"Like the pedalcycle I had as a boy," Keff said. "No safety backups at all, but it ran."
"Yes, and that's curious, because the ships that were chasing us had full shields."
Someone must have passed the word that Carialle was on her way. By the time she had tipped up and was beginning her descent, the field and the sky above it was full of griffins. Some of them fluttered gracefully to the ground at a respectful distance, but Carialle counted over a hundred in the air alone, with more in sight in the distance. Their followers were catching them up.
"Are they armed, Cari?" Keff asked, surveying the scene with a wary eye.
"Not with anything that carries a heat signature," she said. "Good heavens, but they're big beasts."
"Those teeth!" Tall Eyebrow signed, a-goggle at the screen.
Carialle stepped down magnification to her more immediate location, and settled neatly toward the landing pad between the taller of the two jalopy spaceships. Measuring her thrust to the minim, Carialle brought her tail to the ground just as her engines shut off.
"Swank," Keff said, grinning. "You look like a candle on a minefield, lady love."
"I intend to outclass the competition right from the start," she said. "All psychological advantage we can gain will be to our benefit, if we ever get to a point where we can negotiate."
"I'm ready," Keff said. "Listen: 'Freihur, co nafri da an colaro, yaro.'" The IT unit on his chest recited in Standard, "Greetings, leader you me take go, please."
"That's fine, if that's what those words mean," Carialle said, skeptically. "Trying to guess from context, it still could mean, 'Greetings, your sister sells rugs in a zoo.'"
Keff didn't bother to defend the honor of his translation program.
"We'll find out," he said, pointing at the short-range screen. "Here come the authorities."
On the field, a white-sided gurney like a medieval siege tower, rolled toward Carialle. The half dozen griffins operating it moved in jerking haste, showing their excitement. An enclosed tunnel with soft bumpers extended and clamped against Carialle's side.
"Ah, so that was was their design on the remote base," Carialle said. "I'm glad to see they don't steal their design on the remote base," Carialle said. "I'm glad to see they don't steal everything everything."
"Easy, Cari. It's showtime," Keff said.
He stood up and sealed his suit, waiting for the faint hiss as each edge met. With the same care, he put on his helmet, then fastened his gloves. A secure seal. He breathed deeply of the slightly plasticky-tasting air, setting the air-recirculators going. There would be no more sudden breaths of ammonia. He felt excitement warring with nerves in his belly, and told both emotions to quiet down. Another life form, another world on which he would be the first human to step! What an opportunity! It was another notch in his belt, although, technically, Carialle had set foot on the planet first. He pretended to grimace, but he couldn't concentrate on being upset. What would happen to him when he stepped outside the airlock? He wasn't afraid to go, but by the stars, he was wary. On the external screen he could see the crowd of griffins gathered on the landing field. As he was checking his heads-up display, he felt something bump into the back of his legs. He jumped half a meter and spun around in midair.
"What are you doing?" he asked. In the few moments he had his back turned, the four Cridi had climbed into their travel globes, and they were clustered around his feet.
"We are coming with you," Tall Eyebrow signed, rolling back a foot or two so he could look up at Keff's face.
"Oh, no, you're not," Keff said, accompanying his words with firm gestures. "This could be dangerous. Please stay in here and cover me with your amulets. I'm counting on you."
"We would share your peril," Tall Eyebrow said earnestly.
"They tried to kill all of us on that base," Keff pointed out, signalling in exasperation. "Me, they just allowed one of their number to stalk. They went blind mad when they saw you you."
"They know something of Cridi," Long Hand signed, "having killed three ships with Cridi defenses. It cannot have been easy."
"I do not know why they hate us, since we never did them harm," Big Eyes gestured, her wide mouth pressed into a thin line. "Never in our history have we seen these creatures. We should resent them, but we do not. We only wish to ask why. It is the honor of all Cridi." She added mischieviously, "Big Voice would have said so."
"Big Voice wouldn't be diving straight out into their midst! Give me a chance to get this on a friendly footing, then we'll ask them," Keff said, pleadingly. The Cridi conferred for a moment, exchanging signals with the screen on the wall on which Narrow Leg's face appeared.
"Very well," Tall Eyebrow said, turning back to Keff. "We wait."
"Thank you," Keff said formally, with a low bow. He strode into the airlock, and heard the door slide shut and felt the slight drag on his shoulders as Carialle pressurized the cabin around him. His suit inflated slightly around his knees, crotch, elbows, and chest. He braced himself, legs well apart.
"Now, how's that go?" he said out loud. "Hello. Please take me to your leader. 'Freihur, co nafri da an colaro, yaro.'"
"Relax, you've done it a dozen times," Carialle reassured him. "Hold on, they're scanning me." Keff frowned up at the ceiling.
"They are? I didn't think they had anything as sophisticated as scanners."
"I didn't say say they were sophisticated scanners. It feels like elephants are walking on my hull," Carialle grumbled. She paused, and Keff heard a low hiss beyond the airlock hatch. "Just a moment-if the race we're about to face is hostile, why are they pumping a 90/10 nitrox mix into the airlock?" they were sophisticated scanners. It feels like elephants are walking on my hull," Carialle grumbled. She paused, and Keff heard a low hiss beyond the airlock hatch. "Just a moment-if the race we're about to face is hostile, why are they pumping a 90/10 nitrox mix into the airlock?"
"They're what what?" Keff demanded.
"I swear it by my sainted motherboard," Carialle said. "Look for yourself." The monitor beside him lit up with a specroanalysis of comparative atmospheres. "You'll find the air fragrant, too. Plenty of plant esters."
"Perfume?" Keff felt his jaw drop, and yanked it closed again. "I have to speak to them. Open up." He hurried forward, helmet almost bumping the inner hatch. The door slid partway open, then halted.
Carialle's usually crisp voice was almost tentative. "Be careful, Sir Knight. I'd always rather you return with your shield, than on it."
"So would I, Lady Fair," he said, cheerfully, his voice echoing in his helmet. "But in this case I've got better armor than any dragon. Alert the Cridi to rev up their Core power, and let me go."
The airlock slid open onto a wide flexible tube filled with griffins as far as Keff could see. With one hand flat over his pounding heart, he bowed deeply to them. Two of the great beasts bustled forward, stopping about four paces away, and sat down on their haunches. The narrow clawed hands met under their squared chins in the same gesture of respect he'd seen in a thousand beamed conversations, then the great wings spread as far as they could in the confined space. Then, they waited.
Keff stepped forward, and copied their moves as nearly as he could. "'Freihur, co nafri da an colaro, yaro,'" he said.
"In good time, in good time," the lead griffin said, its upper lip splitting to show the gleaming white fangs beneath. "You are most welcome. Are you in need of refueling? Supplies?"
"Uh...no," Keff said, gawking at the being. "Welcome?" His hands were seized and shaken by all the griffins who could reach him. Wings, claws, and faces flashed by him in a blur. "Carialle, did they...did they...?"
"...speak Standard?" Carialle finished his question. "They sure did. With a respectable accent, too. How in the black hole did they learn it? When? Who from?"
"I don't know! How...?"
"We are so glad to see you, great human," the second griffin said, offering another namaste. "This is a great honor. Never before has one of yours landed in our place."
"Where do they usually land?" Keff asked automatically, struggling to make sense of the situation. "Humans! You know other humans! How? Why-when?" His mental drives were overloaded with the new influx of knowledge. "I never saw any communications with humans in your transmissions." But his greeters did not have a chance to answer. A host of smaller griffins pushed past or sailed over the full-sized beasts, and clustered around him.
"Greetings!" they said, in flutelike voices. "Where do you come from?" "What is this for?"
"This doesn't sound like all the humans they've encountered were captives," Carialle said, pitching her voice low to be heard. "It sounds perhaps as if they were...collaborators?"
"Don't jump to any conclusions, Cari."
"I won't, but it sounds pretty suspicious to me," she said.
Keff spoke over the head of the youngsters surrounding him to the adults beyond. "You know humans?"
The leader's lip split again. The expression was clearly the griffin version of a smile.
"Of course, sacred one. You are but testing me. I know of the Melange."
"Sacred ones?" Keff asked.
"The Melange?" Carialle asked, in Keff's ear. He waved a hand in front of the camera eye for silence so he could concentrate on what the lead griffin was saying. "Who? I have no entry for any such name in my database."
"What is Melange?" Keff asked. The leader gave him a puzzled glance that narrowed the center stripe in his large eyes.
"The Melange," the second one repeated, as if no explanation was really needed.
"But...?"
"What are you called, human male-man?" one of the children demanded, tugging at his arm. When he looked down, it drew back, giggling at its own boldness.
"My name is Keff," he said, bending down to look into their faces. In spite of their size, and their weight, which must have been around fifty kilos each, they were like any children galaxy-wide: curious, friendly, bold and shy at the same time, and irresistibly cute. They romped around him on all fours.
"And what does 'Keff' describe?" asked another youngster, pushing in close. Its upper lip opened to show the nares, and it sniffed his hands and knees.
"Me," Keff said, tapping his chest. A couple of the children grabbed his hand with their wingclaws to examine his gauntlet. They exclaimed over the transparent material, running delicate talon-tips up and down his palm. "I, uh, Keff comes from Kefyn, an ancient name of my people."
"Poara, vno!" One of the youngsters had discovered the IT on Keff's chest, and pulled it down for a closer look.
"Uh, please don't touch that," Keff said, pulling his hands free and retaking prossession of IT from the enthusiastic fledglings.
"Vidoro, eha," another child said, and giggled, creeping around behind Keff to feel his clear plastic suit. Keff prided himself on his physical prowess, but these children were effortlessly stronger than he. They butted into his knees, patted his waist and chest. Their affectionate, curious touches had the power of a body blow.
"Kids, please, enough," he said, holding up his hands as he felt for a wall to brace himself against. The floor bobbed up and down under his feet, and he grabbed for the edge of the airlock. One of the children rose up on hind legs to get a good look at the tubes running from the back of his helmet into his suit, and Keff overbalanced completely. Flailing for a handhold, he toppled toward the adults. The first griffin grabbed his arms in both of its strong claw hands and set him upright.
"Forgive, sir-madam," the creature said. "My child is bad-mannered."
"It's sir," Keff said. "He-she?-didn't mean any harm."
"Are you all right?" Carialle's voice erupted in his ear. "Your heart is running the three-minute mile."
"I'm fine, Cari," Keff assured her in an undertone. The children, restrained from physical contact by their parents, were bombarding him with questions.
"Do you wish food, human sir? Good food, at the canteen. Human coo-orn, human broccocoli, human meeeat. All good!"
"Uh, maybe later," Keff said. "Tell me about these humans."
"But, sir, you you are a human." are a human."
"They are rather charming," Carialle said, "and I don't want to like them. Not yet."
"I know what you mean," Keff said. "If they're involved in piracy, they must be the most cold-blooded..."
"What did you say?" One of the youngsters pricked up its fluffy ears. Keff cursed. These beings must have very sharp hearing. "Who are you talking to?"
"To my friend," Keff said, tapping the IT unit. At least they couldn't hear Carialle. "I am asking her questions."
"Who is your friend?" "Can we meet her?" "Your ship is so pretty. Can I go in?" "Ask us questions. We know answers!"
"Excuse me," Keff said, holding up a forefinger to stem the flood, and addressed himself to the first adult. "What is your name, please?"
"I am Cloudy. My friends here are Shower and Moment." The first Griffin indicated the two nearest him. Others began to call out their names, and Keff decided to count on IT remembering them all for him.
"What do you call this beautiful world, Cloudy?" he asked.
"This is Thelerie, at the Center of all things, but you must know that, human sir."
Keff made the namaste, and saw it repeated by every griffin.
"I must assure you I do not know all that. I am pleased to be here. Cloudy, I am here for a most important reason."
The wide smile flashed again. "Ah, so I know. What commodities do you bring to us?"
"Uh, no commodities. I'm just visiting."
Carialle's voice was a siren in his ear canal. "I knew it, piracy! They trade in contraband!"
"Hush, Carialle!" Keff schooled his expression and waited, smiling.
The griffins looked puzzled, and some of the ones further back exchanged glances. "You are not of the Melange?"
"No," Keff said, firmly. "Who are they?"
"You are teasing us," Shower said, shaking its great head.
"How do you know humans?" Keff said, pressing. "How do you all speak Standard so well?"
They looked knowingly at him.
"You are are teasing us," Cloudy said, his upper lip spreading again. "We did not know of humans to be so merry." teasing us," Cloudy said, his upper lip spreading again. "We did not know of humans to be so merry."
"They are friendly?" asked Tall Eyebrow, rolling out of the open airlock around Keff's feet, with Small Spot and Big Eyes immediately behind. The griffins looked down at the small globes. Tall Eyebrow looked up at them, wearing his best human-type smile. The curious, striped eyes widened.
"Slllaaayiiim!" the aliens shrieked. The large ones grabbed the small ones, and they backpedaled hastily away in the billowing tube. In moments, the long corridor was empty, and bobbing softly. Keff, thrown off his feet by the jouncing, listened to the shrieks outside on the surface as he climbed up again, using the airlock for a handhold, but his gauntlets scrabbled on smooth enamel. As soon as the corridor had broken open to atmosphere, Carialle had slammed the airlock shut.
"Well, that hasn't changed," Carialle said, into the silence. "Your ancestors must have fought hard, TE."
"This isn't the way to start a detente," Keff said severely, looking down at the Ozranian. His back and elbows hurt where he'd slipped against the side of the ship. "I wish you'd waited inside as I asked you. Now they'll probably call out the militia."
"We will protect you," Big Eyes said firmly, showing her fingerstalls.
Keff swallowed his exasperation. "Please wait here. Please." He held up a hand to forbid any of the Cridi to follow him, and threshed clumsily down the tube toward daylight. Two of the globes levitated and started after him, but he held up a warning hand. The plastic balls subsided to the cloth floor. The Cridi inside them sat down crosslegged in the water at the bottom.