After Klarin-yal had docked the shuttle in the Choosaraf's main bay, K'rava and Ms. Holmes set off to the computer the clan had prepared when they'd discovered the explosion had damaged the communicator enough that it would be unable to properly transmit computer data. Klarin-yal hung back a moment to speak to the two adolescents. "Decent, decent. Kinahran, you'll be holding the bridge now. Go there, and find me a pilot to do the trip back when our human is finished – an adult one, this time, so we don't bounce when we land. Teecoli, you'll hold comm on the trip back."
The girls nodded. Klarin-yal and Kinahran padded off to their respective tasks while Teecoli ran post-flight checks on the shuttle.
*
Farafinleet, wonder of wonders, was still on the bridge. Kinahran's mother was admired among her clan: without any genegineering at all, Coli-nfarin had thrown four children, two males and two females, and they were all white. This sameness of a unique color would have been intolerable for her brood, leading to eventual bloodshed, save that the eldest had eyes as green as Terran grass, the next eldest had eyes of pure amber-gold, Kinahran's eyes were blue, and Farafinleet earned her name (Embereyes, in the human tongue) by having deep pink irises and magenta pupils. Kinahran got along with Farafinleet best of her siblings, because even though the younger Kintaran's fur was pure white, it had a subtly different hue, slightly pinker.
Farafinleet had one of her mane-tufts entirely bedraggled and tangled around one of her large hoop earrings. As soon as her elder sister got onto the bridge, she threw herself at Kinahran, wailing like a baby. Moonfur wrapped her arms and one forepaw around the girl's upper body and tried to make soothing sounds, even though her ears were flat against her head from the noise.
"Couldn't sniff anything out?" Kinahran finally asked when she dared unfold her ears a little to hear the answer.
"Nnoooo," Embereyes moaned. "I called Detchal, since he's just a few rooms over from ours, and now he keeps saying that he's hearing things, and he said he was gonna catch my merfah and eat her babies!"
Kinahran sighed. Farafinleet had no sense. "Look, he's just being nasty because his design didn't work and we're all mad at him. Remember the time your engine simulation blew up just when you thought you had it right? In the middle of that sim-ship race? You were in a snit for a week."
Farafinleet's ears went down. "That was different. That was my design. It was for something useful, not just some stupid sensor modification."
"Well, Detchal is stupid, then. Look, I have to hunt up a pilot for the Passenger Shuttle, and then we can go looking for your pet and her babies." She started untangling her sister's hair, smoothing the tuft down in front of the ear. Like Moonfur, Embereyes had a bit of fur in front of each huge pointed ear; fortunately for the unnotched state of those ears, she had only a top-holder for her fur-tufts, leaving the locks to flip around as they would, while Moonfur prefered to keep her fur under more control, pinning it into place with barrettes both above and below her ears.
"All right." The child wiped at her nose. She realized what a mess she'd made of herself, and instantly started washing.
*
Kinahran had managed to locate a couple of possible pilots when K'rava called up to the bridge. "Child, who have you got to fly the shuttle? Nih, that's not the problem, really – think, who has lomerfs?" Lomerfs were related to merfahs, except they had wings instead of their middle sets of legs. They were much better pets than merfahs, more intelligent and friendlier. And merfahs tasted better.
"Urrrr . . . Klr-lin has one. It's got babies in its pouch, too."
"Well, don't have him at the shuttle, then. There was one in the computer room – the human saw it and asked that we put it somewhere else. But even in her suit, I could smell fear-stink!" K'rava sounded worried.
Kinahran was shocked. "Why would anybody be afraid of a lomerf? They don't bite unless you hurt them, and they don't have big teeth anyway. And their claws are almost pathetic."
"I don't know why she doesn't like them. Maybe it's because they have scales. Some humans can't stand things like their own 'snakes' and 'lizards.' But we've got to keep the lomerfs away from her! And merfahs too, so tell Farafinleet to make sure she doesn't go showing off her baby ones."
She was glad that the visuals were currently off. Her ears were flat and her tail was prickling-huge. "I understand. I'll tell her. I'll make sure that the shuttle's pilot doesn't have a lomerf."
"Good job, child. K'rava out."
Kinahran turned to her little sister, unfolding an ear. "You hear that?"
Farafinleet's own ears were down tight. She shook her head hopefully. Kinahran leaned over and pulled one ear up. "He said that Ms. Holmes doesn't like lomerfs, and probably not merfahs either, so we don't want her to see any. Sounds like K'rava thinks she won't fix the designs if she sees any other of our pets."
The smaller Kintaran squinched her pink eyes shut. Her nose started to run again.
Kinahran sighed. "Look, I'm supposed to be holding the bridge, but it's only comm-stuff after I sniff out a pilot. I can get one of the larger portable comms and just patch everything through to it, and nobody'll know I'm not here unless they look. Then we can get a scanner and a snare-loop and try to find your merfah before it finds Ms. Holmes."
"I'll go get the scanner!" Farafinleet cried, dashing out the door.
"Be careful not to run the human down!" Kinahran called after her.
*
After dithering for a while, Kinahran left a note on the bridge, saying she was helping her little sister with something, but had her uncle's old mega-comm with her. Farafinleet arrived with the scanner, and – using the argument that it was Farafinleet's merfah – Kinahran sent her little sister down to cargo to get a long-handled snare-loop. Kintarans often hired themselves out as planetary scouts and the like. They were fast, strong, tough, and reasonably quick with their hands. Their ears and noses were better than most of the other spacefaring races', and they were good hunters. So if a human or Halloth or Mmsar wanted something to do with a primitive planet, they called a Kintaran. Or a Sparrial, but Sparrials were all kleptomaniacs, and most other sapients didn't like having "coup" counted on them by losing everything in their pockets and having to ask for it back every twenty minutes.
While Farafinleet was in transit, Kinahran went down to their room. The top was off of the merfah-cage; probably Embereyes had been feeding it, gotten distracted by something, and the merfah had managed to scramble out. She sighed and put her nose down around the cage, trying to sniff out a trail. Results were inconclusive. She stuck her head behind the large mattress that she shared with her sister. There was merfah-scent back there, but no merfah. She sighed again, looking regretfully at the opened paneling near their intercom where she'd been trying to re-wire it to receive the security cameras' images as well. Nearly the whole length of the wall was off, and the small dark places between the walls would surely be inviting to a small prey-animal about to let its young out of the pouch.
Carefully, Kinahran went and poked her nose into the wall-space. With a gentle inhale, she shouldn't get too much dust . . . She coughed and tried again. Yes. It had been there. Hopefully, she waved the bioscanner around the area. Maybe the silly thing had decided to stay put? No such luck. It wasn't in range of the sensors.
Farafinleet arrived, upper body heaving as she sucked air into her lungs, and collapsed onto the mattress. The snare-loop clattered to the floor. "Ran! All way! And back!" the girl panted.
"Should have loped instead," Kinahran told her, picking up the snare-loop and trying to figure out the trick of it. It looked simple – just a tough loop of rope, relatively thin, that could be pulled tight with a string that was down near the handle. She switched holding it right-handed, and working the string with her left, and tried the other way around. Her sister was a good test subject, she decided, trying to slip the loop over Farafinleet's tail tuft unobtrusively. She managed it, and pulled it tight. "Gotcha!"
Her little sister yowled,
hurt or offended, and started scrambling to her feet. Kinahran pounced first, pinning the smaller Kintaran to the mattress. "Stop that! I have to practice, and you're not bad hurt, are you?"
Farafinleet hissed and tried to bite Kinahran's tail. "Bully!"
"Babysitter. Stop acting like a baby. You want to be stuck on the ship with Detchal and the new baby when I leave? Or you want to come along so we can make our fortunes and found a new clanship?"
"Detchal's stupid! Detchal's a twinning idiot!"
Kinahran's ears went down. "You let an adult catch you cursing like that, and they'll notch your ears, sister!"
"Detchal's identical twins," Farafinleet spat, having discovered something that could dismay her sib.
Kinahran twisted around to bat the girl on the head. "I mean it! Notch your ears and shave your tail!" She got off of Farafinleet. "Come on, let's start by scanning down the walls – I think the merfah got in 'cause I had my panel off."
"It's not all my fault, then?"
"No," Kinahran gritted out. "It was your fault first for letting it out of its cage, but it's two white pelts they'll have if your pet shows up and drops its babies on the human's foot. Come on."
*
The two footsore hours they spent hunting up and down the halls around their room were singularly fruitless. They heard a group of adults chattering tiredly, and hastened back to their room before the off-shift work-group could spot them. With luck, their noses would be too dulled from hours in vacc-suits to notice Kinahran and Farafinleet's scents.
The merfah was in its cage, eating seeds, dried fruit, and dead insects out of its food-dish. It looked up when the two Kintarans hurried in, and started to climb out of the cage. Moonfur sat herself down in front of the wall-opening while Embereyes closed the door to their room. The merfah scrambled out of the cage and jumped off the table, trying to edge around where Kinahran was sitting. Farafinleet pounced at it, missing, but startling it into a run. Kinahran slapped at it as it bounded by, and knocked it into the far wall. Her little sister pounced again, and pinned it with a forefoot. She bent and picked it up, holding it under its tiny fore-feet.
"I think it's still breathing," she said doubtfully. She carried it over and put the stunned animal back into the cage, closing the lid, then folded her arms and rested her chin on them, looking at the pet. Her magenta gaze was unblinking.
Kinahran went over and peered into the cage as well. Her ears and tail drooped. "It doesn't have any babies in its pouch."
Farafinleet shook her head. "They didn't fall out when you hit it, either."
"How many did you say she had?"
"Two."
"How long has it been since they went missing?"
"Since just after the accident, I think. Six hours. I only knew three hours ago." She heaved a mournful sigh.
"Six hours is a long time. We need a blueprint of the ship, so we can figure out where she might have dropped them. Come on, let's go back to the bridge."
Farafinleet looked up at her elder sister. "What if somebody sees her without her babies?"
"We'll say Detchal snuck out and ate them because he's stupid." Kinahran nodded decisively. "And we'll hide the scanner in the wall-panel, and the snare-loop under our bed."
*
The bridge was still deserted, thankfully. The Captain was undoubtedly hanging around the human (since Klarin-yal was the holder of the Choosaraf's credit accounts), as was K'rava, and the rest of the adults were either still working on the sensor mess or eating and sleeping and bathing.
Kinahran pored over the ship's blueprints. "Somebody's been stupid," she muttered, tracing a line. "This wall shouldn't be here, and I know for certain that this corridor doesn't go straight anymore."
"It says it was updated last month," Farafinleet said, looking at file-dates.
"Well, they missed some stuff. I suppose it's better than nothing . . . Here, look." She tapped a route with one finger-claw. "This is a straight shot through the walls to cargo bay four. We've got all of K'rava's trade-goods for Mmsarsan there, and that means that it's packed floor to ceiling with crates. If I were a merfah, I'd hide here, 'cause it's hard to catch anything through those narrow gaps between crates, and there's lots of places to hide under the webbing. And there's gravity. Maybe even things to eat, if some of the crates aren't sealed properly."
"I wish I was a shaman," Farafinleet sighed. "Then I'd know if this was the right place to look."
"Well, we're neither of us shamans, so we'll just have to use the bioscanner and hope." Kinahran checked to make sure that everything on the bridge was doing fine, and the pair headed back to their room for the equipment.
*
"Haaaa!" Farafinleet said, pausing and barely breathing.
Kinahran obediently halted and was as quiet as she could be. She shifted her grip on the snare-loop's handle and tested the still air in the cargo bay, hoping for a whiff of merfah.
White head bent over the bioscanner, Farafinleet lifted one hand and pointed, slightly to the right and up. "There," she breathed. "On crate 11B, between 11.3B and 10Q-delta."
Kinahran went into hunt-mode, snare-loop extended. Front paw up, pause, down. Opposing rear paw and down. Next front paw, pause, down. Opposing rear up and down. She bobbed her head slowly, checking the distance.
The young merfah, displaying a lethal mental mutation, poked its head out to look around the crate. Kinahran looped the snare around it, just behind its tiny fore-arms, and pulled the loop taut. The merfah made a noise like a harsh alarm, only much shriller and more terrified. It sounded twice as big as it actually was, kicking and swinging from the end of the snare.
"Shut it up!" Kinahran snarled, ears pressed tightly against her head.
Hastily, Farafinleet put down the bioscanner and bounded over to grab the little thing around its small mouth, muffling the awful racket. The animal tried to wriggle away and kick at the Kintaran's hand with its not entirely discountable hind claws. She hissed as it drew blood and let go to lick her hand. The merfah swung from the end of the snare again, shrilling.
"Augh." Kinahran looped the snare tight and locked it, then drew the end of the pole toward her, hand over hand. She fumbled at her belt pouches, one-handedly extracting the bag she'd brought, and pulled it over the caught merfah and snare. Farafinleet was still washing her hand off, so Kinahran huffed to herself, held the mouth of the bag tight around the snare-loop's handle, and used one hind-toe to unlock the snare. The merfah pulled itself out of the suddenly-lax cord and stopped making quite so much noise. She carefully drew the snare-loop out of the bag, making sure that the merfah didn't come with it.
"Sorry," her little sister mumbled through her fingers.
Kinahran sighed and went to lick the girl's ears. "Well, we got it. Look, I forgot to bring anything to fasten the bag with – do you think you can take it back to our room and put it in the cage? Then you can come back with the bag, and if we're lucky, I'll have found the other one, too, and we'll have them all."
The albino Kintaran eyed her sister dubiously. "You'll break its neck and say it was an accident."
"If I have to. But I'd really rather catch them all alive." Kinahran grinned. "Fatten up the little ones to eat later."
"You're as bad as Detchal!"
"I'm hungry! I've been at this for nearly three hours! Look, take the bag and don't let it get away again. If you're worried I'll eat the last one, you'll just have to hurry. But if you let this one loose I swear I'll eat them all!"
Ears flat, Farafinleet glared. But she took the bag and loped away. Kinahran sighed and picked up the bioscanner in one hand and the snare-loop in the other. She continued on, methodically scanning the cargo bay.
Over by a dislodged vent-grille, the scanner picked something up. Kinahran stalked it, moving silently along the wall. The last merfah was in the duct – a little too deeply to snare as easily as she'd got its sibling. Carefully, she lowered her nose to just above the opening and inhaled. Yes, merfah. Recent. Close
. Within arm's reach, perhaps? She carefully put the bioscanner on the floor and slllllooooowwwwwly lowered her head to look into the duct. The last little merfah was sitting there, a pale green-tan against the dark gray of the ducting, looking back with its beady black eyes.
Kinahran plunged her hand into the duct, trying to grab the animal. She felt her claws catch in flesh, but they didn't hold. The merfah shrilled and skittered off into the darkness of the vent. Kinahran swore.
*
By the time Farafinleet had gotten back, Kinahran had called up the ship's blueprints on the mega-comm, and was slumped against the wall in horror.
"What's wrong?!" her younger sister demanded.
Kinahran pointed to the ducting line. Her hand shook a little. "This," she said hoarsely, feeling as if she had a furball in the upper-most section of her stomach. "The third one, it got away. It's headed for the area right under . . ." She swallowed. "Right under the computer room. Where Ms. Holmes is. And the Captain. And K'rava."
"But they're not there right now," Farafinleet said. "I just passed them in the hall. They're going to look at the external damage some more, in the shuttle. I heard K'rava say so when I went by."
"They're not in the room?" Kinahran's ears pricked up in hope. She scooped up the scanner and snare-loop and dashed for the door. "Come on!"
*
Kinahran opened the door and poked her head around carefully, just in case. Nobody was there. She glanced at the bioscanner. Yes, the merfah was at the far corner of the room. And yes, there was another defective vent-grille, in the floor near the door. The dratted things were supposed to seal off internally, in case of depressurization, so nobody bothered to fasten down the grilles properly. It was so much easier to get at the fur-filters that way, or to hide things.
She moved, pulled the grille a bit further off, and looked into the vent. Several feet down, her little sister's pink eyes looked up at her from the room below. It had taken them a while to pull off the ceiling panel and duct-elbow, but with a little luck, it would be worth it. "Put the bag in position," Kinahran called softly. Farafinleet nodded and raised herself up, bracing herself against the wall with her forefeet, and held up the bag.