The Com)or had picked up more of the wreckage of the Niriian ship in the meantime, but very little of the equipment was intact.
All of them had been listening, even in their sleep, for a signal from the corn unit, but not a single -word out of it did they hear the entire time.
“Well, RK doesn’t seem to have any opinion about this, and normally I’d flip a coin,” Becker said. “But since I have a crew I guess I better ask-what do you guys think we ought to do?
“Do?” Aari asked. His voice was a little hoarse from disuse.
He and Acorna had been concentrating so hard on the translations he would have neglected to eat if Becker hadn’t finally become worried about his crewmates and tromped down to the hydroponics deck to pluck some greenery for them. He had no idea what a tasty or nutritious combination was composed of but figured if they’d planted something, it was supposed to be edible. They both took his offerings, nibbled abstractly, and kept translating. Even after Acorna was as certain as she could be that they had made good sense of the messages, Aari continued to go over and over them.
Acorna could not help but read the anxiety Aari was broadcasting as surely as the com system was not. Her head pounded -with the strain he was experiencing, as well as her own pain. She couldn’t usually read him literally, but this sense of anxiety was more of an emotional maelstrom spinning around him and enveloping her than a conscious stream of thought. Even Becker and the cat were out of sorts, all from dealing with the heavily charged atmosphere inside the ConSor.
Becker was continuing. “Yeah, what do you think we should do-you know, as in action? Here’s our options, the way I see it. Number one,” he ticked off the fingers of his right hand with the forefinger of his left. “We head on out of here, back to Federation space, and warn people about this. However, this area ain’t Federation and they aren’t going to come all this way uninvited by the locals. Two, -we can turn around and go back to narhiiVhiliinyar and ask ‘em face-to-face why they aren’t speaking to us. Of course, it could be that the Khieevi’s got their tongue-sorry, Aari,” he said. “In which case, we’ll hope we see some evidence of the damage before we reacu the planet and get our own derrieres in a sling or slings, as the case may be. If we do, we will return to option one and call out the posse. If we can round one up in time. Option three
appens if there are no Khieevi and everything is cool on the P anet. I kick some administrative heinie and make them prom ise never, ever, ever to ignore us like that again, no matter what. Or option four-we try to figure out what’s going on for ourselves, keeping our eyes open so we don’t get ourselves killed, and see what’s needed before we hare off and run for help. End of options, unless you can think of any others. Aari? Acorna?”
“Joh, we must go back to my planet,” Aari said. “They must know. The Niriians must be warned, as well.”
“Yes,” Acorna said. “You know, it i) possible we have gone out of range even for a delayed relay to narhiiVhiliinyar. There are several wormholes and space distortions between us and them, and we are. very far off the traveled routes where communications are routinely boosted at regular intervals. We cannot be sure they have received our broadcast. The likeliest explanation for their silence is that they have not heard from us. It’s essential that they be aware of the presence of the Khieevi in this part of the world, and also of the possibility that Aari and Maati’s parents are still alive somewhere. If the Khieevi are in the neighborhood, our people need to have the evacuation ships ready, and a plan to board them prepared. After we “warn the Linyaari, we should return to Federation space and alert the authorities that my people, who have been considering applying for membership, will possibly soon be under under attack by the Khieevi. The Federation has already seen the nature of the Khieevi-after the battle on Rushima they’re aware of the sort of creatures we are dealing with here-and know that they pose a threat that cannot be ignored. Also, we should consult with Uncle Hafiz and the others and ask them to prepare a new haven for my people, should it be necessary to evacuate, some temporary place where they may stay until the situation is resolved.”