Crisis On Doona (12 page)

“Forgive me, but the taste of the joke is but a little questionable in terms of the larger aberration, my dear Mrs. Lawrence,” said Varnorian, and he smiled again with that facile charm. “The real aberration is Doona. The cultures here are too different, too mutually exclusive. East is East, you know, and West is West. Never the twain shall meet.” He lifted his refreshed drink to her, certain he had had the last word.

“Oh, Shakespeare?” asked Mrs. Lawrence, fluttering her eyelashes at him. Todd knew as well as she that it wasn’t. Everyone on Doona was more familiar with Kipling, who seemed to “know” so much about their unusual situation. She continued to sip coyly at her glass.

“No,” said Varnorian patronizingly. “Not at all, madam. I believe it might be Strauss. Nineteenth century, not seventeenth.”

“Really? How clever you are,” Sally said, and linking arms with him, moved him out of Todd’s vicinity.

“What is Ssalllee up to now?” Hrriss asked, appearing at Todd’s elbow. Todd looked around for Kelly. “Oh, I left her in good hands. Is that Captain Buckman beckoning for you?”

“He’s had too much mlada already,” Todd said, not too pleased with matters.

“That is undoubtedly true,” Hrriss agreed after a moment’s consideration. “And here is someone else in even worsse condition.”

Jilamey staggered up to them with a determined expression on his face. The mlada he had begged of Kelly in the snake blind was only the start of his libations, though neither Hrriss nor Todd realized that. But he had consumed considerably more with his meal, which Todd had observed. That he was still standing spoke highly of his capacity. The young man was dressed in the most precious of modern styles. His tunic had appliqued gems arranged in a crisscross pattern at the neck to simulate lacings, and he wore frivolous boots with knee-high tops turned over to show their long fringes, which were also jeweled. “I’ve been looking for you for hours, Todd, to talk about snakes.”

“It’s a little early to talk about next year, Jilamey,” Todd said diplomatically as he touched the single ribbon on the youth’s medallion.

“Next year?” Jilamey blinked at him. “Ah, yes, next year! Of course. I’ll be back next year. I’m one snake up. Have a drink on that.”

“No mlada, I thank you,” Todd replied, smiling to defuse any insult. “I’ll stay with the punch.”

“Punch? On a night like this?”

“Frankly, Jilamey, I don’t really like it. It leaves a taste in my mouth of something long dead. I’ve got fresh raspberry-apple punch here if you’d like some. Homegrown fruit.”

Jilamey shuddered. “Thank you ever so, no! Mlada for me. How about you?” The youth turned to Hrriss.

“Neither do I drink,” the Hrruban said, dropping his jaw in a grin. “I have felt what mlada can do. Wait until you feel your head tomorrow morning. It will seem as though a ripe melon had replaced your cranium, and that every borer worm on Rrala is trying to drill through it.”

“That’s enough about worms,” Jilamey said, grimacing horribly. “I’ve seen the big kind too closely today. I almost couldn’t eat the meat at supper, but it smelled so good I got over it. That pretty Kelly told me I wasn’t gripping tightly enough to the saddle with my knees. I will exercise mightily, and next year, my knees will meet inside the horse before I fall off in front of a snake!”

“That’s the spirit,” Todd responded.

Jilamey took a steadying drink and held out his glass to be topped up. “You went through this how many years ago?”

“The first Snake Hunt on Doona
—
well, more of a snake drive
—
happened when I was six.” Tactfully Todd avoided mentioning how it came about. “We’ve had to wrangle snakes past our farms every year since then. We had to organize it because we were losing too many head of livestock to the snakes.”

“No, no,” and Jilamey waved a forefinger unsteadily. “I mean the coming-of-age ritual. You
caught a big one and brought it in. Pete’s been telling me and my friends all about it.” He swayed as he pointed over his shoulder to where Peter Ivanovich, leader of Team Three, lay sprawled in a heap of cushions, snoring.

“Right,” Todd said. Something in the young Landreau’s tone alerted Hrriss, who appeared suddenly behind the swaying youth. He caught Todd’s eye and looked a question. Todd shook his head very slightly. “The first one was only a tiddler. Eight meters. You saw a number of those today. The second one was a real whopper. Twelve meters and a little bit over.”

“I was there and saw it,” Hrriss put in. “A huge creature. It provided many days of meat for the settlement, and useful skin for other purposes.”

Jilamey’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t believe it. How did you catch something like that? It’s bigger than a house!”

“Careful planning,” Todd said, maneuvering Landreau toward a chair before he fell over. “This is a good time for a yarn. Let me tell you all about it.”

Jilamey listened carefully through to the end of Todd’s narrative, and then sat up very straight. He stared his fellow Human in the eye. “You’ve been rehearsing your story with the others. It’s a falsehood. That snake is almost as big as the one that tried to eat me. I’ve never heard such a load of ballast in my life. It’s exactly what Pete recited to me, almost word for word.”

“I give you my word of honor that the story is true,” Todd replied, shrugging away Jilamey’s disbelief.

“Space slag!”

Todd shrugged again. “It’s too much trouble to lie.”

“Twelve meters! Impossible!” Jilamey exploded.

“Well, it’s still on record,” Todd said, not wanting to get into an argument over what was a fact. Then he grinned at Jilamey. “I had to, you see. Hrriss caught a real big Mommy the year before. I couldn’t let him get an edge on me, now could I?” Surreptitiously he winked at his friend. “I broke his record but only by a few centimeters.”

“If you don’t believe him,” Hrriss added silkily, as Jilamey still looked skeptical, “see if you can find anyone who has heard it told differently. There are many still awake who were here when it occurred. And there is the computer link in the corner! The records are available from the Treaty Archives for anyone to read. The Hunt and its results are documented.”

Muttering, Jilamey poured himself another glass from the mlada bottle which Hrriss had managed to water down. Then he took himself off.

“What a head he’s going to have tomorrow!” Todd said, shaking his head sympathetically as he watched Jilamey’s wavering path toward the Archive room. “He didn’t contest
your
record.” Loyally Todd considered that omission a slight on his best friend.

“I expect no one mentioned it to him,” Hrriss said uninterestedly. “No one tells the story of the second-place Hunt. Listeners want to hear only about the first-place achievement.”

Sometime later, when Jilamey came back, Todd courteously extended the jug of watered mlada.

“No, no more for me, thank you ever so. I believe I have had sufficient for this evening,” he said, slurring words which were nevertheless courteous. “I must seek my quarters. How can you possibly look so ... so hearty?” His manner abruptly turned accusing.

“Clean living,” Todd said jokingly. “But I assure you that when I finally see
my
quarters, I shall not move for two days.”

“Yes, well, I checked your record—just to know the facts, you see,” the Terran put in quickly, with a shamed expression. “I apologize. I will never again doubt anything you tell me. Twelve point four three meters! How I wish I’d seen that fight.”

“It was a good one,” Todd said with quiet satisfaction.

“It must have been.” Jilamey smiled with genuine good humor. “You’re too much to be true, Todd Reeve, but I’d rather you beside me in the Hunt than anyone else I’ve ever met on any world.”

“Thanks,” Todd said, shaking the hand Jilamey held out to him. “It’d be an honor.”

Landreau shook hands with Hrriss, too, and staggered off toward the guest accommodations.

“I could wish that another of his stripe would reassess our honor,” Hrriss said.

“Let’s just hope that one suddenly doesn’t appear on any panel of inquiry you and I have to face,” Todd replied. “He doesn’t think much about Reeve honor and that’s all we’ve got: honor.”

A LOUD
clattering and the feel of rough hands woke Todd from a sound sleep. There were men in blue uniforms leaning over him, shouting in loud voices and shaking his shoulders. It revived an old nightmare he had had the first time he’d seen those uniforms, twenty-five years before. They were Spacedep marines, the same units that had accompanied Landreau to Doona, to round up the colonists so they could be sent back to Earth. For a moment he was six years old again, the giant snakes were being herded through the village under Landreau’s order, and his family was in danger. The Hrrubans, including Hrruna, the greatest, most important of them all, were behind him. He had to hurry to save the other Humans. He raised his hand to keep the soldier from grabbing him again to hustle him away to the convoy ship. An adult arm interceded, and the marine stepped back. Todd stared at the arm. Was it his father’s? No, it was his own. In
a moment, reality reasserted itself, and Todd calmed down. He was grown-up and could protect himself. There was no need to assume immediately that anything was wrong. The marine was waiting a few feet away from the bed. His fellows stood in the doorway. Todd could see his mother and father just behind them. Pat looked worried, and Ken furious.

“Todd Reeve,” the marine said, reading from the plastic film containing his orders. “You are instructed to accompany us to the presence of the Treaty Councillors.”

“Certainly, gentlemen,” Todd said, throwing off the blanket. “Allow me a moment to dress?”

Todd had gone to bed only an hour before sunrise. Once the remaining guests went home with their hosts, he and the other volunteers who could still stand had spent several hours cleaning up. The Hunters among them had had no sleep since the night before, and they were weary. Hrriss had been reeling with fatigue when he mounted up to head toward the bridge to go home. Todd was glad that he lived so close to the Assembly Hall. Much farther, and he’d be spending the night curled up where he dropped from exhaustion. He barely managed to strip off his new silk shirt and hang it up before falling into bed. His good trousers hadn’t fared so well, hiking to his knees under the blanket when he thrust his legs down. He had been too exhausted to straighten them out before he dropped off to sleep. The guards waited impatiently while he splashed some water on his face and shaved quickly.

It would seem that matters had taken a turn for the worse while he slept. A marine guard meant that the Treaty violation was now being addressed. He hoped truth would be all the defense he and Hrriss would need before a panel of inquiry.

The sky still wore the pale, moist veil of early morning when Todd reached the pad where the
Albatross
stood. Hrriss was already there, standing under the chill sky between his father, Hrrestan, and Commander Rogitel, assistant director of Spacedep. Ken Reeve had wanted to accompany his son, but the marine sergeant had denied him. Todd was relieved to see that at least Hu Shih, as leader of the Human settlers, was present. The old man’s clothes were rumpled, as if he had hastily grabbed the nearest to hand. He was talking in a low worried tone with a small woman wearing a long robe tagged with the insignia of a Councillor. So, Todd thought, one of the Treaty Councillors had been called away from the crucial negotiations to be present when the ship was opened. From her weary expression, she had been waiting a long time. She was a small, elderly woman with dark skin and dark gray-shot curls which clustered closely around her head. Treaty Island was not so much an island as a minor continent which lay in the southern oceans a third of the way around Doona, which made this hour midday for her. Todd could have wished it were midday here and he’d been able to get enough sleep to keep his wits about him.

Hrriss looked expressionless, which meant to his old friend that he was deeply concerned. The glance he exchanged with Todd emphasized the fact that the situation was as bad as it could be. It would have been much better for both Todd and Hrriss had they been able to approach the Treaty Council of their own volition—which they had planned to do once the Hunt was over. But, despite his feelings of foreboding at the precipitous manner, he and Hrriss had the truth to support their actions. It was only that Landreau, and others, had been waiting for just such an incident. The presence of marines magnified the incident out of proportion.

The presence of Rogitel, one of Landreau’s senior lieutenants on hand, meant that the Council had to convene an inquiry: just as Kelly had warned.

“Councillor Dupuis,” Rogitel said, bowing slightly to her, “the perpetrators are now present.”

“It has only just come to our attention,” Councillor Dupuis said in a withering tone, “that this ship has violated the Treaty.”

“Hrriss and I reported the incident as soon as we landed, Councillor,” Todd said politely. “Accordingly, the vessel was sealed.”

“The Treaty, as a condition of the Amalgamated Worlds charter, requires all ships to be inspected after out-systems flights upon landing. Postflight inspection is a requirement under the law, if for no other reason than fumigation and irradiation, and inspection of the ship’s log.”

“Madam,” Hrrestan began politely, holding up a hand to stay the marine’s action, “if this is merely postflight inspection, why have the soldiers been brought here and why is this gentleman present?” The Hrruban indicated Rogitel.

“We received information that this ship did not undergo a postflight inspection, that it has been sealed for two weeks, and may be involved in a Treaty violation,” the Councillor said. She answered Hrrestan in the formal Hrruban of diplomacy, a courtesy which boded no good at all. “Naturally Commander Rogitel as Spacedep’s representative is present. The violation is alleged to involve an uninhabited satellite of a star system.”

Todd felt his spirits sink to a new low. Leaving the
Albatross
sealed was no crime, and indeed, such postflight inspections were not always completed in a timely fashion. As long as the ship had been sealed, the inspectors didn’t much mind. Ken and Hu Shih had been informed of the incident; they had told Hrrestan, who was scarcely likely, even under the stringent codes of honor under which Hrrubans operated, to jeopardize his only child. No one else should have had that information. Ken and Hu might have been annoyed that the two friends had told Kelly, but she’d’ve told no one, knowing how very serious this could be. So who could have leaked that information? Clearly only those who had set the trap into which Todd and Hrriss had fallen.

“A serrious charrge this is,” Hrrestan said, also in the formal tongue. He sounded calm, but his pupils were slitted to mere lines, a sure sign that the older Hrruban was deeply troubled.

“Serious, indeed,” Councillor Dupuis said. “I require a deposition from the ship’s crew before the ship is unsealed.”

“I trust,” Commander Rogitel put in so suavely that his manner alarmed Todd, “that there has been no tampering with that seal?”

“Examine it yourself, Commander Rogitel,” Hu Shih said, very much on his dignity at hearing such aspersions cast.

“Hmm, it looks untouched,” Rogitel said, taking a long time peering at the seal, though he didn’t touch it.

“Reeve! Hrriss!” The Councillor waved them forward to the sealed hatch. “Do you swear and affirm that you took nothing out of this ship besides articles of clothing and personal effects?” They nodded solemnly, raising their right hands simultaneously. “That the contents listed here on the landing manifest were signed by the landing supervisor at the time of disembarkation?”

“I do,” Todd said with a formal bow.

“I do,” Hrriss echoed with an equally formal bow.

With a gesture, the Councillor ordered the marine sergeant to break the seal. As he touched the control pad, the hatch slid back, and a whoosh of stale air made those nearest, including the Councillor, recoil. Todd thought that that was one mark on their side as he saw Dupuis recognize what that implied. Lights came up inside the
Albatross
and the sergeant stepped politely aside as the ramp extruded the few feet to the ground. The port workers swarmed aboard to do the fumigation routine. They were as quick as they were efficient and very shortly left the ship with a nod from the foreman that their task was completed.

The Councillor acknowledged this and then gestured for Todd and Hrriss to follow her into the
Albatross.
Rogitel followed them, still wearing that blandly smug expression. While he wasn’t like his superior, Landreau, who blustered when angry, Rogitel was coolheaded and very quiet, a dangerously misleading trait, which tempted the unwary to talk in his presence under the delusion that he wasn’t listening. Rogitel missed little, and he shared Landreau’s bitter feelings about Doona. Kelly’s warning about him was all too timely.

“This is a very serious matter,” the Councillor said as they followed her to the cabin of the
Albatross
while the ventilation system sucked away the fumigation mist. “We have incontrovertible information, gleaned from the orbiting buoy around Hrrilnorr system, that a ship, now identified as the
Albatross,
passed through the perimeter of that system. Both of you should know,” and she paused to make plain her point that they should know, “that Hrrilnorr is a proscribed system and may not be entered.
Do
you have any explanation that will justify such a violation?”

“Yes, we did enter that system, ma’am,” Todd said without the slightest apology in his tone. Rogitel raised an eyebrow very slightly and sucked in his pale cheeks at such an open admission of guilt. “In response to a Mayday message broadcasting over the emergency frequency. Our log tape shows a holo of the object broadcasting that Mayday and we both felt justified, in that circumstance, to enter a proscribed system and render such aid as was needed. In view of the proscription, Hrriss, as a Hrruban citizen, answered the appeal. If you will view the log tapes, Councillor, I’m certain you will agree that our action was justified.” Todd gestured for her to precede him to the cargo bay.

The Councillor pursed her thin lips, but there was an element of surprise in her manner as she moved down the short corridor, with Todd, Hrriss, Rogitel, and the marines following. “Then of course I will inspect your log tapes. If you were answering a Mayday, this puts an entirely different complexion on the matter. But it would have been wiser,” and she pinned them with a harsh stare, “to have reported the matter sooner, rather than later.”

“The Hunt, ma’am, is of great importance to Doona, and Hrriss and I were responsible for its success,” Todd said, not so much in apology as in explanation.

Dupuis raised her eyebrows in an expression of disagreement of his priorities.

“What a clever explanation for breaking interdict at Hrrilnorr,” Rogitel said, his eyes cold. “Have you an equally glib explanation for these?” At the commander’s gesture, a marine lifted off the panel on the front of the drives cabinet, revealing a number of small packages. Rogitel tore the wrappings off one and held it up. “Would you mind telling me what this is?”

Astonished, Todd stared at the hand-sized lump. It looked like a free-form rock swirled with multiple colors, like sunshine on oil. He’d seen something like it on educational tapes in school, when they studied the biology of other alien species. “It looks ... like a cotopoid egg case.” Todd felt sick. Cotopoid egg cases were priceless and rarely available on any legitimate market, since they were artifacts of another interdicted system.

“Now, tell me how it got there, behind your engine control panel.”

“I don’t know,” Todd said, staring disbelievingly at the equipment cabinet. “It wasn’t there when I last inspected the engines.”

“When you last inspected the engines. And when was that?” Rogitel asked. “Remember, you are speaking before the Treaty Councillor.”

“Before we took off from Doona,” Todd replied, his mind racing. When had these incriminating packages been inserted in the control panels? On Doona where a mechanic in Spacedep’s pay would have had access to the
Albatross?
Or on Hrretha during that second, totally redundant “servicing”?

“And these?” the Spacedep official demanded. “What about these?” There seemed to be dozens of small artifacts shoved between the elements of the machinery. When the marines removed other panels, still more bags and bottles were revealed. Some were opened to expose objects of great value and rarity, also from interdicted systems.

Part of Todd’s bewilderment reflected a droll amusement at the sheer volume of purloined valuables that Hrriss and he were supposed to have assembled. But any amusement was soon drowned by the obvious fact that a lot of trouble had gone into framing them with such a widespread cache of illegal treasures.

“I have no idea where any of this came from,” Todd said in staunch repudiation as he suppressed the rising anger he felt at such long-planned treachery.

“Such a display would have taken weeks to gather. We did not,” Hrriss said with stiff dignity, his tail tip twitching with indignation. He turned to the Councillor. “We answered a Mayday call. The tapes will verify this.”