Showdown on the Planet of the Slavers

by Helena Puumala

  Seleni reached back to give his arm a pat.

  “Things are getting better, Max,” she said. “And your work has been instrumental in that.”

  “Hey, since we have some extra time while we’re waiting at the picnic place, I can explain some basics of good, cooperative government to you, if you’d like, Max,” Mikal offered.

  “I heard that!” shouted Lank from the back. “Mikal’s going to lecture! I can hear Kati groaning, wherever she may be!”

  The girls giggled, while the adults laughed.

  Mikal bit his lip. If only Kati had been groaning beside him!

  *****

  At that moment Kati was just closing up a small, portable instrument which she would have called a computer, but which the Granda called a libris, which she had been mining with The Monk’s avid help. Her murky jailer had told her that it belonged to the grandpappy, and had been left in the cabin for safekeeping. What Kati, ignoring the nodal communicator button which it had (proving thereby that it was a gadget of Shelonian design), had managed to see of its contents, so far, had her seriously wondering about the sanity of this grandpappy. Apparently he was obsessed with ritual and recipes that promised to extend the human lifespan, and some of the procedures and concoctions outlined were gruesome. One seemed to amount to the sucking up the life force of a healthy child, who then sickened and died, while his original life span was added to that of the rite’s practitioner. A potion to be consumed daily (in tiny amounts, thank goodness) to combat natural entropy apparently was made from the blood of a newborn babe—the blood let out of its body through the umbilicus which was never knotted.

  “This can’t be for real,” Kati had subvocalized to The Monk after reading that particular recipe. “It’s got to be some kind of satire. It’s beyond the pale.”

  The murk entity had been mentally eavesdropping.

  “Grandpappy is beyond the pale,” it had communicated, before The Monk had had a chance to comment. “And he’ll do anything to go on living. He doesn’t want to die; he absolutely does not want to die.”

  “What? Is he so afraid of the Divine Justice which we all must face on death, that he’ll rather go on living as an empty bag of shadows, year after year? Consuming other, younger lives while he’s at it, just to keep himself going on? Haven’t this world’s Planetary Spirits taken him to task for messing with the balance of things in such a blatant fashion?”

  Instead of answering the murk entity had suddenly communicated: “Papa just came into the yard in his flit.”

  The Granda had told her to turn off the device, forsooth, and to set it aside. Kati had complied, guessing that curiosity about this grandpappy would not meet with Gorsh’s notion of what was allowable in a chattel.

  Thus, when Gorsh entered, she was clicking through the channels of the cabin’s vidfeed system. The machine seemed as sophisticated as the ones she had become familiar with on Lamania; she could have tapped into it, too, nodally. But there was nothing new on it, apparently; what offerings Kati had a chance to glance at were old story loops, and interactive games.

  “Probably not hooked to the planetary entertainment networks,” the Granda had time to mutter inside her mind before Gorsh made it through the door. “If there are compatible networks on Wayward.”

  She realized that she was trembling with anxiety as she handled the vidfeed controller; the thought of having to “be nice” to Gorsh was making her sick to her stomach.

  “Buck up, woman,” she told herself. “If Jaqui can live through it, you can, too.”

  “You won’t have to,” subvocalized the murk entity. “I will keep him from touching you.”

  Kati was not sure whether to take comfort from that. What could the murk entity do to keep Gorsh from mauling her? And why did it even care what happened to her physically?

  “Well, well, well,” said Judd Gorsh in hearty tones, when he entered the room. “So the Federation’s favourite Adventuress is checking out the vidfeed. I’m afraid that there’s not much fun to be had there, and certainly nothing in the way of news. That machine is not compatible with what little of that sort of communication system exists on this planet. What’s stored on it is what Milla and I have picked up on our travels, for our own entertainment. Milla tends to like romantic stories, so there are those aplenty. Me, I like crime stories and games that I can participate in. There are also, if you’re interested, several clips of erotica.”

  Kati turned the thing off, and dropped the controller on the nearest table.

  “I think that I’ll skip any erotica,” she mumbled, her eyes on the floor, and trying to keep her body from shaking.

  Mikal had called her a prude on occasion, she recalled, feeling tears stinging behind her lashes. Maybe she was, although that had never got in the way of her enjoyment of his lovemaking, and he had seemed to consider the term more of a private joke between them than anything else.

  She realized, however, that there was no way that she could play the vixen to Gorsh, the way Jaqui had been doing for the last some days. It was strange, she mused, how something that she hungered to receive from Mikal, could seem sickening when offered by the man now standing in front of her. She raised her eyes enough to catch a glimpse of his burly lower body; under the flimsy Waywardian summer slacks the fact that he was pleased to look at her was obvious—or else “he had a gun in his pocket”, she thought wryly.

  “That’s a good one,” subvocalized The Monk, while the murk entity chortled.

  “It’s an old one,” Kati mentally muttered, swallowed, and raised her eyes to look at Gorsh’s face.

  He reached to caress her neck. And pulled back his fingers abruptly, even as the sound of static electricity zapping came from them. Kati felt nothing.

  “What did you just do?” Gorsh asked, staring at his hand.

  “Me?” Kati stared at him. “I didn’t do anything. What happened?”

  “I got an electric shock from you. A strong one,” Gorsh said.

  “Is it that dry in here?” Kati asked. “Doesn’t dryness cause the build-up of static electricity?”

  “I guess. But it’s never been dry enough for that in here, before. Not ever, for as long as I’ve been using this place. Are you sure you didn’t do something with your famed psi-powers?”

  Kati shrugged.

  “If I did, I did it without knowing that I was doing it,” she replied. “What happened wouldn’t have something to do with the protective envelope which keeps my psi-powers inoperable, would it?”

  “I told you that I wouldn’t let him touch you,” subvocalized the entity in question.

  “Surely not,” muttered Gorsh. “The Cellar Creature, including its off-shoots, is my servant. It does my bidding, and does not set itself up to oppose my wishes.”

  “Papa is an idiot,” subvocalized the murk entity, in what came through as sing-song tones. “Papa thinks that I’m the servant, and he’s the master. That’s not so; Papa is an idiot.”

  Gorsh reached his hand towards Kati again. This time he was going to caress her face and her chin. The shock he got this time was stronger than the last one; he shook his hand vigorously after pulling it back.

  Kati stood perfectly still in front of him, trying to figure out how to deal with the situation.

  “Well, you’re the person with the psychic abilities,” Gorsh suddenly snapped at her. “Can you ask the Cellar Creature fragment what it wants?”

  “I can try.”

  Kati drew a couple of deep breaths.

  “So, what do I tell him?” she subvocalized.

  “Tell him that I won’t let him touch you. Add anything to that that you want to, but make it clear that he’s not in charge here; I am. I’m not his servant, and never will be.”

  “It doesn’t want you to touch me,” Kati said out loud, speaking slowly, carefully. “And it resents being spoken of as a servant. I think that you have a rebellious Creature on your hands.”

  “A Creature which obviously has fallen for you
r charms, as much as some of us human men have. Perhaps it has picked up the rebellious attitude from you, too.”

  “I wouldn’t know about that. Couldn’t that have as easily come from Milla? Or you for that matter? Neither of you is exactly accepting the status quo, as it’s to be found on Wayward.”

  Gorsh stared at her; then burst out laughing.

  “You might actually have something there,” he said. “You’re a bright woman, Kati of Terra! But be that as it may, I guess that I’ll have to get in touch with that miserable old man, Chrush, to inject some sense into this bit of the Cellar Creature. I doubt that Mosse the Mage could deal with this, even if he was well. Besides which, he might just add one to the number of males who are keen on your ass, Lady Adventuress. I guess I’ll have to use the flit com to try and raise the old goat.”

  He headed for the outer door.

  “I’ll be back, soon, babe,” he added at the door. “The problem will have a solution, believe me.”

  *****

  Jaqui was not quite sure why the jini was herding her to the empty lot just outside Gorsh’s compound. She was not particularly adept at communicating with the Spirit fragment on her own; with the first jini, she had recognized that it had chosen to nestle with Shyla precisely because she was the more psychically receptive of the two. This second one had spent some time with Jaqui, but they had never grown to be what she’d consider anything resembling bosom buddies. But she was aware that the creature had her best interests at heart, which was why she was allowing herself to be led, and pushed, alternately, down the darkening street, and past the guard station whose occupant was familiar enough with her to pay only the most perfunctory attention to her. At the empty lot she realized that the jini wanted her to go to the central tree, and she realized that she was supposed to meet someone there.

  This was exciting. Maybe something was happening!

  Ever since the jini had come to hang around her again, she had assumed that something was up, but with Gorsh about, she had not even been able to acknowledge the jini’s presence, other than to let it curl up against her body, just inside her shirt, where no-one else could detect it.

  Under the central tree she and the jini settled down to wait; Jaqui trying to curb her impatience, while the jini cuddled calmly against her body. Jaqui had had time to relax enough to nearly fall asleep when the jini suddenly bolted, leaving her alone. Feeling bereft, she waited, trying to listen to the night noises, wanting to know if someone was coming. Then, footsteps; more than one person was coming towards her. She sat up from the curled-up position she had adopted, and stared into the dark in the direction of the sound. Sure enough, there was an occasional flash of light; some persons, carrying at least one flashlight, were approaching.

  Jaqui flashed the little light she had, to announce her presence and location. And then the jini returned, and shortly after it, three official-looking men accompanying Chrysalia, the woman who had dug the marker out of Shyla’s shoulder. The jini returned to cling to Chrysalia for a moment, but as soon as the group reached Jaqui, it cuddled up against the girl’s body once more.

  “Nabbish, Kortone and Gerr, officials of the Government of the Continent Nord,” Chrysalia introduced the men. “And this is Jaqui, who is doing excellent undercover work on Judd Gorsh’s compound.”

  “Pleased to meet you, Jaqui,” Nabbish said, grabbing her hand in the greeting of equals. “I gather that you’ve collected a few fans for the work you have been doing.”

  Jaqui’s eyes grew wide.

  “I do—the best I can,” she stammered.

  “Which has been pretty good,” Chrysalia said, smiling broadly. “And now we’re going to ask you to do a little more—with the help of the jini.”

  “I’ll try to do my best,” Jaqui said, looking a bit dubious, as Chrysalia brought out the transparent bag with the wired-up crystal fragment.

  “Our geniuses, Lank, and his home world pal, Ciela, wired up this little chunk of lace crystal in such a fashion that it can be easily attached to one of the computers that Gorsh uses in his office. You did say in your message that they’re pretty old machines, right?”

  Jaqui nodded, staring at the little object inside the bag. She swallowed.

  “Got cold feet?” Chrysalia asked her.

  “No—not really.” But she swallowed again. “It’s just that I’m really not that handy with computers. And I don’t want to trigger Gorsh’s fail-safe again. The consequences of that....” She let the words trail into nothingness.

  “We quite understand,” Nabbish said. “And we don’t intend for you to get caught. If you do, we’ll have to pull you out, and that could get tricky. We’re not ready for tricky, not quite yet.”

  “Lank is going to talk you through the installation, via the jini,” Chrysalia said. “Jini, we need the demonstration. Get hold of Lank, and have him speak to Jaqui.”

  The jini curled up around Jaqui’s neck, warming it up pleasantly. It brought what would have been its head (had it been a true physical creature) to her ear, and suddenly Jaqui heard Lank’s voice speak to her:

  “Hello Jaqui. I promise to talk you through attaching the wee gadget onto one of Gorsh’s two computers. You choose which one you want to work on. Since they’re hooked together, it doesn’t matter which one we tap into, and I promise that his alarms won’t be going off. Stopping an alarm of an old computer is child’s play for me. And unless Gorsh knows where to look and what to look for, he won’t even know that his system has been compromised. It won’t even take long for you to do the connecting, what with me telling you what to do through the jini. Are you game?”

  “I guess so,” Jaqui answered, still a bit dubious. “So long as you know what you’re doing.”

  “I do.” Lank sounded quite certain. “But I will need your hands, your eyes, and your attention when we do this. So if you’re not with us, we’ll find another way.”

  Jaqui made her mind up.

  “I’m with you, and I’ll do it,” she said, stiffening her spine.

  She accepted the bag from Chrysalia, and slipped it into an inner pocked of the tunic she was wearing. The jini signalled its approval by exerting a warm pressure against the young woman’s neck before sliding under the tunic, too.

  “Just ask the jini to connect you to Lank when you’re ready to do the wiring,” Chrysalia said, and impulsively gathered the younger, but taller woman into a quick hug.

  “We’ll leave you to it, now,” she added, “but I hope that you realize that there are a number of us rooting for you, and Mikal wants to take you to Lamania, and introduce you to his Boss.”

  “You don’t have to go, however, if you don’t want to,” Nabbish said. “There’s work for bright young people like yourself, in the Law Enforcement of Continent Nord, too. And Strone’s not a bad place to live.”

  “I suppose that I don’t have to make up my mind about that quite yet,” Jaqui said. “At least, I’ll get this little job done first. Hopefully before Gorsh comes back from visiting the cabin on Milla’s Estate. I think that that was where he was headed when he left; I heard him say so to the Overseer.”

  The cabin where he had imprisoned Kati. Wonder how Kati was making out, Jaqui mused. She really was not the kind of woman who would be comfortable whoring, although a flirty come-on was well within her repertoire. There was something very sweet and innocent about Kati; Jaqui surprised herself by feeling protective towards the woman. She shouldn’t have to manipulate Gorsh the way Jaqui herself had done, and was prepared to do again.

  “She cooked me breakfast without me even asking her to,” she found herself muttering to the jini as she walked back to the Citadel compound, and Gorsh’s office, after taking her leave of Chrysalia and the law enforcers.

  She realized that she understood why Mikal was in love with Kati.

  *****

  “You look like life’s not going that well,” Jaqui said to Gorsh as he stormed back into the office.

  She and the jini had
finished the wiring-in of the shard only moments earlier. She had settled herself behind the office computer, which was the one she and Lank, through the jini, had decided was the safer one to work on, and had brought up some unimportant file on the screen, the moment she had heard the footsteps of an arrival.

  Somehow she was not surprised to see Gorsh, looking like a storm cloud had settled above his head.

  “That damn murk Creature in the cabin has fallen in love with Kati of Terra!” he snapped. “It won’t let me touch her! I called Chrush, asking him to make the frigging thing mind me, and the old goat had the gall to laugh at me! He told me to take care of my own love life, for crying out loud! That it wasn’t wise to fall hard for a woman who was everyone’s potential darling!

  “What are you still doing here, anyway?”

  He glared at her, and she hid the laughter in her eyes by looking down at the computer screen.

  “Just came in to finish organizing your files. The ones I have access to, that is. The ones I can’t get at, you’ll have to do yourself, I’m afraid. But if you want me to leave, I can go back to the dorm; whatever I haven’t finished with, I can always do later. There’s no time limit on file organization.”

  The jini was behaving in a very alert fashion, and Jaqui wondered if Lank was listening in on the conversation via it. The notion nearly made her burst into giggles. Gorsh’s privacy was fast disappearing.

  Then she was abruptly reminded of how randy the man could be. He came over to where she was sitting, turned off the computer, and pulled her up to him. He pressed his hard-on against her behind, breathing hard.

  “Let’s go into the back room for a bit,” he said huskily.

  Jaqui willed the jini to do a disappearing act; she did not need an audience for the back room session. She bit her lip as she allowed Gorsh to cup her breasts, and steer her towards the little room and the bed in it.

  The jini complied, and did a disappearing act.

  *****

  “Goddamn It!” Lank shouted, and banged his fist on the picnic table. “Is there nothing we can do about that shit-faced Gorsh?”