Crisis On Doona (32 page)

“You’d better hear this, too, sir. Don’t know why we didn’t think of it sooner than this.”

“You boys have always operated as a team,” Phyllis said, her indignant expression showing her poor opinion of the separation.

Todd raised Captain Kiachif’s ship only to be informed that the captain was asleep.

“Look, Todd Reeve here. Hrriss and I have to speak to him. I know he’s probably hung over. Put a cup of malak in his hand and ask him to please come speak to me. It’s urgent or you’d better believe I wouldn’t bother Captain Ali so early.”

Todd flung a grin over his shoulder, for it was close to midday. Hrriss chuckled, and even Hu smiled.

“That man!” Phyllis muttered, for she had never understood how anyone could consume so much hard spirits and be allowed to command a ship, much less a whole fleet of them.

“This better be good, young feller me lad,” came a growl that was barely recognizable as a voice.

“Drink the malak, Captain Ali, while you listen,” Todd said. He explained his theory in crisp sentences and was rewarded by a string of curses.

“Plain as the nose on my face, which has always been very plain to see,” Kiachif replied, his voice rougher with chagrin than with overindulgence. “Look, laddie, this is something we don’t leave to just one engineer. And that ship of yours is under Martinson’s seal, isn’t it? So we gotta have an order to see the condition of those engines. They ain’t been touched, have they? ... No, good! Ha! Better ’n’ better. Them’s as they were left but how d’you prove you and Hrriss weren’t space-shattered?”

“And start organizing the Snake Hunt the very next morning?”

“Everyone saw you then?”

“Hrriss and I had day-long conferences and there’d be tapes on the whole day ... that day and the next thirteen!”

“Ha! Best way to wake up of a morning, laddie. Good news sure sets a man up, if you know what I mean. I’ll just get the DeVeer feller. He seems to know beans from bran and brawn. Leave it with me, laddie.”

“Of course, of course, of course,” Hu muttered to himself, past chagrin that he hadn’t thought of that factor: that no one, trying to clear the boys these past weeks, had thought of it.

“Don’t fret, Mr. Shih,” Todd said, grinning, “Hrriss and I just thought of it ourselves! You’d have to make a lot of warp jumps to know what it does to your circadian rhythms... or be an engineer to know what that kind of punishment does to your engines.”

“Or the skin of the ship,” Hrriss added. “The
Albatrrrossss
is remarkably unpitted and bright.”

“Thanks for the use of the com, sir. We’d best be going. Got a lot more to sort out today.”

“Have some ...” Phyllis’s offer of lunch trailed off as the two young men were out the door, leaping off the top of the steps and making for the village corral. Spare horses were always available for emergency use.

Hu took a deep breath. “I feel better than I have since ...”

“Since Todd Reeve came out of the mist leading the First Speaker?” his wife teased.

He nodded, his smile nostalgic.

* * *

Todd and Hrriss didn’t bother with saddles. They used bridles only because they didn’t recognize any of the horses standing hipshot in the bright noonday sun. They set off at the easy ground-covering lope most Doonan-bred horses were trained to use, kind to both horse and rider.

Pat and Inessa came out onto the porch the moment they heard the horses. Ken, Robin, and Lon jogged up from the barn, warned by shrieks of welcome from the two females.

“Oh, it’s so good to see you, Hrriss,” Pat said, pulling his head down to rub his muzzle affectionately, squeezing his hand, for he was too massive now for her to embrace.

Inessa bounced about, clapping her hands and hooting like a hunting urfa, a habit her mother deplored, but this day was too special for reprimands.

Pat was babbling about the feast they must have to celebrate the reunion, that Mrrva and Hrrestan were coming, and ...

“Kelly and Nrrna,” Inessa said, “and half the Solinaris and most of the Adjeis, and Hrrula because that filly they killed was his.”

The men arrived and they welcomed Hrriss with much back-thumping and handshaking, while Ken went so far as to rub cheeks with the young Hrruban.

“You’ve had no lunch!” Pat declared, suddenly noticing their hot faces, the sweat on Todd’s and the dust on Hrriss’s. “Get washed up this instant. Inessa, come with me.”

“Dad, got some real good news for you,” Todd said, interrupting the general tumult and launching into what he had asked Captain Kiachif to do.

Ken stared, as drop-jawed as a Hrruban, as he assimilated the information. Then he swung about, banging his fist against the nearest wall in self-abnegation.

“Why didn’t one of us think of that aspect?”

“Calm down, Dad,” Todd said, grabbing his father’s fist. “You haven’t warp-jumped half as much as Hrriss and me, and you haven’t logged in enough spacetime to know how it disorients you. You know we didn’t come into your office that day shagged.”

Ken shook his head from side to side, still blaming himself for not seeing so plain a verification that they could not have been plucking items from so many different systems during that controversial Hrrethan flight.

Todd gave his father a clout with his fist. “Stop it, Dad, no time for recriminations now. If Captain Ali gets an independent, and well-witnessed, overhaul of the
Albie’s
engines, and we get statements from everyone who saw us working all hours of the day to organize the Hunt, that still only proves we couldn’t have made those side trips. It doesn’t prove who did. And that ...” Todd glanced at Hrriss as he began spacing his words in an implacable tone, “is... what... we... have ... to ... find ... out!”

“You’re right about that, son,” Ken said. “From the way the Treaty Controller was handling the hearing, not to mention the smug look on Rogitel’s face and that sycophant Varnorian, proof that you didn’t smuggle is not as important as documentation of who
did.”

“Right. Then let’s figure out how to go about getting the proof.” Todd pulled his father to the dining room table at which so many happier conferences had been held, snagged a chair back, and guided his father to sit. He and Hrriss sat down in the same instant beside each other while a grinning Lon Adjei and Robin joined them.

“By any chance do we have holos of those items we’re supposed to have stolen?” Todd asked.

“Hrruvula should have been given copies of all the evidence against you,” Ken said.

“Rrrobinn,” Hrriss said, “please brrring us the star maps and the handcomp. We must calculate prrrecisssely.”

“Kelly’s good at that,” Robin said. “And she’d want to help.” He didn’t glance in his brother’s direction but there was a twinkle in his eye.

“Both Kelly and Nrrna will be here shortly,” Pat said, bustling in with platters piled with sandwiches.

“We owe those girls a lot,” Todd said, reaching for a sandwich. The appetite which had deserted him during his separation from Hrriss had returned, doubled.

“Well, don’t tell me,” his mother said archly. “Tell them!”

Astonished at her tone, Todd watched her leave the room. Then shook himself.

“We’ve also got to find out who could have possibly assembled such a variety of items, how much they’d cost on the black market—I figure Kiachif might know—”

“And I will inquirre of Hrruban sssourrrces for those which came from ourrr interdicted planets ...” Hrriss was making notes, too.

“Any word from Linc Newry about launches?” Todd asked, remembering another detail.

Ken shook his head. “But all the ranchers are looking for burn-offs and other illicit corrals. Those hides aren’t as important ...”

“Oh, yes, they are, Dad,” Todd replied. “Every single element has to be sifted, sorted, and sewed up.”

“Could Kiachifisms be contagious?” Robin asked, his face screwed up in a grin.

* * *

Rogitel did not move from his seat when Reeve and his feline friends left the Council chamber so noisily. The bailiff closed the door and returned to his post. Once order had been restored, Poldep Officer DeVeer took up where he had left off, deferring to the Spacedep official.

“If Spacedep has any further objections, I hope it will inform Poldep,” DeVeer suggested politely. “We would be happy to cooperate in any interdepartmental inquiries.”

Rogitel was already considering the ramifications of the Poldep official’s words. He wondered what other data Reeve had uncovered that caused Poldep to intervene on their behalf. There might be a leak in Spacedep’s own offices. Internal security checks must be promptly initiated. “None at this time. Spacedep is grateful for Poldep’s interest.”

“Then, honored Council members, and gentlemen, I must take my leave. There is much to do in the next four weeks.” DeVeer left the chamber. It seemed larger without him there. Rogitel felt less pressured. Beside him, Varnorian had fallen asleep.

“I would not wish it to be understood that the department is unwilling to cooperate,” the Spacedep subchief said, addressing the board. “Admiral Landreau will be happy to assist in any way he can to fulfill all our wishes.” He met the Treaty Controller’s eye, and the Hrruban nodded almost imperceptibly. Landreau was correct. The Controller was willing to form a detente to prevent the renewal of the Treaty of Doona. Little did Treaty Controller realize that his actions would displace his fellow animals and leave the entire planet in the possession of its rightful owners, the Human race.

“I am convinced that we both want the same thing,” the Controller said. He will help me, the Treaty Controller thought. And then he and his bareskin cohorts will be expelled, leaving only Hrrubans here on Rrala. The unnatural colony would be disbanded. He and Rogitel smiled at each other companionably over the conference table.

CAPTAIN HORSTMANN
found Deever and whisked him off to Portmaster Martinson’s office, where that official was in a state of dithering shock. For one thing, he had every spacefaring captain and every chief engineer of the many ships on landing pads in his facility crowding his office and the adjacent hall.

“Make way! I got ’im,” Horstmann bawled, and bellies were sucked in, toes splayed, to allow the passage of two more large men. “Special delivery! Live cargo!”

“Now, will you tell me what this is all about?” DeVeer demanded, for he was unused to being manhandled without explanation, and his temper, exacerbated by the hearing, was becoming shorter with every passing second.

“They say ... the engines will show wear and tear,” Martinson said, gulping in anxiety and waving his hands about. “But I can’t let them in unless I have proper authorization. They absolutely refused to let me contact Spacedep or Codep ...” He flinched as bass and baritone rumbles reinforced that prohibition. “Inspector DeVeer, I can accept your authorization to unseal the
Albatross?”
It was more entreaty than query.

“It’s like this, Inspector,” and a swarthy, hook-nosed wiry man with a stubbled chin, bleary-eyed, stepped forward. He wasn’t a large man, but he exuded an air of authority that DeVeer related to immediately, accepting him as spokesman for this crowd. “Ya see, Todd and Hrriss are supposed to have made these nine warp jumps in the
Albie
on their way back from that Hrrethan do. They say they didn’t. The engines in a ship that has been tightly sealed since that Spacedep chair pilot charged ‘em with all that piracy will show to this impartial”—and a long stained hand waved at the crowd silently listening—“jury of experts just how much wear and tear those engines took since their last service.” He hauled flimsies which DeVeer recognized as maintenance records. “We got these from Martinson here and the Hrrethan Space Authority, dated, sealed, and all legal-like, as proof of the most recent service checks the aforementioned
Albatross
had. You sign the authorization. We all take a look, write up official reports, and I’d bet you credits to cookies, we’ll all discover—not to our amazement but what we all know without having to check—that those engines’ll prove those boys didn’t take no nine warp jumps in that vessel like they’re accused of doing. Whaddaya say?”

DeVeer had had to concentrate to follow the rapid-fire explanation in a hot cramped space. It took him a moment to absorb the points.

“It will not prove who did, o’ course,” the captain went on before DeVeer could respond, “but those engines will prove those boys didn’t! Hear you got word the Mayday beacon turned up, if you know what I mean?” The captain winked. “By the way, I’m Ali Kiachif, skipper of the
White Lightning,”
and he offered DeVeer his hand.

Absently DeVeer accepted and the slender fingers were as strong as his own though the hand was half the size of his.

“I believe that could prove a profitable investigation, Captain Kiachif.” DeVeer turned to Martinson, who was wiping the sweat from his face, looking haggard and harassed. “Can you supply me with the proper documents, Mr. Martinson?”

“All made out, ready for your John-Cock on the dotted line,” Kiachif said, wiping out a second sheaf of official-issue flimsy and spreading it out on the one clear portion of Martinson’s desk.

Writing implements were offered by eight or nine different obliging hands. DeVeer, for once feeling completely overwhelmed, twitched the nearest one free and poised it over the quintuplicate form. He was far too experienced an executive to sign what he had not scanned, but he was a speed-reader. The form had been filled in properly, and when he actually started to sign, a deafening cheer resounded from office and corridor.

“You must of course be present during the unsealing and the investigation, Inspector,” Kiachif said, seizing the form and separating its sheets, crumbling the first one, which he fired at Martinson, shoving a second into DeVeer’s hand, and, waving the rest over his head, pushed his way out of the office while the cheers still echoed. Realizing that DeVeer was not on his heels, he paused and beckoned urgently for him to follow.

Several hours later, the truth of Captain Kiachif’s allegation was proved beyond question. In all particulars, the engines were in excellent running order, no wear, tear, or abuse visible: rather no more than was consonant with a journey to and from Hrretha, and this was verified not only by the Hrrethan Space Authority maintenance check but by nine fully qualified warp-drive engineers and nine fully qualified space captains of impeccable integrity. In order to prove their qualifications and allegations, DeVeer learned more about the workings of warp-drive engines, fuel capacities, gauges, the pitting of ship skins from forced warp jumps, and the condition of lubricants, greases, flux levels, and rocket tube encrustations than he would ever again need. He fully appreciated why Martinson had looked so fraught: he felt rather wrung out himself.

“Ah, Inspector, I see you are in need of sustenance,” Kiachif said, folding away the sheaf of formal declarations from captains and engineers. “Lads, we can’t let this fine gentleman suffer a moment longer.”

DeVeer had no option but to accompany the jovial group to the pub. He also had no memory of how he got back to the accommodations he had been assigned on the Treaty Island. Some thoughtful soul—possibly Ali Kiachif—had left a small vial and a brief note where he could not fail to see it the moment his eyes could focus. “Drink this!” the note said. He did and rather more quickly than he thought possible, his condition improved.

* * *

Others had celebrated during that evening of which DeVeer had few lucid memories. For immediately upon finishing the scrupulous inspection of the
Albatross,
Ali Kiachif had informed the Reeve family.

“Don’t fret too much about the smuggling charge either,” Kiachif said. “Got friends working on that, too, if you know what I mean. It’ll take a bit more time ’cause we’ve more to check.”

“Ali, you must be calling in favors by the container load,” Ken said, immensely grateful.

“Give a little, take a lot’s been my motto for decades, Reeve. And, like I say, we all got a lot at stake, same’s you Doonans. You keep on tracking down livestock. That’s where your expertise lies. I’ll keep on prodding, poking, and producing where mine’ll do us good. Have a drink on me, you hear me?” Kiachif hadn’t waited for an answer and Ken was staring at a crackling handset.

As everyone had heard Kiachif’s inimitable voice on the radio, cheers rose from around the dining table. Kelly and Nrrna executed a triumphant dance routine before careening into a table.

“One by one, the charges are being dismissed,” Hrrestan said while Mrrva nodded as if she had expected no other outcome.

“Down to two—identifying who purchased the artifacts and who’s playing Todd and Hrriss offplanet,” Ken said.

“No, three,” Todd said. “We’ve got to find out how the security satellites have been fixed.”

“Is not Inspector DeVeer investigating that?” Hrrestan asked.

Ken and Todd both frowned, increasing the resemblance between them so much that Pat, Kelly, and Inessa grinned.

“DeVeer would need Spacedep authority to check the satellites,” Ken said, shaking his head over the improbability of assistance from that source.

“Would he?” Hrrestan asked, stroking his chin. “Would he not have authority over Martinson?”

“He must have some, to get clearance for Ali to check the
Albatross
engines,” Ken replied, but he wasn’t all that certain that DeVeer might not press the issue. “But Linc Newry’s got a separate authority and reports only to Spacedep.”

“The inspector wants to help us,” Kelly said. “And he practically got Klonski to admit that he had.”

“You didn’t mention that,” Todd said bluntly.

“Well,” and she shook her spread hand to indicate uncertainty, “Klonski is known to have done that sort of security tinkering—Inspector DeVeer established that—so why else was Spacedep paying him, and putting him in their restricted ‘special services’ category?”

“We still need more documented evidence of who’s behind what we may now call a well-planned and long-standing conspiracy,” Ken said, addressing everyone but looking at Hrrestan.

“I think they overdid the evidence bit,” Pat said. “They might have made one charge stick but so many?”

“Ah, but that is where they have been clever, not stupid, Pat.” Hrrestan said. “They have created a variety of charges, none of which can be ignored by one or the other of those departments of yourrs and ourrs that are involved. Rrala is to be torn apart by debates on which allegations are true and which might be specious. The fact that would, I fear, become lost in the morasss of true, half true, and false, is that our sons never committed any of the crimes of which they stand charged. But by the time they can be cleared of all counts, any hope of renewing the Treaty would be lost and the colony forced to decamp.”

Nrrna shuddered and drew closer to Hrriss.

“But I’m positive Landreau is behind all of this,” Ken said. “He’s hated me and Todd since the first time you all disappeared and left us looking like first-class liars.”

Hrrestan and Mrrva bowed their heads. “We had no choice.”

“Oh, I know that, Hrrestan,” Ken said, dismissing any implication of blame. “But it was Todd who kept us here because Hrrubans would not leave a small child in a dangerous forest. And it was Todd who brought First Speaker here, and Al Landreau has never forgiven him or me for that humiliation.”

Kelly and Hrriss grinned during Todd’s obvious discomfort at that summary, but Nrrna was curious, not knowing all the historic details from that period.

Hrrestan sighed. “If only Third Speaker’s associate were not Treaty Controller this period ...”

“Another piece of deft planning on Landreau’s part. I gotta give him credit for that,” Ken said with a hint of grudging admiration.

“Trrrue, for with another Hrruban as Controller, we would be able to lay before First Speaker the framework of this conspiracy ...”

“Would First Speaker not be aware of that already, Hrrestan?” Mrrva asked, her hand lightly on her mate’s thigh. “We know the pressures that are being exerted in the Speakers Council.”

“This time,” Hrrestan said, “there is no child with a tail of rope to capture the hearts and minds of our people and swing a vote in favor of a Treaty of Cohabitation.”

“I know this might sound silly,” Kelly began tentatively, “and forgive me if this question offends, but it’s something that has never been addressed in Alreldep either: if the Treaty breaks down, which of us gets to stay on Doona? Or do we both leave, lock, stock, and block?” She tried to make a joke of it.

When everyone stared at her, she began to flush and ended up with her head down.

“No, no, Kelly,” Todd said, “that’s a very good question indeed. In fact, that might actually be the crux of the matter.”

Kelly looked up, eyes shining and face alight with his genuine approval.

“Indeed, Kelly, that is a question which has not been asked,” Hrrestan said, “and one we should have considered long before now. Have we all been looking at the forest without seeing the trees?” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, his eyes slitting with the intensity of his thought. “You and I, Ken, like our sons, wish the Rralan Experiment to succeed. We both know in our minds that there are Hrrubans and Hayumans who do not wish that. If the Treaty is not renewed, each sees this planet as a prize for the taking. As you once confided in me, Ken, twenty-four years ago on a hilltop, Hayumans get greedy. Well, so do Hrrubans. There is indeed much more at stake than just this planet and which species gains control of it.” Hrrestan paused, unwilling to follow that line of discussion to its obvious conclusion.

“An interspecies war?” Todd exclaimed, horrified.

Nrrna gave a frightened yip and clung to Hrriss’s arm. Kelly and Pat Reeve turned pale.

“I could go back to Alreldep,” Kelly said earnestly. “I may be only a junior but if I could present any proof whatsoever that this is what’s going down on Doona ...” Kelly’s voice failed her as the permutations of a struggle between Hayumans and Hrrubans sank in. “Oh, no! We can’t let that happen!” she said in a whisper.

Todd jumped to his feet, glaring about him. “You just bet we won’t.” His words rang in the frightened silence.

“By all that’s holy, we won’t,” Ken added, rising from his chair.

“We will not!” Hrrestan and Hrriss spoke at the same moment, springing to their feet.

“Rralans forever!” Kelly shouted in Middle Hrruban, jumping up and down, fists clenched.

Todd grinned at her, proud of her for using that language, and more moved than he could say by her offer to help, by returning to Earth and the Alreldep job he knew she must hate. But, then, she was as Doonan—no, Rralan—as he.

“All right, now then, folks,” Ken said, rubbing his hands together as he would before taking on any difficult task. “We’ve got more to do than we thought. But we’ve got help. I don’t think we’d better let tonight’s conclusions loose on the planet. There’s enough panic and crazy-minded speculation as it is, with rustling and false accusations and suchlike just before Treaty Renewal. So, while we’re knocking down the accusations against the boys, we’ll see if we can also find any clues that might show us that the scope of the conspiracy goes beyond Landreau and—” He looked at Hrrestan.