Anne McCaffrey - Third Watch: Acornas Children

THIRD WATCH

Acornas Children

ANNE McCAFFREY and ELIZABETH ANN SCARBOROUGH

To Liz OConnell and Frieda Bates

with thanks and affection

Contents

Khorii left the message on Elviizs portable comthe one he

Khorii bid farewell to Akasa, who pointed out the way

There he is! Grimalkin in unicorn guise cried, galloping away

To think she had imagined that having a sister would

Grimalkin dismissed the puzzling disappearance of Pircifir and Ariin and

Grimalkin and Pircifir did not actually stick around for the

Its okay now, Pebar. The ship is gone, Sileg reported

Khorii was tired enough to sleep despite captivity, the cage,

The snake allowed Khorii to carry the alien disk. It

Never send a Friend or a cat to do a

We have to save them, Khorii told her sister. Thats

Now I want to go home, to our own time.

Just so he knew they really wanted him, they asked

At least Ariin cant blame me for the plague, Grimalkin

I dont imagine its worthwhile to try to find this

Well speak to Uncle Hafiz about it, Khorii said to

Grimalkin faced an unexpected dilemma. Actually, he should have expected

Once they entered what had been, until recently, Federation space,

Accelerating, Elviiz said, but though he pushed the engines until

Grimalkin didnt need Pircifirs ship in order to leave Vhiliinyar.

The coordinates Odus had provided led Grimalkin to a system

Ariin had no idea how to use the information shed

Odussia, red and gold with veins and plains of blue-green,

Two of you started this mess, Ariin harangued the elder

Khorii told their friends first, Abuelita, Jalonzo, and the throng

Maak was about to take Khindiis shiny prey from her

Now and Then

Now

Khorii left the message on Elviizs portable comthe one he needed now that he was fully organic and missing his critical android modifications.

Then, with the moons shining down on them, she and her twin walked down to the pearl-crested sea, Ariin carrying Khiindi.

Hell walk if you want to put him down, Khorii told her twin. We could stop to graze on the way. It would make our story more believable.

Ariin frowned. He really does need to come with us, and hes so unpredictable.

Khiindi took matters into his own paws by hopping down, waving his tail as if beckoning them to graze. The girls assumed grazing posture and bent to taste the tantalizing grasses growing in the meadows sloping down to the sea. Their horns, a single shining gold one in the center of each of their foreheads, glowed softly in the silver moonlight.

When they were done, Khiindi dodged Ariins questing hands and trotted ahead, just out of reach. The cat was not about to let the young Linyaari use his crono to spirit Khorii off to the distant past and get her into who knew what kind of trouble without him there to protect her. Nor, for that matter, was he going to miss a chance to escape the little kitty form into which hed been frozen by his fellow shape shifters, all because of a very slight miscalculation during a mission with which theyd once entrusted him. If they insisted on continuing to hold their grudge, he would be better able to act freely back in the time before the monstrous Khleevi had destroyed the large time-traveling device. The buglike aliens wrecked everything they touched, and they had wreaked havoc not just with the time machine, but with the whole planet. The ecological damage had been repaired, but the time machine was no longer functional.

And, of course, the fish were lovely, too. The LoiLoiKuans saw the three of them approach. The younger ones, well trained by Khiindi back in the days when they were pool pupils, or poopuus, at the school on Maganos Moonbase, flipped a sleek, fat fish out of the water directly into his mouth. Good. Delicious. They had not forgotten the tribute due to their patron cat.

He barely had time to devour it and no time at all for a good wash and brushup before the twins stepped into the water. Khiindi jumped in after them. Makahomian Temple Cats, his lineage in more ways than one, did not mind a nice swim now and then. However, he remembered the first time he had met the aquatic dwellers, after suffering at the hands of that brat Marl Fidd, who had hurt him badly, then thrown him into the pool back at Maganos. The large brown LoiLoiKuans with their fused legs and flippered feet swam up to surround them. They were joined by their watery hosts, the sii-Linyaari, who were as indigenous to Vhiliinyar as anybody was.

Aari, the twins father, had transplanted the sii -Linyaari to the current time from a previous one in which they were about to become extinct. They were not an attractive species, at least, not to anyone except others of their kind. They were examples of a failed attempt on the part of Khiindis people, known to the Linyaari and the Ancestors as the Friends, to create the Linyaari race. Like Khorii and the rest of her race, the sii -Linyaari also had hornsmany little ones growing all over their heads. Some had long, waving hair, some had none. They had fish tails instead of legs, and glistening scales, and spoke only in a bubble-accented thought-talk.

Although they had a reputation for being difficult and even hostile back in their original time, Khiindi figured it probably had a lot to do with their rejection by their parent creators. These days, they were quite happy to see him. If they knew that Khiindi was one of the Friends who had made them, they apparently thought his being a permanent pussycat was punishment enough because they were as friendly to him as they were to the girls and their new guests, the LoiLoiKuans.

Greetings, everyone, Khorii said. We thought you might like your waters freshened up a bit. Fancy a race to the island?

All of the sea people were a bit overstimulated from the events of the previous day, when two tanks of LoiLoiKuans had been decanted into the surface-connected inland sea of Vhiliinyar. A nice sea race was apparently just their idea of a good time.

Popping bubbles and other expressions of assent rose from the water as bodies dipped, tails flipped, and the sea peoples left the twins and Khiindi wallowing in their wake.

Now! Ariin said. Khorii held on to her arm and took the liberty of grabbing Khiindis tail. And suddenly, they were then.

Then

One moment they were in the water, the next they were inside a room bursting with fancy flowing robes framing a huge mirror and a chest brimming with jewels and cosmetics. Ariin looked around and nodded.

Where are we? Khorii asked.

Akasas wardrobe. Thats where I found this, Ariin said, holding up her wrist to show off the crono, which dangled loosely on her small arm. No more questions now. Its complicated. I need to get us back to an earlier time, before we were born.

This is before I was born? Khorii asked.

Right. This thing seems to default to the time and place it was before starting the next time sequence, but were not ready to be here yet. I have something to show you a little farther back.