by neetha Napew
‘Coaxtl says the Youngling and the others are in shelter. Nanook can lead us there after the storm.’
Nanook did. They landed the shuttle in a snowbank which quickly turned into awakening polar bears, who unhumped themselves, rose and lumbered off, without a backward glance. Yana and Sean disembarked and started for the entrance of the cave formerly drifted over by bears, but Nanook barred their way, growled, and preceded them.
Yana had thought to bring a laser lantern. It burned brightly enough to show the most eclectic gathering of Petaybean wildlife she had ever seen curled, draped, stacked, lying, sitting, standing, washing, yawning and sleeping just inside the cave entrance.
Nanook growled warningly, but before they took a further step, Coaxtl sauntered towards them, yawning. The other beasts paid the humans no further mind.
Cita was right behind her friend, and ran to Sean to embrace him. ‘Did you bring anything to eat?’
Loncie Ondelacy, Pablo Ghompas and their com munity followed. ‘Yana, Sean, glad you came. But there are casualties and we all need to eat.’
Wading deeper into the cavern, Yana looked at the twisted, mumbling people lying on the floor all around. ‘I’m glad we came too. But now what do we do?’
‘Whatcha drivin’?’ Johnny Greene asked. Yana told him. ‘Not big enough,’ he said. ‘We need serious transportation. Can you get help from Intergal?’
Sean shook his head. ‘They won’t lift a finger to help us because of our “disloyalty”. Instead they’re dumping every problem they can find like garbage onto the face of this world and leaving us to drown in it.’
‘Well, I can see why they wouldn’t want this lot back,’ Johnny said with a jerk of his thumb at what was left alive of those on the floor. ‘But it’s only human to try to do something for them. Is there no way at all?’
‘Nothing we can do from here,’ Yana said. ‘We came because Coaxtl called and we thought you and Cita were in danger.’
Johnny shook his head. ‘No more. Them though Loncie Ondelacy said, ‘Well, I for one don’t blame Intergal a bit. If we don’t want them to rule us, we can’t expect them to jump every time we holler. And whether they caused this problem or not, we can expect more of the same. We have got to figure out a way to solve our own problems if we want to be autonomous. Yana and Sean, why don’t you give Johnny a lift back to his bird along with some of the council members to help dig it out and make a run back to Bogota for food, blankets, and medical supplies. Also to organize a dogsled evacuation here, although it’d be better if they could be flown out, given the shape they’re in. You could take Cita too.’
But Cita shook her head. Her voice was small but her eyes were shining with excitement. Children did tend to love a crisis, Yana reflected - especially somebody else’s. ‘Though I may be much in the way and a bother, Coaxtl is needed to keep Nanook informed and the other beasts from deciding that these ones,’ she indicated the ravaged bodies around them, ‘are easy prey. Since Coaxtl honours me by speaking to me, I should remain to pass messages between her and my elders and betters.’
Sean nodded. ‘You can come back with Johnny when he returns north then. I’m sure you’ll be a big help to Loncie and Coaxtl.’
They ferried Johnny and five of the councilmen back to the copter. The soft new snow had drifted deeply around it and it took them some time to dig it out again. Once its runners were free and Johnny and the others were airborne, Sean and Yana returned to the cave and carried out six of the most severely damaged among the illegal harvesters, Zing Chi and the father of Yo Chang among them, and returned to Tanana Bay.
The dog teams were being hitched as they landed. The dogs set up a fierce howl when the shuttle set down, and the whole village came running to investigate.
Back at the O’Neills’, Yana and Sean saw for themselves the state of Dinah and the other pirates, who had to be taken from the communion cave and cleaned before being bundled into the shuttle.
On seeing Dinah, Sean said, ‘Maybe we’ll have to rethink letting the planet dispense its own justice. It’s fair enough, but we can’t handle the casualties. Bad enough that people have to remain badly maimed or die because we don’t have the technology to get them to help but when we have it, just not enough of it, it fairly breaks your heart.’
‘It does,’ Muktuk agreed, ‘even when it’s such as them.’
‘I’m most concerned about Dinah,’ Yana said.
‘Perhaps you’ll be less so when we tell you what we found on her,’ Marmion said acerbically. ‘Do you want to do the honours, Namid?’
He fished in his pocket and suddenly disappeared, to be replaced by the ugly Aurelian visage of Onidi Louchard. ‘I am the pirate Louchard,’ said a voice that sounded exactly like the pirate Louchard’s. ‘Who are you and why do you seek me?’
Yana, Bunny and Diego all jumped away from the piratical image.
Muktuk began to laugh. ‘You mean that little bitty gal pretended to be that thing to control all those big ferocious pirates? Ah, Sean, your governorship, sor, you’ve got to save her, you do. She’s purest O’Neill stock through and through, that one.’
‘You wouldn’t be so crazy about her if you’d been on the pirate ship with her,’ Bunny told him angrily.
‘We’ll do our best to save her, Muktuk,’ Sean said. ‘If you’ll take one of our current passengers, that will make room for her…’
‘We could come by dogsled, too,’ Diego said. ‘It’ll be good to feel like part of Petaybee again, won’t it, Bun?’
‘Sure will,’ Bunny said.’
‘Sides, I got somethin’ important to talk to you about.’
Diego looked extremely uneasy at that and was sorry he’d offered.
Marmion and Namid rode in the shuttle as well. Once they were under way, and had sent a radio message to Adak to transmit to Clodagh that they had the beginnings of a serious casualty situation on the way to Kilcoole, Yana was unusually quiet and, Sean thought, rather sad.
‘What’s the matter, alannah?”
She gave him a painful smile. ‘Since seeing the holo, I have a plan. I wish I didn’t almost, but I do.’
‘To do what?’
‘Nail the pirates, Luzon and Torkel Fiske and get them all out of Petaybee’s hair for good.’
‘That sounds worthwhile. What’s the catch?’
‘It would involve taking the holo, returning with this shuttle to the pirate ship and posing as Louchard. Since I’m the only possible shuttle pilot who qualifies, it means I’ll have to leave Petaybee again, and the very thought ties me in knots. Still…’
‘Why do you have to do that?’
‘To take the ship back to Gal-Three where it and the crew can be taken into appropriate authority. Meanwhile, posing as Louchard, I’ll confront Fiske and Luzon and make damned sure there’s an incriminating record of what transpired between them.’
‘I can’t let you take that risk, Yana. Especially not in your condition,’ Sean said, sounding sterner than he meant to at the idea of her not only leaving the planet again but putting herself in such danger.
‘I don’t see much choice, not if the pirates are to be put out of commission and Luzon and Fiske stopped from interfering with us once and for all.’
‘It’s a good plan,’ Marmion interjected. ‘Excellent, in fact. It needs to be done. Only, may I make one small suggestion?’
Sister Igneous Rock was with the orange cats and the debilitated hunters, de Peugh and Minkus, when Adak burst into Clodagh’s cabin, which she had turned into a temporary clinic as well as pharmacy.
‘Sean and Yana are bringin’ in a bunch of folks that got Petaybeed up at Tanana Bay and over by Bogota,’ he said. ‘They’re in a pretty bad way, according to Yana. She says some of them might not live, though she reckons they’re none of ‘em any worse than Frank Metaxos was when he first got here.’
‘Oh dear. Clodagh is off with Mr Ball, I’m afraid. She took him to the springs for therapy,’ she said. But before the words
were out of her mouth, two of the orange members of the nursing staff tore out of the door that Adak had left slightly ajar.
The shuttle landed just as Clodagh showed up with Ball in his wheelchair strapped into the basket of Liam Mahoney’s dogsled. Dr von Clough ski’d along beside them. He looked very tired. Brothers Shale and Schist, looking somewhat bemused, followed a disgusted-looking orange cat who seemed outraged at their lack of efficiency. Sister Agate adjusted her robes to their usual decorous length. While Ball received his therapy in the waters of the hotsprings, she had been inside the grotto engaged in deep consultation with Aidan Yulipilik about the therapeutic uses of Petaybee’s mildly intoxicating drink, blurry. The blurry was not all that was intoxicating. Sister Agate was quite flushed from the attentions of the dashing Aidan, who made drums, snowshoes, dog harness, and skis for the entire village and many other parts of Petaybee. He also had twinkling slanted blue eyes and a physique that might be envied by many twenty year olds.
That could not be said of the poor people whom Sean and Namid began carrying or helping out of the shuttle. Most looked geriatric, astonished, and bitterly unhappy.
‘There’s not room enough at your place, Clodagh!’ Sean said. ‘Oh, this is Namid Mendelsky, a friend of Marmion’s. We’ll use the meeting hall for now - we’ll need to use the school Cube as well. There are still more patients to be evacuated from Bogota. We only brought the worst ones this time.’
One of the poor souls was a woman, small and perhaps pretty once, with totally white hair and sunken cheeks. She was a pitiable object and moaned and cried out often. Four of the men died before they could be treated. Clodagh said if they could have arrived sooner they might have been saved but that it was the planet’s will.
Sister Igneous Rock had the quite heretical thought that perhaps the planet might have willed something else if it had been aware of other options - like more fast transportation, easier access to intravenous fluids, just a few basic medical necessities. Clodagh’s medicines could work wonders of recuperation, once the patients got past the critical stage, but fast transit, a source of not-quite-so-spiritual power, and convenient plumbing could do a lot towards remedying many sorts of emergency situations.
And there was all that geothermal energy the planet had to spare. It seemed a shame and a bit of a waste, really. But who was she to say?
She felt less modest about it within the next forty-eight hours, as the shuttle flew back and forth to the South until it was finally grounded for lack of fuel. It had fetched patients from the South and taken fuel to Johnny Greene so he could also assist in the air-lift. Even though everyone in Kilcoole helped, all of the water carrying, wood chopping, water boiling, heating of irons, lighting of lamps and candles, carrying and disposal of wastes, changing and washing linen especially since most of it was not linen or anything resembling it but wool or fur or someone’s down sleeping bag, and not that easily washed - left her totally exhausted.
Indeed, under such hard conditions, it took her, Agate, Schist, Shale, Clodagh, and Dr von Clough, who never ceased complaining about the conditions, every waking hour for three days to save two-thirds of the patients. The man who had been the foreman of the work crew in the South died, as did the father of a lost-looking young boy who cried into the coat of a young wildcat while little Cita patted him on the back.
The woman from Tanana Bay lived, and the big black man, though just barely, but the other two died. Clodagh said it would be a long haul for her and the other survivors.
The Chief Engineer on board the Jenny had been uneasy for days. He could run the administrative bits of the ship, but when all the senior officers just took off like that without so much as a by-your-leave, well, what was a bloke to think? Miss Dinah usually passed on the Captain’s orders, or Megenda, or failing that Second Mate Dott but they were all gone now, weren’t they? He’d assumed, naturally, that the Captain had stayed on board and sent Miss Dinah off with Dott and Framer. But, when he himself had checked the Captain’s quarters and discovered them empty, and Louchard nowhere on board, the lads had broken into the Haimacan rum and got legless. No-one had attempted to clean up the resultant mess, despite his warning that there would be hell to pay when the Captain returned.
And now the reckoning was due. There was the Captain on the comscreen.
‘Good to see you, sir. We thought you was on board wif us, sir, till we noticed you wasn’t, like.’
‘Very observant,’ came the Captain’s gurgly alienish voice from out of his octopus-like head with that funny eye channel runnin’ all around it. The reason he had Miss Dinah to front for him, everyone reckoned, was that too much lookin’ at the Captain woulda been bad for morale. ‘But obviously, I am not there as I am here on board the shuttle. Our mission is accomplished, but there is still the matter of payment for the Algemeine woman.’
‘Framer said as how them high-class people wouldn’t pay no ransom.’
‘Framer talked too much. Framer has paid the consequences of indiscretion. Even dignitaries have families who do not wish to see them… detained, or to suffer any… inconvenience. Besides which, outside parties had an interest in this detention. Patch through the following transmissions to these codes and rendezvous with me at the following coordinates.’
‘Aye-aye, sir. And may I say, sir, that it will be good to have you aboard again, sir.’
Torkel Fiske was entertaining in his suite aboard his father’s star-yacht when the call came in on the private channel that was supposed to be available only to him and his father. It only took one glance at his caller to tell him that the transmission was definitely not from his father. He closed the door quickly so that his guest would not inadvertently catch sight of his caller. The creature on his screen was hideous. Not that Torkel hadn’t seen Aurelians before. He had, and he hadn’t liked them then either. On those occasions, they had been in appropriate places, not invading his privacy. ‘Yes?’ he asked. ‘This is a private channel. How did you gain access? You are in violation of the Inter-galactic Communications and Trade Act…’
‘Fiske, you two-timing maggoty imbecile. You set me up.’
‘I don’t believe I’ve had the honour,’ Torkel said in his stiffest military manner.
‘This is Louchard speaking, Onidi Louchard. Ring a bell?’
No wonder the pirate sent Dinah O’Neill to negotiate for him! She was a damned sight easier to look at and more discreet as well. She’d know better than to try to contact clients in their own homes. This was a definite breach of professional etiquette and he didn’t intend to stand for it.
‘Not here, it damn sure doesn’t. I’m ending this trans’
‘I. Would. Not.’ The Aurelian said, and Torkel remembered that the pirate was reputed to have an efficient complement of skilled assassins who ‘eliminated’ those dissatisfied with Louchardian arrangements. ‘Now listen to me, Fiske. You completely neglected to mention the Gentlepersons’ Agreement regarding abductions when you suggested I kidnap the Algemeine woman. You knew that ransoms are never paid by people of that ilk…’
‘Your emissary’, and Torkel managed a sneer,’ should have been aware of it, since the Agreement’s a long-standing one. So that’s your error, not mine! I’m ending now.’
‘No, you’re not. You would scarcely care to entertain a visit from my termination specialists, now would you? And you will, unless you see to it that we’re compensated for our trouble in her case.’
‘Compensation is your business, not mine. Why should I pay for her return?’
The pirate did something most unusual with his head, eyes and tentacles that made Torkel’s stomach heave and the noise it made was even more ghastly. Aurelian laughter? Then Louchard said, ‘There’s also the matter of Colonel Maddock-Shongili. She says…’
‘I don’t care what she says. I was led to believe you were competent at what you do. Obviously I was misinformed. If you can’t get your ransoms, then kill both of them for all I care. If you were as professional as you
were said to be, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Out.’
And he clicked the corn-control with great satisfaction, feeling that he’d definitely had the best of that exchange. The best of that bitch, Yanaba Maddock! And nothing to link him with her demise.
Matthew Luzon received the call from the Aurelian as he was engaged in assisting with the enlightenment of the people of Potala, who had, before Company renovations, been so wasteful as to have nearly seventy per cent of their populace serving as celibate clerics. Potala had set up a theocracy until the Company put a stop to it, reminding the little planet that, while it might believe that killing animals was wrong and certain places were sacred, the planet was, in fact, entirely and in all respects the property of Intergal. Fortunately, so far, Potala had showed no outward inclination to join in personally on the side of its inhabitants, despite the claims of certain tenets of their religion.
Matthew was busily reinterpreting those tenets when his comunit signalled for his attention on the Company’s priority channel. A hideous Aurelian face and waving tentacles filled the screen.
‘Luzon, you’ve been cutting in on enterprises that were guaranteed to us as part of our deal with you and Fiske.’
‘And who might you be, brother?’ Luzon asked.
‘I am Louchard, Captain of the Pirate Jenny. I have taken receipt of certain live cargo whose possession was supposed to guarantee me the right to exploit the assets of the world known as Petaybee, formerly an Intergal installation.’
‘Ah, and how is the good Colonel Maddock?’
Louchard paused to indulge in a deep and nasty chuckle. ‘As you wished, her days are numbered. As to those associates of yours from the Asian Esoteric and Exotic Company, were you aware that they have denuded vast areas of resources that should be used for her ransom? Really, Doctor Luzon, that was not well done. Tsck, tsck. I am not at all pleased to learn that you enticed other companies and individuals to move in where I believed I had been guaranteed a monopoly on such resources, poor and insufficient as they appear to be.’ Louchard chidingly waggled lateral tentacles. ‘Not the way to play the game with Captain Louchard, I assure you.’
