Kaarlye and Miiri led teams of volunteers in the harvesting of the sap. They brought containers, of course, but all the really needed was their own footwear and gloves, which collected plenty of the sticky substance as the people plowed through the vines.
Technicians carefully placed the drones that would transmit signals to lure the Khieevi away from the Niruans. These would be overlaid with holograms of Linyaari ships and pavilions being projected by other technicians while the programmed Linyaari holos began milling around among the holo-structures like so many ghosts.
Acorna found it quite startling -when she parted the vines with a small gesture to face herself on the other side of them, a self apparently kneeling to collect sap and murmuring oddsounding words. Acorna retreated two careful steps and the vines closed back over the projection.
“Hmmm,” she said to herself, and returned to where the ships that had brought the technicians, scientists, and equipment were almost totally wrapped in vines.
“Captain, I think I may have learned something about these plants,” she began.
“Yeah, well, save it, Princess. We got us a situation here. Most of the holos are being hidden by the vines. Except for the projections we can make from above, of the tents and the ships, and only the tops of them are showing, this is still looking pretty much like -what it is, a vine world. It’s going to take either some earthmoving machines or some heavy machete work to clear spaces for the holos and then these things have a way of growing back. The only good thing about it is that mowing a few of them down will produce more sap. But how it’s going to work for a decoy, I dunno.” He scratched his mustache in a thoughtful way.
“Wait, Captain. Perhaps that won’t be necessary. Perhaps we can communicate with them.”
The Captain looked at her as if she were insane. “Acorna. Darling. Sweetie. Princess. Honey. Excuse me. You’re a real bright kid, but they are plants. You eat them. You <)on’t discuss strategy with them.”“Perhaps not. But if you use heavy equipment or even machetes to clear the area around the holos, then won’t that defeat the purpose? Especially if the vines do not regenerate quickly enough in this area? Then the Khieevi will simply land in an area filled with holos, and once they discover that the bait is indeed, merely a collection of holograms, they will go back to the Niriians, or what will be worse for all of us, follow the projections back to the source and prey on the Moon of Opportunity instead.”The mustache bristled and Becker scratched it again. “OK. Guess we better have a council of war here.”Acorna made the same speech to Rafik, Gill, and via transmitter to Hafiz, orbiting the planetoid in the Ail Baba, one of his more modest vessels. Karina Harakamian, who had come along as the mission’s “spiritual adviser,” answered for Hafiz. “Of course, Acorna, dear, you are quite right to try gentle persuasion first. I will have the first officer transport me to the surface at once so that I may assist.”“How kind,” Acorna said, quite insincerely, but there was no point in hurting Kanna’s feelings. Fortunately, her new “auntie” was a mind reader only on very sporadic occasions, and those were never the ones Karina predicted or anticipated.At Acorna’s signal, the Balakiire landed beside the holos of the other Linyaari ships, some of them decorated with bunnies and flowers as well as the more usual rococo designs that symbolized the great families and heroes of the Linyaari people.Thariinye and Maati, who had been setting up the smaller holos and who had also noted the problem of the vines obscuring them, responded to Acorna’s mental summons, and Aari, who had been keeping her within sight as much as was possible, joined them.“I don’t suppose the LAANYE will be of any help here,” Acorna said. “But I think we must try thought transference with the beings on this planet.”“The vines?” Aari asked.“Yes,” she said. “It came to me while I was out among them that they may communicate by their scent. Remember, the first time we came here, it was almost overpowering.”