The Narlav interrupted, pointing behind Paranak and the Fletchers – Richard was only a few paces away at this point – at the other humans still keeping a low profile by the far wall at the entrance. “Goph, gach, gich, ra…” She looked at the three immediately before her. “Ra goph, ra gach, ra gich!”
And you have the tongue of your own kind now, too! Karen was grateful her little test had demonstrated this fact so effectively.
Richard sat down beside his wife, making a kind of counterbalance to the line, with Paranak being on Kirrina’s right side. He quickly got her left hand in his and felt his eyes blur as the energy rushed from him like a flash flood in reverse. “Hello, I am Richard,” he managed to blurt out, after a couple of deep breaths.
“You have a name? So does she! I know. It is Karen – no, Kirrina!” There was some confusion evident here.
“Both are true,” Richard admitted, smiling. “And you, what is your name?” Richard felt prompted to ask.
“I… I am…” The Narlav eye space furrowed deeply at the concept.
“You are Saarab,” Karen suggested. Do you like that? I think it is just right for you!
Saarab nodded her agreement.
“Richard,” Karen leaned her head against his shoulder and looked up, whispering: “I’ll have to touch one more mother, so we can take Saarab with us, go back and get me Restored… to come back and share with the rest.” I’ll be dead to the world after one more, you’ll have to carry me, but we can’t leave them without someone who understands.
I’ll keep you safe, my darling. His response was instantaneous and tender. “Saarab, it is my very great honour to meet you.” Richard knew the occasion deserved well-chosen words. “You are a wonder among Narlavs!”
“Thank you.” Saarab studied him, quite unsurprised by either Kirrina’s or his very non-Narlav appearance. Then she looked to the other side of Karen and addressed Paranak. “What is your name?”
“This is Paranak, my blood brother,” Karen replied for him, indicating that Richard should move his hand to her neck so she could touch them both simultaneously. In a moment, when the connection was made, she tried something even more radical – she tried to connect the two Narlavs, one male, one female, together through her. There was silence again as her eyes glazed over and a vein in her neck pulsed.
She may not even make it to a second mind merge! Richard watched each face in turn, settling on his wife’s at the end, knowing and feeling how her intellect was being stretched to and beyond all known limits, as evidenced by the immense drain he was experiencing and the physical effects she was displaying.
Finally she pulled her hands away from the two Narlavs and shuddered as she sighed, the paleness of her complexion having become almost as grey as her eyes had been – though now, ironically they were blue again. There was something – not much. It will have to do.
“Saarab.” Paranak repeated the word, his tongue finally loosed. “Saarab[49]! It is a good name for the most amazing Narlav I have ever met. I pledge to protect you. To feed and care for you. Only the very best food, of course!” He smiled.
Saarab smiled back, and Paranak’s eyes glistened as he was filled with a feeling of gratitude and wonder at the impossible conversation in which he was indisputably engaged.
***
Kirrina passed out after her ‘session’ with the second Narlav mother as she had predicted she would, but Richard had been forewarned and was at least intellectually prepared for this to happen. He made sure his wife was leaning against him during her merge, so it was hardly noticeable to the others, still far across the cave, when she sank into a swoon.
This second female Narlav was given the name of Darmid[50].
“Saarab.” Richard got up slowly, cradling his wife in his arms. Once she had become unconscious, the energy drain he had been experiencing had – of course – ceased. I feel quite empowered again, almost refreshed! This was an optimistic exaggeration of course… but he did not anticipate the walk back to Citadel would be more than he could handle.
“Will you come with me to meet the others and see the transport vessel we have brought? We will come back here in a short while, and we can bring food back for the others.” He looked into Saarab’s green eyes, seeing some confusion.
“What is this… transport? And vessel!” She did not fold and unfold her arms, but it was obvious that she did not understand the words she carried within her.
“It’s hard to explain. You will understand when you see it.” I think. Richard looked at Darmid. “Now you understand about us, could you stay here and keep the others from being too worried, until we come back?”
“We have always stayed together, since we started to really see… to think… I...” Darmid had yellow eyes; in that way she was more like Paranak, though she was somehow softer in her appearance than him. She looked at Saarab.
I like that about these ‘girls’! Richard waited for this new female-female Narlav interaction to come to a conclusion, standing easily with his wife nestled against him.
“Will you stay with us, while they… go?” Darmid had turned to Paranak, who was in the process of pushing up from the rocky surface.
“I will stay.” Paranak folded his arms, relaxing into his rest position again. “Do not be concerned.”
“Thank you, Paranak.” Saarab touched his shoulder briefly.
“Come back… Saarab.” Darmid said, her deep and gentle voice showing her trust, but also her uncertainty. She looked into Saarab’s eyes, finding reassurance there, and then settled down, shifting to watch her charges from a position close beside Paranak.
Richard walked over the unoccupied cave central space, keeping a watchful eye on the Narlav beside him as he did so. “I will tell you about my friends here.” He spoke rapidly before the short journey was completed. “Or at least their names!” The wrinkled eye space relaxed at this qualification. “Saarab, here are my friends: Latt, Terry, Penny-Lee and Jane.” He made a small gesture with one hand for the foursome to remain seated. No ‘standing on ceremony’ here! I just need them to keep the situation from becoming any scarier for her.
The semi-sylph space-suited four nodded and smiled, each one saying a brief ‘hello’ or ‘hi’, though there were some hastily veiled concerned expressions as they saw how limp their platinum blonde heroine was. Latt’s eyes were still very wide open; Richard thought he looked like he had not blinked for the entire time since he had found the cave. It seemed that his level of amazement had reached a maximum and even the image of the flaccid form of the person so well-regarded by him, unconscious and needing to be carried, helpless, could not raise it higher.
“Why don’t you go ahead of us and tell your Judy, and Violet, too?” This directive was for Latt alone. Richard had noted the vibration mode messages from the Canadian pilot, coming precisely every five minutes, he assumed, though he had not looked to confirm this timing during their passive ‘stand-off’, and had sent back a pre-coded acknowledgement in each instance, so he knew that they were still ‘on station’ and all was well with them.
“Of course.” Latt got up, putting his helmet under his arm as he did so and collecting the rifle rather nonchalantly in his right hand.
“The rest of you, stay here; keep station in sight of Paranak. Let us know if anything happens.” Richard walked on, confident his team would watch over his blood-brother and the exemplary physical manifestation or revelation regarding his people with whom he was now seated. Not what we expected to find, and not how Paranak ‘knew’ they would be, either! Not even slightly!
“We are going to show Saarab our ship,” Richard continued to the remaining three. He leaned back a little more to keep Karen’s head against his shoulder. “And Kirrina needs the refreshing power of the Medic – don’t worry, this is just the effect of two very deep mind merges, she’s fine, really!”
“We’ll be fine, too,” Jane stated, a sly grin showing as she absorbed the fundamentals of the simple assignment. She winked
at Richard. “Anyway, we have Terry with us!”
Stadt caught the tone but not the eye signal. “Indeed,” he said a little uncertainly as the two girls moved a little closer to him.
“Right.” Richard stuck out his chin and moved on. The human and the Narlav moved up the tunnel in silence for a while. Then Saarab stopped and of course Richard had to, also.
“She looks so peaceful like that.” Saarab was checking his wife’s countenance, clearly concerned. “This is not sleep…” The reason for her attention became apparent.
“Not exactly.” Richard paused to find the best – and shortest – way to explain this. “It is a state that will pass, like sleep, but for now she would not wake if I shook her gently or talked loudly to her.”
“I think I understand. Sometimes the little ones we have are almost as deep in sleep as this idea sounds.” She started walking again, which relieved Richard, as he did not want to have to urge her a second time. “I was not sure if it was because they are so different from our young ones, and then, when we saw you arrive, I thought I understood that they were like you, and not some unusual Narlav children. That is right, isn’t it?”
It was Richard’s turn to stop. “You have human children with you, back there?”
Saarab nodded. “They were found in one of the other tunnels, after we escaped from the hot, soft, moving rock. We decided to look after them, too.”
“Latt will be so excited!”
“The one you sent ahead? Why?”
“He is from this world. The rest of us are not.” Richard realised as soon as he said this that his challenge to explain a movable vehicle had now been dwarfed by a much greater one: how to explain worlds, space… And Grey Space! Good luck with that idea – I still don’t understand it myself!
“I’ll get Karen to tell you some more, when we wake her up.” He stepped forward again tentatively and was pleased that Saarab moved with him, too.
“I have a device that allows me to communicate to all of our people,” Richard continued a moment later, as they began to near the point where Violet and Judy were standing guard, but still some fifty metres or more before these two would come into view. I need to prepare them! And Latt – I’m not sure he really ‘got it’! It’s probably more difficult for him to understand, what with his life here, if you can call it that. “I’m going to talk to them now.” He looked at the quizzical, broad Narlav face, so much like Paranak’s but also so very different: softer featured, possessed of a voice with more nuance… and an intensely intelligent mind behind it, capable of switching from primitive, wordless communications of hand signals and grunts to complex sentences in the space of a few minutes. Of course, Kirrina had something to do with that, facilitating that change!
“I will listen, if that is not considered rude.”
Richard looked at her, amazed. What stuff didn’t my gal give you? He shook his head. “Oh, I don’t mean no, of course you may listen.” He glanced down at the still form in his arms and activated his comlink. “This is Richard. I am coming back to Citadel with great news! We have found survivors. Some Narlav mothers and children… and some human children that these mothers have been tending, since they found them. The Narlav mothers are wonderful people! You will find them to be the very best.” He looked at Saarab and noted her eyes were directed downward at the rough walkway, but her step seemed to become more confident, her posture more springy, as his words impacted her. Ah! The mirror image coil of the body bone! What an amazing thing! “Karen has already given Saarab, who is coming out with me, a lot of information. And one other mother named Darmid, too, but she’s waiting back with the others for now.”
The passage – tunnel junction drew closer. Judy and Violet stepped into view, having heard the last few words of his message directly, as well as through the comlink. Richard was pleased to note that their weapons were not in sight.
“Hello!” Judy spoke first. Latt stepped up beside her, pulling her against his space-suited form. She curved into his side.
It seemed to the burdened captain that they were trying to get as close as was humanly possible. That’s an interesting expression… Richard grinned at the two lovebirds. And I have a life-changing idea for these ones! “This lovely Narlav is Saarab.”
“And this is my fiancée, Judy, and our friend Violet,” Latt responded, his eyes glinting with barely controlled emotion.
Saarab’s expression showed a question had formed in her mind, but she did not express it. “Judy. Violet.” She nodded to them. “There is only one way to go from here.” She began to lead off, up the smooth-floored passageway.
This is an interesting development! Richard made an effort to keep up, signalling to the others to stay on their station.
“We were going to come out here and look for others,” Saarab stated. “Our food is almost all gone. This fallen rock would have made it hard for the younger ones to move on, but having no food is worse.”
“We have plenty of food in our ship.”
“This is what I do not understand. What is a …” Her voice petered out as they stepped out onto the small-scaled rubble which had spilled on the flat passageway floor and the black, curved bulk of the space vessel became visible to her.
“This is Citadel, our ship, our Patrol Craft.” Climbing over this carrying Kirrina will be a challenge! Richard stepped towards the larger rocks, promising himself that he would choose each step carefully, so that he would not lose his balance.
Saarab touched his hand where it clasped around Kirrina’s shoulder, causing him to stop. “This … ship of yours. I have been to this location. It was not here before; it moved to here. It can move again?”
“Yes, it can.”
“Can it move closer to us?”
Richard felt like crying. He shook his head, chagrined at his own obtuseness. “No – I mean, yes!” He keyed the comlink. “Spencer, get that marvellous Patrol Craft up and over here on the double!”
“Yes-sir!”
Chapter Forty
Changing configurations
“I will see something I have never seen before – a thing like a rock that can move upwards!” Saarab stood perfectly still, her eyes on the black bulk of Citadel, determined not to miss a thing.
“Indeed you will… and it does.”
“Coming!” Acting Pilot Baldwin spoke just one word, but Richard could hear the enthusiasm those two syllables embodied: it was as if he had given a rousing speech. Citadel rose up – silently of course – and began to drift towards them.
“Saarab, hold my hand please, we are going to go inside that rock – it is filled with wonderful rooms!”
Richard felt the strength of the Narlav double thumbed grip. She was clearly scared, but a look at her face showed she was excited, too. The vessel drifted closer, closer. Twenty feet… fifteen, ten… five, slowing as it neared, as a collision seemed to become imminent. Richard stepped forwards, ignoring the gap between the rock he was perched on and the next one. Shimmering took a moment, Saarab’s sudden intake of breath was audible and then the Assembly Room was all around them. “Welcome to our movable home!” Richard was relieved that Todd was not in sight.
“Oh!” Saarab stood stock-still in wonder.
“Now I will give you a gift of health.” Richard let go of her hand. “Computer, two – no – three to Restore… one female Narlav and two humans. Restore!”
He watched Saarab, pleased to see how her colouring gained that faint green tinge that at first had disturbed, almost embarrassed Paranak. In addition, her skin became scratch and bruise free and her posture became springier than before. The girl in his arms stretched, her free hand reached up and pulled his head down.
“Oh, how I love you!” Kirrina declared… and she kissed him as she twisted towards him, making his hold on her more of an embrace than a mere means of conveyance.
***
Some minutes later, Richard and his wife were talking to Saarab and showing her the vessel, one room at a time. Th
ey saved the Control Centre for last.
“Ah, this is where you make your rock fly!” Saarab spoke confidently as she saw Spencer and Todd in the outer two crew seats and the view displayed of the rock tunnel, close ahead.
“Yes, indeed.” Kirrina nodded to one of the second row seats and it morphed into a recliner, much to Saarab’s amazement. “Saarab, meet Spencer and Todd.”
The two men smiled back, having previously discussed – a little briefly but from a wide range of perspectives – the momentous news broadcast by their Captain a short time before Baldwin had been directed to bring Citadel over to the ‘improved’ tunnel entrance.
“For me?” Saarab laid on it, not waiting for what she knew would be the reply. “And you want to show me what we would have found, if we had climbed over the rocks?”
“And more.” Karen stretched, impressed with the deductive powers her newest friend was displaying. “I’m still tired. Todd, could you be companion to Saarab?”
“Of course. Hello Saarab.” He greeted her with a kindly nod and took the other chair as Richard took the central seat.
“Spencer, take us up,” Kirrina sighed. “I’ll be Navigator this time.”
***
It only took a half hour to show the increasingly amazed Narlav the extent of the ruins around her, then the somewhat expanded view from hundreds of feet up. Next they rose higher and higher, until the clouds of noxious fumes were far below and at last the curve of the horizon became discernible, far ahead and all around. Karen left the concept of living on a huge ball for a later time, thinking that the seed had been planted by this high altitude viewpoint.
As they landed – or more correctly, hovered – right back by the smooth part of the old passageway, Saarab anticipated their next move, demonstrating her understanding of all that she had learned in such a short time: “I’ll get everyone to come out here and into your Assembly Room. Then we will be safe from the dangerous falling rocks and the ones that glow and flow like water, too.”
Cavalry Page 39
