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She had always been Noisy Girl. As she came to the edge of a new life, she thought of no new name, but walked quietly through the forest behind her mother, thinking, “I am Noisy Girl, and I come to a new place.” Her fingers made the words against the long fall of her pale hair—hair that made her more like her mother; except that it didn’t.

Her mother, Walks Crooked, stopped a moment until Noisy Girl caught up to her. Walks Crooked laid a hand on Noisy Girl’s arm; a hand with long white fur on the back of it, and black fingers. Noisy Girl’s arm was covered with white fur, as well, but it was the fur of a winter jumper, not her own. Beneath it her skin was pink and smooth.

“Is it all well?” Walks Crooked formed the words with her long black fingers and Noisy Girl nodded, though she wasn’t certain it was the truth.

“It is well. I’ll go.”

“The Loud-Talking People are your people. There’s no doubt of it, and it’s where you should be.”

“Yes,” said Noisy Girl, making the word emphatic with sharp movements of her hands and the involuntary guttural sound that was part of what had earned her her name. For a moment, she wasn’t sure whether she meant to convince Walks Crooked or herself. Then she said, in complete honesty, “I want to learn who I am.”

Walks Crooked laid her hand against her daughter’s hairless cheek, then turned away just as the tears grew in her eyes. Noisy Girl swallowed hard.

She had always been Noisy Girl.

After today, she would never be Noisy Girl again.

* * *

Commander Jeff Anderson rested his forehead against the shuttle window, watching the planet Denahault grow large beneath the ship. They’d be landing in less than an hour. As usual, after the ten-day trip from Earth, the last few hours on the shuttle seemed interminable.

Jeff had shipped out as a passenger for the first time in a number of years. He’d made the trip to Denahault two years ago, but that time he’d been second-in-command of the ship that brought him there. It had been nice to just sit back and enjoy the ride this time.

From this altitude, Denahault’s main continent seemed smaller than he remembered. Maybe because his last trip had been to Farhallen, and Farhallen’s main landmass made Africa look small. Denahault was beautiful, though, sheathed in the blues and greens that meant life. And, better yet, a place where Jeff could get out, stretch his legs and breathe air that hadn’t been treated through shipboard recirculation filters.

As if in response to his thoughts, the shuttle’s air pumps kicked in, sending a breeze wafting past his face. He turned his cheek toward it and accidentally met the gaze of the young woman sitting next to him. Her eyes were wide with awe.

“It’s so beautiful,” she said, blurting it out as if she’d been waiting for the chance to let her trapped feelings fly. “I never imagined it would be so beautiful.”

Jeff smiled. Her enthusiasm appealed to him. It had been so long since his first time in space that he’d forgotten the unbridled awe. “All the inhabited planets are,” he said, “and a good many of the uninhabited ones.”

Her eyes widened even further. “You’ve seen them all?”

“I’ve served on ships going to all but one of the colony planets.”

“So you’re here on business?”

“No.” He looked back at Denahault, again remembering the last time he’d been here. “I’m here for a wedding.”

* * *

The shuttle finally came to rest on a landing pad on the perimeter of Denahault Prime. Patience strained nearly to the breaking point, Jeff waited for his turn to disembark. His legs ached to run, or at least walk briskly. His lungs itched for real air. Nothing smelled quite like the air on Denahault

Finally, he stepped down to the tarmac. He breathed deep and long, letting his legs stretch to take up the distance to the long expanse of sidewalk leading to the terminal building and baggage claim.

He’d more than half-expected Trieka to be waiting for him, but he saw no sign of her. With the wedding in two days, she was probably wrapped in last-minute preparations. Not for the first time, he wondered why she’d opted for a full wedding instead of a temporary civil contract. The latter would have been simpler to execute, and far simpler to dissolve if her marriage turned out to be a colossal mistake.

After another quick scan of the crowd to be sure he hadn’t missed her, Jeff went to get his luggage. It was already waiting—his military status gave him some clout, especially in the planetary sticks. He hefted his bags and headed for the nearest door.

“Commander Anderson?”

Jeff turned to acknowledge the unfamiliar voice. The young man behind him wore jeans and a T-shirt, his long blondish hair pulled back in a ponytail.

Delinquent. Then Jeff remembered he was on a colony planet and that he’d been in the military far too long. “Yes?”

“Mr. Fairfax asked me to meet you here. He and Ms. Cavendish send their regrets. I’m Madison Jeffries.”

“Is everything all right?”

“As far as I know.” Madison reached for one of Jeff’s bags and Jeff handed it over willingly while reshuffling the knee-jerk judgments he’d made about this disheveled, but startlingly polite, young man.

Madison went on. “Trieka—Ms. Cavendish—got a call this morning from friends in Forest Walk. I’m not sure of the details, but they needed her in her capacity as liaison with the natives.”

“Interesting.” Jeff hoped he hadn’t arrived on the eve of a native uprising. All the news from Denahault since the planet had changed from EarthFed to private management had been good. But news took two weeks to travel from Denahault to Earth, and a lot could happen in two weeks. “Fairfax went with her?” That might be an indication of the seriousness of the situation, as Trieka was capable of handling just about anything on her own.

“They requested a second translator.” They’d reached the embassy, and Madison fell back a step to let Jeff in the front door ahead of him. “Like I said, I’m not sure of the details, but I don’t think it’s anything serious.”

They were halfway up the elevator before Jeff thought to wonder where they were going. “The hotel rooms aren’t on the middle levels anymore?”

“They are, but we’re upstairs. Fairfax had the top floor of the building converted to a penthouse apartment.”

“Of course he did.” Jeff’s tone proved harsher than he’d intended.

Madison didn’t miss the implied criticism. “He’s a good guy. He and Ms. Cavendish have been instrumental in establishing communication with the natives. EarthFed certainly couldn’t have handled it as well as they have.”

The elevator door opened and they stepped out into a large, unexpectedly understated foyer. Jeff was surprised he actually felt comfortable in it, not afraid to move for fear of breaking something. He also felt, strongly, the influence of his erstwhile commanding officer, the soon-to-be Mrs. Harrison Fairfax.

“I guess he must be,” he conceded, “or Trieka wouldn’t be marrying him.”

“And I wouldn’t be here, either.”

Jeff smiled. As a measure of Fairfax’s character, Madison’s loyalty spoke highly. And it would be good of him to remember that.

* * *

The Loud-Talking People had cut down trees and made houses from them. To Noisy Girl, who’d lived her whole life in the shelter of a natural cave, this seemed both bizarre and fascinating.

But even more bizarre and fascinating were the Loud-Talking People themselves. The noise seemed incessant, as they opened their mouths and made peculiar rhythmic sounds. Noisy Girl thought they looked strange as well, until she remembered they looked just like her. They had smooth, almost hairless skin, ranging in color from pinkish, like her own, to a black-brown nearly as dark as the skin of the White Fur People. Over it they wore garments amazingly constructed of woven cloth finer than anything she had ever seen. They were strange and beautiful and very, very noisy. They were her people, and they frightened her.

With her mother, she watched the village from a nearby ridge. They were close enough to see details of the houses and the people, close enough to hear the odd sounds that came from the Loud-Talkers’ mouths, but hidden by the forest growth that dominated the overhanging ridge. It would have been a good site from which to fall upon the little settlement, had they been so inclined. Noisy Girl shook her head as the thought passed through her mind, negating it. It wasn’t the kind of thing that usually occurred to her.

“They sound like tree-climbers,” Noisy Girl signed to her mother, thinking of the furry creatures who hung by theirtails from the tree branches, chattering incessantly to each other.

“They have fine houses,” Walks Crooked replied. She pointed. “Look. Children.”

One of the women below squatted as a small boy ran to her. A horrible noise came from his small mouth, an unarticulated sound of distress. The woman gathered him into her arms and brushed her mouth against his head, crooning against his sun-colored hair.

Something too vague to be a memory stirred in Noisy Girl’s heart. She pressed her fingers against her lips as the boy’s howling faded. Within a few moments, he laughed and ran away.

“They can be kind,” she said.

Her mother smiled. “They can be unkind, as well. But I think they will not be so to you.”

Noisy Girl frowned. “Will you come with me?”

“I will.”

The woman who caught sight of them as they slid down the ridge knew only a few words of the White Fur People’s language, but she tried. She smiled, made a great deal of noise, touched Noisy Girl as if she couldn’t believe Noisy Girl was real.

“No talk well,” she’d said, obviously uncomfortable with the hand gestures. “She talk well. Find her. You wait.”

“She wants us to wait,” Walks Crooked said, then her mouth crooked into a smile. “At least, I think that’s what she said.”

Noisy Girl recognized the nervousness behind Walks Crooked’s smile. She herself swallowed to calm the jumpy nausea caused by her own nerves.

“I don’t want to go,” she said suddenly, a desperate sound straining at the back of her throat. The Loud-Talking woman turned and looked at her, concern on her face. What did that sound mean to these people who used sounds as a matter of course?

“These are your people,” Walks Crooked said.

“You are my people.”

Walks Crooked cupped Noisy Girl’s face in a white-furred hand. “Learn about them. You can always change your mind later, if things don’t go well.”

Noisy Girl nodded, blinking back tears. She couldn’t help the sounds in the back of her throat. Until this moment, she hadn’t been certain the White Fur People would want her back. She’d been loved and cared for among them, but she couldn’t help the doubt—the fear that they’d jumped on the chance to introduce her to her own people so her strangeness would no longer disturb their world. She’d lived with that fear all her life.

“Thank you,” Noisy Girl said.

Several hours later, with the sun now past its zenith, they still waited.

Noisy Girl couldn’t fault the Loud-Talkers’ hospitality, though. They’d provided comfortable places to sit, on wooden constructs unlike anything Noisy Girl had ever seen, in a small room of one of the remarkable wooden houses. The woman brought them warm sweet drinks and hot bread with fruit spread. She sat with them and they all tried very hard to converse. They didn’t get much beyond asking for more drinks and indicating appreciation of the food, but it gave Noisy Girl hope. If she could feel some measure of acceptance already, maybe she could find a place among these people that she’d never quite been able to make among the White Fur People. But everything here was so different. The sounds they made fascinated her. Could she learn to do that?

All her life, she’d been defined by the sounds she could make. In this world, those sounds would becomecommonplace. That realization suddenly clarified the enormity of the changes she faced.

A shift in the voices in the next room told her something had changed. Their companion, the woman who’d met them on the ridge, quickly left the room, following the sounds.

Noisy Girl sat straighter. Next to her, Walks Crooked laid a hand on her knee. She laid her hand on top of her mother’s and clutched at it, grasping at any link to familiarity. Her other hand fingered the string of amber beads she always wore. The texture of the smoothly polished stones had always calmed her. They helped now, but at the same time felt alien and strange. What would these people think of her?

From the other room came two more people, a man and a woman, accompanied by the woman who’d kept them company over the past few hours. The man was tall and slim, the hair on his head a dark brown touched with red. The woman was small, her hair a shocking orange.

The woman smiled, and her hands danced.

“Hello. My name is Fire Hair, and this is my mate, called Long Nose by the People Who Live at the Edge of the Mountain. We were asked to come here to talk to you.”

Noisy Girl glanced at her mother, shocked by the small woman’s identity. The stories of Fire Hair and Long Nose, who’d made possible the present interaction between the Loud-Talking People and the White Fur People, had traveled even to Noisy Girl’s isolated village. Those stories, in fact, were why she had come here.

Walks Crooked lifted her hands. “I am Walks Crooked, from the People by the Shores of the West Sea. This is my daughter, Noisy Girl. She came to our tribe as a very small child. When we heard of you and the peace that had begun between your people and ours, we knew we should come here so Noisy Girl might learn of her true people.”

Fire Hair nodded. “From the West Sea to here is a journey of many miles and much danger. You have come alone?”

“The dangers are not great for those who know these forests. Our village is small, and now is the best time for fish, so no one else could be spared for this journey.” Walks Crooked didn’t mention the other reasons. There’d been great debate about whether the journey was worth the risk. The West Sea tribe was distant and isolated, and fear still reigned when it came to dealing with the strange Loud-Talkers.

“May I speak to your daughter and call her by her name?”

“You may.”

Fire Hair’s attention turned to Noisy Girl, and her apprehension grew again. It was tempered, though, by Fire Hair’s attitude—her respect for Walks Crooked and her obvious knowledge of the customs of the White Fur People.

“Noisy Girl, I greet you with happiness. You are welcome to come with us and visit the tribe of the Loud-TalkingPeople. If you wish to learn more of us, we will gladly teach you.”

“I’ve never been away from my village,” said Noisy Girl, feeling strangely at ease with this new acquaintance. “All of this is so strange.”

Behind Fire Hair, the man—Long Nose—joined the conversation with equally flawless gestures. “Perhaps your mother would wish to come and stay for a time, until you decide if you wish to remain with us or return to your village.”

“Yes,” said Walks Crooked. “I would do that, if it would be accepted.”

“It is accepted,” said Fire Hair. “You both may come and be welcome among us.”

And so it began.

* * *

The rest of the penthouse suite was much like the foyer. Large, obviously expensive, but not off-putting either. Jeff saw Trieka’s influence in the decorating—natural fabrics that might have been made by settlers, tables of knotty wood. Normally he didn’t pay attention to matters of décor, but in this house he seemed to notice every detail. He didn’t like to admit it, but he was almost consciously looking for signs of discord. Some indication that Trieka hadn’t fallen into a love match, but into an accident of circumstance.

He could tell himself it was because he wanted to look out for her, and in a way that was true. He knew next to nothing about Harrison Fairfax, and his and Trieka’s courtship had been bizarre enough to make Jeff skeptical. But, if he were totally honest with himself, he had to admit there was more to it than that. Until he’d received the wedding invitation, he would have sworn his feelings for Trieka had died a long time ago. But they still lurked, just enough to hurt if he let himself think about it.

The room where Madison took him featured a wide window offering a panoramic view of the forest abutting Denahault Prime. Wingback chairs with upholstery of maroon velvet were arranged to take best advantage of the view, which Jeff admired while he drank the excellent coffee Madison supplied. It was the kind of view Trieka would like. Of all the colony ship captains he’d known, she had been the only one to actually revel in the wildness of the colony planets. In spite of the way it had come about, he wasn’t surprised she’d ended up back on Denahault.
Jeff had served as Trieka’s second-in-command when she’d been captain of the Starchild. Before that, they’d attended the academy together and had been close friends.

In the beginning, he’d wanted to be more. He hadn’t thought she’d shared his feelings, though, so he’d redirected them. In the end it had been for the best, since they’d ended up working so closely together. But part of him had always cared more than he should have.

Thus the concern about Fairfax. Jeff knew almost nothing about him—he hadn’t been able to share that piece of Trieka’s life and it bothered him. He’d been carrying his secret torch for years—the least she could have done was ask his opinion before accepting Fairfax’s proposal. But Trieka had always been her own woman, had always walked her own path without concern for what anyone else might think. Jeff, now facing his own fork in the road, often found himself wondering what she’d do in his position.

“Can I get you more coffee?” Madison’s voice interrupted his musings.

Jeff perused his forlornly empty mug. “Please, it’s very good.”

“It’s from Earth,” Madison said. “No one’s been able to get the beans to grow here, so Fairfax buys it and basically gives it away to anybody who wants it. He says no human being should be forced to live without good coffee.”

“Okay, I get it. He’s a nice guy.”

Madison smiled ruefully. “I was rude earlier. I apologize. I owe him a lot.”

“What do you do for him? Besides make coffee?”

“I was the caretaker at his New San Fran estate until he sold it six months ago. He asked me to join him out here. I’m still doing caretaker duties, but I’m also working on language acquisition tools to help the colonists communicate with the natives. They—” He broke off, cocking his head at a rustle of sound from elsewhere in the house. “Sounds like they might be back.”

Jeff followed Madison back through the house, he assumed toward the foyer. He was sure it would be at least a day or two before he could navigate the house alone. He was used to small shipboard quarters and the slightly larger accommodations supplied on space stations and planetside near the usual docks. This penthouse apartment felt like a small city to him.

He’d guessed their destination correctly, though. They stopped in the big wood-paneled foyer. And there waited Trieka.

Not just Trieka, though. Fairfax was with her, along with two others.

Not many people, Jeff realized with an intellectual lurch, had met a non-human sentient entity. In fact, so far, the natives of Denahault were the only intelligent life humankind had encountered beyond Earth. And now Jeff had just become one of the elite few to see one in person.

The creature looked like a white ape, with long silky fur and a black gorillalike face. It smiled, though, as Jeff’s gaze fixed on it. No, not it, he corrected himself. Her. The curves beneath the fur were unmistakable.

“Jeff!” Trieka exclaimed, pulling his attention away from the creature. “I’m so glad you’re here.” She shook his hand, then brushed a kiss across his cheek. “Sorry we weren’t here to meet you, but something came up.”

“It’s okay. I understand.” He glanced briefly at Fairfax, acknowledging the other man’s presence without really looking at him.

“This is really kind of exciting,” Trieka continued. She turned toward the native woman, her hands moving in graceful gestures while she spoke. This was the language of the White Fur People, Jeff understood, a complex and effective sign language, because the natives lacked the capacity for verbal speech.

“This is my friend,” Trieka said aloud. “He’s come to visit from my world. Let’s call him Star Man. Star Man, this is Walks Crooked, of the People By the Shores of the West Sea, and this is her daughter, Noisy Girl.”

Her daughter. Jeff hadn’t seen the other woman at first. She was trying to hide behind Fairfax. But, as Trieka said her name, she moved forward and smiled shyly. Her green elfin eyes regarded Jeff without quite meeting his gaze.

She was taller than Trieka, but not unusually tall for a woman, with the palest blonde hair he’d ever seen that hadn’t come from a bottle. Her clothes appeared to have been pieced together from a number of small white pelts, giving her a fur covering almost the same color as the native woman’s. But, beneath it, she was unmistakably human.
He wondered how old she was. Anywhere from sixteen to twenty-five, he thought, then found himself hoping she was on the higher end of that estimate. Then he wished he knew what to do with his hands. Preferably something she’d understand. Finally, feeling as hesitant as she looked, he waved.

She answered with a puzzled smile and a small sound from the back of her throat. Not a word or anything that even approximated a word, just a rising sound with a question in it.

That sound suddenly brought an understanding of the profound differences between the settlers and the natives. That ability to shape sounds had been enough to brand this woman Noisy Girl. And now, from the other side of that gulf, Noisy Girl had come, presumably to reclaim her origins.

“I hope you don’t mind, Jeff,” Trieka said, “but I need to take a little time to get these two settled in. Maybe Fairfax can show you around the place, if Madison hasn’t already done it.”

“Go ahead. It’s no problem.”

And it wasn’t a problem, not really, but it was strange to watch Trieka bustle off with the native creature and the odd human woman while he was stranded with Fairfax. Fairfax smiled a little—from what Jeff had seen, nothing on Fairfax’s face ever moved more than a little—and gestured toward the rest of the house.

“Madison took care of you, I hope?”

“He made coffee.” He followed Fairfax back to the large sitting room, along a different route than the one Madison had taken.

Fairfax nodded. “Good. He knows how to treat a guest.” They sat down, Fairfax sinking into a velvet-upholstered wingback chair with a vague sigh. “It’s been a long day.”

“So I gather. What’s the story?”

“They showed up in Forest Walk this morning. No one there knew enough handspeak to talk to them, so they sent for us. The girl was found twenty-five years ago by the native woman, Walks Crooked. Her family had been killed along with a small colony of humans. A windstorm, Walks Crooked said. Walks Crooked had no children, and had lost her husband a few years before, so the tribe granted her petition to adopt the baby. When she heard about the recent changes, she decided Noisy Girl needed to learn about her own people.”

Jeff nodded soberly, wondering at the decision. How much pain had accompanied it? Was Noisy Girl even now regretting it? He had a moment to wonder why the situation seemed to affect him so deeply, and why he was relieved to discover she was at least twenty-five, then Fairfax went on.

“I never got a chance to thank you in person for your role in the... situation.”

Situation. An interesting way to refer to the series of incidents that had nearly led to the downfall of EarthFed. In the end, they’d been able to isolate the damage and repair it with a series of reorganizations, but EarthFed would never be the same again. Which was probably for the better.

“I did what Trieka asked me to. I’m just sorry things turned out the way they did for her.”

Fairfax’s mouth quirked into an almost-grin. “I don’t think she is. I know I’m not.”

“Maybe not now. But she was a good captain. I’m sure her decision to leave EarthFed wasn’t an easy one.”

“No, it wasn’t. But now... She’s blossomed here. As good as she was at her job with EarthFed, she’s even better at what she does now.”

“As long as she’s happy.”

Jeff didn’t think any of his doubts had leaked into his tone, but the slight lift to Fairfax’s eyebrow told him otherwise. The man did have facial expressions, after all. You just had to pay attention.

“She wouldn’t be here if she wasn’t happy. I think you know that.”

Touché. Jeff did know that. In fact, he probably knew more about Trieka than anyone.

With the possible exception, he was forced to admit, of Harrison Fairfax.

* * *

In the face of Fire Hair’s kindness and hospitality, Noisy Girl didn’t know whether she felt more or less comfortable with her decision to come to the Loud-Talking village.

The place was full of bizarre things she didn’t understand. They’d ridden to the big village in a strange vehicle that floated above the ground and moved so fast it made her dizzy. The big village was full of even larger buildings than those in the little village—Forest Walk, Fire Hair had called it. And the buildings in the big village weren’t wood, but some strange hard substance like rock.

She and Walks Crooked had tried not to stare, but it had been difficult. It was difficult even now, as Fire Hair showed them to a large beautiful room filled with mysterious things.

“This is a special room,” Fire Hair said. Noisy Girl watched her hands closely. While Fire Hair’s command of the White Fur People’s language was remarkable, she spoke a slightly different dialect. “I have students stay with me from time to time—White Fur People who wish to learn more about the Loud-Talking People. This is the room they use. It’s not like a dwelling of the White Fur people, but the bed is low and nothing here should confuse you very much.”

She took the time to show them a small room reserved for tasks of personal hygiene, then she excused herself.

“I’m sorry to leave you so soon, but my friend Star Man has come a long distance to be with me for my wedding. It’s considered polite to spend time with guests, so—”

“Please,” Walks Crooked broke in, adding a shaking-hand gesture apologizing for the interruption. “We’ve taken enough of your time. We did not know about your celebration, and I am sorry for bringing this disruption.”

“There’s no need to apologize.” Something made Noisy Girl certain Fire Hair told the truth. She wasn’t sure what. If she could work that out, she imagined she’d be further along in her understanding of these too-strange, too-familiar people. “If you need anything,” Fire Hair added, “push this button on the wall. It makes a sound elsewhere in the house, and I’ll know to come.”

“We thank you,” said Walks Crooked. “May the Winds blow warm upon your wedding day.”

“Thank you.” Fire Hair smiled broadly, a sparkle of delight in her eyes.

As their hostess departed, Noisy Girl folded her arms over her chest and looked around the room, afraid to touch anything.

“All who have known her say she is a woman of honor,” said Walks Crooked. She sat on the bed while Noisy Girl watched, taken aback at her mother’s boldness. “It will be well.”

Noisy Girl considered, then made herself cross the room to sit next to her mother. The bed was comfortable, low and wide and spread with both woven blankets and furs. A mixture of the natives and the Loud-Talking People, just as Noisy Girl was.

Perhaps it would all be well, as her mother kept saying. Right now, though, it was just confusing.

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