Showdown on the Planet of the Slavers

by Helena Puumala

  “I believe in what we in the SFPO Corps do,” he said to Arya with a sigh. “And I agree that I must go through the judiciary process, and be penalized for having allowed sentient lives to be taken on my watch. But, having said that, I can understand where Chrysalia and Lank were coming from when they targeted the ship’s life support like they did. How many chances are you really supposed to give some people?”

  “Maryse agrees with you already, and she hasn’t even heard the whole story,” Arya replied wryly. “Me, I think that there’s an occasional human being among us who should not even be classed as sentient.”

  She grinned wickedly, and Mikal shook his head at her.

  “Don’t go down that path,” he said. “You’re going places in our organization, and we need you to be a paragon of morality.”

  “Oh, I know. But, like you, like Maryse, like anyone else, sometimes I do have doubts.”

  *****

  When The Spacebird Two was ready to fly, Ciela took the last sack of the lace crystal shards to Max’s, and asked Sammas to look after their disposition.

  “The members of what was the Team don’t want any money for them,” she explained. “Part of this is payment for all the help we received from you, Max, and the staff. The rest, and you and Max can decide on the proportions, can go to the new Government, to help them with all the setting up that they still have to do, as well as keeping things running. Lank and I are going to be taking Chrysalia home after we ferry people to Lamania, so we’ll get more communications shards to sell. And later on we’ll be picking up her, and whichever Elder is to accompany her, to Mikal’s trial, so we’ll have plenty of opportunity to grow wealthy beyond imagining.”

  She grinned with the final words, and Sammas laughed with her. He had trouble seeing any of the Team members taking riches seriously enough to amass wealth “beyond imagining”.

  “They all seem to have better things to do than to make money,” he commented to Johanes, the Cook, when he told him about it. “And they seem to enjoy life much more because of that.”

  Meanwhile Mikal, Kati, Chrysalia, Jaqui and Shyla said their good-byes to the Waywardians, gathered what luggage they had and climbed aboard The Spacebird Two. The extra sleeping places in the living area were going to be put to use during this trip.

  “Arya is to be in charge of dealing with the snatched ex-slaves still on planet,” Mikal had told Marna Naez when he had introduced the two women. “She did an excellent job of that on Vultaire. Not to say that those of them that want to stay on Wayward can’t—always assuming you want them here—but she can explain what their rights are in the Star Federation, and about how Xanthus and Xoraya Hsiss are planning to give everyone a chance to contact a loved one from their before-abduction past, so as to give them a chance to reassure their families that they ended up okay, even if they can never return home.”

  Thus even that detail had been attended to.

  “I’m almost sorry to be leaving,” Shyla said as she entered the ship. “This planet can be a nice place when you’re not under the thumb of some powerful jerk.”

  “You’ll be able to come back easily enough, if you should want to,” Mikal told her. “Wayward really is within easy access to some of the old Federation planets like Lamania.”

  “Is that among the reasons why they never completely wrote it off?” Kati asked.

  “Partly,” Mikal conceded. “Although they haven’t been very consistent about that sort of a thing. Like, why are Tarangayans only just joining, even as we speak? Tarangay is just as accessible as Wayward is.”

  “You know, Lank and I have been shaking our heads at the inconsistency of things, as we have been studying the star charts,” Ciela said. “Much of the way things are arranged doesn’t make sense.”

  “Probably because the politicians—bless their souls—can’t read the star charts,” Mikal replied drily. “They just make the stuff up as they go along.”

  “We’re stopping on Shelonia to take a peek at Xoraya and her eggs, right, before we go on to Lamania?” Kati asked. “And the young egg-tenders, of course. Master Healer Vorlund is there, the last I heard, so maybe we can get our three young girls implanted with nodes while we are there. The safest way to do it, I think, is with the Master Healer on hand.”

  “I hear Murra’s learning to do the implantations, under the Master Healer’s watchful eye,” Mikal added. “Apparently he likes to do it.”

  “I don’t think that it’s difficult,” Kati said. “I could learn to do it without any trouble, I’m sure.”

  Mikal looked from the three young women to Kati, and back. He grinned.

  “Maybe you girls should give her a chance to show her stuff,” he said. “Under the Master Healer’s watchful eye, of course.”

  *****

  The site that the Shelonians and the Xeonsaur couple had agreed upon for the historic Hatching Grounds was not in the middle of a desert, after all, as Kati had expected, but on a coast, in an area which had once seen a lot of volcanic activity. There were broad tracts of volcanic sand, some of them forming beautiful, dark beaches which looked like they should have been crowded with bathers and sun worshippers, but were not.

  “Shelonia is fairly sparsely populated,” Mikal explained when Kati commented on the empty expanses, “and the planet is full of lovely places, many of them within easy access of the cities. We are on what’s known as the Dry Coast. The prevailing winds blow over the mountains, dropping their moisture on the other side of the peaks. Summers here are hot and dry, the winters just dry. Wonderfully comfortable for lizards, but not so much for Shelonians with their tendency to carry extra weight around the middle.”

  Even if the Shelonians found the climate of the Dry Coast uncomfortable, they had gone to a lot of trouble to create a pleasant oasis for the Hsiss family and their helpers. Several round buildings which looked like very large yurts had been erected on sand, next to a high cliff which provided shade to them from the worst heat of the midday. They were connected with wooden walkways, walkways which also extended to the part of the sand expanse which was under the sun all day long, and where the disturbed ground and colourful markers indicated the resting place of Xoraya’s eggs. As Kati and her companions approached from the area of windswept flat rock which had been designated as the landing area for vessels of all kinds, with her eyesight on its Granda-enhanced highest, Kati could see that there were several large storage boxes with hinged lids at the edge of the walkway beside the hatching ground. Several small boys in shorts, T-shirts, and sun hats had opened one and were taking what looked like knee-high moccasins out of there and putting them on.

  “Some of the helpers are going to turn the eggs,” she commented as she watched them.

  “I bet Xoraya and Xanthus don’t get to do any egg-turning,” Mikal said as he followed the boys with his eyes. “Those little fellows probably compete over who gets to do the turning for the day.”

  “Not compete,” Kati protested. “Those boys are the best-behaved children in the universe. They probably asked Murra, Xoraya and Xanthus to draw up a schedule, and stick to it like glue.”

  In the main yurt they found Xoraya, Xanthus, Murra, the Master Healer Vorlund, and several Shelonians who turned out to be students from the Institute of Esoteric Arts, the school where Vorlund had trained. There were also a couple of the boys, sitting next to Xoraya, ready to fetch and carry for her, should she want for anything. The rest of the boys were in the nearest of the other yurts, Murra told the visitors, entertaining themselves with the abundance of “Shelonian gadgets” for children that the hosts had thoughtfully provided for them.

  “So they don’t need me to lead them in sing-alongs?” Kati laughed.

  “Just go and offer,” Murra answered with a grin. “And watch how quickly the electronics get dropped in favour of your brand of entertainment!”

  Xoraya looked uncomfortable, and broad-girthed. Nevertheless, she had an arm around the boy nearest to her. There was a platter of fi
nger food on the table in front of her, and she was choosing tid-bits from it frequently, and slipping them into her mouth. Seeing Kati note this, she grimaced.

  “There are times when I envy the lizards that eat a rodent every two weeks and nothing else, even when they’re in egg,” she said. “I keep feeling like every bite I take goes directly into egg development; I barely get to taste it before it hits the processor.”

  “On my home world we used to say that a pregnant woman had to eat for two,” Kati said lightly.

  “Two, I could handle,” Xoraya sighed. “Two dozen is a bit much.”

  “Fortunately, dear heart,” said her husband, “you won’t have to do this again for another hundred years.”

  “By which time I’ll have forgotten the misery,” Xoraya agreed.

  “But I’m really glad you people came to visit,” she added. “You’re on your way to Lamania?”

  “Yeah,” Mikal answered her. “Kati also thought that this would be an opportunity to get nodes implanted into Ciela, Shyla and Jaqui. Chrysalia, I don’t think, wants or needs one.”

  “You think right about that,” Chrysalia admitted.

  One of the Shelonian students approached her.

  “You’re a Crystolorian, right?” she said. “Your people shape matter, right? The crystal that you exude from your bodies?”

  She noticed that she had an audience and went on to explain:

  “Crystolorians exude lace crystal from their fingertips, and can turn it into anything they want to, including buildings, pavement—anything that can be done with a crystalline structure. It’s amazing; I’m studying matter transformation and my class has been watching vids of Crystolorians doing their thing. I won’t ever be able to do anything even close to what they do as a matter of course, even if I practise for the rest of my life, and I’m considered very talented among Shelonians.”

  “It’s an inborn talent with us,” Chrysalia responded. “But I didn’t realize that there were vids of us doing it, anywhere in the galaxy. My people have been keeping to themselves for a long time.”

  “But they didn’t, once.” The student smiled at Chrysalia. “The vids are old—well, copies of ancient ones, probably copies of copies, which already were copies. They are treasures at the Institute; only the students in Matter Transformation are allowed to watch them, never mind handle them.”

  “Ah. The Elders on my world will be interested to hear that you have treasured information about us for a very long time.”

  Another one of the students brought out, from a storage cabinet a flesh-coloured link and a small knife. He displayed them to the Master Healer.

  “Did you want me to implant the girls, Master?” he inquired. “Or did you want Murra to get some more practice?”

  “Actually, it occurs to me that Kati might want to do this—under supervision, of course,” Vorlund said. “You are going to be staying in The Second City for some time, now, aren’t you, Kati? You could spend some of that time learning more healing skills—although I suspect that you have learned a fair bit during your travels, already, haven’t you?”

  Kati stepped over to the table beside which the Master Healer had seated himself. The Shelonian student brought the equipment there, and she could see that what she had thought of as a link, was, in fact, a long, supple bag in the form of a circle, filled with dormant translation nodes.

  “I guess I’ve learned to keep men from dying,” she said with a laugh, “and to help at least one woman to bring a child into the world. And just before I met you, Master Healer, I watched the Healer at the Transient Quarters in The Second City implant a node into Kerris. I do think that of the three tasks, the implantation is the easiest one.”

  “And you helped me heal Kerris’ hurts that time, after we met, on Lamania,” Vorlund added. “Yes, Vijold, I think we can trust her with this task. Give the things to her, and cover the table with the pad. Which one of the young women wants to be first?”

  Jaqui was there in a flash, with Ciela and Shyla following her a little more slowly.

  “It seems to me that this is an excellent environment in which to get an implantation,” Jaqui said with a big grin. “We have a Master Healer, and at least one Student Healer present, and Kati with her multiple talents and kindly disposition, to do the honours. Plus, the place is crawling with ESPers, including Mikal, whom, if he wasn’t already committed to Kati, I would certainly try to vamp.”

  She got a big laugh for that one.

  “I suspect that you’d have to stand in line to do that,” said Xoraya, after her silvery laughter had ended. “I noticed the way the human women on the both the Xeon Space Station and the Federation one looked at him. They definitely had vamping on their minds.”

  “Yeah, it’s a curse,” Mikal said cheerfully while leering at Kati, who had begun to settle Jaqui to lie on her right side on the table.

  “Curse, hah,” Kati said. “You love it. And you don’t hesitate to use it when you figure that flirting will get you the information that you happen to need, or want.”

  “That’s the trouble with this ESP business,” Mikal said, addressing the room at large. “I can’t keep any secrets from her.”

  They celebrated the successful implantations, the eggs, the great visit, and anything else which needed to be celebrated, by having a sing-along for all the egg-turners (who did drop their gadgets the moment singing was mentioned). The last song Kati announced, and the whole room sang, while Lank piped, was, appropriately enough, “The Mudball Song”. The children loved it.

  “I run through an alpine meadow

  A million flowers at my feet,

  I’m sniffing the clear mountain air,

  And oh! It smells so sweet.

  Chorus:

  “This is our mudball, our dear mudball,

  Our dear world, our home,

  Ours to care for, and to love and to cherish,

  And ours to roam.

  I promise I’ll try to look after our world,

  And I also do ask of you,

  That you’ll do the same, oh do the same,

  And please love it too.

  Please love it, too, you,

  Please love it too.

  ”I’m sailing across the blue ocean,

  I draw in my lungs the salty breeze,

  I watch the whales and the dolphins

  That play among the waves of the seas.

  Chorus.

  “I ride a camel ‘cross a desert,

  It’s hot, it’s tough, and I’m dry,

  But we reach the oasis by sunset,

  And by night watch the stars in the sky.

  Chorus.

  “I snowshoe across the frozen tundra

  All warm in my parka and boots.

  We get to the edge of the ice-pack,

  It calves bergs with creaks and hoots.

  Chorus.

  “I run along city sidewalks,

  Zipping by the kiosks and the shops,

  So happy I do a little dance

  At all the lights and the stops.

  Chorus.

  “I run through the trees of the forest,

  Amazon’s amazing in the rains,

  As are the north woods of pine and birch,

  And the rolling, grass-covered plains.

  Chorus.”

  *****

  The travellers invaded the Second City offices of the Star Federation Peace Officer Corps in great spirits. In Maryse r’ma Darien’s Sector they were welcomed by a group of old friends, interns readying themselves to go off to search out and bring back the slaves on the list which Jaqui, Lank and Mikal had obtained from Gorsh’s computers. Maryse interrupted her last lecture to the recruits to allow Joaley, Roxanna and Rakil to welcome Kati, Mikal, and Lank, and to be introduced to Chrysalia, Jaqui, Ciela and Shyla.

  “So you’re the fellow who pretty much ruined your chances of becoming a member of my staff by being the one to pull the trigger on Gorsh, his wife, and that vile Chrush,” M
aryse said to Lank. “Unless there’s some really convincing, mitigating circumstances....”

  “Oh there were those, all right,” interrupted Chrysalia.

  She spread her hands out, and extruded the needle sharp talons from her fingertips.

  “I had these on his neck,” she said. “And I would have sunk them in if he hadn’t done what I told him to, and taken out the life-support on that vessel.”

  “I would have done it anyway,” Lank protested. “I absorbed the contents of Chrush’s libris in which he stored all the information which he wanted to be sure to have—like his methods of physical rejuvenation. So I understood why he had to die, and I didn’t mind taking part in it.”

  “You had your node upload that into your brain?” Maryse shuddered. “We have the info in a computer, and I looked at it on screen, and that was bad enough. Lank, you seem fine to me, but if it ever starts bothering you, get hold of Master Healer Vorlund, pronto. That’s grim knowledge to live with.”

  “Lank and Ciela are going to ferry me home to Crystoloria,” Chrysalia said, drawing in her claws and putting her hands behind her back. “After he has introduced Ciela to his Second City friends, of course, so I’ll get a couple of days of playing tourist in this interesting place.”

  Ciela blushed, and Kati gave her a searching look. Yes, there was “something going on” between Lank and Ciela. She grinned. They would no doubt be taking over the Captain’s cabin on The Spacebird Two. The Captain’s bed was comfortable; she could attest to that—along with Mikal.

  “So no recruits for me, this time?” Maryse asked.

  “Jaqui,” Mikal said. “Shyla probably wants to do something other than chase bad guys, but Jaqui helped us a lot in bringing down Gorsh. She’ll make an excellent Agent, mark my words.”