“Maybe not, but she’s already attracted to Aari. We just have to have his hologram to encourage her, and vice versa. So what things should they say?”
“First of all,” Thariinye told her, “You’ll have to have the holograms appear to them after they’ve been sleeping for a while so that they’re groggy and won’t notice the shimmering.”
“That’s what we were going to do,” Annella said. “But they don’t shimmer that much.”
Thariinye ignored her. He was thinking hard. “I know,” he said. “I think I can find just the thing. Wait a bit.”
He returned about a half hour later carrying the book of ancient European literature Aan had been reading.
For the next several hours, Jana read aloud and the others argued the use of this passage or that, ‘while -Maati and Thariinye, with the use of the LAANYE, attempted to translate the agreed-upon phrases into Linyaari. Once they decided on the phrases, they had to program the holos to move properly.
“They should look seductive, but mustn’t touch a real person, of course,” Thariinye said. “They should lead Aari and Khornya to a real place together to continue in person …”
“Or a holo place!” Annella said, “None of the holo suites in the hotels are filled yet, since we haven’t had a single new guest, just the people who came with the caravan and they all have their own quarters.”
Mac’s performance and function had been greatly increased by his recent upgrades and education, and he knew the captain was pleased. Becker had puzzled him somewhat when Mac had shut himself down in the captain’s absence with Nadhari Kando. “I thought you’d keep working on the shuttle, Mac,” the Captain had said. “Not exactly a self-starter, are you?”
“No, sir, though I do shut myself down to conserve energy.”
“I want you working on that shuttle day and night, whether I’m here or not. So program that and don’t ‘worry about conserving energy. There’s energy to burn in this place and I don’t think Harakamian will begrudge you some if it saves our butts in the long run.”
“Yes, sir,” Mac had responded. And he had of course been following instructions ever since. If he could have felt regret, it was that now most of his social interaction was in the Khieevi fashion. He had repaired the transmitter some time ago, though he had not used it yet, as he had not been instructed to do so.
But he practiced, nevertheless, imitating, interpreting, assimilating, and integrating the klicking and klackings until he used them-if only to himself-quite as easily as he conversed in Standard and Linyaari.
He ‘was left alone a great deal these days. The captain and the cat spent increasing amounts of their time with the denizens of the Moon of Opportunity, particularly with Ms. Kando. Sometimes they had their get-togethers aboard the ConPor, but since Ms. Kando needed to be available to her staff, many times the three of them shared her off-duty time -with her in her quarters or in one of the hotel rooms available in the compound. Aari and Acorna were busy elsewhere as well, and the few times -when any of the Linyaari had come aboard, the initial smell, the noise emitted by the shuttle, its corn unit’s volume on high so Mac could hear it as he moved about the ship, seemed to distress them and they left again quickly, particularly when Mac accidentally greeted Aari with Khieevi klackings.
So it was that he was alone when he heard the ships sounding off, a roll call of attack, heard the staccato klickety-klackklack of orders passed from one unit to another. The essence was that the planet of Nirii, around which the fleet had been gathering, was now being attacked, the fleet swarming down upon it much as hungry insects were said to do on some particularly appropriate foodstuff.
Mac listened with interest. Had he been capable of it, he might have been excited. He was still listening when Becker returned.
“Hi, Mac, can you turn that damned thing down? It sounds like an army of tap dancers landing on a flat wooden planet.”
“Oh, no, Captain, nothing like that. The sound is simply that of the Khieevi invading the planet of the twohorned bovine beings. They are passing communications among their various ships, attempting to first conquer major cities and defense outposts, and to an extent prevent any possible escape by inhabit ants. Their efforts are concentrated primarily on the attack however.”