“I know only the obvious answer to that. Because the Terran Republic asked and the Aldessan agreed. Perhaps we were only an experiment, from your point of view.”
“But you also know better than that,” she said, sitting back on her tail. “We did not make you for their use. This has only been your childhood, your time of maturing. Soon you will leave them to seek your own worlds and lives. We made you because we wanted you, as one might seek a friend in one’s loneliness. We made you because you are the thing in most ways like ourselves. Perhaps you are even what we wish ourselves to be.”
“And that is the reason?” Velmeran asked.
She smiled. “Were you expecting some great oratory to express some inescapable argument of logic and practicality? I have none. Your lives are your own, to live as you will.”
“And the humans?”
“They have problems that you cannot solve for them,” the Aldessa insisted. “They have found the best solution for their genetic deterioration, but even that cannot save them forever. We have seen too many races come and go for us to have much hope. There is a chance, but if they do survive they will be the first of half a hundred such cases we have observed. But that is not your problem. You cannot keep them alive, and you should not try to take their place when they are gone. Rid them of the Union before it begins the process of turning them into genetic machines, and that is all you can hope to do for them.”
“These are the general specifications for the jump drive,” the young Kelvessa explained as he began handing over microdisks, sheets, and booklets. “This is the helm manual, what your helm and navigator need to know to set up jumps manually. And these are the specifications, detailed enough for you to repair the generator or even — fortune forbid — build a new one.”
“Can you read that?” Consherra asked Lenna as they looked over the helm manual. Lenna was now very conversant in the Kelvessan language, although she still had some trouble reading technical material.
“Big words,” Lenna answered, a vague reply at best.
Commander Laroose entered the bridge at that moment, and Velmeran left Consherra and her assistant to work out matters themselves. Laroose was watching Lenna closely, still unsure of what to make of her after all this time.
“I see that you are using your new hand,” Laroose remarked.
“I am trying to remember to,” Velmeran amended, demonstrating the hand that he had grown. “It works now, even if it is a bit small yet. At this point it will only continue to get larger for another week or so.”
“That is amazing. And speaking of getting bigger…”
Consherra afforded him a tolerant stare. She remained on the ship now, where no one noticed — or pretended not to notice — that she could no longer button the lower half of her tunic over a round belly. With only days to go, she would not get any larger. Nor was she nearly as large as humans got, since Kelvessan young were born half the size of their two-armed counterparts, nor even as large as a Feldenneh, whose cubs always traveled in pairs.
“At least I can now be sure of having this over with before we leave airdock in four weeks,” she said. “Obviously, nature does not take into account that we have ships to run.”
“I can appreciate that,” Laroose agreed. “The joke around the station is that all pregnant Kelvessan must be from the Methryn. It’s a purely inside joke to ask who the father is.”
Velmeran looked uncomfortable, although it was hardly his fault that over a third of the Methryn’s female population was pregnant. Baressa had brought forth a son only days before, and those few who knew conveniently forgot that Baress was not the real father. But Valthyrra made no attempt to hide her amusement.
“What became of your long-legged friend?” Laroose asked. “It occurs to me that I haven’t seen the Valtrytian in quite some time.”
“Keflyn left about seven weeks ago to collect some things she needed, although she should be back any day now,” Velmeran explained. “She has decided to stay with us. She says that she has more to teach than she could even begin in only six months. And we can use another teacher.”
“Can she handle life with the Starwolves?”
“She says that she can handle the accelerations as well as Lenna can, and the cold bothers her even less. She certainly has more fur.”
“On the other hand, she wears no clothes.” He shrugged. “It’s your business. It just seems to me that she’s changing you into something I can no longer understand. The truth be known, I probably understand you better than I used to think I did. And you Starwolves are something of a different breed from the Kelvessan we have around here.”
“Perhaps it is because we do not live in close contact with other races, and are freer to be ourselves,” Velmeran suggested. “One race cannot live completely immersed within the society of another without becoming like it in some ways.”
“And you’ll be taking our Kelvessan away to their new home before very much longer,” Laroose added wistfully. “And mine will be a sadder world when you do.”
Venn Keflyn returned in five days. She came bearing gifts, although she quietly hauled her crated toys to a small storage hold assigned to her without the slightest hint of their contents. She also brought the promise that others would come soon to teach the psychic arts on other ships and the Kelvessan on Alkayja.
Velmeran was very happy to have her back, although his present happiness was in fact the result of several factors. The ship was nearly back in one piece; all the new drives were in place, and his own device for cracking quartzite shielding had been successfully tested. Lenna was very happy and very much her old self. And Consherra could have her child at any moment now. Velmeran could find no practical explanation for why that fairly common event should be of any special concern to him, especially when Consherra herself did not appear at all concerned. The fact remained, however, that he could barely contain his excitement.
He had gone with Keflyn and Tregloran to meet Laroose at the construction airdock where the frame for the new carrier was being laid, suspended in free-fall in the confines of the vast chamber. As they watched, a piece of metal longer than a Union battleship was being pushed gently into place by a team of construction tenders.
“Is the Vardon’s current design any different from what we have always used?” Velmeran asked.
“At this point, no,” Laroose replied. “We want to avoid any noticeable change in the outward form that would identify the Vardon as different from the other ships. At this time, our only definite plan is to hide a second conversion cannon inside a slightly wider cannon sheath. Those new missiles of your design go into existing launch tubes. Unless you draw up some new designs yourself, I anticipate no other changes.”
Velmeran considered that a moment. “Are you inviting me to redesign that ship however I please?”
“You can do whatever you damn well please, and I’ll see that it’s done,” Laroose promised him with a conspiratorial grin, suspecting what the young Starwolf had in mind.
“Well, there might be a certain value in having a flagship of the Starwolf fleet, something that looks bigger and meaner than the usual big, mean carrier. Something that states in no uncertain terms that Velmeran and the Methryn have arrived.”
“But that is not the Methryn,” Keflyn pointed out. “What would Valthyrra have to say?”
“Actually, it would be very simple to transfer Valthyrra and her memory cells into this new ship, and I suspect that she would covet the opportunity. Which is why I do not want her to know of this until something definite is decided. We can always give Theralda Vardon the old Methryn.”
“While we’re on the subject, I received a bit of news a few minutes ago,” Laroose interrupted. “It seems that Donalt Trace is alive and well. Or alive and recovering, you might say.”
“He survived?” Velmeran was incredulous.
The tall human nodded gravely. “They had to reskin him and give him a set of mechanical arms, but he’s hardly the worse for wear.”
“That’s the damnedest part. They seem to think that he’s some rare species of hero. That’s how we heard of this. He was just appointed the newly created High Commander of the Union Fleet, giving him authority over all the Sector Fleets.”
“Well, bully for him!” Velmeran stated in disgust. “Now he really will know how to make my life miserable.
