Silent Dances Read Free Page A

had signed,
    "deafness is a physical condition. Tesa sees it as a cultural one. "
    "Tesa," he argued, "you're light-years away from Gallaudet. You might never see those people again. "
    She looked at him curiously. "The same could be said of my family . I
    wouldn ' t stop being Indian . Of course, you'd never suggest that . But being Indi an is part of what makes me who I am ... my cultu re, my
    identity . Well, so is being Deaf."
    "That stubborn st re ak is going to get you in trouble someday," he signed grudgingly . He wondered if he w as giving in too e as ily , since he had a hidden agenda . " If that's the way you re ally feel , I'll push my hearing prejudices aside. But I'm glad you mentioned your family ,
    because this talk with me is just a warm -up. Your parents will be calling
    in less th an an hour."
    "My parents!" Tesa stood abruptly, dumping the cat off her lap. "You called my parents! Oh, shit!" In signing the expletive, she accidentally swept a disorderly pile of flimsies off the edge of Rob's desk.
    "I had to, Tesa..." Rob gave up signing while they grabbed at the dri fting forms slowly flutte ri ng to the floor.
    "I'm over eighteen, Dr. Rob," she signed abruptly, before snatching a wafting sheet in midair . " You should've as ked me first . If I c an 't explain this to you , how c an I make them
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    understand? They think it's their fault I'm deaf."
    Tesa's parents, both hearing, worked in space, building sta tions . When
    Tesa and her brother and sister were little, her parents had commuted from
    the living museum to Australia and worked Earthside. As the children grew,
    their grandpar ents, aunts, and uncles had filled in as the two engineers took
    on short jobs around Earth and the Moon. Now they were working on a
    station only two weeks' metaspace journey away from StarBridge, close
    enough to afford monthly calls.
    Even though doctors had tried to reassure them, Tesa's parents felt as
    though they must have been exposed to something. Her younger brother
    and sister were both hearing, and genetic screening had ruled out damaged
    chromosomes, but, Rob mused, it was the lot of parents to find themselves
    lacking. He thought of his own eleven-year-old daughter, Claire, the
    problems he had relating to her during their infrequent visits, and sighed.
    "I had to call them," Rob insisted, sitting on his heels on the floor, a sloppy mound of flimsies before him. "There's more going on than just the surgery,
    and your parents had to know."
    Tesa sat tailor fashion across from him. "What, more?" Rob nodded. "Have you heard of Trinity?"
    Tesa's eyes widened. She hadn't really paid attention the first time he'd
    spelled it, but every Terran at StarBridge had heard of it. "What about
    Trinity?" she asked, her eyes bright.
    "It was discovered by a Terran colonizing company Jamestown Founders,"
    Rob told her as they resumed their seats. "It's at an evolutionary stage
    similar to Terra's Pleis tocene-virgin wilderness, gi an t an imals , mammoth trees, rich mineral deposits, and even fossil fuels. A planet to make an
    investor's dreams come true . But there' s a snag . This world is inhabited by a species of intelligent avians we're calling the Grus."
    His intercom called his attention . "Excuse me, Tesa."
    "Rob," said Kkintha ch' aait , the school's Chhhh-kk-tu administrator. "Meg Tretiak is on line in my office."
    "Uh, Tesa's here."
    "Sorry, but this can't wait. Meg's got to catch a shuttle."
    "Be right there." He turned back to Tesa. "Wait here. please . We haven't finished our talk."
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    "But what about Trinity?" Tesa complained.
    "I've got films you can watch," Rob signed, going to his closet. Pushing a
    door aside, he rummaged through a box, finally pulling out two cassettes.
    "You know how to operate the viewer. It's raw footage, no Intergalactic
    Geographic stuff. I'll be back shortly," he promised, and jogged out of the office.
    Tesa turned the unlabeled cassettes over in her hands as she entered the
    sequence