The attention of every ship was focused inwardly, on the target, though in many cases in this particular formation, individual ships were distracted by a substance brought onboard by disabled shuttles and wounded crew from the battle with the vine world. The substance was as intractable as the Khieevi themselves, creeping, infiltrating, oozing over any and all surfaces, and where it met with susceptible carapace or Khieevi exoskeleton, burning and eating all that it touched, growing ever more rapidly as it fed. Much like the Khieevi. Very much like the Khieevi.
The ships that had been infected and remained within the swarm did not request assistance from the other ships. They did not know exactly -what was weakening them and causing them to suffer, but they knew that weakness -would be met with elimination, so they gave their suffering to the Young and carried on as usual.
Nine Klackt am) Seventy-two Klick<) had just returned to the outermost spiral ring when its hull imploded and the bridge was filled with burning, clinging yellow sap and the high pitched eeee's of the crew.
Nine Klack Seventy-two Klackd and Nine Kiick^, on the other hand, had six crewmembers in various stages of being devoured by sap. When it "This is like shooting ducks in a barrel," Nadhan complained, but not unhappily. "More like shooting pool," Becker said. "Lookit that ricochet!" "Somebody call for Ryk O'Shay?" the corn unit asked. "I'm right here with Cap'n Glen in the Hudson IT sapship Bananas. And we read you, wing command! One of the bugs just slipped on one of our peels and crashed through the Khieevi inner formation taking out, oh, maybe ten or twelve of its little bug buddies, and each of them bumped off at least ten more apiece. "It hardly seems sporting," Captain Glen opined. "And I -wonder if we aren't wasting the sap. Whatever they're hit with, it looks to me as if it's their own tactics that are defeating them. They seem to be totally unprepared for an attack from outside their formation." "That's a roger, Cap'n Glen," Becker said. The scan scope on the Ifrit showed a long view of the Khieevi formation. "Au contraire, ma capitaine," broke in Andina Dimitri of Domestic Goddess Intergalactic Cleansing Corporation, manufacturers of a multitude of cleaning products and providers of the most comprehensive housekeeping and interior design services in the Federation. "We've been compiling statistics here and according to our figures, the ships hit with sap shells hit three times as many of their companion vessels as the ships hit with conventional ammo. The sap shells are demonstrably superior." "This is the Condor calling the Ifrit. Come in, Ifrit," the remote link crackled. "Aan! Acorna, we're kicking butt here. Wish you were here." "Joh," Aari's face on the corn screen -was both serious and hopeful. "Khornya and I are taking the Condor to find the AcaDeckt. My sister just sent us the coordinates." "Oh, good, I'm glad they're okay," Becker said. "They're not okay, Captain," Acorna said. "They're held in a Khieevi tractor beam. Maati is afraid they're being taken to the Khieevi homeworld. But the Khieevi haven't touched them yet." "Mr. and Mrs. Harakamian?" Nadhari asked. "How are they?" "Fine, except Maati says Karina has a lousy singing voice. Calum was teaching the kids Gill's drinking songs, Maati said." "I'll pass it on," Nadhari said. "Keep us posted on the coordinates of the Khieevi vessels." Acorna's voice was unsteady when she asked, "Do we- know how the people on the surface are doing? Any idea what happened to Grandam?" "Something happened to Grandam?" Becker asked. "I forgot you wouldn't know," Acorna said. "All of us felt it. I think maybe she-she's gone." "We'll check it out as soon as possible, honey," Becker said. "Nadhari wants to shoot something so we gotta go now. Give me those coordinates again," he said. She did and they signed off just in time to hear a very staticky call from Hudson IT Bananas. "What the devil!" Captain Glen called. "Wing command, *we've been hit!" "Fall back!" Nadhari cried, as a missile exploded to the port bow of the Ifrit. "They finally shooting at us instead of the Linyaari?" Gil asked. "Cloak and shield, people" Becker said. "Do it now." The mosquito fleet obeyed the command, leaving the space surrounding narhii-Vhiliinyar to the Khieevi, but still the firing continued. The spiral of ships, formerly as tidy and symmetrical as a water ballet, already had gaping holes torn in its pristine formation from the crashes. All pretense of order vanished as the ships on the lower layer fired upward, the ships on the upper layer fired downward, and both hit the ships in the intermediate layers, which crashed. Fire blossomed and ships disintegrated into thousands of pieces, buffeting the shielded ships of the makeshift MOO fleet like a meteor shower. "Holy smokes," Ryk O'Shay said. "Would you lookit the fireworks." "Fireworks hell," Becker said, his voice thick with longing. "RK, wouldja look at that salvage, and us without the ConSorV Nadhari snorted, "The Khieevi apparently decided what we threw at them was friendly fire-no longer so friendly. I don't know how they could have figured the crashes were deliberate as well but it looks as if they did, and good riddance. They're saving us the trouble of killing them by turning on themselves." "I like that," Adina said. "It's economical." "Banaruu, how bad are you hit?" "I think we've contained it for now, Ifrit, but we'll need a tow back to base." "Hang on. This *will be over soon from the look of it." It was. In a matter of less than an hour, hundreds of Khieevi ships destroyed each other. A few managed to flee the scene. With the ships gone, however. Decker could see what was left of narhii-Vhiliinyar. The planet's surface, once a study in blue-green landscape and charmingly colored cities, was now a smoking black, cratered wasteland. The Condor's computers found every shortcut between itself and the Acaoecki. Mac, no longer troubled by the cacophony from the fleet, easily picked up the signals from Fourteen Klacfu an<) Two Kticfu and its cohorts. "They have injured aboard, Acorna," Mac said. "And they are returning to the homeworld-the captain of the limb, as the six ships are referred to, is attempting to precede the remainder of the fleet to the homeworld to appease those he calls "the Young" with the sacrifice of the AcaSecki's personnel." The long-range scanners had enabled to Conclor to stay a safe distance from the limb of Khieevi ships without detection, and now Aari asked, "Shall we close on them, Khornya?" "Hmm, not yet, I think," she said. "Mac, let us know if you can get the coordinates of the homeworld from the Khieevi vessel-or at least some idea when we're close enough that we have an idea where to locate their homeworld before we free the Acaoecki." "Yes, Acorna." Mac said, and returned to his post at the Khieevi shuttle's corn unit. Maati continued to send the coordinates every hour. (Lots of the kids are sleeping now,) she said. (I told Calum and Hafiz that you were behind us and Calum says please don't get caught. I told him you had sap shells and he's worried you won't use them because of us Linyaan being pacifist and all.) (A minor technicality in this case,) Acorna said as cheerfully as possible. (Mac can use the launch controls and he is no pacifist. But I suppose this is one case where even Liriili might be glad Aari and I are somewhat alienated from mainstream Linyaari culture.) (Hmph!) Maati sent a picture of herself snorting and giggling (Are you kidding? If Liriili thought it would save her, she would pull the toggle herself.) (I think you're right about that.) (Khornya? Do you know any more about Grandam yet? I didn't even say goodbye. Do you think she might think I ran away from heri I'm glad I found my-Aari's and my-folks, but Grandam is-Grandam was my real family, you know?) (I felt -what you felt too Maati but I don't know any more about it. We'll just have to go to narhn-Vhiliinyar when you're free and find out. Captain Becker says the Khieevi mistook MOO's attacks for some kind of internal warfare and turned on each other and blew each other all across the quadrant. I could tell Captain Becker was slavering over all that salvage.) (He if coming now, Maati. RiiS-Kiiyi if coming, too,) Aari said. (You thought-talk to RK?) Maati asked. (Yes, but you, know him. He doesn't Lit ten to me or anyone else. But we have hao a special relationship since I helpeo heal him on Vhiliinyar. Don't tell Job. He gets jealous. But 'RiQ-Kiiyijust scratched at the ()oor of my mino. He wants you, to know he is coming an9 he will claw the eyes out of the Khieevi ani) spray their sockets.) Maati giggled. And after a while she said, (I think we're getting nearer. The Khieevi just came back on the corn screen even though I scared him off once with the sap. He's showing that-you know, Aari, that vid of you from the piiyi, to frighten us again. But we turned the sound off. Nobody speaks Khieevi anyway and many are sleeping now. Calum's songs are very energetic and involve much stomping, clapping, and hollering. He wore himself and everyone else out.) (I missed those versions,) Acorna said. (Or at least the stomping and hollering arrangements. Gill did sing me an Irish lullaby or two.) As they spoke, they narrowed the gap between themselves and the Khieevi limb until they were within firing distance. (Calum says you should know that he thinks each of the ships have a tractor beam on us. But I think at least three of the ships are dead already.) (That's what I call good news and bad news!) Acorna said. (But I have an idea. Tell Calum to be ready to accelerate and fire upon the Khieevi as soon as the connections are broken. Then to put up the shields and cloak and take you all away as fast as possible.) (I don't think he will leave you.) (He must to save the children.) (They will all feel safer with you, Khornya.) (That's touching but not helpful. Just tell him, Maati, and wish us all luck.) She went to Mac's station and asked him, "Can you use the Khieevi shuttle's controls to remotely operate controls on their ships?" Mac examined the controls and said, "No, Acorna. I cannot find such a mechanism on the shuttle." "Oh," she said. "Hmm. There are six ships with tractor beams locked onto the AcaSecki." "I could try to send them a command to release the ship," he said. "Three of the ships are dead," she told him. "But if we fire on them to break the beam, I'm afraid 'we might damage the Acaffeclu." "Perhaps the other Khieevi ships in the limb *will have a remote mechanism to control the tractor beams of the dead ships," he said. "I suppose there's no harm in trying." He transmitted command-style Hacking and klicking using the identification code from the mother ship of the shuttle. Four ships fell away from the Acaaecki at once and when he repeated the command, so did the fifth. But the sixth ship sent back a message saying, "This is the driver of the ship designated Fourteen Klaclu aru) Two Klicki). How is it that you escaped the Planet of Doom, Fifty-three Klaclu am) Seven Kliclu, when most of our shuttles were lost?" Mac shrugged. "What do I say?" he whispered. Aari had joined them and suggested, "Respond with this message," and he gave Mac a series of klacks and khcks to transmit. The last ship immediately released the Acaoecki, which shot away from it and fired a round at each of its captors. Three of the ships were hit at once and flew to bits but the other three maneuvered out of range and returned fire. By then, however, the Acaoecki had cloaked and shielded, as ordered. "That worked," Acorna said. "What does it mean?" "I have no idea," Aari said. "Except that it is not very polite and those in charge seemed to say it when they were particularly annoyed-although with a Khieevi if was difficult to tell, of course." The other three ships accelerated away from both the Aca<)ecki and the Condor along the same route they had been folio-wing, and were out of range before Aari and Acorna could return to the bridge. "I am picking up strange signals, Aari," Mac said. "They do not sound like any of the Khieevi transmissions I have heard before." Acorna and Mac heard a higher pitched sound, containing klicking but also something that sounded more like "snip snip" than a klack. "However," Mac said, as klick-klacks began transmitting and new blips appeared on the scanner, "ThoM do. And they are homing in on us. Fourteen Klack) ana Two Kllclu is transmitting data regarding our position." "I think it's time to sap Fourteen Klaclu ana Two KUclu," Acorna said firmly. "They have caused enough trouble for one journey." The driver of Fourteen Klachf and Two Kllckd -was in agony once more. Behind him the debris of four ships of his limb blew apart. He alone had realized that Fifty-three KlacLf and Seven KUdu was behaving in an irregular manner. But when the driver called him an eater of his own eggs, he thought the driver must be of very high rank, as such an insult to any but the lowliest inferior was an invitation to be devoured. Thus had he been tricked into releasing his prey. His only hope now was that he would leave the nestworld alive once more. And then that last vain hope also was eaten. Another of his crewmembers had become infected while tearing off the legs of one of the previously infected members. Now this crewman crawled up to the driver while the driver was arguing -with the false driver of the shuttle from Fifty-three Klack Meanwhile, signals arrived from several returning members of the swarm. "Deserter!" their klicks and klacks said, more or less. "The swarm has perished and now you will perish as well." That was the message from behind him. And just ahead, on the nestworld, the Young were clamoring for their prey, demanding it be brought to them. On the -whole, it seemed easier to oblige them after all. The driver of Fourteen Klaclu anc) Two Kliclu raised his acceleration and shot for the surface of the nestworld without bothering to initiate a landing procedure. "He crashed it!" Mac said. "Fourteen Klackf and Two KUcLf crashed his vessel onto the surface of the nestworld. He killed some of the Young. The others seem to be-from -what I can tell, swarming over the dead to feast upon them." "At least it seems we won't have to worry about destroying innocent children when we sap the nest," Acorna said. "No," Mac said. "But you had better sap them fast and leave. The Khieevi ships behind are gaining on us." "Khieevi ships to your starboard stern," Calum said. "We'll cover you, Condor." "No!" Acorna said. "Take the children out of here, Calum. Now. You can't risk them." "This is Wing Command Ifrit," Nadhari's crisp and authoritative voice came through. "You heard the lady, Acaoecki. Move smartly from the field at once." "Do it," Becker's voice seconded the motion. "We got 'em in our crosshairs, Calum. Vamoose and don't let any salvage hit you in the stern on your way out." The rest "was a bit anticlimactic for Acorna and Aari. The squad from the MOO fleet closed rapidly on the few survivors from the horde's self-destruction and demolished them with a combination of conventional fire and sap shells. The majority of the sap shells were saved for the nestworld, where the Young had already begun to die from the sap oozing out of Fourteen Klaclu and Two Klick. "Dimitri, Glen, and Giloglie each keep your wing here until you're sure it's over," Nadhari commanded. "Don't worry, Nadhari," Andina Dimitri said, "I've just the cleanser to take care of this mess." "Acorna? Aari?" Becker asked plaintively. "I don't suppose you could pick up any of this salvage on your way back to MOO, could you?" For the first time since the Linyaari inhabited narhiiVhiliinyar, hordes of people of other species joined with the Linyaari and the Ancestors. It had taken much imagination and very precise navigational memory to find the site of Grandfather Niicari's grave. It had once been marked by being located a few steps from the back flap of Grandam Naadiina's pavilion but now all pavilions were little more than pools of molten ash in the lake of such ash that had once been Kubiilikhan. Neeva swallowed hard and spoke, "Friends and clankin, we are gathered to lay our beloved Grandam, mother, protectress, and wise counselor to our many generations of Linyaari, friend to the outsiders, to rest beside her lifemate, our Grandfather." Maati was weeping quietly, supported on one side by Aari and Acorna and on the other by a dry-eyed but solemn-faced Thariinye. Miiri and Kaarlye stood behind their youngest, Miiri's hands resting lightly on her shoulders. Grandam looked so beautiful lying there. The char had been cleaned from her silvery mane, the lines were smoothed on her face, her hands resting peacefully, naturally at her waist. And her mouth was curved in a firm and exultant smile. She had not died in the fire, as it seemed when Maati and the other Linyaari felt first the fire and then the extinguishment of Grandam's life force. Grandam's leap at the fire had been a complete act involving not only her body, but also her extraordinary strength of heart, mind, and will, as she dragged the river waters from their bed to flood the fires threatening the scientists and the precious new species they had risked their own lives to save. Never had anyone done such a thing in Linyaari history or fable, as long as any of them could remember. But Grandam Naadiina had lived longer than any two-footed Linyaari and had grown in -wisdom and skill with every ghaanyi of her life. Unfortunately, her heart, which had grown in the strength of its love and kindness, had not improved structurally, and the strain of her final telepathic struggle to save others had been too much for it. "Those who -were with Grandam at the end said she wore the same smile you see here. Aagroni lirtye, do you wish to add something?" "I do," he said. His mane was very short and irregular where the char had been chopped off, and he had no brows or lashes. His skin was reddened and peeling, as was that of several people around him. "Grandam died as you were just told, saving me, my staff, and most important, the young we have been growing from cells of species lost with our own beloved Vhiliinyar. I understand that her passing was felt by her foster daughter Maati and Spacefarer Thariinye across several galaxies. I was privileged to be nearest to her at her death and received her last thoughts. They were of you, Maati, full of pride for your bravery in risking your life to save your family and friends, and for all of us, her other children, and most of all, for Vhiliinyar. Just as Grandam knew, somehow, that we would be saved, she also knew that the destruction of narhii Vhiliinyar was not the end of a Linyaari homeworld. Viife<)haanye-feriilt Neeva?" "I think Grandam would be pleased and proud now to hear the message brought by my sister-daughter, VueShaanye Khornya, called Ah-khorn-ah by those humans who saved her as an infant, and saved us from the Khieevi. Khornya?" Acorna gracefully extracted herself from Aari, with a last caress to his fingers and a lingering touch on Maati's shoulder, and knelt beside Grandam to kiss her forehead before standing, quite close to Grandam, and saying, "As some of you know, the Khieevi -were defeated by people my Uncle Hafiz brought into this quadrant in hopes that you -would trade with them. I -want you to know that when these people, merchants, tradespeople, learned that you were in danger, they hastened to help you however they could. Not all could destroy Khieevi. Like the Linyaari, many are good only at building, not at destroying. Dr. Ngaen Xong Hoa, in particular, has long sought to escape from those who would use the -weather-control science he developed for martial purposes. He feels a great kinship -with the Linyaari. "He, along -with the most expert terraforming specialists available in the Federation, have been brought to House Harakamian's Moon of Opportunity by Hafiz and Rafik Harakamian for the express purpose of helping us restore Vhiliinyar to its former life and beauty. Her voice lowered for a moment and her silver eyes were covered by their long pewter lashes before she resumed, "I do not recall having seen Vhiliinyar with my own eyes. But in my dreams, since I -was a baby, I have seen a beautiful world of rolling hills, snow-capped mountains, tumbling waterfalls and forests, and great tracts of delicious grasses. I am told that is what Vhiliinyar was like. "Grandam's final sacrifice, -which kept Aagroni lirtye and his staff's heroic efforts to preserve native species that would have otherwise been extinguished, was her last contribution to the restoration of this home I have never known, but many of you remember. Her first contribution, of course," and she smiled impishly, "Was to have her many children and grandchildren, all of us. "My adoptive fathers have requested me to ask you if the Linyaari would please direct Dr. Hoa and the other specialists in a joint effort to restore our ancestral home to us. For those of us who require the solitude and seclusion of a peaceful world, Vhiliinyar's location *will remain a highly classified secret. My uncles further propose that narhii-Vhiliinyar and Kubiilikhan also be restored as a trade base for Linyaari skills and goods, *where our people may interact freely with people of all planets and species so that we may each learn the good the other has to offer.