"The very same. Not all of those fanatics got captured when Central World's Navy tried to round all of them up."
"Wily fiends, those Kolnari." And the holo's expression was dead serious. "Last info from Regulus suggested that two groups, possibly four, had escaped completely. Even one group's more than enough bear-hunters to ravage Ravel with their modus operandi." The holo slammed both hands on the armrests in frustration.
"I wonder that there are any still alive. After all, the virus that Dr. Chaundra let loose on them was one of the most virulent ever discovered." She gave a sigh. "The Kolnari were dying in droves."
The Kolnari-a dissident splinter group that had so adapted to the conditions of their harsh home planet that they were considered a human subspecies-were known to have an incredible ability to adapt to and survive otherwise fatal diseases, viruses and punishing planetary conditions. They had a short life span, maturing when other male human types were only hitting puberty, but the short generations were dangerous despite the limitation. They raided wherever they could, planets, space platforms or freighter convoys, using the human populations or crews as slaves and refitting the captured vessels to their uses-piracy. After their nearly successful raid on Space Station 900, Central Worlds Navy was reasonably certain they had destroyed the main body of peripatetic Kolnari units. They were on alert to locate, and destroy on sight, any other units.
"Huh!" Niall snorted. "Adapting to that particular virus would be just the sort of thing the Kolnari would be able to do, given their perverse nature and crazy metabolism."
"I'm afraid you could be right. Who else would be insane enough to run ships in that condition? Even nomads don't get that sloppy about emissions," Helva said.
"Not if they wish to continue their nomadic existence if they're leaving a system on the sly. Are you being wise to go after Kolnari?" Niall asked, a trace of anxiety in his tone. "You'd constitute a real prize."
Helva did a mental shudder, all too vividly reminded of what the Kolnari leader, Belazir t'Marid, had nearly done to the space-station brain, Simeon. Odd that Niall would remind her of that. She knew she'd done a good program but… Could she rationally believe in the transmigration of souls? Or that the holo was the ghost of the real Niall?
"I can no more leave those Ravel idiots to the Kolnari than I could to the damned nova. And it is sort of poetic justice," she said with a sigh. "Let's see. It's nearly a hundred years since I had to transport them off their planet before their sun fried it. It took time for Central Worlds to find such a suitably remote star system where they would be safe from both nova stars and any profanity from the evils that beset mere men. Let's hope that they have some sort of modern equipment protecting them. If not against novas, at least against predators. Ah! The Atlas says the sun's stable. And there is, or was, a space facility for incoming converts."
"Ha!" The holo gave a bark of disgust. "Any satellite systems?"
"None mentioned. No contact in the past forty years, in fact. Well, I'm about to break into their meditations or whatever it is they do down there. There's nothing but females on that planet. I can't let Kolnari get their hands on all those innocent pious virgins, now can I?"
"It'd be fun to watch, though," said a totally unrepentant Niall.
"Shut up, you prurient sadist," she said as firmly as possible. Maybe she should also shut the program down. No, she needed him, one way or the other, because embedded in that program was the distillation of seventy-eight years of experience… his and hers.
"I was never a sadist, my dear Helva," he said haughtily, and then grinned wickedly. "I'll admit to hedonism but none of my women ever minded my attention… bar you! Have you considered a pulse to any listening Central Worlds units of the imminent unRaveling disaster?"
"I am and"-she paused as she put the final URGENT ALL EYES tag on the beam-"and it's away."
For the first time she experienced a touch of relief that she could approach the group without defiling it by the presence of a male. She'd pause the program-since Niall seemed to talk without any cues from her. Quite likely she wouldn't have as much trouble this time persuading them to seek whatever hidden shelters the planet might provide. Possibly the fact that she had saved them once before would weigh in their obedience to her urgings to make themselves as scarce as possible when the Kolnari arrived. Whatever! She wouldn't let them be victims to Kolnari rape and brutality. And Ravel was only a minor detour from the way to Regulus. She not only felt better to have something useful to do after going into a fugue over Niall's death but also was revived by the need. As she had been needed at Ravel, as Jennan's father had been at Parsaea. True tragedy occurred when those who could have helped were not there when needed. She was here. She was needed. Vigor flowed through the tubes that supplied her nutrient fluids.
"Feeling on form, are you?" the holo asked brightly. "Thatta girl! We gotta do what we gotta do. Data suggests that there'll be a lot of small settlements, cloisters they call 'em. They've increased their population from the Chloe figures." He sighed. "There isn't enough of the geo-ecological survey to show possible refuges. Planet's high on vegetation though."
"Lots of forests and lots of mountains and valleys. Plenty of cover if they separate. Make it that much harder for the Kolnari to tag 'em even from the air. That is, if they keep their wits about them," Helva said, charged with hope. "They need only lie doggo until the Fleet arrives."
"That is"-and the holo's tone was cynical-"if the Fleet has any squadrons near enough to send in timely fashion or decides such a splinter group is worth saving. I've never heard of their type of Faith… the Inner Marian Circle. Who's this Marian they worship?"
"In this case, 'marian' is an adjective and refers to Mary, mother of Jesus."
"Oh… and what's an inner circle then?"
"I don't know and it scarcely matters, does it? We have to warn them."
"Maybe there isn't anyone left to warn," Niall suggested. "Hey, did you just say they've increased their population from the Chloe figures? How does a celibate religious order perpetuate its membership?"
"Converts," she suggested. She often had wondered how such minorities did manage to continue to practice a faith that rejected procreation as a sin. "There was a new shipment forty years ago."
"Ach!" and Niall dismissed that. "Even if they converted preteens, how could the present inhabitants run fast enough at fifty-odd years to escape galloping Kolnari?"
"Parthenogenesis?" she suggested.
"That is, at least, virgin birth." And he snickered.
"That would go with the theories about Mary."
Niall snorted. "That was just the first recorded case of exogenesis."
"Possibly, but it doesn't detract from the Messiah's effect on man… and woman… kind."
"I'll allow that."
"Big of you."
"To the realities, woman," he said, stirring forward in his chair. "First we have to find out if there's anyone to rescue. AND if there's any safe place to send them so the Kolnari don't get 'em until the Fleet heaves into sight. I wouldn't wish that bunch on my worst enemy… Even my second-worst enemy."
Helva had been scanning the file on the Kolnari. "They might be looking for a new home base. Central Worlds sterilized their planet of origin."
"Then let's not let them have this Ravel, which seems to be a nice planet. Wouldn't want the neighborhood to go to such dogs…"
"They have an indigenous sort of canine on Ravel. Have you been speed-reading ahead of me again?" she asked, surprised because the list of local fauna was just coming up for her to peruse.