“Huh! Think I’d refuse?” Lylunda grinned. “It’ll. feature in my Pit conversation for a decade at least.”
“Did you know you had one of my recordings on your ship?”
“Yours?”
“Harp music and some songs I wrote.”
“Shadowsongs?”
“Mm hm.”
“Why you doing this sort of work, then?”
“Everybody asks me that, Luna. Just restless, that’s all.”
“I know the feeling. I was about to go crazy back there. Lovely place, nice people. Peaceful. Plenty of food. Work enough to keep you from rotting away, but no heavy labor. I mean, it’s the kind of place folks dream of. And I’d go through that mess getting clear a dozen times a day, if that’s what it took to get away.”
Shadith blinked. “Paradise is none… hm… gives me an idea…”
2
Harskari sipped at the tea, the firelight painting her face red and black; it was the only light source in the library at the moment. “Shadow, transferring the Taalav to Storsten sounds like one of your better ideas… I’ve checked the specs on Pillory and it’s fair match-except for light quality. Might have to do something about that, a filter, shadow panels… hm… well, that can wait till later. We’ll definitely have to fetch plant samples from Pillory, along with water, soil, the rest, so we can set up a duplicate ecosystem. The Taalav will need that for health and happiness in a new place.”
Shadith rubbed at her nose. “That might be a problem. You know what Pillory is.”
“Hah! Shadow, you mean to say you think a pedestrian little smuggler like Lylunda Elang could play the fox better than me?”
“Well, I didn’t want to presume.” Shadith opened her eyes wide and looked as demure as she could.
“Idiot.” Harskari shook her head, smiling. “Loguisse and I talked this over. Since we don’t want people connecting the Vrya with this, we thought we’d lay an ambush for the xenobi, keep him in stasis while we dealt with the Taalav, turn him loose elsewhere with a few crystals in his pocket to encourage silence. You’ve taken care of your smuggler friend; she doesn’t know about my Tiauchi and needn’t find out. Hm. Once Abra has worked a thorough clean of the site, making sure we’ve left no traces of our presence, you can report that you found where Prangarris was camped but that there was no sign of him or any living Taalav hanging about. The Min can look for themselves, collect the crystals we’ll leave lying about, and go home satisfied.”
“As long as I can avoid a verifier. Which shouldn’t arise if they see the site with their own blinky eyes and get their grippers on those crystals.” She looked down at her hands. “Since you’ll be going there anyway, any chance you could get the rest of the Taalav off Pillory? The adult I talked to was sad and hopeful at the same time when he sang about the arrays being free with a whole world to themselves.”
“If the arrays have managed to thrive away from Pillory, I don’t see why not, but it does rather depend on what we find when we get to Lylunda’s world and how well they adjust to Storsten. Not much point in a freedom that’s a quick road to extinction.”
The parlor in Lylunda’s quarters had been reconfigured to make the whole wall above the comstation into a screen that picked up visuals from the Bridge and displayed them in a smaller, rather more congested form. Lylunda was stretched out on the long chair, her ankles crossed, her hands laced together behind her head. Shadith sat cross-legged on the floor beside her.
“The diamond-shaped continent just coming into view,” Lylunda said. “The one that crosses the equator. I set him down by that freshwater lake near the north-em tip of the diamond. Western edge of the water.”
For a moment longer the nameless world at 87950 KLD MLYD 3 turned massively in the screen, the land areas a paisley pattern of dull browns and ochers with the occasional splash of dark purple. Then the screen was resorbed into Tigatri’s substance.
Aleytys’ voice came through the grill. “Thank you, Lylunda. That will be sufficient, I believe. Shadow, will you come to the Bridge, please?”
The mobile Abra stood at the left edge of the screen that took up the whole front wall of the Bridge, his golden non-skin shimmering palely in its light.
Aleytys sat in a massive swivel chair, her hair a brilliant splotch of color against the black molding that supported her head. “Abra, expand the image of the western shore of that lake. Scan for mobile life, set up a cell for each instance, whether it’s bipedal, Taalav, or other.”
She’s looking a lot better Shadith thought. Not so tired and drawn. Working over Luna was good for her. Wolff and Grey are abrading her soul, I think. If she feels she has to stay. for Lilai, she better make sure Grey finds Hunts for her. And I can’t say anything. Nothing worse than friends getting on your back about things you can’t change. Spla!
The screen divided into small cells like spreading soap bubbles, and images began to appear in them-a few adult Taalav and some juvenile forms moving rather feebly about, some worms and armored beetles. The main screen showed the survival pod, a flikit sitting beside it. And a large object made from interlaced crystal threads.
Aleytys flicked a finger at it. “Abra, can Tigatri see into that?”
Another cell opened. In it, the cocoon’s layers peeled back, the image shivering and hesitating as the resonances of the crystal threads interfered with the probe. Finally, a body appeared, the face clear enough to be recognizable.
“Send that to Lylunda, Abra. Just the one cell. Got it? Good. Luna, do you recognize the man?”
“Prangarris.” The voice that came through the grill had a dry edge to it. It was obvious Lylunda didn’t appreciate her isolation from what was happening. “That’s him, all right. He dead?”
Abra spoke. “Sensors indicate he has been dead for more than a year, Luna. There ’is evidence of several aneurysms in the brain that seem to have burst about the same time. He died within minutes of the event. The body has been preserved by the cold and the spun crystal.”
“So much for Prangarris and his plans.”
Shadith clicked her tongue. “What a dreary place. Looks like the Taalav are as dead as he is. The Kliu won’t be getting much for their coin. Luna, did Prangarris ever say why he chose it?”
There was a moment’s hesitation, then Lylunda’s voice sounded again. “Mostly because no one in his right mind would try to settle it. At least, that’s what he said. And he laughed when I agreed with him.”
5
Shadith rubbed at her nose. “Lee, could we do a circuit with Tigatri scanning surface for more signs of Taalav? I’d like to be sure we’ve found them all.”
“Abra, if you will…”
It was a desolate world, large land masses separated by narrow, sinuous oceans that were ocher and crimson vegetable stews; there were several volcanoes in the process of erupting, spewing huge clouds of matter into the atmosphere, further cutting down the amount of sunlight reaching the surface. The seas were the world’s repositories of strong color; on the land only a few colored lichens and mosses broke the dull monotone of mud, stone and coarse sand.
When they were stationary once again above the pod site, Shadith grimaced. “Maybe the Taalav like it. When I go down there, I’ll ask them.”
Shadith eased herself into the frame that was supposed to help the exoskeleton support her body so she could cope with the complicated language of the Taalav, with her breathing and the precise control of her voice. Because too many stilters might frighten the arrays into hiding and keep them from answering the song query, Aleytys was waiting a short distance off in the lander.
When Shadith was settled, she looked round. Neither array was anywhere in sight, not even infants and juveniles, but according to Tigatri and her own sense, they were within reach of her voice. She sucked in a lungful of the cold, thick air, ran through a series of vocalizations to help set her up for what she thought could become a long and difficult bargaining session.