Acorna's Search Part 6

"How?" Maati asked. "They were different species, weren't they? Surely the Friends were anthropoid so that the mix between them and the friends produced us. Oh, I see. It did produce us. So. Yes. The Friends yearned for the Ancestors. So what you're saying is that we came to be for other than purely scientific reasons?"

"Yes. The Friends loved the Ancestors and yearned for them. And the Ancestors in those days were different from the precious ones still among us today. They were four-legged as they are now, true, and looked very much the same, but their temperaments were different in those days. Wild and fierce, intelligent and capable of learning, but not very learned, and very strong-willed and stubborn.

"The Ancestors were very grateful to the Friends for the Rescue and looked upon them as protectors, but still they remained wary. They had been hunted nearly to extinction back on their home world, and trust came very hard to them.

"One Friend in particular conceived a great pa.s.sion for a particularly lovely Ancestor and followed her everywhere. She became alarmed and afraid of his ardor and one day, when she saw him, began running very fast, until she came to the edge of a great cliff. She was fleet of foot and nimble and turned aside quickly but the Friend went tumbling over the edge to his death on the rocks below. The Ancestor, with great remorse, began to weep, and her weeping became a great torrent that flowed over the cliff and formed the waterfall and lake. There used to be a rock formation at the bottom of the lake, we were told, that was actually the petrified remains of the hapless Friend." "Oh, dear," Acorna said.

"Hmm," Maati said, "I never heard that one. But then, Grandam didn't like to tell stories of Vhiliinyar all that often not the old stories anyway. It made her sad. I guess it affected a lot of the People that way."

"That is unfortunately true," Maarni said. "Some of the oldest stories have never been recorded too fragmented, too many versions, too unsubstantiated to pa.s.s on officially, I suppose. They're my personal favorites, however. I love to think about how to fill in the gaps in the information provided."

The conversation around the campfire wound down as the night lengthened and their exhaustion caught up with them.

But before they slept, they called back to the base camp to see if there was news of Aarkiiyi and his crew, or of Liriili, but were told there was nothing.

That was disquieting. Maarni and Yiitir slept near them that night. n.o.body wanted to be out of sight of the others, and they stood watch in pairs.

About two hours before dawn, their com unit crackled to life.

"Mayday. Mayday. This is the wii-BalakLire. We have a missing person in our sector. Fiirki Miilkar, the animal specialist, visited our site today and was staying the night here. He offered to stand the first watch. When the next watch came to relieve him, Fiirki was nowhere to be found. We heard no outcry from him during his watch, nor have we found any sign of foul play. But he has disappeared without a trace and all our attempts to find him have failed utterly. All crews, please be alert for any sign of him. Base camp, please advise."

"This is base camp, wii-Batakiire," said a voice Acorna identified as Aari's father, Kaarlye. "Does this incident appear to you to be similar to the disappearance of Liriili?"

'Oh, no, Kaarlye," Melireenya said. "Fiiryi is a very useful and respected expert on the evolution and habitats of Vhiliin-yari creatures. He is not at all the sort of person to just wander off, although anyone can have a call of nature. He would never desert his post. If he is missing, it is because something happened to him, something he could not prevent or escape."

Perhaps Maarni and I should flitter over there and help them look for him, eh?" Yiitir suggested to Kaarlye. "Of course, we won't see much in the dark, but we might pick him up on the infrared. Melireenya, could you use the a.s.sistance?"

"Oh, yes. We would be so thankful," she replied.

"Sounds like a plan," Kaarlye agreed. "Keep us notified if there is any change to the situation, please."

"Oh, that goes without saying," Yiitir said in an airy tone that belied the grave expression he wore.

When he had signed off, Acorna said softly, "We should come and help, too."

"Nonsense, m'dear, no sense everyone rus.h.i.+ng in. A crowd of hunters is more likely to obscure whatever sign of him there is; that is, if he's truly lost. You know how it is with these scientists, especially those who pursue the natural sciences. Get so involved in finding a special sort of fern or some such thing that they quite forget where they are. I'm sure he's fine. Besides, he's on our team, you know. Second wave. You've important work to do right here."

"True enough," Acorna said. "But please let us know what you find out as well. When you find him, I mean."

"Certainly, my dear Kh.o.r.n.ya," Maarni said, laying a hand on Acorna's arm. "In fact, we would very much like to return and speak 'with you further. You represent not only the youngest survey crew, but also have special knowledge among you. Aari knows more about the transition of this planet than any other living Linyaari, and you, thanks to your unusual upbringing, bring almost a totally alien viewpoint to our world that will provide a fresh perspective. Young Maati is heir to the greatest number of Grandam's stories of any of us. If you will permit it, we wish to spend quite a lot of time with you all."

"And me?" Thariinye said.

"I'm sure you'll be a quick learner," Yiitir said with a closed grin.

Thariinye's face fell for a moment, then he grinned back, showing plenty of teeth. Yiitir looked mildly alarmed, since showing one's teeth was a sign of hostility among the Linyaari.

"Just joking," said Thariinye. "When you're around people who have been raised by humans, as Kh.o.r.n.ya has, showing one's teeth can be taken as joviality and courtesy. Sometimes it's fun to confuse people."

Yiitir did not appear to hear him, however, for the historian and his lifemate were already starting their flitter.

Neither Acorna nor anyone else on her team got much sleep that night. They were too busy worrying. As soon as the sun shed its murky light over the landscape again, they resumed their explorations.

Maati was the one who found the artifact the hard way. "Ouch!" she cried, hopping around while trying to hold onto her foot.

"Maati, what's the matter?" Acorna asked. She quickly ran to the girl and knelt beside her, applying her horn to Maati's bruised flesh. The source of the bruise, an oblong piece of a hard black substance, protruded from the soil. "That thing!" Maati pointed. "It attacked me." She means she stubbed her foot on it," Thariinye said. Acorna began digging the object from the ground. As she ran her hands along it, dislodging the dirt and plant life twined around it, she noted much to her surprise that it was not a natural rock. Nor did she recognize it as an artifact of Linyaari design though she was hardly an expert.

Can anyone tell me what this might be?" she asked. "It's definitely manufactured see, how smooth and even it is in texture and thickness?"

Thariinye shrugged. "Could be a broken bit of anything a wrecked flitter, a piece of a pavilion support."

Aari joined them and Acorna handed him her find.

"No, that's nothing I've ever seen from our people," he said.

"Oh, come now," Thariinye said. "How can you be so sure on such a short examination? Maybe it's a piece of one of the off-world items the techno-artisans were working with before the planet was overrun."

"No," Aari shook his head, his mane flying up from his neck and shoulders and tossing in the wind. "The techno-artisans took as many of their projects with them as possible and I am familiar with the things we were working on at the time we were invaded. This is natural to some extent, Kh.o.r.n.ya. It is a substance formed by the skeletons of small dead sea creatures. But it has been shaped intentionally by sentient hands."

Maati leaned forward and touched the thing with a fingertip. "There's something on the surface it's very light, but it's there. Don't you see it?"

"Those are just the random marks made by pa.s.sing fish or erosion," Thariinye said, glancing at it.

"No, absolutely not," Maati said. "See, some of these marks are exactly the same. The designs are repeated."

Acorna examined it more closely. "Yes, yes, they are, Maati. And here's another pair, and another. These ones look vaguely familiar. I think I have seen them somewhat larger, somewhere on narhii-Vhiliinyar."

"That's not Linyaari," Thariinye said emphatically. "Maybe it's Khleevi. A fragment from one of their craft."

"Their craft were all intact," Aari said bitterly. "As far as I could tell each and every one flew away from this place under its own power without so much as a scratch on it. Not one suffered by Linyaari hands."

"Oh. Uh true true," Thariinye agreed. He had come to like Aari and secretly regarded him with something close to hero-wors.h.i.+p.

"I have seem something similar before as well, yaazi," he told Acorna. "This mark," he indicated a lightly etched design that reminded Acorna of a stylized sun with long rays.

"And this one," he said, pointing to a swirl with a hook on the end.

"Are they Khleevi, Aari?" Maati asked.

"I don't know. I don't think so."

"It does seem to be an artifact or a doc.u.ment or a sign of some sort," Acorna said. "It's covered with these symbols. Well, bag it and take it with us. As soon as we get to camp, we should consult with Yiitir and Maarni and base camp about it. Maybe someone will recognize it."

They continued working, cataloging with an electronic tabulator all the various forms of plant life and minerals they came across.

When Maarni and Yiitir returned from helping Melireenya's survey crew search for the missing Linyaari scientist, they had no news to report. The man was still missing, with no explanation for his absence. Still, the return of their mends was a welcome break for the four younger Linyaari, who showed them the artifact.

"Ahhh," Yiitir said.