The Na-Dina pushed open the door and began to clamber out. "Krillen, wait.
We're safe here."
"But metal draws Sky's Touch."
Mahree shook her head. "The rubber skirt on the bottom of the skimmer insulates us from contact with the ground." Yellow lightning flashed to the left, bright as the blaster shots the other night. Moments later, thunder boomed with such a crack! that her whole body vibrated. "Seven seconds.
It's ten kilometers away." Mahree looked at Krillen, who had flattened against the skimmer floor like a trapped mouse. Lightning flashed again, closer this time. The thunder boom rattled the tarp-covered equipment in the back.
The rain fell, like a waterfall, drenching her to the skin. In seconds the floor of the skimmer was awash in pounding rainwater. Below them, in the formerly dry wash, Mahree saw a wall of brown wetness surging their way, quickly reaching nearly to the crest of her ridgeline.
Krillen swung his snout her way, his eyes filled with fatalism. "The Mother comes in Her anger. It must be that She is displeased by the Sky Infidels who scarred her face when they came for the Tomb treasures."
Lightning exploded a hundred meters from them, burning a black scar on the ridgeline. "She comes for us!"
Mahree slid over and leaned out into the deluge, reaching for the door handle. Cold rain doused her as she pulled the door shut with a thump.
"That felt good." She licked at a
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droplet running down her face, then chuckled. Krillen sat up, his ears starting to relax.
Ka-boooom!
The biggest strike yet rocked the skimmer, splitting open a nearby boulder.
Krillen cringed, eyes wide. "She comes for us!"
Mahree blinked, hardly believing what she was seeing. "It's ... ball lightning!"
Translucent bluish spheres of coagulated lightning-charge danced in the rainy air like sunspot mirages. Coming toward them, toward the metal of the skimmer.
"Aiiee!"
"Krillen, relax. We're in no danger. Look, the rain is stopping." The blue spheres, closer now and not veiled by rain, were very insubstantial-looking, and, as she watched, they faded away into little sparkles.
The sky began to lighten. Mother Sky had spared them her Touch.
Krillen told himself it was illogical to believe the female alien was an emissary from Mother Sky. He was temple- educated, father of three grown offspring, and an Elder of his clan. He knew better than to believe the old superstitions. Still... someone had intervened with the Mother, stopping the storm like that. Perhaps she knew of an ancient custom of the Law that his people had forgotten. Over forty-six dynasties, not all is remembered.
Witness the loss of understanding of the ideoglyphs of the First Dynasty.
He considered her bravery, her strength in the face of certain destruction.
The best soldiers, the bravest fighters, were always females, but somehow, this was different. It must be that she was an Ancestral Ghost, traveling among them in this odd disguise.
When the skimmer regained the Royal Road and they'd driven for a time, she turned to him and met his eyes. "Krillen? Are you all right? You haven't said a word since the storm ended. Did I do something wrong?"
"You can do no error, I think." He watched her stare at him, noting for the hundredth time the strange eye-blinks.
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Mother's Eye came out from behind the clouds, and golden warmth poured over them. "You were correct to insist we stay inside."
"Theory. Only theory. Rubber is a good insulator. But I've never seen ball lightning before. It's very rare where I come from."
"Here it is common." Krillen continued to gaze at her, wondering why she seemed uncomfortable. He watched as she looked up at Mother's Eye, squinting so her forehead skin crinkled together like the soft shell of a new-birthed egg. Then she went back to piloting the skimmer, a tension in her facial muscles that Krillen didn't recognize. His eyes didn't waver.
Yes, the Minister of Justice had been correct when she warned him that the Sky Infidels had no appreciation of the fragility of life, or the permanence of death. Perhaps that explained the bravery. And the cavalier attitude toward the elements. This female never offered water to Father Earth, never tossed salt to Mother Sky. The sunlight glistened on her eyes, brightening the dark irises to a rich umber.
"Krillen, is something bothering you? You're looking at me very strangely."
Mother! He must have violated some social taboo of her people. He took his eyes off her face and instead focused them lower, at the two mounds on her chest. Suddenly, she brought the craft to a halt and turned to face him.
"Krillen, please. Why are you staring at me? Did I do something wrong?"
She glanced down at herself, following the direction of his fixed gaze. "Uh ...
I... We humans call them breasts. They come two to a woman, and are one of our secondary sexual characteristics. They generate a liquid with which we feed our newborn. What has gotten into you?"
Kril en bowed apologetical y. "My deepest apologies, Ambassador. I was not looking at your... breasts. Among the Na-Dina we show gratitude and respect by staring ... by giving our complete attention ... in the name of the Revered Ancestors, I meant no disrespect."
The female was staring at him now, but he could tell it
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was not a compliment. Krillen hurried to add, "You have mistaken my intention, but perhaps it was ... fortuitous. I'm afraid I was on the verge of making a great blunder."
"How?"
Krillen lifted his left arm. "See the nipple? When my wife gave birth to the eggs of our triad, her Birth Scent aroused my milk glands. By the time each egg hatched, I could hardly walk down the street without leaving behind a trail. Males of the People feed milk to newborn scalies. It is the prime duty of fathers. Just as Father Earth nurtures the plants grown by our females." He lowered his arm, covering the shrunken armpit gland. "Your breasts show that you are definitely not an Ancestral Ghost."
She stared at him for a moment, then suddenly smiled. He could tell she was amused, but attempting, out of politeness, not to show it."Oh. That's good ... I guess." Mahree stayed quiet for a long time, her attention fixed on the Royal Road. In these parts, it was straight as a pole, going up and down ridges, crossing ravines on stone bridges, and in general giving no quarter to the undulating landscape. At this speed, they should reach their destination before nightfall.
When the sun had begun to dip, she glanced his way. "Krillen, do you miss your wife? Your family? Being away for several days must be hard."
His chest squeezed tight. The image of his wife Nalado filled his mind's eye, reminding him of what he had sacrificed too often, all for the row of gold chevrons that adorned his Sash of Rank. He sighed. "Yes, I miss her. To accompany you, I had to miss our twentieth Pond Anniversary. But she understands. She was an architect, before retiring early to raise our offspring."
"Careers can be like that." She blinked, but kept staring at him. A compliment? "I miss my daughter Claire. She's staying with her father, Rob, on a distant asteroid we call StarBridge."
"The place where Interrelator Waterston studied?"
"Yes. It is a place of study and training, much like your Temples. Young people come there to learn the languages
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of other peoples, to learn how to be good diplomats, and a few even learn how to touch mind-to-mind, though that is very rare among humans."
Krillen gave silent thanks for that blessing to Mother Sky. At least his thoughts would be known only to Her. "You ... you are not a mind-toucher, are you?"
She laughed softly. "Noooo. But my daughter is. It makes a parent's life hard."
Ahhh. Something they shared in common. "A parent's life is always hard.
You know too much and have so little time in which to share it with your offspring, before they grow up and think they know as much as you."
Mahree glanced quickly at him, then back to the road. "Quite so. Wh
at is that?"
He scanned the mountainous horizon. A volcano had erupted not long ago, and now a thin sheet of fast-moving lava was coming toward them faster than a person could run. "Father's Anger." The ember-red lava under the crusting surface stretched as far as he could see. "There are many volcanoes in this region. The crews must work constantly to keep the roads clear."
He peered at the lava flow, calculating from long experience of living on this dangerous world. "The front edge is wide here, but Sand Lake is just ahead.
If we can make it there, we should be safe."
"Hang on!" Mahree bent forward. The skimmer flew ever faster.
Krillen hung on, his talons digging into the dashboard. Just as they came in sight of the far edge of the molten flow, the skimmer shuddered and bucked.
"What's wrong?" he cried.
Mahree fought the steering yoke. "I... don't... Power! We're losing battery power,"
The skimmer slowed more. Krillen wondered if Father Earth was upset by the finding of the Royal Tomb. Else- wise, why would he send his Anger after them?
As the two occupants of the skimmer stared at each other in horror, the air cushion died and the craft settled to the stone-paved road with a crunch.
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Krillen glanced back at the approaching lava flow. There was a good chance it would reach them. It might not engulf them, since it was thin--but the heat would surely kill them. "What's happened?"
Mahree grimaced. "Something's wrong with the batteries." She swung around and scrambled back to the rear of the skimmer. Wondering whether they should try to make a run for it, Krillen followed. Mahree pulled at the engine access plate. "Ouch!" she cried. "It's boiling hot. And it's stuck! Help me!"
Krillen caught the edge of the darkened metal plate with his finger talons. He pulled hard. With a groan, the plate opened. Noxious fumes spewed out.
"Ooof!" cried Mahree, turning her head from the terrible smell.
Krillen held his breath and looked into the interior of the engine compartment. Two blackened boxes that were obviously electric batteries smoked with white fumes. "They are dead." He looked upslope. The orange-red lava surged and buckled toward them like molten fire.
Mahree looked up. "Damn it!" She clenched her jaw, her eyes wild with fear and frustration, then she reached under the storage tarp and pulled out a piece of alien equipment. "Krillen! Disconnect the cables from the dead batteries. I'm going to try and jump-start the skimmer! Watch out for the acid!"
Why defy Father's Anger? But perhaps Sky Infidels did not know how futile this was. He did as directed, even though the half-melted casings leaked acid onto his hands. His scales repelled it, but the pain was strong.
Mahree pulled two long wires from the back of her alien box. She twisted them onto the thicker cables that had been connected to the ruined batteries.
Then she pushed past him, reaching for the yoke. "Hold the box! Keep the cables from separating!"
Krillen did that. A hissing sound made him look up. Father's Anger roared toward them, red and orange and angry. Its fury bubbled high, as if...
Wheee-rup!
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He felt the craft lift up on fan-blown air. "You did it!"
"Grab something!" cried Mahree.
Krillen wrapped his tail around the door handle, and prayed to Mother Sky that he, a poor Investigator tossed into the clutch of off-worlders who did not know how to show proper devotion to her, might yet survive. Survive to teach them the ways of the People. Survive to see Nalado once more. Survive to ...
"We're going to clear it!" yelled Mahree.
"We are?" Krillen blinked, looking up. The lava flowed with a crinkling, sticky sound. The heated air pushed forward by its rapid approach dried his eyes and buffeted his face. It felt like Mother's Eye had come down to Father Earth. To slow the pace of Father's Anger?
"Yes!" she yelled joyously as they sped beyond the northern edge of the flow.
Behind them, molten rock roared across the stone pavement of the Royal Road. Ahead of them shimmered the blue waters of Sand Lake. His heart thumped in his chest, his tail dropped limply to the floorboards, and Krillen, of the clan Moon Bright, knew that Mother Sky had other plans for his future.
"Thank the Ancestors!"
Mahree slowed the headlong rush of the skimmer, looking over her shoulder at the alien box he held in his acid- burned hands. "Oh, Krillen! You're injured."
He flared his ears. "Better than being roasted to death." He blinked at her.
"May I put down this device?"
She nodded. "Yeah. Just... just wedge the replacement battery into place.
Use my duffel bag. Don't let the wires come apart."
Krillen did as directed, then rejoined her on the front bench seat. The rush of hot afternoon air across his face felt... delicious. "It's not often one escapes Father's Anger. We seem to be blessed by the Ancestors."
Mahree frowned, then glanced at him. "Maybe. But those batteries shouldn't have melted down like that. The overheating sensors built into the batteries were disconnected. And someone must have put the wrong kind of
electrolyte into the batteries."
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Krillen didn't like what he was hearing. "You mean ... the battery failure was intentional? We were supposed to be stranded out here?"
Mahree nodded. "Or worse. The fumes could have poisoned us, or they could easily have ignited ..."
His ears drooped. Who among the people at Base Camp wanted them dead? "This could only have been done recently. By someone who knows about alien transports. Who? One of your new scientists?"
She wiped sweat from her forehead. He noticed that her hand was trembling.
"I doubt it. But that leaves only Gordon and Khuharkk' and Sumiko and--"
"Axum and her diggers," Krillen said harshly. "They are very familiar with your devices. They even ride aboard the jumpjet when going to the City of White Stone." Mahree looked at him, curious. "Why would a Na-Dina want to kill us? Or Bill, for that matter?" She frowned. "But none of them can pilot a jumpjet, can they? Hey!" She pounded her fist against the dashboard. "The Nordlund pilot who brought us from the spaceport--he left before the smuggler raid. So maybe--"
"He sabotaged the batteries?" Krillen said. "Perhaps. If Bill was dead before the jumpjet landed, then only someone with pilot knowledge could have been the murderer."
Her jaw muscles clenched. "I can't forget that, Krillen. Is that what you think?
That he was already dead when the ship landed?"
"I have no evidence to suggest that. I am hoping that your alien machines will give us some. But my instincts ... after twenty years at my job ... my instincts tell me that Bill was dead before the ship landed."
Mahree gripped the steering yoke tightly. "God, I don't like this. It means someone in camp tried to kill us. And it would have looked like an accident, if it had succeeded. We face a deadly foe."
Krillen nodded slowly. "Perhaps several foes. We must think well, and carefully. Yes?"
His colleague grimaced, showing many teeth. "Yes. But that's something I'm good at. Especially when I'm angry."
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* * *
That night Mahree was brought to a simple, two-story stone building to be introduced to the Matron in Charge of Blue Pond, the small farming village that lay at the nexus of the Royal Road and several feeder routes. As they entered, the Na-Dina female came around from behind her low work counter, joining them in the spacious foyer. She was slightly smaller than Krillen, and the scales of her fan- ears had faded to a silvery blue. The Matron, Coreen, listened sympathetically as Krillen described their escape from the lava flow.
All Mahree wanted to do was take a bath, wash her hair, and sleep on something that didn't tremble underfoot. As if on cue, the stone floor under her boots rumbled to a series of microquakes.
"You were lucky," Coreen said sympathetically. "You could have joined the list of Disappearances."
"Disappearances?" Mahree
said, putting down her overnight bag. "What are they?"
Krillen looked embarrassed. "A rural fable," he muttered.
Matron Coreen lifted her tail. "Not to those who live outside your cities, Investigator. I myself saw an empty village on a trip beyond Salt Dream. It was unsettling." Mahree could see how people might disappear on a planet where lava flows and earthquakes struck without warning. "Krillen, what about the Royal Road? It's blocked now."
Krillen seemed to welcome the change of subject. "That it is." The Investigator glanced briefly at Coreen. "Matron, tens of kilometers of the Royal Road are buried under the new flow. Have you been expecting such an eruption?" He looked down at the stone floor.
"No." The Matron stared at Krillen. "The snores of Father Earth have been louder of late. And they do not match the decennial Pond cycle common for these parts." Mahree wondered at that. "Pond cycle? What's that?" The Matron eyed her politely. "For two millennia, Blue Pond has been famous for its earthquake forecasting, based
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on observations of ripple patterns in the village's Royal Pond." She shook a claw at the floor. "The ways of Father Earth are familiar to us. And the Temple of Earth Quaking often sends acolytes to study with us. My own daughter follows now in the family tradition." She looked up, again fixing her attention on Krillen.
The Investigator shuffled nervously. "Uh, your clan is blessed by your family's devotion, I am sure."
Strange. Mahree wondered why the Matron stared at Krillen, while the alien kept his gaze downcast. As if embarrassed. Or nervous about something.
But no, his ears perked skyward, showing an emotion she hadn't seen before. "Krillen, perhaps we should go to our rooms? I need to find some soap and then take a bath."
Both Na-Dina looked sharply at her, then cast their gazes downward.
Mahree got the clear impression that she'd just stuck her foot in her mouth.
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