“Hmm,” Becker said, surveying his shipmate’s latest odd outfit. “You make me wonder if my old man might not have been part Linyaari. You’re sure finding your way to the planet wasn’t simple deduction?”
Aari looked puzzled. “No, Joh. We do not use footprints, types of mud, or tobacco ashes to do this thing. It is a matter of the mind.”
“Must be,” Becker said. “Acorna’s indicated the wormholes and black space with a precision that you don’t see on regular charts, given the instability of the features being charted and the dangers of getting close enough to map them thoroughly. Even got the whole wormhole system we ducked back through to blast Ganoosh and Ikwaskwan to kingdom come.”
Acorna glanced up from her charting and shrugged. “We were there. The notations of the holes and folds are roughed out in your notes, and made precise in my mind.” She paused to consider something else Jonah had said. “About your father-he is probably not part Linyaari. I do not think it is possible for our two species to interbreed. In the pictures you have shown me of your father, he certainly doesn’t look Linyaari, though I will admit his intuition about such matters as spatial relationships, as well as yours, seems to me to be similar to some of the psychic abilities our race possesses. I can certainly understand that, lacking a crew and managing all phases of your operation alone, as you do now and as your father did when you were a child, you did not take the time to properly collate and chart your observations. But, frankly, only psychic ability would explain how you were ever able to find anything in this chaos.” Her spread hands took in the mounds of papers, chips, and recorded tapes scattered around the console.
“I usually know which pile or computer file to access for what I need,” Becker protested. “At least, I did once,” he muttered. Then he added graciously, “But I’m sure it’ll be helpful to have it all nice and orderly.”
Roadkill jumped up on one of the piles of hardcopy and sent the papers into an avalanche that slid clear across the deck.
“RK, you silly cat, you already had your chance at these,” Acorna said, madly grabbing for the flying papers.
The cat chased the furthest sheets until they settled to the floor, pounced upon one and shredded it with his back feet, then abruptly lost interest and began washing his brindled belly instead.
Acorna bent down and shuffled the papers, somewhat the worse for wear, back into order.
“I’m pleased you approve, Captain. The task needed doing and it keeps me productively occupied.”
“Yeah, I guess you must have been pretty bored after you reprogrammed that junked replicator I had in Cargo Hold Two to make all my favorite dishes, so I wouldn’t have to eat cat food when I got busy, and after you and Aari turned Deck Three into a hydroponics garden for your own noshing needs, while you meantime inventoried and catalogued all my remaining salvage.”
“It was not so much, Captain. It’s not as if I am new to this sort of thing. I used to replicate food and help grow my own meals when my uncles and I lived aboard our mining ship. I also catalogued our specimens and assisted with charting. I like to be helpful.”
“No kidding! Between you and KEN,” he said, referring to the all-purpose KEN-6^0 android unit that they had acquired, more or less by accident, during the Condor’s last voyage, “the way he keeps the ship soooo-”
“Shipshape, Joh?” Aari offered. “I have been reading the nautical works of Robert Louis Stevenson, and that term is employed to describe a flawlessly maintained vessel.”
“Yeah, what you said,” Becker agreed. “Between you two and Aari, I could take up knitting or basket weaving in the spare time I got these days.”
“A very good idea, Joh,” Aari said. “You have some excellent references on crocheting, beadwork, handweaving, pottery making, and origami, as well.”
“You should know, buddy. I’m glad you’ve been getting so much out of the pile of old books I found in that landfill, not to mention the vid collection. But let me “warn you-steer clear of the do-it-yourself veterinary books.” Becker glanced down at RK who had one leg poised in the air and was looking up at him with suspicious, wide, golden eyes. In a stage whisper Becker continued, “I once tried some stuff out of one of those vet guides on the cat there. Bad idea. Neither of us came out whole.”