Jamie had explained his actions when the bat ships had arrived. Everyone knew he felt responsible for everything, just as Patters felt responsible for not taking on the Bats at the Landing Zone.
"We’ve, I’ve, stuffed up. It’s down to me. And I’ll get her back."
"We’ll all get her back," said Snark softly.
The others agreed. Jamie sniffed.
"We need a plan," said Snark. "I do like a good plan."
They leaned in closer.
Sixty Seven
Bhatet was furious. His temper was legendary, and beings knew not to be near him when he 'went off'. The unfortunate ones in the great hall were cowering on the floor, as Bhatet raged.
"Fools! Idiots! I send them to get the Seasprite, and all they come back with is a single human!"
Bhatet had been at his command console when the report had come in. He’d immediately raged into the great hall, sent some flunkeys flying, and started throttling his major domo. The poor being was almost suffocated, when Bhatet flung him down in disgust. The major domo crawled away clutching at his throat, and gasping for air. Bhatet kicked him for good measure.
"Nothing, just a female human, worse than useless. What about the ship, the prize, the human technology?"
He strode down the stairs to the raised dais, and lashed out around him. Beings scuttled for cover or cowered on the floor before him. Tentacles lashed and struck out, sending unaware beings flying, dropping whatever they were carrying. Dishes crashed, birds flew out of cages, and strange dog-pets barked wildly and tried to catch the birds.
"Cowards!" Bhatet bellowed. "Sons of Snitches!"
He lashed out at a group of dancing girls, and they screamed and flinched away.
"Imbeciles!"
He kicked out at a boy-slave, grabbed two beings, and banged their heads together with a crack.
Petitioners scattered. Bhatet caught one before he could get away, and flung him half-way across the hall. He crashed into some benches, which broke under his fall. He lay still.
"Wibblywobblys!"
A barrel of wine smashed into a stall selling ties, and broke open, a red stain welling out onto the floor like blood.
"Mollycoddlers!"
Several traders turned heel and fled, but not before one tripped, and was trampled under Bhatet’s feet.
"Pussbuckets!"
A woman with a baby cowered before him.
He stopped, picked up the baby from her shaking arms, chucked him under the chin, made goo-goo noises, and gave him back gently.
"Collygobblers!"
The next being thought perhaps he was winding down, and becoming benign, but found himself kicked in the butt, and falling flat on his face.
The major domo had recovered somewhat, although still bright red in the face. He knew this could go on for some time. He was loathe to intervene, but something had to be done, and someone had to do it. He hastily wrote a note, summoned a boy-slave, and whispered something to him. The boy-slave went white. The major domo kicked him in the behind, and he staggered forward. He ran up to Bhatet, and held out the note. Everyone held their breath. The boy-slave cowered back, ready for a blow.
None came. Bhatet read the note calmly. His tentacles which had been flailing madly fell into place around his shoulders and body. He took a deep breath, and breathed it out very slowly.
He turned around, and returned to the Dias, and his throne.
No-one moved.
Bhatet nodded to his major domo, who bowed, and walked backwards out of his presence.
Beings started to relax.
"It's come to my attention we have a banquet starting. Just as well, I’m famished."
Beings sighed with relief, and started to put things right. Tables and chairs were brought in, and dishes followed, firstly taken to Bhatet for a helping, and then to the tables. Beings sat and started eating, although it was difficult, as most had lost their appetites.
Bhatet tucked into his favourite meals, belched, and continued eating, gobbling his food, and making a mess around the throne. Flunkeys held the platters for him. They held different goblets of wine, beer, and other tipples, and Bhatet indicated which one he wanted. But not to eat would attract attention they also didn’t want, so they ate anyway.
The major domo muttered to himself. Another disaster averted. But this job was taking its toll. No amount of money and power was worth it. However, one could never quit. He smiled at Bhatet, and surveyed the hall. They'd all bought into the allure of money and power, and found themselves trapped in one way or another. This 'court', as Bhatet was an all-powerful authoritarian ruler, was full of swindlers, shysters, and thieves. And they all had to dance on Bhatet’s every whim.
Bhatet had not forgotten what had made him angry in the first place. Keep them guessing was his motto. Keep them on their toes, by making sure they never knew what mood he was in, what he was thinking, or what he would do next. Divide and conquer was also his motto. There were a few more. The more the merrier. He toasted the scene with a goblet, and drank it dry.
The bat squads and ships he'd sent on the intelligence the Brotherhood had received, had been a mistake. Those Bats could follow orders, but as long as the orders were spelled out in triplicate, in very small words. They had no imagination, and could not make decisions on their own in the field. But the Brotherhood had also slipped up there. There was information, but incorrect, and insufficient. Otherwise he would have sent a fleet with his crack troops. Mercenaries, but he preferred them. They were experienced and professional, knew how to get a job done, were highly paid for it, and could think for themselves.
If he’d known? Bah! He must know, and he must know exactly what he was dealing with. It was getting more urgent, the need to have the technological secrets of the humans. If he’d been able to take the Seasprite, he’d have access to that knowledge now. His manufacturing plants were waiting for instructions and specifications.
Perhaps he should remind the Brotherhood who the boss was here. He should be very specific with them. Find the Seasprite. Interrogate the human female, and get as much information as possible. Find Patchet.
The gluttony continued.
Sixty Eight
Mac was chairing an inner council of the clan chiefs, guild leaders, and the elected body, at his manor house.
He'd had a successful meeting with Queen Jane, and several of the Dukes who were there at the same time. The Human Federation ambassador had been slow to respond, but had been positive about the chances of trade with the Scots within the Federation. There has also been overtures from some Scots currently with Queen Liz on HR7, to move to the Scots planet.
The purpose of this Council meeting was to get agreement by the movers and shakers, to a strategy for putting arrangements in place, and then to put it to the people for endorsement.
"This council meeting endorses the recent negotiations with Queen Jane, and the Human Federation. Those in favour say 'Aye!'"
A chorus of "Ayes!" sounded. One clan chief raised his hand.
"Bridie of Cairngorm Hill."
"While this is all very weel, we ken what others will say. We’ve been independent here, and successfully prosperous, without the need to be part of anything."
The others groaned. They’d been over this time and time again.
"I’m just saying what they will say again. The motions to join the Kingdom narrowly passed, as you know. The only thing which swung enough votes, was the Kingdom's agreement to allow us our isolation if we continued to want it. A lot of the people do."
There followed a chorus of discussion, naysaying, aye-saying, and raising of petty concerns.
Mac was tired. He’d been working with his cousin for some time, to get this collection of nits to agree on anything. He understood why Scotland had for so much of its history been at odds with itself, and not its enemies.
An aide came in, and whispered to him urgently. He got up and called to the group, "Session adjourned", and hurried out after the aid
e. The arguments went on behind him as he closed the door.
He immediately climbed up the stairs to the drawing room, and his command console, followed by his aide, Mary Caulfield.
"As it’s a message from Jamie," she said, "I thought you’d like to be interrupted immediately."
"Aye," he replied with a laugh, "ye did weel. But anything would ha’ got me out o’ there in a flash."
Mary nodded, but stayed serious. She'd seen the message. Mac read it quickly, and then re-read it.
They’d run into trouble. Anna had been captured, and he needed to rescue her. Bhatet and the bloody Brotherhood, he thought to himself. They’d had a thorough investigation themselves to eliminate any Brotherhood members, and found nothing. There seemed to be only the one isolated incident. That poor wee girl.
The rest of the message asked for assistance. He considered for a few moments, and gestured to Mary.
"Get my cousin out of the meeting. We need to talk."
Two sectors away, the Grand Mother had had another dream. It was just a normal dream, but had disturbed her so she couldn’t get back to sleep. She was having more and more of these sleep dreams, but not visions. Her Sight seemed to be fading.
She dreamed of Snark, as she now liked to think of him, and he was in great danger. There was a well-known menace, Bhatet and the Brotherhood. But she didn’t like the turn of these dreams. They were far too graphic, and always ended badly for Snark and the others.
She got up for some water. This always helped, but meant she would have to go again as well. Getting old was a chore.
She thought about Preddle. She was learning fast, but perhaps not fast enough. How wrong we can get it, she thought. Always the kitten overlooked, she was now thriving in her new role and responsibilities.
They'd told her how Preddle had stayed by her bedside, had found out what was happening, and had acted to help. Her heart filled with love and gratitude. Preddle had been so belittled by her siblings, and she'd done nothing about it.
She was relieved she had someone to follow her, just not so young and inexperienced. Wait, what had she been? The one thing she was unsure about, was Preddle did not have the Sight. Would this matter? She didn’t know. Maybe it would be better this way given her own difficulties with the Visions.
She also trusted Fitzy. She'd offered him many promotions, but he always turned them down. So she'd established his Unit as a totally independent security force, and funded him properly. He now reported directly to her. She made a mental note to talk to Fitzy in the morning. Then she wrote it down. She couldn’t remember anything at the moment. She would discuss it with him.
Fitzy had received a message from Snark. It was a bit cryptic, but it was probably the best in case it was intercepted and decoded. He would have to talk to the Grand Mother, but he had a few ideas of his own.
Sixty Nine
Time seemed to be passing at a fraction of its normal speed on Seasprite.
They'd known the rough direction Anna was being taken, so had headed off on their best guess. It had taken a while to figure out they'd been wrong. But they were still heading into the area Bhatet ruled, so wrong was partly right. They had speed on their side, but blundering in the dark at speed, was still blundering in the dark.
Everything Mac had on Bhatet and the Brotherhood arrived as they jumped into a system Snark had used on his previous trip home. Shortly after, everything Fitzy knew arrived as well. None of them hazarded a guess as to how the emails had reached them, but they were glad they did. Snark for a moment considered the human coms network had been extended this far, but quickly laughed at the idea. Coms was a hit and miss thing at the best of times, relying on the movement of ships. Com signals travelled faster and further than ships could, so it was possible jumping into this system coincided with the arrival of the emails to a ship on the other side of the system.
Jamie had been hoping to get some help from his cousin, and the cats, and had sent cryptic enough messages to them. He was disappointed not to be getting any help from anyone else, but the information was enough. It was too much to expect any friendly ships to be in the area, or at least, ships with some firepower.
Now they knew where Bhatet was. Now they had a plan, but it was hastily constructed, and only extended so far. After that, they would have to play it by ear.
But he knew they didn’t have any time to construct something elaborate and well thought out. Anna was in immediate danger, and they needed to rescue her as soon as possible. Jamie regularly tortured himself with imagining what torture she was going through. If only…. He had to stop that. What’s done was done.
He was also very frustrated with his part in the plan. At the heart of this was his desperate need to right the wrong he’d done, in not attacking the fleet when he'd had the chance. A deep part of him wanted to be the hero. What was the problem with being human? And why did he feel like he'd just been left behind? Again.
With a definite destination, time now passed as it normally did, and at last they'd come as far as they dared into Bhatet’s space, without attracting undue attention. They had to protect the Seasprite at all costs. The damage done to the rest of the galaxy if Bhatet had access to human technology was not to be borne. Jamie and Sissness remained on Seasprite.
Snark was now flying his old trader ship. It seemed so small now. In the hanger of Seasprite all this time, it was just waiting to get out and about, he knew. Patters was with him, and it was a tight fit in the cockpit. He was so used to being on his own in this ship, having another very large cat in the cockpit, was very strange.
In the hold, was his original cargo, the one he'd been taking home. He was hoping it would please Bhatet, and get him the entrée he knew he needed. He’d never done deals in this part of space before, least of all with the likes of Bhatet. He also didn’t know what intelligence Bhatet would have about him personally, or Patters. They would have to play it very carefully.
Snark was torn about one element of the cargo. He knew Jane’s thoughts on the subject. It was a means to an end, but was he aiding and abetting this kind of practice? Did using a wrong to create a right eliminate it, or make it worse? But he had to beat Bhatet at his own game.
They now knew Bhatet was at his control station, at the center of his empire. He held 'court' there, and controlled his Empire from there. That’s where they were headed.
He knew it had taken them way too long to figure all this out, and there was no chance they would beat the ship which had Anna there. The timing sucked, but their skills were better suited to an extraction from a station, than a boarding action on a ship.
Snark had learned a lot about Patters while travelling with her. He shared many of his kind’s sense of the superiority of the cats of the Plains, but even though she had thick fur covering her body, she made a lot of sense, and had exceptional skills. She had fought the Bats with great courage, and although quiet, was a great team player.
He hoped she could protect him, given their rescue mission. He didn’t need to hope. He was sure she could.
They were well stocked with weapons. Snark had concealed holsters on his suit, the guns invisible as long as no-one banged into him as he walked by. He’d changed the stun guns into kill weapons. He couldn’t take any chances the stun mode wouldn’t put someone down quickly enough. He didn’t want to shoot anyone, but if he had to, they needed to go down with one shot if possible, and not get up again. Patters had several weapons which could be slung over her shoulders, but also holsters around her waist. Unfortunately these weren’t concealed, and so they needed to know they had a fight on, for her to be toting all of that. Concealed inside the holsters, was also a knife, and several small tools.
She also had her bow and arrows. She was reluctant to part with them even for the seriousness of this mission. She'd maintained these were weapons she could legitimately carry with her, as native or cultural costume. Snark was a bit dubious about it.
They were nearing Bhatet’s home station. Th
ere were numerous ships surrounding it, including several fleets standing off. A canned voice asked them for their credentials. Snark gave a code for a trader friend of his he’d had dealings with in the past.
They waited tensely for clearance. Finally a tinny voice said "cleared for orbit", and a short time later, they were directed to a precise orbital position near the station, and warned not to move from it without permission.
They were here.
Where was Anna?
Seventy
Anna and the tentacle'd being, had spent a slow journey talking of many things. It helped to keep their minds off what was likely to happen to them when they reached Bhatet’s grasp.
The Bats would keep them in bright light for long periods of time, and then plunge them into darkness for equally long periods of time, except they didn’t know if it was equal given they’d lost all track of time.
Anna was tired, and disoriented, and she knew it was how they wanted her, so interrogation would be so much easier. She dreaded what would happen to her when they arrived. So far the Bats had left them alone, apart from what Mash called the psychological torture.
They were given some food and water at odd moments. The water was welcome, if bad tasting. The food was indigestible. Mash ate hers. She knew she needed to keep her strength up, but she just couldn’t stomach it.
She felt the ship’s engines change, and knew they’d arrived. She steeled herself for what was to come.
Not far away, Snark was in his element. They'd received docking permission, and his ship was now parked in the station's shuttle dock. He’d always been a consummate trader, and now he was plying his trade once more. He realised though, for higher odds than he’d previously been operating against.
He’d started at the lower levels where he knew there’d be an initial demand, but mostly where he could put it about what he was offering. This would spark interest he hoped would get him an audience with the top boss.
Snark's Quest Page 24
