Silent Dances by A. C. Crispin, Kathleen O'Malley Read Free Book Online Page A

"You're hedging. You think you've found an
    excuse your parents will accept."
    "Is that so terrible?" Tesa asked, annoyed. "This will lessen
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    their disappointment. It's not that I'll never have it done ...
    just not now ." So why did she feel like she was lying?
    "Well, when Meg comes she'll interview you. The final
    decision is hers. If she agrees, you'll leave immediately. You've got to get to
    Trinity before that egg hatches."
    Tesa looked over at Trinity, imagining herself there.
    The scene shifted to a massive forest full of monstrous multicolored trees,
    larger than Earth's redwoods. Tesa thought this was how the Earth might
    have looked when her people kept their own ways. But that was hundreds,
    even thousands of years ago, and those old buffalo days were only stories
    now.
    She recalled her last night on Earth, hugging Grandmother and crying,
    fearful she'd never see her again. The old woman had brushed Tesa's tears
    away and told her, "Somewhere there's a world where the way of life we
    loved, the old ways, a re not just interesting relics of the past. You could find that world, takoja, but you can't find it sitting here."
    Suddenly a huge, dark form swooped across the holo's scene, skimming
    the treetops, snapping Tesa from her memories. The image grabbed her by
    the heart, startling her so much
    that she stood up and bumped into the table with the doughnuts. Tesa
    stepped closer to the hologram. The creature alighted on a monstrous nest
    built on a limb of that gigantic tree. "What is that?" Tesa asked Rob, pointing.
    "We call them the Aquila," he signed.
    The bird was clutching prey in its talons, tearing it apart with its hooked
    beak, feeding it to a chick huddled in the nest. " It's intelligent ," she signed.
    Rob frowned. "No, the data hasn't indicated that."
    Tesa couldn't explain why, but she knew she was seeing an intelligent
    being.
    The Aquila had a bronze body with a golden head and tail. Sunlight made
    the bird seem as though it were made from molten metal . The creature
    raised its head and its fierce red eyes stared straight through the young
    woman. She gasped and stumbled back onto the couch.
    Rob was alarmed . "What' s wrong? Tesa, you okay?"
    " It's the Thunderbird ," she signed , pointing to the Aquila. S he was shaking all over , not knowing why, the feeling of dread she'd waked with now smothering her. The baleful
    eyes of the Aquila continued to bore into her.
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    "That," Rob informed her, "is one of the most formidable predators on Trinity.
    They kill and eat Grus."
    Enemy to the Grus? Tesa thought numbly, the terrible sense of deja vu
    almost suffocating her.
    He nodded. "Those big babies pose a king-size problem for the First Contact
    team." She looked at him dazedly as Rob continued, smiling. "But, you've
    got experience with raptors. You might be able to find a deterrent to keep
    them away from the camp. You might even be able to tame one like the old
    falconers did."
    Tesa smiled wanly. The Wakinyan was not a creature to be tamed. She
    turned to meet the gaze of the red-eyed Aquila, its wings stretched against
    the wind, its beak open in a scream. Tesa still could not hear the thunder.
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CHAPTER 3
Blanket Advice
    "Tesa! Pick your feet up!"
    Giving her Simiu instructor a sour look, Tesa pulled one stilt laboriously out
    of the marsh muck, set it down, then struggled to lift the other. She didn't care
    if the gravity was less than Earth's, this was hard work. Her calves and
    thighs ached and she was covered with a gray goo from numerous falls.
    Awkwardly, she trudged behind the baboonlike alien she had long ago
    nicknamed, in sign, "Dr. Noisy." They slogged through a mock-up of a
    freshwater marsh, balanced on four-foot-high, lightweight, black,
    mechanized stilts, while the Simiu's rapid-fire commands flashed from her
    voder.
    The stilts had been invented by a Simiu and, Dr. Noisy had
    proudly informed her, were "intelligent."
    The word is "possessed," Tesa had thought, the first