by Amy Thomson
Red lightning forks of anger flickered over Ukatonen’s skin. “Haven’t we been through this already?”
“I agree. It makes no sense,” Juna replied. “But this is often true of my people. One of the reasons that we are here, healing people, is to show them how much good you can do.”
“I see,” Ukatonen said. “This is not just research, then? Healing these people will help your people trust us?”
“I hope so,” Eerin said. “I hope so.”
About a week after they had settled things with the hospital, Juna was watching the Tri-V with Moki when the door chime rang.
It was her guard. “Excuse me, Dr. Saari, but this gentleman insists on seeing you. And well— ” Glancing beyond the guard Juna saw a handsome, dark-skinned man with sharp-chinned features that looked vaguely Vietnamese. He was dressed in a quietly elegant suit that must have cost a great deal, and he had the presence of someone who expected to be recognized wherever he went.
“My name is Yang Xaviera,” the visitor said. “I am here on behalf of the Xaviera family. Please forgive your guard, I really have been most persistent. He has checked my identification, and searched me most thoroughly. I am quite safe.”
Juna was too stunned to speak. The Xaviera family was one of the wealthiest and most powerful group families in the solar system. They practically owned the Moon.
“I see,” she said, recovering herself. “Please come in.”
“Thank you, Dr. Saari. I apologize for not contacting you first, but your comm is very tightly filtered, and we were unable to get through to you. We could have worked through an agent, but this way is both more discreet, and more direct. As I mentioned, I am here on behalf of the Xaviera family. We have come to ask permission to court you.”
Juna stared at him, astonished for the second time in a minute.
“It is most gracious of you to see me,” he went on. “I apologize for surprising you in this manner.” He remained polite and serious, though Juna knew she must present a laughable spectacle.
“Please, sit down,” she said at last, motioning him to the couch. “Would you like some tea?”
“Thank you,” he replied.
She headed for the kitchen, grateful for a moment to think, but Moki already had the kettle on and was spooning tea into the pot.
“It’s all right, siti,” he told her. “I’ll do it.”
Juna returned to the living room. Yang was perched on the sofa like some rare tropical bird. She sat down in the armchair, painfully aware of how untidy the apartment looked. They had been working very hard, and there hadn’t been any time to clean.
“Moki will bring the tea,” she explained. “He feels that it’s his job to look after me.”
“Indeed,” Yang said. He held out a dossier. “These are our bona fides. We encourage you to have them verified.”
Juna took the folder, which was made of rough, expensive paper embossed with the Xaviera’s Family seal: “Thank you,” she said, putting it down on the table.
“There are many more influential and interesting people for your family to marry. Why are you interested in me?” she asked.
“On the contrary, Dr. Saari— ” he began.
“Please, call me Juna.”
“Juna, you survived for four and a half years on an unexplored planet, lived among aliens, learned their language, and helped negotiate the beginnings of a most impressive First Contact treaty. Then you bullied some of the most powerful politicians in the system into releasing you and the Tendu from quarantine. By any standards you care to use, you are a most exceptional person, and that has drawn my family’s attention to you. We would like to get to know you better, and perhaps”—he gestured at the folder—“arrange a more permanent alliance. I think, under the circumstances, you could use some powerful allies.”
Moki brought in the tea things then, carefully arranged on a tray. Their guest’s eyes followed his progress from the kitchen to the table.
“Yang Xaviera, this is my adopted son, Moki.”
“I’m honored to meet you,” Yang said. “I’ve heard so much about you and your mother on the Tri-V and the net.”
“It’s good to meet you, too. Do you want to marry my sitik?”
“Moki— ” Juna began, but Yang interrupted her.
“Our family would like to get to know her better. If she likes us, and we like her, then yes, the two of you might join our family.”
“What about Ukatonen?” Moki asked.
“Ukatonen is welcome as well,” Yang said.
“We are a package deal,” Juna informed him. She picked up the folder and paged through it. Holograms of spacious mansions and beautiful gardens leaped off the page, pausing at a shot of a well-equipped playground with a dozen happy children at play. It was tempting, and it would indeed be interesting to be courted by a rich and powerful family. She closed the folder.
“You honor me with your interest,” she said. “I will give your offer serious consideration. I should warn you that the Tendu and I have a very full schedule at present. I don’t know when we can get time off to come and visit you.”
“I understand. This invitation has surprised you. Please take all the time you need to consider it. Our offer is open-ended.”
She stood, and Yang rose as well.
“Thank you, Juna,” he said. “I appreciate your kindness in agreeing to see me.” He took one of her hands in his. “It has indeed been a great honor to meet you and Moki. To tell the truth, I did not expect you to be so young and beautiful.” He kissed her hand, making the antique gesture seem both appropriate and graceful.
Juna blushed, and lowered her eyes. Her pulse was racing. She felt as giddy as a young girl.
“Thank you for coming, Mr. Xaviera,” she said, looking up. “We are honored by your visit.” .
He inclined his head. “I look forward to seeing you again, Juna. Our family is eager to get to know you better.”
Then he was gone. Juna stood staring at the closed door for a moment, then leaned against it and began to laugh. This was like something out of a bad Tri-V series.
Moki touched her arm, ochre with concern. “Are you all right?” he asked.
Juna wiped away the tears of laughter. “I’m fine, Moki. It’s just that this is all so strange.” She picked up the elegant folder, flipped through it again, and then tossed it onto her pile of mail. “Cmon, let’s go find Ukatonen and go out for dinner.”
Ukatonen quickly established a routine. For three or four days in a row, he and Moki would go through the wards, healing people. Sometimes it was easy, a matter of adjusting faulty chemistry, or killing off an infection. Other times it was a long, involved process, clearing out plaque-choked arteries, destroying cancer cells, and coaxing damaged tissue to regrow. At the end of each day, Ukatonen went to the Motoyoshi garden, sometimes with Moki, sometimes alone, and sat there in silence beside the trickling water, watching the fish, and drinking in the serenity of the garden.
Occasionally the doctors had them test various medicines to see if they could be changed or improved. Uka-tonen liked that work. It was intricate, and tested his skill at allu-a. He was coming to respect human medicine. Humans had accomplished a great deal, despite the immense handicaps they struggled under. The drugs that they created with their cumbersome chemistry worked surprisingly well. Often, Ukatonen was able to make a drug work more effectively, though communicating what to change proved very difficult. Few of the researchers were willing to link with him, and those that did were faced with the same problem: how to convert the touch/smell/taste of allu-a into the language of chemistry.
And they were discovering ways to help improve a healer’s abilities in allu-a. An intravenous feed of glucose and salts enabled them to accomplish much more during a healing session. He recovered faster, as well. They were working on mineral supplements to speed the healing of bones. He looked forward to taking these ideas back to Tiangi.
As rumors about their work spread through th
e hospital, patients began begging for their help. Moki found this particularly wrenching. Ukatonen tried to explain to Moki that sometimes it was necessary to turn away from need, but it was a lesson that the bami was not yet ready to learn.
As the appeals increased, Ukatonen came to rely more and more on the sense of peace he found in the Japanese garden.
Then one evening, Ukatonen’s peaceful refuge was shattered. It had been a particularly trying day. While they were preparing for the last healing, a man barged into the room. He seized Ukatonen’s arm and began pleading with him to heal his wife. Security guards rushed in and took him away, but even now, as Ukatonen sat in the garden, he could still feel the hot imprint of the man’s pleading hands on his arms and in his spirit. Trying to heal this endless tide of sick humans was like emptying a river with an open-weave basket.
“Mr. Ukatonen?” a voice broke in on his thoughts.
Ukatonen blinked back the nictitating membranes hooding his eyes. A woman was standing a few feet away, microphone in hand. A reporter.
“I understand that you’ve been performing miracles at the hospital. Would you care to comment?”
“I do not give interviews. You must talk to Ms. Goudrian,” he said, and turned away, hooding his eyes again, and letting a broad streak of yellow fork across his torso to indicate that he was not to be disturbed.
But the woman would not leave him alone. Finally Ukatonen got up and walked back to the apartment. The garden was no longer his refuge. If this woman had found it, then others would follow.
Juna was catching up on her correspondence when her comm program signaled her with Analin’s familiar chime.
Their press secretary’s normally cheerful face looked strained and worried. “There’s an exclusive interview on WorldNet with the mother of a child that Moki healed. It’s gotten so many hits they’ve had to put it on twenty different servers. Here,” she said, reaching forward to touch a button, “listen to this.”
The image on the screen cut to the familiar WorldNet logo, then to the figure of netcaster Natalie Ndabari.
“I’m standing in front of Snyder Research Hospital; Rumors have been emerging recently that Ukatonen and Moki, the two alien Tendu, have been performing miracle cures. I’m here with Loreena Richter.” Juna’s heart sank when she saw the camera pan to include the woman whose daughter Moki had healed.
“Mrs. Richter, could you please tell us about your daughter?”
“Yes. My daughter, Shelley, had a hole in her heart. She was a candidate for transplant surgery, but there’s such a shortage of hearts, I didn’t think she was going to live long enough for a transplant. But then Moki, the younger Tendu, healed her.”
“How did he do that, Mrs. Richter?”
“From what Shelley tells me, he simply clasped her hands and they went into some kind of trance. But now her heart is as sound as a normal child’s. It truly is a miracle.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Richter.”
The camera zoomed in on the netcaster’s face, and she continued. “So far, Snyder Hospital has refused to confirm Mrs. Richter’s statement, nor has there been any word from Dr. Saari or the Tendu. I’m Natalie Ndabari, and this has been a WorldNet breaking news report.”
The WorldNet logo flickered briefly on the screen, and then Analin reappeared.
“Well, so much for peace and quiet,” Juna remarked. “You’d better come on over.”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” Analin promised. “Meanwhile, call station security and have them secure your hallway.”
Ukatonen came in just then, slamming the door behind him loudly enough to make her jump. He was so red with anger, he seemed to glow.
“I’ve got to go,” Juna told Analin. “Ukatonen just came in, and he looks upset.”
“I’ll be over as quickly as I can.”
“Thanks,” Juna said.
“Hey, that’s what you pay me for,” Analin said with a smile. “Something like this was inevitable, given the Tendu’s talents. I’ll do what I can to minimize the impact on you, but you should brace yourself for some heavy weather ahead.”
“I think some of it just blew in the door,” Juna said, and signed off.
“What’s the matter, Ukatonen?”
“There was a reporter in the Japanese garden,” he said in skin speech. His words were dark black against the glowing red of his skin. It reminded Juna of cooling lava. “She wanted to know about the work we’re doing at the hospital. I told her I wasn’t going to talk to her, but she wouldn’t leave me alone!”
“Did you say anything?”
Ukatonen shook his head. “No, but she wouldn’t leave me alone! Why?”
Juna laid a gentling hand on his arm. Despite the deceptively blazing color of his skin, it was as cool and moist as a spring rain.
“Ukatonen, word of what we’ve been doing has gotten out.” Briefly, she summarized Analin’s comm call. “It looks like the press are going to be all over us again,” she said with a sigh.
“Why wouldn’t she leave me alone?” Ukatonen repeated. “I told her I wasn’t going to talk to her. Didn’t she believe me?”
He was an enkar, and on Tiangi no one would dream of being so rude to someone of his status.
Juna sighed and rubbed her forehead. She was tired, her breasts and back were sore. All she wanted to do was lie down and sleep until the baby came.
“You did exactly the right thing, Ukatonen,” she told him. “But reporters are paid to be persistent. They don’t care that you’re an enkar. To them you’re only a story. That’s why we have Analin to deal with them.”
Ukatonen’s color had cooled somewhat, but he was still clearly agitated. “She was so rude,” he said aloud and then again in skin speech. The words flared black against his red skin. They faded and flared over and over again, gradually growing fainter, like a dying echo of his spoken words.
Analin’s warning proved all too true. Despite everything Analin did to minimize the impact, they were mobbed, first by the press, and then by people begging to be healed. The hospital called Juna and told her to stay home. They were afraid there would be a riot if the Tendu showed up.
So they remained caged at home. Ukatonen and Moki helped her clean house, after which the two Tendu sought comfort in a long, intense link. Juna looked around at the clean apartment, trying to find something else that needed tidying. Finally, desperate for something to do, she attacked the enormous pile of mail on her desk. As she was sorting through it, she came across the folder from the Xaviera family. She picked it up and began paging through it. Juna was pleasantly surprised to see that the Xaviera family residences, though gracious and beautiful, were not nearly as grand as she would have imagined. There were plenty of amenities, but very little overt display of wealth.
The gardens, however, were another story. They were filled with rare and beautiful plants and animals, many extinct in their native habitat. Every effort had been made to create and preserve full ecosystems. She turned to a double page hologram of their fifty-hectare rain forest preserve on the Moon, and smiled wistfully. Ukatonen and Moki would love that.
She looked up at the closed door of their room. Yang had said that their invitation to visit was open-ended. The hospital couldn’t use them, and there was nothing else for her to do here except answer mail. If they were out of the public eye for a week or so, perhaps the furor would die down and they could slip quietly back to Snyder and continue their work.
She put a call through to the Xaviera family and left a message for Yang. He returned her call after only two hours.
“Juna! I’m glad you called! Are you coming to visit?”
“I’d like to, but— ” She paused. “Have you seen the news? I’m afraid that we’re all over the net. The hospital is mobbed, and they’re afraid of a riot if we show up. It looks like we finally have time to visit, but I’m afraid that we’d be bringing trouble with us.”
“Nonsense, Juna. Discretion is one of our family specialties. The
Tendu will be coming with you of course?” he inquired politely.
“I couldn’t leave them behind.”
“Of course, and they will be welcome. You’ve seen our rain forest?”
“Oh, yes. The Tendu will love it.”
Yang smiled. “We hope so. Now, let me make some arrangements, and then I’ll call you right back.”
Discretion was, indeed, a family specialty. Somehow, Juna and the Tendu were whisked off the station in the middle of the night, escaping through the service tunnels, and onto a private shuttle. Only Analin and Toivo knew where they were going.
“It’s the Tendu,” Analin had said, when Juna told her about the proposal. “They want access to the Tendu.”
“I know,” Juna replied. “But I’m tired of doing all this by myself. I need someone powerful in my corner.”
“Be careful, Juna,” Analin warned.
“I will be,” she said.
Now, staring out through the filtered window at the sunlit surface of the Moon, she wondered how wise she was being. The Xavieras were immensely powerful. They could ruin her, or kill Toivo and Analin, and kidnap her and the Tendu. She took a deep breath, fighting off the crawling paranoia that had risen from the depths of her psyche. There was no turning back now. The shuttle was landing.
Yang met them at the gate. “Welcome to J6ia da Lua, Juna. I am honored to meet you, Ukatonen, and it is good to see you again, Moki. I hope you enjoy your stay with us.” He escorted them to a ground car with fat rubber moon wheels.
“What about our bags?” Moki asked.
“Don’t worry, they’re being taken directly to your rooms,” Yang told him. Yang opened the door to the ground car, a big, luxurious model that could seat at least six people in the back, and waved them graciously inside before climbing in himself. “We’re so glad you were able to come. The rest of the family can’t wait to meet you.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting them as well,” Juna said. “Getting us here must have been a great deal of work. I’m sorry if we caused you any additional trouble.”
