Acorna’s Search Read Free

others a look that seemed to say, “Isn’t it adorable how she comes up with these things?”
     
     
     
    Captain Jonas Becker, the only non-Khleevi who had the coordinates for Aari’s cave in his data banks, took time off from salvage gathering in the ruins of narhii-Vhiliinyar to assist the remaining Linyaari space vessels in transporting survey crews to the site on their old home world.
    In the cargo holds of the Condor were a dozen House Harakamian flitters. As Acorna, Aari, Becker, and the android Mac unloaded the last of these, Becker said, “I wish I could go with you kids, but Mac and I have a shipload of work to do back at NV. I got a favor to ask you though, Princess,” he said.
    He and Acorna stood on the robolift deck, Becker holding his feline first mate, Roadkill the Makahomian Temple Cat, while Acorna scratched the cat behind the ears. Roadkill, who usually enjoyed such attention, squirmed mightily, kicking out with his back paws, which were securely tucked under Becker’s left elbow. RK’s front paws tried to jerk loose from the grip of Becker’s left hand. Every striped hair on the beast’s body was standing at attention, and the cat’s eyes, barely slitted open, had a ferocious glint.
    RK was purring, but woven into the purr was a thin stream of growly whine. The cat had been behaving wildly all during the journey to Vhiliinyar, leaping from deck to deck, racing along the tops of the Linyaari passengers’ heads with a recklessness that had seemed likely to get him impaled on a horn at any moment.
    “A favor? Certainly, Captain, if it is within my powers to grant it,” Acorna said.
    “I was hoping you’d say that,” Becker growled, and shoved RK into her arms. “Take the cat with you.”
    Several of the Linyaari passengers, no matter how fond they had been of the pahaantiyir species native to Vhiliinyar that RK was said to resemble, had been happy to finish their journey simply so they could leave the cat and his erratic behavior behind them on the ship. Those Linyaari who read animals well reported that RK’s thought patterns were deranged and unpredictable—not at all to the surprise of those who normally did not. Just now, the calculating appraisal RK gave Acorna, along with the paw full of claws he used to leave a lasting impression on Becker about a cat’s opinion of being held against his will, bore testimony to that.
    “Why would you ask that, Joh?” Aari asked, a little nervously. “Do you not need RK with you?”
    “Normally, you know me, I’d hate to let the little guy go, but I need to get him off NV so he can dry out.”
    “Dry out?” Aari asked.
    “Yeah. You guys got some baaad catnip there on narhii-Vhiliinyar, and it didn’t get all burned up when the Khleevi trashed the place. Old RK can’t keep out of it, and it keeps him drunk as a skunk and it takes darned near forever to wear off. I can see I don’t have to tell you that he’s a mean drunk. He’s always been a pretty shrewd character about keeping his tail screwed on straight, but while he’s around that stuff, I’m afraid he’s gonna get one of us killed. It’s a temptation he can’t resist, and it’s driving him mad—and me with him. I’d leave him with Nadhari but, uh, we had this little disagreement.”
    “I see, Captain,” Acorna said, and lowered her horn to scratch RK’s forehead where a horn would be if he had one. Tearing loose a paw from Becker’s grip, he made a swipe at her nose with his claws. The moment her horn touched him and her healing powers reached out to him, however, he detoxified. He lowered his paw, waggled it at her, relaxed to boneless limp serenity, and purred with deep contentment. “I will be happy to take care of Roadkill for you,” she said.
    “That’s the ticket, Princess,” Becker grinned, offloading the foolishly grinning beast into Acorna’s embrace. “Your buddies on the ship would have done the same thing if they’d thought of it, but nobody could