Silent Dances (5 page)

Caught in a waft of escaping steam,
she d
ri
fted higher, until the tiny

lodge seemed only a hump of autumn
-
hued grass against rust
-
colo

re
d g
ro
und
. The sky
w
as
a mo
re
vivid blue th
an
she
'
d ever seen
,
even over the endless plains of home.

Suddenly the air was re
nt with jagged st
re
aks of white-hot lightning
.
It
w
as
the
Wakinyan,
throwing their power around. The ter
ri
fied gnat
couldn't see the Thunder Beings
,
but then, no one ever saw the fierce

gi
an
ts clearly
,
even in d
re
ams.

The Wakinyan
opened their mouths
an
d thunder
ro
lled out, but of

course
,
Tesa couldn
'
t hear it. This
an
gered the spi
ri
ts,
an
d lightning
zigzagged f
ro
m their huge red orbs, arcing through the
sky to strike
the
ground near the sweat lodge.

"She'll hear this!"
boomed the great
re
d thunderbird. His taunts we
re
not words, but feelings directed to her.

"And this," cri
ed the blue, his beak opening wide enough to swallow the

World
.
The yellow spi
ri
t did likewise.

21

The little gnat was tossed about, ter
ri
fied
,
but she still could not hear
the thunder.

"Enough!"
bellowed the largest Wakiny
an,
a g
re
at black being cove
re
d in mist
an
d clouds
.
A d
ri
fting column of sweet grass smoke wafting
up
fr
om the lodge enveloped the black thunderbird
,
ming
li
ng with the
clouds that made his body. "In the loudest sound
,
she hears silence
.

When she should speak, she says nothing
.
What a backward
-
forward

way to be!"

Those words struck more terror into the gnat than
the lightning had. She

froze in horror, just as the black Wakiny
an
opened his great red eye
an

d th
re
w his biggest bolt.

The searing hotness hurled her down,
blasting a hole th
ro
ugh the lodge
'

s or
an
ge and
re
d roof
.
The vision
-
seeker looked up
an
d took the
gnat into herself
, an
d was filled with the gnat's fear
.
Lifting a dipper of
water to throw on the hot rocks, the occup
an
t peered into the cool

liquid. The face she saw was not her own
,
but the face of a laughing

bear.

The Wakinyans flew above the lodge,
their wings blocking the sun
,
so

that its light fl
as
hed on
an
d off in her face.

Light an
d dark. Light
an
d dark.

Tesa burrowed under her old star quilt to escape the light that was
fl
as
hing
light
an
d dark
,
hot
an
d cold. She awoke with a jerk
,
si
tt
ing bolt up
ri
ght
,
then looked around, not knowing where she was. Her bedside

lamp flashed on,
an
d off.

The dream fragmented an
d she scrambled after its memo
ry
, but

nothing w
as
left except a nameless d
re
ad
,
the warmth of the old quilt
, an
d the flashing bedside lamp.
Just a bad dream ended by the door

signal
,
Tesa chided herself
,
climbing out of bed.

It was Jib, an
d with him came the t
an
talizing smell of coffee. "Hur
ry an
d get decent
,
Tesa. Dr. Rob
'
s coming by."

"
Talk to the se
rv
o about b
re
akf
as
t
,"
she signed one-h
an
ded. "I'll be
out in five. Does the place look like hell?"

"Mere
ly heck
.
He gave me a ten
-
minute wa
rn
ing."

Now I'
ll find out about Trini
ty
,
Tesa thought with a stirri
ng of
excitement
.
Jib had told her l
as
t night that he'd pumped Rob for

details
,
but the psychologist had been closemouthed. Tesa had been

tempted to call him herself, but she
'
d been exhausted after the

conversation with her parents
,
following yesterday's confusing events,

an
d she'd fallen asleep.

She stumbled to the shower, passing her wall holo, currently

22

showing the Black Hills
. There
was a lone eagle gliding through the

scene
. The holos
had m
an
y random variations
,
but for some
re
ason
,
this image made her shudder
. "
Mirror
,"
she signed.
Oh, that's worse,
she decided.

"Good morning," Tesa signed to Rob. Clean hair gave her a different

outlook-refreshed, cheerful. "Where's Jib?"

"I tossed him out," the psychologist told her
.
He sat on the
neutral-colored sofa in Jib and Tesa's shared living room. On
a table sat a pile of

doughnuts
an
d a pot of steaming coffee. "We've got lots to discuss
.

Come, pl
an
t yourself."

She did,
then helped herself to a plain old-f
as
hioned.
"
So, how
'
d your
pa
re
nts take it
?"
Rob asked kindly. Tesa stared at him
,
confused.

"When you told them you didn't wan
t your hearing fixed?"

"Well ..." she hesitated
, "
I said
...
I hadn
'
t decided."

Rob w
as
surp
ri
sed
. "
But you we
re
so su
re
when I left you!" Ex
as
perated
,
she scowled
. "
I thought you
wanted
me to re
consider
!
I
thought you w
an
ted me to have it done."

He looked an
noyed in tu
rn.
"
Only
if the surgery
is what you
re
ally w
an
t
.
What did your parents say to ch
an
ge your mind?"

"Nothing
...
I just said I'd think about it," she signed.
"Tesa,
I didn
'
t call
them to complicate things, but because

I knew you'
d have to talk to them about it." Rob r
an
a h
an
d through
his dark
,
curly hair dis
tr
actedly.

"When I told you about that new surgery,"
he signed, "I expected you to
jump at the ch
an
ce
.
However, when you
didn't,
it set something else in motion.
Now you tell me you'
re
not su
re.
.

"
I c
an
't make
an
y decision without mo
re
facts
,"
she signed. He
nodded, took a casse
tt
e from his pocket
, an
d plugged it into the holovid
. "Sorry this
had
an
error on it yesterday," Rob signed
.
The living
-

room scene-seven sac
re
d Mao
ri
canoes c
re
sting the waves-

dissolved, re-forming
as
T
ri
nity. "I had it patched
.
I'm su
re
you
recognized the Grus
,
even without narrative
.
These shots were taken

by the colonizing company's scientists
. They'
d been making obse
rv

ations for months when one of the biologists
,
Scott Hedford, was

approached by the
Grus."
Rob fast
-
forwarded the footage
. "
He
re
's
that scene."

A sophisticated hologramic blind blended invisibly into the re
eds as
an
avi

an
walked up to it
an
d patiently waited. After a moment, the occupant of

the blind tu
rn
ed it off. It

23

disappeared
, an
d the hum
an an
d Grus stood a few feet apart, face-to-face.

The ruddy-
skinned
,
s
an
dy-haired m
an
with a moustache watched as
the improbably tall Grus held out a folded cloth. Tesa inst
an
tly liked

Scott for his open delight in receiving a gift that would ch
an
ge his life

forever.

"Scott
w
as
a good
re
searcher
,"
Rob signed. "He believed that the Grus
we
re
t
ru
ly intelligent
.
His partner
,
Meg T
re
tiak, ag
re
ed
.
Voder tr
an
slations backed them up. However
,
this decision did not please their

employers
,
Jamestown Founders."
I bet
,
thought Tesa.

It had only been fifteen years since the
Desiree
had met the Simiu,
the

powerful
,
four-legged baboonlike aliens
,
the first extraterrestrials the
hum
an
s had found
.
That First Contact had nearly ended disast
ro
usly
when a young Simiu
,
Kh
re
kk', had violated the complicated Simiu

honor code by committing suicide
,
shaming himself
an
d his family
.

But then
,
hum
an
s had also shamed themselves by using weapons-

the Simiu's most se
ri
ous taboo
.
As the conflict escalated
,
Mah
re
e
Burroughs, Rob Gable
, an
d their Simiu f
ri
end
,
Dhurrrkk', stole away
to plead for help
fr
om the Cooperative League of Systems-a union of

the Known Worlds.

The CLS interv
ened
an
d the situation
almost
ended perfectly. Because of the travelers'
accidental
discovery
of the telepathic Averni
an
s, the
Terrans an
d the Simiu we
re
each granted half membership
in the CLS
.

For the hum
an
s
,
this w
as an
unexpected
re
ward
.
But for the Simiu
,
who had lost their bid for full membership because of their mish
an

dling of their a
tt
empt at First Contact with the hum
an
s
,
this was a
shameful disappointment
.
Even now
,
m
an
y Simiu held the humans
re
sponsible for their perceived dishonor in the entire affair.

As for the human
s
,
they had to get used to the idea that the universe w

as
n't theirs alone
.
At that time
,
Earth had already profitably colonized
three pl
an
ets. Columbus was still venerated on Terra
,
and colonizing
was big business
.
However, Terra's new half membership made some

politici
an
s realize that the
re
might be other p
ro
fitable things to do in
space. The oldest
an
d founding members of
the CLS,
the snakelike
,
m
an
y-tentacled Mizari
,
were much more adv
an
ced scientifically th
an
the Terr
an
s. Mutual trade could be ve
ry
beneficial
.
Many hum
an
s felt
that full membership
in the CLS
would help Ea
rt
h immeasurably.

24

One of the most crucial requirements to be granted full membership in the

Cooperative League of Systems-something the Simiu still coveted-was to

meet and establish nonexploitative, peaceful relations with another

intelligent species. But, what might happen if the Simiu were to gain full

membership first? Full membership had become the pennant in a race,

similar to when one Earth country had raced another to be the first to orbit

the planet, or the first to land on Terra's Moon. Only now, the Terrans were

racing the Simiu.

"Scott and Meg notified the CLS about the Grus," Rob continued,
"over
the objections of their superiors. They requested that the CLS regard this as a

genuine First Contact, so a board was established to review the progression