“If you think,” Calum went on, his anger apparent in his acid tone of voice, “that a lousy defence system is going to stall us another few months, you’re crazy. Crazy!” And he scissored his hands to emphasize his denial.
“Why we should require a defence system,” Acorna jumped in to support him, “so far beyond what was originally designed for that class of ship, I do not know.”
“Is not sensible to send you so far without every possible consideration taken for your safe return,” Mr. Li said,
“We have communications devices that can reach a habitable system soon enough to summon help if the long-range missiles, the mines, the warheads, and the laser cannon do not dissuade a pirate,” Calum went on. He was seething with resentment.
“First”-and Acorna held up one of her blunt, two-jointed digits – “what could a ship the size of our scout possibly have that anyone would want?”
“You,” Pal said in an unequivocal tone.
“Second,” Acorna said, ignoring that, “the built-in weaponry already installed allows us to defend ourselves against ships with three times our capability. …”
“Not to mention our built-in speed,” Calum interjected. “Why, that drive could outstrip the fastest drone ever manufactured. And that’s saying something.” He gave an extra nod in emphasis.
“Third, Uncle Hafiz has supplied us,” Acorna continued, “with so many identities and drive-variation signatures that anyone looking for us from one port of call would never recognize our ship in the next one. And he has already taken long enough to supply such multitudinous identities!”
“You, Acorna, are valuable for so many reasons and to so many people,” Pal said, his tone almost as angry as Calum s had been, “that of course House Harakamian desired to support you with alternate documentation and drive-emission camouflages.”
“Nineteen of them? Requiring six months to develop? To be any safer, I would have to be dead already!” Acorna said, unusually sarcastic for her characteristically gentle self. “You can stay
here, safely, and let Calum find your folk,” Pal said, desperation creeping into his tone.
Acorna straightened her narrow shoulders, tossing the magnificent mane of silvery hair behind her. “These are my people we are trying to find. How will they know that Cal is on a genuine search unless I am with him to represent myself? We know so little about my circumstances.” She shook her head sadly. Her brilliant silvery eyes filmed over, ever so slightly, with the melancholy that was deepening within her daily, almost drowning her with an urgent need to be resolved. Sometimes, at night,
she was nearly overwhelmed by the intensity other need to find her own kind.
“Why was my life pod evacuated from the ship in the first place? Who did it? Enemy or friend? Why was it done? To save me or to destroy me without trace? Why have no vestiges of my kind been discovered with all the explorations that are being undertaken in every direction of this galaxy? “
“That’s another point,” Gill said, speaking for the first time and squeezing Judit’s hand in his big one. “You may not even come from this galaxy. The search could take decades.”
“Decades it could be,” Delszaki Li said, sadly nodding.
“Oh, Mr. Li.” Acorna leapt from the chair she was seated in and lowered his float so she could take his almost useless right hand in hers and stroke it lovingly. “I will not tarry a moment longer than necessary to hurry back to Kezdet and you. You will receive a message the moment we have found my home world.”
“I know this, Acorna,” Mr. Li said in a gentle, understanding voice. He nodded as if he were patting her hand, an action he could no longer perform.
Acorna bent her head, touching his hand with her horn, wishing she had the power to eradicate completely the wasting disease which slowly consumed him. She could, and did, ease his discomfort. But she need not stay for that; there were medicines which did as much as she could to alleviate his pain. And she was more and more “urged” to begin the search. Before it was too late? The phrase sprang into her mind. Startled, she looked up at Mr. Li’s black eyes, wondering if he had a vestige of telepathy. But she saw nothing other than his real love and concern for her.