Doona Trilogy Omnibus

by neetha Napew

  Children are most intuitive. The Gringg value the same things we do, hold life as dearly. I find a great basis of mutual understanding already.”

  “I see,’ Hrrto said, slowly, realizing that he could form no alliance with this person. “Thank you, Hrrestan. It has been most instructive speaking with you.” Hrrestan rose and bowed deeply. “I am always glad to be of service.” Hrrto left the Government House and made his way to the grid in the heart of the First Village. The mist obscured his vision for a moment, matching the muzziness of his thoughts. Hrrestan had always seemed such a sensible Stripe, even if he seemed to have wasted his opportunities by being a mere co-leader on an agricultural planet.

  Furthermore, nothing Hrrto had seen or heard of the Gringg, even the unfortunate horse accident, contradicted their contention of pacific nature. The horrific tape shown to him by Spacedep seemed more and more of a fantasy.

  And they had purralinium.

  Throughout the weeks since the Gringg had arrived, Mllaba harped at him that revealing the Gringgs’ inherent evil would serve to propel him into his world’s highest honour. Yet he continually temporized and did not reveal the existence of that damning tape. If he was wrong, he was risking the destruction of a Hrruban colony. He had almost told Hrrestan about the tape. Would that omission cost lives?

  Few people of any species were in the corridor of the Federation Centre. Hrrto walked soft-footed into the Council Chamber and took the same seat he had occupied the day of the trade negotiations. The chamber was empty, for which he was grateful. He wanted solitude to mull over the conversation with Hrrestan.

  In the final analysis, Hrruba had to have whatever purralinium the Gringg had! He could even use that as his excuse for withholding vital evidence.

  “But why, Tom?” Todd asked, puzzled and unhappy. The emigration request Tom Prafuli had just handed him was possibly the worst document to cross his desk. A totally unexpected and unwelcome surprise Tom Prafuli pushed the sheets towards Todd. His solemn, dark brown eyes were mournful. “Just sign the emigration order, will you, Todd? Don’t take it personal.

  Get it over with.

  The colony administrator took the pages in both hands and met the other man’s gaze. “Tom, we’ve been friends for more than twenty years.

  We grew up together; we suffered through university exams together. I don’t want to see you take off on an impulse like this.”

  “It’s no impulse,’ Prafuli said, straightening his thin shoulders.

  “Sigrid and I talked it out all night, but a month of nights arguing won’t change our minds. We want to get off Rraladoon. We don’t like the change the neighbourhood is taking.” The colonist made a meaningful gesture with one hand, holding it high above the ground beside his head.

  “The Gringg?” Todd asked, astonished. “Tom, you’re one of the greatest proponents of diversity I know.

  The Gringg will make great friends and allies. They’re harmless.”

  “Oh, yeah!” the rancher said, bitterly, and Todd could almost see tears starting across the man’s shiny dark eyes.

  “Ask Crystal Dingo how harmless they are.”

  “Crystal Dingo?”

  “My mare. My prize brood mare that was. She’s the one who’s going to be cheval steaks and a tanned hide today. But my mare is just the beginning, isn’t she? I hear you’re giving a big, prime chunk of Rraladoon to those Gringg.” Todd stared. “What? Who told you that?”

  “There’s a Hrruban going around saying that you’re going to plant those bruin-monsters right in the middle of town, taking our land away for them, and fardle anyone who protests. I’m not one for racial or Species solidarity, Todd, you know that, but I think these Gringg are plain dangerous. Just like that Hrruban said. A lot of people are listening close to him, and what he says makes sense. I’ve been hearing worse, too. They’re killers.”

  “That’s bull,’ Todd replied staunchly, suppressing the rise of anger at such ridiculous gossip, “and you know it, Tom. Even if one of them wanted to settle right here, they’d have to take unclaimed land. That’s in both the Decision and the Treaty. You know how I feel about them, don’t you?” Todd put a little heat in his words because Tom had been pro-space port.

  “Well, there’s those that say you’re thinking of them before your own folk, Hayuman or Hrruban.” Todd eyed him. “If you weren’t hurting, I’d take exception to a crack like that, Tom.”

  “You can take what you like, so far as I’m concerned. You can give them my ranch when I’m gone.

  I don’t want to be anywhere near them. Let me go, Todd,’ Prafuli begged. “I heard through the bulletin board that they’re taking applications for homesteaders on Parnassus. We’re already booked on a ship heading in that direction next week.”

  “I wish you’d reconsider,’ Todd said, Sensing even as he spoke that his attempt was going to fall flat. “Snake Hunt is only a week away. We’d miss you if you left before it started.” Prafuli shook his head. “Thank God, because that’s how we can get out of here now, when we want to. I’m not the only one who feels this way, Todd. I’m just the only one who’s going right now.

  You ought to get out there and listen to your friends.” Without further protest, Todd signed and affixed his seal to the form and handed it back to the rancher, who left the room without saying another word.

  When the sound of Prafuli’s retreating footsteps died away, Todd got up from his desk and stared out the window for a moment. Usually the view relaxed him enough so he could think. The vast garden changing with the season, overlooked by the grand presence of Saddle Ridge was a most soothing view. This morning, though, the garden was flooded by a gathering crowd. Among them he could pick out the probable dissidents by their pallid complexions, somewhat scorched across noses and cheeks by the sun. All this past month there had been a steady stream of agitators, swelling the original numbers which Todd was sure Barustable had grided in.

  He really hadn’t thought they’d have much effect on dedicated Rraladoonans but Tom Prafuli had proved him wrong. Unfortunately Rraladoon had never seen the need for any exclusion policy for “undesirable’ visitors, much less professional agitators. Whoever had the money - or the interest - to come to Rraladoon was made welcome.

  Right now, with so many arriving for New Home Week and the Snake Hunt, and every Rraladoonan involved in those affairs, there wasn’t someone to screen the spurious from the serious. Wryly Todd thought that those who took in paying guests for the New Home Week festival would be making good money.

  He vowed that, once New Home Week and the Snake Hunt Festival, which was its finale, were over, he’d start weeding out the agitators on the grounds they were disturbing the peace. Which they were.

  As he watched, in full view of the crowd, some of these new “activists’ unfurled banners and stapled them to poles of green rla wood. Todd squinted to read the badly printed messages snapping in the light breeze: Gringg Go Home, Two’s Company - Three’s a Crowd!, Doona for Doonans.

  That last slogan was obviously contrived by Earthdwellers, since they didn’t even use the Current name for the planet. He hoped that not everyone in that large mob were agitators. Todd recognized many neighbours and people he knew from all six Villages. No one seemed to protest the waving banners and that saddened him.

  Once the banners were erected, the group hoisted the poles and began to march in a large oval, obstructing the pedestrian walkways to the building. Todd forced himself to watch several circuits, listened to them chanting their slogans, then turned back to his desk.

  His mail was full of messages of complaint: the Gringg were an unwelcome and threatening presence. He erased most of them as soon as he saw their content, stunned by the depth of ill-feeling. A half-dozen suggested that he step down from office immediately and allow a “responsible, right-thinking Terran’ to take over before disaster struck. Where had his wits been all these weeks? He’d been so convinced that the best possible outcome for all Hayuman- and Hrruban-kind was
to form a partnership with the new species that he’d ardently pursued that goal.

  Had he been so wrong to inflict his world-view on the rest of his people? Was his idea of galactic unity so unwelcome to the majority?

  Hrriss slipped into the office. “Arre you ready to go yet, Zodd?

  My father would like to take a few moments to talk with you beforr ze conference begins. What is ze mazzer?” Todd looked up at him, his blue eyes wide with confusion and hurt like a lost child.

  “The first real test of my government, and I don’t know if I’ve failed my responsibilities or not.” He told Hrriss about Prafuli’s visit. “I’ve forced my judgement on others, without caring what happened to anyone, or what anyone else thought.” He threw up his hands and paced fitfully to the end of the room, and spun accusingly on his heel.

  “You have not failed,’ Hrriss assured him. “Hrrestan has had such messages, too, and he is paying no heed zo zem.

  Zere is bound zo be malcontents who will not wait frr all to come out right. How many of zose messages were signed by Villagers?”

  “More than I like to count.” Todd felt suddenly unworthy of the office Hu Shih had ceded to him.

  “You always assume zat you are ze one who is wrong, Hrriss said, with a gentle grin as he opened the door.

  “Let me suggest a little experiment. Ask zese folk what zey zink.” Todd’s personal staff consisted of two Hrrubans and a Hayuman, whose work-stations were in the outer office.

  They looked up as Todd and Hrriss came out. The office manager, Kathy Hills, fluttered her long blond lashes at him in a demi-flirt, then stopped when she noticed his expression. Her large blue eyes filled with concern.

  “Todd, what’s wrong?” He wasn’t very sure how to frame the question. Anyway, these people were loyal to him personally. It was those who had no connection to him that he had to reassure.

  “Er, Kath, are you comfortable with the idea of allying with the Gringg?”

  “That’s a funny question,’ she said, a little puzzled.

  “Sure. Why?”

  “Well, I . - - Do you have any trouble having them as permanent trading partners? Neighbours? Friends?” Kathy laughed.

  “Well, I can’t imagine being closer to anyone than I am to my two best Hrruban friends. It’ll be a shade difficult,’ she added with a giggle, “to be on the same level as a Gringg but every one of them I’ve met so far has been polite and curious and really rather interesting.

  Need you ask?”

  “Well, yes,’ Todd said. “It seems I do need to ask. I should have done it before.” Mrrowan, at the desk across the room, exchanged pitying glances with Kathy and Hrriss, and shook her head.

  “Zodd, you can be so blind sometimes. We zrust yrrr judgement.

  We zure wouldn’t work so hard for you if we didn’t!” Barrough, beside her, his jaw halfway to the floor in amusement, nodded agreement.

  “We can’t be considered a good cross section in a random poll,’ he said. “But we get out and about when you haven’t got us slaving over hot consoles here. So we do know that the majority will follow you and Hrrestan.

  We elected you to succeed Hu Shih, didn’t we? And most of the people I know,’ and he turned to get emphatic nods from the two females, “think you’re handling a difficult situation very well. Any fainthearts don’t know how good they’ve got it here.

  “Thank you,’ Todd said, his shoulders relaxing somewhat, though the tight knot in his gut still remained. “I needed to hear that. I was half-convinced that I’ve been ignoring what’s been going on right around me. I’m not going to bull it through without the approval of the people who live here..”

  “And you are not, Mrrowan insisted.

  “Rraladoon exists as it does because we’ve always helped each other.

  You have had help from many people zese long weeks of zeaching ze Gringg to speak our language. Zose are not disapproving. It has been a prrject we have all shared.

  And enjoyed.

  “Tom Prafuli’s grg,) Todd said, still ashamed of that disappointment.

  “So?” Barrough demanded with a shrug. “He was never really a Rraladoonan. He only came here to hunt snake.

  We can do without his kind.”

  “And you’re letting that upset you?” Kathy demanded, screwing her face up in disgust. “You amaze me, Todd!

  Let it run off your back, the way you did the other stupidities that have been perpetrated. You’re on the right track.

  Don’t you doubt it!” Her expression turned fierce.

  “I second that!” Barrough and Mrrowan chorused.

  “But it is nice of you zo ask,’ Mrrowan added, dropping her jaw in a big grin.

  “I zold him he was mad,’ Hrriss said, his eyes alight.

  “No, they’re not exactly disinterested parties,’ Admiral Sumitral said when Todd consulted him on the matter, “but loyal enough to you to warn you if the matter was getting out of hand. So why are you letting one emigration give you second thoughts?”

  “It just made me realize that not everyone agrees with the policy Hrrestan and I have been following.

  I mean, bringing the Gringg along as quickly as we can, Opening our homes, our businesses, our lives to them, but are we doing the right thing for the greatest good of the people on the planet we administer?” Todd said, and paused.

  Hrriss grunted low in his throat but it was Sumitral who answered.

  “Would I,’ and the diplomat touched his chest, “have backed you so solidly if I felt you were not acting in the best interests of a planet which is very dear to my heart?” That rhetorical query wrung a wry smile from Todd.

  “You’d be the first to set me straight, I guess.

  “If I hadn’t firrrst,’ Hrriss said, twitching his nose and whiskers.

  “I admit that it can be unnerving to see people carrying such unflattering banners round and round your office,’ Sumitral agreed.

  “But surely you saw how many of them are not even residents?”

  “It’s the ones who were that upset me. There were letters demanding that I step down. Kelly’s reported rumours all over the complaint board.”

  “Pay no azzention to zem,’ Hrriss said. “Zey do not speak for ze majrrity’ “Do you, in your mind and heart, doubt the merits of what you’re doing?” Sumitral asked, leaning forward over his folded arms.

  “No! Not for a moment,’ Todd said. “Not for myself!

  But I’m not acting for myself any more - or alone.” Sumitral smiled. “You are acting for the good of Rraladoon and that has always been an instinCt with you, and with Hrriss. Remember that. Ignore the dross. Myself, I have trusted very few in my life. . . a survival technique.

  But I trust you, and Hrriss, and certainly Hrrestan. And oddly enough, I also trust the Gringg. Call it professional instinct.

  That’s why I’m backing you. And, to give you a little encouragement,’ Sumitral pulled up a file on his desk computer and swung the screen around for the two friends to see, “I’ll give you the straight facts from home world newsprints. Here’s the result of an opinion poll circulated by the Amalgamated Worlds Council on Earth.

  You see, in the beginning when the first data about the Gringg’s arrival began to circulate, a general poll showed seventy-five per cenr were against getting involved with them. But look at the demographics: most of them are old timers, who grew up when there weren’t even Hrrubans on the horizon, when settling space meant hardship and terror.

  The young people, between sixteen and twenty-five, were ninety-two point seven in favour of getting to know the Gringg better “Now, after the initial reports,’ Sumitral allowed a tiny smile to touch his lips, “and I might add, after a little judicious salting of news programmes with tapes of you two and other Rialadoonans interacting in friendly, non-threatening activities with the Gringg, teaching them Middle Hrruban and playing with them, there’s a forty per cent swing in the oldest demographics, and anyone under sixty is ninety per cent or better i
n favour of forming a Treaty with the Gringg. This is what I based my platform on when approaching the Council, and that’s how I won approval to offer them both diplomatic immunity and a Trade Agreement.” Sumitral tapped the screen with a stylus. “Don’t doubt yourself, Todd Reeve. You’ve the backing you need. And an interstellar reputation as a fine example of Hayumankind and a role model for aspiring youngsters.

  “Zere, you see?” Hrriss asked, whacking Todd solidly on the upper arm with the back of his hand.

  With such reassurances, Todd was finding it hard to hold on to his gloomy mood. Hrriss was grinning widely, his jaw dropped almost all the way to his breastbone “I’m not sure I like having an interstellar reputation,’ Todd said in a low grumble.

  “You should have thought of that when you were six,’ Sumitral said, with the ghost of memory limning a smile on his face. “Now, come, take your optimism into the negotiating room with you. You can deal with the rumourmongers when the job is done.

  In their dress uniforms, Sumitral, Todd and Hrriss shouldered their way out of the building past the protesters and walked quickly to the transport grid. Ignoring the cries at their backs, Hrriss set the controls. The mist rose around the three of them, obscuring the ring of dissident Hayumans and Hrrubans. Todd was never more grateful to see the plain white walls of the Federation Centre. He nodded a greeting to the grid operator, a young Hrruban male with a very pointed face and narrow-striped tail.

  “We’ll meet the Gringg on the landing pad, Sumitral said.

  As they emerged from the grid facility, they were surprised to see the crowds on the Treaty Centre grounds.

  A handful of Alreldep regulars in their maroon uniforms stood guard on the concrete apron attached to the building, around a grand table with three pens and inkwells but only two seats, for the public signing of the Treaty between Terra, Hrruba, and Gringg.