But she had to excuse herself before she choked on the lump in her throat.
Maati made Thariinye close his eyes as she led him by the hand into the holo-lab. Opening them, he saw a number of the youngsters from the station grouped around Aari and Acorna.
He looked confused. “Is this some kind of an instructional meeting or what? Where’s Becker and the cat and your
parents?”
“Look closer,” Maati told him, now letting go of his hand and herding him in among the children. “Aren’t they awesome?”
He saw now that Aari and Acorna were standing in little pools of light. Neither of them greeted him and once in a -while, though very seldom, one of them would flicker slightly.
“Holograms?” he asked.
Annella Carter beamed at him. “Yes! What do you think?”
Thariinye scratched his chin and circled the two familiar figures. “Well, they do flicker sometimes. What are they? Tourist attractions?” “Noooo,” Maati punched him lightly on the forearm. ‘“Course not. They’re to, well, be go-betweens for the real people.”
“Go-betweens to what?” Thariinye asked.
“What’s the matter with you?” Maati demanded. “Have you gone soft in the head from too much easy living? Go-betweens to each other, of course!”
Thariinye groaned. “I was afraid of that. You don’t think it will actually work, do you? These things wouldn’t fool either of them for more than a moment or two if they have their wits about them.”
“That’s why we wanted your help,” Maati said. “You’re the one who made me think of it. How do we make it work?”
“Work?” he asked. “Why ask me? I don’t know anything about holograms.”
“No,” Maati said, “But according to you, you know all about loooove,” she drew the word out mockingly and he gave her a look that would have sent older and more susceptible girls running away in tears. She just laughed back up at him and the other children giggled.
“Of course I know more than a lot of infant younglings,” he said. “What is it that you need to know about it? And how does it concern your little holo dollies?” He flipped his fingers at the life-size holograms as if they were no bigger than his foot.
“We need to know what Khornya should say to Aari and what Aari should say to Khornya to get them together, of course!” Maati said. She did not seem to be getting the idea that she was a mere child being put in her place. She acted as if he was the one who was being stupid. He didn’t much care for it, but as her words sank in, he did see -what the children -were trying to do.
“Oh,” he said. “Well, she should tell him that she loves him and why and he-er-should do the same.”
“But how would they say it without sounding corny?” Jana asked. Maati and Thariinye had both been speaking in Standard for the benefit of the others. Maati’s Standard was quite good by now, he noticed, no doubt the result of her prolonged association with the other younglings.
A young male the others called Laxme tapped some keys on his control pad and the Aari figure swung toward the Acorna holo and said, in a comic mockery of Aari’s own voice, “Oh, kiss me, my sweetie pie,” and made sounds like hooves pulling out of a mud puddle.
Thariinye was indignant. “Stop that at once!” he said.
Laxme shrank back into himself as if he expected to be hit.
“He was just playing, showing you how it worked,” Jana said softly.
“I know, but Aari is a brave man, the bravest man my people have ever produced probably, and I’ll not have him and Khornya ridiculed, not even by friends.”
“That’s -why we wanted your help,” Maati said. “To make them do and say the right things.”
“What right things?” Thariinye asked.
“You know-to get them together. You say you’re this big expert on luu-uuve. So you should know, right?”
He glared at his former shipmate. “I know how to attract a girl to me,” he said. “But, uh-” he lowered his voice and spoke out of the side of his mouth so just Maati could hear, “as you’ll remember, it didn’t work with Khornya.”