Read Online Damia's Children by Anne McCaffrey - Free Book Online

inefficient it was to have no kinetics available, Laria thought. Her presence distractedone or two drivers to near accident situations. Surely, since their two species had been in contact for more than sixteen years, the sight of Humans was not
that
unusual for ’Dinis. Tip and Huf wiggled with amusement at the near misses and flicked signs at her, crackling at their kin who apparently were more concerned about the situation.
    Then the vehicle turned out of the space port facility onto a very broad “roadway,” teeming with traffic of all kinds: pedestrian, vehicular, and a single-wheeled affair that riders handled with exceeding skill and daring, darting in and around slower, more cumbersome road users. Laria was so fascinated by their antics that Tip had to whistle a warning to her. Plsgt was signing and she’d missed its opening remarks. She shot a frantic glance at Tip who repeated it behind Plus’s back. Fortunately, Plus was only identifying the buildings they were passing.
    The space port was, quite rightly, surrounded by support and service agencies. Then their vehicle pulled into the center of the road to allow the passage of a block of what Laria had to identify as “soldiers” though she had never seen any. Unlike other ’Dinis, these wore heavy bandoliers, with tubes and other ominous-looking devices slung across their backs. They looked tougher and many had odd cicatrix along their bodies and limbs, suggesting healed wounds. At least, that’s what the marks appeared to be to her. Sometimes one didn’t need familiarity with a thing to recognize it.
    Then Plus was pointing out apertures on either side of the broad roadway, and smaller avenues leading off the main thoroughfare. These were the domestic quarters of the space field technicians.These residential facilities formed the usual ’Dini quadrangle about the work place. Separating the various dwellings were the great slanting mounds of hibernatories. No one had far to go. Where did food and other commodities come from, Laria wondered, but Plus evidently didn’t feel it necessary to comment on such particulars.
    Behind them came the roar of more ships taking off, and the air was once more filled with the smell of hot metal and fuel exhaust. Really, Laria thought, it was too bad there weren’t enough Talents available to loft the ’Dini vessels, and reduce noise and air pollutions. Maybe she should concentrate on fitting herself for that. With no immodesty, Laria knew that she’d be a Tower Prime when she’d finished her training.
    The journey to her new home took over an hour, as Plus’s vehicle drove them steadily deeper into the capital of Clarf, a sprawling metropolis: past flat open spaces whose purpose was not mentioned. At one point, she also caught the unmistakable odor of rotting vegetables and the cloying sweetness of fruit. She couldn’t isolate from which building of the many small structures they passed such smells issued and it amused her that Plus seemed either oblivious or unwilling to comment on that side of ’Dini ecology. It was tactful of Plus not to show her the downside of life on Clarf. It did point out plinths and columns, or pillars, with a great deal of pride and an explanation which she couldn’t quite grasp and which neither Tip or Huf could.
    Between the air pollution and the intense sunlight, Laria began to develop a fierce headache and did her best to dampen it. She would have liked toclose her eyes to rest them. Plus wouldn’t notice if she had with the dark lenses covering her from brow to cheek but she had to watch its signings or be rude. She was overwhelmingly grateful when the vehicle came to stop before a large and new looking building—new because the intense sunlight had not bleached it—with an odd annex perched on the roof.
    It took her only a moment to realize that the annex was odd because it had windows, a feature which no other