The artisan smiled. Like her, and the majority of people in this pavilion, he was white-skinned and silver-maned. His features were not quite so regular as Thaarinye’s, however, and the skin of his face had a rather rough, dry appearance, with ridges where his goggles lay against his cheeks and brow, just beneath the horn. His hands were blackened, too, and his clothing speckled with pigment-purple and fuschia on the top layer, along with bits of glittery stuff.
He answered, “Her name was Niikaavri of Clan Geeyiinah. She didn’t find a lifemate till late in life, I understand, after she had been traveling in space, learning of alien technology and studying for many ghaanyi. She designed the first egg ship with the outer hull in the pennant of her lifemate, as a bonding gift. Her own pennant-ta da! -you see before you.”
“Odd that it wouldn’t have been one of the first,” Acorna said.
He wagged a finger at her. “Don’t you start on me, too. The truth is, she never knew what it looked like. Distinguished historical persons are often awarded a special pennant posthumously. This one is a fairly recent design actually not conceived until we left Vhiliinyar and came to this world. You do understand, don’t you, that besides beautification, outer hull embellishment has a very serious function as heat and friction shielding material?”
“No, I didn’t know that.”
That information and other new ideas she gathered as she talked to the technoartisans intrigued Acorna throughout her tour of the fascinating if baffling processes and techniques performed by the artisans. The most entertaining artisans were those who stamped the large casings and decorative moldings-they performed this function with both hands, equipped with a special glove that joined the fingers in a single block on the end, and feet, and their work resembled a kind of wild stomp dance that they did with great concentration and precision, but also with a touch of amusement at their own antics. Acorna clapped appreciatively and they bowed toward her before returning to their work.
In the next building, the artisans were busy designing flitters. “Oh, so you are going to get them?” she asked.
“Oh, yes,” the designer told her. “We have the prototype nearly complete. It’s non-polluting, and very beautiful to behold. Once its finished and we have customized the model, we will return it to Kaalin where it will be manufactured, then shipped back to us fully assembled.”
Acorna admired the design, which made a Linyaari riding in one of the airborne vehicles look as if he were a winged creature, the wings spreading out just behind the rider’s shoulders, at the joining of the clear overhead canopy with the body of the flitter. The wings were purely decorative of course, but decoration was no small part of technology to the Linyaari, Acorna was learning. Everything the Linyaari artisans made was stunningly beautiful.
Speaking of beauty, Thariinye “was quite a favorite with the younger females who worked in the compound. Acorna almost feared she and Thariinye would be asked to leave because of the disruption he caused among them. But the technoartisans seemed glad of the distraction. She spoke with many of them about their relatives or friends who -were studying or trading on other planets, and their worries were almost palpable.
When at last she returned to Grandam’s, leaving Thariinye to stroll away with a pretty technoartisan on each arm, it was dark already.
Grandam was not inside and Maati was already asleep. It took Acorna a long time to settle into sleep, and during that time Grandam returned and touched horns with her, acknowledging Acorna’s concern. “I was called out to another general council meeting, pet,” she said wearily. “We’re still receiving signals from the ships dispatched this morning, but so far none have identified the reason -why we are not receiving the more distant signals.”
The following morning Acorna tried to visit the homes of the people who had left their gifts at Grandam’s door the previous day.
She carefully gathered the nicest grasses she could find as a peace offering, then set out for the home of the young male she had grinned at. At the flap of his pavilion, she inquired if she might come to visit.