Serendipity (Book 1 of the Dana Halliday series)

HERD MEDICINE. FAMOUS CANINE LAST WORDS. THE AKULA.

Herd medicine is something a bit foreign to a small animal vet, but we do have to deal with housefuls of sick pets at times.  Some of the signs the Qir showed were consistent with a contagious disease, yet I would have expected most of the kids and maybe some of the adults to be affected.  Ditto for a chronic toxin exposure or some oddball environmental thing like stray voltage or radiation.  The distribution didn't seem quite right for a genetic disease, although I didn't think I had enough of a population sample to rule it out.

I took more x-rays of the affected kids, and saw the same alarmingly brittle-looking bones.  Over his screaming protests, I gave Haq'Lir a cautious dose of a sedating pain medication and splinted his little hand.  The decreased bone density was highly suspicious of malnutrition, as was the pica, but I assumed they were all on the same diet.  Maybe it was something with gravity or another spacefaring variable; I'd have to ask Adrian.

"All right," I said after the radiology marathon.  "Let's head back down and capture some more victims.  Ma'am, if you could tell me exactly how long you've been traveling, what you're eating, what your ship is like, that kind of thing..."

The Qir homeworld was a ridiculously long distance away, which is saying something.  My brain refused to wrap itself around the perspective.  They had first been contacted by the Sturv, with the approval of the Oploki.  The Oploki felt the Qir were advanced enough to stand up for themselves, but peaceful enough not to start an interplanetary war.  They had just been exploring the limits of their own solar system when the Sturv showed up bearing shiny and delicious new technology.

Several of the more adventurous Qir cultures had decided to strike out for parts unknown, and had found an inhabitable and available planet some five Earth years distant.  V'tru'kri explained that a few expeditions had gone to the new colony and reported no major problems, so they had sent for more inhabitants.  Not being the complete rubes Adrian seemed to think they were, they were sending relatively small groups, although she said there was a huge expedition just getting ready to leave.  The Matriarch's group, the Qir'pri'zib Expedition, was the first to include parents and children.

As we entered Main Cargo, the noise assaulted my ears.  It sounded like a roomful of parrots being tortured, and the people with me tensed noticeably.  The Matriarch gave an exasperated and disapproving groan.

There were about ten children who hadn't come with us, and one lone adult set to supervise them.  This seemed to be a very young woman with less than Matriarchal skills and no Alpha Bitch voice, because the kids obviously had been behaving like moderately housebroken spider monkeys.  The area of Main Cargo where we had left them was strewn with torn boxes and paper, and the floor was treacherous with spilled vegetable seeds.  There was a considerable quantity of water on the floor—I slipped and almost fell—most likely from the now-uncovered swimming tank.

The kids were clustered in the middle of the floor, where Billie had herded them into a tight group.  She was in full-on robo-collie mode, gliding around them with her head low and her eyes locked.  The kids seemed half-mesmerized and half-amused.  Every time the volume increased, the dog changed direction and circled with ever-greater intensity.  She had never had such a great time in her life.

"Billie!" I gasped, mostly embarrassed but a little pleased with her.  "Get over here!"

The Matriarch barked out one word, presumably the Qir equivalent of "HEY!"  The children quieted at once, and when Billie desisted, they arranged themselves into a row of shame.  The woman who had been babysitting approached with an even more disgraced expression and started stammer-chattering at V'tru'kri.  She scolded back, and I was glad I hadn't put my Earwig back in.

Billie was nearly back to me, when one of the kids spotted a relative returning from the Qir ship.  The child, about the same size as Haq'Lir the Menace, broke from the phalanx and bolted away.  Billie caught the motion from the corner of her eye, and, with all the focus of a Terminator, turned and darted after the rogue member of her flock.