Acorna's Rebels Part 13

(Well, I think it was a cat priest. He lives in the wall now. Maybe he's sick. Maybe he's got the sickness and a fever and is out of his head. But before he roared, he was chanting something about the moon's eyes and the coming of the guardian guide. These people call us guardians, so between that and the roar...)

(It's a cat thing, I see,) she said. (You could have told me that at the time.)

(It needed sorting out. I was too caught up in the moment to translate. I would like to know what made him roar like that, though-maybe that creature we just saw?)

(Maybe,) she agreed.

She would ask Nadhari about it when they saw her again, and Miw-Sher as well, but for now she wanted badly to reach the Condor and fulfill her promise to create a vaccine for the cats. She and RK hurried onward, finally reaching the intersection of the street running perpendicular to the Federation port gate. She was three blocks further north than she had been when Miw-Sher raced her to the Temple.

A different guard stood by the gate to the compound. She threw back her scarf, announcing her name and t.i.tle.

"We were told you'd be spending the night at the Temple, Amba.s.sador," the soldier said, though her appearance, especially her horn, left no doubt in his mind she was who she claimed to be.

"I forgot something," she said.

"May I ask what, ma'am?" he inquired stiffly.

"My medication," she told him. It was perfectly true, after all.

She held his eye, and from the corner of hers, she saw movement low in the shadow of the gate as RK slipped by.

For a moment she wondered how she was going to reboard the Candor without the controls Becker carried with him, but the robolift was already on the ground when they reached the s.h.i.+p. Mac greeted them cheerfully. RK sniffed the s.h.i.+p thoroughly, reading the scents left behind by the Federation inspectors and rubbing his face against the contaminated areas to remark his territory.

(RK, I will be needing your a.s.sistance,) Acorna said softly, bending over to stroke him as he rearranged the scent of the captain's chair to suit himself.

He sat back on his haunches and licked his paw, then blinked at her as if to say, "Oh, you will, will you?" But did not communicate directly.

She sank into a cross-legged position on the deck and regarded him seriously. "Yes, that's right. You heard me tell Miw-Sher and the others the danger this disease may hold for future Temple cats and kittens who may become infected by the disease after we're gone. I want to make a vaccine that will allow the people caring for the Temple guardians to protect newcomers. But to make it, I will need to take blood samples from someone who has already been cured of the disease. I can't take the syringes and needles I need off-post to draw blood from the Temple cats, nor can I bring them here. I'm afraid that leaves you. It's fortunate you chose to disregard everyone's advice and left the post and contracted the disease yourself."

RK gave her an offended glare, his lips curling up over his fangs.

"Surely you won't mind a little needle p.r.i.c.k? It's no sharper than the claws you have been sticking into me lately."

The cat's tail jerked with agitation, but he accompanied her to the laboratory as if the whole thing was his own idea. He growled while she restrained him and drew blood from him.

When she released him, he drew blood from her, then strutted away, sat down at a safe distance, and preened himself as if he were waiting to accept a medal for valor.

Acorna touched her horn lightly to her scratch and said, "Fortunately, I heal quickly." She set to work.

When a sufficient quant.i.ty of the vaccine was ready, she prepared to return to the Temple. Mac said, "Are you forbidden to use the flitter, Acorna? I have prepared quite a nice flitter for our use when planetside."

"Thank you, but not this time, Mac. You heard what Nadhari said, didn't you? These people choose not to use technology readily available to the rest of the universe, and the Federation wishes that their choice be respected. Given the warlike nature of the people of Makahomia, I can almost concur that the limitations make sense. By the way, speaking of warlike, how are the Wats doing? You have been keeping them fed, I hope?"

The robot looked concerned. "Yes, Acorna. But they are restless. They had understood they were going to a new home and are... disappointed, I suppose... that this is not it."

"Hmm," Acorna said. "Well, the Wats certainly pose no technological threat to the Makahomians and they are warlike people also, not remarkably different from the people here. Perhaps the Federation would give them permission to immigrate here."

"It is possible," Mac said. "But I do not think they could fill out the paperwork. Lieutenant Commander Macostut had many forms sent to our computer. I filled them out to the best of my abilities and returned them, but I do not think the Wats will be able to satisfy the local inhabitants with their answers, and I have insufficient data about them to fill out many of the questions on the forms. Whether they stay here or not, I sense trouble."

"So the Makahomians want to know who we are, including the Wats?" Acorna smiled. "I can see where that might be a problem. Especially when it comes to formal doc.u.mentation. We might have to be creative. At any rate, I'll inquire with the local authorities later and see what I can do. I must get this vaccine to the Temple now. Please make sure RK remains aboard s.h.i.+p."

"Yes, Acorna."

But as Acorna was being lowered on the robolift, suddenly a furry projectile hurtled from RK's private exit and the cat rolled onto the floor of the descending lift.

"Shall I raise the lift again, Acorna?" Mac inquired on the intercom he had installed on the robolift. "The first mate escaped my grasp and I could not regain possession of his person without applying undue strength, which might have damaged him."

"We can try," Acorna said. But as soon as the lift began to ascend again, RK lightly leaped onto the ground and sat looking up at her, the scallop of his mouth broadening in a cat smile of deep satisfaction. "Never mind, Mac," Acorna said, laughing in spite of herself at the rebellious cat. "The first mate knows the risks quite well and is willing to take them. Who are we to restrain him?"

Seven.

At Kando's invitation, Becker and MacDonald followed the Mulzar out the gate of the Federation post. A sort of old-time carriage waited for them.

There was a low haze over the flat roofs of the city, and the red air smelled like smoke. When Kando knocked on the side of the vehicle's cab, a sleepy-looking monk poked his head out and scrambled up to the driver's seat.

MacDonald stroked the vaguely equine oversized goats that were hitched to the front, looked into their eyes, checked their teeth, and joined Kando, Nadhari and Becker inside. "Looks like those critters escaped whatever it is that's been troubling you anyway, Preacher," he said.

"In the midst of our curse, we are blessed," Kando said piously.

Nadhari's silence hung so heavily over the carriage that n.o.body, not even the effusive MacDonald, said anything until they arrived at the Temple, which was shaped like a cat.

Becker was feeling a little dizzy from the wine, to which he was no longer accustomed, and the b.u.mpy ride in the cart, not to mention trying to figure out what was really pa.s.sing between Nadhari and her cousin, and the cousin and Macostut. Acorna "would know that kind of thing. Personally, if it wasn't for wanting to consult with her and see how she was doing with the p.u.s.s.ycats, Becker would have made his excuses and returned to the Condor for the night. He had to get to work on his s.h.i.+p's computers pretty soon. Even though Mac knew a lot, the guy's programming was hardly competent to deal with all of the ins and outs of the delicate patchwork Becker had constructed to provide the Condor's, control and information instrumentation. Becker wasn't sure there was a man in the galaxy capable of it... except him, of course.

So he was understandably peeved when they arrived at the Temple and were told Acorna had left to return to the s.h.i.+p on an errand.

"What errand?" Kando sternly asked the little girl-was her name Shari something? Nah, but that was close. The kid was flushed and harried-looking, hugging a tortoisesh.e.l.l cat that would have been as big as RK if it wasn't so skinny.

She answered her boss in Makahomian, and Nadhari quietly translated for Becker and MacDonald.

"She said Acorna had to go to the s.h.i.+p so she could make a magic potion to prevent future guardians from acquiring the disease that has afflicted ours, even long after she has departed."

"You should have detained her, Miw-Sher," Kando said severely. The girl cringed as if she expected to be hit. Becker thought Kando was being too harsh. Becker knew it would take more than some adolescent cat priestess to keep his friend the unicorn girl from going wherever she wanted, whenever she felt like it. Of course Kando didn't know Acorna.

"I'm sorry, Your Holiness, but she said she needed to do it at once, for the future good of the guardians."

This time, Nadhari translated both sides of the conversation tonelessly and deliberately. Was she making some kind of point?

"But she might have been set upon," Kando told the girl. "You should have gone with her, at the very least."

"Oh, but she was safe. She had a..." The girl stopped, looking trapped.

"A what?"

"A way about her that none would dare trespa.s.s," the girl finished lamely. Becker had the funniest idea she had been going to say "guardian" or "cat" or something that amounted to the same thing as RK, his stalwart furry first mate, who should definitely not have been seen here. But the temptations of sh.o.r.e leave may have overridden RK's good sense. How else was his friend going to make Makahomian Temple kittens if he didn't get out and mingle? For a supposedly unsophisticated people, the Makahomians sure had a lot of rules. They should know better than to make rules about cats. He had only one cat, and he knew better than that.

The girl stroked the cat in her arms.