When the transmission ended Khorii asked, "Where's Paloduro?"
"Here," the captain said, acting like they were still friends, as if nothing had happened."! can show you on the charts." He punched a few buttons, and a star chart appeared on the console screen. "We're about here," he told her.
"Where's Vhiliinyar?"
"Way off the chart over there somewhere near where the cats are fighting," he told her, flipping a thumb back over his shoulder. Khiindi and RK were rolling over and over in a cat pinwheel, growling and hissing at each other. If Khiindi had ever felt any gratitude to his sire for hauling him out of the death-ridden corridor of the Blanca, or if RK had ever felt any tenderness for his offspring that had prompted him to save him in the first place, both cats had apparently forgotten about it. "Now over here is Kezdet, and here is Maganos Moonbase, where you're going. And over here . . ." His hand described a wide arc until his finger stabbed on a dot far to the right of the moonbase. "This is Paloduro."
"That's a long way away," she said, studying the chart. "Where a plague is concerned, that's a good thing."
Mother and Father had been talking quietly to each other, but now they came and stood, each of them with a hand on Khorii's shoulder. "I wish now we had brought the Linyaari ship instead of riding with you, Captain," Mother said. "Had we done so, you could take Khorii back to MOO and recruit some of our people to join us."
"Too late for that now," the captain told her. "Besides, the kid doesn't want to go home after coming all this way, do you, Khorii?"
Well, yes she did, actually. She was going to be left alone again.
"You will not be alone, little one," Father said, reading her thoughts. "Remember, your human family will be there to meet you. Your mother's foster fathers love to tell stories of her adventures when she was your age. And there will be other younglings there for you to befriend."
"Think of it as early training for your own ambassadorship when you're a little older, yaazi" Mother said, giving her a hug.
In another two hours the Condor was within hailing distance of Maganos Moonbase.
Mother greeted them herself. "This is Acorna Harakamian-Li aboard the Condor, Maganos Moonbase. Please alert Calum and Gill that we will be entering your orbit in approximately four hours."
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Lady Acorna," said the young man whose face appeared on the com screen. "Judit's baby tried to come early, so Calum, Mercy, and Gill all went to the hospital Kezdet-side to be with her. They didn't expect they would all be off base so long, but I'm sure they'll be returning soon. There's been talk in the last few minutes of quarantining Kezdet though."
"Is Kezdet infected, too, then?"
"Not so far and neither are we, but the Federation has proposed a ban prohibiting interstellar travel in this sector until they've been able to identify the source of the infection and any vessels that might have been exposed."
"It is unfortunate, but it makes sense to quarantine the healthy until you know where the threat is," Father said. "From all that's been said, Kezdet is much larger and has a diverse population. It would be more difficult to control a disease there."
"I still wish Calum and Gill and the Kendoros were going to be there," Mother said, as if Khorii could not take care of herself, as she had often done before.
"Khorii will probably be better off with the other children even though your fathers will not be there right away. If we cure the plague elsewhere and help contain it, then the quarantine is unnecessary and your fathers and their mates can return to the moon."
Mother cast a concerned look down at her daughter. Khorii knew she did not wish to leave her alone among strangers. "The moon is a more controlled environment. It is one big school, really, the way we set it up. Even without Cal and Gill here I will feel easier about sending Khorii to the surface alone on Maganos Moon-base than I would sending her down to Kezdet alone to look for Cal and GUI."
Elviiz spoke up. "She will not be alone, Mother. I will be with her."
Mother smiled at Elviiz. "Yes, you will. I forgot that for a moment. I know you will look after each other."
"And Khiindi, of course," Khorii said. Her cat had chosen that moment to disengage from hostilities with his sire and jump to her shoulder for a bout of purring reassurance.
"And Khiindi," Mother agreed.
Becker chuckled. "When you were her age, from what I've heard, you were already saving the universe as we know it from all sorts of stuff and scaring the pee-waddin' out of your dads in the process."
Mother smiled, though she still looked worried. "I suppose I simply do not want history to repeat itself. My parents were frightened of that when we told them we were taking this trip."
It was nice that everyone was worried about her, and Khorii almost felt warmly toward the captain again. She hated to bring up another complication, but if they were all too blind to see it, she felt she had to. "There is a world in the Solojo system? Dinero Grande? I saw it when you showed me the map, Captain. The Blanca's registration said Dinero Grande. I do not think I should go to the Moonbase. I think the people on the Blanca maybe had the plague."
"Your theory is logical, Khorii, but it is not supported by the evidence," Elviiz butted in. "The corridor where Captain Becker and the cats succumbed, as did the organic components of Father and I, still held the remnants of a toxic gas. We analyzed it. The crewmen on the bridge were shot. Judging from the input I saw, the captain for reasons known only to herself, or more likely because she lost her reason altogether, frightened the passengers so badly they tried to flee, whereupon she filled her ship's corridors with poison gas. She murdered her subordinates when they attempted mutiny in order to assist the passengers."
"Besides, youngling, we are Linyaari," Acorna said, bending down to look into her daughter's face. "With three of us aboard the Condor, no one here would remain contaminated if ever they had been, which, as Elviiz told you, they were not. Please try to stop worrying about that ship. If this plague spreads, I fear you may see far worse things to come. Your feeling for the deceased passengers and crew does you credit, but"-and Mother bent her horn to touch Khorii's, flooding her with feelings of love and security, warmth and understanding, a cradle to support her when her family was gone-"try to enjoy the school. We hope to return soon."
"I hope so, too, Avvi" she said, throwing her arms around her mother, then her father, Maak, and finally, because it was expected, Uncle Joh, who gave her a quick bear hug and let her go.
Finally, she gave RK a farewell pat, jerking Khiindi out of the way of the older cat's paw at the last minute, and climbed aboard the shuttle. Elviiz squeezed in between her and the controls programmed to land them safely on the surface and guide them into their assigned docking bay. To Khorii's disgust, Elviiz was also programmed to fly the shuttle manually in case the autopilot failed. Nobody had taught her to fly a shuttle yet. Androids get to do everything first, she thought.
Chapter 5
Elviiz didn't get to fly the shuttle manually because nothing went wrong with the autopilot. Uncle Job. had made it of "the best components culled from the finest scrap heaps in the multiverse, where castoffs of the very latest obsolete designs" were abandoned by their owners or manufacturers in favor of more cutting-edge but, as uncle never failed to add, not necessarily superior, equipment. At any rate, the shuttle landed and docked itself perfectly, then self-activated its com screen so Khorii, Khiindi, and Elviiz could assure their family members on the Condor that their arrival had been safe and uneventful.