Power Play

by Anne McCaffrey

  “Hmmm,” Dinah O’Neill said under her breath just loudly enough that Yana heard her. “That’s quite a display they’re putting on. Didn’t know animals acted like that. Showing off like cadets who’ve just got their pilots’ licenses.”

  Yana shot her an enigmatic smile, as enthralled by the rearing, bucking, biting antics of the males as Dinah. The sleds with their teams of wagging, howling dogs slewed to either side of the trail and broadened their circle around the hole while Muktuk led his mare forward.

  “Why don’t they just use ice saws?” Diego asked.

  Behind her hand Bunny said, “First ’cause I think Cousin Muktuk is showing off for Cousin Dinah’s benefit, and second, because it’s said that the curly-corns can judge ice so well they can play tag on the ice pack during breakup and never once fall in.”

  “Fascinating!” Dinah-Two-Feet said.

  Yana was both amused and appalled, watching this laughing tourist who had assisted in their kidnapping, stood by while Megenda struck both Diego and Bunny, and, according to the kids, had been a party to the murders of the Gal Three repair crew members. If Yana had anything to say about it, as soon as that shuttle was out of the water and the crewmen out of the shuttle, crew and Dinah O’Neill would be put on ice with Megenda. Never mind “safe passage.” Petaybee had no kind of law and order beyond that which made good sense to most people, but Gal Three had plenty.

  Dinah O’Neill was laughing again. “Look at those creatures go! I’ve never seen a unicorn before, Muktuk. Is it true they only like virgins?”

  Muktuk snorted with good-natured contempt for her ignorance. “Curly-coats aren’t proper unicorns. They’ll mount anything. Our Sedna here is mother to all three stallions and, since she’s bell mare for the Tanana Bay herd, they mind her right good.”

  To Yana, it seemed as though the activity of the curly unicorns was frantic, driven, and no more purposeful than to break through any random chunk of ice to reach what lay beneath. The remarkable result was that the effects of their seemingly random efforts were beginning to show. They had made it into some sort of a game, spurred on by Sedna, who went from one to the other, like a foreman, so that every muscular ripple was a challenge to do better; every thrust and gouge of a horn was accompanied by a snort of derision for the others; every stamp of the hoof broke through a newly dislodged block of ice and sent it bouncing off the trapped shuttle into the black waters below.

  In less than an hour, during which Dinah, Diego, and Yana were bundled into sleds, the shuttle floated free of the ice. It bounced out of its trap in a wobbly fashion. Then the crew fired up the engines and landed it beyond the ice at the position of the outermost dogsled.

  If a shuttle door could open timidly, this one did. Dinah O’Neill was there to greet them.

  “Come on out, gentlemen. Throw down your weapons. I’m afraid we’re surrounded by superior firepower.”

  A slight variation of the facts, of course, although Dinah did have her own laser pistol pointed at her. And truth was served when the crew, having thrown out their hand weapons, found them turned purposefully on themselves as the Petaybeans augmented their harpoons, drawn bows, hunting knives, and the two simple ballistic firearms with the sophisticated weaponry. With the crew in custody, Dinah began to climb the ramp, but Muktuk caught one arm, Yana the other.

  “I wouldn’t dream of taking you away from either your crew or your newfound family when you’ve just got here, Dama,” Yana said sweetly. “I’ve flown this class shuttle all over the galaxy. I’m sure Sean and I can manage. You join the others.”

  “Oh, curses! Foiled again, I suppose,” Dinah muttered. “But, very well. Have it your way. Muktuk, Chumia, you did promise to share the family history with me and I have a bit to tell you. Shall we return to your lovely home and thaw out?”

  “Coaxtl says there is a storm coming, Captain Johnny,” ’Cita said. “She says that if all will follow me, one at a time, she will lead us to a warm place of safety.”

  Zing Chi looked down at her scornfully. “This is no time for childish prattling. You people obviously indulge your children so much that they feel they may interrupt adults dealing with such a crisis.”

  ’Cita couldn’t help herself. Her wicked streak surfaced.

  “They do not indulge children! I should know. I have been beaten well and often, as I so frequently deserve. But the words I spoke were the words of Coaxtl, and no one beats Coaxtl. And Captain Johnny would not have a crisis to deal with if you had not caused it! I may be unworthy and a mere child, but you are a wicked, greedy man and very impolite, as well, to come to the Home and take things without asking!”

  Zing Chi spat disgustedly. “Your pardon, Captain. I didn’t realize the child was mentally unbalanced.”

  But Captain Johnny gave him the same sort of look Zing Chi had given ’Cita and asked her, “Would Coaxtl know if it would be safe for me to fly?”

  ’Cita asked and reported the answer. “She says there will be strong winds and much snow and all will be whiteness. We must follow now to find the safe place.”

  “In other words, no flying. Loncie, Pablo, you heard? What do you think?” Johnny asked.

  “Follow your lion, muchacha,” Loncie told ’Cita approvingly. “We will follow you.”

  “We won’t,” Zing Chi declared. “You think I am fooled by your notion that animals talk? That animals know things that humans don’t? Especially about flying conditions. This is a trick to separate us so we can be taken, and it does not work with Zing Chi. Those animals are only waiting until we separate so that they can pick us off more easily.”

  ’Cita had had quite enough of this rude and grabby man. She pushed through the crowd to Coaxtl, who easily cut a swath from the outer ring of animals through the huddle of people. Behind her, ’Cita heard Johnny say, “Oh, no, Zing Chi. As far as the polar bears are concerned, larger groups are a more satisfying entree. But suit yourself. I’m following the cat and,” he added, raising his voice to shout over the wind, “if any of you other folks want to get in out of the cold before a big storm comes, follow us, one at a time!”

  Hurry, Youngling, the place is far and time is short, Coaxtl said.

  ’Cita felt the warm softness of another, smaller cat brushing her legs and twisting about her ankles, and then the prickle of claws on her thigh. She looked down into the gold coin eyes of a lion cub.

  Behind her, a voice said, “It wants to go with you. I will, too. I don’t care what the others are doing.”

  ’Cita looked back and saw the boy she had glimpsed from the copter. He was bending over to stroke the cub. She nodded and Coaxtl preceded her back through the throng to the copter, where Johnny, Loncie, Pablo, and the others from Bogota fell in behind herself and the boy. Zing Chi was shouting at his people that it was all a trap. Not that there was another option open, for the circle of animals closed tighter and tighter around the people, funneling them in behind ’Cita’s group.

  As Coaxtl reached the outer edge of the humans, she stepped forward, ’Cita following, and marched with great unconcern between two long ranks of animals with fetid breath, white teeth, and shining eyes.

  24

  Yana had Louchard’s shuttle pilot—prompted by a saccharine order elicited from Dinah-Two-Feet—run her through the checklist to be sure there weren’t any surprises on this slightly-less-orthodox-than-usual vessel.

  Then Marmion, Namid, Bunny, Diego, and the villagers began the trek back to Tanana Bay with their prisoners. Muktuk suggested that Marmion and Namid ride back on curly-coats, an exercise that enchanted Marmion and caused Dinah O’Neill to protest.

  “I don’t see why I can’t ride one of those lovely creatures,” she cried, with a flirtatious appeal to her new kinsman. “Muktuk, dear, you did say they were not the virgin-exclusive sort of mythical-beastie unicorns, and I am quite a good rider.”

  “I’m sure you are, cousin,” Chumia said firmly before her mate could be cajoled. “But since you’ve fallen in with evil c
ompanions who are known to be a bit free with other folks’ property, we’d like to get to know you better before we entrust one of our curlies to you.”

  Dinah opened her mouth and closed it again, nonplussed, then allowed herself to be bundled onto one of the sleds. She did sufficiently recover her aplomb after being so uncompromisingly confronted to complain in an exaggerated whine that a dogsled was not the same thing as a unicorn ride at all.

  On board the shuttle, Yana used the pirate comm unit to monitor the Intergal satellite. Not only would it still be night for another six hours at Bogota, but the whole of the southern continent was wrapped in a massive blizzard, making flying inadvisable.

  “I could try,” she said. “I hate to leave ’Cita in the lurch.”

  Sean thought for a moment and shook his head decisively. “No. Johnny’s there and the copter, and Coaxtl won’t let anything happen to her. If those two can’t take care of her, we won’t add much to the equation, especially with you half-frozen and about to drop.”

  So they bedded down on the shuttle, happily warming each other, to await a more appropriate time to start their journey. They didn’t get to sleep immediately: they had been parted a long time for newlyweds. Nanook, who had insisted on staying with them, discreetly adjourned to the next cabin.

  When they awoke, Yana checked the comm unit again, once more monitoring the Intergal Station for a weather check. Though they’d land in daylight now, the weather was no better; but they decided not to delay any further. After all, they had the map that Petaybee itself had presented to them, indicating all the trouble spots, and Sean knew the coordinates of Bogota. In a shuttle of this class, it was not a long journey, but their destination was lost in the swirling mass of a first-rate late-spring blizzard.

  “I’m a good pilot,” Yana insisted to Sean as she fought the controls. The winds buffeted the sturdy spaceworthy shuttle. “But I was too preoccupied to pay much attention to my surroundings the last time I was here. What am I looking for exactly?”

  “A cluster of buildings . . .”

  “Which I can’t see in what is virtually a whiteout.” There was a slight edge to her voice, because Yana was prudently aware of her limitations. Piloting a shuttle when you could see where you were going, even if you didn’t know what you were looking for, was one thing. Flying blind over unfamiliar terrain in these conditions without a beacon to set you down was another.

  “Put us down anywhere. Nanook’ll reconnoiter,” Sean said understandingly.

  “He’ll know where we are?”

  “He’ll be in touch with Coaxtl. And while Coaxtl may not know where we are, he’ll know where he is, and can give Nanook directions in—er—cat terms, I suppose.”

  “Which you will then translate to coordinates I can follow, huh?” Yana shook her head in doubt, glancing from the white-on-white outside and back to Nanook.

  Sean gave her one of his slow cryptic smiles. “He operates best in these conditions.”

  The shuttle sank a little farther, settling into the snow. Nanook was already at the shuttle lock. He gracefully leapt out and almost instantly disappeared from view; only a thrashing of the snow in his path indicated his direction.

  Yana looked over at Sean. “Now what do we do?”

  Sean grinned. “Wait.”

  With a bit of chopping and changing, Tanana Bay folks were able to find enough warm clothing to equip Dinah, Megenda, and the two pirates most recently freed from the shuttle. Their clothing was only suitable to the controlled environment on spaceship or shuttle. In helping Dinah, Marmion felt a heavy rectangle under Dinah’s light jacket and, with a sleight of hand worthy of a less respectable profession, slipped it out of the pocket. Then, with a flurry, she began to hustle Dinah and the crew down the stairs into the communion place with the sure knowledge that they could not escape. Nor would Dinah have the time to realize she was without that device, whatever it was.

  “That should keep them safe,” Muktuk said, flipping the rug over the trapdoor.

  “And undoubtedly change their attitudes,” Sinead said with great satisfaction. “With so many types coming down to see what Petaybee has to offer, maybe the first thing we ought to offer them is communion time.”

  “I’m hoping,” Marmion said to Namid as the table was replaced, “this will do Dinah a world of good. She’s not all bad. She certainly tried to make things easier for us with Captain Louchard.”

  Namid gave a rueful smile. “She has her points.”

  Then Marmion hefted the object she had taken from Dinah. “A little too heavy for a comm unit, wouldn’t you say, Namid?”

  He got one good look at it and pushed her hands to return the device to her pocket. “Later, Marmion. Later,” he murmured urgently, and then smiled broadly at the other folks in the crowded room.

  It took time to sort out who would bunk where in the small village of Tanana Bay. Ultimately, after a cup of soup “to warm bodies for a cold night,” Bunny and Diego went with one family, and Liam and Sinead with another, while Marmion and Namid were given the Sirgituks’ cabin to themselves, as everyone was of the opinion that at least the good Dama Algemeine deserved what privacy Tanana had to offer.

  When they had been installed, new furs supplied for the beds, and the fire freshened for the rest of the cold night, Marmion and Namid were left on their own. Namid sprang to the window and watched to be sure their hosts were all dispersed to their separate accommodations. Then with a sigh of relief, he nodded to Marmion, who gingerly deposited the heavy unit on the table.

  “What is it that had you in such a panic, Namid?”

  “I think it’s a portable holo unit,” he said. He hovered, looking at it from all angles and touching the control plate with a careful fingertip. “I can’t imagine why . . .”

  His fingertip was not quite careful enough and inadvertently he activated the display. Suddenly the image of Captain Onidi Louchard solidified in and around the table. The creature just stood there, inanimate, while Marmion and Namid looked at each other, open-mouthed.

  “It was on Dinah?” Namid recovered enough to ask.

  “Dinah!”

  Tentatively, Namid picked up the broadcaster and suddenly he was enveloped in the image of Captain Louchard.

  “Well, what about that!” Marmion exclaimed, delighted and appalled at the same time. “Why, that woman had us all hoodwinked. When I think of the games she played with us as Dinah, when all the time she was also Louchard . . .” Words failed Marmion.

  “Not to mention how she manipulated her crew,” Namid-Louchard said in a deep bass voice, with an odd inflection to both tone and words. “No wonder no one ever caught sight of the infamous Captain Louchard.”

  Marmion laughed—giggled, actually—and sat down to enjoy her mirth. “Really, Namid. I never would have suspected. She’s a consummate actress.”

  “Among other things,” Namid said in a sterner tone as he switched back to his own self and replaced the device on the table. “She never wore it in my presence, but then, she wouldn’t have needed to be Louchard to her husband.”

  “Not unless you turned into a wife-beater.”

  “Oh, that had happened to her, too. I saw the scars,” Namid replied gravely. He sighed, prodding the device with a finger, then waved his hand to dismiss it all. “So what do we do about this discovery?”

  Marmion had obviously been pondering the same question. She tapped her cheek with one finger. “It will take some heavy thinking, and I’m suddenly much too tired to do any more tonight.” She glanced wistfully at the bed. “And don’t suggest that you take the floor, Namid,” she added firmly, but her smile was suddenly demure.

  “I was about to be the gentleman, Marmion,” Namid said, but his mouth and eyes smiled.

  “Gentle, yes, man, yes, but . . .” The uplift to the final word was all the invitation Namid required to be both, in the right order.

  One could only watch and wait and, sometimes, sleep, while the humans made themselves at home.
Through the howling winds one had brought them safely here, through snow like swarms of icy insects biting into one’s eyes, ears, and nose. Even with the watchfulness of the Others, some had slipped between their reluctant guardians to wander, freeze, and die. They would not be found before the snows had melted once more.

  Coaxtl and the youngling were at rest. The metal bird’s master was at rest, as were the cave dwellers of Bogota. Inside the Home, the hot spring burbled warmth throughout. Outside the snows swathed the world with seas of white growing deeper by the moment. At the entrance of the cave, the bears humped like living drifts away from the warmth of the inner cave. The other clouded leopards, the snow lions, the white tigers, the lynx and bobcats, waited out the storm within the cave as well, crowding the humans deep within the inner chambers of the Home.

  Some, like the young male with the cub, stared with open delight at the Home, hearing its singing in his blood, seeing its colors inside his eyes, vibrating with its rhythms. The youngling and her ken smiled in their hard-won sleep.

  As for those others, though! The noises they made as they flailed about were so shrill and penetrating that at last one was forced to put one’s paws over one’s ears to achieve any rest.

  Namid slipped gently from Marmion’s bed, put more wood in the stove, and, after a few false starts, stirred up the fire in the fireplace. Then he donned his borrowed warm clothing, long underwear, heavy woolen socks, woolen pants, shirt, leather sheepskin-lined boots painted with beaver oil for water resistance, scarf, hat, mittens, and parka. Into the pocket of his parka, he slipped the holo disk. Then with a last lingering look at his sleeping lover, he opened the door and walked out into the pastel Petaybean dawn.

  He crunched down the wide track leading between the homes of Tanana Bay to the Murphys’ cabin, and let himself in through the unlocked door. He had hoped to be alone on this mission, but he saw that young Diego Metaxos lay in a sleeping bag with his ear against the trapdoor.