Orl are considered animals.

"Release them to me and observe. One must be gentle with humans. Too much power can destroy their brains."

G.o.d! t.i.tus had never heard that, but he was sure Abbot meant it. Abbot had that kind of power; t.i.tus didn't.

Still holding t.i.tus's gaze, the man asked, "Should I do as he says? He is your father, as he claims?"

Abbot glared at t.i.tus. Mouth dry, t.i.tus rose to his feet. He didn't dare oppose Abbot in front of a real luren. "He's my father, but don't do everything he says without thinking. This time, though-yes, do it."

He squinted at the humans. "Will they attack?"

"No," answered Abbot. "Let me show you how. Just wait until I put out the lights again."

He measured Abbot again, then studied t.i.tus. The panic had been replaced by wariness. "Good, and leave them out."

"I can't. These are the dim emergency lights. If they seem bright, the real lights will nearly blind you. Cover your eyes. We're wearing protective lenses, and in a few minutes I'll provide you with some special goggles." With that, Abbot sidled around Mintraub who stood with one hand raised to the open panel, eyes unfocused. His fingers flew over the connections, and t.i.tus realized Abbot had rigged the boards so he could have a power outage when he wanted one. "

The lights went out, and Abbot said, "Now. Release them to me."

The alien emitted a low musical hum, and the pall of Influence gripping the room abated. At the same time, Abbot flicked the main lights on. Mintraub jumped back with a gasp. "Abbot! Where did you-"

Mirelle screamed. Sitting bolt upright, she crammed both fists in her mouth and whimpered. Then t.i.tus saw that the alien had draped his sheet over his head and tied a fold of it over his eyes. He looked like a naked, albino Arab playing Blind Justice. But he can rip the language right out of a person's brain! He was that powerful, and Abbot was manipulating him as if he were a helpless child.

"Quiet!" ordered Colby in a low, penetrating voice. "Get back from him. We don't want to panic him."

Mihelich strode up to her. "That hardly seems likely after what he just did. I'd say he has the upper hand."

"You felt it too?" she looked around with a most peculiar expression. "It wasn't just me?"

Abbot went to her, saying with a touch of Influence, "t.i.tus, what did he do to you? The last I saw before the lights went out, he had grabbed you."

"Yes," said Mirelle getting to her feet, "and the world froze solid."

There were murmurs of agreement as people checked chronometers. t.i.tus interjected with a touch of Influence, trying to gloss over the lost interval, "He just grabbed me, but he didn't hurt me. Then the lights came back on."

Kaschmore said, "I lost at least six minutes." There were murmurs of agreement.

Diving Belle added, "My recorder shows seven and one half minutes elapsed. Let me see what recorded."

"It sounds to me," said Abbot moving around to the woman, "as if our friend here has a formidable natural defense. But, even in panic, he didn't use it to hurt anyone." He lifted the recorder from the Belle's hands and ran it fast over the segment while exerting Influence over all of them, including the single Brink's guard by the outer door. Where is the other guard? When did he leave?

The humans heard dead silence on the recording while t.i.tus listened to the chatter of speech at high speed. Then Abbot erased the segment from the recorder's memory and handed it back to the Belle. "Set it up. Dr. Colby will no doubt want the rest of this recorded."

All this while, the alien had been turning his head, matching them through the folds of cloth. t.i.tus said, using his littlest Influence, "Perhaps we should get the man some dark gla.s.ses and a suit of clothes?"

Colby nodded. "Kaschmore, see to it."

She waved a nurse toward the dressing room, while replying, "I wouldn't know where to get dark gla.s.ses that had been sterilized."

Abbot said, moving to a workbench, "I have some welding goggles here that might do for a while. t.i.tus is right. It's the gesture that counts. We wouldn't want him to think he's a prisoner and panic again."

As the nurse brought the shapeless disposable suit to the alien, holding it out at arm's length, t.i.tus lifted it from the man's grasp and shook out the two pieces to show what it was. Abbot came up with the goggles while t.i.tus held the jacket for the alien's arm and, cloaking his words with heavy Influence, Abbot muttered, "Say thank you in English and explain that you learned the language from t.i.tus. Say as little as you can after that-plead exhaustion-we've got to get t.i.tus out of here before his hunger rebounds."

Twice, the alien started to say something else, stopped himself, then nodded. "This gesture means yes, correct?"

"That's right," said Abbot, cloaking the exchange.

"To show teeth is for friendship?"

"Yes," grunted Abbot, then added, "t.i.tus shouldn't have fought you. You ought to be sure of these things."

"I will learn. t.i.tus will help." But his hands shook.

t.i.tus knelt to hold the pants under the alien's dangling feet while Abbot helped him shed the cloth and don the goggles. When they were done, the alien stood beside the pedestal, grinned, revealing sharp teeth, and said in t.i.tus's intonation overlaid with another accent, "I thank you."

"Good grief!" said Colby.

"I don't believe this," muttered Mirelle, white-lipped.

"This one provided me your language, and him I thank most profoundly for the gift."

Abruptly, t.i.tus's knees sagged. He put a hand on Abbot's elbow, and Abbot's hand clasped over his. Abbot muttered to t.i.tus, "Just a moment more. You can make it." Aloud he said, "I suspected as much, from t.i.tus's dazed state. Dr. Colby, I think we should offer our visitor a proper room in which to rest and whatever else may be required for his comfort." He turned to the alien. "Do you find it cold in here, uh, how would you like to be called, Sir?"

"H'lim is my name."

"H'lim," said Abbot with a creditable try at the luren accent. "We normally keep our rooms much warmer than this."

"That is good news. I hope."

Abbot named each of those in the chamber. Under his breath, Mihelich groaned, "Dear G.o.d, he's talking to him as if he were a person."

H'lim's eyes flicked to Mihelich, but the man didn't seem to notice. Colby, however, caught the comment and raised her arms for attention. "All right, folks, you've just witnessed the most important event in the recent history of mankind, but right now I think Abbot's right. We must show our guest a reasonable amount of ordinary hospitality. How would you feel if you were in his place?"

"I'd want to be left alone for a while," said Kaschmore.

t.i.tus knew she meant to isolate H'lim among the medics. Cloaking his words, he told H'lim, "Later, ask for me. Don't let them keep you away from me."

H'lim nodded, then asked Abbot, imitating their light cloaking of speech, "Will t.i.tus be all right? I didn't even realize you're not really luren."

"I'll see to my son. And I won't let them harm you." Aloud Abbot said, "Dr. Colby has the right idea. We must show H'lim are friends. Carol, if t.i.tus and I may be excused, we will see to the lighting panel from the ship is installed in a room for our guest."

Kaschmore interjected, "Shiddehara will go to medical for a complete check-"

t.i.tus threw off the daze that gripped him. "Oh no, really," he protested with Influence, Abbot's own power working with him. "H'lim didn't hurt me at all. I was only surprised. I want to help Abbot make him comfortable."

"Excellent idea. Kaschmore, install H'lim in the infirmary's executive suite temporarily. Mintraub, help Nandoha adjust the environment. And Mihelich, I want you to see about lifting quarantine. A man can't live in a sterile bubble, but we wouldn't want him to die of a cold either. De Lisle, you're to stay with H'lim and make sure there are no misunderstandings."

Abbot had t.i.tus halfway to the changing room door by the end of this speech. He stopped, looking back. "He went for Mirelle first, didn't he?" he asked t.i.tus privately.

"Yes-I-"

"H'lim," said Abbot, cloaking, "De Lisle wears my Mark. Do you honor such?"

"Mark?" H'lim looked at Mirelle. "I see no-oh. That's an orl-mark? It's so faint."

"It is my Mark. I expect it to be honored."

Mirelle approached H'lim, getting a better grip on herself. "We don't want you to be frightened."

"I accept the strange customs of this place, and I honor your hospitality," answered H'lim openly, then glanced at Abbot and t.i.tus.

Cloaking, Abbot told him, "I'll see that your needs are met. Wait for me." He hustled t.i.tus into the changing room. "What a mess! And I can't even blame it on you this time!"

"But I thought you wanted him revived."

"Only not yet. I wanted to drive Colby into ordering the corpse destroyed. Then I'd have shipped a sufficient part of the remains to Earth and we'd have revived him there. But I've been too busy to get in here, and didn't know about the malfunctions. Mintraub should have caught it sooner!"

Inea and I kept him busy!

As they were showering, t.i.tus said, "Well, now that he's awake, it's my place to provide for H'lim."

Abbot sighed. "He can't survive on what you'd give him. Considering your diet, I'm amazed you're still on your feet, but don't stop to argue with me now. You can't surmount this hunger with that dead powder, so I'm giving you two of my-"

"No!" The disinfectant got into t.i.tus's mouth as he said that and he spat, gagging.

"t.i.tus, when the shock to your system wears off, you'll have no choice. He took more than blood."

"There's Inea."

"What are you going to do, ask pretty-please?"

They toweled off and dressed in smoldering silence. t.i.tus was beginning to feel rocky, but he wondered if it was just Abbot's repeated suggestion. When he thought he had his temper leashed back, t.i.tus said, "I can handle humans without Influence. I've been fending for myself since I left you."

"This is different."

"I know. I can feel it. I'll take care of it." G.o.d! What am I going to do?

"Look, I know how you hate killing. You're going to be blacking out intermittently. I wouldn't want you to wake up and find you'd killed someone who matters to you. I've got two stringers who-"

"Residents have been parenting for generations!" snapped t.i.tus. "I've broken the habit of direct feeding, and I won't go back, not under any circ.u.mstances. I don't want your help, and I don't want you teaching H'lim that humans are just orl."

He threw up his hands. "H'lim's my grandson! At least he has a proper respect, even if my own son hasn't the sense of an orl!" He started for the door, then paused. "But if you kill carelessly, I'll have to take you out. I'll have to, t.i.tus, but I don't want to!" He stomped out past the Brink's guard who still stood at attention, but stared avidly through the plastic wall into the lab where the "corpse" was now chatting affably with the living.

Chapter sixteen.

At the end of Biomed's hall, a crowd of off-duty workers had gathered behind the security barricade. Their voices filled the area with an excited babble. Four Brink's guards held a fifth tightly between them, and the prisoner's hands were shackled behind his back. t.i.tus recognized him as one of the guards who had been on the cryo-lab's door, the one who must have exited when the lights went out. On the security station console, a monitor showed a broadcast from Earth, with a bulletin header flashing over an announcer's image. Alien Body Reanimated!

"You shouldn't have done it, Chip," one of the guards said to the prisoner as t.i.tus arrived. "That's a major breach of security."

"Security be dammed, what about infecting all Earth with some alien disease?"

Oft, s.h.i.t! He's reported H'lim's revival! If there'd been the least hope that Connie could get someone through the anti-a.s.sa.s.sin security, there was no hope whatever that she could get anyone through a full-scale quarantine.

His eyes lit on Inea, almost invisible in the crush of humanity beyond the barricade. She spotted him at the same moment and began pushing toward him. He signaled her off to the left exit gate, a door made of spokes that rotated only in one direction. As soon as he got through it, the crowd surged toward him, inundating him with a barrage of questions.

He folded Inea into one arm and began shoving toward the edge of the crowd. "Dr. Colby will be out soon, and she'll have a statement for you," t.i.tus repeated over and over.

They made it to clear air, and t.i.tus staggered, gasping.

"You're shaking. What happened?"

"I fathered him."

"We won!" she yelped, kissing him. Then she bounced over to the lift call b.u.t.ton and gave it a triumphal smack.

"Inea." To his chagrin, she had to catch him and prop him against the wall. "Abbot seems to have more control over H'lim-that's his name-than I do. If I'm going to keep Abbot from teaching him to despise humans, I've got to get back in there."

"But you're sick."

"Not sick. Starving. Ectoplasm exhaustion." The numbness was starting to wear off, and Abbot's predictions were proving right-again. "I can't-I've got to-"

"But the alien is all right? He didn't go feral?"

"He's fine-for the moment, but I've got to-"

An empty lift came, and she bundled him into it. "You're in no condition to be doing anything. But I guess this means that everyone knows about you and Abbot."

"No, no." He explained the way Abbot had handled it.

"Abbot again!" Draping his arm over her shoulders, she half carried him out of the lift. The corridor was deserted at mid-shift, with most of the off-duty people waiting in Biomed and the rest glued to their screens. Dimly he realized it was his own door he was staring at, and Inea was digging in his pants pocket for his key.

The next thing he knew, he was slumped in the chair by the kitchen table and the microwave was bleeping. And then the smell hit him. Staggering to the sink, he grabbed the pitcher, sloshing half-dissolved crystals over the rim, and gulped the gritty mixture. Then he gagged and vomited into the sink. Gasping, he cried, "Get out of here. If you know what's good for you, get out!" I've got to call Abbot.

Calmly, she refilled the pitcher and chucked it into the microwave. "Go rinse your mouth out, and stop telling me what to do."

When he didn't move, she grabbed him by the biceps and pushed him into the bathroom, shutting the door. t.i.tus leaned over the sink, sick and ashamed, yet aching with a desperate hunger he'd never felt before. He rinsed the dead stuff out of his mouth, then glimpsed his face in the mirror-eyes sunken and bruised, anguish graven in deep lines down his cheeks. He swayed, struggled for balance and fell against the door. It wouldn't open.

Panic struck, and he flung himself against the barrier, dimly aware of the life surging on the other side but wholly unable to think. The battering thud of his body hitting the hard barrier set up a rhythm in his mind, a pulse of hunger as strong as H'lim's had been.

The next thing he knew, the door slid aside and he fetched up hard against the opposite wall.