The Rowan
- Автор: Маккефри Энн
- Серия: Tower and the Hive #1
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «The Rowan». Краткое содержание книги:
The kinetically gifted, trained in mind/machine gestalt, are the most valued citizens of the Nine Star League. Using mental powers alone, these few Prime Talents transport ships, cargo and people between Earth's Moon, Mars' Demos and Jupiter's Callisto.
An orphaned young girl, simply called The Rowan, is discovered to have superior telepathic potential and is trained to become Prime Talent on Callisto. After years of self-sacrificing dedication to her position, The Rowan intercepts an urgent mental call from Jeff Raven, a young Prime Talent on distant Deneb. She convinces the other Primes to merge their powers with hers to help fight off an attack by invading aliens. Her growing relationship with Jeff gives her the courage to break her status-imposed isolation, and choose the more rewarding world of love and family.
Despite that, adult barquecats were laws unto themselves, bestowing affection and favors in whimsical fashion. To be accepted by a barquecat was considered a mark of esteem.
As she hurried to the Rowan's quarters Lusena fretted briefly. It could be traumatic if the barquecat didn't accept the Rowan. Possibly it could complicate the Rowan's melancholy to be rejected again so soon after Moria's antic. Something had to happen to break through her self absorption. And the girl knew all about the peculiarities of barquecats.
"It's worth the risk," Lusena muttered to herself and touched the doorpad. It swooshed open and Lusena had to blink to adjust her eyes to the gloom. Once again the Rowan had reduced the illumination to a funereal level.
Ruthlessly, Lusena spun the rheostat to a bright daylight.
"Rowan? Come out of your bedroom this instant! I have something to show you!" Lusena infused mind and voice with nebulous hints of surprise and anticipation. The Rowan was still young enough to have an insatiable curiosity. She placed the box on the low table between the main seating units and dropped with a sigh of relief on to the one facing the Rowan's room. She let her pleasure at her surprise ripple through her thoughts as she waited. In part, Lusena agreed with Siglen that this melancholy had gone on quite long enough. Loss is measured on varying personal scales, but loss was still what the Rowan had unquestionably suffered in Purza's destruction.
Lusena continued to wait, rather longer than she expected, until the door opened and a wan Rowan appeared.
"Gerolaman has indentured his mortal soul for you," Lusena told her charge in a conversational tone of voice.
"It'll be up to it," and she pointed to the box, "whether or not it'll take to you. Especially as you're not really yourself at the moment. So I don't know if I'm doing you a favor or not." Lusena was pleased to see that she had fired the Rowan's interest, if not enthusiasm. The girl took slow steps into the room, raising her chin slightly to peer over the back of the couch to see what was on the table. Lusena waited until the Rowan came round before she motioned her to sit. Still moving like a badly lubricated android, the Rowan flopped down. She looked at the box and then at Lusena, who felt the first pressure of query against her mind.
Lusena flipped back the cover and the Rowan's response was all that Lusena could wish: delight and incredulity.
"Is it really a barquecat?" she asked, her eyes flicking up to Lusena's face with the first glint they'd held since that morning at Favor Bay. Impulsively she reached out and then secured her arms to her ribcage, knowing better than to disturb a barquecat's slumber.
"A really truly live barquecat cub. Even if it doesn't like you, remember to be very grateful to Gerolaman for the chance." "Oh, it's so lovely. I've never seen a fur so spectacularly marked and lustrous. Tawny tips and creamy base and such an unusual pattern on the tips! There wasn't one like that in the Animal Index of the Galaxy. It's simply the most lovely creature I've ever seen." Once again her hands fluttered over the caribox. "Lusena, when will it wake? What do we feed it? How can we hide it from her?" "I don't know, it's omnivorous, and she never intrudes on your quarters." Lusena answered all the questions in one breath, immensely relieved at the girl's resurgence.
"So as long as it doesn't escape, Siglen's not likely to know it's here." Even if they had to return the cub, its presence had shaken the Rowan into some awareness beyond her loss.
"Oh, look, it's stretching. What do I do now, 'Sena? What if it doesn't like us?" Her face suddenly went dull again.
"Purza had to like me but the cub doesn't."
"Well, we'll just have to hope it fends merit in you, then, won't we?" Lusena was certain that she had struck just the right note in her reply. For all her Talent, for all the potential of her ability, and despite more frequent glimpses of maturity, enough of the child still remained in the Rowan to require support and reassurance. Could a tiny bundle of fur provide that need?
It stirred. The tiny mouth opened and the white fangs were visible around a pale pink tongue curling in a yawn.
The dainty seven-fingered toes of the front paws extended the tiny blunt claws of the breed. Its back arched and it twitched its full banded tail before rolling on to its stomach. Then it opened its silvery-blue eyes, the pupils mere slits in the bright room.
It looked with momentary disdain at Lusena whom it was facing before it turned its classic head toward the Rowan. With one of the grating cries for which the breed was famous, it rose to all fours and with great deliberation padded over to the girl. Lifting its forepaws to the edge of the box, it tilted its head inquiringly at her.
"Oh, you darling!" the Rowan said in a whisper and slowly extended a finger for the barquecat to sniff. It did so and then promptly butted the finger with its head, turning slightly so that the Rowan could scratch behind the delicate ear. "Lusena, I've never felt anything so soft. Not even…" she broke off but more because the barquecat was insisting on an energetic caress than because she couldn't finish the sentence. "It wants to drink. Water." The Rowan blinked.
"It didn't ever speak to you, did it?" Lusena was astonished.
Quickly the Rowan shook her head. "No, it didn't speak to me. I felt no mind-touch at all. But undeniably I know that it is thirsty, specifically for water."
"Well!" and Lusena brought both hands down hard on her knees and rose. "If that's what that rascal wants, then water it shall have." She tried to keep the elation she felt within bounds as she headed for the kitchen alcove.
"I have been awful, haven't I, Luse?" asked the Rowan in a soft, apologetic tone.
"Not awful, Rowan, but terribly bruised by Purza's loss." "Silly then. Mourning the loss of an inanimate object." Lusena returned with a bowl of water which she handed to the Rowan. "Purza was never an inanimate object in your eyes."
Just as the Rowan put the bowl in the caribox, there was a quick rap on the door. She had the lid down when the door slid open and an anxious-faced Bralla came in.
"I was so positive we had one that I never thought to really look… - sorry to be so abrupt but she's in such a state…" Bralla looked from one face to another, her body in a posture of entreaty.
"What are you talking about, Bralla?" Lusena asked, for the T-4 often forgot to project.
"You DO have a recent hologram of the Rowan, don't you, Lusena? Surely you took some at Favor Bay?" "I did, but why the flap?" Lusena had no trouble finding the holograms which she hadn't even unpacked from the caricase. There were several very good ones of the Rowan.
Lusena picked one of her, smiling, standing alone by the stern of the boat, her silver hair wind-whipped like a bright, ragged ensign.
"Oh, thank goodness," Bralla stopped fluttering for a moment.
"Reidinger insists on having a recent hologram of you, Rowan. It has to be dispatched immediately and I can tell you, Siglen's in no mood on account of that, too. Oh, now that's a very nice one!" She threw a pleased smile at the Rowan who was trying as unobtrusively as possible to keep the barquecat from poking the lid up with an importunate head.
"This is perfect. Though I don't know as you'll ever get it back. Shall I copy first?" "If you would…" and Lusena wasn't sure if Bralla heard the request for she was out of the door as if ported away.
"Why would Reidinger want a recent hologram of me?" the Rowan asked, hastily lifting the confining lid over the now squalling barquecat. It was not the least bit interested in leaving its box but it evidently resented being covered.