The poopuus had described their homeworld as having once had landmasses, large islands scattered across the blue-green waters. They spoke a lot of the crater reef, and Khorii saw what she thought must be it as they swooped in to land. Mountaintops poked out of the water in a long line, seeming almost to bisect the portion of the sea-covered planet visible to her.
Closer in, however, was another island and from it rose a large gold-speckled building, topped with many towers, some capped by square chunks of stone that looked like teeth with gaps between, some tapering to graceful points. Its main door was a huge arch, and its windows consisted of smaller arches. From one of the pointy towers flew a biohazard quarantine flag.
"I know what that is!" Khorii said, excited to recognize something from Captain Becker's books. "It's a big sand castle! Either the LoiLoiKuans or the Federation command here has a sense of humor, or at least they used to."
"Sand castle?" Elviiz asked.
"Children on Old Earth used to take pails and create them on seashores, modeling and sculpting them from wet sand," she told him. "Adults did it, too. Of course, that one would have to be made of more than just sand and water to do the Federation any good, but the form seems to be some sort of bow to traditional architecture. Are we getting a signal? It sounds weak."
"Intruder, you have been detected by the ASP, atmospheric surveillance program, and are commanded to return to space. This planet is under strict quarantine. Failure to comply constitutes an intergalactic criminal offense punishable by death."
"If the plague don't getcha, the Federation will, huh?" Captain Bates said over the com unit. The Mana had attempted to contact the Federation outpost before establishing its orbit around LoiLoiKua and dispatching the Nakomas to the surface, but had received no response. The only reply Captain Bates's remark drew this time was a somewhat weaker and slower repeat of the previous message.
"I don't think anyone from the Federation is home," Captain Bates said from the Mana.
Khorii tried to detect thoughts other than those within the song of the LoiLoiKuans, but found none. "Perhaps the plague got them already," she said.
"Probably," Captain Bates agreed. "Which means they're not likely to shoot us down anyway. Still, proceed with caution."
"What's that on the beach?" Khorii asked, realizing that what she had first thought was heavily flowered foliage was growing in an odd place, right at the high-tide mark on the beach. Insects swarmed around it, and it looked as if they were encased in a low-hanging cloud of some kind, full of tiny particles.
Elviiz was silent for a moment as he scanned the motionless forms, then said, "The remains of several dozen LoiLoiKuans, the blossoms of some mutant form of bottom-feeding frangipangi, seaweed, mineral deposits-shall I list them?"
"No, that's enough. You got good eyes, young fella," Asha said.
"Thank you. My father upgraded them for me just before we parted."
"I don't suppose they're just, you know, sunbathing or something?" Captain Bates asked as the Nakomas's cameras provided the Mana with a closer look, close enough that the rest of the makeshift crew also could make out the shapes.
"No, ma'am. They are without life." Elviiz's voice was calm as he relayed the information. "Certain aquatic mammals have been known to swim up onto the beach beyond the point where the tide can lift them back into the sea. They do this when they are dying or wish to die, according to my files."
"But we cannot be too late!" Khorii said. "I hear them singing. Some are definitely still alive. Quite a large number, judging from the volume."
As the Nakomas extruded the pontoons and outriggers that would stabilize it during the water landing, the ocean beneath them swelled into a series of rolling waves that fanned out around the shuttle.
Once the pontoons hit the water and Elviiz shut down the shuttle's engine, several heads broke the surface. Round benign faces, older than those of the poopuus at the moonbase, regarded the shuttle with a mixture of curiosity and dismay. Most of the creatures bore strands of white ribboned through their long dark hair.
She heard them talking among themselves, what they were thinking as well as what they said.
"Who do you suppose this is, some others fleeing the plague and seeking our help?"
"I hope not. We've little enough to give trying to care for our own. I can still hear the ravings of those young Federation troops as they burned with fever."
"Yes, and many tried to cool themselves by drowning in our water before we could reach them. A lot of protection that was."
An older female bobbed up to the surface and gestured with a webbed hand, shooing the shuttle. "You there, don't you know an intergalactic signal for plague when you see one? Go away! If you don't have the sickness, you could catch it from us. If you do have it, you may bring a mutant strain to finish off what's left of us."
"No, we won't. Really. I am Khorii, a Linyaari healer. Your children at Maganos Moonbase are friends of mine and are worried about you. They were all well when we left. The plague hasn't reached them. But they wanted me to come and help you."
"You cannot help us, KoriKori. We are dying."
"Yes, I can. I've already cured several people."
The woman looked at the others, who shrugged the water off their shoulders and nodded.
"Ah," Elviiz said. "They seem to be accepting you, Khorii. Note how they wave their arms in a graceful welcoming gesture, combining kinetic symbolism for diving and beckoning, followed by arms crossed over their chests to indicate welcome."
Khorii was already at the hatch, hearing the spokeswoman as she thought and spoke, though in her native tongue, saying, "In that case, come on in. The water is fine."
She took a deep breath and dived into the ocean. Just before she hit the surface, all of the onlookers dived deeper into the water, too. She opened her eyes to see them beckoning to her to follow.
"Come away from the island where the dead are laid to rest. It is very dangerous to be there."
"Yes, I know. Please take me to those who are. still sick."
"That is where we are going," the spokeswoman told her. "What do you know of this plague, young healer? Why does it kill my children and spare me? It is unnatural that children should die before their mother."
"It doesn't always affect creatures that way. On the ship in which I came here, only the daughter of two of the crew members survived. All of the adults died."
"It is not a natural illness. It goes against the pattern."
"That's why it's a plague, I suppose," Khorii said. "Do you know when and how it came here?"
"Yes. Raealakaldai, the Federation kahuna, brought it with him when he returned from his Federation council. He was very pleased to go and told us all about it. He was to read a paper on how he well he governed us, and the big council was to be on his homeworld. Or perhaps it was the next world over."
"Rio Boca, Nanahomea," said the old man.
"Yes, Mokilau, that is the name of the place. Rio Boca. Raealakaldai was from Paloduro."
"He was? That's where my parents are. The plague there is terrible, I guess."
"He caught it and brought it back to us when we tried to heal his sickness. He died, and so did my daughter and her mate. I hope we will not be too late for you to treat my sister's children. They live across the reef far from the house of sand. Of the great population that lived near here, all but a few of us ancient ones are gone."
"This is a good girl," an old male said. Khorii knew that he was old because he thought of himself that way, but she saw few of the usual signs of long life. His long black hair bore only a few threads of white, his skin was almost entirely unlined, but his cheeks were no longer round and his eyes were red, as though he'd been rubbing tears from them. How could you tell you'd been crying when you lived in salt water? "Look how our ocean clears an ever-widening path before her, as if strewing her way with flowers. All of the living fish, fry or old creatures like us, rush to meet us, anxious to swim here."