Farfetch

Krinata; said, "Jindigar, we can't just leave him! I won't allow it!"

He studied her. "Did you think I intended to?"

Resignedly Ruff a

Storm asked, "Jindigar, what can we do with him?"

"When he's recovered, he'll take off into the woods. I

just hope he can find a home. I really don't understand the

hives well, you know. It might be kindest to kill him."

Storm nodded. "I know, 'If we had an Oliat—'"+

"I don't say it that often, do I?" asked Jindigar.*

"No," answered Krinata, "but it's in your eyes." She watched the two of them prepare the native to be transported, Jindigar calming the terrified primitive with soothing noises, delicate touches, unjudgmental compassion.

When Ruff brought his litter, rigged from the bamboolike stalks with lashings of supple vine, Krinata and Jindigar carried it. The native was lighter than he looked, but though her shoulders were now strong enough for such burdens,, her feet felt painfully squashed, and her hips complained. At thirty-three she was rather old to adjust to one-third more gravity than her home world.

Outside, Gibson had taken a position behind a pile of bodies, sca

Jindigar cried, "Down!" and, lowering the stretcher, he threw himself on top of the native, motioning Krinata to do likewise. As she hesitated Gibson went down with a strangled cry, his stu

Storm and Ruff loosed stunbolts at the pilots. The stun-bolts traced rivers of bright blue through the air with the high-pitched, sizzling crackle of full power. The pair of Outriders fired again, despite Jindigar's sudden shout: "No!"

Krinata wasn't sure what happened next, it was so fast. But later Jindigar explained. The pilot had her hands on the landing controls. When the double beam hit her, her full weight came down on it, and the machine went into a power dive—barely three body lengths from the ground.

It hit and exploded in bright, leaping hot flames that seared Krinata's skin. "Run!" yelled Storm. And he took one side of the litter from Krinata as Ruff hefted Gibson over one shoulder. With Storm yelling "Left! Right!" to keep in step with Jindigar, they plunged across the meadow toward the brook. When the second explosion hit, they were all prone in the water at the bottom of the ditch.

Debris rained down, young trees whipping and splintering above them. Jindigar threw his body over the native's and was pi

Mercifully he soon lost consciousness. When they pried the branch off Jindigar, he was able to stand. But Gibson was dead, chest burned away by the blaster. With only a brief but heartfelt groan of regret, Jindigar turned from the dead human to the living native. "He has central nervous and circulatory systems. Shock could kill him." They hadn't brought blankets. Picking up their packs, they doubled the pace on the way back, Jindigar and Krinata carrying the litter, the Lehiroh taking turns with Gibson's body.

Exhausted, mud-caked clothes chafing everywhere, they threw themselves into the arms of the party Frey brought to meet them. Krinata blessed the duad that allowed Frey to apprehend what had happened and accepted cool water and cold meat while Irnils and the other two Lehiroh hoisted the native to the top of one of the sleds.

"They all died," reported Jindigar to the gathering. "But the Squadron will send another unit after them, so we've got to make good time now. We did learn something. Those troopers were drugged to offset the effects of the hive's mental broadcast. They were extremely fatigued, reaction times down. And it's taken an unconscionable time to get their hospital corps out here. That implies they've taken heavy casualties—and—that flyer's fail-safes didn't work. They are beyond the ends of their supply lines here—no replacement parts. Soon equipment failures and perso

"Precious little to learn at cost of a man's life," said Viradel bitterly.

"Yes," replied Jindigar. "But if he hadn't drawn then-fire, we might all be dead. He was a hero."

That wasn't the way Krinata had seen it, but it was the right thing to say—and it might have been so.

"How can they be having such a hard time," asked Terab, "with all their tech backup, when we've been living off the land and have only been hurt by accidents?"

Frey answered, "We know enough not to steal the last eggs of the bluesnake hive or not to sit on feathergrass because it grows over stingbug hives. We're learning the ma

"Very well put," agreed Jindigar. His pride in Frey's brilliance had grown with each day. "But it only leaves us with a moral dilemma. How much damage can we allow the Squadron to do to this" world in our name?"

"You sayin' we gotta surrender?" asked Viradel.

"No," said Jindigar, and rose to get the caravan moving.

After the burial that night, while they were all sitting around the cook fire and Jindigar was off tending the native, Adina tried to drag Krinata into the controversy. "Compassion is all very fine, but why didn't you stop Jindigar from picking up that native? You wouldn't have been caught by the Imperials then!"

Krinata retorted, "I suppose you could have just left him there?" But something about the whole thing bothered her. Even though she'd have bullied Jindigar and Gibson to take the native back with them, she seethed at Jindigar for not even thinking to consult her or anyone before deciding.

"I don't know what else you could have done," Terab put in, "but I wish you'd thought of it. It's too late now, though. Anyone want to vote to abandon the waif?" She glanced around, listening to the mumbled negatives.

Shorwh said, "No, but he scares me."

"You probably scare him too," said Irnils.

"Actually," said Jindigar, joining them, "Shorwh would seem more familiar to him than I do. Could I convince you to take a turn nursing him?"

Shorwh looked at Jindigar, stu

Jindigar took a bowl of stew and sat beside Krinata. Before he ate, though, he surveyed them all. Silence grew as they realized he'd heard Terab's question about voting to abandon the native. "I want you all to realize that if you vote to abandon Chinchee, you'll go on without me."

Into sudden, strained silence Krinata said, "And without me." Storm and his co-husbands added themselves, then Shorwh, Irnils, and Terab joined in.

Viradel bowed her head, but Krinata saw the sullen fire in her eyes. To change the subject, she asked, "Chinchee? You've given him a name?"

"No. He told me his name."

"Might have known Jindigar would start to talk to him!" said Storm. "Jindigar can talk to a babbling brook and understand the answer!"

They all chuckled, and that broke the tension, so when Fenwick said, "We oughta elect a new leader. Charlie would want it that way," it didn't seem like an attack on Jindigar.