JORR (Jim Able: Offworld Book 7) by Ed Charlton (ebook reader ink .txt) 📗

ar di,” mimicked Tella with a slight bow. “Pleased to meet you, Larc.” To Gritta it said, “If I said that I just came from Tanna Gul, would you still call security?”

Larc stiffened and his mother shook her head.

“Have you? Or are you just fishing for information?”

Tella smiled. The professor was not to be underestimated. “I merely wish to understand how you feel about your son’s father.”

“Of what interest is that to anyone but us?”

“You would be surprised, perhaps, by the large number of people on many worlds who are...concerned about you.”

The professor gave a pleasant laugh. “I suppose that I should draw the attention of such a strange person as yourself is evidence of something going on.”

“Have you met my father?” Larc asked.

Tella hesitated and then replied, “No, I have not.”

The two Jorrs glanced at each other.

“Okay, cut the crap,” said the professor, putting down her mug. “State your business.”

“My business is simple,” Tella said calmly while thinking fast. “I need to know how you feel about the possibility that the Gul-Raeff will launch an invasion fleet against your world.”

Both mother and son had their ears erect and eyes wide. She laughed, and he buried his snout in his mug with a snigger.

“Really...Tella, is it? Really, you’ll have to do better than that.”

“You don’t think I’m serious?”

“Oh, you may be serious, but I’m sure the Gul-Raeff isn’t! He doesn’t have the resources or the technology left to do anything of the kind. They’ve just come out of generations of conflict. They’ll be licking their wounds for decades yet.”

“But how would you two feel if he tried?”

The professor’s mirth vanished and she said, “Sorry for him.”

“Tanna Jorr is that well defended?”

“Listen!” She stabbed the air with a furry finger. “They’ve tried to invade six times since we gave them spaceflight. They’re no threat; they never have been. A damned nuisance, maybe, but a serious threat? No.”

Larc looked from Tella to his mother and back. “What could they hope to gain from it?”

Tella wondered at the intelligence behind the young eyes. “The rumor that I base this on says that you are their hope. If it is possible to interbreed, that may be sufficient to save them from extinction.”

Professor Mel shook her head. “Never trust rumors. That’s all wrong.”

She was silent awhile. “Listen, they’re on the way out, that’s for sure. They’ve about three viable sperm left on the entire planet, and Paun Mic Loff—the Gul-Raeff—has half of them. The only way interbreeding could save them, as things stand, would be if we sent our males over there.”

Tella imagined Ernot Dirl Marhan would not take that analysis calmly.

“Have you read any of my mother’s research?” asked Larc.

“No, I haven’t,” Tella replied.

“You should. It explains everything you’re about to ask about me, about why I’m not retarded.”

Tella felt wrong-footed. How bright is this child? “Which research?” it asked the professor.

“He’s referring to my study of our hybrids. We’ve long wondered why such children have difficulties developing normal brains. It was my passion. Larc’s birth was the breakthrough. We got it right with you, didn’t we, my love?”

The boy said matter-of-factly, “So your rumor is partly right: I could be the future of both races. It would be better if we could get the Guls to let us help them.”

“Help in what way?” asked Tella.

“Atmospheric scrubbing, land reclamation, dietary improvement, and hormone therapy for starters.”

“And he’s not joking about being the future of both races. He’s smarter than any eight-year-old of either race, and that’s not a fluke. There...”—she pointed to Larc—“is an evolutionary advantage waiting for its moment.”

She reached her hand further and scratched him behind his ear. “You know much of genetics, Tella?” she asked.

Tella nodded. “More than most. Being a member of an endangered species gives such study a personal element.”

She nodded. “Our two planets have a shared genetic line. How and when we were linked, we do not know. But the Guls are our relatives. However, the genetic drift has, until recently, seemed too wide for productive hybridization. It was the spaceflight birth that did the trick.”

She continued, “Gul babies hit the ground running. A pure Jorr baby will climb up its mother’s fur and cling for many days. They need the calm of protected feeding for the brain to stabilize. Larc wanted both. Periods of calm and mad bouts of activity. The dim lights and calm environment of a spaceflight were ideal.”

“I see. And on a flight longer than merely within this system,” Tella commented.

“It was the trip back from Beta Oraga. It was long enough.”

She smiled again at her son. Looking at the obvious affection between them, Tella realized it had already made up its mind.

“Professor Mel, I am sure about the possibility of an invasion. The Gul-Raeff has...acquired...some troubling technology. There is an invasion fleet. I have two colleagues on Tanna Gul working to see that the fleet does not make it into space. If they fail, your government will have to be ready. You will have to be ready.”

“And why have you come to warn us? Why are your people putting themselves at risk?”

“As I said, there are many people interested in this matter. Their motives may be different notes, but the resulting chord is a good one: fewer lives will be lost.”

“Whose technology?” asked Larc.

Tella blinked and wondered how best to reply.

“Oh, I see. They’ve told you not to tell. Okay, I guess we’ll see when they get here.” The boy shrugged and stood up.

“One moment, Sa’,” said his mother, putting her hand gently on his shoulder. “You might be done with our guest, but I still have some questions to ask.”

“Okay.” He sat down with a patient smile that made Tella feel less significant than a speck on the wall.

“If what you say is the truth,” she began, “why the secrecy, and why us?”

“I know of the fleet. I do not know the political situation here. I do not know how well the Gul-Raeff has prepared the way for his troops.”

Tella fixed her