Before Acorna could reply, she saw Thariinye coming toward her and warm feeling or no, she stepped behind Aari, back into the shelter of Grandam’s pavilion. This did not seem to be the smart thing to do either as other people, couples, were disappearing into the nearest pavilions with an urgency that left no doubt that they were taking care of needs far more interesting than a wish to escape the rain.
Acorna turned away from the dispersing crowd.
Suddenly, the front flap of Grandam’s pavilion burst open and Captain Becker ran into the middle of the room, panting, the uniformed communications officer close on his heels.
He was shouting. “Okay, okay, I know I’m not allowed but this is an emergency! I need to find Aari and Lady AcorKhornya. Now! Where are they?” he demanded of Acorna, evidently not able to see her in the dim interior of the pavilion, darkened both by rain and out of respect for the ceremony.
“I’m here. Captain Becker. It’s me, Acorna. What’s the matter?”
Aari ducked inside behind her. “Joh?”
“I just got a Mayday on my remotest remote scanner. It’s from a ship called Shahrazcu), Lady Acorna, registered on a planet called Laboue to the House of Harakamian.”
“Uncle Hafiz!”
“Yeah, that’s right, Hafiz Harakamian. They’re under attack.”
“This is nonsense!” the communications officer sputtered as Becker’s arrival began drawing a crowd, including Liriili. “We picked up no such communication!”
“No, well, maybe that’s because you people don’t want anybody to know you’re here so you don’t look very hard,” Becker said. “But I have equipment that lets me pick up signals two galaxies away. Can you get somebody to sell me the damn fuel so I can go help them?”
“I will come, too, Joh,” Aari said. “My work here is done and Grandam is taking good care of my sister.”
“Me too,” Acorna said. She thought someone would protest but Liriili actually looked relieved.
“I will also come,” Thariinye said.
“No way,” Becker told him. “You make a crowd all byyourself, buddy. Unless you Linyaari happen to maintain a cavalry, which, since you’re pacifists, I’m inclined to doubt, all I want from the rest of you is refueling and we’re outta here.”
“Make it so,” Liriili said with great relief to the communications officer and to the spaceport personnel among the crowd. She didn’t bother to hide her thoughts, and Acorna and everyone else could read her clearly. Liriili was more than a little pleased to see the backs of the contentious Becker, and the troublesome Khornya. And Aari’s presence was, as she had predicted, upsetting to many of the inhabitants. He didn’t truly belong among normal Linyaari any more. Yes, offplanet was a very good place for them all, as far as Liriili was concerned, as far out into outer space as they could possibly go.
Acorna turned as she heard feet galloping up beside her. Maati called out to her to wait. She did so-there was no immediate need for haste. The Com)or -was being refueled with one of the several mixtures that would power it.
“I like diversity, in case you didn’t notice,” Becker said to the world at large since Aari was already back in the ship and Acorna had turned to meet Maati. The Linyaari fueling the ship did so quickly and efficiently but paid the human no undue attention. “The hatch is the Mytherian toxic waste chute, got the robolift off a Pachean tanker, and the nose cone is from a Nupiak asteroid breaker. It can take any one of a dozen different fuels and runs good on all of them or a mix.”
Maati’s demands drowned out Becker’s voice to Acorna. “I want to go with you!” she cried. “How can he leave again when I just got him?”
Grandam, panting a little, caught up with them.
“Maati, we’re answering a distress call. It will be dangerous. Your brother is going to help Captain Becker and I’m going in case someone needs healing,” Acorna said.
“I can heal, too!” Maati said. “I helped Aari. I did! He said I was the most help of everybody. I want to go into space, too, and be starclad like he is and you are, Khornya. Make them take me along.”