The last time she’d seen Tigatri’s prime mobile, he’d looked rather like Grey. That was gone. Now he might have been a twin to Swarda if he’d had anything resembling flesh.
That startled, her, and when she thought about it a little, depressed her, because it told her more than she wanted to know about the way things were going between Aleytys and Grey. 71gatri was sensitive to Aleytys’ moods because her kephalos was configured to be in part amp;duplicate of Lee’s mind/brain and it was that which took care of Abra’s appearance. It wasn’t a good sign to see Aleytys wiping Grey away so completely and retreating, symbolically at least, to the days before she settled on Wolff, when she still had that drive to ’find her mother and a place where she could fit in.
“Doll, what’s the estimated travel time to Bol Mutiar?”
“Four days, nine hours.” Doll was a small, delicate mobile with huge eyes and daintily pointed ears. She was a remnant from the time when Aleytys’ old enemy Kell had owned this ship, an image dredged up from who knew what corner of that Vryhh’s twisted psyche. Her only changes were interior; she no longer cringed when you spoke to her but grinned like a happy child. How much of that was illusion born of programming, how much a result of the Al Doll shared with the ship, was something Shadith didn’t know and didn’t worry about.
“Tell me what Tigatri knows about the tung organism on Bol Mutiar.”
“The organism is indeed a collective awareness, its intelligence unmeasurable but probably not much above the higher animals. It is rather more complex than you assumed; that which exists within the tung akar produces toxins which slow the rate of reproduction to tolerable levels within the bodies of the hosts as long as the host is in contact with the totality. Remove the host from such contact and the organism will reproduce in such numbers that it will eat the body. One must spend more than a day or two on the surface for the organism to invade all the cells of the body, which is why the Archira only discovered the fragments cysted and dormant in you, Shadow. There is a single exception to that. If a host is attacked or seriously threatened by a nonhost, the collective awareness reacts to protect the host by a massive invasion of the attacker’s body. This counterstroke is usually fatal.”
“Would it count an attempt to remove a host from the surface as a threat?”
“Yes.”
“How quickly would it strike?”
“The moment it felt the loss. As a speculation, this might occur at some arbitrary location within the atmosphere, perhaps that point where the density of the ambient organisms approaches nil.”
“Vindictive little merds. Kill the hosts to get the attacker.”
“As I said, it is not a particularly intelligent organism.”
“Hm. Might be possible to construct a warning device with a bit of Lylunda’s blood in it. When the organism begins its explosive growth pattern…”
“Yes. That would be possible. I would suggest a more sensitive warning device already exists in your empathic response. It seems quite likely that you will sense its agitation before the multiplication actually begins.”
“Maybe so, but it never hurts to have a backup, so if you’d construct such a device and have it ready for charging with the blood…”
“I’ll do that.”
“And work on a plan that will let us take Lylunda offworld without getting ourselves killed in the process. I’m thinking this is going to be very complicated.”
“Yes, I will do that.”
Shadith sighed. “And I hope you’ll come up with something better than the mishmash I’ve been churning out. Take me to the garden, I’ve got a song starting in my head and it wants to come out.”
6
Aleytys drifted into the garden space, lowered herself onto a boulder, and sat with her feet in the running stream.
Shadith looked at the words she’d just written, sighed and slashed a line through them, the black ink from the stylo canceling out another failed attempt. She set the pad down, let the stylo click home in its magnetic holder. “Lee.”
“Sorry if I’m interrupting.”
“Wasn’t getting anywhere anyway. Figured out how we’re going to do this?”
“Tigatri’s been reconfiguring a lander. She’s set up a cleanroom where the air can be changed every few minutes, dumped outside the ship, with fields around it to block anything getting back in. We go down, you identify Lylunda for me, we get her into that room and head for changeover fast as we can punch it. Abra blows all air in the lander except for what’s in the room with us. With the air exchange going, I clean-out Lylunda, probably you, too, this time, myself as needed. We should be flushed sufficiently clear by the time we reach-Tigatri. To be sure of this, Abra will scan Lylunda on the way up, get some subcellular mugshots of the organism and Tigatri will run a full scan on the lander, do another clean on it before she lets us onboard. Then we do a quick jump to one of the outer planets in the system, link with Harskari and Loguisse and head for the destination Lylunda gives us. Might be a good idea not to let her know about Harskari and your plans for the arrays. What she-doesn’t know, she can’t babble,”
“Hm.” Shadith felt uneasy. Silence shouted questions she didn’t want to ask, but every subject she thought about bringing up seemed worse than silence.
“Did you ask Harskari about Storsten as a new home for the arrays?”
“Not yet. Let’s leave that until we’ve pulled Lylunda out”
“All right.”
“You’re sure about quitting Digby?”
“I’m sure. I managed to keep faith with myself and him last time, but it was a shaky peace I made. And this one? This is really a simple job. He said that and it’s true. In a little while I’ll have the answer he needs to collect his fee. I need to be able to do that, Lee.” She sighed. “But the Taalav aren’t beasts. They’re people. They make songs. And I like them. I suppose that shouldn’t make a difference, but it does.”
“Would you do as much for them if they were little horrors?”
“I like to think I would, but who knows.” Shadith rolled onto her back, laced her fingers over her ribs and stared up at the blue shimmer meant to represent sky. “With you and Harskari helping me, there’s half a chance I can pull this one out. The next, though… “ She sighed. “It’s better if there is no next. Hmp, University is all right for a while, but too confining over time. Music’s necessary but not enough. And in a year or two, I’m going to need a way to make enough money to keep my ship going: My agent on Helvetia is doing fairly well with the coin I left with him, but I can’t live on the income for long. Swarda’s found his niche and he’s happy with it. Why can’t I?”
“Is that a real question?”
“I suppose not.” She turned her head. “Lee, what are you going to do?”
“Nothing until Lilai leaves for University. Another nine years. Maybe ten. Depends on how she matures after she passes puberty. Grey will be living in his house, she’ll move between the two of us.”
“Has she inherited the Vryhh long life?”
“Harskari’s been after me to have cell studies made. I’ve put it off. I don’t really want to know. Easier on all three of us if I don’t. He asks me that, you know. Every year or so. She’s his daughter, too; I want him to love her, not resent her. And I won’t lie to him. So, no tests until Lilai herself does the asking.”
“What about Talents?”
“Early days for that. Took me a while to grow into mine, you know. Right now, all she wants is horses. Hm. I just had a disturbing thought. What if Lylunda Elang decides she doesn’t need to keep her bargain?”
“Hah! That’s a cheerful one. I don’t like using it because it’s so apt to do more damage than you expect, but I’ll pump her full of babble and pry the answer out of her.”
“I was wondering…”