“Khornya,” Aunt Neeva said, nodding to the woman on the comscreen and relaying her thoughts to Acorna, “the vife^haanye ferlili is the mother of two handsome sons who have not yet found their lifemates. She regrets that she is about to embark upon a mission, but hopes you will feel free to call upon them for any assistance you need in adjusting to your new home.”
Acorna smiled and nodded at the woman again. No actual words had been exchanged between her aunt and the dignitary. Even across the vastness of space, it seemed that the senior spacefaring Linyaari could read thoughts. Acorna occasionally felt she was catching on to how it was done, but found the process frustrating even with people standing in front of her. Particularly when they responded to thoughts she -would not have voiced, given a choice. But her grasp of the Linyaari tongue was not yet complete and the crew of the Balakiire found the need to communicate with her in spoken words tedious. Neeva assured her she’d get the hang of things soon enough. But Acorna still worried.
And so -went her homecoming, with the space around her new home planet dancing with egg-ships full of Acorna-like beings, all of whom seemed curious about the formerly presumed dead daughter of the illustrious Feriila and the valiant Vaanye, all politely inquiring as to where she’d been all this time and what she’d been doing, all seemingly with unmated sons or nephews or widowed fathers and uncles, all shepherding the Balakiire into port and docking alongside her.
Acorna emerged from the Balakare behind her Aunt Neeva and just ahead of Thariinye to find the docking bay crowded with Linyaari, some even holding a banner aloft. Behind the uniformed Acorna-like space travelers streaming from their ships to add to the party, a mass of multicolored creatures similar in form to the spacefarers crowded onto the docking level, strumming, blowing into, pounding upon, brushing, and stamping a variety of musical instruments. The docking bay was filled with strange but wonderfully harmonious and joyous music.
Even before Aunt Neeva could explain, Acorna was overwhelmed with happiness. This was the welcoming committee. They didn’t even know her, and they’d brought the brass band and the welcome mat. Aunt Neeva gave her a hug.
“We are all so glad to have you back, Khornya,” she said, waving her hand to indicate the smiling Linyaari. Tears came to Acornas eyes as she nodded an acknowledgment to all those who’d turned out to meet her.
At last she would truly belong. At last she would no longer be an oddity. What a relief that would be. “And I am so glad to be here. Aunt Neeva,” she said. “I can’t tell you how glad.”
Aunt Neeva looked a little puzzled, an expression that seemed common whenever she was dealing with her niece. “But you just did, child,” she said. “You just did.”
Comdor lurched and shuddered and flung its captain and the human part of the crew-both parts consisting of one Jonas Becker, CEO of Becker Interplanetary Recycling and Salvage Enterprises Ltd. against the bulkhead. As quickly as Becker fell, he was released, and rose to the ceiling like a ballet dancer in slow motion, while the rest of the crew, twenty pounds of grizzled black and gray Makahomian Temple Cat, drifted past him, the cat’s extended claws grazing what remained of Becker’s right ear.
“Dammit, RK, have you been pissing on the GSS panel again?” Becker groaned. RK, whose full name was Roadkill, growled back in his version of a friendly purr. His claws were flashing in and out, blissfully kneading the air, and beads of happy cat drool floated up from between his formidable fangs. His good eye was closed in an excess of feline ecstasy. Becker had never seen a cat who loved zero G the way RK did-but then he had never seen a cat anything like RK before either. The cat’s stub of broken tail moved back and forth like a rudder as it floated by.
Becker gave the Gravitation Stabilization System panel a boot as he passed it. The force of his kick sent him soaring upward to bang against the console of a fighter ship strapped to the ceiling above the control panel of the Condor. There wasn’t a whole lot of room in his vessel to store cargo, and Becker utilized every cubic centimeter of extra space. This left him no soft place to land when, after a couple more shudders, the ship’s gravity stabilized and Becker and RK tumbled back to the deck.