She made it halfway up one of the trees, and that was as far as she got. She felt around for handholds or footholds but found none.
Thariinye called up to her from below, “Keep going.”
“Can’t,” she said.
“Well, what do you see from there?”
“More trees. But I think the ones over that way,” she pointed to the west, “are on a hill, maybe. And there is some kind of clearing at the top. If we could go climb that hill, we could see more.” When she’d pointed, she’d let go of the tree with one hand, and transferred all her weight to her other hand. That put more pressure on her grasping hand and the frond she was holding broke. While she was searching for another, her feet bore too heavily on the fronds she stood on, and those broke as well. She slid precipitously down the trunk, catching her shipsuit several times on protruding fronds on the way down. It was a sturdy synblend and didn’t tear, but Maati wasn’t so sure the skin beneath the suit was as undamaged.
“It’ll take us farther from the pod,” Thariinye said with a sigh. “But that might be a good thing.”
“I don’t think we ought to talk so loudly anymore either,” Maati said. “In case the monsters hear us.”
(We wouldn’t need to talk at all if you weren’t such a baby,) Thariinye grumbled.
She punched him lightly in the side with her balled-up fist. (I heard that.) Then after a beat, (Hey, do you think we could contact Khornya and my brother mentally from here? Or maybe even my parents? I can do that, can’t I, now that I’m able to send and receive?) The last was thought quite proudly, and Thariinye received an image of a grownup Maati.
(Not if they’re still too far out in space or too busy to listen-engaged in battle with the Khieevi, maybe,) Thariinye sent a withering thought. Maati realized that this was a frequent behavior with him. The idea had not been his and therefore he was trying to make it sound “worthless.
(It doesn’t hurt to try, though,) Maati pointed out.
(Unless, of course, the Khieevi can read our thoughts and find us from them,) Thariinye said. (In case they folio-wed us down here.)
(Oh,) Maati said. (Yeah. Okay. I’ll shut up. Back to the hill, then.)
They were nearly there when they heard the -whistling, roaring sounds. They scrambled quickly to the top of the hill and found the clearing in time to see the wreckage of the Khieevi ship falling from the sky, splashing into a sea some distance from them. They could make out the -wreck of their own ship on the shore.
“At least if we lost our ship, they did, too,” Maati said.
“I suppose that’s some consolation,” Thariinye agreed. “The Khieevi ship was -wrecked-maybe Liriili can blame the Khieevi ror the whole mess, instead of me, if we live long enough to have to confess it.” And then he pointed. For once, even he was speechless. Maati could see why.
Also tumbling down from the sky, but in much better shape than the larger ship had been, was a small Khieevi shuttle. As it fell, two figures could be seen emerging from it, trailing some sort of membrane behind them that caught the air and sailed them gently to the ground.
Maati, seeing the bug-like creatures alive for the first time, even at a distance, was filled with horror and loathing. Tears began trickling down her cheeks as she looked up at Thariinye.
“They landed somewhere over there,” he said, pointing toward the beach. “So I think we should run in the opposite direction as far and as fast as “we can.”
“Yes,” she said, “But-but-Thariinye?”
“What?”
“If their ship is crashed and in pieces and only two of those creatures are getting out, does that mean the ConSor won?”
“We can’t take that chance, youngling, though by the Ancestors I hope it is so. We are no match for even two of those creatures. Quickly now.”
He didn’t have to tell her twice.
The Linyaari ship lay broken in two like a giant egg that had hatched its chick. It was nestled deep in a beach of aqua blue sand, beyond which cerulean blue waters stretched to the horizon. Wreckage from the Khieevi ship was scattered like bits of large and particularly ugly seaweed on the surface of the water and along the beach, carried in by the waves. Behind the beach was a range of blue dunes and, beyond them, the fronds of a forest of graceful fernlike trees beckoned the Condor to land.