“Don’t fret too much about the smuggling charge either,” Kiachif said. “Got friends working on that, too, if you know what I mean. It’ll take a bit more time ’cause we’ve more to check.”
“Ali, you must be calling in favors by the container load,” Ken said, immensely grateful.
“Give a little, take a lot’s been my motto for decades, Reeve. And, like I say, we all got a lot at stake, same’s you Doonans. You keep on tracking down livestock. That’s where your expertise lies. I’ll keep on prodding, poking, and producing where mine’ll do us good. Have a drink on me, you hear me?” Kiachif hadn’t waited for an answer and Ken was staring at a crackling handset.
As everyone had heard Kiachif’s inimitable voice on the radio, cheers rose from around the dining table. Kelly and Nrrna executed a triumphant dance routine before careening into a table.
“One by one, the charges are being dismissed,” Hrrestan said while Mrrva nodded as if she had expected no other outcome.
“Down to two—identifying who purchased the artifacts and who’s playing Todd and Hrriss offplanet,” Ken said.
“No, three,” Todd said. “We’ve got to find out how the security satellites have been fixed.”
“Is not Inspector DeVeer investigating that?” Hrrestan asked.
Ken and Todd both frowned, increasing the resemblance between them so much that Pat, Kelly, and Inessa grinned.
“DeVeer would need Spacedep authority to check the satellites,” Ken said, shaking his head over the improbability of assistance from that source.
“Would he?” Hrrestan asked, stroking his chin. “Would he not have authority over Martinson?”
“He must have some, to get clearance for Ali to check the Albatross engines,” Ken replied, but he wasn’t all that certain that DeVeer might not press the issue. “But Linc Newry’s got a separate authority and reports only to Spacedep.”
“The inspector wants to help us,” Kelly said. “And he practically got Klonski to admit that he had.”
“You didn’t mention that,” Todd said bluntly.
“Well,” and she shook her spread hand to indicate uncertainty, “Klonski is known to have done that sort of security tinkering—Inspector DeVeer established that—so why else was Spacedep paying him, and putting him in their restricted ‘special services’ category?”
“We still need more documented evidence of who’s behind what we may now call a well-planned and long-standing conspiracy,” Ken said, addressing everyone but looking at Hrrestan.
“I think they overdid the evidence bit,” Pat said. “They might have made one charge stick but so many?”
“Ah, but that is where they have been clever, not stupid, Pat.” Hrrestan said. “They have created a variety of charges, none of which can be ignored by one or the other of those departments of yourrs and ourrs that are involved. Rrala is to be torn apart by debates on which allegations are true and which might be specious. The fact that would, I fear, become lost in the morasss of true, half true, and false, is that our sons never committed any of the crimes of which they stand charged. But by the time they can be cleared of all counts, any hope of renewing the Treaty would be lost and the colony forced to decamp.”
Nrrna shuddered and drew closer to Hrriss.
“But I’m positive Landreau is behind all of this,” Ken said. “He’s hated me and Todd since the first time you all disappeared and left us looking like first-class liars.”
Hrrestan and Mrrva bowed their heads. “We had no choice.”
“Oh, I know that, Hrrestan,” Ken said, dismissing any implication of blame. “But it was Todd who kept us here because Hrrubans would not leave a small child in a dangerous forest. And it was Todd who brought First Speaker here, and Al Landreau has never forgiven him or me for that humiliation.”
Kelly and Hrriss grinned during Todd’s obvious discomfort at that summary, but Nrrna was curious, not knowing all the historic details from that period.
Hrrestan sighed. “If only Third Speaker’s associate were not Treaty Controller this period ...”
“Another piece of deft planning on Landreau’s part. I gotta give him credit for that,” Ken said with a hint of grudging admiration.
“Trrrue, for with another Hrruban as Controller, we would be able to lay before First Speaker the framework of this conspiracy ...”
“Would First Speaker not be aware of that already, Hrrestan?” Mrrva asked, her hand lightly on her mate’s thigh. “We know the pressures that are being exerted in the Speakers Council.”
“This time,” Hrrestan said, “there is no child with a tail of rope to capture the hearts and minds of our people and swing a vote in favor of a Treaty of Cohabitation.”
“I know this might sound silly,” Kelly began tentatively, “and forgive me if this question offends, but it’s something that has never been addressed in Alreldep either: if the Treaty breaks down, which of us gets to stay on Doona? Or do we both leave, lock, stock, and block?” She tried to make a joke of it.
When everyone stared at her, she began to flush and ended up with her head down.
“No, no, Kelly,” Todd said, “that’s a very good question indeed. In fact, that might actually be the crux of the matter.”
Kelly looked up, eyes shining and face alight with his genuine approval.
“Indeed, Kelly, that is a question which has not been asked,” Hrrestan said, “and one we should have considered long before now. Have we all been looking at the forest without seeing the trees?” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, his eyes slitting with the intensity of his thought. “You and I, Ken, like our sons, wish the Rralan Experiment to succeed. We both know in our minds that there are Hrrubans and Hayumans who do not wish that. If the Treaty is not renewed, each sees this planet as a prize for the taking. As you once confided in me, Ken, twenty-four years ago on a hilltop, Hayumans get greedy. Well, so do Hrrubans. There is indeed much more at stake than just this planet and which species gains control of it.” Hrrestan paused, unwilling to follow that line of discussion to its obvious conclusion.
“An interspecies war?” Todd exclaimed, horrified.
Nrrna gave a frightened yip and clung to Hrriss’s arm. Kelly and Pat Reeve turned pale.
“I could go back to Alreldep,” Kelly said earnestly. “I may be only a junior but if I could present any proof whatsoever that this is what’s going down on Doona ...” Kelly’s voice failed her as the permutations of a struggle between Hayumans and Hrrubans sank in. “Oh, no! We can’t let that happen!” she said in a whisper.
Todd jumped to his feet, glaring about him. “You just bet we won’t.” His words rang in the frightened silence.
“By all that’s holy, we won’t,” Ken added, rising from his chair.
“We will not!” Hrrestan and Hrriss spoke at the same moment, springing to their feet.
“Rralans forever!” Kelly shouted in Middle Hrruban, jumping up and down, fists clenched.
Todd grinned at her, proud of her for using that language, and more moved than he could say by her offer to help, by returning to Earth and the Alreldep job he knew she must hate. But, then, she was as Doonan—no, Rralan—as he.
“All right, now then, folks,” Ken said, rubbing his hands together as he would before taking on any difficult task. “We’ve got more to do than we thought. But we’ve got help. I don’t think we’d better let tonight’s conclusions loose on the planet. There’s enough panic and crazy-minded speculation as it is, with rustling and false accusations and suchlike just before Treaty Renewal. So, while we’re knocking down the accusations against the boys, we’ll see if we can also find any clues that might show us that the scope of the conspiracy goes beyond Landreau and—” He looked at Hrrestan.
“And Third Speaker,” the Hrruban added for him.
“Too bad we can’t use their techniques against them,” Kelly
said, “and start finding the tadpoles in their ponds. Get that Treaty Controller impeached or something.”
“Oh!” Nrrna’s little cry of surprise focused attention on her.
“Yes, Nrrna?” Hrriss prompted, and that was when Todd really began to notice how tender his friend was toward the pretty female and how often she seemed to rely on him for reassurance.
“The Treaty Controller,” and she bowed her head slightly, keeping her eyes averted from Kelly’s sudden grin of comprehension, “received delivery of a document box the day Kelly returned. It must have been very important for him not to send an assistant or secretary.”
Kelly snapped her fingers. “I’ve got a memory like a sieve. I got a coded comp-line message today from Dalkey Petersham. He was very cagey even in code. He’s got something he needs to get to me and he doesn’t trust the comp-mail lines.”
“Did he say what?” Todd asked, aware of an unusual uneasiness with a guy comp-lining Kelly all the time. But that was silly. They needed help from whatever quarter it came.
“What I got from the code was that, as a very junior official, he was supposed to check over and delete some ancient accounting tapes. They were for the Spacedep slush fund. There seemed to be large financial disbursements about ten years ago from that fund and all of them were paid to accounts off-Earth. He thought they might be useful to me, but he won’t send it comp-line and wants to know how he can get it to us in ... as they say ... a rapid irregular fashion.”
“Isn’t Captain Feyder back on Earth?” Todd asked.
“Been and gone, according to Kiachif,” Ken replied. “He’d done us all the favor we can ask of him with that Mayday beacon.”
“We could get in another medical shipment,” Kelly said, glancing sideways at Nrrna.
Her eyes went into slits of anxiety. “Oh, no. I was in trouble over the gloves when they saw how many packets had been trampled on. My superior was going to send a harsh message to our office on Terra. So I told them that I had opened the box outside, to take inventory, and a wind had come up and scattered them.”
“The wind was named Kelly,” the redhead said, giggling at the memory of the trouble she and Nrrna had had to get the static-charged packets back into the carton. “I even found one inside my tunic.”
“The count was off so I had to say that some had blown away,” Nrrna dropped her jaw and purred her pretty laugh.
“You’ve got a resourceful female here, Hrriss,” Kelly said. “And you nearly wouldn’t let her help.”
“I shall not again be so foolish as to interfere with her good plans,” he said, pulling a solemn face that made Kelly laugh.
Todd looked from Kelly to Hrriss and Nrrna, and then at Hrrestan and Mrrva, who seemed quietly pleased about the behavior of Nrrna and their son.
“Hey, friend, did you forget to tell me something this morning?” Todd asked.
“Nrrna and I plan to be lifemates,” Hrriss said, his eyes glowing as he glanced down at Nrrna. “The joining is due to take place about the time of Treaty Renewal.”
Todd dropped his jaw, so like a Hrruban that Kelly smothered her giggles. “Oh, really? Well, you didn’t waste any time while I was gone, did you?” But his eyes were glowing with pleasure and approval. “Why, you old tomcat, you! Congratulations!” He gave Hrriss a hearty punch on the arm and took one of Nrrna’s hands, lifting it to touch his forehead in the Hrruban gesture of well-wishing and congratulation. “To think you went out and did that all by yourself,” he said, unable to leave off teasing Hrriss. He could see that Hrrestan and Mrrva were delighted and his parents seemed to have known. He felt a little silly that he hadn’t twigged to it.
“We plan a celebratory feast on the occasion,” Hrriss said, “and we would be honored if you would stand as master of ceremonies.”
“The honor is mine,” Todd said, falling back into his chair and letting out a hoot of relieved laughter. “Well, I feel lots better. I admit I wondered why Nrrna was suddenly so much a part of the investigation. I thought she was a friend Kelly had brought in to help her.”
“Of all the ...” Kelly jumped to her feet and ran out of the room.
“What got her so uptight?” Todd inquired of everyone in the room.
“Kelly has been helping you, you numskull,” his mother said with a weary sigh of exasperation for her son’s obtuseness. “She’s the main reason you and Hrriss have been reunited.”
“I know she’s been helping me,” Todd said, still perplexed.
“Then do not sit like a mda in warm mud contemplating its toes.” Hrriss said. He rose and gave Todd a shove toward the door. “I have had the opportunity to make plain to her my gratitude. It is time that you adequately express your own. Do it suitably in the style of Hayumans, but do it now!”
Half stumbling onto the porch because Hrriss had put considerable strength into that push, Todd corrected himself and looked about for Kelly. Twilight made if difficult to see, but he spotted Calypso’s hide and saw the mare moving before he realized Kelly was astride her.
“Kelly! Kellllleeee! Wait a minute!”
He knew she had seen him, for he saw her white face turned in his direction, but she cantered off anyhow. Piqued, Todd took the nearest horse from the tie rail, Robin’s fleet racer Fargo, and started after her.
Todd was just gaining on the cantering Calypso when Kelly realized that she was being pursued, and kicked the mare into a gallop.
“Kelly! Pull up!” Todd yelled angrily.
She bent low in the saddle and urged Calypso faster.
Todd had half a mind to pull up right then and there. He hadn’t meant to insult her. Didn’t she know him well enough by now to know he liked her? Why, she was as moody as a Hrruban female in estrus.
In shocked surprise, Todd almost pulled up Fargo as he suddenly understood what he’d been too self-involved, first in the Hunt and then in clearing his name, to recognize. His heart seemed to expand in a peculiarly painful but marvelous way ... as it had when he had embraced Hrriss on the bridge ... but not quite the same way. Stunned by the intensity of his feelings for Kelly, he clapped his heels into Fargo’s sides and sped after his girl.
For Kelly was, and she had proved her love for him over and over again, only he’d been dense as two planks not to realize that his former friend and willing cohort had turned into a lovely girl, who could wear frilly wide skirts imported specially from Earth to look her best at the Hunt dance. For stupid him! Why she bothered with such a lunkhead he couldn’t understand, but he had to catch up with her and see if he couldn’t set matters straight between them.
A girl who had ridden between his home and Hrriss’s doing her best to say to each what they weren’t permitted to say to each other. And she had even gone to the extreme of dyeing her gorgeous red hair, risked her safety on Earth’s slideways and sleazy Aisles, bearded inspectors with purloined documentation and ... And he hadn’t the sense to realize what any Hrruban male would have known—that Kelly wanted him just as much as Nrrna wanted Hrriss.
Now he exercised his wits and saw the turn off the main road that would give him the jump on their head start.
He drove the bay up the hill and down, hauling him to a dead stop across the narrow trail. Calypso was travelling at such a speed that she did a stiff-legged stop to avoid crashing into Fargo. Kelly, who’d been looking over her shoulder, came tumbling out of the saddle, right into Todd’s arms. He caught her before she could slide out of his grasp and pulled her sideways across the low pommel.
“Gotcha! Fair and square,” he said, grinning because it had been a close thing. But he hadn’t been about to let Kelly go now he realized how much she meant to him. And before she could say or do anything to put him off his intended action, he kissed her hard.
The shock that coursed through his body at the touch of their lips was totally unexpected. Briefly he held her off so he could see her
face, see if she could possibly be feeling the same way he did about that kiss. But her eyes were closed and there was an incredibly dreamy look about her face. So he gathered her to him more tenderly and found that their second kiss was even sweeter than the first and so he didn’t break it off in any hurry at all. Especially when he felt her arms clasping him, one around his ribs and the other pressing at the nape of his neck so he couldn’t have released her even if he’d wanted to.
The feel of Kelly in his arms was something magical. Much better than dancing with her had been, so he pressed her as close to him as he could. Until he felt Fargo—who was not up to the weight of the pair of them—buckle a bit on the forehand.
“Robin’ll kill us if we lame Fargo,” she murmured. “But Calypso could carry us both a long time.”
“I think we’ll rest both horses after that mad race,” he said, managing to dismount with her still in his arms. Then he clipped an arm under her knees and carried her to the nearest clear patch of grass. “I love you, Kelly Solinari. Will you forgive me for being dumb blind stupid iggerant not to realize how precious you are to me?”
“I might, but it could take a long time—like forever,” she replied in a lilting voice.
Sometime later, Fargo decided that he’d make his way back to his stable. Calypso had better manners. She wouldn’t leave her rider and grazed contentedly until she was needed again.
THE NEXT morining, the two young couples composed a carefully worded message to Dalkey, containing instructions on where to hide the information he wanted to send. They posted it signed with Kelly’s key-code. Couched in the chatty phrases about their years together in college was the fact that several pallets of medical supplies were being transported to Doona in two days. Dalkey swiftly responded with an ardent note, the tone of which made Todd frown and Kelly blush.
“But it sounds genuine, Toddy,” Kelly said soothingly. Then she giggled. “You’re here and he’s parsecs away. Don’t be silly. Besides, he does say that he understands the instructions and I get the impression that he accessed more data than he originally promised.”
Crisis On Doona Page 28
