The Starfarers Quartet Omnibus

by Vonda N. McIntyre

  “But we might be able to invite you into Civilization, now, after all!” Quickercatcher said.

  “Whoever controls the cosmic string — they must have realized we were caught up in a horrible misunderstanding, a dispute,” J.D. said. “Starfarer isn’t armed.”

  “The string control has some discretion,” Sharphearer said.

  “But not this much,” Quickercatcher said. “Never before.”

  “The string aside, disputes within a star system don’t preclude joining Civilization,” Longestlooker said. “It’s when a species tries to transport the dispute to other people —”

  “That’s what I mean! I think the missile was only meant to scare us. I’m certain it wasn’t meant to detonate.”

  Other people on board Starfarer thought otherwise, but no one would know the truth till they went home. Perhaps no one would ever know the truth. All J.D. knew for sure was that every time she thought of the cloud of radioactive debris they had left floating in the Tau Ceti system, she blushed with embarrassment and humiliation.

  “That wasn’t how it was supposed to be,” she said. “You watched Earth till fifty years ago, till you were afraid we’d notice you were there. So you know how violent humans can be —”

  “Europa and Androgeos are from a peaceable culture,” Longestlooker said. “That’s why we chose them to rescue. But their successors...” She snapped her jaws.

  “We were nervous to meet you,” Fasterdigger said softly.

  “But you have behaved very gently,” said Sharphearer.

  “Thank you. We’re doing our best to change. We don’t always succeed. But we did agree that Starfarer shouldn’t be armed.”

  The walls grew more and more rumpled, thicker and more wrinkled. The passageway narrowed; the tucked-in ornaments thinned out, then disappeared.

  The passageway ended in silver-gray dusk touched with bright glints of colored light.

  J.D. touched the spongy wall, bringing herself to a stop.

  An oblate room opened before her. Great spikes of ebony, amethyst, and turquoise erupted from organic swellings on the wall, then speared inward to support a central mass of herringbone bristles several meters across. The mass grew along each spike, coating part of each long semiprecious crystal with a woolly sleeve.

  “Is he awake?” Longestlooker spoke quietly, staring at the central shape. It was featureless except for the tweedy pattern of soft tan and warm brown.

  Late released himself from Sharphearer’s back. He flicked his edge against the wall, snapping himself forward with uncharacteristic speed and animation.

  “Please begin,” Late said. “I’ll relay.”

  “Representative,” Longestlooker said. “This is J.D. Sauvage, from Earth. J.D., this is the Representative from Smallerfarther.”

  Late echoed Longestlooker’s words, in English, through J.D.’s link. The effect of hearing the words out loud and, a moment later, in her mind, disoriented her.

  “How do you do,” she said.

  As far as she could tell, the Representative made no response at all.

  Fasterdigger handed J.D. the amphora and nudged her arm with his soft nose.

  “I’d like to share the guest gift with you,” J.D. said to the Representative.

  Late’s voice traveled into her mind. “That is acceptable.”

  “Put the water on the turquoise,” Quickercatcher whispered.

  J.D. pushed off gently from the edge of the passageway.

  She floated forward and drifted to a halt near the Representative’s turquoise support. The Representative had not moved. If he breathed, his breath was too shallow to see.

  J.D. unstoppered the amphora, drew it back so the last drops of guest water flowed into the air, and waved the globules onto the turquoise support. The water clung to the semiprecious stone, flowed onto its mottled surface, and migrated along the veins in the turquoise toward the tweedy fur.

  “I’m happy to meet you,” J.D. said.

  The far end of each semiprecious spike split into fibers, crystalline strands, that disappeared into the wall-swelling. It was as if the Representative had legs that grew from their tips. More spikes glittered from the dimness at the back of the Representative’s chamber, green and blue and pure clear white light refracting into rainbows.

  What a strange being, she thought. But Quickercatcher said the pattern of this species is ubiquitous!

  Late’s echo of J.D.’s words appeared in her mind a split second after she said them. The effect was even more discomforting than hearing Longestlooker’s words echoed. J.D. paused, then forged ahead.

  “I hope Earth and the Four Worlds will have a long and friendly relationship.”

  Again, her words echoed in her mind. She opened her link wider, hoping, but failing, to detect the translation.

  If Late can talk to the Representative in ordinary English, she thought, why can’t I speak to him? If Late is doing a simultaneous translation, then why don’t I hear... whatever his people use for language?

  “When will you give Civilization your algorithm?” The shout — Late’s voice amplified and resonating — burst through her link.

  The powerful transmission dizzied her. At her elbow, Quickercatcher flinched.

  J.D.’s surroundings spun. She closed her eyes a moment, shutting out the multicolored pinwheel of gleaming, glowing spokes. When she opened her eyes again, the visual hallucination faded. The representative’s bracing structure splayed across the chamber, solid and unmoving.

  J.D. blew out her breath. Victoria’s new, faster algorithm for interstellar navigation could be remarkably valuable to Civilization. Europa had made it plain that the algorithm was an important resource for Earth, not to be squandered.

  “Who said anything about giving?” J.D. said.

  Behind her, Longestlooker snapped her jaws, but Quickercatcher made a sound J.D. took to be more amusement than offense.

  “Uniqueness results in esteem.”

  “What does esteem get us?”

  “We want to inspect your fossils. Images are not acceptable.”

  J.D. negotiated the abrupt change of subject. “Crimson Ng would be happy to show you her sculpture. You’re welcome to visit Starfarer and see her work. We’d be honored by your presence.”

  Late fluttered his edge, scooping himself backward. The last drops of guest water vanished beneath the edge of the Representative’s herringbone bristles.

  Does the Representative disbelieve me, too? J.D. wondered. Will he make himself believe the fossils are real? No one else accepts that they’re an art project. Why should he be any different? Does it even matter what I say?

  “The reception is over,” Late said in his own voice.

  The quartet withdrew. Sharphearer grabbed Late by one corner and pulled him awkwardly away.

  J.D. followed.

  In silence, they drifted down the corridor. Longestlooker and Fasterdigger floated into a bend and pushed off with both hind feet. Pulled off-balance by Late, Sharphearer bounced softly from one wall and twisted to orient herself. She hoisted Late onto her back. Late clung fast. Quickercatcher spiraled his tail like a spring and pushed off against the wall.

  Shaking hard, J.D. caught herself against the squashy corridor surface. Instead of following her hosts, she let herself bump gently against the sides of the passage.

  Ten meters farther on, Quickercatcher noticed that J.D. had stopped. He scrambled to turn, to rejoin her. The rest of the quartet followed.

  “Come along, J.D.,” Quickercatcher said. “What’s the matter?”

  “Would you —”

  She paused to swallow, to lick her lips. Her mouth was dry and her stomach had tumbled somewhere beyond her feet. She wished the amphora still contained guest water.

  “Quickercatcher, what happened back there? Late, can you explain — ?”

  Quickercatcher moved very close. Warm fur tickled J.D.’s hand. She breathed fast and deep, nearly sobbing. Quickercatcher ducked against her should
er, nudging her hard.

  “Is this all right?” he asked.

  She quivered at the touch of smooth fur, powerful muscles.

  “Yes,” she said. “Yes, please.”

  Quickercatcher’s touch eased some of her tension and quieted her shivering.

  “The elderlargers of Late’s people tend to be abrupt,” Quickercatcher said. “We forget how peremptory they sound at first.”

  At first? J.D. said to herself. That exchange would always sound peremptory.

  “That was no conversation,” J.D. said. “That was a series of demands.”

  Quickercatcher’s eyes closed slowly, outer corners to inner corners.

  “And you acquitted yourself well to them.”

  “The algorithm isn’t mine to give,” J.D. said. “It belongs to Victoria Fraser MacKenzie. She allows Starfarer to use it to navigate through transition. Just like Crimson Ng allows us to watch her performance and appreciate her sculptures.”

  Longestlooker’s jaw snapped shut quickly, sharply. “It all belongs to human people,” Longestlooker said.

  Fasterdigger added, “Any human should be able to give it.”

  “Is that how it works with you?” J.D. asked. “Not with us.”

  “How can you withhold advances?” Sharphearer asked.

  Longestlooker said, “We might build on them faster.”

  “Faster than primitive Earth science?”

  “She didn’t say that!” Quickercatcher said.

  “We should cooperate,” said Fasterdigger.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” J.D. said. “So far, the only person I’ve met in Civilization who’s answered my questions has been Nemo.”

  At J.D.’s reference to the squidmoth, Longestlooker snuffled in surprise. Quickercatcher raised his chin, whiskers bristling, hesitated, then slowly lowered his head to gaze at J.D.

  “I’d like to stop meeting people for a while,” J.D. said. “I’d like to talk about what’s happened so far.”

  “It’s just that the Representative can’t waste his motion,” Late said. “He has to conserve it for essential occasions.”

  Offended, J.D. scowled at him.

  “That didn’t come out quite the way Late meant it,” Quickercatcher said.

  “It’s their physiology,” Sharphearer said.

  “Biologically determined rudeness?” J.D. said sarcastically.

  “He was extremely generous to you,” Longestlooker said.

  “We’ve known Late for quite a long time,” Quickercatcher said.

  “This is the first time we’ve ever met his master,” Longestlooker said.

  “We’ve encountered other elderlargers, of course,” Sharphearer said, with such sincere reassurance that J.D. wondered why it made any difference.

  “This is the first time the Representative has spoken with us,” Fasterdigger said.

  “He didn’t exactly speak to us,” Quickercatcher said, amused, eyes closed halfway.

  Sharphearer said, “Nor we to him.”

  Quickercatcher added, “Only to J.D.”

  “True,” said Longestlooker.

  “Could someone please explain to me what’s going on?” J.D. said plaintively.

  “Come along,” Longestlooker said.

  “We’ll go to the resting nest,” Quickercatcher said.

  o0o

  J.D. wished the Four Worlds’ enclosed ship had windows, ports, or open spaces. Only the ornaments tucked into the spongy surface of the ship’s tunnels provided any variation in the wrinkled gray-green walls. Whenever she tried to pause to look at one of the tiny dioramas, Quickercatcher urged her onward.

  The quartet took her along twisting, narrowing branch passageways until she was thoroughly lost. Finally they reached an offshoot that dead-ended in a large, oblong pouch.

  Terraces, ledges, and fissures furrowed the inner wall. Fabric rumpled over some of the surfaces; bare stone formed others. In the indirect light, the glow of green and purple velvet set off the gleam of faceted garnet, chalcedony, and obsidian. Here, too, figures and decorations had been tucked into the wall covering.

  J.D. drifted past a ledge covered with frilly red lace. She brushed her hand across it. It possessed the delicate irregularity and complexity of a living thing. She thought it might be vegetation: a succulent, or a fungus? Suddenly she remembered Europa’s caution, not to touch anyone without permission or invitation. She snatched back her hand and glanced at Quickercatcher, but her host showed no alarm.

  How am I supposed to tell what’s an “anyone” and what’s an “anything”? J.D. wondered. For all I know that red stuff could be the intelligent equivalent of lichen.

  Late unlatched himself from Sharphearer’s back and fluttered like a sea creature, coming to rest against the red lace. The spines along the edges of his body extended and dipped gracefully into the foliage, securing him like pins. As he moved forward, the spines withdrew, advanced, and plunged, like narrow oars. From beneath him came a soft crunching noise. Bare swaths of stone, the width of Late’s mouth, cut through other expanses of the red lace. Late was grazing on the vegetation that grew on the stone.

  The alien equivalent of lichen, J.D. said to herself. But not intelligent. I think. I hope. I guess I got away with screwing up, this time.

  Over J.D.’s head, Quickercatcher slid sinuously into a nook in the wall and nestled into the soft loose material that filled it.

  “Come here with us,” Quickercatcher said.

  “We’ll rest and talk,” Longestlooker said.

  “J.D., do you want water plain?” Sharphearer asked. “Or water with simple sugars? Would you like ethyl alcohol? Europa likes the alcohol, she says it kicks.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” J.D. said, amused, tempted to try it just to see if Europa really did drink absolute alcohol. “Just water for now, Sharphearer, thank you.” She was touched that they had gone to the trouble of preparing refreshments compatible with her biochemistry.

  Interesting that both the alien species she had met had offered her intoxicants. She had enjoyed Nemo’s decorative food. Her mouth still watered when she remembered its evanescent taste, its delicate high.

  She acknowledged the inconsistency of using Nemo’s intoxicant, while preferring not to drink alcohol.

  Quickercatcher wriggled around in the zero-gravity nest, making a place for J.D. She slid into the folds. It was like getting into a bed made with sheets of warm velvet. With all her clothes on. She brushed her fingertips against the fabric, turning the nap from soft leaf green to bright emerald. She smoothed it back to leaf green.

  Quickercatcher nudged her arm with a friendly push. Longestlooker slid in on J.D.’s other side, and Fasterdigger dove between them, with a slick flip to reappear head first. Sharphearer joined them, balancing a spherical bowl between hands and nape and shoulder blades. She batted a water-filled globule through the air with quick touches of her nose and knees, as if it were a soccer ball.

  Sharphearer tapped the globule toward J.D. J.D. caught it out of the air. It yielded between her fingers. Water crawled and bumped inside it.

  J.D. touched a lump on its side. A long flexible spout extruded. She sipped the cool liquid. Like the guest water, it tasted pure and flat.

  Sharphearer raised the bowl, ducked her head beneath it, brought it forward and down to her chest, and offered it to the other members of the quartet. Dark granules of coarse sand and fine gravel filled it. Here and there, against the side of the transparent bowl, the gravel spun in small vortexes.

  J.D. watched, fascinated, as Longestlooker reached out of the nest and past her front shoulders, slid the globe’s cap aside, thrust one hand inside before sand could float from the opening, and sifted through the globe’s contents. Her hand produced a cascade of rapid peeping noises from the globe.

  “Ah, got one.” With a dexterous reverse of the routine, Longestlooker snatched a bright rounded shape from the globe, covered the opening, and passed the bowl to Fasterdigger, who repeate
d the procedure.

  “What is it?” J.D. asked. “Can I look at it more closely?”

  Longestlooker showed J.D. the fluttering handful. A creature like a baby bird translated through a funhouse mirror struggled between two thumbs. Several delicate webbed feet grew out of its fuzzy, iridescent red feathers. They beat against the air, against Longestlooker’s fingers, scrabbling for sand to swim through. The creature’s four-pronged beak opened and closed rapidly, and its chirping rose in pitch. Its bright blue eyes blinked.

  Fasterdigger pulled another birdlet out of the bowl. As Quickercatcher slipped one hand into the globe, Fasterdigger freed the creature he had caught. It tumbled in the air like a feathered ping-pong ball.

  “Is it a pet?” J.D. asked.

  Fasterdigger snapped it out of the air with one bite.

  “It’s food,” Fasterdigger said, crunching it.

  A few bits of shiny red down spun in faint air currents. Sharphearer plucked the puffy feathers out of zero g and twisted them into her shoulder fur.

  “You shouldn’t eat them,” Quickercatcher said to J.D. “You’d have difficulty digesting them. Our biochemistry is similar to yours, but we use a different set of amino acids.”

  J.D. felt queasy. She hoped she would not find herself committing bushushiro. Throwing up during dinner would not impress her hosts. Though the birdlet was hardly as strange as the food she had eaten while visiting Nemo, she had no wish to sample it.

  Why is that? she wondered. I didn’t have any trouble eating a live animal that looked like an insect. Why should I balk at a live chick?

  “It burrows,” Longestlooker said.

  “In the sand back home,” Quickercatcher said, pulling one out of the globe. Frantic peeping ended, mid-crescendo, with Quickercatcher’s contented crunch.

  “This kind is a delicacy,” said Sharphearer.

  “What do you call them?”

  Longestlooker trilled and clicked. J.D. tried to mimic the sound.

  “Sometimes we haven’t time to dig for fresh food, out here on the ship,” Longestlooker said.

  “Then we have to eat preserved stuff,” Quickercatcher said with distaste.

  Sharphearer’s lips drew back, revealing sharp teeth. “As I’ll have to do,” she said, “if my siblings don’t hold the grower for me.”