“We will know soon enough,” Hunnar said, “because the skyboat comes straight for us.”
September was right about its size. It was a large industrial transport vehicle, fully a third as big as the Slanderscree itself. The survival-suited figures that lined its railing hefted weapons that sparkled in the sun. No cannon, but plenty of rifles, each with greater range and power than the most modern hand beamer and certainly more deadly than anything in Bamaputra’s limited armory.
As they looked on, it floated effortlessly over the harbor gate to settle alongside the icerigger. Williams would have briefed its driver on where to hover. Then the diminutive schoolteacher was cautiously walking across the boarding ramp that the Slanderscree’s sailors extended over to the sky boat.
He’d survived the difficult two-way journey in good condition, only to find himself nearly smothered by the effusive greetings and congratulations of those he’d left behind. Cheela Hwang almost suffocated him all by herself.
“We ain’t going to get any answers out of him right away.” September grinned as he appraised the extended clinch. “Come on, let’s go over and see where he found these folks.”
Ethan followed his friend. “Maybe after a while each outpost automatically rates a small military contingent. Maybe they arrived in our absence just in time for Milliken to request their services and assistance. They could have come down as part of one of the recent monthly shipments.”
“Maybe.” September hopped off the boarding ramp onto the skimmer’s deck. Ethan followed.
Men and women of varying ages watched them quietly. Many chatted among themselves and ignored the new arrivals. All looked competent and professional. This wasn’t a group of volunteers Williams had recruited at Brass Monkey. These people were comfortable with weapons.
He continued to cling to his theory that for some reason a small military presence had been assigned to the outpost, until someone else emerged from belowdecks. At first he couldn’t make out the face because light flaring off a window temporarily blinded him, but he recognized the voice instantly. A moment later she saw him.
“Hello, Ethan. It’s good to see you again. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be saying those words.”
September grunted. “Now don’t this just take the cake.”
It was more eloquent than anything Ethan had to say. He was speechless.
She pouted prettily. “Can’t you say something? Here I drop everything to come back to this frigid place just in time to save your frozen neck, and I don’t even get a hello kiss?”
A powerful hand shoved Ethan toward her. He glared back at September, who only grinned broadly. “You heard the lady, young feller-me-lad. Kiss ’er.”
Ethan gingerly touched his lips to those of the woman who’d emerged from the interior of the skimmer. She pulled back, frowning.
“If that’s the best you can do I’m taking my people and going straight back to Brass Monkey. You can sit out here and play dice with ice cubes until your fingers turn blue.”
“Sorry, Colette. I’m still in shock a little.” He put both arms around as much of her as he could and bussed her good and hard. She responded passionately while the troopers on the skimmer looked on with interest.
September had sidled over to a tall, lean fellow about his own age who had the look of a Man in Charge. “Ethan there, he and Ms. du Kane go back a ways.”
“No kidding.” The soldier studied the on-going clinch casually. “I wondered why we were coming to a place like this. Ms. du Kane said she had unfinished business here. Always it’s unfinished business, but none of us suspected this was what she had in mind.” He glanced up at September. “You know her, too, then?”
“You heard about the time she and her paterfamilias were kidnapped?”
“Oh. You must be Skua September. Everyone’s heard about it. They’d make a tridee sequence out of it if some production company thought they could get away with it, but the missus won’t let ’em and she’s got too strong a legal program on her side. So it’s all true?”
“Yep. Every bit of it.”
“None of us are surprised she came through.” He nodded toward the embracing couple. “I’ve been with the du Kane family twenty years. She’s tough as duralloy, but not a bad boss.” He extended a gloved hand. “I’m Iriole, Roger Iriole. I’m in charge of the household troops, though most people would say bodyguards.”
September’s huge hand enveloped the slightly smaller one. “Thought it might be something like that. You folks couldn’t have shown up at a better time. How’d you get those past customs?” He gestured at the energy rifles.
Iriole shrugged. “Ms. du Kane usually gets what she wants. Apparently she knows what this world is like and she wanted to make sure she came prepared.” He turned and stared toward the city. “Mind telling me what’s going on? What you’re all doing here and why you’re so glad to see a bunch of guns? Your schoolteacher friend gave us a quick rundown on the way out but I confess I didn’t get much out of it.”
“Not real complicated. Just your usual case of genocide for profit.” He preceded to explain in as few words as possible.
Meanwhile Ethan and Colette had walked to the side of the skimmer that faced the Slanderscree.
“The old ship doesn’t look much different than I remember her.”
“Not much has changed. You haven’t been away that long.”
“Feels like years. That’s Hunnar Redbeard, isn’t it? And Elfa Kudrag…”
“Kurdagh-Vlata,” he corrected her. “They’re married now.”
“How is this union you stayed here to help get started coming along?”
“Well enough. Several important city-states are formally allied and others are debating joining.”
“Sounds promising.” A darker undertone abruptly slipped into her voice. “Milliken’s told me all about what’s going on here. We’ll put a stop to that right now.”
“It’s not your problem. Why not let the authorities take care of it?”
“Milliken’s worried about the time that would take and the damage these unmentionables could do in the interim. I don’t just live for commerce, Ethan. I have larger values just like everyone else. We’re going to put these people under citizen’s arrest and haul the ringleaders back to the outpost. Then the government can take over.” She indicated the crowded railing opposite.
“The Tran did well by my father and me. We owe them.”
“How is your father?”
“Hellespont du Kane died four months ago. If you’ll remember, Dad hadn’t been well for years. His mind wasn’t the only part of him that was failing, and dragging him across Tran-ky-ky didn’t do him any good. He was too far gone for any kind of transplant, but I don’t think he would’ve made himself a candidate anyway. He was tired. His passing wasn’t unexpected. I’d been running the day-to-day operations of the conglomerate for years anyway. I told you that.”
“I remember. You were pulling strings from behind the scenes.”
“It’s all out in the open now. Has been for four months. I liked it better the other way. Much easier when the old man was there to serve as a figurehead. He was a lot more tactful than I am. You probably remember that, too.”
He tried not to smile. “I remember you always saying exactly what you thought.”
“Precisely. That’s no way to run a major commercial concern. I need somebody else to talk for me, someone who’s experienced with business people and able to smooth ruffled feelings.”
He swallowed. “You haven’t, ah, bonded with somebody by now?”
“ ‘Bonded’? You make it sound like I’m looking for glue.” She glanced down at herself. “If I lost a hundred pounds, I’d need every one of these soldiers to keep the men off me. As it is there are plenty who try, but I know it’s just the money they’re interested in. The money and the power. They’re terrific aphrodisiacs, Ethan, but they don’t get you honesty.” Those piercing green eyes locked on his and wouldn’t let go.
“Actually there hasn’t been time for long stretches of contemplation this past year, what with all the fighting and unifying and exploring.”
“Don’t tell me I’ve wasted this trip, Ethan. I mean, I’m glad I was able to show up in time to help out and rescue the lot of you and save the planet and all that, but that’s not why I’m here. I’m formal head of the family du Kane now. I don’t have to ask anyone’s permission for anything. I know what I want.”
“You always knew what you wanted, Colette.” He smiled affectionately. “Ten minutes after you were born I’m sure you were telling the doctors how to handle you.”
Her eyes glittered. “I had to. It probably took two of them to carry me. Ethan, I need someone to share my life. You’re the only man I ever met who accepted me for what I am. Whether it was the situation or what doesn’t matter. You liked me for myself. I need a companion and a helpmate. I need… I need you. I’ve never needed anything else in my life.
“So I put all my business on hold and crossed a few hundred parsecs to ask you the same question you said no to a year ago. I thought that maybe after another year on this world you might be ready for some permanent luxury and relaxation. I won’t make too many demands on you.” She dropped her eyes and for the first time he had to strain to make out what she was saying. “I still love you, even if you don’t love me. But if you’ll give me a chance, I promise you I’ll do everything I can to make it work between us. If it’s a submissive woman you want or even a fully equal one, then there’s no chance. I wasn’t brought up that way. Blame it on my family, my father if you want to.” She lifted her face and stared into his again.
“But if you say yes, I guarantee you’ll never have to sell so much as a pocket communicator again and you’ll lead the kind of life most people only dream about.”
“Colette, I…”
“Whatever you’re going to say, give it another minute. It’s cost me plenty, both financially and emotionally, to do this. I’m not going to beg. If you say no this time, I promise you’ll never see me again. But if you say yes, boy, if you say yes, you’d better mean it. I can’t stand anything that’s tenuous or halfway. It’s all or nothing, Ethan. No partial commitments.”
He turned away from her to stare past the Slanderscree, letting his gaze rove beyond the harbor gate to the vast ice ocean. Was there anything more he could do here? Anything else he could accomplish for the Tran? If he accepted, he would lose his freedom, but Maxim Malaika had taken care of that by sticking him with a permanent position at Brass Monkey. So if he was so worried about his freedom, why had he taken that post? Because it offered the prospect of being able to retire in ten years instead of twenty or thirty? Hell, Colette was offering him the chance to buy and sell people like Malaika.
Wouldn’t he be in a better position to aid the Tran and their development as the titular head of one of the Commonwealth’s most powerful commercial families?
All right, so what if Colette was no raving beauty? So what if there was enough for two of her? She might be ample but she wasn’t unattractive. And how much did physical beauty have to do with living with another person for the rest of your life anyway? He was no tridee star himself. Life was what you and your mate made of it and you couldn’t, shouldn’t, prejudge it according to other people’s perceptions of what was good and what was bad, what was attractive and what was ugly.
When he turned back to her he found those remarkable eyes waiting for him. They were pleading even as she couldn’t plead aloud. He glanced across to September, found the giant smiling paternally and nodding slowly.
“What the hell. Of course I’ll marry you.”
She threw herself into his arms. The impact nearly sent both of them over the side of the skimmer. “Very sensible,” she told him. Then she gave him a quick, firm kiss and hugged him to her so hard he thought his ribs would crack.
A few of her soldiers smiled and decorously looked elsewhere. The Tran on the icerigger labored under no such cultural restraints. They let loose with a farrago of appreciative growls and roars.
Finally she released him, still intact, and turned toward Yingyapin. “That’s settled, then.”
“There’s just one qualifier.”
She looked back sharply. “What’s that?”
“I don’t want it to be a Tran ceremony.”
She looked puzzled, not understanding, while Skua September burst out laughing.
“Done. Now let’s take care of this slime that thinks it can make an inhabited world its private development. Want anyone else to come with us?”
“Cheela Hwang should come along to represent the science staff. And Hunnar and Elfa. Also a young Tran named Seesfar, who I think deserves to see that we’re not all motivated by self-interest.” He unsnapped the beamer from his belt. “I’ll leave this with Ta-hoding. With the firepower you’ve brought along, I won’t need it.”
“All right.” She looked past him. “Roger!”
Iriole came over and saluted.
“You know what’s going on here?”
The soldier jerked his head in September’s direction. “I have been briefed.”’
“What do you think about it?”
“If I may be allowed to say so, ma’am, it stinks.”
“You’re allowed to say so and you’re quite right. We’re going to make a few citizens’ arrests. We’re going to shut this operation down. I saw that they finally put in a deep space communications system at Brass Monkey. When we get back there I’m going to get on the horn. I know the counselor for this whole volume of space. We’ll have a peaceforcer brought in to haul the rest of these maggots off-planet in comfortable cells.” She shoved a clenched fist into the air.
“Tran-ky-ky for the Tran!” Then she added in a softer tone, “That felt pretty good. In business you can’t always be sure you’re doing the right thing. No such uncertainty here. It’s a nice feeling.”
Hunnar, Elfa, Seesfar, and Cheela Hwang were brought aboard, the Tran marveling at the prospect of flying not across the ice but through the air.
“Roger and his people will take care of things up here,” Colette informed them. “Why don’t you go below until the arguing’s over?”
“I’d rather stay outside,” Ethan told her.
“No way. I’m not having my prospective husband’s head shot off just after he’s accepted my proposal.”
“It’ll be all right. They’ve only got a few hand beamers over there. When they see how badly we’ve got them outgunned, I don’t think there’ll be much fighting. You might have more trouble with their Tran allies. They’re stubborn.”
“I remember that much. No offense,” she told Hunnar and Elfa through her suit translator.
“There is no offense in truth,” he replied. “We are stubborn.” He smiled, displaying sharp canines.
XV
BAMAPUTRA DID NOT LOOK toward the harbor as he turned up another of the steep switchbacks that led up the mountainside away from Yingyapin. He did not have to. Antal’s monocular had already revealed the unexpected presence of long weapons on board the unmarked skimmer. The new arrivals were obviously in league with his enemies on board the ice ship. His foreman had assured him there was no way they could win a pitched battle against well-disciplined people carrying rifles. All they could do for now was retreat to the installation and seal themselves inside the mountain.
Corfu accompanied them, wailing and raging at an interfering fate and wondering why they didn’t stay and fight.
“Better it is to die for what one believes in than to run and hide in a hole in the ground!” He was having trouble keeping up with the humans, whose feet were far better designed than his for climbin
g.
“A foolish and primitive notion.”
“They’ve got us outgunned,” Antal told him. He gestured with his own hand beamer. “I’ll explain it one more time. Our light weapons are not as powerful as theirs.”
“Then what are we to do?”
“First we make sure they can’t touch us.” The foreman nodded toward the entrance to the installation which lay one last switchback ahead. “We lock ourselves out of their reach. Then we bargain. They could probably blast their way in, but that would mean casualties on both sides. I think they’d rather talk.”
“Talk.” Bamaputra wasn’t breathing hard at all. “What is there to talk about? These are not government representatives. I do not know who they are but they are not that. Not that it matters. It is enough that they are friends of those whose destiny we once controlled. Their destiny was our destiny, and now that control has slipped through our fingers.”
“We can still try to strike a deal with them,” Antal insisted. “We can hold out till the regular supply ship arrives.”
“Don’t be a fool.” They had reached the cleared area which fronted the entrance to the installation. As they watched, the huge door rolled up into the solid rock, admitting them to the complex beyond. “We are finished here. The project is finished. They will communicate with the authorities. We will not be given time to reach our own relief ship. Now if there was a way to disable their skimmer…”
“Not a chance. They’ve got rifles down there. They can sit around and pick off anyone, human or Tran, who tries to get close.”
“As I feared.” They were inside the complex now. Curious engineers and technicians looked up from their work as their supervisors walked past. Corfu was already getting hot, but he followed anyway. He had nowhere else to go.
“There’s got to be something we can do,” Antal muttered. “If they take us back, it means mindwipe at least.”
“Better to die. The body lives on but the soul perishes.”
The Icerigger Trilogy Page 92
