“I know that very well, Thariinye. I also know now, from hard past experience, that any transmission we send may endanger this planet. If Khieevi are out there, we will not let them know our current location. It is simply too dangerous. The evacuation ships must be prepared, and steps taken for all Linyaari to escape the planet, if necessary.”
“Again?” Thariinye said. “Where will we go this time? And what about Acorna-she and Aari are out there near the source of the message. They sent it to us, in fact. Do they not deserve to know what we’ve learned?”
“As soon as possible I will consult the aagroni and make the decision as to where we must go. Dear boy, I know this is difficult for you to understand,” Liriili said. “But you simply must trust my judgment. We cannot send transmissions, and that is that. I will not put this planet in any further danger, no matter -what. If anything else pertinent comes in, let me know.”
Thariinye ended the transmission with an exasperated snort. “I can’t believe that! Can you?’
“From her? Sure,” Maati said. “The question is, what are we going to do about it?”
“We?” Thariinye asked with maddening superiority. “We will do nothing, youngling. I, however, am going to borrow one of the ships from the spaceport, and fly it to wherever I have to go to so Khornya will know how much danger she and her friends are in, and how much hope there is that Aari’s parents are still alive. And then I’ll rescue your parents. If Khornya and her friends want to come along, well, so much the better.”
“I’m going, too.” Maati said.
“No, you’re not.”
“I am, too, and you can’t stop me.”
“I can, too. I’m bigger, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“As if you’d let me forget. But if you try to go without me, I’ll tell Liriili what you’re doing in time to stop you.” “You wouldn’t do that. You -want to save your parents and your brother and Khornya as much as I do.”
“More,” Maati said firmly, crossing her arms across her small chest. “That’s why I’m going. So you don’t mess it up.”
“So I don’t-”
“That’s what I said. My family have been spacefarers for generations, just like yours. I will do fine in space. And you need backup. To get it, all you have to do is teach me the controls. Two will be better than one. I think we should leave right now.”
“In this storm?”
“The ships are built to handle worse. Once we leave the atmosphere, the weather won’t be any problem, will it?”
“It’s easy to see you haven’t had the parental discipline you need.”
“At least I don’t tell the same lie to six different girls and expect them all to believe it and like me afterward.”
Thariinye didn’t say anything to that, and Maati didn’t need to be able to read minds to know she’d won.
“Come on, then. We’ll take the Nilkaavri. I’ve been checked out on her already and she’s loaded and fueled and ready to go. We can be out of here before anyone can stop us.”
In her quarters, Liriili mentally followed Thariinye as he and Maati boarded the Nukaavri and prepared for take-off. She was not ignoring the threat of the Khieevi. But if the information from the piiyl was correct, their enemies were at the far end of the galaxy-weeks away even in the worst possible extrapolation of risk, and with many likely targets between them and the Linyaari to slow them down. Tomorrow-today, actu^ty, as it was early morning now, she -would send another, rnore trustworthy messenger than Maati to the Ancestors-one could control. She would ask for another translator, one e would hand-pick for discretion, and when Thariinye’s find ings were either verified or modified, then would be time enough to send runners to the general populace, to alert the spacefarers, possibly even to prepare the evacuation ships if necessary.
But at present, she felt sure the Khieevi did not know where the new Linyaari homeworld was, and she had protected their position by disallowing all outgoing transmissions from narhiiVhiliinyar. Becker’s vessel was hardly a Linyaari ship, and once the troublesome Maati and Thariinye had joined the ConSor they could all look after each other.