"Dunno," Hap said. "They've not turned on the visuals. Just a sec. I'll patch it through."
"This is Captain Asha Bates aboard the shuttle Nakomas en route to the Mana. Permission to dock?"
"What is she doing here?" Hap wondered.
Khorii told Jaya, "She's the practical astrophysics teacher."
Jaya nodded, and said aloud, "Permission granted."
"Okay, Mana, prepare to be boarded."
"Prepare to be boarded?" Jaya asked. "Sounds like freebooters."
Hap was laughing. "No, that's just Captain Bates. She talks like that sometimes. Captain, this is Hap. Haven't you heard we're supposed to be space lepers?"
"I heard. But I did think you might find some small use for my skills. And it seemed like more fun than being trapped in a classroom for what might be the rest of my life. Situations like this, a person has to decide which way to jump. What can I say? I've always been a sucker for the out group. So do you open the docking bay, or is there a secret code word? Ah! Thanks."
Jaya and Khorii returned to the central corridor, where they were joined by Hap and Sesseli, the latter clutching Khiindi to her thin chest.
In the docking bay, a slim figure emerged from the Nakomas. "Captain Bates!" Hap said. "If anyone at Maganos would listen to reason, I should have known it would be you. "Then, seeing the second person climbing out behind the teacher, Hap scowled, and demanded, "What's he doing here?"
"Nice to see you too, Happy," Marl Fidd said, grinning in pure self-satisfaction.
Khiindi hissed, and Sesseli screeched as the cat laid bloody tracks across her arms and shoulder and shot off back down the corridor.
Khorii knelt and examined the wound, leaning her head close so that her horn touched the little girl's shoulder. She needed a moment to think about these new developments.
"There now. Better?" she asked Sesseli, who nodded, though tears spilled down her cheeks. "Khiindi did not mean to harm you, yaazi," she said, using the Linyaari endearment that translated meant "little one," though her mother and father used it as an endearment for each other as well as for her, and none of them were particularly small. "He was frightened."
"I know. He's kind of a 'fraidy cat. But I would have protected him. Doesn't he know I'm his friend?"
"Yes. I am sure that he does. But he is a cat and they scratch and run first and think it over later. You would probably do the same if you were his size surrounded by people our size. Perhaps you should go find him now and tell him that you are not too hurt and that you forgive him and will protect him from Marl."
Sesseli nodded solemnly and ran back toward the bridge.
"Marl assures me," Captain Bates said, with a meaningful glare at the bully, "that if he harms any crew member, whether on two or four feet, we will not have to space him as he'll gladly jump out without a suit. Since there are no barnacles in space, and we can't keelhaul him like they did in the old days, it will have to do."
Marl's eyes widened as he looked at his teacher during her speech. She narrowed hers in return, and he nodded once.
"He came along to help load the supplies," Asha continued. "If Khorii has decontaminated the cargo, we can safely transport it to the surface as originally planned. Uh-how's everybody feeling?"
"Fine," Hap said. Jaya remained silent and looked down at the deck.
"We did not arrive in time to save the rest of the crew," Khorii told her. "Both of Jaya's parents were unfortunately beyond our help."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Jaya," Captain Bates said, laying a hand on the girl's shoulder. "They used to come into the school after their deliveries and visit with us. They brought you to meet us shortly after you were born. They were fine people and good spacers. They'd want this mission fulfilled, don't you think?"
Jaya's mouth twisted, and she stared at the floor, nodding slightly. Khorii caught two trains of thought-Asha Bates chicling herself for being so trite and teacherly when what this girl obviously needed was comfort, and Jaya feeling that her parents would have liked to see her grow up into her own life even more, but that they weren't going to get the chance now. That, and the sudden, crushing feeling of being all alone, surrounded by strangers, well-meaning ones, perhaps, but strangers nonetheless.
"Okay, then, where's the food?" Marl asked, clapping his hands and rubbing them together. "I didn't come up here just to haul crates, you know."
Hap snorted and turned his back on all of them, especially Marl and Asha Bates, for bringing him.
Over the intercom, Elviiz said, "Maganos Moonbase for Captain Bates."
"Asha, when did you first become suicidal, and why didn't you come to me for treatment?" Phador Al y Cassidro's strident voice demanded.
With a frown Asha headed toward the bridge, followed by Khorii, Jaya, and Marl. When she arrived, the slim woman confronted the vid screen. "I'm not going to dignify that remark with an answer, Phador. As you can see, I'm not dead yet, nor is anyone else who's come since Khorii arrived. Great galaxies, man, our school was founded by Khorii's mother, who also saved the original student body by means of her extraordinary gifts! If her daughter claims some similar abilities, why should we doubt her? We are going to load the shuttles-mine, Khorii's, and the Mana's delivery shuttle-and all of us will return to the surface with enough supplies to see us through this quarantine. I don't know why I'm the only one who realizes that this is the only sane solution."
"We are teachers, Asha. We follow the rules, however difficult or painful, and set an example for our students to follow," Phador replied, speaking slowly, as if to a stubborn child. "I've sent a request to the Federation inspection teams to come and inspect the Mana and exempt us from quarantine restrictions, but until they respond in the affirmative-"
"Have they replied at all?" Hap asked. "Because I sure wasn't getting anywhere on any Federation channels. Face it, the plague has broken down the system. We are on our own, and we have an advantage-we have Khorii and Elviiz."
"Dr. Al y Cassidro?" Khorii said, meeting the teacher's gaze with her own and trying to hold it by sending to him psychically as well as convincing him with words. "There is no plague here anymore. It went away. I saw it go."
Calla Kaczmarek intervened, asking, "You saw it go? Khorii, we don't know what causes this plague, but it's nothing visible to the human eye."
"I know, but I am not human," she said. "I am Linyaari. My mother sometimes sees things that are not visible to the physical eye."
"Does she?"
Elviiz answered. "Yes, she does. She can tell about the mineral content of asteroids, for instance, just by looking at them. This is documented in your own files by Grandsires Baird and Giloglie. Khornya could do this from a very young age, even before developing her other Linyaari psychic abilities."
Calla, Al y Cassidro, Reamer, and Mr. Singh conferred, then Mr. Singh asked, "And how long have you been able to see the-er- microorganisms in retreat, dear?"
"I have only just discovered this ability," Khorii admitted. "I imagine it will develop more fully as time passes. That is how these things usually go, or so I understand from my elders."
"I see," the doctor replied. "Well, you can hope that it doesn't develop too rapidly. Everything around us teems with such microorganisms. I would think that, after a while, such an ability would become quite a burden. You wouldn't be able to see the forest for the-er-trees.''
"I believe I have to be trying to see the particular organisms to do so," Khorii said, realizing the truth of this only as she said it.
"Maybe so," Phador Al y Cassidro continued. "But unless the health inspectors can determine that the plague has gone away for themselves, we cannot risk the entire school on the basis of what you claim is your newfound talent. We also cannot accept cargo from a contaminated ship any more than we can allow you to return before the health inspectors have cleared you."