“It’s not genetic then, as coloring is among humans?” Acorna asked.
“Not the white coloring, no.” She said, “Since the evacuation, when many people who would have preferred to retain their original pigmentation lost it, being starclad has come to be considered, at least among some circles, as an abnormality that should be addressed. Our researchers are being asked to study it as a ‘condition.’ The last I heard, they had postulated that the change is caused by a combination of factors: the deprivation of natural light during a typical space voyage, which results in the destruction of certain photosensitive pigmentproducing elements in our skin; and the lack of certain nutrients in our diet which are only found in plants native to Vhiliinyar, and which will not grow successfully in hydroponics gardens. We can store the plants in seed form for transport to suitable new environments, of course, but during the space voyage, we simply have to do without them, with the resulting effects on pigmentation. Between the two processes, Linyaari spacefarers lose all coloration in their skin during the course of a typical space voyage.”
Acorna looked down at her own arms and hands, trying to imagine them red or black or any of the other colors she saw around her. “Will I change colors now that I’ll be in the sun and eating the right nutrients, then?”
Acorna imagined, in rapid succession, herself in each of the colors she saw on people around her, then herself with bright purple skin and a violet mane. Everyone nearby was clearly listening in, in spite of what Neeva said was polite. There was a scattering of laughter around her, and a few frowns. She deliberately broadcast an image of herself rainbow-colored. Conversations all over the meadow stopped and the laughter turned to embarrassed coughing. Even the frowns looked puzzled, and more people stared at her with politely quizzical expressions. Hmm.
Neeva laughed. “You can see, Khornya, that you‘11 need to learn to refine your range when you send thought-images. Some of our people have no sense of humor, and they will now think that you are not one of us at all, but some strange secondcousin to the Linyaari who started life as a-what is the little lizard from those vids? The one who changed colors?”
“A chameleon,” Acorna said, blushing. “Can I send an apology?
“Perhaps it would be better to leave well enough alone for now,” Neeva replied, still amused. “Otherwise, they will see your blush and think you are trying to tell them you were originally pink. But in answer to your question, sister-daughter, once starclad, always starclad. The varicolored Linyaari you see here are younger than you are, born on narhiiVhiliinyar since the evacuation.” She sighed and stood up. “You know, I haven’t spent a great deal of time on-planet since shortly after your parents disappeared, so perhaps the experts who see being starclad as a disease are now close to finding a ‘solution.’ Perhaps I could return to being gray with spots if I wished. As it happens, I most emphatically do not wish to. I like what I am.”
Acorna chewed thoughtfully on one last mouthful of the cinnamon-flavored grass. She caught several frankly annoyed stares and thought less strenuously. She was getting the distinct impression that it was rude to chew and broadcast at the same time. Oh dear, she hadn’t been here long at all and already she was afraid she’d get a reputation for unfortunate behavior. It was hard fitting in when she didn’t know the rules… .
She lowered her voice and moved closer to her aunt, and tried not to think too loudly. She was beginning to feel rather overwhelmed. For one thing, while no one was deliberately sending to her, under the vocalized chatter and laughter she was aware of a constant buzz of random thoughts. For another thing, even though her aunt had told her that the evacuation had happened after her parents and she, as an infant, had left Vhiliinyar for their pleasure cruise, somehow she’d thought narhiiVhiliinyar would more closely resemble the place she saw in her dreams-that wonderful land with rolling fields leading to snow-capped mountains, with crystal clear rivers and streams cascading into waterfalls and pooling into emerald lakes and ponds when they weren’t winding through green fields and wildflower-filled meadows. Nice, cuddly, furry animals drank from the waterways and birds darted everywhere.