the man in the shiniest uniform forward. Once he had stepped onto the lift, they joined him. Becker pushed the b.u.t.ton to raise them to the lower deck. "Ladies, we should greet our guests, don"t you think?" he said.
Lieutenant Commander Dsu Macostut made his priorities clear immediately when he ignored Becker"s salute and bowed instead over Acorna"s hand. "Amba.s.sador Harakamian-Li. We have, even on this backwater posting, heard of your remarkable exploits on Kezdet and the splendid work you and your patrons have done with Maganos Moonbase. We never imagined we would have the honor to meet you."
"You"re very kind," Acorna said, amused. Becker was chewing his mustache, highly irritated by the snub to his well-dressed authority. In his view, on a ship, the captain should always have first priority. "Please allow me to introduce my dear friends and shipmates. This is Captain Jonas Becker, with whom I believe some of you have spoken. And here are the ship"s android MacKenZ, and Commander Nadhari Kando."
"The legendary Nadhari Kando, who left Makahomia as a humble acolyte and became one of the famous Red Bracelets? Words fail to express my delight. Your steppe-cousin often speaks of you with pride. We are great friends, you know, and he is fond of bragging about you. He says that although he now rules the Mog-Gim Plateau, you did not wash out of Federation training as he did."
Nadhari opened her mouth to protest, but Lieutenant Commander Dsu held up a restraining hand, "Of course we are all well aware that it was his wish to serve his own people here on Makahomia that was the true cause of his refusal to accept a commission in the Corps. And I must say, in losing a soldier, the Corps has gained instead a remarkable ally. Mulzar Edu is the most progressive, enlightened ruler it has ever been the Federation"s pleasure to work with on your planet. Your steppe-cousin is truly a man of vision."
Becker did something he had rarely done before with Acorna-he aimed a thought right at her. He didn"t actually have any idea that she would receive it, but he just had to comment on the Federation officer"s att.i.tude and couldn"t do so aloud.
(Hallelujah,) he said, (the fan club has arrived!)
(Why, Captain, you"re using telepathy!) Acorna replied mentally. The grumblings in Becker"s mustache and beard turned to pleased and slightly embarra.s.sed huffings. These turned to shock as he realized suddenly that he had read her loud and clear. He replied tentatively, but again in mind-speak, (Yeah! How about that. Look, Ma, no mouth! Hey, is this mind-reading stuff catching?) he asked, clearly enjoying having a secret with her from everyone else.
(Not unless you can hear what I or others are thinking when we are not consciously sending to you,) Acorna said. (But if you address your thoughts to me, I will certainly do my best to read them and respond in kind.)
Becker"s eyes sparkled. (That"s great. I like this. Let"s do it more often.) He looked as pleased as a three-year-old boy with a new land-skimmer sled.
She smiled at him - no teeth showing, of course - and would have hugged him had they not been in the company of strangers.
Macostut was still speaking, after a spate of fulsome compliments to Nadhari. "Perhaps you ill.u.s.trious ladies would care to come ash.o.r.e while my men and the captain go over the inventory of this vessel? Our accommodations are spartan and humble, but are, I am told, somewhat more luxurious than those of the average- er - salvage vessel."
"That"s very kind of you, Lieutenant Commander, but I"m afraid that I must refuse your kind offer for the time being. Captain Becker has a large and varied inventory, with which we are both familiar," Acorna said. "As my close personal friend, he has granted me the use of his vessel as my traveling emba.s.sy with no cost to myself or to the planetary government I represent in exchange for my help as a crew member when needed. Captain Becker has saved my life and the lives of my people many, many times."
"That is true for me as well," Nadhari said gravely. "I owe him my life many times over. Captain Becker and his vessel were crucial in successfully defeating multiple Khleevi invasions and in saving me from equally terrible enemies."
Macostut tried to look impressed and more cordial toward Becker, but Acorna sensed resentment radiating from him. The Federation officer clearly wanted Nadhari and her to himself. His thoughts seemed to indicate that he felt another male officer would cramp his style. "And these- what did you call them? Khleevi? They needed defeating?"
"Oh, I suppose that the news of the rest of the universe doesn"t reach you often here, as isolated as you are," Nadhari said. "Or you would have at least heard of the invasion of the Federation planet Rushima by the Khleevi, which was foiled by a ma.s.sive combined force of Federation, mercenary, and private ships only after Acorna"s relatives came to warn her of the impending attack and enabled the Federation and its allies to surprise the invading Khleevi. It was quite a battle. I was there."
"But he-the captain, I mean-wasn"t in on that one?"
"That was before we met," Becker said shortly. "If we"re going to inventory my cargo, we"d best get this show on the road, ladies and gentlemen, or we"ll be here a month before we"re officially allowed to disembark."
"Oh, no, Captain. A quick look will suffice, I think, since you come so highly recommended by a local celebrity as well as a foreign amba.s.sador. And we must be well done with this before second setting, when you must all dine with me. I insist."
"You mean real food?" Becker said.
"Exactly. There have been a few shortages recently on Makahomia, but we are well enough supplied here. I will leave you now in order to finalize the preparations while you and your... crew... escort my officers on their inspection tour. They in turn will then escort you to our guest quarters and on to the officers" mess. You and your crew and Captain MacDonald will of course be our guests."
"I will be so pleased for the opportunity to thank Captain MacDonald properly," Nadhari said. "We would probably be looking out the Condor"s submerged viewport at those repulsive reptilian life forms and breathing our last were it not for him answering our Mayday so quickly and effectively."
"Lieutenant-Commander Macostut," Acorna said, "Speaking of Captain MacDonald, I would like to ask him to relay a message to our headquarters about our mishap. I wish to inform my uncle of our safe arrival. May we provide Uncle Hafiz with your outpost coordinates in case he wishes to contact us?"
"That"s not a problem, Amba.s.sador. However, I should mention to all of you that in order to avoid cultural contamination of the Makahomians, no technology that is in excess of what could be produced locally with indigenous resources is permitted beyond the official boundaries of this s.p.a.ceport. The only gate from this compound, which opens into the city, contains a very sensitive scanner to make sure that no one carrying any off-world devices can pa.s.s through undetected. All communications emanating from our post are monitored. There is a dampening field around the post that will obliterate, scramble, or otherwise impede the signals from any ship attempting to contact another com unit in the civilian sector, should such a unit find its way there despite our precautions."
Becker whistled. "Seems pretty restrictive."
Macostut regarded him coldly. "Not at all, Captain. The Federation believes these measures are preferable to overflying Makahomia ourselves, causing yet more cultural contamination. We take our responsibility here very seriously." He turned back to Acorna, all smiles. "That said, we would be more than happy to relay your message to Mr. Harakamian through Federation channels if you wish, Amba.s.sador."
"That"s very kind of you, but Captain MacDonald has already offered to do that," Acorna replied. He hadn"t, but she felt certain he would be amenable. Just to tie up loose ends, she quickly returned to the bridge and hailed him. She didn"t want to explain to Macostut or any other official that she not only wished to inform Hafiz of the Condor"s change of route but also wanted to learn if any messages for her had been relayed from the Moon of Opportunity through Manganos Moonbase. It would be just her luck if Aari had returned to Vhiliinyar and no on knew how to reach her!
Four.
The officers" mess was filled with fragrant candles. Their soft glow lit the room, but the scent of their melting wax did not mask the succulent odors of cooking food that made Becker"s nostrils twitch. The group from the Condor were all very hungry and tired, since the inspection had taken much longer than that "little walk-through" Macostut had promised them.
Though the inspection crew did not find RK, they did find the Wats and asked to see their papers. The Wats didn"t have any papers. Paper, much less papers, hadn"t been around when they were born on Old Terra. The Wats did not have files to speak of, either, and even if they had, the ship"s computers were still not working properly after their little adventure with Khleevi hardware. Becker had finally gotten the bureaucrats to leave by blaming the lack of doc.u.mentation on the malfunctioning computers.
The inspection team had also wondered about Mac. Kisla Manjari"s name came up when they verified the android"s records. That certainly seemed to worry the Federation inspectors, who were familiar with the Manjari name. But the android had happily a.s.sured them of his complete rehabilitation. Since one of the team, a female chief petty officer, showed polite interest, Mac showed her his original model number. He then explained in detail about his various non-factory-authorized upgrades and reprogramming at Becker"s hands, up to and including his new promotion to uniformed crew member. Mac could be exhaustingly thorough sometimes. In the end, the team had cleared the android, probably in self-defense.
But by the time they were ready to disembark, Acorna had her answer from Captain MacDonald-no message about Aari was waiting for her on the Arkansas Traveler from Maganos or MOO. The only message from either place was a short list Hafiz Harakamian had sent, naming things Acorna should let it be known she was in the market for while they were on Makahomia.
She saw one of these items - or rather, several specimens of one of them, as soon as Becker, Nadhari, and she were seated across the table from their host. Seated at dinner with them were a few Federation officers, two men in what appeared to be the local priestly raiment, and a young girl similarly clad. That raiment was what caught Acorna"s eye. The attire was red, woolen, and long-sleeved. One priest"s clothing was trimmed around the neckline and sleeves with a two-inch-wide ornate band of multicolored embroidery depicting cats, beautifully embellished with cat"s-eye stones. The other priest"s robe featured a plain stripe of gold embroidery around his sleeves and neckline, and the girl"s robe was unornamented. The man in the most elaborate robe had thick dark hair and a luxuriant beard and mustache, in contrast to the other man, who was as bald and clean-shaven as the first man was hirsute. The girl"s braided hair was so dark an auburn as to appear black, but the red highlights in it shot back reflections of the candlelight the same color as her robe.
Each of the three Makahomians wore a single striking jewel - a large cat"s-eye stone. The ornately dressed man"s was round, approximately four centimeters in diameter, and hung from a thick rose-gold chain around his neck. The stone was golden in color, with a deep velvety black cleft down its center. The second man"s cat"s-eye jewel was half the size of the first, dark green in color, and strung on a leather thong as a pendant. The girl"s stone, pale green in color and much smaller than her companions" jewels, was also suspended on a leather thong, but was worn on her wrist.
Acorna had been raised by human asteroid miners. Growing up, she had demonstrated a special psychic gift that had proved very useful to them. She was able to determine the mineral content of any given object without the aid of equipment or computers, simply by using the powers of her mind. As a result of that upbringing and her gift, Acorna was acutely aware of minerals and gemstones of all sorts. The cat"s-eye stones the local people were wearing-which were more properly called chrysoberyls - were not only beautiful and sacred, according to Nadhari"s lesson on Makahomian culture, but also very useful in the mining and terraforming industries across the universe. Acorna wondered if it would be culturally inappropriate to d.i.c.ker to purchase a few on behalf of Hafiz, since they were on his shopping list.
All of this she noticed in the blink of... well, a cat"s eye... while beside her, Nadhari tensed and then smiled at the man in the embroidered robe as he rose and reached across the table to take both of her hands in his.
"Nadhari - cousin, you"ve come home to us. Dare I hope you"ve come to stay?" The man"s eyes were large and brown and melting with sincerity. Nadhari flinched. The man noticed it, which Acorna thought was unusually sensitive of him. Most human men, in her experience, would have missed that small movement. "Sorry. Of course I know that cannot be the case," he continued. "Dsu has already explained to me that you"ve arrived with your friends unexpectedly and in the course of business travels elsewhere."
He started to turn to Acorna. Macostut, evidently feeling the introductions were going too fast and were proceeding without him, said, "Oh, please, Mulzar, allow me to introduce all of our guests to you. Your cousin, of course, you have already met. The Linyaari Amba.s.sador Lady Acorna Harakamian-Li, is on her right, Captain Jonas Becker on her left."
"Yes," Becker said jovially. "Acorna"s the one with the horn. I"m the alien-looking one." Acorna smiled at the jest, reflecting that, like many of the planets under Federation protection, this one seemed to be populated with people of Terran stock. She had learned in her studies of galactic history that this was because, since ancient times, Old Terra kept overpopulating itself.
To remedy the problem, Terra had established s.p.a.ce colonies, which soon developed the same problem. Those Terrans who were excess or simply adventurous were sent to colonize still other planets. By the time the old planet had worn itself completely out, Terrans had a vast web of colonies throughout their sector of s.p.a.ce. They were the dominant, if not the only, sentient species on every planet and moon they could make habitable for their own kind throughout their galaxy and beyond. Through his jest, Acorna knew Becker was trying, however awkwardly, to show his support of her and his solidarity with her.