The misborn v, p.2
The Misborn V, page 2
"Excuse me," he said. "I was very anxious; you were gone when I was here earlier."
"Well, I'm back," said Maud, and stood aside to let him in. "Sit down. Coffee?" Logan didn't need to eat or drink anything, but the sensors Willis had installed in this mechanical body were outstanding, and he loved the many sensations this universe offered his tongue and nose. He followed her to the breakfast bar and sat down on her stool and she poured coffee into the red cup and passed it to him and sat down on the stool on the kitchen side. "So, what are you anxious about?" she asked him.
He drank deeply, his face showing pleasure. It was not a revealing face; not belonging to his natural body, since he didn't have a natural body in this universe, it did not necessarily reflect his emotions. And his emotions were not necessarily the same as those of the Alliance species. But as he became more adept in using the body he had acquired a few mannerisms, body language, said Jared, who was very good at reading that in almost anyone, and Maud knew Logan very well now, certainly enough to read what expressions he did show.
"Yes, this is very good, thank you," he said. "I'm here because I have news. Very good news, I think, and I wanted first to share it with you, and our special friends. So we can bring it to Dr. Ramirez when we are sure of it; it will be a very nice surprise for him."
In other words, he wanted to tell his news to her and Lt. Price, Nelson and Sandy, before he told Jared. This meant that he wasn't positive it was going to work out, and he wanted their help, a very understandable point of view. Jared had many things to do. He had his family; he had his work on the arches from Or2, the miserable portals that had started all of this trouble; they were recording and studying the schematics on the inside of the arches, comparing and trying to translate them into something they could handle. He was keeping the Azuri/zai committee pacified while coaxing his people to find ways to use these schematics to close and lock those portals with a minimum of risk. He was working with Logan, trying, Maud knew, to get a picture of the society which had produced him. He was doing the same with Grace. He was also involved in the group efforts to home school Gina, who was happily plowing through sixth level work and expecting to graduate from secondary at the ripe old age of sixteen, next spring, and Lalia's son Brett, who was probably going to test out of both elementary and the first level of secondary at the same time. So it was considerate of Logan to avoid dumping a new problem on him, to come to Maud, instead, for help in putting things in order first.
Their little circle had been useful last year, Maud felt, in rounding up troublemakers and their weapons all on their own, without demanding any help from Jared. As a matter of fact, they had managed to keep from him most of the details about the semi-debacle that had ended in the north side explosion last summer. It had rid Bridgeton of a group of what Logan called the Defenders, had bought them this year of uneasy quiet, so it had ended well, on the whole, but there were aspects of that affair she would be quite happy if Jared never knew – the night when the five of them shot up the Leaning Tree Night Club, for instance.
Yes, there were many occasions when they were best off working on their own, on the excellent principle that what Jared didn't know couldn't hurt him. "All right," she said to Logan, "and what is this surprise?"
"You are aware that I've been in contact with others of my people. It has been more difficult since I have moved into this body; it takes much energy to use it properly. Do you find that?" he asked, casting a look at her and her body in the armchair.
"This is the body I was born with," said Maud, trying again to find words that would give this other life form some understanding of her and her people without revealing too much. "It manifests differently in different dimensions; this is how it's designed. I don't use any special energy to make it work." This was not entirely true, but it was not her personal energy at work. The truth about this energy source was not a matter to be discussed with anyone, certainly not with Logan. "It isn't like yours; it didn't start out as a robot body. I can see how that would be more difficult."
"A very efficient body, however," said Logan, looking with some complacency at his bare black arms. "Willis adapted it very well to my purposes. The other bodies will be equally efficient; this is what I have told my people."
"But they aren't lining up to claim these bodies, are they," said Maud. Logan had made periodic efforts to connect with the others of his species who had come to Haivran with him. He had expected to be in mental contact with at least some of them, but he was only partially successful in this. Jared said it was often connected with physical distance; he didn't know why, but he knew it was so, of his own experience. So this might have hampered Logan, and his attempts to find and speak with his people in person had not been very successful either. And of those he had contacted, not one of them showed any enthusiasm about joining him in negotiations with the Azuri/zai representatives. Their opinion seemed to be that if such negotiations were required, Logan, already on the spot, so to speak, could do it for all of them.
They felt, she thought, with the arrogance of their species and their social caste, that they could do it all that was required by themselves without reference to the species already occupying this plane, even if this world and this universe was not theirs, not one in which they were comfortable or competent. Logan, she thought, felt a little of this himself. His experiences in Sandy's borrowed body, and his experiences in his independent robotic body had taught him a great deal, but he was not entirely convinced yet.
And so he wasn't able to convince his people; she thought that was the bottom line.
But things were, it seemed, changing. "One of my people," he explained. "You have met her. Last year, you and Lt. Price, and now at last she is seriously thinking about our proposals, about coming to Bridgeton herself, to see what is happening here. I believe she will be very surprised, very happy, and will be glad to stay and talk with Dr. Ramirez and perhaps convince other of our people to come also."
Maud raised her eyebrows over her coffee cup. "Coming to join you here?" That could be very good news indeed. But – "You say we've met her?"
"During the spring last year," he said. "In the forest beyond the Summit. There were four of us there. You will remember this. When the Defenders took Sandy, we thought, this is wrong, and we drove the Defender out of her, and then, because she was sick with the cold and the accident – injured, is that the word? – we thought it was a chance to help her and also to give us the opportunity to see into her world, which we had not been successful at doing in the forest, where there are few people. So I moved into her mind. You know about this. My companions stayed behind in the forest, having found bodies there in which they could function, and I came here in Sandy and remained for some time, until I found it possible to move into a manufactured body. And before I did, you met one of my people in the forest, you and Lt. Price –"
"That damned treeket," said Maud.
"You remember her."
"I remember her well. She scared us to death. Lt. Price thought she was going to eat us."
"She won't eat you," said Logan, smiling sweetly. "She is a very gentle soul, Maud. The other two of my people have moved elsewhere, seeking more information about this world. As I said, there are few people in the forest for us to study. And my friend who you met thinks of coming here to assist me, since with two of us we may see and understand more. Two, uh, four eyes. Two ways of looking. She thinks of coming back with us to Bridgeton to be introduced to Dr. Ramirez. I think he will like this."
Maud wasn't afraid of cats and dogs and birds and molekins, like the one Denise had adopted at the Hardesty house, or grimisi, either. They were tame, domesticated. She could understand them to some extent, and she could predict and control them to some extent. Wild animals were another matter. She wasn't afraid of them, precisely, only of what they might, in their unpredictable, uncontrolled wild state, feel inspired to do. Haivran was a world with very few large predators, and not many of them had been known to attack people. Treekets did attack people, people who wandered into what they considered their territory, people who interfered, however unintentionally, with their mating or seemed to threaten their young. Sometimes, for all Maud knew, they attacked people as the D'ubian dolmeta was said to do, because the creature was in a bad mood and the people were there. Treekets were good-sized, and possessed long claws and sharp teeth and could move through trees and on the ground with eerie speed, swinging on their long tails or galloping on all fours, on their vaguely Earthian hands and feet.
Maud felt strongly that treekets ought to be approached with extreme caution and respect; in fact she was inclined to think they shouldn't be approached at all.
"Logan," she said, "I don't mean to say your friend isn't a fine and civilized being, but she's a damned treeket!"
"She's in the body of a treeket," said Logan. "This animal is a very fine creature, but of a different order; it is easier to control a treeket than it was to control Sandy." He freely admitted that he had found Sandy very strong-minded, not especially amenable to control, although he had not made any real attempt to dominate her, Maud thought; his handling had been very gentle. This was probably why he and Sandy were still very close. "She will control this body; it will not do any harm to any of you. You'll see."
"I will?"
"We will call Lt. Price. When Sandy called me, I explained to her. She called Nelson. He's on the road now from Sandon City. He says he will come here as soon as he arrives and meet us, and we can drive to the Summit at once. Sandy is leaving Miramani this afternoon. She says that her mother is feeling better. So she will be at the Summit waiting for us, and my friend will meet us in the forest there. We will come back together, and tomorrow morning, we will introduce her to Dr. Ramirez. And he will be very pleased."
Maud thought that, at least, would be entertaining, seeing Jared's face as they introduced him to a wild treeket. "And it's going to take all five of us to bring her back to Bridgeton?" she asked.
Logan shrugged. "Well," he said, his favorite expression. "She wishes to meet all of you," he said. "I've told her what friends we have become."
"Ancient gods," murmured Maud, wishing she had decided to spend the day somewhere else. Even back in their places with Oliver's disapproval would be better, not that she cared all that much about Oliver's disapproval – when had he ever approved of her – but he did make things uncomfortable, and she had not felt very friendly toward him since last summer, when she realized exactly whose child Lt. Price was.
"If you want to bring her back to Bridgeton," Maud said, persisting, "why don't you go and get her? Why do you need all of us?"
"I don't have a driver's license," he said. "Dr. Ramirez said I was not allowed to drive any of the Azuri/zai vehicles until I have a driver's license.
Maud had been present when Dr. Ramirez said this and more. Logan had run the Verve into the display window of Your Electronic World, hanging it up in the insect repeller, and when he wasn't able to produce a driver's license or an ID cube, the police had taken him into custody. He had called from jail, and they had had to run about very quickly to produce acceptable ID for him – luckily Maud's people had ways of doing this – and Jared and the Drs. Wood had gone down to bail him out. Jared, out of Logan's sight, admitted it was pretty funny, but it was also very risky, and he hadn't been pleased.
"So ask Nelson to drive," said Maud.
"His car is not functional," said Logan.
"Then how is he getting back from Sandon City?"
"It has to do with the, what do you call it, that makes the car go up." Logan demonstrated with his hand gliding over the breakfast bar. "So it doesn't drag on the ground."
"The lift. The antigrav lift."
"Yes, that. He can drive it, but not well. Willis said he would fix it for him, but Nelson couldn't wait for Willis. He said his stepfather was already getting packed, and he had to get to Sandon City to prevent him from coming here for a visit."
"That self-important little show-off twerp," said Maud, the most polite of the things she could have said about Nelson's stepfather, and Logan nodded agreement. When Glenn Clancy came by during the Solstice break, he had tried to show Grace how best to use her robotic motion sensors, causing her to run into the wall by the piano and knock down and break a very nice vase Lillian and Al had bought on their honeymoon. Logan, finding words inadequate, had hit him over the head with a silver tray of hors d'oeuvres. He and Grace had many disagreements, having come from the same universe but as different species, with different social positions and different ambitions, but he never failed to come to her defense in this new world.
"So Nelson doesn't think the car can make it up to the Summit," said Maud. "What about Lt. Price?"
"Will she like to meet my friend in a treeket body? With only Sandy and me for protection?" asked Logan, who was not without a sense of humor. He had a point. Lt. Price had been very vocal last year about the risks of approaching a live treeket. She was even less enthused than Maud.
Maud, looking into her coffee, could see how this going to be, whether she liked it or not. "We should call her anyway," she said finally. If Maud had to go, the rest of them were going to go too; that was for certain. She wasn't going to find herself out in the middle of some untamed wilderness facing a feral animal with no one but Logan behind her.
Lt. Price was out shopping; she was in the toy store in the Cottage Gates shopping mall looking at toy pistols and wondering if a real low-power beam pistol wouldn't be a better choice, an investment in the future, she said. "Dear gods, no," said Maud, with a vivid picture of how that would work.
Somewhat disappointed, Lt. Price said she would be there as soon as she got the toy gun gift wrapped, and what was it all about? Maud decided it was wiser not to break the news on the phone that they were going to spend the evening transporting a wild treeket back to Bridgeton; she said they could talk about it when Lt. Price got here.
Chapter 2
Maud
While they were waiting, Maud settled Logan in the living room area with a reader, conscious that this was a skill he needed to work on. It was a children's reader, about the second grade level; she had bought several of them, thinking into the future, and it had many bright pictures and large type and a simple vocabulary. Logan read it, laboring, fingers underlining the words as he went. Grace was working on the fourth grade level now. So much for Logan's claim that her people were incapable of reading.
While he waded through this heavy reading material, Maud checked with the store, where the clerk explained she had no record of Maud purchasing a trike but she would be very happy to take an order now. Yes, they could have it delivered to Maud's apartment tomorrow morning. "What is a trike?" inquired Logan, taking the excuse to look up from his reader, and Maud explained and refilled his cup. He told her about the red fire truck he had found, with ladders and a siren and lights and a real lift unit, powered by a very small fuel cell. The store had gift wrapped it, and Ann had hidden it with the other presents.
Lt. Price did not appear. After an hour, Maud phoned her, but she didn't answer. She might very well have turned her phone off. She did this sometimes. Maud, thinking of fangs and long claws, changed out of her favorite red silk shirt into her old blue striped shirt. She seldom wore jeans, but perhaps in this situation it would be appropriate. In this situation, body armor might be appropriate, she thought.
Lt. Price still didn't answer her phone, nor did she call. Logan made it through one of the stories in the reader and told Maud about the experiment Patterson was setting up to test the latest notion about a power source to use to work those locks on the Or2 portals. Patterson and Mimi had dreamed up this one, with input from Clyde. Logan didn't think it would work; he described it with mildly patronizing humor.
"Sooner or later, you know, they'll come up with something," she said, irritated.
"I don't think so," said Logan, smiling. "There is no way to work the locks from a distance; they must be there, with all their powers."
She heard Nelson's car before she saw it; it drew her to the east window, in fact, to see it bouncing and dragging into the parking lot behind the apartment building. The trip all the way from Sandon City had apparently done in the collision shield on the back end; when the lift unit cut off momentarily, the rear of the car dropped to the street with a bang, only to rise again when the lift unit came back on. It lifted nicely over the curb; it dropped the rear of the car onto the small strip of lawn, digging divots in the grass as Nelson took the turn a little too tightly. It came up again and then hit the paving in back of 1A's car, and Nelson wrestled it into the parking space beside Maud's car. "He is here," said Logan, pleased. "Now if Lt. Price comes –"
"I'll call her again," said Maud, beginning to feel uneasy; she had been out of touch for hours now, and it was not, no matter how you looked at it, a good sign. Maud waved at Nelson through the insect repeller on the window and dug her phone out of her pocket.
Nelson got out of his car, cast an anxious look at the rear end, waved to Maud and Logan, and then stepped back for a better view of the roof of the apartment building. "Hi!" he called, waving again. "What are you doing up there?"
"Fresh air, sir," said Lt. Price's voice from above them, sounding as if nothing at all unusual was taking place. "Very nice afternoon, isn't it."
"Lovely," said Nelson. "Not too hot. Very mild for this time of year. Are you coming in?"
"Yes, sir," said Lt. Price, "in just a moment."
"Oh, hell," said Maud, borrowing Jared's favorite expression, and took the pendant out of the collar of her blue striped shirt. She was good at using the traveler; it just took knowledge of the proper adjustments and control of the mind, as she frequently told Lt. Price; she worked the settings quickly and was on the rooftop before Nelson had left the parking lot. He saw her popping into view and waved again, and she waved back.
