Part 15 (1/2)

”How does a forest like this come to be?” I ask Doku.

She shakes her head. ”Heaven is a big station with a small population; not all of the agricultural sections are needed for food, so some have been allowed to go wild.”

”And going wild, have developed their own infinitely varied world. Heaven is a treasure, Doku, for here life blooms where it never existed before.”

She frowns. ”Don't get too excited about it. We still have to get Fenelia and deal with Avidore.”

I wish I could ignore the awful determination that burns in Doku's mind when she gives voice to that simple phrase, ”deal with Avidore.” For I know what she intends: before leaving Heaven, Doku wishes to see Avidore dead. And I do not know if I can allow such a thing.

”We have to get to the meeting place,” Doku tells me. ”This forest is just a short cut.”

”Go without me, Doku Tomich. I will catch up. I must have some time with this new forest we have discovered. I must have time to commune with my brethren ” She looks into my eyes, impatient. ”I must also summon a s.h.i.+p of the Galactic Riders, if we are to escape from Heaven safely.”

”All right. How will you find us?”

”I have seen your map...and I can follow Robbie's song. Go await Nen; I will come after you.”

She is reluctant, but she has no answer for my arguments. ”All right.” She takes Robbie by the hand, and then they are gone.

I sit, and turn my attention to the glorious forest all around. Its music, the concert of living things, swirls like a fragrant mist about me and carries me upon its melody. In another instant, I have touched the minds of the Hlutr who watch events here at Karphos, and I am part of the grand communion of my people.

My first task is to call upon the Hluitr of Nephestal, who will in turn send a s.h.i.+p of the Galactic Riders to Karphos. Doku has planned for that s.h.i.+p to dock at Heaven so we can make a quick getaway with Fenelia...but I give instructions for the s.h.i.+p to wait in orbit nearby until I call.

For thrice seventy generations I have lived with Humans, cherished them and their children, spoken their language and sung their songs. Suddenly, I find that I do not understand them. Have they grown stranger, or have I? Before I came to Karphos in Shalit's borrowed body, I thought only of my Human friends on Escen and never concerned myself with the councils of the Hlutr which debated the fate of this race.

Now I am none too sure.

Brothers and sisters, guide me. These Humans are an odd people, an alien race that we may never know completely. What other peoples visit such atrocity upon their young...and what other young rise above their despair to find happiness?

The memory of the Hlutr is long, and our ghosts are always with us. We have seen much, on seventy times seventy times seventy times seventy worlds; worse than Karphos, worse than any perversion dreamed by Terra's sons and daughters. Worlds where intelligent creatures consume their young, publicly and with great ceremony, in order to prolong their lives. Planets on which breeding is happenstance and co-operation unheard of, where evisceration is the mildest of social interactions. There are societies based on degrees of pain and suffering, and others in which pity and compa.s.sion are perversions punishable by death.

What, then, are we to make of Karphos? Doku, I know, wishes that the Hlutr will destroy the world, send all its children back to their homes. Karphos is a bit unusual, but certainly not a crime that would warrant Hlutr action.

The key, however, is Avidore. While a world must be left alone unless its evil is too compelling, the Hlutr have acted to eliminate particular beings who are too warped to live in the civilized Galaxy- and will act again, whenever the need arises.

Mankind, the consensus of the Hlutr has decreed, must be spared. And I applaud that decision. Yet we have also taken it upon ourselves to help Man improve himself. If this means that Avidore must be eliminated from the Universal Song, so be it.

But help me, Brothers and Sisters, for I have never killed a Human before....

The dark of s.p.a.ce and the cool sound of the Hlutr song surround me; even on peaceful Escen, where my body stands in golden sunlight, I feel the refres.h.i.+ng coolness like the first breezes of winter. What must he done, will be done.

I am ready to face Avidore.

With the Inner Voice of seventy times seventy Hlutr concentrated in the s.p.a.ce around Karphos, Robbie's song becomes ever easier to detect; now I hear his call, relayed from Doku. Come, Elder, for Nen is here.

Bidding the magnificent forest farewell, I pa.s.s through a durasteel-framed door and follow the scent and music of Robbie's pa.s.sage.

They are waiting for me in a storage room just outside the agricultural region. Doku is anxious, Robbie placid...and Nen radiates a strange mixture of fear and elation.

”About time you showed up,” Doku says.

”I was in deep communion with my folk.”

Nen grunts. ”I'm a s.p.a.cer, and I learned respect for the Hlutr- but you'll have to forgive me if I say that there isn't time for that now. I managed to get in contact with Fenelia Koleno.” He narrows his eyes. ”You didn't tell me that she's so important.”

”I did not know, friend.”

”Yeah, well, she's moving up- way up. I think Mr. Avidore has taken a s.h.i.+ne to her. She's got a session with him this afternoon.”

His thoughts are confused and shadowed. ”What does that mean, Nen Basilus?”

He looks away. ”Avidore is going to have some fun with your girl...then she'll probably he sent down to the city to be a section leader or something. If Avidore likes you, you're set until you grow up.”

With a sneer, Doku says, ”Is that what happened to you? Did Avidore like you?”

”As it happens,” Nen answers without feeling, ”it did.”

”And that's why you're a pilot...and a recruiter?” Doku's derision flies outward in waves of the Inner Voice, making Robbie cringe.

Nen responds with cool anger. ”We can talk about that later. I told Fenelia to meet me here, and she'll be along in a few minutes. I thought you might want to plan what you're going to do.”

”Shalit, is that s.h.i.+p going to he here?”

I listen to the song of the Hlutr. ”A Galactic Rider of Raemkhar-Tapt is approaching the Karphos system even now.”

”Good. I say we grab Fenelia and take her to the port. Then when we're on our way back to the Hegemony we can send the Navy to take care of this place.”

”You don't know what you're doing,” Nen protests.

Then it is too late to argue, for the door snaps open and my little Fenelia stands framed against the light of the corridor outside.

She is a little taller, a hit more filthy, and the light of the stars s.h.i.+nes less intensely in her eyes. Yet from her innocent song alone, I would know Fenelia anywhere. Karphos has not touched that part of her that keeps her still a child.

I cannot restrain myself, on Escen I lift my branches and call for Sten Koleno. He answers in an instant, and weeps when I tell him his child is found.

”Bring her back safely, Elder,” he pleads.

”We do our best, my friend.”

”Who are you?” Fenelia asks.

Doku holds out her hands. ”Your father sent me, Fenelia. We've come to take you home.”

Then the pitch of Fenelia's inner song changes, teetering on the edge of that mysterious transformation that robs most Humans of their youth. ”I'm not going,” she says.

”Don't be silly.”

”I'm not going, and you can't make me. I like it here.” She takes a step hack. ”I'm going to tell Mr. Avidore on you.”

”You don't want to see your Daddy again?”