Beast Master's Ark

by Andre Norton; Lyn McConchie

  Kady was talking in a soft, tired voice as Tani walked in. "We have a very extensive range of materials in the Ark. We tested against everything there first. There's nothing. Jarro has contacted many of the planets that retained scientific data. Almost all agreed to download what they had. But it's a huge amount. We have everyone on the Ark running programs to either change the older different codes to something our computer can read, or run the altered programs looking for a DNA match with anything at all."

  Brad was grim. "One of the Nitra clans has clashed with a Norbie tribe. There's a number of dead on both sides. Put Larkin has allowed the Norbies to move onto the edge of his range. It helps stop the fighting for a short time. But soon the Nitra are going to lose more to the killer, and they'll push deeper into Norbie lands. Once settlers start to die the Patrol will step in."

  Brion looked even more weary than his wife. "I know, I know. But we have so much material to check. With the Xik attacks, many planets used whatever systems they could get at the time. Often new computer systems were wrecked and they brought old types back into service. A lot of the records have to be loaded by hand. Some systems are incompatible for automatic work. If only we could cut down the range we have to search for a match."

  Tani's mouth fell open. The Xiks. The hatred that lives in the heart of the desert. Ukurti had said that it hated the settlers. Logan had told her about the Xik holdout group Storm had uncovered. She'd heard other rumors of such outfits herself. She cut into what Brad had begun to say with no regard for politeness. If she were right they could save time. A lot of time. If she were wrong, they'd lose none. They'd be checking and cross-matching everything anyhow.

  "Check Xik material. Do we have any?"

  Brion and Kady looked at her with annoyance. Brad intervened hastily. "What do you know?"

  "It's something Ukurti told me. Do we have Xik records?"

  "We do," Kady spoke thoughtfully. "Oddly enough they left records on Trastor when your father led the revolt that drove them out again. We hadn't got to those as yet. I can go and call the Ark to upload them all, then start checking for a cross-match." She was gone, almost running, and Tani heaved a sigh. Now they waited. There were times when that seemed to be life. Sitting about and waiting for something to happen.

  She went to bed that night, still waiting. The results would be downloaded through the mobile laboratory link once the work was done. The whole Ark team was up there loading records, some of them by hand, and praying. Someone must have been listening. The call came at first light and Tani heard the shrill of the buzzer. She gathered in the dining room with the Quades and Storm. Kady arrived with Brion, both jubilant.

  "The sample cross-checks with Xik material. It isn't Xik, but it seems to have been genetically altered from something on their home planet. The Xiks and the sample have too much in common for it not to be so."

  Brad nodded. "Now we have a foot in the door. We know the enemy. With hard work maybe we can pry the door open." His face lit with his rare wide smile. Arzor might now have a chance to survive after all.

  Chapter Fourteen

  But while knowing a little more helped, they still knew only a part of the problem. Kady was talking.

  "The material is from the Xiks' home world. It isn't from the Xiks themselves. We were lucky that one of the people who landed not long after first contact was a genetech scientist. He took samples from a number of organisms on the Xik home world and they've been kept in files ever since. When we asked for downloads on the subject we received that one along with the later material from Trastor. It came in after a lot of the other stuff, and the program was one of those that needed to be hand loaded and rewritten."

  Brad Quade nodded. The history of human contact with the Xiks had been unpleasant. From the beginning the Xiks had been suspicious. When they found both species could live, if not always comfortably, on a similar sort of planet, trouble had begun. The Xiks believed that they were a superior race, that their way of life was sacred. What they wanted must be given to them. They saw Terrans as stupid, fools who weakly permitted native races to retain what was theirs. The initial permission for traders and scientists to visit the Xik home world had been revoked early. It was a small miracle Xik samples had been obtained and retained on file.

  Brion took up the tale. "When Terra was destroyed, copies of the Xik files were still safe on Trastor. It's taken a lot of time and hard work to match the computer system they have with ours, but now that we've done that and run the files we're sure we have a match. We're running more comparisons with anything other worlds have but it may not be enough. I've started Jarro building three of the things from the DNA we found. Once we have a couple of living specimens we may learn a lot more."

  "How long will that take?"

  It was Kady who answered that. "A few days only. We're using forced growth, and from what Storm says and other evidence, they are likely to be small. We'll let you know as soon as we have viable specimens." She laughed grimly. "We aren't the only ones with problems. I had a spacegram from a friend on Ermaine. They had some odd sort of blight in the shallatoes. Personally I can't stand the things. They have that bitter aftertaste. But a lot of worlds are crazy about them and they're one of Ermaine's most important cash crops."

  "What's happening to them?" Brad queried.

  "They don't really know. Caryl is working day and night to find out, but all she can say so far is it's no disease they've ever seen there before." Kady sighed. "I'd help if I could, but with this business here we don't have the time." She headed purposefully back to her laboratory. Jarro should almost have finished the next part of the work by now.

  The next event was two days later. Tani came hurrying in, waving a length of paper. "Mr. Quade, Storm, have you seen this?"

  Brad took it from her and began to read. Storm leaned over his shoulder. They finished and stared at each other.

  Kady entered and stood there listening. Brad offered her the message but she waved it away. "I saw it."

  Storm started. "That's a very strange communication."

  "I agree. It seems as if it's saying something important, but you can't be sure what."

  Tani nodded. "I thought it was important. It's from Headquarters, after all. But it doesn't make a lot of sense. I think it's saying that there's trouble with Xik holdouts and sabotage groups still."

  Brad grinned ruefully. "I think so too. It's the rest of it I don't get. It's so obscure that..."

  "That you'd think they were trying to alert us to something without saying it," Brion finished, as he appeared in the doorway. "Maybe they are. Look at what they do say." He quoted. "A number of disasters on various planets that are rendering them financially nonviable. It appears this is occurring on predominantly human-settled worlds and settlers are warned to be on the lookout for anything that might cause major financial or life-threatening events on the planets of settlement. Read between the lines." He glanced at Brad. "I wonder if Caryl's shallatoes fall into that category?"

  Storm was sitting comfortably in one of the large old armchairs. A thought came to him and he straightened.

  "Kady, you can reach most human-settled planets from the Ark?"

  "We can. Some of them take time to reach, but yes, we can. Why?"

  "Will you send a couple of questions to all of them. Ask if they know of any rumors or actual events involving Xik hideouts or possible Xik sabotage. And also if any planets can report things like plagues, strange insects they've never had or seen before. Anything that looks like a major natural disaster but that could have been enemy action. Not that it probably was, but if they can think of a way it could have been made to happen. And suggest they check into the event looking for evidence of deliberate intent, just in case. We want everything they know. Even if it's just rumor, there may be information there. HQ can't risk coming out and asking that sort of question, but we can. It's important. Can you start now?"

  For a moment Kady stared at him. "You think ..." She broke off. "I'll
send right away. I have friends in some places. I'll tag the messages personally to them where I can. They'll make it a priority." She was gone and Brion turned to look at Storm.

  "You really believe this could be some part of another Xik plan?"

  Brad answered him. "I fought the Xiks. They don't think the way we do in many ways. But they're good haters. And they learn from experience. They started a war with humans when they could have worked beside us. Not that they would have done so, they wanted everything we had. The planets we allowed autonomy, they would have ruled as autocrats. We were pleased when a settled world did well. They would have taken all the surplus and returned it to their home world so their ruling clans could grow fat. They lost the war in the end, but some of their hard-liners survived the surrender. Their politicians hint the population should wait, their time will come again. We know there were a lot of the small Xik groups left out there when peace came. Many of those didn't approve the surrender and didn't come in. We had one of those groups here—you heard about them?" He received a nod and carried on.

  "They were one of the supply teams. They were sent in to steal food and supplies unobtrusively. They funneled them back to Xik worlds. There were also sabotage groups. Several groups like that were cleaned out of other planets. There were rumors that a lot of small self-contained Xik units had been sent out toward the end of the war. They were to dig into any human-settled world they could reach and continue the fight if possible."

  "But that's crazy, Quade. The Xiks lost. We drove them right back to their home world. Destroyed their soldiers everywhere else, and where we could take them alive we sent their soldiers home again. If they start the war all over again they could . . . we could . . . well. Command surely would order the Xik home world destroyed this time. The same way the Xiks destroyed Terra."

  Storm's eyes were hard. "They probably would. But the Xiks learned as much about us as we learned about them. One of the things they'd have learned is that we like to have evidence. They consider that a weakness in us. So if odd disasters begin happening on widely separated planets, and the disasters appear to be natural ones, then we may take a long time to even consider it enemy action. And then with no proof we may take far longer still to act in any way. Of course, once we have proof, their High Command will simply say that the unit found was a rogue one, operating in defiance of orders."

  "As it could be," Brad added.

  "As it could be. But it's unlikely." Storm glanced at the two older men. "We cleaned out most holdout groups. It's been quite a while now since the war ended. Most of the groups gave themselves away within that first year. The bunch here lasted because there are big areas of Arzor still unexplored and the Native Treaty limits overflights. In fact, it's almost impossible to fly even the most powerful copter over the Big Blue because of the fierce updrafts. And they had one of the very few 'apers' ever created."

  His mind went back for a brief moment to that. The Xik were humanoid, close enough to humanity's form to be surgically changed into a human replica. The Xik High Command had done just that with a few, a very few. One had come to Arzor as a paca-rat in the grain of Arzor's people. In the end the Xiks had been found, partly because the aper had feared a Beast Master enough to attack Storm once too often. After that Arzor had been scoured by humans and natives alike. At that time at least there had been no Xiks left.

  Brad eyed him. "So, what do you think, son?"

  Storm was thinking it out as he spoke slowly. "I think the Xik Command may feel that they've been quiet long enough to convince us they mean it. They could have sent out a few special units. Just to test the waters. If it's still too hot they'll deny knowledge, or claim the units are holdouts left over from the war."

  "And if they get a toehold on a few worlds, if they can keep humans from getting the news out, then they could have new bases to begin building a war machine again," Brad said quietly.

  "Yes. The same things that kept their first group unnoticed so long still apply here and they may feel they have a debt to settle with us."

  Brad nodded, turning to look at Brion and Tani. "Tani, can you do a complete record of the problem here? Show it to me once it's done. I think we should send it to Headquarters."

  "Saying what?" Brion asked.

  Brad smiled. "Saying just that. Here is a report we thought you should see. The fact that the killers, whatever they are, contain Xik home world DNA will alert them. At the same time, Tani, show us any more disaster reports Kady receives. Well condense those and pass them on, too."

  The girl nodded. She returned with the report several hours later and Brad approved it. "Nice and lucid. All the facts followed by possible reasons and inferences clearly labeled as such. What's that you have?"

  "A report that came in just now. It's from Lereene. I was going to add it to this one and send them together."

  Brad scanned it quickly. A Lereene scientist was reporting in response to Kady's request. No plagues, no unknown diseases or strange insects. But things hadn't been well lately. There'd been a series of small quakes in a very isolated area. So far as they had pieced things together afterward, the quakes had caused a landslip. This had blocked the upper reaches of a tributary to the Jade River. Huge amounts of water had backed up over the weeks until at last five weeks ago they had broken through the landslip dam.

  The flood of freed water had poured down into the Jade in one gigantic wave. There it had met the new Jade River dam. The sudden volume and the power with which it arrived had torn a great hole in the dam, and the water held back by the dam had been freed as well. It had rushed in a wall down the river and with only two hours warning had thundered over the capital city of Lereene. Deaths were estimated at close to ten thousand. Many more were injured and unable to receive proper medical care. The city had been almost destroyed. The scientist reporting suspected that in the emergency camps disease was beginning, but that wasn't what his friend had meant, was it? Kady knew how squalor bred disease.

  Brad looked at Brion, who came forward. "This came in just now after Tani had left. Take a look."

  It was another natural disaster. A fire that had started apparently from a piece of broken glass. Dropped, the authorities believed, by hunters in the massively wooded ranges of Merla. Many of the great stands of yellowwood, which had taken generations to grow, had been wiped out. This was not quite a disaster, although the wood was used to make a large number of beautiful pieces of luxury furniture, which brought in good revenue for the planet. The authorities had sent up a ranger team to investigate; meanwhile, hunting in the ranges was forbidden.

  The real disaster had been the arrival of Astran jiggers on Merla. Somehow they'd appeared and were devastating the remaining forests. With no Merlan predator to prevent the explosion in numbers, the jiggers burrowed into trees all over the ranges. The weakened trees fell in storms and were also made useless for lumber. The jiggers were kept under control on their own world by the Krawk. It was thought that the jiggers could have come in with the luggage or cargo from a ship recently arrived from Astra. The authorities were frantically importing genetically sterile krawks and investigating the jiggers, yellowwoods, the ship, Astran immigrants, and apparently anything else they could think of. It hadn't occurred to them to investigate enemies. They still believed all events were natural accidents.

  Tani was reading over Brad's arm. She took in a breath. "I should send that one too."

  Storm nodded. "Yes. It's a beautiful plan. Nothing that would make a government suspect sabotage. But it could be easily done. With Lereene all they had to do was set off charges until the hillside slipped into the river. Add a few more to the hill behind that to make it really solid. I worked with a dozen first-in commandos who could have managed it easily. The rest would follow. As Kady's friend says. Disease is expected where people are living hand-to-mouth in flimsy shelters with no sanitation, and half of them already in shock trauma. But if there's no disease it's easy to help some appear.

  "The same with Me
rla. All any team had to do was start a fire and listen to the port spacecom. Astra is in the same quadrant, and the planets trade regularly, so they wait until a ship comes in from Astra and release the jiggers. They get an added bonus if the Merlan authorities blame Astra and that starts trouble between the worlds. That may already be happening if they're hassling incoming ships and passengers." He looked at the papers. "Send them all, Tani. Include a description of that blight on Caryl's shallatoes, and any more that come in. All these could well be Xik mischief, but every world thinks their trouble is theirs only."

  "Maybe it is."

  "Maybe. But remember what HQ said. That suggests there's been a fair amount of this sort of thing already and someone is getting suspicious. You know the saying. Once is an accident, twice is coincidence ..."

  "Third time is enemy action," his stepfather finished. "I think so many disasters all at once rather unlikely myself. Send it all. We'll see what Headquarters think."

  What they thought was embodied in a spacegram that arrived late the next day. In clear and unambiguous language it stated that there was reason to believe Xik sabotage teams were operating on Terran worlds. Another planet had been racked with natural disasters. But they'd found evidence that indicated the disasters hadn't been all that natural. They'd dug further and happened on the Xik team. A number of innocent scientists had died, and the Xik team had blown themselves up rather than be taken. What evidence remained indicated a well-planned mission.

  The message concluded, "There are strong indications that Xik social-disruption and sabotage hideout teams are using unfamiliar weapons and planned disasters to damage as many thinly human-settled planets as possible."

  Brion read that aloud. "So now we know. We'll have more information coming in from Kady's friends tomorrow with luck. The Xik insects hatch then as well. I've sent a DNA profile to HQ asking if they can tell us anything. I don't think they can or we'd have had it in other material received. But they're alerted and they have the information. Tani, I need your help. I want you to see if you can read anything from the insects when they hatch."