Crisis On Doona (43 page)

“I’d agree to that,” Dorem Naruti said, beaming from ear to ear. “I’ve never seen anything quite so official as this! Must be something in the air here, I think.”

Sumitral chuckled. “Then we shall record that the vote was unanimous. And I’m hungry, too. Naruti, they have the most delicious little birds here, covered with a sweet spice, that simply melts in your mouth. You really must try some, mustn’t he, Nesfa dear friend?”

“Indeed, and although the suggestion might seem bizarre, the snake stew they make is exceedingly tasty. We shall tell you what to sample first, Dorem, if you will accompany us.”

While they were settling the voting issue, First Speaker’s escorts had guided him to his place at the Treaty table set in exactly the same place it had rested twenty-five years before, under the trees that clustered just beyond the Hall. Hrruna gestured for Naruti to be seated to his right and Sumitral to his left. Both senior diplomats, with the precision of long practice, sat down at the same moment. The gemmed and tooled volumes containing the Treaty of Doona were opened before them.

“There’s a lot of work, many years of negotiation in the document,” Madam Dupuis said, “but it is as fair as it could be made.”

“A thing of beauty, outside as well as inside, these are,” Naruti said in flawlessly inflected High Hrruban. “As handsome as the ideals they represent.”

Hrruna’s jaw dropped in pleasure. “So they are,” First Speaker agreed.

Each signed one, and the volumes were exchanged. One by one, the Treaty Councillors stood by to affix their signatures to the documents. Hrrestan placed heavy seals on the signature pages and closed the books. Bowing, he presented one to each of the principals.

Sumitral looked to Hrruna for permission to speak and it was graciously given with a nod of the dignified and graying head.

“The Treaty of Doona/Rrala is now officially extended indefinitely. May I extend the congratulations of my service to Hrrubans and Hayumans alike!” His last syllables were drowned out by wild cheering.

When the noise began to abate, Todd approached the Treaty table. Someone had found him a decent tunic to replace his torn one, and he’d been able to wash his face and comb his hair so that he looked considerably more presentable.

“May I be permitted to speak?” Todd asked in High Hrruban, executing a deeply reverent bow to the First Speaker.

“Pray listen to the first Hayuman ambassador to the Hrruban people,” Hrruna said, his voice carrying over excited conversations and laughter, and immediately silence prevailed again.

Sumitral, leaning across to Hrruna, chuckled. “And that was a day! About a meter tall, dressed in mda skins with a rope tail hanging behind and the dignity of a dozen judges for all he was six years old. He and Hrriss have done great service for Alreldep since then. I hope they’ll continue to do so.”

Todd glanced at Hrriss, who nodded, jaw dropped humorously. “As long as we can, sir.”

With Hrriss beside him, Todd stood forward to address his friends and neighbors. “I feel like I got thrown from a bucking stallion into a compost heap, so I hope you’ll forgive my appearance.” The assembled settlers chuckled. “I’ve dreamed of this day since I was a small boy. I was afraid for a while that the day wouldn’t come, and then I feared I wouldn’t be able to be here. Now”—he grinned, throwing an arm around Hrriss’s shoulders—“all we have dreamed of has happened. Doona is now a permanent reality. As long as we live, we can live here together.

“Today is not just a continuation of Doona but the start of a brand-new era for Hrrubans and Hayumans. From the trust that has been built here, both species can spread out, can make new homes on new planets together and separately.” He smiled around at all the faces, bare and furred. “Honored folk, Doona has taught us all the most important lesson: that we both can make friends, firm friends, trusted friends, of each other and of other species. The Siwannese example must never be forgotten, but it mustn’t stop us from keeping an open mind and extending an open hand. The generations that will be born on this planet,” and with that he sent a glowing look at Kelly, “will meet others, strong in the practice of Cohabitation. So long as they remember what we have all learned here, the stars beckon. Long live Doona/Rrala!” Todd shot his fist toward the sky and Hrriss’s joined it in the next second.

When other arms tired of holding fists aloft and throats turned hoarse with cheering, Hrruna turned plaintively to Sumitral. “Now do you think we can eat?”

* * *

Totally reunited and in the best of harmonious spirits, the entire population of Doona and its guests began the long-awaited feast. Platters of food poured out of the kitchen to tables inside and outside the Hall. Beer, wine, mlada, and even wildberry juices flowed to every cup as friend toasted friend and the success of the Doona Experiment was drunk to over and over again. The members of the Doona/Rrala Ad Hoc Band rarely got time for more than a few mouthfuls of food, so much in demand was celebratory dance music.

Hrriss tried repeatedly to extract Nrrna from attendance on the First Speaker, but he couldn’t get any nearer her than Todd could get to Kelly. If it hadn’t been Hrruna who monopolized the attentions of their promised ladies, the two friends would have snagged them away at the very first opportunity, but Hrruna seemed to require that they serve him the various delicacies prepared by the colonists’ best cooks.

“Damn it, Hrriss, I’m the one who was on short rations. Couldn’t Kelly come feed me?”

“I’m doing my best, Todd,” his sister Ilsa said, her knees buckling under the laden tray she was bringing them.

“Urfa steak
and
snake stew?” he said, salivating. “Sis, you know how to treat a brother.”

“When he remembers to come home to eat,” Ilsa tossed at him as she went away to see to the needs of her children. Todd stared after her.

“Marriage has done her good,” he muttered to Hrriss, and dug into the stew. “I never thought I’d eat any of this again.” Then he had to swallow without truly savoring the fine flavor, for Sampson DeVeer approached their table.

“You cut that mighty fine,” DeVeer said, and then drew up the young man in the plain uniform hovering beside him. “You might like to meet my companion, Reeve. Dalkey Petersham.”

“Really?” And Todd realized in one second that the man he had feared as a rival to Kelly’s affection was no real competition. So he pumped the young man’s hand energetically. “We owe you a lot, Dalkey, for putting out your neck for people you didn’t know. Come, sit down.”

“Well, I did know Kelly and I sure discovered a lot of real creative accounting. Which ...”

“Which what?” Todd prompted, gesturing for Dalkey to fill a plate from the food on the freshly filled tray.

“Which actually lost me my job.”

“You haven’t really lost a job, Dalkey,” Todd said, “you’ve just been transferred. An accountant who could uncover that Spacedep slush fund is just the sort of fellow we need to set up a system here on Doona that can’t be diddled.”

After Dalkey had expressed his deep appreciation of the offer and accepted with considerable alacrity, Todd turned to DeVeer.

“Which reminds me. Just before Dad and I got kidnapped, Hrriss and I got Linc Newry to admit he’d been falsifying export documents and disarming Doona’s security satellites to let rustlers in and out. What’s happened to him?”

“He gave himself up,” DeVeer said with a note of satisfaction in his voice, “after I had a most interesting chat with a Dr. Walter Tylanio. Once he was in custody, Newry gave me more information which led me to the real rustler.”

“You got Mark Aden?” Todd’s eyes flashed, remembering the score he had to settle with that bastard for his vindictive use of ssersa.

“He is under arrest on Zapata Three, awaiting transport back to Earth for trial. It would seem that he kept a computer file of the layout of each ranch on Doona and the best secluded spots to secrete the livestock pens. He’s the one who planted the artifacts on your ship while you were occupied by your mission on Hrretha. He did so with Spacedep credentials to pass by Hrrethan security guards. Newry was the one who switched log tapes.”

“I always thought Rogitel had done it when his men were busy hauling artifacts out of the
Albie’s
panels,” Todd said.

“No, I have Newry’s confession.” DeVeer nodded at the grim looks that Todd and Hrriss exchanged. “It couldn’t have been Rogitel. He did the shopping for the artifacts with the illicit traders on Hrretha. Remember, Newry had asked you to give him your flight plans nearly two weeks before your actual departure. So he sent them to Klonski, who’s rather proud of the way he handled that assignment. Took him thirty-six hours of intensive work. He shipped it back to Newry in an authorized Spacedep courier run and put it in the
Albatross
before you launched. Klonski had left gaps for your legitimate stops, triggered by signals from the beacons orbiting Doona and Hrretha. Aden is the one who made the insertions into the interdicted systems in a ship with identification codes altered to match yours.”

Todd let out a long sigh. “So we’re cleared of everything? Then why was the Treaty so nearly cancelled?”

“Third Speaker had also rigged that resolution so that your presence was absolutely essential to the Renewal of the Treaty.”

“And Hrruna waited until he knew he had Third right where he needed him,” Todd said thoughtfully. “It was close!”

DeVeer nodded. “However, you both might like to accompany ... that is, if you can leave off eating that delicious food for a short time?” he asked them. “You rather deserve to be in on this. I’ve one more criminal to bring to book.”

Todd and Hrriss hastily dashed their fingers into bowls set on all the tables to cleanse hands. DeVeer led them to the head table where they waited respectfully until Sumitral and Naruti concluded their conversation with Second Speaker Hrrto. When Ken and Hrrestan were beckoned by DeVeer to join them, the group advanced on Landreau and Rogitel who were seated as inconspicuously as possible for men in brilliant white uniforms. They were the only two ignoring both the food and the merrymaking going on around them.

“Well, what do you want?” Landreau asked sourly, glaring at the Reeves. “You have everything you claim you value. This abominable colony has a permanent charter, and your so-called honor is restored.”

“Admiral Allen Landreau?” DeVeer said formally. “As an inspector of Poldep and in the presence of a representative of Amalgamated Worlds Congress and a senior officer of Spacedep, I arrest you on the following charges: conspiracy, fraud, misuse of public funds, attempted kidnapping, suborning of witnesses, aiding and abetting grand larceny and felony theft, aiding and abetting violation of Treaty Law, and conduct unbecoming a senior officer of the Space Department.”

“Have you quite finished with this fairy tale?” Landreau snapped. “I am about to return to Earth and pressing duties there—unlike other officials who seem to have infinite time to play.”

“This is scarcely a laughing matter, Landreau,” Sumitral said.

“Don’t attempt to instruct me,” the head of Spacedep growled, his face turning red. “You’re my equal, not my superior. You don’t outrank me in any way. In fact, Spacedep is a larger department than Alreldep and takes precedence over yours. If we didn’t exist, there would be no aliens for your department to relate to, not the Siwannese, not your tame pussycat people!”

“Sir,” DeVeer said, “I must suggest that you not make any more statements until you have engaged a counsel for your defense. We have impounded your records, and I am obliged to remind you that anything you say now can and may be used in evidence against you.”

“Read me—Admiral Landreau—my rights?” Landreau shouted.

Nearby Doonans turned to look. Once they identified Landreau, they continued to stare.

“How dare you even question a senior official of the government, when these damned Reeves are the real troublemakers?” He flung a contemptuous hand in Todd’s direction before he planted a fingertip in the middle of the Poldep chief’s black tunic and pushed. “You, a jumped-up little Aisle constable, have the unmitigated gall to interfere with Spacedep, to access Spacedep files, to snoop into my department! I have a good mind—I have—!” Landreau suddenly clutched at his chest. His eyes protruded in DeVeer’s direction and then rolled up into his head as he slid to the floor.

“Get a doctor!” Todd shouted, dropping to his knees beside the man. Rogitel knelt down and bent his head to Landreau’s chest.

“His heart has stopped,” Rogitel said, his voice more expressionless than ever.

“He doesn’t get out of it this easily,” Todd said, and flattened a hand over Landreau’s sternum. He hit it a short rap with the other fist and then started cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Mike Solinari was beside them in a moment. “Dr. Moody is coming.” He looked at Landreau. “I don’t think anything can be done, Todd. Look at all that blood in his face. I think he had an apoplexy.”

“What?” Rogitel demanded. “Can’t you revive him?”

“Not from that sort of a fit,” the young veterinarian said, exhibiting only a clinical detachment. “He burst a blood vessel. Embolism. Instantly fatal. People with high blood pressure are prone to it. Probably had it coming for years.”

“You can say that again,” said a new voice, and Ali Kiachif pushed his way to the group looking down at the Admiral’s prone body. “No one had it coming to him longer, stronger, or wronger than he did, if you know what I mean.” He pulled at Todd’s shoulder. “You might as well stop that, laddie. It won’t do him a bit of good. Don’t waste any more breath on him. I know a deader when I see one.”

Kate Moody arrived a moment later and confirmed young Solinari’s and Kiachif’s diagnoses. “There’s nothing I can do for him. Here, some of you help me get him out of here. We’ll take him to the Health Center. My skimmer’s outside.”

“Commander Rogitel,” DeVeer said, laying a hand on the assistant’s arm and bringing him to his feet. “If you are not going to indulge in a medical emergency of your own, I have a list of charges that have been laid against you. Will you come with me now?”