Acorna's Search Part 11

Thariinye yawned but Acorna told the attendant that, yes, indeed, it sounded like something that would be helpful in clarifying some of the more enigmatic remarks the Old Ones had made. "Could you show me those records now?"

"It's getting very late," Imaara said.

"I understand, but we have missing people to find and we have no idea how much danger they may be in. The very restoration of Vhiliinyar may depend upon what we find here."

"Perhaps, but you must rest sometime. The oldest doc.u.ments in our archive are very fragile. We would not want you to make a mistake that would damage them through exhaustion-induced clumsiness. Also, they should be studied in natural light. Artificial light can cause deterioration of the pigments. Be calm, little sister. This thing will take what time it takes. One learns the ways of time, living among the Ancestors."

The Attendant's words sounded very wise and important and all that, but Acorna still had difficulty suppressing impatience as she lowered herself to her sleeping mat. Didn't they understand how urgent this was? She was prepared to fume all night about it. It niggled her for perhaps a nanosecond before exhaustion caught up with her and she fell into a deep sleep.

Imaara woke Acorna and Thariinye before first light.

(Come. It is time to read.)

She stilled Acornas questions and Thariinyes grumblings with a swift thought and led them around the lake and across the meadows, to a cleft in the hill. As they approached, Acorna noticed that windows had been carved into the hillside at three different levels, and when they entered the cave concealed by a few recently grown trees, she began to understand why the time was so important.

The sun had been rising as they walked to the cavern. As they stepped foot inside it, the first rays of the morning blazed a trail across the floor of the cavern and lit the chamber as if they were outdoors.

1 he walls of the cavern were covered with glowing paintings in what looked like new pigments. "Hey, they've fixed this up nicely," Thariinye said. "Decorations and everything."

But one of the symbols depicted there had captured Acorna's attention. She lagged behind Imaara's brisk steps to examine it. "Look, it's the same one we saw on the, sii-Linyaari artifact."

Imaara returned to look at what had caught her guest's attention. "Oh, those are the copies of the paintings we made from the walls of the original cave on Vhiliinyar."

"Original cave?"

"Yes, where we first kept the Ancestral archives. That cave had been used in that manner for many years, the Ancestors said, before our people became adept at the written word. The early Ancestors used to make pictographs, though I believe many of the earliest images were drawn instead by the Friends and may be their form of the written word. Our language and writing systems are descended from theirs, but are not the same, as our vocal chords and hands could not form all the same sounds and characters as theirs. These paintings would have been lost after the Khleevi attack on Vhiliinyar, except I that the Ancestors have rather long memories, good visual memories at that, and we were able to piece together the graphs from their recollections after we were forced to leave our home so precipitously. We did bring most of the written archives with us, though some were irreparably damaged in the haste of the transfer, but most survived. Come, I'll show you."

She led them to an upper level, a circular room lined with fine crystals. The sun snaking into the chamber from the strategically placed window bounced off of these and caused the floor to s.h.i.+mmer with rainbows. Imaara drew forth some storage boxes and scooted them to the middle of the floor. A long low table with a bench on either side made a place to sit and study the contents or to add to them.

Before Imaara left, Acorna said, "This original cave on Vhiliinyar, Imaara, where was it located?"

"Near the great waterfall, the Vriiniia Watiir, in a cliff near the sea. It was a very secret place and hard to reach if you didn't know how. The key to entering it was pa.s.sed down by generations of Attendants. And by the way, Kh.o.r.n.ya, Thariinye, these records you see today are secret as well. They are for the Attendant cla.s.s of Linyaari, shared only among ourselves, and kept shrouded from general knowledge by our life-bonded words to maintain silence. I trust our privacy will remain inviolate? You may act upon anything you learn here, but not reveal the source of your knowledge. I show you this place now only at the direct orders of the Ancestors."

"I heard no such suggestion," Thariinye said with surprise.

She smiled. "Even the most favored of the Linyaari people do not share the most intimate confidences of our Ancestors. Good thing tor them it is, too. Most of them concern the state of the Ancestral digestive system. But a few are of more interest to others " she waved her hand indicating the records, and nodded as Acorna raised the lid of the storage container and extracted a few ornate wooden binders containing several sheets of what looked like processed leaf and gra.s.s material blanched and pressed, held together with long dark purple fibers from the liaala vine.

The writing was crude and faded. "These must be the oldest surviving records of our people," Acorna said, handling the leaves gently and with reverence, and feeling uneasy with the crumbling texture of the edges between her fingers.

They are," Imaara said. "It is believed that these are the records made by the first Attendant, who was in fact the biological son of this Ancestor here," she pointed to a word that could have been a name. "The Attendant, who never names himself, we call Hrunvrun, the firstborn, and his records form the basis for the training of all future Attendants."

Thariinye looked at Imaara and then at the paper. "I had no Idea your craft had such a lineage, Lady."

She blinked at him and Acorna heard her thought, (What is it that you suppose people who work with Ancestors would nave, young man? Short-term thinking? Like, perhaps, yours?) with that, she turned and left them with the doc.u.ments.

Acorna, though she was very good with languages and translations, found the faded ancient script daunting and nearly indecipherable. After all, though she had spoken a few baby words in Linyaari, the first language she had learned, a child was Galactic Standard. She still had to concentrate be as fluent in her Native Linyaari as the rest of her race.

And though Thariinye was a native speaker, he was not particularly a.n.a.lytical in his language skills. Despite his attempt he was not much help in deciphering the scrolls. The Laanye was, Acorna's hopes to the contrary, not a lot of help either, could scan the written words of a culture, but these words wen faded in places and written in multiple hands. Also, most of 1 doc.u.ments were too fragile for her to dare to use it upon the The little device worked much better with spoken words that written ones, especially ancient written ones.

Acorna sent a message to Imaara, (I realize these doc.u.ments are secret, but could we have permission to make copies of some of them for linguistic a.n.a.lysis?)

(Oh no.) Imaara replied. (I'm afraid not. The content of doc.u.ments must not leave the library or be shown to anyone else who is not an Attendant.)

(Then could you spare someone to translate them for us Acorna asked. (We are having great difficulty understanding the contents. And time is very important in this matter, as said. The problem is both a personal one and also one that affects every living being in our society Linyaari and Ancestors alike. The terraforming project on Vhiliinyar is on hold cause of the missing people from the Survey team. Many my friends and relatives have vanished without explanation We must get back to Vhiliinyar and try to find them before we can move forward to reclaim our home planet.)

(A moment.) Imaara thought.

In a few minutes an Ancestor spoke, very formally pared to the conversational tones of yesterday, to Acorna's and. Thariinye's minds.

(You have seen the Attendants' library. That is enough Go. Return to Vhiliinyar and do what you must. We have helped all we can for now. Perhaps later we'll be able to help more.)

"They're dismissing us?" Thariinye asked. "Just like that? I don't believe it! I had no idea this was a quiz, did you?"

Acorna shook her head, as perplexed as he was. "No, I didn't. Perhaps for now it's better not to read too much into what the Grandfather said. It seems to me the Ancestors are often quite literal, which makes them hard to understand. You've had more practice at it than I have. But we're clearly not wanted here, and nothing we've seen is going to help us without a translator fluent in the ancient language. Time is not standing still. If Captain Becker is ready, we should return now to MOO, relay what we've discovered, and go back to Vhiliin-yar.""So we can disappear, too?" Thariinye asked. "I don't know, Kh.o.r.n.ya. Don't you have more of a plan than that?"

"You don't have to go with me," she told him. "You could even stay here on narhii-Vhiliinyar. After all, you have your family and friends to consider."

"Whereas yours have vanished, first lost in our wars and now s.n.a.t.c.hed from Vhiliinyar during the Survey. Yes, yes, you make me feel so much better. Of course I'll go with you. Aari would not forgive me for letting you go unprotected," he added, puffing out his chest a bit and adding a strut to his walk.

That's very kind," she said with a perfectly straight face. we will mark ourselves, of course, with all sorts of tracers. Hafiz will wire us up so we resemble Mac. We will not return to Vhiliinyar until we can be found by other means than telepathy," she told him. "We'll have personal locators, olfactory and visual indicators, and anything else anyone can think of. I we will be very hard to lose."

You're taking Mac, Becker told her on the way back to MOO. "No argument. I can't send the Condors computer, but now that Mac's finished upgrading himself, he's smarter than Buck. Buck was what Becker called the Condor's computer.

As they approached the Moon of Opportunity, Mac approached the bridge. His gait was curiously off balance and he held his head at a strange angle. As he tromped down the metal grid leading from the crew and main cargo bays to the bridge, Thariinye asked, "What's wrong with him?"

And then they saw that there was now what appeared to be the long end of an exceptionally large screw coming out of Mac's forehead.

Becker groaned and buried his head in his hands. Acorna read his mind. He was suppressing a very obvious and bad pun.

"Is that a joke?" Thariinye demanded of Mac, pointing at the metal horn.

"Androids do not joke, Thariinye," Mac said. "I have modified my cranium in an attempt to a.s.similate myself to your culture. If your people object, as Kh.o.r.n.ya has told Captain Becker, to the presence of non-Linyaari on your troubled homeworld, then I seek to become more Linyaari. Also, while my horn cannot heal, it is excellent for prying and tearing and boring into things and could be used to hold the supports of collapsing substructures together in an emergency. Also, if I spin it reverse, it can extract things. I have attachments for it concealed in my abdominal wall. Do you wish to see?"

Becker's eyes were running with water. He kept blowing his nose noisily on his sleeve. Acorna could see he was struggling to keep from dissolving in laughter. His valiant battle was so convulsive he couldn't seem to catch his breath.

"Captain!" Acorna said, and thumped him on the back. She'd try her horn next, if she had to, but she had no idea if it worked on someone who was threatening to die laughing.

"I'm s-sorry, P-Princess. But you gotta love that guy. And I you gotta take him! Oh, Lord, his horn has handy dandy attachments! I love him. I really do love him."

Mac smiled a broad, if unaccustomed, smile. He'd been working on his facial expressions.

Thariinye, still a bit worried after watching Becker's reaction that his race had been insulted, changed the subject. "Speaking of love, Captain Becker, I have not heard you mention Nadhari Kando on either leg of the voyage. How is she?"

Becker shrugged. "Energetic as ever, probably. I dunno. Haven't seen much of her lately."

Acorna was immediately concerned. She had thought the I two of them happily mated, and surely these things turned out well for some people, even if her own love life was she wouldn't consider that now, not until she could do more about it. With Aari among the missing, it hurt too much to think about. Instead she said, "Oh, Captain, have you had a falling out?"

"Not really, nothing like that exactly, Princess. No, don t look so worried. Salvage consultants don't have lifemates the way you people do. Neither do lady-commando-warrior-securitv-chief-honchos. The truth is well," he looked a little bashful and slightly shame-faced. "She took a s.h.i.+ne to the new commander of the Federation outpost."