Freedom's Ransom

by Anne McCaffrey

  But barely had they got themselves settled when the prison doors swung open and jailors, cracking nerve whips, roused the inmates with harsh commands to stand up and move out. She was startled when a door in the side of the prison was opened to reveal a ramp. She remembered that sort of ramp and tried to suppress a surge of fear. Kathy didn’t realize what was happening and Kris wasn’t going to tell her. The prisoners were being driven toward the ramp. Kris caught Kathy’s arm, holding her back. “Zainal, where are you?” she murmured urgently.

  They were among the last to be driven up the ramp, Kris looking over her shoulder at the main entrance, hoping against hope to see Zainal’s large form in the doorway and hear his voice commanding the guards to leave her alone. Surely he would come to free them. The tip of the nerve whip caught her arm, though her clothing absorbed most of the painful strike, and despite her reluctance, she was driven up the ramp and into the hold of a KDM.

  “We’re on a ship,” Kathy said, frightened.

  “So we are,” Kris remarked, amazed at how calm she managed to sound.

  “What are we doing on a ship, Kris? Where is Zainal?”

  “Trying to get us free, I’m sure,” Kris replied, though the smell of the hold was no reassurance at all. This was a slave ship: it stank of fear and human excrement.

  The ramp door swung shut and was dogged tight by a guard.

  “Find a wall space, Kathy,” Kris said, holding tight to Kathy’s hand so they wouldn’t be separated as the other prisoners milled about aimlessly.

  “Find us, Zainal,” Kris chanted to herself. “Find us. Free us.”

  A sudden movement of the ship as it undocked threw both women to their knees, and Kris barely managed to keep from crying out with fear and pain as her right knee connected painfully with a bolt on the steel floor. There would be no pleasant Botany at the end of this forced journey.

  They both felt the surge as the ship took off, sending them sliding into other bodies and pushing them back against the far wall of the hold.

  “I’m scared, Kris,” Kathy said as the metal beneath them throbbed with the power of takeoff. Her voice was close to a wail and Kris threw an arm around her shoulders.

  “Me too,” Kris agreed. “Zainal will stop this farce. Just you wait.”

  o~O~o

  The accusation is a farce, Kapash,” Zainal was saying, having stormed into the market manager’s office demanding an explanation.

  “An aggrieved client has every right to file a charge against a merchant who has sold imperfect goods or misrepresented his stock.”

  “You know how we have been trading the coffee. You’ve tasted enough of it to know that our product is exactly as represented.”

  Kapash merely smiled up at Zainal, obviously delighting in his discomposure, tilting languidly back in his chair.

  “Now, what fine will you levy so that I can pay it and release Kris and Kathy?”

  Kapash steepled his fingers, ignoring Zainal’s urgency. “Well now, the standard fee is forty Catteni bunts.”

  “Gone up since I was manager, hasn’t it?”

  Kapash’s chair crashed to the floor and he stared hard at Zainal. Then both men heard the rumble of a ship taking off from the dock and Kapash smiled.

  “If those women are on that ship, Kapash, you will be sorry for it. They have been falsely accused and you know it.”

  “I do?” Kapash pretended an innocence that only made Zainal more positive of his complicity.

  “What will it take, Kapash, for you to sign a release form and stop that ship before it leaves Barevi orbit?”

  “What will I take, Zainal?” Kapash asked, idly drumming his fingers on his desktop.

  “Out with it. I want the ship stopped before it can leave this system. What is it you want?”

  “The location of the Eosi treasures.”

  “The what?” Zainal stared, in dismay and contempt. “How would I know that?”

  “You were once to be an Eosi host and you would have been informed of such things.”

  “No, I wasn’t because I never became Pe’s host. Do not underestimate the guile of the Eosi, Kapash. They made no one their confidants, especially not an un-hosted Catteni.”

  “But someone knows,” Kapash exclaimed. “They had so much treasure. So much coin for their rents and deals, and most of the valuables taken from Earth.”

  “I’m sure they did very well for themselves, but I have no idea where they stored their possessions. What will you take, Kapash?”

  Kapash looked extremely uncomfortable.

  “I’m sure you talked with their staff assistants, didn’t you?” Zainal continued, not wanting to waste too much time talking.

  “They knew nothing,” Kapash said, flicking his fingers. “And we spoke to every one of them.”

  And not gently, either, Zainal thought, but he had no pity to spare for those traitors who had lived extremely well, serving their Eosi masters.

  “Something I can give you, Kapash.” Zainal did not dare rush the man and yet there was a need for urgency. Only Kapash could have the ascending ship halted at the space station before it left the system for whichever slave colony was its destination.

  “Your coffee beans,” Kapash said, coming to a decision.

  “I don’t have that many left,” Zainal admitted. “They have sold well.” He tried to think how many sacks remained on the BASS-1.

  “You have a ship. You can go back to Terra for more. You will go back, and I shall have the concession here in the market for as long as I wish.” He scribbled some words on a sheet of paper and passed it across the desk for Zainal to sign.

  It was a release for all coffee beans on board the BASS-1.

  “Sign the prisoner release first, Kapash,” Zainal said, pointing to the various colored forms in the cabinet behind the man. “The blue one,” he said, remembering that detail from his own term as market manager.

  “Their names?” Kapash asked, holding his writer over the blue sheet.

  “Lady Emassi Kris Bjornsen and Captain Emassi Katherine Harvey.” He spelled the names, watching intently as Kapash wrote. When the form was completed, duly signed by Kapash, and stamped with his office’s seal, Zainal signed the release of the beans.

  “You will also no longer use coffee as a trade item,” Kapash said. With that, he must have known that he effectively ended Zainal’s mission on Barevi. He reached out for the release. Zainal held it out of reach.

  Zainal pointed to the communications board to Kapash’s right. “Only if you immediately phone Ladade and order him to keep that ship from leaving Barevi space.”

  Kapash seemed to hesitate. When Zainal raised a fist menacingly, remembering how much of a physical coward Kapash was, the man grabbed for the hand unit and made the call.

  “Yes, do not give the ship clearance, Commander Ladade. Two of the prisoners have been cleared of the charges falsely registered against them and therefore must be off-loaded…. It is entirely necessary Commander…. Yes, and I am on my way to ensure their release. I have the required form…. No, not murderers, Commander, but merchants who have been unjustly accused…. Yes, yes, most unusual.” He paused a moment, listening to Ladade. There was a flicker in his eyes as if he were experiencing some trouble in convincing Ladade of this necessity. “And I agree, Ladade. Neither of us needs these troublesome little problems, but I must maintain my reputation as a fair market manager. This matter touches on my honor…. Yes, yes, we shall be on our way with the release form.”

  Kapash was on his feet, then, disconnecting the call and hastily keying in another command. “Have my gig ready to depart by the time I reach my dock,” he said and returned the hand unit to its holster. “Come, give it over, Zainal.” He all but snatched the signed release from Zainal’s hand. Zainal reluctantly let it go but, if somehow Kapash reneged on the deal, he would have it back— and break Kapash’s neck.

  o~O~o

  The throb of the ship’s engines ceased and Kris began to hope a
gain.

  “Has he made them stop?” Kathy asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

  “Something has,” Kris said. “Wherever they are taking us, they haven’t had time to go far.” She struggled to recall station protocol.

  “Don’t they have to get an all-clear from the station?” Kathy asked.

  “Yes, they do,” Kris replied, in some relief. “To be sure all their debts have been paid and to announce their destination. At least that’s what Zainal said. Oh, we haven’t left this system.”

  “No, we can’t have.”

  o~O~o

  Ladade met Kapash and Zainal at the airlock, clearly annoyed at this interruption to his schedule, but he obviously recognized Zainal and that seemed to alter his attitude.

  “Ah, Emassi Zainal, I had not looked to encounter you again,” Ladade said almost genially, bringing his hand to his chest in a salute of respect.

  Zainal duplicated the salute. “Nor I, Ladade.”

  “You know the two released prisoners?”

  “My mate and one of my KDM captains,” Zainal said.

  “An officious and spurious complaint was laid against them,” Kapash said, dismissing the matter with a flick of his fingers.

  Zainal handed Ladade the release form.

  “You know how abrupt such slave traders as Fartov are, lifting before he obtained my clearance for his cargo,” Kapash said, trying to shift some of the onus to Ladade.

  From Ladade’s expression, Zainal surmised that Kapash was not high in the station commander’s estimation or guilty of much fair dealing. Of course, Kapash would get a cut of whatever profit Fartov made on his slavery mission. He shifted his feet restlessly, wanting them to get on with the release of Kris and Kathy before they experienced too much trauma in the fetid hold of the slave carrier.

  “Please,” he said, trying not to sound too anxious. Zainal didn’t know Ladade except as a very competent station manager. “Let us get to the business at hand.”

  “Of course,” the commander said and gestured for them to return to the gig. “I have ordered Fartov to await clearance, which he will not receive until we have released the unfairly detained persons. I don’t know how you and Kapash settled this most unusual last minute rescue, but I do not like disrupting my schedule unnecessarily.”

  Zainal knew a request for a bribe when he heard one. He considered what valuables he had left and could think of nothing that might tempt the man. “Have you any suggestion, Ladade, as to how I might ease such disruption?”

  “You were to host an Eosi called Pe?”

  “You surely are not another person who thinks I know where Pe hid his treasures?” Zainal scoffed. “If his assistants had no idea, then why would I? I met him twice, I never hosted him.”

  Ladade looked unsure.

  “Besides which, don’t you two think it was odd that a Catteni Emassi was left in the common prison to be transported so opportunely for someone?”

  “But you were to be a host,” Ladade said, his eyes bulging with disbelief. Kapash made no comment. In fact, he held himself extremely rigid, a fact that suggested to Zainal that Kapash had been involved in his abduction in some way. Paid to ignore a Catteni in a mixed group, no doubt, since Kapash was notorious for his greed.

  “Someone,” and Zainal looked from one to the other, “evidently saw a chance to get me out of the way permanently.”

  “Hadn’t thought of that,” Ladade said, rubbing his chin in a pensive manner as he regarded Zainal steadily.

  “By the time I was called to be a host, I had already been dropped, and therefore I stayed.”

  Ladade regarded Zainal with veiled approval. Once again, Zainal wondered who had been on prison duty at that time. Possibly a vacillating member of the dissidents had betrayed him for whatever profit such information had reaped.

  “I do have one idea, though, which you, Commander, are remarkably well situated to explore.”

  “Yes?”

  “This station keeps track of all ships in and out of the system, as well as their destinations, does it not?” he asked Ladade.

  “You know it does.”

  “Have you never considered tracking Eosi ships to see if they made frequent stops at some out-of-the-way or unlikely port?” Ladade considered this, glancing at the personnel currently busy on routine duties. The three men had been speaking quietly and now both Ladade and Kapash glanced around to be sure that no one had been close to them when Zainal made his suggestion.

  “I would happily discuss this with you once my friends have been released,” Zainal said.

  “As I would be happy to discuss such a strategy with you, Zainal,”

  Ladade said. “Tell Captain Fartov that we are on our way to release two prisoners.”

  Then he peremptorily gestured for Zainal and Kapash to board Kapash’s gig.

  o~O~o

  It was awful waiting in the stinking dark, Kris thought, but she would not give up hope until—no, even if—the ship’s engines started up again. Zainal was resourceful. He would not let them be sent to a slave colony. But the waiting was terrible. And as everyone else in the compartment realized that they were being transported beyond hope or help, their moans and weeping were pathetic as well as contagious, and Kris caught back a sob in her own throat. Zainal will come. It was both prayer and litany.

  She felt a bump reverberate through the ship’s hull. More of an echo than a real concussion. As if a ship had connected with the airlock.

  Oh, Zainal! Zainal!

  She felt hands on her ankle, rough hands actually caressing her foot. She kicked against the grip as hard as she could and felt her foot connect with something soft. Someone groaned and cursed but the grasp on her foot had been broken.

  “Don’t do that again,” she muttered, her growl very determinedly Cattenish, as much from fright as lack of moisture in her mouth.

  Almost stunned, she heard the door to their enclosure slide open, the door guide grating against its groove, and a hand light shining in, flickering across faces.

  “Zainal?” she cried, hoping against hope that it was him and they were being rescued. Beside her, Kathy stirred and struggled to her feet. “Kris? Kathy?” an unmistakable voice called.

  It was Zainal! “To the right, Zainal,” she said, needing light to find her way among the tangle of bodies covering the floor.

  The hand light swept to shine on her and Kathy. Kathy, already on her feet, gave a little shriek of relief and fled to the doorway. Kris, her knees sore from the earlier fall, had more difficulty getting up. But Zainal closed the distance between them, clasping her tightly in his arms and lifting her out of the prison. The door clanged shut as soon as they were in the corridor. Zainal set her on her feet and gestured to the Catteni she did not know. Kapash she knew all too well, and she looked through him.

  “Commander Ladade, this is my mate, Lady Emassi Kris Bjornsen, and this is Emassi Captain Kathy Harvey.”

  The commander waved a blue sheet of paper. “You are officially released as unfairly accused.”

  “I told you we didn’t do anything, Kapash,” Kathy said, her voice croaking from her dry throat. She hated that display of weakness in herself. She would rather have stood unmoved by Kapash’s attempt to debase her.

  “You are free, are you not?” Kapash replied with a nasty smile on his face.

  Kris gave him a long, contemptuous glare. “We did not misrepresent our product and you know it, Kapash:”

  He gave a shrug, lifting both hands in a disarming gesture, suggesting that he had only been doing his duty.

  “Commander Ladade,” a voice crackled from the ship’s communicators, “to the control room. Ship X11-233 requesting permission to depart?”

  The commander gave a little smile. “If you will follow me.” He turned to port. They did, with Kapash trailing behind them.

  Zainal had Kris tightly by the hand, his thumb stroking her fingers. “Be easy, dear heart. I have wanted a chance to be in the control room. Hu
mor me.”

  It took all her concentration to make her legs manage the pace Ladade set and she suspected that both she and Kathy were operating on an adrenaline high that she hoped would last long enough to get them off this wretched station and safely among friends. But they were out of that hideous prison ship. They were safe with Zainal.

  Then they were in the control tower of the space station, looking out at the parking lights of ships. One set of lights was blinking, evidently to attract attention.

  “X11-233, this is Commander Ladade. Your affairs are now in order and you may depart.”

  The usual gravelly Catteni voice, remarkably polite, graciously accepted the permission. Within moments, Kris could see the flare of inter-system thrusters igniting and the ship ponderously moving toward full space—without her and Kathy aboard. She leaned into Zainal, almost fainting with relief. Kathy had taken the nearest free chair, ignoring a dirty look from a subordinate for such impertinence.

  “Where is it bound?” Zainal asked, as if he felt required to make some comment. She could feel the tension through his body and wondered what he was after. She realized that his gaze was fastened on the nearest screen.

  Shrugging indifferently, Ladade directed someone to bring up the file. Only Kris knew how important that file was to Zainal. She could feel the small sigh he released.

  “Zerion 28.4.32. One of the mining colonies,” Ladade said. “A resource planet that I believe you yourself discovered for the Eosi.”

  “I believe you’re right, Ladade,” Zainal replied equably. “I did discover the planet. Too bad it had such rich metal lodes. It would have been suitable to colonize.”

  “Please.” Now Ladade gestured for them all, Kapash included, to proceed to the portside door, which turned out to open into his private office, just off the command bridge.

  “Perhaps you ladies would like some refreshment,” Ladade said, all courteous.

  “Water would be welcome,” Kris said with great dignity, and he waved her to serve herself at the small catering unit. She poured two glasses of water from the pitcher and gave one to Kathy. She finished her glass, trying to sip slowly so as not to upset her stomach. Then, with a movement she hoped would be graceful, her sore knee barely supporting her, she sank into one of the chairs.