Many of the other students had left, including Marl.
"It's about time you came back, young lady," Phador Al y Cassidro said. "Marl has been carried to the infirmary. He is in great pain. Your droid apparently doesn't know his own strength. It makes him dangerous. He just attacked that poor boy for no reason."
Captain Bates stepped in front of him and gave Khiindi's ears a rub. "How is the little fellow? All better?"
Khiindi licked her fingers.
"Yes, thank you."
"The poopuus tried to tell Calla what happened but they were so overwrought they had trouble with their Standard."
"Didn't Elviiz tell them?" she asked, looking around for her friend.
"He didn't get the chance, I'm afraid. Or rather, he didn't take the chance. When you left with Khiindi, before Hap could get him to tell his side of the story, he deactivated himself. Droids have progressed quite far since I was a girl but-can they feel shame?"
An excellent question, Khorii thought as she looked around the poolroom that still held residual tension from the violence that had just happened there.
Chapter 12
I think Maak programmed Elviiz to feel much of what I feel," Khorii said. "And I'm still really really angry. Why would that horrible boy do such a thing to a poor defenseless little cat?"
"I don't know," Captain Bates said, shaking her head. "Maybe if you fix him up, he'll tell you. Maybe," she said, lifting her eyebrows, "if he won't, you can read his mind. Although personally I wouldn't want to go there."
Khorii looked at her uneasily. Had she found out about the test papers before Khorii could confess to sending her answers to the whole class?
(Can you read me, Khorii? I'm a good friend of your grandfathers, you know. From things they've let slip, I've gathered that Linyaari are telepathic.)
(I read you, Captain. My telepathy has been dormant until recently, but I'm learning. Sorry about the exam papers. I'm like my mother. A really good sender.)
(At least you sent the right answers), Captain Bates replied philosophically.
"Where is Elviiz?" Khorii asked aloud.
"Phador was all for locking him in a maintenance closet, but I thought maybe it would be best if he were placed in the shuttle you arrived in until this matter is sorted out," Calla Kaczmarek said.
"I'll go there now," Khorii said. "He can't deactivate just because he defended Khiindi from that bad boy."
"He didn't just defend Khiindi, Khorii," Calla said sternly. "He badly injured another student, however much the kid had it coming. With his strength, Elviiz could have prevented Marl from causing more harm to Khiindi without damaging him so badly. Apparently his emotional range includes anger . . . and that's not something most people like to see in a being that is so much stronger, faster, and smarter than humans. For now, Elviiz is fine. If you want to help him, you should take your special poultice up to Marl and see if you can help. We got the arm and jaw set, but it was pretty painful for him. I know what you're thinking, but my guess is that this isn't the first time that kid has had his bones deliberately broken. The way Marl is carrying on, it seems he knows from hard experience just exactly what a broken bone feels like, and how long it'll take to heal. And he's saying things about revenge-'Just like last time,' is how I believe he put it. He's a wreck, and he's furious. I'm not saying you have to forgive him. Just think about cutting into his plans to get even by helping out a little."
It was all Khorii could do not to snort with derision at Calla's suggestion. She didn't want to go near Marl Fidd and didn't want Khiindi near him either. And in her opinion, Elviiz should be congratulated, not made to feel ashamed for defending his family. It was not a diplomatic, pacifistic, or particularly Linyaari way to look at things, but it was how she felt at that moment. Maybe she was a throwback to the Ancestors. The original unicorn forebears of the Linyaari could be rather fierce, according to the old stories about them.
Khiindi, and by extension she and Elviiz, were the injured parties. Just because they were outsiders, and Khiindi was "just" a cat, and Elviiz was "just" a droid, while Marl Fidd was one of the students, the teachers seemed to be implying she should make up to him.
Full of indignation, she stalked toward the infirmary, Sesseli following behind with Khiindi still in her arms. When they neared the infirmary, with its medicinal and antiseptic smells, Khiindi leaped down and sprinted away as if he'd never had his tail so much as tugged. Khorii forgot being mad long enough to say to Sesseli, who looked as if she might start to cry, "It's okay, honey," she said to the child. "You don't need to be here for this. If you could keep Khiindi out of trouble while I'm healing Marl, I'd appreciate it."
Marl was easy to find, being the only patient in the room. And since he was yelling all kinds of things about what he was going to do to her when he got better, Khorii paid him no attention. The health teacher doubled as the medtech. Hap had told her that students were examined by doctors before they came to the moonbase. They were not sent to Maganos until they had recovered from any illnesses or injuries they had. So, for the most part, the student population was healthy and required only a medtech to see to the usual minor health problems kids had. Ordinarily, if someone came down with something more serious or got badly injured, planetside care was within less than a two-hour trip.
Even if there had been a hospitalful of students, Marl would have been noticeable because he was so loud, what with his cursing and fussing and moaning with pain and yelling at the medtech, Mr. Singh, in a most disrespectful manner for refusing to give him more and stronger medication.
Squaring her shoulders, Khorii marched up to his bed. She would heal him, but not before she gave him a piece of her mind along with the touch of her horn. In truth, she felt more like goring him with it than healing him, feelings she knew should shame her, but didn't.
Khorii addressed the sadistic Marl, adopting the same no-nonsense voice often used by her Father-Sister Maati, who was raised by the legendary Grandame Naadiina and often had to bring her handsome but rather flighty mate, Thariinye, back down to earth. She hoped that Marl, like Thariinye, had some good buried in him somewhere. She'd seen no sign of it so far. "Some of my people tried to tell me that my coming here was dangerous because humans are aggressive, warlike, and barbaric people. I did not believe them, because until today all of the humans I have known have been as kind and caring as the Linyaari. But you are evidently a specimen of the bad kind. What is the matter with you, trying to kill an innocent little cat who never did you any harm?"
"Oh, get over it, you spoiled brat. It's just a stupid cat. You shouldn't have brought it here anyway. Everybody else here was lucky to arrive with their own skins. You come parading in like some kind of a celebrity with an entourage, no less. Who the hell do you think you are to judge me? All I did was give your fraggin' cat flying lessons. At home we killed lesser beasts all the time. The ones we didn't kill to eat we killed to keep them from eating our food. It's survival, brat. Something you have never had to face what with your famous mama and your important human 'family.' "
Khorii wasn't sure how much she was reading and how much he was saying, but the unfairness of it struck her anyway. "I can understand how you might resent me," she said. "But Khiindi is not me, and he is not a lower beast. His fellows are worshiped on his homeworld, sacred creatures who guard temples and possess great wisdom. If you want to wound me, try throwing me in the pool. But you wouldn't do that because you are afraid, are you not? You know if you attempt to hurt me, you might be hurt instead."