"Mac?" Becker said. "Are you nuts? Or did the information escape you that the Federation monitors all transmissions, in case there are any, which there shouldn"t be because they"re all messed up by the dampening field."
"Oh, that! By my count we are now in violation of perhaps fifty separate Federation directives. I thought if you had rescued everyone satisfactorily, I would just give you a hail and acquaint you with the many excellent features I installed on your little vessel."
"A cat-food replicator would have been nice," Becker said. "But look, buddy, I appreciate what you"ve done but we can"t talk now. If the Federation is listening, it"s just that my friend knows how to make his voice carry really "well and we aren"t actually using any technology at all."
Mac remained cheerily sanguine. "Actually, Captain, they seem to have forgotten about us. They do not realize that I am still aboard, or that we retained special Linyaari com technology from our original communications equipment, which I repaired after the helpful technicians installing the new equipment left. You see, the Linyaari utilize technology that the Federation does not. Some of their communication systems are laser-based. Lasers will naturally penetrate the dampening fields, which are set up to prevent radio and electronic transmissions, and so we "will be able to converse freely and without interference or even observance from the Makahomian s.p.a.ceport. I have also installed on the flitter an excellent Linyaari scanner you had stored in the cargo bay. Of course it is not engineered for use on such a ship, and I had to make some adjustments to its function to retrofit that device to the conveyance, as well as all the other devices I mentioned earlier. But it all seems to work well enough for our current purposes."
"That"s cool, Mac."
"And, Captain, I do not think we need to worry too much about the Federation interference. There are not many personnel remaining here anyway. The Mulzar seems to be ma.s.sing an army for an attack, and all available Federation troops except for a small skeleton crew are now riding beasts or manning chariots to monitor the situation. It has been vastly entertaining."
Becker whistled with surprise. "Do tell? Now that is a very interesting piece of intel, good buddy. But don"t call us, we"ll call..." And with that a blast of static replaced the transmission.
"Huh," Becker said, "I think Mac got outfoxed this time. We"ll try again later when the Federation com people have gone on their break. Maybe we better move it."
Acorna said, "We can"t leave these cats without good food."
"Are you kidding? Those greedy p.u.s.s.ycats have filled up on the food we brought with us till their guts are dragging between their paws. They"re not going to be hungry again for another day or two. You need to rest and recharge. Then we can see about food."
"I"ll rest on the way."
Miw-Sher stood in the courtyard looking from the basket containing Grimla and the kittens, guarded by the boy, to the flitter and back again, clearly torn about leaving her favorite guardian behind.
(Bring the brats, too, if the old girl won"t leave them,) RK said with a yawn. There was plenty of room for him and the others in the flitter"s fourth s.p.a.ce now that the food bag was gone.
Acorna wearily translated his remark to Becker, her tongue thick in her mouth and her words barely coherent.
Becker called out, "Sheri, honey, bring the old cat and kittens and come on. Remember those other p.u.s.s.ycats Acorna needs to cure!"
Miw-Sher knelt beside the boy and said something, then turned to Becker. "He cannot be separated from them. He was captured from the rainforest himself. Can he come with us, too?"
Again Acorna translated, though she was so tired she was barely able to speak. Becker looked behind him where RK and the other three Temple cats had spread themselves over all available s.p.a.ce, the three Temple cats napping, RK regarding his shipmate somewhat cynically.
"Yeah, sure, why not? The more the merrier. At least we know he"s not allergic to cats."
After that Acorna drifted in and out of sleep, but when she roused again as the flitter banked sharply, she was aware of Miw-Sher"s voice and the boy"s both calling out to Becker.
The flitter was riding high above a canopy of deep copper forest, the leaves below them too thick to see the ground. However, off to the right something both coppery and smooth rose from the leaves, curling above them. Miw-Sher and the boy were pointing at this. As the flitter descended carefully, slowly, Acorna saw that the smooth thing was the curled tip of the tail of another cat Temple. The pose of the structure was a cat in a long stretch, its tail and hindquarters supported high in the air by tower-like hind legs and paws. Its front paws were outstretched and a long staircase led between them up to the cat"s open mouth. Most amazing here were the eyes, which "were not open or blank windows as the eyes in the other Temples had been. These were lensed with chrysoberyls the size of the Condor"s viewport.
Becker whistled, "Good thing Hafiz isn"t here."
Acorna nodded. Her eyes still refused to focus clearly in the dappled jungle light, since it seemed to her that the surface of this Temple, unlike the others, was alternately rough and shining. But as they drew closer she saw that the sides were tiger-striped with rows of smaller chrysoberyl stones. s.p.a.ced here and there, high up on the sides and back of the cat, as well as on the arms and legs and sides of the face, were small platforms with dark s.p.a.ces behind. Other platforms were occupied by large cats. Some of these cats were black with tawny spots, like the one on the steppes. Some were tawny with black spots and looked more like the pictures of cheetahs from old Terra. Others were black with tawny stripes. Still others were just black or just tawny but more than the cats of Hissim or the cats of the steppes, these looked as if they had been bred from a limited gene pool. They were all much larger than RK or any of the other Temple cats Acorna had seen.
Furthermore, they all looked healthy. Ferocious too as all or them rose at once, regarding the flitter with baleful eyes brighter even than the chrysoberyls. Then the screaming began, half shrill and piercing, half a deep, rumbling roar.
The Temple cats shocked Acorna and Becker by screaming back. Even RK used a voice neither of his shipmates had ever heard before. Instead of cowering away from the awful sound,
the cats plastered themselves against the viewports and shrieked, whether in challenge or greeting even Acorna couldn"t say.
Because of the dense vegetation surrounding the Temple, the flitter had to pa.s.s within a few feet of the Temple walls, and a couple of the more enterprising guardians leaped onto the hatch covering with mighty thumps, and screamed again.
Fortunately, by that time the flitter had nearly landed.
"We got here in time!" Miw-Sher cried excitedly, gripping Acorna"s shoulder. "These guardians still glow with vitality and health!"
Acorna automatically translated the girl"s remark for Becker, who said, "Yeah, but will we if we try to get past them? Lookit the hooks on those beasties, wall you?"
Acorna was looking into the cavernous mouth of the cat over her head as it screamed again, playfully this time, dabbing a saber-sharp claw at her.
RK immediately was on her shoulders and scratching at the top of the hatch. The other cat closed its mouth and put its nose to the gla.s.s. RK did the same.
(She"s okay, just doing her job.) RK"s thoughts were full of randy cat images that made Acorna giggle. He reminded her of Becker when he"d first seen Nadhari. (Her name is Haruna. Rrrrrrrowl. When do you go into heat again, beautiful?)
Seventeen.
Despite the first mate"s desperation to have no hatch between him and the new object of his l.u.s.t, Becker obstinately waited until human beings, armed and dangerous and clad in very little, poured from and around the Temple, each of them accompanied by a bevy of felines.
(We are friends,) Acorna broadcasted. (We came to warn you and to help you, if necessary.)
Having entered into their minds, she now met their eyes as they peered in at her.
Haruna and her companion apparently understood for, much to RK"s disappointment, they dismounted. Then the people began talking excitedly among themselves, in a dialect new to Acorna.
"What are they saying, Miw-Sher?" Acorna asked. Miw-Sher didn"t notice at first that she had been addressed, as the boy was pointing out features of the Temple to her.
"Oh," she said when she turned back to Acorna, "they"re simply telling each other that you are the one and you have come as prophesied."
"It"s so nice that everyone but me knows about that," Acorna said a bit crossly. She was tired of many things, including her reputation, which had so unexpectedly preceded her nearly everywhere on this planet.
"At least you can rest here, Princess," Becker said. "These p.u.s.s.ycats are fine as feline fur. You look like you need healing more than they do."
He raised the hatch and climbed out. Acorna and the others followed him. The sight of the boy caused one of the women to cry out and rush forward to embrace him. He was glad to see her, but disentangled himself rather quickly to show her the kittens. The Hissim Temple cats began mingling with the locals, and RK sidled up to Haruna. He was trying to get close enough to growl sweet nothings into her tufted ears, Acorna supposed.
For a few moments the locals chattered busily about everything, and Miw-Sher and the boy chattered with them. Then, as if recalling their manners, the woman, who was surely a relative of the boy"s if not his mother, gestured for Becker and Acorna to ascend the steps carved between the cat Temple"s outstretched front paws and up onto the tongue and into the mouth.
More stairs led them through the torso of the Temple, the interior of which was lined with beautiful murals, accented by wall sconces holding torches - currently unlit-to provide illummation "when necessary. During daylight hours, as Acorna could see, the building had more than sufficient natural light because of all of the open areas leading to the exterior platforms where the Temple cats perched. If the cats wished to ascend the Temple"s outer walls, they could simply leap from one platform to the next, and descend in the same manner. There were also a number of interior platforms, should the cats wish to seek shelter inside the building.
It was a bit unnerving to watch the cats leap from platform to platform right through the Temple. As Acorna and her friends walked through the building"s halls, Temple cats of every color and size appeared occasionally, often seeming to shoot out of the walls and fly through the air of the pa.s.sageways above their heads. But after a while even Acorna and Becker grew used to the sudden rush of air as a fully extended furry body sailed from one side of the Temple to the other, as if crossing a jungle ravine.
Although Acorna had enjoyed some rest in the flitter on the way, the climbing tired her further and her feet felt heavy and clumsy as she set them on one step and then another.
And then her feet were no longer touching the steps and she felt pressure on the backs of her thighs, knees, and upper arms as six people adroitly inserted themselves between her body and the effects of gravity on it, lifting her up onto their shoulders and bearing her among them.
"Hey," Becker said, "how does a person get prophesied about around here? I"m kinda tired, too, you know."
Much to her surprise, the high priestess was not wearing robes as the priests in the other two cities did. In fact, she was wearing nothing except a coat of her own home-grown fur, pointed ears, and long elegant whiskers.