“Yeah, doesn’t it?” Lori said, an amused look on her face. She watched Hunter as his breathing eased, and the throbbing vein in his neck slowed down.
“How do they ever get used to it?” he said.
“Takes a while. I nearly fainted the first time I saw it looming overhead,” she said, joining him in staring upward.
“I didn’t,” Dayu said. “I was not frightened.”
“Yes, you were,” his sister chided. “You hid in the room, behind the bed, and nearly wet yourself.”
“Did not.”
“Did too.”
Hunter ignored the bickering. “We’ll get another passage storm, then, too?” he asked.
“Maybe, though it looks to be a little further north. Sometimes we get three in a row. Nasty then,” Lori told him.
“Yeah. Man,” he said, as he slowly walked inside.
In their room, he stood in the window, watching the passage, and the looming storm as it bore down to their north.
The darkness helped get the humans in the mood for bed. Hunter and Lori accepted the bath Tarue drew for them, and everyone sat around the tub, looking at the mail disks, and talking of news from Earth, and from people Tarue knew, or knew about. She and the kits helped dry them off, and Hunter led Lori into the bedroom. Tarue shut the door. Outside, more rain pelted the window.
“Looks fierce out there. You ever go out in it?”
“Yeah, sometimes. Once in a tree in the forest, too. On Luci. That was scary,” Lori said, shivering a little at the memory as she joined him at the window.
“This is just romantic,” Hunter said, moving behind her, and wrapping his arms around her naked body.
“You’d think anything was romantic.” She felt something stiff and hot poking at the small of her back as she leaned against him.
“Only if you’re there.”
She turned in his arms, and they kissed for a moment. Hunter led her to bed. He eased her down, and began to caress and kiss her taut body.
Chapter 10 - Kali-Luci
After some hours sleep, not enough, Tarue woke Lori, and said, “An Anawoka is here, he says he has travel plans for you, clearance, and everything.”
Lori eased out of the bed, and slipped on a robe, she chilly in the cool room, and left Hunter to sleep on.
Ameca, the Anawoka, greeted her warmly, and showed her a disk. “Here is optimum travel arrangements for us, to ease your trip to our fair world, and arrive in time for a proper welcome. We plan it for mid-morning, local time, at the space port. Is that acceptable?”
Lori reviewed the screen, and called Eagle One. She gave the arrival coordinates, and asked it for the trans-insertion times, departure and vectors. Eagle One’s immediate reply mirrored the plots on the disk, and Lori knew they’d already called the air car. She looked at Ameca and smiled, then over to Tarue.
“This says we should depart here in six hours. Can you be ready by then?”
“Sky Lady, we are ready now. We finished all the trade arrangements while you slept. Many are disappointed, but,” and she held her hands up in a very human-like manner, “we are a small planet, and our resources are limited.”
Lori nodded to the Anawoka. “Ameca, inform your people, we will be honored to arrive at the appointed time. Now, do you, or anyone else, wish to transit with us?”
The bird shook with anticipation. “I and one other will be pleased to coordinate your arrival. I will meet you one hour before departure.” He bowed, and left.
“Time to pack, kits.”
“What of Hunter?”
“Let him sleep, I’ll get him up later.”
“May we go see him in sleep?” Dayu asked.
“If you do so quietly,” Lori said, and watched the two kits creep into the semi-dark room to look at Hunter.
With minimal formalities, everything already approved and paid for, Lori told Eagle One to go to Lucipara, as planned. The air car, hovering low over the hotel, moved upward, gaining velocity rapidly, and soon the ground, then the continent, then the whole of the world, dropped away below them. Ahead, a thick, white tendril drifted from the immense ball of the twin planet overhead, and they headed right toward it. Eagle One, however, flew them to the east of the vaporous cloud, and then rose, skimming along beside it, the kits watching as the cloud raced past them, and the darkened world overhead loomed larger and larger. When it filled the entire sky ahead, Tarue pointed to a glittering spot at one o’clock.
“What is that?” she asked.
Ameca said, “It is part of the welcoming party, there to greet you.”
Lori remembered a dark dot against the clouds, not something that twinkled. What now?
“Those are strobe lights, on air cars, or something,” Hunter said. “A lot of them. Here to greet you?” he asked, turning to Lori.
“Yeah, guess so,” she said softly, now realizing what lay ahead.
They approached, Eagle One slowing noticeably, the safety harnesses pulling against the passengers. Now the individual air cars ahead could be seen, glowing spots in the dark side dimness, the strobes bright pinpricks of light, everything moving slowly to intercept them. They closed the gap, and the kits cried in worry.
“They will crash into us!” one said, but Ameca reassured them.
Into a clearing gap, in the midst of what was truly an immense swarm of air cars, a gathering the likes of which Lori, and Hunter, had never seen before, they flew, their speed still high, and the native air cars accelerating to pace them. Like a thickening arrow, a lance, a spear, of incredible size, the formation raced ahead, toward the glowing eastern edge of the world, and a sunrise that blinded them for the instant it took the clear canopy to dim. No one said anything, as Eagle One flew along, descending toward the surface, arcing around the planet, now green and white and blue and lush beneath them.
By the time they could pick out individual trees, and the occasional settlement, Hunter looked ahead, and said, “What the hell is that?”
Several large buildings lay completely surrounded by some dark material, every level surface covered, a covering that moved and wiggled.
“It’s supposed to be the spaceport...” Lori said, ready to query Eagle One, though the area looked very familiar to her.
“It is,” Ameca said. “This is the spaceport. And this is the people, who come to welcome you.” The bird spoke into its communicator, a low murmur in bird-speak.
“Shall we fly around...?” Lori asked.
“No. Please, to land in the clear place,” Ameca said, and pointed ahead with a long wing.
Lori saw the small opening in the dark mass, now clearly composed of natives, every native on the planet, or at least, this side of it, she figured, and she took control, slowing more as the accompanying air cars peeled away, like the opening of a gigantic flower, some up, some down to land, and seemed to explode with people, who erupted out and into the air like dark, winged dots.
Lori stopped and hovered over the red-carpeted landing zone, a narrow circle maybe 20 meters in diameter. Everywhere else, wherever she looked, all she could see were the tightly packed bodies of the native Anawokas, side by side, in a seemingly solid mass. A quiet mass. A silent mass. No one in the air car spoke, either, save the low words of Ameca, into his communicator.
Overhead, a semi-hemisphere of air cars slowly circled, not high. Intermingled with them, many more natives flew, dark spots gliding among the bright vehicles. Dozens of cambots hung near and far, all focused on her and her air car.
“This is incredible,” Hunter said. “Absolutely incredible.”
Lori slowly landed, and looked at her passengers. They were all looking outside, faces frozen in amazement, trying to see everything everywhere.
Without a warning, the air car opened the canopy, and damp, very warm air poured in. Still, the silence remained.
Ameca said, “Arise, Great Lady, that we might greet you.”
Slowly, Lori stood up, then grabbed the top of the windshield, and stepped up onto the seat.
A low noise started, and grew, a song began, the noise deepening, the song rising in volume, and waves of sound enveloped her, sounds of joy and welcome and praise, and adoration. Lori raised her right hand, and the volume grew, the song rising in pitch as the sound deepened more. The back melody sounded familiar to her, and she recognized it as one of the songs they sang to her in the trees, so long ago, the first time she arrived on the planet.
The solid mass of people around her shimmered, and turned color, as wings unfolded and rose up to show their lighter underside. The wings muffled the song and the sound, and then began to flicker, and new sounds arose, a rolling, low thunder of thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of wings, vibrating in the air.
Lori looked down, to see her passengers crouching low, peering over the top of the sides of the air car, staring out into the huge gathering enveloping them. Hunter looked up at her, his face full of wonder.
The atmosphere hummed and rumbled to a monstrous climax, eased, rose again, eased once more, rose even higher, and slowly declined, but the songs went on.
“Hunter, rise so the people may see you,” Ameca said.
Hunter stood up next to Lori, and received a great welcome, too, not as loud as Lori’s, but noisy for sure. Next Ameca asked the alien guests to arise, also. Tarue stood up, and both Hunter and Lori bent and pulled a kit upward, they really too heavy to easily lift now, but the lighter gravity helped, and they got them to balance on the top of the windshield, in full view of the crowd. Tarue stood on the side of the air car, holding onto the canopy behind her.
The rolling thunder grew again, a different song, Ameca translated the welcoming words, his voice soon drowned out by the rising volume, he fell silent, let the greeting speak for itself.
The kits held tightly to one of the human’s hands, not so sure of what was happening. Used to being the center of many a welcoming ceremony, they’d seen nothing like this one, the sun high, but dimmed by the sheer mass of machinery and people overhead, and the volume of the voices and wings concentrating sound at them, yet secure in the closeness of Lorelei, and her human mate-to-be, they calmly waited for it to end.
Lori wondered if it would, as a new song started, lively, fast, the wing beats loud and quick, her chest felt the concussion of the air, and her ears were beginning to ring.
Hunter yelled into her ear, “What do we do now?”
“Wave a little, maybe it’ll end.”
They all began to wave at the natives, but that only intensified the sound level, so they stopped. Lori eased the kit down, and so did Hunter, and slowly, the greeting decreased in volume, the wing beats stopped, and the songs lowered to a pleasant level.
“This is amazing,” Tarue said in the ensuing near-quiet.
“I never imagined...do you see how they love you, Lori? Man,” Hunter said, looking at her.
“Yeah,” Lori said softly, amazed herself. She’d never expected a greeting of such magnitude. And it was not over.
Some of the crowd parted, and a bevy of birds flew down, and landed in front of Eagle One. Lori recognized one of them.
“It’s Phe. Look, it’s my old friend, Phe, still going strong after all these years. C’mon, time to go,” Lori said, and stepped down. The stairs deployed, and she walked down and onto the surface of Lucipara once more. Hunter and the Damai followed her.
Lori walked to Phe, and bowed to him, but he squawked, and said, “Sky Lady, Lady Lorelei, it is I who bow to you,” and he and his party bent till their heads fairly struck the ground. Around them, the entire crowd did the same, a wave of motion moving out and away, like a rippling shock wave, across the surface of the greeters of the great guest from Earth.
Phe stood, and wrapped Lori in his wings, then did the same for Hunter, and Tarue, and each of the kits, to their surprise, and shock. He gave a short welcome speech, full of praise for Lori, and of welcome for them all.
Next, another dignitary stepped forward, to officially award honorary citizenship to Lorelei, and a special citation to Hunter, and to each of the Damai, also, elaborate sashes, full of writing and symbols in spun gold, all glittering in the sunlight.
Phe parted the crowd once more, Ameca joining him, as they escorted the guests of honor to a low dais, there to receive more native dignitaries, many of whom reminded Lori of their past association in various meetings, and the great convocation that she mentored, which resulted in their declaration of independence, an event celebrated yearly in her honor. Another, a hagazzii business woman, offered high praise for allowing the Anawoka to fly in air cars, and said the entire planet now lay open to all.
In the sky overhead, young fledglings appeared, wheeling and turning in complex maneuvers to the songs and sounds of the crowd, an aerial display never before seen by alien guests, demonstrations of the versatility of young aviators, and high honors for those who watched. Ameca oversaw the serving of refreshments for the human and Damai guests, special foods and drink on low tables, while yet more aerial dancing went on.
More speakers stepped forward, to recount all done for the Anawoka, back to Stephanie, whose name brought forth a thunderous wave of wing noise, startling the kits, and on forward to Lori, and her time on the planet some years before.
The ceremony went on for some two hours, and showed no signs of ending, when Phe said the greeting was done, and now they would depart, to return to the Nest Tree of Lorelei, still present in the forest not far away. He flew there in Eagle One with Ameca, pointing out the many developments on the way.
They stepped out onto an obviously recently refurbished tree house. Lori could hardly pick it out at first as they approached, it so nearly overgrown with vines and greenery, yet still distinctly a built facility in the tall tree. New boards and railings here and there showed recent upgrading, and all the furniture looked new. Electricity ran in from a power grid, or a fuel cell somewhere, the solar panels covered in vegetation.
“This is where you lived, while you were on the planet?” Hunter said, looking at everything.
“Yes. For over a year.”
“Neat.”
“It seems smaller now, somehow.”
The kits peered over the rail once, and then kept as far away from it as they could. Even Tarue looked uneasy, here in the branches, high above the ground. She asked to leave at Lori’s convenience, and stayed inside the house for the rest of the short visit.
Hunter said he’d love to stay here for a while, if Lori wanted, and she agreed, to Phe’s delight. But she told Phe she needed to get the Damai to the ground, they were not tree dwellers, and wanted the feel of something solid beneath their feet. He suggested a stop at the Blue Hole on the way. They flew off within minutes.
More development intruded even into the preserve area of the Blue Hole. Indeed, the small pool, still a pretty little jewel in the midst of greenery, lay below a new high-rise hotel nearby, the forest gone, replaced with a lawn spotted with trees, all the way from the water to the entry. Disappointed, Lori landed next to the pool, and the kits jumped out and went immediately into the water. Lori strolled over with Hunter and Tarue, but felt no great desire to go into the pool, even in the rising heat of early afternoon.
The kits emerged, glistening, and began racing around on the grass, chasing each other, exhilarated by the rolling terrain and lower gravity, running from tree to tree, and then back to the pool, and jumping into the water.
Lori, Hunter, and Tarue, and their native hosts, stopped at a shaded patio and settled into chairs around circular tables. To her amusement, Kobi waiters arrived, to take their orders for lemonade and iced tea. They watched the kits in their play in the pool and the greensward.
“You don’t want to take a swim?” Hunter said. “It’s pretty hot, you know.”
Lori shook her head. “No, it’s not the same, way too public, open...maybe later,” she said, waving at the cambots and still huge crowd hovering overhead.
“Mind if I do?”
“No, go ahead.
Tarue?” she said.
“Yes,” Tarue said, and ran over to the water, Hunter following, shedding clothing on the way.
Lori smiled, sipping her drink, watching them all at play, and discussed a schedule for the next few days with Phe and Ameca. They’d be full ones, for her and the Damai, the cost of fame, she guessed, but here, on her favorite planet, with the wonderful Anawoka, worth it. She worked out an itinerary, but deferred confirming it until Hunter returned, he now running naked on the grass with Tarue and her kits, chasing a frisbee, one occasionally snatched by a native, swooping down to grab it, then drop it over one of the players.
Hunter returned after another dip in the Blue Hole, winded, smiling, to sit on a towel and drink more lemonade, and looked over the schedule for the next week or so.
“We have time to stay that long?” Lori asked him.
“Oh, sure, twice that, if you want,” he said.
“More days?” Phe said. “That would be nice. We can see more of the planet, show you everything.”
Lori doubted that, but said, “I’m game. Set it up. But leave us a little time every day for ourselves. I want to come back here sometime when it’s not quite so busy,” and she waved at a group of people, humans mostly, heading their way from the hotel. “And I want a couple of days to see the south lands, too.”
After several other stops that afternoon, including one of the AG sites dating to Stephanie’s days, the Damai returned to stay in the hotel, and Lori and Hunter flew off by themselves to the tree house. They found all in order, quiet and cool, the pantry stocked, the sheets crisp and clean on the bed. Well, not exactly quiet. After dark, a sizable chorus of something that sounded like tree frogs arose, noisy enough to be very noticeable.
“Want me to see if Phe can do something about them?” Lori asked as they stood on the open deck, looking to the far south, where the passage storm moved, illuminated by interior lightning.
“Not on my account. I think they’d be a delightful accommodation to making love.”
“Oh, you do, do you?”
T-47 Book II (Saxon Saga 6) Page 15
