by neetha Napew
Johnny motioned for Diego to take the LD-404 down from its brackets over the entrance to the cargo bay as he checked that he had clips for his hand weapon and the spare automatic he hauled out from under his seat. Then the pilot and Diego followed the women and the track-cat.
Yana was kneeling beside Sean, wrapping him in the winter clothing and tending his wound. Bunny assisted in the medical chores, searching for the items in the medi-kit Yana demanded. The track-cats stood about six meters from each other, sniffing, tails twitching amiably enough. The child, in a fur jacket much too large for her, was huddled against the clouded cat, wide eyes in a frightened white face.
Diego caught Johnny’s arm, staring a question at him as he pointed his free hand at the child. Johnny grinned and nodded, and then turned to watch the progress of the mob slipping and sliding down the hill toward them.
See ‘Cita, Senior Luzon is as bad a man in his own way as Shepherd Howling,” Johnny said in a gentle voice, bending down to the child. “Loncie was real upset to see you got talked into going with him. So we came to take you away back to your own people.”
“This unworthy one has no people,” ‘Cita said, getting an even firmer grip on Coaxtl’s fur.
‘That’s where you’re wrong, kiddo,” Johnny said. “Bunny, come here. Now, pronto!”
Both Yana and Bunny looked around, their faces showing disgruntlement at being interrupted. Both stared, and Bunny’s mouth dropped wide open.
“You must be—you can’t be anything else . . .” Bunny’s hand wandered to her cheek, her nose, her lips.
“Your mother made it through, niece of mine,” Sean said, nodding solemnly, looking from Bunny’s face to the thin gaunt one of a child who was so obviously a blood relative.
“But I am Goa—“
“Don’t you dare use that name for yourself, Pobrecita,” Johnny said, angrily shaking his finger at her. “Buneka Rourke, this is your sister, though I think we can find a better proper name for her than ‘Cita, or Nina, don’t you think?”
“A sister!” And Bunny was folding the startled child into her arms. “A sister of my very own! Everyone I know has at least a sister or a brother, and all I’ve ever had were cousins . . .”
“And uncles and aunts,” Sean prompted through gritted teeth as Yana yanked the bandage to make sure it was firm about the jagged arrow wound.
“Hey, we got trouble,” Diego said, staring up the hill. “If that isn’t Matthew Luzon, my name’s not Diego Metaxos, and I do know my own name!”
“And the good and reverent Shepherd Howling, too, I’ll wager,” Johnny added, noticing the man in flowing robes beside the Intergal vice-chairman
“Oh, he’s come for me. He’ll make me marry him . . .”
“Marry him!” burst from five throats.
“Not while we live!” Johnny said in a voice that sounded much like the snarls issuing from both track-cats. “Bunny, get your sister into the copter and stay there!”
“She’s my sister and I’ve the right—“
“Go,” Sean said and pointed to the copter. “Lock the doors.”
“There’s a box of flares, Bunny. Get ‘em out, and if you see me circle my hand, aim ‘em at that crowd.”
“Gotcha!” And, lifting her sister into her arms, Bunny sprinted back to the safety of the copter. Push come to shove, she’d fly it out of there herself—she’d watched Johnny often enough to understand the principles of the yoke and the gearing. No one was going to get her little sister, not when she’d just found her.
Johnny handed Yana the automatic and the clips, slapping Sean’s hand away when he tried to get the weapon.
“You handle the cats, Sean. That is, if the clouded one will take orders like Nanook will,” Johnny suggested.
Both cats growled low in their bellies, making their necks vibrate as they took positions on either side of Sean Shongili.
The crowd’s noise had died to a murmur. Matthew and Shepherd Howling led the pack by several strides.
“Well, Dr. Luzon, you’ve led me quite a hunt,” Johnny called when the men were near enough to hear him.
“While you, Captain Greene, did not reappear as you promised.”
“Oh, I reappeared. Dr. Luzon, just as I said I would, but you’d taken off in old Scobie’s beat-up snocle. My compliments on your driving to get that snow bucket this far.”
Shepherd Howling raised one arm, his robe falling back over his bony wrist, pointing to the copter. “The child Goat-dung is one of my flock and is about to become one with me, to the salvation of her humanity. You must return her to my protection. I don’t care what error you infidels fall into or what the Great Monster does to you, but she must be returned to me, and the monster who abducted her, as well.”
“Well, now, sir, I can’t rightly do that,” Johnny said.
“Watch who you’re calling a monster, you abomination,” Sean snarled. “This child is my niece, and she is and will remain with her closest relative. I, her uncle, and male guardian, did not condone and will not condone a marriage for the child to anyone.”
Shepherd Howling looked from Sean’s face to the wound on Sean’s leg, and back to his face again, his eyes widening with horror. “You! You were the monster! The seal man! Then the girl—she, too, is a monster.”
“Monster?” Yana challenged, inserting herself between the injured Sean and the self-proclaimed Shepherd. “I only see one monster here, and it isn’t Dr. Shongili. Do you always throw lethal weapons at visitors, Mr. Howling?”
“He was no visitor when we first saw him,” Shepherd Howling blathered. “He looked like a seal at first and then started—growing. And he came from the underworld via the portal from which all of the damnable abominations of this planet emanate!”
“Nonsense,” Yana snapped. “He was exploring an under-ground passage where his pregnant sister and brother-in-law disappeared many years ago. You’re making up this incredible story to prevent further inquiry into your own abominable activities.”
“I very much doubt that,” Matthew Luzon said, smiling unctuously. “When I arrived, all of the Shepherd’s flock were exclaiming about the monster they had found and were preparing to burn it over an open fire. I didn’t see the beast myself, but I was naturally trying to prevail upon the Shepherd to allow me to study it rather than destroy it, to take it back to the laboratory and run some tests. Since Dr. Shongili’s wound corresponds with that of the beast, I’d say he has some explaining to do.”
“I’d say you had more, Dr. Luzon,” Yana said in a voice so cold it made Johnny shiver, “for I’m reasonably certain you would know the paragraphs in Collective Interplanetary Societies’ regulations—which apply to Intergal as well as the rest of inhabited space—about forced or child marriages.”
“But, Major Maddock, all during her return trip to her home here in the Vale of Tears, Goat-dung—“
“Phah!” Sean exploded.
“The child,” Matthew went on, “told me how happy she was to be coming home to such an auspicious marriage.”
“How many wives have you at the moment, Shepherd Howling?” Yana demanded.
“’Cita mentioned five,” Sean said icily. “Also against the customs of this planet which do not, to the best of my knowledge, sanction polygamy.”
“Now now, Dr. Shongili. We mustn’t be ethnocentric,” Matthew said with his smile still in place. “We must allow religious communities their own mores and folk ways and rites, however strange they may seem to us.”
“Not with my niece,” Sean said.
“And how can you prove that you are her uncle?” Matthew demanded.
“Hell, man, that’s so obvious, it’s the stupidest question you’ve asked so far,” Diego Metaxos said, sputtering in his rage and turning the LD-404 in the Shepherd’s—and Matthew Luzon’s—direction.
“Young man,” Matthew began, “you are in grave danger of—“
“Let’s save the talk for a more appropriate time,” Yana said, noticing S
ean beginning to sway with fatigue and pain. “Captain Greene came to collect you, Dr. Luzon, so we’ll do just that and leave these people to sort their sordid little folk ways by themselves in what ever way they care to, so long as it doesn’t involve Dr. Shongili or his niece or any of the rest of us, for that matter.”
Matthew Luzon turned his back on her to appeal to the Shepherd, who was swelling with righteous indignation and anger. “Shepherd, you can see what the investigation is up against. These people all justify each other’s views, and no dissenting voice is allowed to be heard. If only you would appoint an apostle to lead your people while you come with me and speak to the commission on your views of the effects this planet has on people, justice would be far better served.”
The Shepherd’s eyes widened with interest, and he nodded as Matthew spoke.
Johnny Greene cut them off short. “If you think I’m bringing that one back in the same plane with that little girl, Dr. Luzon, I’d think again very carefully,” Johnny said. “Not to mention the fact that we’d be grossly overloaded for the fuel I have on board.”
“You can refuel at Bogota, man.” Matthew snapped back, “and you know it as well as I do.”
“I have a wounded man, Dr. Luzon, which requires me to take the straightest route back north.” Johnny jerked his head at Yana and Diego to help Sean back to the copter. “So this captain limits his passengers to those in jeopardy and those he originally ferried over. You, of course, are one, sir, but I can’t authorize another passenger. So if you don’t care to join this flight, Dr. Luzon, I’ll be happy to request that other transport collect you, and your guest, ASAP!”
“Why, you . . .” Luzon’s eyes sparked with suppressed anger.
“Captain Greene, sir, yes, sir, attached to the exclusive service of Dr. Whittaker Fiske, sir.” Johnny held the eye contact.
Suddenly, suspiciously, Luzon capitulated, saying in a deceptively pleasant tone of voice, “Then, as soon as you are airborne, you will contact SpaceBase and request the immediate departure of a copter to collect myself, my assistant, and my guest. Is that plain? Any delay in the dispatch of that request will be a matter of record and dealt with appropriately. Do I make myself clear to you, Captain Greene, in the service—for the time being, that is—of Dr. Fiske?”
“Plain as day, sir. Thank you. sir. Good day, sir. And to you, sir,” Johnny said, snapping salutes at both Luzon and the astonished Shepherd Howling.
Then with a smart about face, he leapt over a hillock and proceeded as fast as the terrain permitted back to the copter.
He took off, aware of the moans of Coaxtl, who had never endured such an experience, and the purring reassurances of Nanook, who found himself suddenly braver about flying.
No sooner was Johnny in the air than he switched channels on the comm unit, grinning as he did so. “Hey, there MoonBase, this is Bravo-Jig-Fox-trot four-two-nine-one, Captain Johnny Greene, calling in for the immediate—I repeat—the immediate dispatch of a copter to these coordinates—“ He read them out. “—to collect Intergal Vice-Chairman Matthew Luzon, assistant, and guest passenger. This is top priority Please log in request immediately as of 1940.34 30 “
“You got yourself in Luzon’s bad books, honey? asked a female voice.
“Me, MoonBase? Not me,” Johnny replied in his most ingenuous tone. “Is that Neva Marie’s voice in my ears?”
“The very one.”
Well, listen up, Neva Marie, because Luzon is in urgent need of transport, and I cannot seem to make contact with either SpaceBase or any airborne copters planetside. So cut loose one of those light shuttles and let one of your bushpilots have some fun. Landing’s dicey, so tell him to be careful where he sets down. Oh, and off the record, bring a real strong deodorizer!”
“Beg pardon?
Johnny repeated his last remark and grinned at Yana over his shoulder. “You got this request logged in proper and on the dot?”
“Like you said—and the off the record is off the record.”
“Neva Marie, I owe you.”
A low chuckle preceded the sign-off as the dispatch officer purred, “I’ll give a good deal of thought to that, Johnny. Over and out. Shuttle pilot scrambling as of right now. 1943.30.02.”
“Won’t he get back to SpaceBase faster than we will?” Bunny asked anxiously from the snocub, where she had strapped herself and her sister in. That way, Sean had room to stretch out his injured leg while Yana cushioned his upper body against hers. Diego sat up front with Johnny.
“Possibly,” Johnny replied carelessly. “The important aspect is that the request was logged in as we were taking off. And I know for a fact that all the SpaceBase copters are being used by Luzon’s men for ‘field research.’” He chuckled to himself and then raised his voice. “Bunny, how’s your sister traveling back there?”
“Fine, Johnny, just fine! I’m thinking what name we should give her.”
“Why not give her your mother’s, Bunka?” Sean asked in a low tone that hid much of the fatigue he was feeling from all save Yana. She could feel his body spasaming and shivering from his recent ordeal and clasped him more tightly to her. “Your dad had his way with yours.”
“Aoifa Rourke!” Bunny savored the name, which she pronounced properly as “Eeefa.” “Your name, your real name, your heart’s name, is Aoifa, ‘Cita. But, if you feel safer, we will only call you ‘Cita.”
There was a sleepy mumble, and very shortly there was silence from all Johnny’s passengers, though Diego’s lips moved frequently, soundlessly.
Chapter 13
Johnny landed his passengers at Kilcoole; then, once he and Diego had carried Sean into Clodagh’s house, he flew on to report to Whittaker Fiske at SpaceBase.
“That’s very interesting, son,” his boss said when Johnny had completed the debriefing. “Found the lost Rourke child and brought Shongili back, too. You didn’t happen to spot Torkel anywhere down there, did you?”
“No, sir, I didn’t.” Johnny kept private his notion that the presence of Captain Torkel Fiske would have been one burden too many. “Is he with one of the other investigative teams?”
Whit shook his head and then dismissed that problem with a wave of his hand.
They both looked up at the unmistakable rumble of a shuttle coming in to land.
“Cut it fine, didn’t you, son?” Whit grinned as he rose. “I’d best go out and see what I can do to pacify Matthew.”
“Sir, I had wounded . . .”
Whittaker Fiske nodded vigorously, raising his hand to reassure his copter pilot. “You did exactly as you should. And so did Major Maddock. The very idea of polygamy, especially for a religious purpose, with a prepubescent child is revolting in this day and age. And specifically against the Collective Interplanetary Societies’ Bill of Individual Rights. Better get that copter serviced, son. I want it kept ready to scramble.”
Johnny raised his eyebrows, hoping for a little off-the-record advice, but Whittaker’s expression suggested that he tend to his current orders.
Contrary to Whittaker’s expectations, he received neither call nor visit from Matthew Luzon, nor was there a complaint officially logged in against Captain John Greene. Nor, during that day, was there any message from his son or a whisper concerning his where abouts. Only the matter of a concussed guard found at one of the side access gates to SpaceBase.
Torkel Fiske was angry enough, but Satok was livid with rage, kicking at the crates, splintering half a dozen, and paying no attention to the rocks that bounced down on his boots, as if he welcomed the pain. Torkel also listened to the invective Satok cast on the head of that slatternly Luka and what he intended to do to her when he found her again. From the brief glimpses he’d had of the girl, Torkel could not quite believe that she had had the intelligence, much less the strength, to remove all the genuine ore samples, which Torkel had himself handled and seen, in the time they’d been absent from the shuttle.
Without proof of the find, however, the commission woul
d pay scant attention to Satok and might reach their decision before the man could gather more samples. There were other ways to assert company control of this planet, of course—the company—built and maintained roads, power plants, hospitals, and schools Torkel suggested to Marmion. All in the name of taking care of the colonists, of course. If they were better treated, more civilized, they’d be more cooperative. Especially when the planet was over run with corps troops—not originally from Petaybee: he’d make sure of that this time—doing the building and maintaining. Especially if company doctors also made sure that the physiological aberrations peculiar to Petaybeans were studied and eliminated, and if birth control was strictly monitored so that the Petaybeans at no time grew too numerous to control. Company teachers would slant their curriculum to insure the loyalty of their students, and company communications systems would insure that inhabitants, both original and new to the planet, accepted the company agenda and kept the company side of any dispute foremost in their minds at all times. And if they didn’t, troops could travel by company roads to make sure people remembered their manners.
And the planet? The living planet? Within himself, Torkel didn’t sneer at the idea. Petaybee was sentient. He knew it. He had felt it, seen it, heard it himself. But that didn’t mean he liked it. That Satok had stolen ores from the body of the beast itself impressed Torkel no end—but only if the man could show the lodes. All they had in the shuttle were common rocks and dust. The ore was no better than the fairy gold of Grandmother Fiske’s bedtime stories.
He would have preferred to play with his coin collection or dissect a roundworm before bedtime, but Grandmother Fiske, who, he supposed, was responsible for the weird streak in his father, was a great believer in the twentieth century philosopher Joseph Campbell. She thought that children needed myths and fairy tales to inform their lives. She had never understood him, Grandma Fiske. Torkel was an explorer, a womanizer and a developer precisely because he loathed mysteries. He liked everything well explained.
