Acorna’s Search (20 page)

And then she was on the surface of a busy harbor. Where the column of stinking debris had been was a lovely little island. Fish swam around her and farther away ships sailed busily back and forth. A few yards from her, on shore, was the living version of the dead city from which she had just come.

And Aari? She dove several more times, calling him, calling Maati, but there was no trace of him, nor the other figure, his companion. Had it been Maati? Were they dead? Had she seen their ghosts? Phantoms? Shivering with more than the cold of the water, she swam ashore, wiping herself and squeezing the water from her hair and clothing as best she could.

Then she climbed the hill to the building she had left just moments ago, yet many, many years in the future.

She had no idea what she would find here, except that she had a hard time imagining it could be as fearsome as all of the things she had gone through already in her lifetime—not as terrible as the Khleevi, or as wily as Baron Manjari, his crazy daughter Kisla, and her guardian Count Edacki Ganoosh, or even as formidable as General Ikwaskwan.

Aari had sounded terrified to her, but she was not reading any terror in the air now, as she walked toward the city. According to legend and history, this time on Vhiliinyar should have as sentient beings only the Hosts, the Ancestors, and the earliest beginnings of her own race. The history of Vhiliinyar according to Grandam had been remarkably placid for the most part. No wars, perhaps a few natural disasters, but nothing as deadly as the events and creatures Acorna had encountered in her own time.

If something back here had harmed her love, if it was intent on harming Maati, Yiitir, and Maarni, then it would find her ready and willing to take it on. Theirs had been a peaceful mission, to rebuild what had been destroyed through no fault of their own. Her people had endured about all of the hardship anyone could stand and she didn’t intend that they should be subjected to more. And she was perfectly willing to explain that point of view to anyone who disagreed, regardless of what race they came from.

She was in such a state by the time she stormed into the building with the time device that she felt ready for anything…except for what she got, which was a silent, deserted building with no one to challenge and no one challenging her.

The changes in the rest of the city meant nothing to her at the moment. Her sense of ire was so aroused that her sense of wonder failed to register all the vehicles whizzing by and the beautiful music playing in the streets.

She rode down the inclinator from the ground floor to the floor containing the time device in her own time.

This area was eerily as she had left it—lit up and unoccupied. Not quite as silent. From somewhere she heard a pounding, as of construction or machinery starting up.

And there was one other change too. A door she had never noticed before made an opening in the wall of shifting glyphs. She peered through it into some sort of medical or laboratory facility. A shiver ran through her that had nothing to do with her wet condition.

The metal table in the middle of the room beckoned to her from a memory that was not hers. She walked to it. A few curly silver hairs lay upon it, a drop of blood. Kneeling so that she was level with the table, she sniffed deeply. Aari. This was where he had been when he called. The hairs were his hairs. The blood was his as well.

But where was he?

What had happened to him?

Was he hurt somewhere, needing her touch to heal him? She reached out to him mentally—and heard nothing.

She searched the room, the walls, and then started on the adjacent room. In the back of her mind was Aari as she had seen him in the water, wondering what he was doing there. She passed the time map and saw that it surprisingly reflected Kubiilikaan as it had been before her dive into its shrunken sea. Deserted, subterranean, befouled, and damaged. She grinned suddenly. Aari had escaped back to their own time! They had passed each other time traveling, using the seawater as a conduit. He would be waiting for her when she returned! She should have trusted that he would find a way back to her! There had never been any need for her to travel at all.

But what about the others?

The map was no help—it seemed to be locked in its current incarnation.

She was ready to pay attention to the thumping now, and she returned to the corridor, heading as if pulled toward it to the entrance to the Ancestors’ caverns. The stone floor shook as if a major earthquake rocked the building’s foundations.

Acorna saw the release for the passageway door recessed in one of the flagstones and pressed it. As the door raised, hooves flashed past her nose.

She backed away, then peered downward.

“Ha! Got it!” An Ancestor had backed up on the top step and attacked the closed door with all the strength of its hooves and hindquarters.

“Hello?” Acorna said.

“It’s another one, Gladiis!” the Ancestor exclaimed. “What in creation does she want, do you suppose?”

“Khornya!”

The Ancestor was all but knocked aside by Maati as she leaped from the top step straight into Acorna’s arms, knocking her over backwards.

“Oh, Khornya, you came! You came! I should have known! I heard the most awful cry from Aari and—where is he? Is he okay?”

“I think so, yes,” Acorna said, smoothing Maati’s hair and hugging her tightly. “It looks as if someone hurt him, but not badly. Somehow he got away before I could rescue him. Inconsiderate of him, don’t you think? So I’ll have to rescue you instead, I suppose. Are Maarni and Yiitir with you?”

“Yes, uh huh. They’re here. They’re fine. But before you rescue us, first, come on, you have to meet Grandmother Gladiis and Grandfather Humiir and the others, and Upp and the
frii
and their family.”

Leaving the door open, Acorna allowed herself to be led below and found herself surrounded by Ancestors. Maati introduced her to the ones she had named. All the while Maati was pulling her by the hand deeper inside the cavern. Here Acorna could smell and hear the sea echoing against the walls. She also made out the faces of Maarni and Yiitir. They looked well, happy even. Acorna breathed a sigh of relief.

Maati started to drag Acorna past them to the water. “Upp?
Frii? Sii
-Linyaari? I have someone I want you to meet!”

“Maati, they’re not here,” Yiitir told her.

“Not here? Where are they? Did they go back to sea?”

“I don’t think so,” Maarni said. “One moment they were swimming below the landing, the next they were gone. They’re very quick, you know, and it’s dark here so I could be mistaken, but it seemed very sudden—even for them. The
frii
was doing one of his leaps from the water and it looked to me as though he vanished in midair.”

“Oh, no!” Acorna said. Now she understood what had happened with Aari also. He hadn’t been trying to time travel when she met him in the water. Her own journey had precipitated his—probably before he was ready. He must have been looking for Maati and the others—and the
sii
-Linyaari, also in the water, had time-traveled, too.

Maati caught her thought and laughed. “Aari is going to be unhappy with Khornya! She tried to rescue him and messed up his precious space-time continuum!”

“Oh, Maati,” Acorna said. “I fear you may be right!”

H
alfway through the tunnel to the surface, Mac said diffidently, “Captain, with all due respect, I detect a flaw in your logic in this situation.” “Now that is totally inconceivable,” Becker told him. “You must be malfunctioning. What flaw?”

“You have a com unit. Why would you fly all the way back to MOO, when they could fly what you need here in half the time, even considering your shortcut?”

“Because—” Becker stopped. “Because…they wouldn’t know where to get what we need.”

“Some of the finest engineers in the universe are in Mr. Harakamian’s employ, Captain. They are reputed to be very competent.”

“Yeah, but the Linyaari only want me here. Not them.”

“That is not the case if one is speaking of Linyaari engineers. Of which there are many on the MOO.”

“Yeah, but in case you haven’t noticed, the Linyaari have a funny habit of disappearing from this place.”

“Then perhaps we should attempt to stabilize the time diffusion in the landing area and nearby surroundings.”

“For which we need the equipment they’d be bringing,” Becker said, one word at a time to emphasize that this time it was Mac whose logic was flawed.

“Captain,” Mac said. “I may shut down from pure shock. Do you mean to tell me you no longer have aboard the
Condor
a half a dozen pumps of various sizes, hoses, and the other items necessary to make an irrigation system, albeit one of limited size?”

Becker stopped and scratched his mustache. “You got a point, Mac. I congratulate myself on upgrading your memory. I’ll go ahead to the ship and start digging the stuff out. Meanwhile, if you return for Acorna and Thariinye now, we’ll have more people to haul stuff back there. As soon as we have this first area built and get it tested, then we can have the other Linyaari come down from the sky and help us with the work while we’re waiting for the supplies from MOO.”

“Other Linyaari, Captain?”

“Yeah, see, they sent a couple of shuttles here but one of them disappeared, so the other one, which was supposed to help me, dropped off the equipment they brought and returned to the mother ship.”

“Should I not come along and ensure that you do not disappear, Captain?”

“I’ll walk back in my own tracks, son. It’s an old Becker trick taught to me by my pappy who was taught it by his’n.”

“I do not entirely understand you, sir.”

“Good. Good. I’d worry more if you did. Now off you go. RK, you with me or with him?”

The cat looked from one to the other. There was no real choice to make. Becker was flesh and blood and winced and complained when RK dug his claws in. Mac was not. RK followed Becker. It was about time to re-mark his territory anyway.

“Mr. Harakamian, there’s a relay from Vhiliinyar. Captain Becker wishes to speak to you personally.”

Hafiz graciously indicated that the underling should activate the nearest com link. He was in his personal garden, surveying the progress of his Kardadistanian Rhodamians, whose bright red blossoms were being coaxed into bloom by his gardening staff.

“Hafiz? Becker here,” a disembodied voice said from the direction of Hafiz’s favorite water feature, a four-tiered cascade plummeting from the exalted height of twelve feet from his artificial mountain. Only half of it was material. The other half was hologram and turned off when no one was in the garden. Frugality was a virtue (though one he practiced infrequently of late), even when turning an artificial moon into the showplace of the universe.

“Yes, Captain. If my beloved niece is there, may I speak to her please? I thirst for the sound of her voice.”

“I’ll have her call when she gets here. Mac went back to get her and Thariinye. Meanwhile, we need your help.”

He sighed. Too often these days people needed his help. Too seldom did they offer lucrative favors in return. But he had the faith of his forefathers that all his good works would be repaid tenfold in the fullness of time. He just wished time would fill out more quickly. His heir and his board of directors had begun expressing concern about the state of his accounts lately, and questioning the vast withdrawals he had been making from corporate holdings.

Karina wafted in. “Haffy? Is it Acorna? Has she news?”

“Hi, Mrs. H.,” Becker said. “Like I was just telling Hafiz, we need some help down here. While they were rooting around in the caves here on the old home world, Acorna and Thariinye found this old city.”

“Excuse us, Captain, Mr. Harakamian,” Yaniriin, who was part of the relay, cut in. “With all due respect, gentlemen, our Council was very reluctant to allow an offworlder such as Captain Becker to set foot on our world and even more reluctant to allow him to access certain highly classified areas. Please do not describe what you have seen to others over the com unit, Captain Becker. I know Mr. Harakamian will understand the need to maintain security.”

“Uh—right,” Becker said. “Sure, Yaniriin, whatever you and the Council say. Anyway, Hafiz, Mrs. H.—she, Acorna I mean, discovered this—er—object which is probably responsible for the disappearances. Our belief is that it may have been screwed up by the Khleevi decimating the planet’s water supply. There is a—uh—hidden water source we can tap if we can get some irrigation equipment down here pronto to help stabilize the uh—process which is being triggered by the object which is making all the people go bye-bye. Yaniriin, was I confusing enough to suit you?”

“That was admirably obfuscated, Captain Becker, thank you.”

“Captain Becker, have I not made it clear that we will be fully restoring the planet’s resources as soon as the survey is completed to the Linyaari Council’s satisfaction? That aspect of the work is still some months away, however. Suitable equipment has been ordered but is not expected to arrive for several weeks. At any rate, it would not be employed until the terraforming process has been implemented.”

“Yeah, yeah, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about this
object
that made the people who were doing the survey to begin with disappear. We need the equipment now if we’re going to get them back. We need a lot of it.”

“I regret that we do not have that sort of thing on hand at all times,” Hafiz said, growing a bit irked at Becker’s insistent tone. Most people were quite diffident to Hafiz Harakamian these days, and he was at a stage in life when he could choose to feel insulted if the diffidence was lacking. “From what you have been allowed to tell me,” he continued in an offended tone, “there is no guarantee that such equipment as you seek will be of any use whatsoever. You have only a little idea that it
could
help.”

“Maybe, but do you have a better idea?”

Silence followed.

It was no use. Becker tried every argument he could think of, and appealed to Yaniriin as well, but Hafiz, remembering the last balance sheet he had seen, was unmoved. He had tried and tried to help the Linyaari and so far all he got was demands for privacy and more privacy…and no return as yet was—returning.

“I think this conversation is now at an end, Captain Becker. You and the others must do the best you can with the lavish resources the House of Harakamian has already provided.”

“Uh-huh. Yeah. Wait. Just a sec. Don’t hang up. I have an incoming call from Thariinye.

“What? Huh? Yeah? Oh, holeee sh—I mean, damn. I should have known.”

“I am signing off now, Captain Becker. I have an empire to run, after all,” Hafiz said with great dignity to the general vicinity from which Becker’s voice issued.

“No, no, don’t. At least, I wouldn’t, if I was you. That was Thariinye. He’s on the way up to the ship with Mac, but they used the com unit to give me the news. Hafiz, Acorna’s gone.”

“Gone? How so gone?” Hafiz demanded with indignation and suspicion brewing dangerously in his voice.

“Disappeared. After Mac and I left she told Thariinye she was going down to the—uh—body of water I mentioned, to purify it, because it was—I’m sorry, Yaniriin, a filthy polluted swamp. Which we figure is part of the problem with the workings of the object. And why it’s behaving erratically and making people disappear. The absence of water and the contamination and what not. Acorna figured that out herself, so my guess is she did this on purpose. She was real upset about Aari being missing. Claimed she’d heard him hollering for help.”

“But if the solution to this problem is untried, if you have not the equipment, why would she risk herself before a certain solution is at hand?”

“I dunno. She’s a sweet girl, but kinda dumb sometimes. At least, she leads with her heart, not her head. I bet she figured she had some adoptive relatives who, once the situation was explained to them, would do anything within their power to help her return, and to bring back the others. Naïve of her really. Y’know, I tried to teach her better but she has this sentimental idea about people. Maybe wherever she is, she’s getting some sense knocked into her now.”

Hafiz felt as if someone had just knocked something into him, but he was trying to control his tone, his demeanor, so as to conceal this from Becker. Then he turned and saw Karina. Her gauzy lavender robes were kilted to her waist, her dimpled knee bent to force the blade of a shovel into the soil surrounding his beloved exotic flowers. Her hair had come loose from its bindings and her tongue stuck out a bit from between her sharp little white teeth and her luscious lips.

“What in the name of the Three Prophets and the Three Books are you doing, my beloved Djinn of Energetic Endeavor?” Hafiz asked, his intended tones of authority emerging in an alarmed squeak.

“If you won’t have anyone else do it because we’re pinching pennies, Haffy, then I will personally dig up the irrigation systems in all of our gardens and send them to the Captain to save our dear Acorna. After all, if there is no Acorna, there is no need for any of this, is there? I will keep digging, although I feel quite faint already from hunger and overexertion.” She said this as she flicked a teaspoonful of dirt to one side and panted heavily, leaning against the shovel handle as if she might swoon.

Hafiz modulated his voice and spoke in a tone that must have been much like that of one of the Three Prophets of his faith declaiming the Law. “Very well, Becker. Acorna must be saved. So let it be written, so let it be done. I have spoken. My people will strip my gorgeous gardens and we here will drink from common reservoirs and cease washing our clothing or our bodies until you have completed your task and our Lady of the Light and her people are safely among us again.”

“Okay. That’s great. We’ll be on the lookout. Make it snappy though, will you? Gotta dash.” And the insolent junk man terminated the connection without so much as a verbal
salaam.

Hafiz had no time to get his feathers ruffled by that, however. Karina picked that moment to swoon gracefully toward the ground. Naturally, he found it necessary to cushion her fall. When he had assured himself she sustained no damage, he summoned every able-bodied staff member in his employ and began the destruction of his newly planted gardens. He consoled himself with the thought that he could use the equipment on order to replace that which he was sacrificing.