Sesseli finally noticed him staring and gave him a quizzical and slightly worried look. "I think the kitty wants something, Hap," she said, though she kept her gaze locked with Khiindi's.
"Does he?" Hap barely looked up from the instrument panel, which he was studying and experimenting with. "Don't stare back at him. Cats don't like that. It's okay if they stare at you, but if you stare back, they think you're trying to dominate them."
"No, I don't think so. I think he's trying to tell me something. What is it, Khiindi cat?"
Never let it be said that he was a cat to miss his cue. Still holding her gaze with his own, he stood, looking back over his shoulder in such a meaningful fashion that even a very stupid child couldn't miss the point, and walked over to the hatch.
"Are you getting this, kid?" he asked mentally, and turned away long enough to rise up on his hind paws and scratch vigorously at the hatch. "Meyowwwt," he said, quite clearly, but he might as well have been speaking a foreign language for all the compliance with his wishes he got.
So he lifted his tail and gave a mighty squirt of essence of tomcat.
"Oh, boy, Elviiz is gonna have to decontaminate the shuttle, too, now!" Hap said. "I thought you were a pussycat, Khiindi, not a civet cat!"
Khiindi looked at them pointedly, gave a lick to his shoulder, and scratched at the hatch again.
"No, Khiindi cat," Sesseli said in her childish but regrettably quite firm voice. She walked over and picked him up under his front legs, compressing his chest and making it a bit difficult to breathe, which made him squirm, but still he was careful not to bite the child. This was not because he was a good kitty. This was because he was beginning to think there was more to little Sesseli than met the eye or the nose. "You can't go out there. You would get sick, and Khorii and Elviiz would have to heal you, too. I guess you'll just have to go in here if you have to go."
He considered going on her shoes. But actually, he didn't have to. He was simply trying to communicate his wishes and was extremely frustrated to have them thwarted. His Linyaari people never failed to comply. Well, usually not. And it didn't generally matter anyway. But it did now.
Then he realized he had been frozen in cat form far too long and was thinking like some stupid lowbred dispatcher of vermin. He didn't need a person to open the hatch. It was electronic after all, not mechanical. All he had to do was reach the right buttons on the console, which was easy enough to do.
Hap was still playing with everything, reading diagrams and going through sequences for various procedures without actually touching the buttons. He was pleased when Khiindi, seemingly having forgotten his agenda, hopped up beside him and began playing, too. When he thought about the task rationally, he knew perfectly well which buttons to push. He had seen it done often enough in the past and had seen Khorii do it just a short while ago. Pretending to paw innocently at Haps fingers as they darted for the buttons, he "accidentally" hit the ones in question. Then before Hap or Sesseli could register the sound of the opening hatch, he leaped, flashing through the opening like a shooting star. He hit the deck running and was far into the landing bay before the hatch reclosed. No one followed. They wouldn't dare. They might catch the dread disease, or so they thought. Khiindi, knowing the power of Khorii's horn, was sure that the area was cleared of contaminants by then. All he had left to do was to get this ship back into space and away from the likes of Marl Fidd.
He raced out of the docking bay but slowed his pace to an exploratory prowl as he entered the ship's central corridor. Hmmm. This was a supply ship, yes? No good, as it was. No good to anyone without a nice Linyaari girl to purify things, but of incalculable value to someone who had access to such a girl. Now then, what supplies did this ship carry exactly? Spices? Replicator fodder? Tools and building supplies?
The first cabin he came to, he stood on his hind paws and put his front ones against the hatch. It gave easily under the full weight of his body, and he strolled in, then bolted out, wishing he still had the ability to hold his nose. Dead bodies! Oh, dear. Did his throat feel a little scratchy all of a sudden? Was that pain in his middle the beginning of some internal lesion? Were sores erupting under his fur, making his skin twitch? Was it not suddenly most terribly hot? And stuffy. Terribly stuffy. Hadn't these people ever heard of O2?
How long could he live before needing to seek out Khorii to get healed? He didn't want to find her just yet, or have her find him. He did not wish to be found until it was too late for her to leave the ship.
Chapter 16
You look surprised, Uncle Hafiz," Neeva said, as he gaped at the horde of Linyaari crowding like a big white cloud with multiple silver linings into his office in response to his request that the crew of the Balakiire visit him. "Did it slip your mind that we are telepathic?"
"Not that we would eavesdrop, certainly not!" Melireenya protested, grinning without showing her teeth. "That would not be courteous. But when a friend is distressed over the fate of those beloved by both him and us, we cannot help but overhear."
"I am overwhelmed at your response," Hafiz said mildly. Neeva, Melireenya, and Kharii were there, but so were Laarye, Aari's brother, Maati, his sister, her mate Thariinye, Aari's parents, and Acorna's parents, plus assorted friends. Even Liriilyi was present, a poisonous female and undoubtedly the least popular Linyaari alive, she had no doubt come to gloat over the fact that the most popular were missing.
"Since you have all read my mind, apparently" (though he thought it more likely they had heard the news in a more straightforward fashion from young Miikhaye), "you will be aware that I have been informed that much of Federation space is now under quarantine. Apparently the disease in question has attacked many worlds in many sites and has been particularly hard on the administration and troops of the Federation itself. Their relays are down and so, alas, are those of House Harakamian, though I pray our servants and employees will recover. Now that you have undoubtedly read all of my thoughts and probably my wife's as well on the subject, I would like to hear yours."
"Obviously Aari, Acorna, and Khorii have been called upon to help cure the stricken," Neeva said. "And just as obviously, if the disease is already so widespread, they will be unable to contain it alone."
"And therefore," Acorna's father continued, "we must help."
"Obviously," Hafiz said. "But entrance into Federation territory is forbidden at this time."
"So we understand," Laarye said. "But if the soldiers are all sick, who is going to stop us?"
The midday sun melted across the brilliantly colored spires, cones, and domes of Corazon, the heart of Paloduro and its largest population center. Many of the city's inhabitants were in the streets, but a playful breeze that stirred bright yellow flags at doorways, jewel-toned fluffs of feathers and flimsy gilded masks provided the only movement Aari and Acorna saw. Off to the west, a sluggish river clogged with large chunks of some mysterious material struggled to reach an unseen sea.
Strange contraptions of delicate workmanship and rainbow hues seemed to have been cast adrift amid silent flitters and aircars, and- corpses.
Never in her entire life had Acorna been so thankful for the purifying quality of the Linyaari horn. The putrid stench stewing in the heat of the sun gagged her, and she saw Aari's knees buckle. By the time she held out a steadying hand, though, their horns had filtered the air reaching them, and the stink was more bearable.