“Yes,” Maati said. “Khornya’s foster fathers talked to her about it and she didn’t want to talk, Karina Harakamian can’t read her mind, Thariinye said he knows she -won’t talk to him, and she thinks I’m just a kid and can’t understand. But I 9o. I understand they are both being dumb not to talk to each other. They don’t really need to talk to some third person because neither of them will believe anybody else. They need to talk to each other. Aari needs to talk to Khornya and Khornya needs to talk to Aari or they won’t believe it.” She shrugged. “Not even a longnosed male could help.”
“Maybe there’s a way for that to happen, kind of,” Annella said slowly.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Markel asked.
“I think so. Do you think we could pull it off?”
“Maybe. It can’t hurt to try anyway. Hafiz isn’t going to care. He probably ‘will even find a use for them later.” “What?” Maati asked. The other kids looked at the two Starfarers as well.
“Come with us to the holo lab. We’ll try to show you. It’ll take a while, though.”
In the days that followed, Becker staggered around the ship humming marching songs. While Nadhari was on duty, RK stayed on the ship. She was on duty a lot, but still found time almost every day for a little visit. Becker was chronically surprised that she really seemed to like him, and the Corufor.
And of course, Mac was conducting, under Becker’s guidance, an extremely critical security operation. He could now receive signals from the main fleet, although he could not yet send them. While Mac was working, Becker regaled him with cute stories about Nadhari. The captain figured if he was going to be crazed about the woman, the android -was the perfect party to hear his jabbering. That way he wouldn’t make a fool of himself to anyone who -was likely to gossip.
He was just getting to the part where Nadhari, in a fit of passion, had inadvertently reintroduced him to somersaults and handsprings, when Acorna arrived, looking bemused and distracted, but as usual, determined to be useful.
“Any luck with the corn unit, MacKenZ?” she asked.
“I have had some contact with the main fleet. They are wondering where this scouting shuttle is. They apparently re ceived some communication before the crash onto the blue planet. However, these beings are on the whole unperturbed by peril to individual members or even vessels, from what I have learned from our captive, from what Aari has been able to tell me of his experience, and from what I have gleaned from their communications.”
“Where are they? What are they doing?” Acorna asked urgently, hunkering down beside the thoroughly exhausted Becker and Mac.
Acorna looked down at the corn unit, still mounted on the control panel, and at a mess of other hardware from the shuttle. “What did you do with the rest of the shuttle?” she asked.
“Smells like Khieevi,” Becker said. “Without you and the others on board, the smell was enough to gag a maggot. Maybe the smell w