Shadow World Read online

  Shadow World (Starbridge #3)

  Jannean Elliott

  A. C. Crispin

  Acknowledgments

  I don't know if it's appropriate to acknowledge one's collaborator, but, in my case, it would definitely be inappropriate if I did not. Seven years ago, just as her own career was taking off, Ann Crispin took the time to befriend a fan who wrote her a letter. Her critiques of my first book attempt and her call two years later with an invitation to join the StarBridge team provided a rare apprenticeship in the writing craft. Thank you, Ann.

  I appreciate also our agent, Merrilee Heifetz, and our editor, Ginjer Buchanan, for, along with Ann, taking a chance on new, unknown writers. I hope the StarBridge series will continue to be an open door for new talent.

  Sincere thanks also to the following:

  My entire family, particularly Dorothy Craig Elliott (for loving me at my most difficult, as only a mother can), Suzanne E. Rule (the sister who said, "Over the transom can also work," and then proved it by calmly submitting two books that hit the bookstores long before this one, the rascal), and Katrina E.

  DeBusk (for her own work of creation in producing the dearest nephew ever). I love you all.

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  Michon, for years of listening and encouragement on all my

  projects. This book is dedicated to my fifth-grade teacher, Mrs.

  Kath£ for laboring over a long, in-depth review. L B|um wjth jtude for ^ y «first yQte co

  My bosses, for always inquiring how the book was going dence and never mentioning bloodshot eyes.

  So many friends who, with patient anticipation that this book .

  would actually materialize, supplied buckets of support, reader

  duties, and innumerable kindnesses-friends like Judy, Jerry to ^ wonderfu|

  ^dents of Brainerd, Howard, and

  Joan and her wonderful group, Kary, Tom J,m, and the lunch T Schoo|s Chattan Tennessee, 1970-1980, bunch (Elaine, Michelle, Helen, Kim, and Nancy). from a teacher who remembers the ,essons of |jfe ^

  shared.

  And, finally, I wish to send a big thank-you to all the readers. ^... of this book who are joining in the environmental effort to save ' nnean 10

  our precious earth. That human beings will explore the galaxy someday is a cherished dream for us science fiction types--but let's keep a home to come back to.

  --Jannean Elliott

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  ix

  Prologue

  The four moons of Elseemar rose one by one over the mountain peaks, sending multiple shadows gliding along the ground. Shadows flowed

  beneath the tall trees, chasing along the furrows of the field where Lieor worked, loosening the soil around each of the sestel seedlings with a hoe.

  The Elpind labored steadily, carefully, but Lieor's mind was far removed from the job at hand. Tomorrow would be the most important day of the Elpind's life. Soon after dawn, Lieor and many other Elspind would receive the first dosage of the new drug the team of alien scientists had developed in the mountain lab. They were calling their recently synthesized discovery Elhanin, which meant, in Elspindlor, "life-more-long."

  Tomorrow a new life for Lieor would begin--a life that might prove twice as long as an Elpind could otherwise expect. The scientists believed that Elhanin would roughly double the years Lieor would remain a neuter, a

  "hin," and also increase the time that the Elpind would have after hin's Change, when Lieor would become either "heen" (male), or "han" (female).

  Unlike Lieor's parents, hin might actually live to wean all of heen's or han's children, see them growing up, before dying.

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  Lieor reached the end of a row, then halted work for a moment to look up at the lab nestled into the mountainside.

  The Elpind's huge, round eyes shone with more than reflected moonlight, bright as they were with expectation and eagerness. Tomorrow, hin thought, feeling the chill night wind stir the downy hair on hin's spindly but wiry-strong arms and legs. Tomorrow life truly begins anew for all of us ...

  The Elpind shivered, but hin's shudder was born of eager anticipation, not cold. The lab, every light shining, glimmered like a beacon of hope against the dark mountainside. The scientists from the Cooperative League of Systems, along with Elpind herbalists, were evidently working the night through. Lieor knew from talks with hin's Heeyoon friend, Moonrunner, that the scientists were determined to stay on schedule with their testing program.

  The Elpind moved to the new row of sestel seedlings with a skip and a bounce that was even more energetic than usual. It was odd to think of Moonrunner and the other CLS scientists awake the entire night, for the offworlders usually slept when it was dark. Lieor still found the idea of sleeping every night of one's life one of the most alien things about them.

  Elspind almost never slept. Instead, they remained busy: tending their crops, constructing dwellings and outbuildings from native stone and wood, spinning plant fibers to weave into clothing for the han and heen, as well as blankets and rugs for their homes. Even Elpind times of relaxation were filled with "Tellings"--history, legend, and cultural beliefs combined in a rich oral tradition.

  As Lieor worked, hin thought longingly of hin's sibling Eerin. Lieor missed Eerin with an intensity that surprised even the Elpind. They were the last two surviving neuters in their family. Their other siblings had all entered Enelwo, the Change from which neuters emerged as males or females ... or died in the process. Nine sunrises ago, Eerin had boarded one of the off-worlders'

  shuttles and had left Elseemar behind.

  Not so long ago, we still believed that Elseemar's sky was the end of creation, Lieor thought. We thought we were the only people there were ...

  Now everyone knew of the vast, dark void behind the sky, the void the offworlders called "space." The aliens who had

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  traveled to Elseemar from other worlds were of different species, but all belonged to the CLS, the Cooperative League of Systems. Lieor pictured the strangenesses of the offworlders in hin's mind: the long, limbless creatures cal ed "Mizari"; the smal flying beings from a world cal ed "Apis" (though the beings themselves had another name for it); large, strong, maned Simiu who walked on all fours; and the tall, fanged, furry beings that walked two-legged, like the Elspind, and were called "Heeyoon."

  And even these were not all the varieties that belonged to the CLS. Eerin had said that at StarBridge Academy, hin would be meeting many others, among them humans ... certainly one of the oddest species, from everything Lieor had heard.

  Surely, Lieor mused, Eerin will return to Elseemar with many fine Tellings to share with us!

  Suddenly the Elpind's round, softly furred head turned as hin listened intently. Hin discerned a faint sound in the woods surrounding the sestel field--the sound of footsteps, but not ordinary, friendly footsteps. These soft patterings held something furtive and stealthy about them.

  Alarmed, Lieor peered into the trees, and finally made out several Elspind stealing through the forest. A stray shaft of moonlight caught the design on one of the tunics they wore. Lieor could not see the device clearly, but hin did not have to--its general shape betrayed it. Only the Wospind, the People of Death, wore the image of a diving Shadowbird embroidered on their clothing!

  And they had come from the direction of the CLS laboratory. Realizing that, Lieor's heart contracted with fear. Throwing down the hoe, hin broke into a run. The Elpind raced through the woods, driving hinself up the mountain's slope, bounding agilely over fallen trees and low-lying shrubs. All the while, Lieor was filled with a terrible urgency ... and a sense of foreboding.

  The Wospind were a small--but increasingly vocal--group of Elspind who had protested t
he presence of the CLS scientists from the beginning. "Our lifecycle may be short," they vehemently maintained, "but it is the one nature intended for us. To defy nature is wrong. No one--especially no offworlder--

  should tamper with what we are and what we will be!"

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  "I'm not sure it's wise for your leaders to ignore the Wospind as they are doing," Moonrunner, the Heeyoon scientist who was Lieor's special friend, had commented recently. "Ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away."

  "The Great Council's position is that if the Wospind do not wish to take Elhanin, then that is their choice," Lieor had replied heatedly. "But they must not take our right to do so away from us! Let them reject Elhanin--we will outlive them all!"

  "They are growing angrier every day." Moonrunner's long gray muzzle wrinkled at the memory. "Some have shouted threats at us as we leave the confines of the lab. I can smell their hate and fear; it is increasing as we approach the large-scale testing."

  "The Wospind have never hurt anyone," Lieor reminded hin's friend. "Except for the clan feuds--and the last of those ended many generations ago--we Elspind have always been a peaceful people."

  Now those dismissive words returned to haunt Lieor as hin dashed up the mountain slope, a nameless fear filling hin's mind and heart. Wospind could have had no good reason for visiting the CLS laboratory under the cover of darkness.

  Lieor had almost reached the lab's lighted grounds when a terrible thunder shook the mountainside and the lab erupted in a searing inferno of light and heat. Chunks of native stone and the aliens' building material rained down as Lieor fell and rolled, sheltering hin's head with hin's arms.

  When Lieor dared look again, long, leaping flames had engulfed the main laboratory complex and were spreading toward the rest of the buildings. The roar of the fire almost masked the sounds of screams. Squinting against the glare, Lieor made out several dark forms silhouetted against the brightness as they staggered away from the burning portion.

  Shocked, numbed with horror, Lieor climbed to hin's feet, hesitated, then, seeing a motionless dark form, hin darted forward. Terrible heat singed hin's downy fur as Lieor grabbed the alien's legs and began dragging the other toward safety. Reaching the sheltering darkness of the trees, Lieor looked down, and realized that the rescued alien was a Simiu.

  Turning toward Lalcipind, Lieor began shouting for help, but suddenly a howl of purest agony drowned out hin's voice.

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  The Elpind whirled to see a fiery figure running toward the woods, leaping and capering in a frenzy of pain. Its death cry filled the air, resounding off the mountain slopes. Even as Lieor started toward it, trying to think of a way to tackle the victim, smother the flames, the runner collapsed, still writhing. By the time the Elpind reached it, it was mercifully dead.

  Lieor shuddered as the rankness of burned flesh filled hin's nostrils. The body was hideously charred, but still ... hin knew.

  It was--had been--Moonrunner.

  The Elpind started nervously as a shadow before him suddenly became substance, stepping out from between the tree trunks. The newcomer was a dun-colored neuter like Lieor.

  "Tell everyone," said the stranger, "tell them that this"-- hin waved a slender arm at the lab--"this is what will happen to all those from other worlds who come to Elseemar. Warn any aliens who still live to leave our world and never return. Tell the WirElspind--Elseemar's precious Great Council-- that the research aimed at altering our lifecycle must stop. Tell them that Orim, leader of all Wospind, has so decreed it!"

  Orim melted back into the shadows and disappeared.

  Later, after the survivors were being helped, and the flames were finally under control, Lieor knelt beside Moonrunner's body. "Moonrunner," hin whispered the ritual words, "El is life and Wo is death and each completes the other. In the quick flight of a Shadowbird El becomes Wo. Let it be, and let it be ever so." The words comforted him; death, after all, was an old friend on Elseemar.

  Then Lieor rose and left the fitfully burning lab, climbing quickly up the mountain path behind the aliens' still-untouched living quarters and secondary lab buildings. Three of the moons were already gone; only Orood hung stubbornly in the sky. Dawn was breaking.

  Reaching the clearing, hin began the Mortenwol, dancing for hin's shattered dreams of a new life, dancing for those who had embraced Wo and begun the final journey this past night ... dancing especially for Moonrunner. Hin will always remember, Lieor promised silently as hin leaped and turned, 6

  feeling the terrible heaviness in hin's chest lighten a little.

  And then, when the sun had risen fully into the sky and the Mortenwol, the death dance, was finished, Lieor went to tel the Council what Orim had said.

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  Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1

  Wins and Losses

  Cara Hendricks straightened up suddenly, convinced she'd just heard a soft, slithering sound from the other side of the door. Quickly she activated her camera with an abrupt, nervous gesture, and the small, tubelike device rose into the air and took position over her left shoulder. As she glanced anxiously around, the tiny, gold sensor patch attached to the dark skin just above her left cheekbone signaled the little instrument to follow her gaze.

  The autocam whirred softly, recording everything she saw.

  Long seconds passed. Nothing happened.

  "Camera off," Cara muttered, though she left it hovering in the air. With a sigh she settled back in her seat, running a hand over her hair, checking that no strands had escaped from her sleek chignon. Usually Cara let her black hair fluff around her face naturally, but today she wanted to look every inch the professional journalist. After smoothing the skirt of her best blue suit, she folded her hands in her lap with an outwardly relaxed air.

  Her pleasantly bland surroundings resembled a hundred other waiting rooms the seventeen-year-old black girl had seen back

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  on Earth. Cara still found it difficult to believe that she was far below the surface of an airless asteroid in outer space; light-years away from Earth.

  Any minute now, she would meet her first extraterrestrial.

  Her autocam hovered faithfully beside her. The latest in' microvideo technology, it was on loan from the Associated Earth Press. Frank Madden's words as he'd placed the expensive piece of equipment in her hands echoed in her memory, making Cara smile.

  "You won't have to think about your equipment at all," he'd promised. "This little gem is state of the art. It'll track, zoom, focus, adjust, and frame automatically. All you have to worry about is what you're going to ask during your interviews."

  As if that's not enough to worry about, Cara thought, since the second person I'll be talking to here at StarBridge Academy is an eminent diplomat who just happens to be a ... big snake! She'd seen Mizari on holo-vid many times, but that wasn't the same as coming face-to-face with one of the aliens.

  Cara tensed, thinking again she'd heard a sound, but it was- another false alarm. She glanced at her watch, seeing that ten minutes had passed since Dr. Robert Gable had left her here; to wait for the elderly Mizari who was the Liaison between StarBridge Academy and the CLS.

  To think that I've actually met someone who was aboard the] Desiree, she thought. Somehow she'd figured the famous Rob Gable would be taller, but the slender, dark-haired psychologist had barely topped her own modest height. He was close to forty, Cara knew, but his unlined face and easygoing grin made him seem nearly as young as the students he counseled here at StarBridge.

  He promised that we'd talk more later on, she mused. Maybe ... just maybe ...

  I can get him to reminisce about his experiences fifteen years ago when he and Mahree Burroughs' made their First Contact with the Cooperative League of Systems. Everyone knows how closemouthed he is about his personal life, so getting him to talk about that would be a real feather in my cap ...

  For all her anxious listening, Cara never picked up any kind of warning--any whisper of scales, any slithery sound. Suddenl
y the door slid open, and the Liaison Officer between the

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  CLS and the Academy at StarBridge flowed into the room.

  "Ms. Hendricks," said the Mizari in English, with a graceful inclination of his wedge-shaped head, "I am Ssoriszs. Forgive me for making you wait. I bid you welcome to StarBridge." His voice was thin, but pleasant, and the extra hiss on the "s" sounds was only a minor distraction.

  Cara stood up hastily to face the alien. "Thank you, Esteemed One," she said. "I'm very glad to meet you, sir." There! The greeting she'd memorized had come out perfectly, but then her rehearsed sentiments abruptly deserted her. Instead, to her horror, she heard herself blurt, "I--I didn't know you'd be so beautiful!"

  Ssoriszs dipped his head a second time. "You are most kind."

  The Mizari was easily three times as long as Cara was tall, and as thick around as her waist. He faced her with the first third of his supple body reared up like a cobra; the rest was neatly coiled. His sleek scales glittered palest mint-green, with amber and emerald diamond shapes patterning his back. His pupilless eyes were golden, and his entire head was haloed with long, slender appendages that waved constantly. The effect created by the iridescent tendrils was that of a shimmering, rainbow-colored cloud that floated and danced with each small movement of the Mizari's head.

  The alien regarded Cara steadily with his lidless eyes. "Allow me first to compliment you on your recent achievement. I watched your winning

  documentary on the socioeconomic effects of the First Contact on the major Terran governments. The Associated Earth Press made a fine choice when it awarded you the title of 'Young Journalist of the Year.' We here at StarBridge are most fortunate that your prize was the chance to come and visit with us."

  Cara flushed with pleasure. "Thank you, sir. It's a pleasure and an honor.

  Did they tell you I'm to do a documentary while I'm here, a student's perspective on StarBridge? I'd like to begin filming you now, if I may." Good recovery, she congratulated herself. Maybe he'll never guess you were so flustered meeting him that you forgot to activate the camera!

  "Certainly," he agreed.