Silent Dances (11 page)

Tesa return
ed Bruce
'
s greeting in Grus, but then her face clouded
. "
I
said
, `
Hello, good
flight,'"
she asked Meg, "should it have been
, `
Hello,
good fishing'?"

Meg nodded reassuringly as Bruce said, "Peter, come greet our new part

ner."

The tall black man stuck out his hand, smiling. "HOW ARE YOU, TESA?"

Peter shouted.

Embarrassed for him,
Meg had a vivid memo
ry
of the hospital on

Shassiszss and the human attendant who kept hollering at her
,
though

she could hear nothing
.
Bruce murmured to the programmer.

Peter lowered his voice, but still overenunciated every syl
lable. "I am Pe-

ter Woe-drang
-
o. How are you?"

Tesa turn
ed to Meg. "Please
,
tell them I
'
ve studied with you, that I sign
G
ru
s well. I'd rather they sign than speak." Meg realized with a sta
rt
how little she'd told Tesa about
the crew.
She'd been so busy briefing

her on the project, the G
ru
s, the planet
,
she'd hardly mentioned the
crew.
Tell the truth
,
Margaritka
.
It made you think of Scott
,
so you
avoided the subject
.
Meg hesitated before admitting
, "They
don't know
how to sign G
ru
s ... Rob told me that you read lips
,
and that you spoke
English and Miza
ri.
We all know English."

Peter asked Meg, "
Can she read lips?"

"I read that even expert
lip
-
readers can understand only twenty percent
of what's said," Lauren told him, pushing back a stray curl. "You guys

are just confusing her. You might as well give up." B
ru
ce gave her an

offhanded glance.

The doctor shook her head. "
Meg, what were you thinking of? This place

won't be ready for a StarB
ri
dge student for ten years!
If
then.
We don
'
t
have time to baby-sit."

Meg started to respond hotly but Tesa began signing. "I'm not comfort
able

speaking
.
After all the time they've been here, I thought they'd
all
sign Gru
s."

"
What
'
d she say?" B
ru
ce asked.

Meg translated and the crew glanced uneasily at one another, except for Bru

ce. "Looks like you caught us on that one," he said
,
his brown
, friendly
eyes never leaving Tesa
'
s face.

"
Lea
rn
Grus
?"
the doctor sno
rt
ed
,
glancing at Lauren.
"
That
'
s what
voders are for." Lauren nodded quick agreement.

52

"Tesa
,"
Meg said
,
signing at the same time
, "
they can get their Terran
voders, or I can translate."

The younger woman was clearly unhappy. "Can't we just go to Trinity?" she

signed. Meg translated her signs to the
crew
. "
It's been years since I've
seen woods
,
or running water,
or clouds. And I want to see the Grus.

Please."

"Ms. Sacajawea
'
s in quite a rush
,
isn't she?" Lauren said
cynically.

"Wonder how she'll feel when she's plastered with mud and feather dander

and reeks of fish. Those Grus won't
seem so glamorous then
,
I'll bet."

"Lauren!" Bruce snapped. "
Be quiet!"

"Oh, Meg," Dr. Li said quickly, "don't translate that!"

"Why should I be quiet?" Lauren asked Bruce, her fair
cheeks flushing at

his rep
ri
mand
. "
She's not a telepath!"

Tesa's face clouded with sudden anger. Meg felt confused,
unsure of what

was happening, as Tesa stood tall and approached the sho
rt

technician, showing her something cupped
in her hand. Lauren blushed

furiously. Then Tesa showed it
to the others.

It was a Mizari
voder
,
the one Tesa had had on StarB
ri
dge. She'd

stopped using it early in the voyage when she'd developed a good

base in Grus vocabula
ry
. Meg had totally forgotten that she'd had it
.
It
must have been in her pouch
.
Meg remembered how effective the

"save and recall
"
feature was.

Tesa was showing everyone the "Sacajawea" speech, preserved for

posterity. Lauren squirmed uncomfortably.

"Do you know who this was?" Tesa signed to the computer tech
.
She

indicated Sacajawea
'
s name, trusting Meg to translate.

Lauren shook her head.

"She was a Shoshone,"
Bruce said
. "
She helped guide the Lewis
an
d
Clark Exploration in the 1800s
.
She was their translator
, right?"

Tesa read his words
,
nodding. "Yes, but because she was, herself
,

one of the
people,
she was more than
a translator. She was an

interrelator."
The Grus signs Tesa used actually mean
t "the one who
teaches us to fish together"-an eleg
an
t choice, Meg thought
. "
Did
you know that
`
Sacajawea
'
means `bird wom
an
'?"

"
I didn
'
t know that," Bruce admi
tt
ed.

"But later,"
Tesa continued
, "
she was called
`
the wom
an
who b
ro
ught
barbari
an
s to our count
ry.'"
She tu
rn
ed back to

53

Lauren. "Let's shake hands, before mine smell like fish, and be friends. I'm

Tesa." She held out her hand to the tech, giving her a tight smile. Lauren

took the proffered hand gingerly.

"Be a sport, Lauren, she caught you fair," Peter said. Tesa gave Bruce a

warmer smile, "You'd be surprised at what àchampion' lip-reader can pick

up." Tesa turned to the doctor, "I'm
deaf.
I'm not a baby, and I'm not stupid. I won't fill the void Scott Hedford left behind, but I'll work hard."

Dr. Li looked at Tesa with that tight, enigmatic expression that exasperated

Meg so much.

Meg examined Tesa's voder. "You don't know how happy
I am to see that

thing."

Just then, Dr. Li said in a low tone, "Meg, you should take this young woman

planetside before ... her enthusiasm for landfall gives us cabin fever.

Besides, you don't want to miss sunset your first day back."

Tesa grabbed Meg in a hug, nearly knocking her over. "We'll bring the new

equipment tomorrow, Meg," Peter
said.

"I'll call up a flight pattern," Lauren offered.

"I'd better go check the weather," Bruce said. He waved at Tesa and got a

smile in return. "See you tomorrow." Meg and Tesa moved to leave the

infirmary. As they passed

Lauren, the tech smiled and said plainly, "Have fun, Tesa."

"
Our stuff
'
s in the hall," Meg signed to her companion.
"You'll meet Thorn planetside." She watched as Tesa sorted through unloaded

equipment for her belongings.
Hope that meeting goes better than this one

did!
Meg thought.

Thorn Albaugh watched the shuttle, the
Patuxent,
soft-land
silently on the

hillock
'
s small pad. He touched the sound nullifiers nestled in his ears.

They
neutralized all noise on
Trinity, even the landing of a space shuttle.

Well, Meg,
he thought,
you still pilot better than anyone except ... Scott.

Thorn had just talked with the
Crane,
and Bruce had given
him an earful

about their new "interrelator
."
The weatherman had sounded totally
smitten with the new crew member and
had even made some remark

regarding Thorn's height, or lack
of it
. At five
feet six
,
as they still
measured it in rural Wisconsin, Thorn
was a bit shorter
than Bruce
. With blond, curly hair, a
t
ri
m, dark beard
,
and blue eyes surrounded by

laugh lines, Thorn thought of himself as a man who was comfo
rt
able in

his

54

surroundings
,
wherever they might be. He supposed that an a
tt
ractive
young wom
an
could have a powerful effect on an older m
an
like

Bruce
,
but at twenty
-
eight, Thorn didn
'
t expect to be easily
impressed.

As he reached the pad,
the
Patuxent
'
s
door unsealed.
A stiff b
re
eze blew
up as Meg emerged
. Thorn
was pleased by her appear
an
ce
-
she
looked good
,
even vibrant, but that was Trini
ty
, Thorn knew
.
She
loved this place as much as if she'd been bo
rn
here
.
And, of course,
the last time he'd seen her ...

He frowned,
remembe
ri
ng that he
'
d have to b
ri
ef Meg on eve
ry
thing
that had occur
re
d while she was gone
.
There'd been increased Aquila
attacks on the far weste
rn
flocks
.
But the bad news can wait
,
he
decided.

Meg gri
nned at him, then tu
rn
ed back to the interior of the ship.

Reaching in, she gave a h
an
d to the hidden occupant, steadying her

as she adjusted to the ch
an
ge in gravity.

The new crew member emerged ...
and kept on emerging. Thorn was

startled to realize how tall she was.

A vagran
t breeze blew her dark
,
wavy hair around her face; she

brushed it away
,
inhaled a lungful of air
, an
d looked around
.
"
I do
feel buoyan
t!
"
she signed to Meg
. Thorn
was surp
ri
sed at her e
as
e with
the l
an
guage
.
He'd been struggling with it for two years
,
and while he
could
re
adily interpret what was said to him, he always felt like a klutz

while signing.

Then the newcomer'
s eyes met his, and suddenly Thorn understood

Bruce
'
s teasing
.
She smiled shyly
,
and he realized that he'd been
caught gaping like
an
adolescent.

"This is our other biologist, Thorn," Meg signed to the young woman. "
The
Grus call him ..." She made a namesign that meant
"
relaxed
,"
and Tesa
laughed
.
Meg tu
rn
ed to Thorn
. "
This is Tesa
, fr
om StarB
ri
dge."

He signed a greeting in Grus, but it came out, "The fish are happy to see

you," an
d they all laughed
. "
I always did have a problem with g
re
eting
signs
.
Did Meg show you
her
namesign?"

Tesa shook her head,
while Meg made a rude face.

"She's called, '
First
-
One-There
'--'
Speedy
'
for sho
rt
." He fended off a
gl
an
cing blow that tu
rn
ed into a warm hug. "I got a call when you left.

They told me about the voders."

"
I'll bet they did," Meg signed.

"And," Thorn continued, "
I heard our new pa
rt
ner wants to see the
sunset
."
He suddenly felt a stab of embarrassment.

55

Tesa was deaf
,
and he
'
d signed the word
"
heard
."
Would she be
insulted?

Tesa noticed his abrupt change of expression. "
What's the matter
?
Did I
do something wrong?"

His hands fumbled. "I thought maybe,
when I signed `heard
,'
I offended

you."

Tesa rolled her eyes. "Oh,
that
.
Don't be silly
,
that's just an expression
.

I'm not sensitive about my deafness."

"Oh, good.
I, uh..." He trailed off awkwardly
,
feeling foolish again
.

You've been in the wilderness too damn long,
he thought wryly,
if
seeing
a strange woman does this to you!

"Tesa'
s deafness won't be forever
,
either
,"
Meg was signing. "Once
the First Contact
'
s confirmed
,
she c
an
have that problem corrected
."