“Oh no,” Miiri said. “We bathe very carefully after our laboratory work.”
“I’ll bet MacKenZ does,” Acorna said. “The ship still reeks horribly of Khieevi when you first board it, no matter how many times horns purify the air. That shuttle has the stench hardwired into its structure, I believe.”
“I’ll go ask him,” Maati said.
She returned a short time later holding a peculiar looking object at arms length in one gloved hand, while she held her nose with the other.
“I guess I’m not old enough yet to purify it,” she said.
“Good. Don’t anyone else try to erase the smell till we can show the vine beings what it means,” Acorna said. “Now then, set the thing down, Maati, and let us all allow ourselves to react as we would to a Khieevi with it-fear, disgust, horror, anger, feel them as hard as you can and send. Work yourself up into a sweat if possible.”
They all did as she suggested. Aari grew particularly rank with sweat and the stench of fear so that even she could smell him, though usually the Linyaari had only a pleasant odor, if any.
The vines shook and trembled at first and then all at once they swept past the people and converged on the Khieevi object, pouring sap over it, almost shooting the viscous fluid from their stems and blossoms until the thing was entirely covered.
“They get it!” Thariinye cried. “They understand.”
“Either that or they’re simply acting from self-protection,” Liriili said.
“Maybe we should make a holo of the Khieevi to show them?” Maati suggested.
“If they communicate by scent, they’ll know the Khieevi -when they smell them, and apparently they know what to do with them too,” Melireenya said.
“We need our collection bags back,” Kaarlye said.
Acorna frowned. “Perhaps they’ll understand now. Try to take it back. They know we are afraid of the Khieevi and they have probably noticed that -we can’t exude sap as they can. That might be clear enough to them-we fear something they have a defense for that -we don’t.”
Kaarlye reached for the sack and met with no resistance as he reclaimed it and then Miiri’s from the vines that had been curled protectively over it.
“Back to the original problem of the holos. I suggest that we simply go to the various holos and ask the plants to spread apart where they are. We will have to work on suggesting that they remain that way until the Khieevi are among them.”
Neeva shook her head. “The initial problem isn’t the main question now. With beings as intelligent as these, we have no right to sacrifice them to spare the Niriians, or ourselves for that matter.”
“So, let’s show them the piiyi,” Thariinye said.
“If they can’t see it, how can they judge?”
“Can they smell it?” Aari asked. “Becker -was complaining of the smell of the piiyi. We still have the capsule in which we found it. Perhaps the smell of that will convey information to the plants that it does not to us.”
“I suppose it’s worth a try,” Acorna said. “Though I hope we’re not giving them the wrong smells.”
Thariinye and Aari duly boarded the Condor and emerged with the piiyi. They were trailed by RK, who ignored the smelly organic communications device to sniff the plants, after which the cat turned his hoisted tail to the nearest vine and, with a mighty shudder of his magnificently furred appendage, let fly a bolus of eau ^e chat that momentarily overpowered the scent of the flowers. The vines bent down and for a moment Acorna feared they would perhaps attack RK, but they seemed instead to be bowing to him.
“Look!” -Maati cried. “They recognize his scent! They know he’s a sacred temple cat! It’s like he’s blessed them!”
Neeva wrinkled her nose. “If that is the blessing of the sacred temple cat, I should hate to smell the curse!”
The piiyi was attached to a portable scanner and played for the plants. The vines reacted to nothing until the Khieevi appeared on the piiyi. Then, to everyone’s surprise, the plants sprayed the piiyi with sap.
“Well,” Acorna said, “they clearly recognize the Khieevi. Even when Captain Becker behaved aggressively toward the plants, they didn’t spray sap at him or us, but just the image and the klacking of the Khieevi cause the plants to attack.”