"Yes, that would be wonderful." Florries, flying lorries with a capacity to haul large loads, would be tremendously helpful.
"You two are very tired," Abuelita said. "We have many people with resources here. Let us organize ourselves, determine the priorities, where we need you first and who is to help with what. Both of you need to rest. When we are ready, we will let you know where you should go first."
"The emergency broadcast is the most critical," Acorna said. "We must let people know where to come before they lose hope. While they are making their way to us, we can be readying a place for them and for the people already here."
It took three additional days to gather other survivors, heal them, and decontaminate the means to support them. Aari and Acorna were constantly on the move except when Abuelita and some of the other elders insisted that they stop and rest. They grazed in parks and in the vegetable departments of empty supermarkets. Much of the produce was beyond saving, but some could be restored enough to be edible. Once they felt they had done all they could for as many as were able to receive their help, they moved on.
Corazon contained the largest population on Paloduro, so with help from Jalonzo, Abuelita's grandson, they flew to more remote portions of the planet. Two of the newest settlements, pioneered by a group consisting mostly of men looking for new frontiers, had been totally wiped out, without a single survivor. Some of the other less recently established had a few middle-aged women and a scattering of children, not so much sick from the plague as starving and suffering from other ailments resulting from living in such a moribund environment. This was where the freeze-dried foods and nutrient bars the parties carried with them were tremendously helpful.
But they also needed healing and a safe haven to stay at until more permanent arrangements could be made. Aari and Acorna rose to the task, until the last patient was cured and sixteen centers had been organized, staffed, supplied, and decontaminated. By the time all of that was finished, both Linyaari were utterly drained.
Jalonzo had expected them to be tired, but he was also baffled by the changes taking place in them. He had begun to consider the benign aliens as creatures much like the characters in his games-a constant set of attributes that could be applied in a certain way to achieve a certain result. In real life, he figured, the attributes should remain stable and reliable.
However, both of his heroes began to falter, despite longer rest periods and more open grazing. "Have you used up all of your secret powers now?" he asked Aari, when they were back inside the flitter, heading back to the place where they had left the space shuttle.
Near the landing site, two retired heavy equipment operators had dug a mass grave in the city's center. Using their gigantic tools with the same intricacy as a laser surgeon, they lifted the bodies from the street and took them to the site, where Aari and Acorna had decontaminated the bodies and the soil. The dead were buried, side by side in neat rows, identified when possible by their ID cards, which were attached to markers erected above each mound. Prayers were said for them, and a slow and beautiful song, accompanied by the haunting, clear notes of a nine-stringed guitar, served as a farewell.
It was an enormous task, and only one of many that still remained.
Acorna wanted to sleep as soon as she sat down in the shuttle. Jalonzo did not leave them, however, but continued to regard them with studious concern. "Is that why your horns are transparent now and kind of floppy instead of all golden like they were when you first came? Because you used up all your powers?"
"Who are you calling floppy?" Aari asked in between yawns. "Our horns are simply in their regenerative state."
"My lifemate is joking, Jalonzo," Acorna said, in response to the boy's puzzled look. "The answer to your question is yes. When we become depleted, it shows in our horns. I feel like I could sleep for weeks, but we cannot afford to do that yet."
"Are you going back to your spaceship now?" he asked.
"Yes, for a time."
"Can I just ask you one more question?"
"Of course."
"What if some of the people get sick again? Will you come back? I mean, you couldn't clean up all the plague from the whole city yet."
Acorna smiled in spite of her exhaustion. "Actually, that's three questions. We'll try. But we have to hope that meanwhile the Federation will devise a cure for this illness so people can be protected by means that do not require our presence."
"Hmm. I think I might have an idea about that, but I'd need to use the lab at the university. You didn't decontaminate that, did you?"
Aari shook his head. "No, and I do not think we could at this time. When we are rested and have seen to the other worlds in your system, we will return to check on the progress of the people here. At that time, we will clear a laboratory for you and others to work."
"It should be as soon as possible," Jalonzo said. "I should have asked you before, I know, but I only got this idea while you were curing everyone. What I was wondering was-I know I am not a Linyaari, but could you show me or tell me something about how your techniques work? Maybe until we have a lab I could use some of them to help people here."
Acorna shook her head sadly and laid her hand on his for a moment. "If only we could. You have been a great help. But it is something only a Linyaari can do."
"I'm really pretty smart," the teenager insisted.
"We have seen that. But our-methods-are built in."
"I kind of thought so, but I wanted to ask," he said with a weak smile. "I hope your methods get all solid and gold again soon."
So do I, Acorna thought but didn't say, feeling more depleted than she ever had in her life. So do I.
Chapter 22
LoiLoiKua appeared in space as a shimmering ball of aquamarine with a few tiny dots of green. Only one moon orbited it, and the water planet was close enough to its own sun that the star was much larger than Our Star appeared on Vhiliinyar.
The Nakomas was well equipped to make a water landing. Captain Bates had tried to insist that she pilot her shuttle, but Khorii pointed out that the risk to her from the plague was much higher than it was to a Linyaari and an android alone, and she was needed on the Mana. They would stay in close contact on the com so the captain could monitor their landing and progress.
As the shuttle set down, bearing only Khorii and Elviiz, the Linyaari girl had the odd sensation that instead of having spent a dozen sleep shifts between Maganos and LoiLoiKua, she had simply closed her eyes and opened them to see the vast ocean below her. The scenery had shifted since the Moonbase, but the melodious chant-song of the LoiLoiKuans almost seemed to flow steadily from the voices in the pool to those on the planet below.
"We who are about to die welcome you," they sang. The line was followed by a harsh, staccato phrase that meant "Enter at your own risk." Khorii heard their message clearly, although they were still too far out of visual range to see any of the aquatic creatures.
She was glad she had finally started reading thoughts, because the chant was not in the same Standard the poopuus used. They must have learned that or improved it once they got to the school. Elviiz, on the other hand, did not read thoughts but had a very sophisticated processor for interpreting languages.
He also had a built-in sensor suite that analyzed planetary environments. "The water is perfectly safe," he told her. "Except for the plague, of course, and the dead fish and other creatures. I imagine the atmosphere is quite pungent by now."