Part 11 (2/2)
I know that Humans have constructed small artificial worlds in s.p.a.ce, and even that a few Hlutr volunteers live in some of these strange habitats. Yet I am not prepared for the reality of Calmathis that meets my borrowed senses when I step through the airlock.
Shalit's people have a very acute sense of smell, so it is the odors and fragrances that come to me first, in a vast cacophony of seventies upon seventies of different scents. Then I stop, amazed, as Shalit's eyes focus on the odd place I have entered.
A world rises around me, a world of forests and cities, of lakes and beaches, a world with all the smells and sounds of a real planet. At once I pick up the song of this world, its music composed and performed by trillions of creatures: tiny viruses, insects, Humans, trees, schools of fish and countless other living things. Calmathis is no sterile construct of metal and plastic; Calmathis is a world.
I stand, four feet firmly planted on the ground, and stare at the unimaginable beauty of Calmathis spinning its lonely way through the Galaxy. Then, too soon, my reverie is shattered by the voice of a robot: ”Are you Shalit Kravito Ni?” The fluid Narbidran vowels sound flat in its toneless speech.
Shalit's mouth parts are extremely flexible and can easily handle the sounds of Human speech. ”I am.”
”Come this way, please.” The robot leads me to a large building of gla.s.s and plastic; soon I am ushered into a small conference room where several Humans stand. All but one of them wear the uniform of the Escen Hegemony. My senses are drawn to the other.
Her body is small and her dark hair short; at first glance I would think her a child. Yet I am sensitive to the disciplined music of her mind, and I know that this is no Human sapling -she is an adult, and one who, like Sten Koleno, has not lost the essential innocence of childhood.
The others defer to her; I see in their eyes and in their minds that she is the leader. Showing no discomfort at talking to an alien being, she says, ”I am Doku Tomich of Marcreni. I am a special agent in the Escen Secret Service. I bid you welcome.”
”May your days be full and your future bright.” It is a proverb of Shalit's folk, which springs unbidden to my lips. ”Although my form is that of Shalit Kravito Ni, in essence I am the Hlut Elder who stands in the wood behind the Palace on Escen.”
She smiles, yet her eyes are sad. ”I remember you, Elder. I played in your woods as a child nearly thirty years ago. You taught me the music of the trees.” She lowers her eyes. 'I'm afraid that time hasn't given me much opportunity since to listen to that music. But occasionally I imagine that I can still hear it.”
”It is there when you need it, Doku Tomich.” I dimly remember her now, a younger playmate of Sten's who visited often when she was very young. ”You departed Escen then, did you not?”
”My mother was amba.s.sador from Marcreni. She returned home in my fifth year. I was at school when she died on a diplomatic mission to Fekrein.”
Another Human interrupts her. ”Madame, time is short.”
She turns abruptly. ”Quiet. Among civilized folk, it is the custom to exchange greetings.” She looks back at me. ”Excuse me, these louts know nothing of the customs of the Scattered Worlds.”
”You were trained by the Galactic Riders,” I guess.
”In part,” she says with a sigh. ”When I graduated, a Human Galactic Rider arranged for me to study with the Ancients in their academy on Ny. Once I even visited Nephestal itself.” For just a moment, her thoughts sing with the eternal melody of life; then she quivers and the music is hut a memory. ”Those were happy times. But I decided I should serve my own folk, so I returned to the Hegemony.'
”You have the form of a Human child, yet you are adult. ”
”Through reconstructive surgery and hormone treatments, I keep the appearance of a ten-year-old. I specialize in crimes against juveniles, so this disguise is very useful in my work.” A fiery intensity underlies her words.
”Is there much...crime against juveniles?”
”Too much.” Doku spreads her arms. ”Drugs, kidnapping, abuse- and lately, worse each year.” In her mind there is a flash of memory, quickly buried: a man who called himself her father, yet hurt her unceasingly until she was old enough to leave home. ”And then there are the disappearances: over five hundred in the Hegemony alone just this year-and another six or eight hundred that we know of from nearby worlds.”
”Where are the children going?”
”I wish I knew. We've been trying to find out. Three dozen were tracked here to Calmathis, but the trail ends. My people have taken this settlement apart, and the missing kids aren't here.” She sighs. ”That's why this case is so vital. Fenelia Koleno's father is important; we have full co-operation from the Hegemony government. Plus your aid. If you can help us find Fenelia, then I hope we'll locate the other children too.”
”How can a thousand children be missing without the Humans finding them? Why do Humans permit this?”
”The Galaxy is huge, and even a thousand pairs of parents aren't much against that immensity. We need the resources of governments: authority to do computer searches, diplomatic immunity, military backup if we should need it. And we need the help of the Hlutr.”
”You have it, Doku Tomich. What is our next step?”
She glances at a computer terminal. ”We have one slender lead- one suspect: Nen Basilus. He's a solitary freighter pilot who makes an irregular run deep into the Transgeled. He's been very friendly with the children who hang around the port. He just might be our next link.”
”What do you plan?”
”Now that you're here, we can get started.” There is quiet determination in her mind...and just a trace of fear. ”You see, I thought I could pretend to be a runaway child, and you my pet. Then we'll see if Nen Basilus will take us to wherever the other children have gone.”
”And what then?”
”I wish I knew.”
The s.p.a.ceport smells of steel, old oil and electricity. It is an odd place, a domain of automata and machinery more than of living creatures. Yet there is a bizarre feeling in the air-almost as if the s.h.i.+ps, the robots who tend them, and the port equipment surrounding them, are struggling to be alive, yet forever doomed to remain inanimate.
Doku skips, and I follow at her heels. The machines sense her, and they move out of her path...in their own way, they are almost compa.s.sionately protective of their masters' children. Humans stand about the port, conversing or directing the machines; few of them take notice of Doku and me. We come to a corner, turn it- and a young Human man is before us, lounging next to the cargo dock that opens into the hold of his s.h.i.+p.
He is dark as Elders' sienna bark, dark as the good soil of Escen forests, dark from feet to head and clothed in fabric blacker still. His scent is heady, pleasant and rich, and his eyes are like bright twin stars in winter skies.
Doku nods to me. This is Nen Basilus. This is the man, perhaps, who took Fenelia away. The man, perhaps, who took all the rest of the Little Ones.
Where?
Nen Basilus smiles. ”Hi.”
Doku stops her skipping and grins back at him. ”h.e.l.lo. I'm Doku, who are you?”
”My name's Nen. Where are you off to in such a hurry?”
”No place special.”
”Say, that's a swell pet you have there. What is it?”
Doku drops to her knees and puts her arms around me. ”This is my Narbid. I'll bet you've never seen one of these before.”
”You're right about that. Where'd you get her?”
”It's a him.”
”Oh. Sorry. Where'd you get him?”
”I don't know. Daddy brought him home once.” She peers around Nen at his s.h.i.+p. ”Daddy brings home all kinds of animals. ”
”Where's your Daddy now?”
”I'm going to see him. He's . . .” she frowns. ”Someplace far away. I forget the name.” She waves in the direction of the settlement. ”He sent a robot to take me there, but I got away from it.”
Doku's performance is amazing. Even in the Inner Voice of her mind she has become a child; the sophisticated adult I spoke with is completely buried now under her childish persona, just as Shalit Kravito Ni's personality is submerged under mine.
Nen stretches, then crouches next to Doku and I. He runs his hand over my head, and I force myself not to start. ”He's very pretty.” He smiles. ”Why did you run away from the robot?”
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