Acorna's Rebels Part 32

Miw-Sher woke with a start. "What? Have you found Uncle Tagoth?"

"No," Acorna said, and explained about Nadhari's capture.

"But we must find my uncle first. If the Mulzar finds him before we do, he'll know that Tagoth has betrayed him, and he will kill him."

"I don't think so, kid," Becker said when Acorna told him of Miw-Sher's concern. "I bet Edu's too focused on his goal to pay

any attention to a lone life form down there in all that desert. And if he does find your uncle, I bet Edu's just like us. He'll want your uncle to show him the way to this stronghold. I'm on Edu's tail now. We can see him but he can't see us, thanks to the Linyaari cloaking. If it looks like he's after your uncle, I'll take him down before he knows what hit him. He'll never lay a hand on Tagoth."

Becker was enjoying himself now, flying low and fast, tracking Edu's flitter and keeping pace with it, following it as closely as possible without overtaking it. The Federation vehicle's signal was strong and loud. "Remind me to promote Mac for thinking to put this scanner in," Becker said.

"Can you find a person on the ground with it?" Acorna asked.

"Yeah, but not when the rig's set up like this," Becker said. "Mac adapted it from the Condor's, array, and it's meant to have a few more toggles in the control apparatus that this little flitter just doesn't have. To get enough focus to pick up someone on the ground, it has to be recalibrated. If I do that, I run the risk of losing 'His Holiness' and Nadhari. d.a.m.n, I wish Mac had thought to install a couple of laser cannons on this thing too, but I guess that wouldn't go over big with the Linyaari."

"Probably not," Acorna agreed. Then she sat back and concentrated on broadcasting her thoughts to a specific mind out there on the desert floor. (Tagoth? Tagoth, this is Acorna. There's a Federation flitter with the Mulzar and Macostut aboard heading at top speed to the Aridimi stronghold. They have taken Nadhari prisoner. Please just think of me and concentrate on an answer if you are receiving this.)

But she heard no reply, nor did she sense that her message was reaching its target. She was not too surprised. Her telepathy, though highly developed, worked best with those she knew well.

"Are you trying to contact him with your mind?" Miw-Sher asked.

"Yes. I already tried, but it's not working. I'm sorry."

"I can do it, if I change. I can find him. But you have to land. I need to change my form and call to him - cat to cat."

"Miw-Sher, it's a bad idea to stop. We're pretty safe here in this flitter, and we have Edu under observation. The Mulzar already has Nadhari as a prisoner. We can't give him a chance to take us captive as well. If Edu can't find the stronghold without your uncle's help, then you'd play right into his hands by giving him the opportunity to capture you to use as leverage to ensure your uncle's cooperation in finding the hidden stronghold. Can you imagine what your uncle would do if Edu and Macostut threatened to kill you? Tagoth might be able to hold out against them if they threatened Nadhari or us, but not if they have you, too."

"They won't get me!" Miw-Sher said. "I can find his trail, and once I do, I can call him. Let me try. If we get to my uncle first, then perhaps the Mulzar won't ever be able to find the Sacred Lake."

Acorna couldn't see how anyone in a well-equipped flitter could avoid finding an entire temple complex, but then, Miw-Sher wasn't accustomed to flying in flitters. "He could find it," Acorna told her.

"Maybe, but with my uncle's help, we can certainly get there ahead of him to help the Aridimi prepare some kind of defense against him. Captain Becker could keep following the Mulzar, if he wishes to, after he drops me off. He could also come to my rescue, should I be captured."

"All right, you have a point," Acorna said. "We'll try it your way, but I'll go with you."

(Hmph,) RK said, rising and stretching, (I could do with a bit of a run myself.)

Whereupon Sher-Paw, Haji, and Pash all rose and stretched as if to say that they, too, wouldn't mind a bit of healthy exercise.

Grimla mewed piteously, torn between the two competing paths her Temple guardian duties required of her. She couldn't

allow her two-legged kitten to leave without her protection, but on the other hand, she had a litter of four-legged kittens to care for. What should she do? She had to stay with the youngest and most helpless of her charges. She did not think this was at all fair, but what was a mother to do?

Becker put his foot down, however. "Nope. This situation is bad enough. I'm not gonna try herding cats all over the desert in addition to all the problems we've got already. I'm not landing, and n.o.body is getting out."

"In that case," Acorna said, "it seems that the only alternative is to recalibrate your scanner. Excuse me, Captain. Allow me." She did this easily. It was one of those talents she seemed to have been born with, a talent that had constantly amazed her asteroid-mining foster fathers. "Now then. See if you can find Tagoth with the scanner."

"What if we lose the other flitter? "

"We know roughly where they are going, so we'll catch up with them before this is over regardless of what happens. And if we can find Tagoth, we'll beat them to the Aridimi stronghold. He's the only one among us who knows exactly 'where that is. So let's find Tagoth. Don't worry, I'll recalibrate the scanner for you as soon as we locate Miw-Sher's uncle."

Becker huffed and growled into his mustache. "You drive a hard bargain."

The cats settled back, though Grimla left her kittens long enough to groom Miw-Sher's fingers, comforting her.

The scanner was quiet for some time as the Condor continued on its course, and then suddenly a small dot began to show on the perimeter of the pattern, moving away. Becker headed for it. "I hope that's not a jackrabbit or some varmint out for a midnight run," he said.

But as they drew nearer, a visual scan honied in on the images of a large cat bounding across the desert.

"That's him," Miw-Sher said, leaning forward "It's my uncle!

I'll bet the Mulzar wouldn't realize it was him if he saw him in cat form. He doesn't know Uncle can change!"

Becker didn't seem to hear her. He was happily watching the scanner. "Doesn't that Mac do top-notch work?" Becker asked Acorna. "Isn't this great? Your guys can't even get visuals like this with the standard scanners you have in the flitters you've got on Vhiliinyar! I knew my scanners could find salvage lightyears away, but I never tried to find a moving guy on the ground while I was moving too. Yippee!"

But finding Tagoth was one thing. Catching him was another. Although he couldn't possibly see the cloaked flitter, he seemed to sense it. He looked up, then bolted in the opposite direction. Becker headed him off again. Again the cat-man fled, this time feinting to the left but taking off again in the direction he was originally headed.

"He thinks we're the Mulzar," Becker said.

Miw-Sher pleaded, "Please, land. I'll chase him. I'll get him to come to us."

"No," Acorna told her. "By the time we land, he'll be far away. We'd just have to load up and chase him again. If we keep this up long enough, we may wind up directly in the path of the Federation flitter ourselves, or we might chase Tagoth into their hands. I think we can find a better way to reach him. Here, link hands with me and call him -except call him as if you're speaking to me. I'll see if I can relay your thought. Maybe since we're this close to him, it will 'work."

They linked arms and Acorna carefully touched her horn to the girl's forehead. Miw-Sher's eyes widened, and she whispered, surprised, "That feels... nice. Not pointy and sharp or anything. It makes everything... feel better, even smell better."

Acorna smiled, but knew they had a job to do. "Shhh, concentrate. Talk to your uncle." But before either of them could seek to make contact, the Temple cats and RK pressed in on them on every side, reinforcing the catty side of the mental conversation.

(Uncle Tagoth, it's me, Miw-Sher. I'm in a flitter flying right over you. You can't see it because we're wearing a cloak that makes us invisible to the Mulzar and the Federation commander in another flitter, but we're here and we're trying to help you!)

The cat figure in the visual scanner kept fleeing.

"We're not getting through. Keep it simple," Acorna breathed to her. "Just tell him it's you in the flitter this time. Think of it as a mental shout. Captain, it might help if we uncloaked for a moment."

Becker nodded and Miw-Sher did as Acorna suggested.

This time the cat stopped and looked up at them.

"It's working," Becker hooted, and Acorna felt the flitter begin to descend. "I do believe he heard you, ladies. Thaaaat's right, big kitty guy, come to the flitter." The vessel landed on the sand with a thump.

Tagoth began losing his feline characteristics as he came to the grounded flitter. His ears, already flattened with alarm, seemed to melt back into his skull and re-emerge as human ears; his tail flicked once and disappeared. His muzzle shortened and his whiskers shrank to nothing and vanished, as did his claws and the fur.

"Oops," Becker said. "Watch it, fella, ladies present."

Miw-Sher was already holding out her scarf, which her uncle accepted, turning it into a sort of loincloth before climbing into the flitter.

"Where to?" Becker asked Tagoth, who seemed relatively unperturbed by this sudden change in his circ.u.mstances. He settled himself in next to his niece, looked around calmly, and shared quick cheek rubs with Miw-Sher and the Hissimi Temple cats. He admired the kittens, running one finger along their tiny backs.

Acorna repeated Becker's question to Tagoth, who pointed and said, "That way. Continue as you were going when you found me. I will say when to change course."