"It is indeed,"Yiitir said. "Hafiz will be so proud. Well, actually, he always is, but this will please him very much."
"There is also bad news," Naarye continued. "Acorna and Aari left without seeing the baby or her fathers. The Federation asked them to help contain the plague."
"That was to be expected, I suppose,"Yiitir said.
"That is not all. They left young Khorii and Maak's son Elviiz at Maganos Moonbase, but the younglings took a shuttle to an infected cargo ship and left the system. Since communications are down, nobody knows where they are except, of course, for the guess that they are probably going to try to intercept Aari and Acorna, whose mission is in a star system called the-it is not something we can pronounce. I will write it for you in Standard. S. O. L. O. J. O."
"My stars, that is rather alarming! The younglings out in space all alone on an infected ship."
"Not entirely alone. Three of the other students went with them and one of the teachers as well."
"Ah, well, a teacher," Maarni said, somewhat relieved.
"The Balakiire stated its intention of joining Aari and Acorna and probably Khorii's ship as well, but the Federation has requested that we continue to help plague victims and decontaminate critical areas such as the communication chain and health-care facilities. We have agreed, of course, as long as we may maintain our own relay back to MOO as we do so, and the Balakiire is free to seek our friends."
"That sounds fair enough,"Yiitir said.
"Poor children," Maarni said. "I hope they can be located soon so that Khorii can return to the safety of her own family."
"I believe we are all in sympathy with that sentiment, Maarni. Your assignment will be to visit Uncle Hafiz's headquarters on the planet of Laboue. House Harakamian's enterprises are crucial to the smooth recovery of this sector, according to the Federation."
"Delighted, Naarye. You can count on us. Please keep us informed."
"Yes. Naarye out."
Chapter 25
The Solojo system, at last!" Khorii said, giving Captain Bates the thumbs-up signal Uncle Joh used to signify he was pleased with the progress of certain events.
"Yep, there's the sun, and we're approaching Rio Boca," the captain said. "Khorii, it's your turn to take the helm. You kids are coming along very well. Elviiz took very little instruction, Jaya was already fairly familiar with this ship, though she's a bit vague on programming in courses, Hap was one of my best students and much to my surprise, Marl has taken to piloting like an extinct water-treading avian to-er-water. Even Sesseli has done pretty well at her lessons. You're going to make me redundant if I don't watch out."
"Do we have enough fuel to make it straight to Paloduro?" Khorii asked. "I'd love to see my mother's and father's faces when I fly this ship over to rendezvous with the Condor."
"Looks like it to me," Captain Bates said.
"We carry extra fuel," Jaya said. "That's what cargo bay three is for-extra fuel, extra parts."
"No problem then," Khorii said. "We're on our way."
She wished Elviiz was there so she could rub his nose in it, just a little. Or Hap, because he'd be pleased. But only Captain Bates, Jaya, Sesseli, and Khorii were on the bridge when she took the helm. And the cats, of course, were sleeping somewhere close by.
Rio Boca was the outermost planet in the Solojo system, but the others were comparatively close in their distance from the sun. All of them had been inhabited for a long time, according to Captain Bates.
"Rio Boca is the 'port planet' of this system, where most of the shipping to and from other worlds takes place. It also has a few tourist attractions," Captain Bates told her.
"Yes!" Jaya said with more animation than Khorii had seen her show before. "Once Mom and Dad and I took a great vacation to the falls. You can see la Catarata de la Llorarona, the Weeping Woman's Waterfall, from space. I'll show you when we get closer. Also the Sangre de Frida, Frieda's Blood in Standard, mountains. The waterfall carries the runoff from them and it's the head of the river that becomes the Rio Boca when it reaches the Sea of the Pilgrims' Tears."
"They have a lot of sad names for things, don't they?" Khorii asked.
"Well, the earliest colonizers apparently had some difficulties. But it's a very rich planet. They have lots of good farmland for coffee, bananas, pineapple, and sugar as well as a lot of the kinds of things you like to eat, Khorii. Fruits and veggies and stuff. They also supply a lot of pharmaceutical companies with crops that have medicinal uses. We actually pick up-we did pick up-quite a lot of cargo here to export to other planets. And they have beautiful jewelry here, too! Dad said it was because the rivers and streams-the Rio Boca and all of its tributaries, are full of gemstones and mineral deposits."
"It looks beautiful even from here," Khorii said. She had to concentrate not to be hypnotized by the greenery ribboned with sparkly silver-and-turquoise waters.
"The city of Rio Boca is kind of ugly, actually. Full of docking facilities for spaceships and boring warehouses full of goods. But once you get up the river, away from the port, it's beautiful. Long stretches with no towns or people, just huge plantations."
"Where does everybody live then?"
Captain Bates said, "They've divided this system's planetary assets into the functions the people here need. Most of the government and administration for the entire system, as well as the banking and many of the fancier homes of officials and wealthy industrialists, are on Dinero Grande, Big Money."
"I've always liked the sound of that one," Marl said, coming up behind them.
Captain Bates continued, disregarding his comment. "Your parents were supposed to be on Paloduro, which is the planet where most of the population lives. There is some industry there, too, and Corazon, the main city, is famous for its Carnivale, a monthlong masquerade party and parade that was in progress when the plague struck."
"That's so sad,"Jaya said. "We got to go to that once, too. It was a lot of fun. I was only little, but Mom made me a leopard costume so I could dance in the parade."
"I heard something about that when my folks were asked to come here," Khorii said. "The Federation health official who talked to them said that Paloduro was the last of these three planets to report an outbreak, so they thought Mother and Father could save the most people if they went there first. The plague must have started way earlier though, before it got reported even."
"How's that?"
"You know the captain's log Elviiz uploaded to the ship's computer for me to read? It was from a derelict luxury liner we found with all the people dead either of plague or killed by the captain to keep them from breaking quarantine. The registration was from Dinero Grande."
"Now I find that fascinating," Marl said, though nobody was talking to him. "I did when I read that captain's log, too. What a fix they were in. I recognized a lot of big names from that passenger roster. Not all were from these parts, mind you, but a significant number of them were. Just the trillionaires and local government people, none of the royalty. More's the pity. I'd love to get my hands on some crown jewels. I'm a romantic that way, I guess. But actually, I'm a farm boy at heart. There are some agricultural crops and their by-products that particularly interest me."
"You're not getting your hands on any of it, Fidd, so just forget it," Captain Bates told him. "Those planets are all still crawling with plague. There's probably nobody left alive by now."
"My point exactly," he said, reaching between the two of them to the instruments. "They'll have no use for any of it. Why should it go to waste? As for the plague, we have our own little cleaner-upper here in our Khorii," he said, laying a heavy hand on her shoulder. "It's perfect, really."