Another long silence before she returned to say, “Permission to land granted. Prepare to be boarded upon docking.”
The Com)or was forced to land in a field outside the regular port, as all of the docking bays were hollowed into deep ovals, the wrong shape for the ship’s alien tail. Becker sent down the robolift. He was busy talking to Aari and didn’t notice RK scooting out down the emergency cat flap chute. The cat depressed the exit mechanism himself and landed neatly on the deck of the lift, thereby forming his own greeting committee.
Aboard the Condor, Aari was letting Becker know that he was just as glad the inspection committee was going to come aboard instead of the other way around. He was seemingly as afraid to meet his people again as he had ever been of the Khieevi.
Becker turned on the outside visual and saw Roadkill being lowered with the robolift. Four of the white unicorn people, three females and one male, and two brown male ones plus one small female spotty one, stood below watching as the cat joined them. The little spotted one clapped her hands but was held by one of the white females, while another gently reached onto the lift to receive RK, who jumped up to meet her. While the “women were occupied, the white male and the two brown ones climbed onto the lift. They did not look happy about it.
In the middle of the night, Thariinye appeared in the flap of Grandam’s pavilion, insisting that Grandam, Acorna, and Maati all rise, dress for a long walk, and hurry with him to viizaar’s pavilion immediately.
When they got there, VHzaar Liriili’s eyes showed white all around the pupils, and Acorna could smell her fear, strong and goatishly acrid.
Grandam asked, “What in the name of the Ancestors is wrong?” None of them asked why the problem couldn’t wait until morning.
“An alien ship is entering our atmosphere,” Liriili told them. “It refuses to transmit visuals, but the person who initially contacted us claims to be Maati’s brother Aari, who “was missing at the time of the evacuation along with Maati’s other brother, Laarye. You know as well as I do, Grandam, that it’s absolutely inconceivable that anyone escaped the Khieevi or the destruction of the planet.”
Acorna cleared her throat. “I escaped.”
“What?” Liriili asked and Acorna read her clearly to mean, “How dare you interrupt?”
“Everyone presumed all were lost when my parents’ ship exploded, but I escaped. Perhaps Maati’s brother did, too.”
Maati, who had never known her brother, glanced agitatedly from one of the adults to the other, her sleepiness completely overcome by the excitement.
“I believe it is a trick,” Liriili said.
“How can that be?” Grandam asked. “No one knows of Aari and Laarye except a few of us.”
Liriili shook her head violently. “Everyone we have sent into space has disappeared without so much as a hailing,” she said. “I can’t help but believe they have come to harm. If they haven’t actually fallen into the hands of the Khieevi, then they’ve run afoul of some other race, one that seeks to know us. Our people may have been interrogated for anything that would get the captors past our defenses.”
“Yes,” said Grandam. “That may be true. But it may also be true that somehow Aari has found his way home. Though I can’t think how.”
“In an alien vessel with a very bad-tempered alien with an atrocious Linyaari accent, according to Saari, the duty officer at the space port. Here is a tape of the transmission.”
She played it for them.
“That’s a human!” Acorna said.
Liriili glowered at her. “I thought that might be so. One of your people. Who is it?”
“How should I know?” Acorna asked. “It doesn’t sound like any of my friends.”
“It doesn’t?” Liriili was surprised. Acorna was a little amused in spite of herself. The viizaar sounded like the old joke that -went, “Hi, I’m Mirajik. I’m from Mars.” “Hi, I’m Sarah from Earth Prime.” “Earth Prime? Oh, say, I have a friend from there. Do you know John Smith?” The vllzaar seemed incredulous that since Acorna knew some humans they would not be the same ones currently on the “doorstep” of narhiiVhiliinyar.