gun, happily juggling micro-grenades with herfree hand.
"What were you waiting for," she snapped. "I have been in orbit overthis planet for a month now, waiting for some word from you. There aredozens of radio transmitters on this continent and I have beenmonitoring them all." She fired a long burst at an upper story wheresome bowmen had been foolish enough to appear, then ran to Jason, eyeswet with tears. "Oh, darling, I was so worried."
She held him--with her grenade-throwing arm--and kissed him fiercely.She kept her eyes open while she was doing this but only had to fireonce.
"Jason!" a voice called and Ijale appeared, half-supporting the stilldazed Mikah.
"Who is this?" Meta snapped, the chill back in her voice.
"Why--just someone I know," Jason answered, smiling insincerely. "Youshould recognize the man, he's the one who arrested me."
"Here is a gun, you will want to kill him yourself."
Jason took the gun, but used it to clear a nearby roof-top, thepowerful kick of the Pyrran automatic was like a caress on the heel ofhis hand.
"I don't think I want to kill him. He saved my life once, though hehas tried to lose it for me a dozen times since. Let's get upstairs tothe ship and I'll tell you about it. There are more healthy spots thanthis to have a conversation."
XII
Washed, shaved, scrubbed, cleaned, filled with good food and slightlyawash with alcoholic drink, Jason collapsed into the accelerationcouch and firmly swore that life was worth living after all.
"You can't appreciate the simple things of life until you have gonewithout them for a while. Or the better things either." He reached outand took Meta's hand. She pulled it away and fed more digits into thecomputer.
"How did you find me?" he asked, trying to discover a subject that shemight warm to.
"That should be obvious. We saw the markings on the ship that took youaway and charted a directional trace before it went into jump-space.We identified the markings and I went to Cassylia, but the ship hadnever arrived there. I back-tracked the straight-line course and foundthree possible planets near enough to have registered in the shipduring jump-space flight. Two are highly organized with modernspaceports and would have known if the ship had landed. It hadn't.Therefore you must have forced the ship down on the planet we justleft. And once you were there you would find one of the radios to senda message. Which is what you did. It is obvious. Who is she?" Thefinal words were in a distinctly chillier tone of voice, and therecould be only one she, Ijale, who crouched across the room, obviouslyunhappy and wide-eyed with fear at this voyage in a spaceship, notunderstanding the language the others spoke.
"I've told you before--just a friend. She was with us, and helped us,too. I couldn't let her go back to the life in the desert, it's morebrutal than you can possibly imagine. There is an entire planetful ofslaves back there, and of course I can't save them all. But I can dothis much, take out the one person there who would rather see me livethan die."
"What do you intend to do with her?" The sub-zero temperature ofMeta's voice left no doubt as to what she wanted to do with her. Jasonhad already given this a good deal of thought, and if Ijale was goingto live much longer she had to be separated as soon as possible fromthe deadly threat of female Pyrran jealousy.
"We stop at the next civilized planet and let her off. I have enoughmoney to leave a deposit in a bank that will last her for years. Makearrangements for it to be paid out only a bit at a time, so no matterhow she is cheated she will still have enough. I'm not going to worryabout her, if she was able to survive in the _krenoj_ legion she canget along well anywhere on a settled world."
He could hear the complaints on when he broke the news to Ijale, butit was for her own survival.
"I shall care for and lead her in the paths of righteousness," aremembered voice spoke from the doorway. Mikah stood there, clutchingto the jamb, a turban of bandages on his head.
"That's a wonderful idea," Jason agreed enthusiastically. He turned toIjale and spoke in her own language. "Did you hear that? Mikah isgoing to take you home with him and look after you. I'll arrange forsome money to be paid to you for all your needs, he'll explain to youwhat money is. I want you to listen to him carefully, note exactlywhat he says, then do the exact opposite. You must promise me you willdo that and never break your word. In that way you may make somemistakes and will be wrong sometimes, but all the rest of the timethings will go very smoothly."
"I cannot leave you! Take me with you--I'll be your slave always!" shewailed.
"What did she say?" Meta snapped, catching some of the meaning.
"You are evil, Jason," Mikah declaimed, getting the needle back intothe familiar groove. "She will obey you, I know that, so no matter howI labor she will always do as you say."
"I sincerely hope so," Jason said fervently. "One has to be born intoyour particular brand of illogic to get any pleasure from it. The restof us are happier bending a bit under the impact of existence, andexacting a mite more pleasure from the physical life around us."
"Evil I say, and you shall not go unpunished." His hand appeared frombehind the door jamb and it held a pistol that he had found below. "Iam taking command of this ship. You will secure the two women so thatthey can cause no trouble, then we will proceed to Cassylia for yourtrial."
Meta had her back turned to Mikah and was sitting in the control chaira good five meters from him with her hands filled with navigationalnotes. She slowly raised her head and looked at Jason and a smilebroke across her face.
"You said once you didn't want him killed."
"I still don't want him killed, but I also have no intention of goingto Cassylia." He echoed her smile and turned away.
He sighed happily and there was a sudden rush of feet behind his back.No shots were fired but a hoarse scream, a thud and a sharp crackingnoise told him that Mikah had lost his last argument.
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The Ethical Engineer Page 24
