The Legacy of Lehr by Katherine Kurtz Read Free Book Online Page B

them.
    â€œThank you for playing along,” she said. “I hope you don’t feel that you’ve been dragooned into anything, but Muon apparently is having another anxiety attack. He’s the Aludran who panicked when you brought your cats aboard this morning,” she added, at their looks of question. “I thought you might be able to help me reassure him that the cats aren’t going to eat him—or whatever it is he’s afraid they’re going to do. You speak Aludran, don’t you, Commodore? Aren’t you a linguist?”
    â€œAmong my other dubious talents,” Mather said with a nod. “I’ll be glad to help, if I can.”
    â€œThank you. In any case, the steward said Muon was delirious,” Shannon went on. “He keeps ranting about devil cats and demons in the dark—exactly what Torrell was talking about over dinner. My assistant is with him now, but he’s only a student intern. I don’t think he’s experienced enough to handle something like this.”
    Shannon fell silent as the lift came to a stop and the doors opened. She cautioned curcumspection as she led Mather and Wallis down a corridor, for other passengers were about. The door to the main Aludran cabin slid open almost before she could thumb the call button, however, the youngest of the four male Aludrans admitting them with a bow.
    â€œGood you come, Doctor,” the alien said haltingly. “Muon, he plenty bad. You make well, eh?”
    The hot, humid air closed around the three of them like a moist hand as they crossed the threshold: it was especially oppressive to Mather and Shannon in their high-collared uniforms. Across the room, Deller and a harried looking medical technician were gesticulating futilely at a hysterically weeping female who Shannon recognized as Ta’ai, Muon’s mate. Deller had a hypo in his hand and seemed to be trying to persuade Ta’ai to let herself be sedated, but the alien woman only planted herself the more firmly between them and the farthest berth. Someone—presumably Muon—was thrashing frenetically in that berth, and the shadowed forms of other Aludrans appeared to be having no luck soothing the occupant. Nor did Deller, the technician, or another male Aludran seem to be having any luck in getting through to the distraught Ta’ai.
    â€œDoctor Deller, why don’t you let me take over now?” Shannon said quietly.
    Her voice cut through the thick, humid air with quiet authority, and the intern’s head whipped around in a glance of relief.
    â€œDoctor Shannon, am I ever glad to see you!”
    Leaving his reluctant patients, Deller crossed to meet Shannon and the others, his plain, serious face sheened with perspiration. “He’s having some kind of seizure, Shivaun. He was almost convulsing a little while ago, but she won’t let me near him, and I didn’t dare force the issue. Maybe you can reason with her.”
    â€œ Laia Ta’ai,” Shannon said, brushing past Deller to confront the alien woman, “Doctor Deller was only trying to help. And pardon me for saying so, but you are not helping, so long as you continue to weep like a child and refuse to let us help Lai Muon.”
    â€œThey will kill us! They will eat us all!” Ta’ai wept, shaking her head frantically. “Muon has seen it. Muon knows!”
    â€œWhat has he seen, Laia Ta’ai?” Shannon asked, quietly reaching one hand behind her for the hypo that Deller had been trying to administer. “No one aboard this ship is going to eat you, I promise. You’re perfectly safe.”
    Despite Shannon’s caution, Ta’ai saw the hypo change hands and shook her head, backing away wide-eyed.
    â€œNo, I must not sleep! He must not sleep! The Screamers in the Night will—”
    But before she could tell them what the Screamers in the Night would do, one of the other aliens came from behind and