A little girl, she thought with a shock of recognition. Why, she’s just a little girl—no matter how big she is.
“No, no,” she told the huge little girl. “I’m not a doll. I’m an adult—put me down.” She tried to send feelings of sternness toward the alien child, but just as she felt it beginning to respond with emotions of contrite regret, she heard Reddix shouting.
“Keep calm,” he yelled up at Nina. “The minute it moves you away from its face I’m shooting.”
To her horror, Nina saw that he was still holding the blaster aimed at the alien’s head. Clearly he was just waiting for a clear shot.
“What? No—no!” She shook her head at him frantically. “No, Reddix—can’t you feel it? Can’t you understand? She’s just a little girl! A little girl out playing ball with her…her dog-thing.” She gestured down at Spaker, who was still looking at Reddix with a cocked head, the gray beach ball clutched firmly in his mouth.
“Doesn’t matter what it is, I’m not letting it hurt you.” The big Kindred looked, if anything, even worse than before. With a shock, Nina realized he was almost out of his mind with pain. The blood was pouring freely from his nose now, and she had the distinct impression he was keeping himself from passing out by sheer force of will. The blue, green and red lights on his collar were blinking so fast they were nothing but a blur. Again she had the distinct impression that the alien child’s emotions—loud, primitive, and extremely bright—were overloading him.
Have to do something, she thought wildly. Or he’s going to have an aneurism—blow a blood vessel. He can’t go on like this—it’s killing him!
Then everything seemed to happen at once. The huge little girl started to stoop to put her down, and Spaker dropped the ball and made a low, hoarse rak-rak-rak sound that Nina supposed must be his version of barking. She saw Reddix’s finger tighten on the blaster’s trigger, and a fresh gout of blood poured from his nose.
Without letting herself think, Nina reached past the loop of furry tentacle around her waist and dived into her pocket. Finding the Hurkon collar’s control unit, she felt for the last button and slipped the little plastic shield to one side. Just before Reddix could shoot, she pressed the kill switch.
He gave a low groan, and his silver eyes rolled up in his head. Then he crumpled to the ground—out cold.
Chapter Sixteen
Reddix opened his eyes to see Nina’s lovely face hovering anxiously over his own.
“Reddix?” she asked softly, her blue eyes filled with worry. “Are you all right? Do you feel okay?”
“Except for the fact that my head feels like I drank an entire bottle of fireflower juice before passing out.” He put a hand to his temple gingerly and winced at the throbbing pain. “Gods, what happened?”
“I pushed the kill switch.” Nina looked ashamed but defiant. “I know you said not to, but you were in such bad shape. Lona’s emotions were overwhelming you and—”
“Wait a minute.” He held up a hand. “Who’s Lona?”
“Oh—that’s the little girl who found us. She and her pet, Spaker, were playing ball and she threw it too far—that’s what hit our ship—her boji ball. And so—”
“You mean to tell me that thing that attacked us was a child?” he interrupted her again.
“Couldn’t you tell?” Nina asked. “It was really obvious to me. She was just curious about us—she thought we were some new kind of dolls. Two of her mothers had promised her some new toys, and she thought we were it.”
“Two of her mothers?” Reddix shook his head. “What kind of society is this?”
“A really nice one, actually,” Nina said reassuringly. “They took us in after I, uh, knocked you out, and their healer has been looking after you ever since.”
“They took us in?” Reddix stared around the dim room he found himself in, realizing for the first time that he was no longer on the ship. “What the hell?” he growled at Nina. “Why did you let them take us from the only safe place on this entire ball of dirt?”
A frown creased her forehead. “Because I was worried I’d killed you, all right? Do you know how long you’ve been out? Three days. You told me the kill switch would only put you under for an hour, and so I waited an hour, but you wouldn’t wake up. Reddix, I’ve been sitting here with you day and night worried to death that you were never going to open your eyes again. I…I…”
Her own eyes were suddenly bright with tears, and she turned away.