Acorna’s Quest

by Anne McCaffrey

  Rafik had a moment’s regretful thought for the ancient days of the First Prophet, when in some parts of Earth the Book of the Prophet was interpreted to mean, among other things, that women were not allowed to drive.

  When he finally docked, he was in a tearing hurry to reach Delszaki Li’s private quarters and much too worried to care about the very odd design of the ship that had held up the queue for so long, or the plump little woman in fluttery lavender draperies who was clambering down an exit stair much too steep for her short legs. He waved at the lunar-base guards and was passed through on sight, without the formalities of identification and checks for contraband that held up strangers arriving at Maganos Base. An old friend of his from the days at MME was now overseeing the Beneficiation and Extraction Department and let him take a slightly illicit shortcut and hitch a ride on a conveyor belt that was supposed to be carrying pulverized material to the oxygen-extraction plant, allowing Rafik to arrive at Delszaki Li’s quarters shortly after docking and a good ten minutes before he was expected there.

  “Where IS she? Is she all right?” he demanded as he pushed through the iris door, too impatient to wait for it to retract its flexible membranes fully.

  Gill and Judit were sitting in the anteroom, holding hands. Judit looked as if she had been crying; Gill turned red at the question.

  “There is no reason to suppose Acorna is in any difficulty,” Judit said.

  Gill swallowed. “Of course not. Acorna can handle anything that comes up, and Calum…well, Calum is very smart, you know, Rafik.”

  “Calum,” Rafik said, “doesn’t have the common sense the Prophets would give to a canary, and if we’re relying on him to keep Acorna out of trouble, no wonder Uncle Hafiz was worried about her! WHERE IS SHE?”

  “Hafiz?” Judit exclaimed. “How did he find out?”

  “Find out what?”

  “Well…” Judit gestured helplessly. “What was he worried about?”

  “Don’t know, can’t find out now.” Rafik explained about the garbled message he had received just before a planetary shield closed down all travel to and communication with Laboue.

  “And you think there may be some danger to Acorna?”

  “Whatever it means,” Rafik said, “it can’t be anything good. Communication and trade are the basis of House Harakamian’s wealth. With Laboue closed off like this, Uncle Hafiz can’t check the odds on any of his, umm, interplanetary operations, or keep tabs on the competition, or do any of his other, umm, normal financial and commercial procedures. He wouldn’t have done this unless something out there had really scared him.” He thought this statement over for a moment. “In fact, I wouldn’t have said there was anything that could make Uncle Hafiz nervous enough to forgo a quarter percent profit on the Skarness Relay…which he will have lost through not being there to authorize a credit exchange before the news of the Relay’s failure came through the regular communications channels.”

  “Hafiz has advance information on the Skarness Relay?” Gill asked, impressed. “How does he work that?”

  Rafik grinned. “You know the Singing Stones of Skarness, in his garden? They’re not just a curiosity—they’re a communications system. Hafiz broke the code. Those rocks know what’s happening on Skarness, no matter where in the galaxy they happen to be.”

  “How?”

  “How does a clam in an aquarium in the desert know when it would be high tide if the desert were underwater?” Rafik shrugged. “They know, that’s all. At first the Stones weren’t all that useful, because they aren’t interested in human affairs—they think we move too fast and die too soon to be studied—but Uncle Hafiz got one of them to make a small side bet on the Relay with him, and now they’re all following it. He’d sent to tell me to lay off all our bets just before that last message and the Shield closing down…but without his authorization, I couldn’t do it.”

  “Delightful as it is to learn these details of sporting events,” Judit said, “I for one should like to find out a little more about what has brought you here in such haste. You don’t know what the threat was?”

  Rafik shook his head. “Not precisely. But it must have come from space, not from one of his competitors on Laboue, or there’d be no advantage in invoking the Shield. So we don’t need to worry about Yukata Batsu or any of that southern continent lot. Uncle Hafiz has effectively divided the universe into two separate boxes,” he said somberly. “One box contains Laboue, the other holds the rest of the universe…including whatever threat motivated him to take this step. And whatever it is must concern Acorna.”

  Judit drew a deep breath. “Then…perhaps it’s for the best that things have turned out as they have. Don’t you think, Gill?”

  “Could be,” Gill agreed. “After all, if even we can’t find her, what chance is there that these mysterious enemies will do so?”

  “CAN’T FIND HER?” Rafik echoed in shock and outrage. “What—how—Shaitan-begotten spawn of a cretin, you can’t have lost the girl on a lunar base this size!”

  “Rafik, you really must make an effort not to pick up your uncle’s habits of speech,” Judit reprimanded him.

  At the same time Gill said heavily, “Not on the lunar base. Off it. She and Calum have done a bunk. With a little help from certain other people,” he added, giving Judit a dirty look. She flushed but made no attempt to defend herself.

  And in chorus, the two of them explained to Rafik how a series of delays in the preparation of the Acadecki had so frustrated Calum and Acorna that they not only took off before the ship was ready but failed to follow the navigation plan Calum had filed, so that by the time their getaway was discovered, it was impossible to follow them.

  “Impossible?” Rafik repeated, raising his straight dark brows a fraction of an inch.

  Gill gestured helplessly. “You know Calum. He’s not only a brilliant mathematician, but a devious s.o.b. There are innumerable ways to navigate space from here to the Coma Berenices quadrant, and trust Calum not to take the most logical—the one in his filed nav plan—nor yet the least logical, because we checked that already. There’s absolutely no way to predict what path he will have taken.”

  Rafik would have disputed that, and had already asked for star maps on several scales to be displayed, but his study of the possible routes to Coma Berenices was interrupted by the announcement of a visitor for Acorna.

  Not being privy to the shortcuts Rafik had used, nor anywhere near as quick on her feet as he was, Karina had taken quite a while longer than Rafik to reach Delszaki Li’s headquarters. That she was there at all was tribute not so much to her increasingly confident statement that Acorna had invited her as to the Linyaari ability to soothe and calm the minds of those physically close to them. Neeva and Melireenya had risked showing themselves to the guards on duty at the docking station just long enough to project calming thoughts of “I haven’t seen anything unusual” and “This is a friend of Acorna’s.”

  Once she entered the interstices of the lunar base, though, Karina had to make her own way without the help of the Linyaari projections. She had done remarkably well already, ascertaining from “casual” conversations with the people she encountered that either Acorna was to be found with Delszaki Li, or that gentleman would be able to tell her where she was. No one saw any reason to question Karina’s statement that she was a friend of Acorna’s and an expected guest; if she had not been able to show some valid reason for visiting Maganos, she would not have been allowed past the docking facility, would she? And her statement that she had impulsively come by private transport rather than by the regularly scheduled shuttle both explained why she hadn’t been met and gave her an aura of wealth and luxury that helped to smother any doubts. But here, in the anterooms to Delszaki Li’s private quarters, she met her match.

  The secretary-receptionist who guarded Mr. Li’s privacy knew Rafik by sight and had passed him through without question. But Karina he did NOT know—and he was as disinclined to admit somebody who was not
on the list of accepted visitors as Karina was to give up so close to her goal. The resulting altercation drew first Judit’s attention, then Rafik’s, and finally Gill’s. They opened the iris door in time to hear Karina “explaining” with some heat that she and Acorna had been in correspondence for some time, that they were closely linked on the spiritual plane, and that it was now their destiny and the will of the stars that they should also be together on the physical plane.

  “Stars didn’t send me a directive,” the secretary said, deadpan.

  “Oh, Lor’,” Gill groaned, “it was bound to happen sooner or later, but why now, on top of everything else?”

  “What was bound to happen?” Rafik asked plaintively. Since reaching Maganos he had continually found himself two steps behind the latest events—only to be expected when he had been absent so long on House Harakamian business, but nonetheless a galling situation to a man used to making his fortune by the timely use of information.

  “Nutcases,” Gill answered, retreating back into the room behind the secretary’s station to make his explanation. “People heard about the healings Acorna did on Kezdet, you know. Can’t keep something like that secret. We’ve put it about that her healing abilities have faded as she matured, but that’s not enough to deter the really determined nuts. We’ve also spread rumors that she’s at half a dozen different houses Mr. Li owns in different systems. I think I know how this one got onto her, though—tell you later,” he muttered in an undertone as Judit opened the iris again and went through to the secretary’s station.

  “I am so sorry to disappoint you,” Judit said sweetly, “but just now Acorna is…”

  The pause was fatal to her good intentions.

  “Ill. She’s not seeing visitors,” Rafik said firmly.

  At the same moment Gill said, “Not on the base. She’s gone to visit old friends.”

  And, just too late to stop herself, Judit said, “…terribly busy.”

  They’re all lying! Something’s terribly wrong!

  Karina’s shock and outrage, undiminished by any conscious attempts to focus or channel her psychic abilities, came through to the anxiously waiting Linyaari as clearly as a minor explosion.

  (Oh, my head! Tell that female to damp her modulations, will you?) Thariinye complained.

  (I can’t tell her anything,) Melireenya thought, rather acidly. (She thinks you’re in charge, remember?)

  (She recognizes natural brilliance when she sees it.)

  (Hmph. She probably comes from some culture that has a peculiar caste-ranking system. Maybe they’re graded by physical height.)

  (In that case, she must be pretty low-caste. I’ve been looking through the screens at the others of her race who come in and out here. And have you noticed—)

  (Not now, you two!) Neeva put in. (Melireenya, you’re supposed to be monitoring the female…Khariinya. What’s happening now? Who are “they,” and what are they lying about?)

  (I don’t know. That was the first I heard from her since she passed those guards at the exit from this docking area. I’m trying to get back in touch now….)

  Karina had meant to demand to see Acorna, but some impulse she did not recognize made her ask first, “Who are you people, anyway?” She followed that with her own questions. “Why won’t you let me see Acorna—and why are you lying about it?”

  “None of your business,” Gill said firmly. “Only people on the list of approved guests are admitted to this suite, young lady. You’re not on the list—so I strongly suggest you leave now, before we call Security to have you put out.”

  Karina felt the secretary’s mocking eye upon her. She was sure she was turning red with embarrassment, but she stood her ground a moment longer.

  “I must see Acorna. Truly…you don’t understand…and I can’t tell anyone but her…but it is not just for my own sake. There is something she must know. Oh, please!” She was almost in tears. “Please, you don’t understand, it’s terribly important. If she knew, she’d want to see me, I just know she would.”

  “Darlin’,” Gill said more gently, “I’m sure it’s important to you, but there’s just no way you can see Acorna. I’ll tell you the absolute truth: she’s not on this base, and we don’t know when she’ll be back.” He took Karina’s hands in his. “Word of honor,” he said, looking into her face with those piercing blue eyes that must have persuaded ever so many silly girls to believe whatever he said.

  And he radiated truth and sincerity this time, whatever she had felt from him before.

  The silver-set moonstone at her throat was cold and dull. And try as she might, Karina could not persuade herself that she “felt” Acorna’s presence anywhere near them.

  “I…I see,” she said dully.

  Declan Giloglie’s blue eyes blazed with a triumphant light that renewed all her suspicions. Karina consciously breathed deeply and thought of Peace and Love. “Well, in that case,” she said, “I suppose I may as well go on. I certainly don’t want to waste my time looking for somebody who’s not even here!” The tinkling laugh was a little flat, and her voice trembled slightly, but that might be put down to disappointment rather than to the sheer fury that possessed her.

  (She’s absolutely furious now, but I can’t tell what about. The silly twit doesn’t think, she just stirs the brain-bits around like a nut-and-root stew, you never know what’s going to bob up next.)

  (Is she in trouble? Where is she?)

  (How should I know? She doesn’t look, either. You can’t transmit images of your surroundings if you never look at them properly. All I can see in her mind right now is blue.)

  Karina widened her own eyes and looked straight into Gill’s until he released her hands and stepped back. “Well…that’s that, then,” he said. “Sorry for your disappointment.”

  Karina visualized herself floating in a cool blue cloud that absorbed and masked her utter fury.

  (Shit! Now I’ve lost her completely!)

  As the door to Delszaki Li’s private suite closed behind him, the secretary looked at Karina with a touch of pity.

  “You’re not the only one with a sob story, you know,” he advised her, not unkindly. “Take more than that to get in to see Acorna…that is, it would if she were here,” he added, remembering Gill’s story. Not being privy to Acorna’s unheralded departure, he took it for granted Gill was lying to protect her privacy. “You’ve struck out—better go home. They’ll call Security if you hang out here, you know.”

  “I haven’t the—” Karina stopped herself before she could disclose her dilemma. The fact was that she didn’t have her fare back to Kezdet, much less to her home planet. Everything she owned and as much as she could borrow had been barely sufficient to pay her way this far.

  But she did, she reflected, have private transport…of a sort. And she did owe it to the Linyaari to go back and tell them…well, perhaps not exactly what had happened…they wouldn’t understand the nuances; she would be false to the underlying spiritual truth if she told them the bald literal truth, wouldn’t she?

  “You are quite right,” she said instead. “I shall return to my personal ship at once.”

  On the way back, she concentrated on her breathing until she had attained a state of spiritual tranquillity in which she was no longer deceived by the superficial appearance of events and felt quite able to convey the basic truths of the situation to her Linyaari friends.

  She’d thought of exactly how to phrase it, too.

  “She’s being kept prisoner!” Karina announced on her return to the ship. She was breathless not only from the climb but from the irritation occasioned by having to push her way through a growing crowd of curious onlookers who were fascinated by the gilt scrollwork and trompe l’oeil scarlet-and-emerald ribbons painted as if they were flowing across the body of the ship.

  “Have you seen our ’Khornya?” Neeva asked, pronouncing the newly learned words slowly and carefully.

  “Acorna, not Kornya.” Karina sank back onto one of the
couches in the main cabin. “No, I told you, they’re keeping her prisoner. There’s an absolute brute of a man guarding the rooms, he won’t let anybody in, and a red-bearded Viking giant who tells the most terrible lies you ever heard. Would you believe it, he actually tried to convince me that Acorna wasn’t there at all! And the other two gave quite contradictory stories.”

  Neeva frowned in concentration as she tried to follow this burst of speech. “But you said she was expecting you…had invited you to visit her. Why would she go away?”

  “That’s just it.” Karina sat up. “I don’t for a minute believe she has gone away. One of the others said she was sick, and another said she was busy. Obviously they are all lying. I don’t know why, but they are determined to prevent Acorna from speaking with anybody outside their little group. Why, for all I know”—she cried, too indignant for caution—“she may never even have seen my first fifty-six messages!”

  “Your what?” asked Neeva, now thoroughly confused.

  Karina remembered that she was supposed to be a close friend of Acorna’s. Well, she was. On a spiritual level. “Never mind, that’s not important. The important thing is,” she said, enunciating clearly, “there is something very sinister going on, and I intend to find Acorna and rescue her from these people!”

  All four of the Linyaari looked at one another for a long time. Karina had the oddest feeling that a very intense argument was going on, though none of them actually said anything. She half closed her eyes and tried to sense their auras. Breathe slowly, she reminded herself. Listen to your breathing, still the mind, expand your awareness.

  It had been a very trying morning. Perhaps she would be able to still her mind and expand her awareness more effectively lying down….

  Karina fell peacefully asleep while the Linyaari debated their next step.