First Warning: Acorna's Children

Chapter 22

LoiLoiKua appeared in space as a shimmering ball of aquamarine with a few tiny dots of green. Only one moon orbited it, and the water planet was close enough to its own sun that the star was much larger than Our Star appeared on Vhiliinyar.

The Nakomas was well equipped to make a water landing. Captain Bates had tried to insist that she pilot her shuttle, but Khorii pointed out that the risk to her from the plague was much higher than it was to a Linyaari and an android alone, and she was needed on the Mana. They would stay in close contact on the com so the captain could monitor their landing and progress.

As the shuttle set down, bearing only Khorii and Elviiz, the Linyaari girl had the odd sensation that instead of having spent a dozen sleep shifts between Maganos and LoiLoiKua, she had simply closed her eyes and opened them to see the vast ocean below her. The scenery had shifted since the Moonbase, but the melodious chant-song of the LoiLoiKuans almost seemed to flow steadily from the voices in the pool to those on the planet below.

"We who are about to die welcome you," they sang. The line was followed by a harsh, staccato phrase that meant "Enter at your own risk." Khorii heard their message clearly, although they were still too far out of visual range to see any of the aquatic creatures.

She was glad she had finally started reading thoughts, because the chant was not in the same Standard the poopuus used. They must have learned that or improved it once they got to the school. Elviiz, on the other hand, did not read thoughts but had a very sophisticated processor for interpreting languages.

He also had a built-in sensor suite that analyzed planetary environments. "The water is perfectly safe," he told her. "Except for the plague, of course, and the dead fish and other creatures. I imagine the atmosphere is quite pungent by now."

The poopuus had described their homeworld as having once had landmasses, large islands scattered across the blue-green waters. They spoke a lot of the crater reef, and Khorii saw what she thought must be it as they swooped in to land. Mountaintops poked out of the water in a long line, seeming almost to bisect the portion of the sea-covered planet visible to her.

Closer in, however, was another island and from it rose a large gold-speckled building, topped with many towers, some capped by square chunks of stone that looked like teeth with gaps between, some tapering to graceful points. Its main door was a huge arch, and its windows consisted of smaller arches. From one of the pointy towers flew a biohazard quarantine flag.

"I know what that is!" Khorii said, excited to recognize something from Captain Becker's books. "It's a big sand castle! Either the LoiLoiKuans or the Federation command here has a sense of humor, or at least they used to."

"Sand castle?" Elviiz asked.

"Children on Old Earth used to take pails and create them on seashores, modeling and sculpting them from wet sand," she told him. "Adults did it, too. Of course, that one would have to be made of more than just sand and water to do the Federation any good, but the form seems to be some sort of bow to traditional architecture. Are we getting a signal? It sounds weak."

"Intruder, you have been detected by the ASP, atmospheric surveillance program, and are commanded to return to space. This planet is under strict quarantine. Failure to comply constitutes an intergalactic criminal offense punishable by death."

"If the plague don't getcha, the Federation will, huh?" Captain Bates said over the com unit. The Mana had attempted to contact the Federation outpost before establishing its orbit around LoiLoiKua and dispatching the Nakomas to the surface, but had received no response. The only reply Captain Bates's remark drew this time was a somewhat weaker and slower repeat of the previous message.

"I don't think anyone from the Federation is home," Captain Bates said from the Mana.

Khorii tried to detect thoughts other than those within the song of the LoiLoiKuans, but found none. "Perhaps the plague got them already," she said.

"Probably," Captain Bates agreed. "Which means they're not likely to shoot us down anyway. Still, proceed with caution."

"What's that on the beach?" Khorii asked, realizing that what she had first thought was heavily flowered foliage was growing in an odd place, right at the high-tide mark on the beach. Insects swarmed around it, and it looked as if they were encased in a low-hanging cloud of some kind, full of tiny particles.

Elviiz was silent for a moment as he scanned the motionless forms, then said, "The remains of several dozen LoiLoiKuans, the blossoms of some mutant form of bottom-feeding frangipangi, seaweed, mineral deposits-shall I list them?"

"No, that's enough. You got good eyes, young fella," Asha said.

"Thank you. My father upgraded them for me just before we parted."

"I don't suppose they're just, you know, sunbathing or something?" Captain Bates asked as the Nakomas's cameras provided the Mana with a closer look, close enough that the rest of the makeshift crew also could make out the shapes.

"No, ma'am. They are without life." Elviiz's voice was calm as he relayed the information. "Certain aquatic mammals have been known to swim up onto the beach beyond the point where the tide can lift them back into the sea. They do this when they are dying or wish to die, according to my files."

"But we cannot be too late!" Khorii said. "I hear them singing. Some are definitely still alive. Quite a large number, judging from the volume."

As the Nakomas extruded the pontoons and outriggers that would stabilize it during the water landing, the ocean beneath them swelled into a series of rolling waves that fanned out around the shuttle.

Once the pontoons hit the water and Elviiz shut down the shuttle's engine, several heads broke the surface. Round benign faces, older than those of the poopuus at the moonbase, regarded the shuttle with a mixture of curiosity and dismay. Most of the creatures bore strands of white ribboned through their long dark hair.

She heard them talking among themselves, what they were thinking as well as what they said.

"Who do you suppose this is, some others fleeing the plague and seeking our help?"

"I hope not. We've little enough to give trying to care for our own. I can still hear the ravings of those young Federation troops as they burned with fever."

"Yes, and many tried to cool themselves by drowning in our water before we could reach them. A lot of protection that was."

An older female bobbed up to the surface and gestured with a webbed hand, shooing the shuttle. "You there, don't you know an intergalactic signal for plague when you see one? Go away! If you don't have the sickness, you could catch it from us. If you do have it, you may bring a mutant strain to finish off what's left of us."

"No, we won't. Really. I am Khorii, a Linyaari healer. Your children at Maganos Moonbase are friends of mine and are worried about you. They were all well when we left. The plague hasn't reached them. But they wanted me to come and help you."

"You cannot help us, KoriKori. We are dying."

"Yes, I can. I've already cured several people."

The woman looked at the others, who shrugged the water off their shoulders and nodded.

"Ah," Elviiz said. "They seem to be accepting you, Khorii. Note how they wave their arms in a graceful welcoming gesture, combining kinetic symbolism for diving and beckoning, followed by arms crossed over their chests to indicate welcome."

Khorii was already at the hatch, hearing the spokeswoman as she thought and spoke, though in her native tongue, saying, "In that case, come on in. The water is fine."

She took a deep breath and dived into the ocean. Just before she hit the surface, all of the onlookers dived deeper into the water, too. She opened her eyes to see them beckoning to her to follow.

"Come away from the island where the dead are laid to rest. It is very dangerous to be there."

"Yes, I know. Please take me to those who are. still sick."

"That is where we are going," the spokeswoman told her. "What do you know of this plague, young healer? Why does it kill my children and spare me? It is unnatural that children should die before their mother."

"It doesn't always affect creatures that way. On the ship in which I came here, only the daughter of two of the crew members survived. All of the adults died."

"It is not a natural illness. It goes against the pattern."

"That's why it's a plague, I suppose," Khorii said. "Do you know when and how it came here?"

"Yes. Raealakaldai, the Federation kahuna, brought it with him when he returned from his Federation council. He was very pleased to go and told us all about it. He was to read a paper on how he well he governed us, and the big council was to be on his homeworld. Or perhaps it was the next world over."

"Rio Boca, Nanahomea," said the old man.

"Yes, Mokilau, that is the name of the place. Rio Boca. Raealakaldai was from Paloduro."

"He was? That's where my parents are. The plague there is terrible, I guess."

"He caught it and brought it back to us when we tried to heal his sickness. He died, and so did my daughter and her mate. I hope we will not be too late for you to treat my sister's children. They live across the reef far from the house of sand. Of the great population that lived near here, all but a few of us ancient ones are gone."

"This is a good girl," an old male said. Khorii knew that he was old because he thought of himself that way, but she saw few of the usual signs of long life. His long black hair bore only a few threads of white, his skin was almost entirely unlined, but his cheeks were no longer round and his eyes were red, as though he'd been rubbing tears from them. How could you tell you'd been crying when you lived in salt water? "Look how our ocean clears an ever-widening path before her, as if strewing her way with flowers. All of the living fish, fry or old creatures like us, rush to meet us, anxious to swim here."

"I have on my purifier," Khorii said. "It's something our people know how to do. The same thing that lets us cure illness."

"A wonderful gift, to clean the ocean. Does your purifier make the dead fish and bodies drift to the beaches, too?"

"I don't think so. But if it cleans up the water enough, then you'll be able to see better what needs to be-uh-put to rest, will you not?"

As the water cleared, Khorii once more had the sense of many little things fleeing before her, then disappearing entirely. Were those the organisms causing the plague? Surely they must be, since she only experienced the sensation when she was trying to decontaminate something or someplace. It couldn't be all microorganisms her new awareness allowed her to "see," or she would be seeing spots before her eyes so much of the time that she might as well be blind. The universe was full of tiny things. Her new sense must have focused itself on the plague in the way that Mother's had once focused itself on the ore content of asteroids.

Though the water was wonderfully buoyant and had been refreshing at first, now, even though the LoiLoiKuans swam on the surface or just beneath it to accommodate Khorii's greater need for oxygen, she was overcome by a lassitude that increased the longer she swam. So tired. She felt as if the ocean was pulling the life out of her, and wondered if she could be catching the plague herself, but that was impossible. Still, the brighter and cleaner the ocean grew, the more tired she became.

"Don't know if I can go much farther," she said finally.

"We can pull you so you don't have to swim," the old woman said. "You just keep up here on the surface, put your hands on my shoulders, and I'll swim for you. A turtleback ride, like I used to give my little granddaughter, Likilekakua, before she was taken to that school you come from."

"I know her!" Khorii said.

"Tell her her grandmother, Nanahomea, misses her. How is she?"

"Well, the last time I saw her. The poopuus-/ mean, your grandchildren, have their own facility at the Moonbase with underwater computers, and they're doing really well. My cat Khiindi made friends with them first because they gave him fish."

"If you can help us here, your cat may have all the fish he wants."

"Are you hungry, with so many fish dying?"

"No, actually, we don't eat fish very often. Seaweed is more nourishing and easier to harvest. Are you still feeling tired?"

"Getting better, I think. Having my head out of the water helps."

A swell of water heaved toward them from the horizon.

"I'll leave you for a moment, my dear. I think my sister has come to meet us."

Khorii let go, and the lady dived beneath the glittering waters, which had become so clear that Khorii could see her through it, swimming away toward the swell. Khorii could not tell what, if anything, passed between the wave and Nanahomea.

In a few undulations Nanahomea paused, then flipped over and swam back to Khorii. Her smile was as broad as the horizon.

"My sister and all of her family come to greet you, KoriKori. In the past few hours since you slipped into our waters, the sick ones in her family have suddenly begun to feel better. No longer do they cough or bleed, or lose their food from their orifices. They feel well. They are happy. All wish to have a great celebration in your honor."

"That is very kind," Khorii said, "but actually, I am not feeling very well myself. I think I had better return to the shuttle."

Before I get any worse, she thought.