Aan looked puzzled. “Why would I read veterinary books, Joh? If ‘Riidkyii’ “that was as close as Aari’s Standard could come to pronouncing Roadkill’s name”becomes sick, Acorna could heal him. We have no need for the invasive measures described in those books.”
“Damn good thing, too,” Becker huffed. “The problem with using invasive measures on ol’ Riidkyii is he can’t get it straight who’s the invader and -who is the invadee. We were both short a few bits of choice anatomy after that little adventure. Luckily, Roadkill and I eventually got put back together, courtesy of the Linyaan.” He turned to Acorna and said, “While we’re on the subject, you know you’re welcome to the library, too. Princess. Anytime.”
“Yes, Captain Becker, that is very kind of you, but I already accessed most of the reading selections you have available during the time I lived with my uncles and guardians. I was raised by humans unlike Aari, who had no previous exposure to human culture until he met you. So I won’t be using the books. The vids are another matter. However, I regret very much that we have only vid goggles available to view the films. It would be such fun if we could all view them together.”
Becker gave her a sly look from under his brushy eyebrows. Her psychic powers had been increased while she lived among her own people, but she didn’t need them to know that he understood what she really meant. Teasing, he said, “Of course, really, only two people oughta watch at a time because somebody should be on salvage watch.”
He knew that she wished to share the books and vids with Aari so that he wouldn’t spend quite so much time alone, and so that they would have something to enjoy together. She blushed a little. “I simply thought it would be more companionable.”
“Yes, Joh,” Aari said, “And, as far as salvage watch goes, you once performed all the ship’s duties alone, and your metabolism requires that you sleep for long periods. You must have let the ship’s computers take over occasionally then. You could certainly do so now. I do not see the difficulty of sharing these vids.”
Becker chuckled and shook his head. “What is it with you guys? Mutiny? But, okay, “we‘11 keep an eye out for something we can convert to a full screen setup for vids instead of the goggles.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Acorna said. She believed Aari would be much better off if he didn’t spend nearly all of his time on his own. He had spent years alone in a cave on the deserted planet Vhiliinyar, hiding from the Khieevi who’d tortured him, before Becker had found and rescued him. Aari hardly knew how to speak to people anymore. And every time he disappeared while she was not on ‘watch and Acorna decided to go to him to try to initiate a conversation, Captain Becker always seemed to have some task he needed her assistance with or some errand for her to run. RK, too, tried to deter her. His claws and piercing cries could be quite eloquent, even to one who possessed no higher understanding of cat language than vulnerable skin that could be spoken to with fang and claw. She sensed her friends were possessed by some sort of male protectiveness toward Aari. She was sure it -was not a reasoned response to her actions, but she was hard-pressed to understand it. She meant her fellow Linyaari no harm, and sought only to lead him to a deeper healing than had been necessary with the wounded she had previously treated.
She was also as perplexed as she “was amused by Aari’s “literary disguises,” as Becker called them. They were funny and sad at the same time. As he adopted the headdresses and costumes of various characters in the books and vids he was exposed to, Aan looked less like a maimed Linyaari and more like an interesting, if rather oddly dressed, human. Of course, she herself had at times donned disguises that covered her horn and feet so that she could pass for human, and it had been a useful skill. But in Aari’s case, she sensed a huge chasm of loss underlying his attempts to be someone else. It was as if he no longer considered himself fully Linyaari. The horn transplant the doctors had attempted on narhiiVhiliinyar had not taken. A living horn transplant from a close relative might be possible with a specimen from Maati when she was older, but could not be attempted just yet while her horn -was still growing. They’d have to wait until she’d reached full adulthood before they could risk harvesting enough tissue for a successful transplant for Aari.