Freedom's Challenge (27 page)

The convulsions did not immediately cease, though Kris—watching anxiously, for she had come to like Kamiton—thought they were not as violent. Leon readied a second syringe from a different bottle with the longest needle Kris had ever seen.

“Let's hope your hearts can take this kind of convulsion,” he said as Kamiton's spine arched grotesquely. “Here, hold this, Kris. Hold it up.”

He gave her the hypodermic and got his stethoscope out.

“Keep his arms out of my way, can you Zainal, Kasturi?” he asked in Catteni. Over Kamiton's inarticulate cries, whatever he managed to hear worried him. “I don't like the sounds in his lungs. Inhalation was a damned foolish idea. Cardiac arrest is possible. Kris, call the infirmary and send the team down here fast as possible.”

“I've already called in a medical emergency,” Ray said, com unit in his hand as he stared down at the writhing body of the Catteni. “I think that shot is beginning to work.”

“It is?” Leon said, surveying the contortions. “You're right. The spasms are reducing in intensity.”

“Eosi must breathe, mustn't they?” Kasturi remarked
in Catteni to Nitin, their eyes still on the slowly relaxing body of their colleague.

“Yes, even Eosi breathe,” Nitin observed. “But their living quarters are so carefully guarded…”

“Crop dusting might do,” Leon observed with the fingers of one hand on Kamiton's neck. “Pulse still racing. Damned fool thing to do with a drug he knew was dangerous.”

“A very Catteni thing to do,” was Kris' rejoinder, her pulse racing as well from fear of the consequences of Kamiton's rash impulse. “Do I need to keep this?” she asked, meaning the syringe she still held.

“We might. I'd rather have conducted a controlled experiment but the empirical test was certainly conclusive,” Leon added in an admiring tone.

Kamiton's body twitched only slightly now but his breathing was still labored, and he had not regained consciousness.

“Crop dusting?” Zainal asked, looking up at her, not having understood Leon's remark.

“A term for an aerial application of fertilizer or insecticides over large areas. Airplanes are used,” and she made a sweeping gesture with her free hand.

“What has she said?” Nitin asked, his English being almost nonexistent.

When Zainal explained, Nitin once again shook his head. “No aerial traffic is allowed over Eosi compounds.”

“There's more than one way to kill a cat without choking him with butter,” Kris said.

“Say again?” asked Zainal, blinking with a lack of comprehension.

“‘There are nine and sixty ways of singing tribal lays,'” Leon chanted, “‘and every single one of them is right.'”

Ray Scott laughed. Kris wouldn't have thought he'd know Kipling that well. But they needed a spot of relief after the anxiety over Kamiton.

“I'm sure we'll think of some way,” Scott said.

Just then the cardiac arrest team arrived.

“There
has
to be some way,” Kris said.

“We will find it,” Zainal said, stepping away from Kamiton as the emergency team moved in on him.

Leon was explaining what had happened and what precautions he wanted taken when they got Kamiton to the infirmary. Almost as an afterthought, he took the syringe from Kris' hand as he followed the team, with Kamiton carried on a stretcher out the door.

“Are there any dissidents on board an Eosi vessel?”

“If this stuff is spread through the air circulation, it would kill everyone on board,” Ray said, putting the stopper back in the vial and placing it well away from the remaining Catteni.

“More will be needed, too,” Zainal said, regarding the little container with considerable respect.

“Why?” asked Nitin, returning to his seat. “There is no way it can be spread for Eosi to inhale.”

“There must be,” Zainal said, giving the table a pound with his fist that rattled the vial of olkiloriti. Ray immediately steadied it.

“We will somehow contrive,” Kasturi said, giving Nitin a dire look for his pessimism.

“Meanwhile, we have other problems,” Ray said, “and, while I am relieved that your sons survived their ordeal, Zainal, we've a meeting later today to decide how to cope with the growing destruction of our own planet.”

With a nod of dismissal, he pulled his keyboard to him and began to call up a program to consider.

Zainal, Kris, Kasturi, and Nitin left the hangar office in thoughtful silence.

•   •   •

“WHAT'S THIS I HEAR ABOUT A LETHAL DRUG for the Eosi?” Raisha asked when Kris came to collect Zane from the crèche.

Kris paused in lifting her jubilant, and heavy, son into her arms. “Boy, the grapevine works faster than light.”

Raisha grinned broadly. “Well, we did see the cardiac arrest team speeding down to the hangar and then back…so naturally, we had to find out the details. And thank goodness, Zainal's sons are all right.”

“Yes, that was pretty tricky for a while. So who's spreading the word? You or Sarah?”

“Actually, Mavis rushed down. She was collecting her daughter after her shift.” When Kris, busy with her son, was not forthcoming, Raisha added more curtly than her usual manner, “Wellll?” and she raised the elegant curve of her fine brows in query.

“Yes, there is a substance that produces a violent allergic response in Catteni, young and old. But whether it can be got to the target area is the point. Don't get your hopes up.”

“I will try not to, but it will be hard,” the pilot said. “There simply
has
to be a way…”

“We'll find it. Maybe we'll hear from the Farmers. It's been long enough,” Kris said, hoping to distract the woman.

“Huh! I have come to believe more in your Yankee in-gen-oo-ity,” and Raisha grinned, parodying Zainal's use of the word.

“See you, later. Say good-bye, Zane and thank you to Raisha.”

“Goo-by, t'ank,” the obedient child managed.

“You should have another before he is much older,” Raisha said.

“Ha! Won't need to if we import more kids.”

“Has that wild group settled in with the Maasai?”

Kris chuckled. “They've had no choice.”

Raisha nodded with satisfaction.

“I think Zane'll have to spend the night here…a big meeting this evening. I'll feed and bathe him first.”

“This good boy's always welcome.”

•   •   •

ZAINAL WAS NOT IN THEIR COTTAGE SO KRIS let Zane wander about the place while she cleaned up from their hurried departure the previous day. All the time her mind kept working through possibilities, but any bright ideas that occurred required more knowledge than she had of Eosian habits and habitats, information she did not have on hand. Even if Nitin was so pessimistic, she had the feeling that Zainal and Kasturi were not.

Her com unit buzzed, and Beggs informed her in his prosaic manner that her presence was requested for twenty hundred hours at the hangar for an emergency session of the complete Council. She opened her mouth to thank him when he closed the connection. She didn't like him and he knew it, but Beggs was the sort who would do his duty though it choked him. And he was efficient. With the com unit in hand, she called the infirmary to ask how Kamiton was.

“He's left,” was the report from the agitated receptionist. “Dr. Dane tried to keep him in for observation, but he just walked out.”

“He's all right then,” Kris said, chuckling. No Catteni worth the rank of Emassi would let a thing like a near brush with death keep him abed. So he'd be there at the meeting. That meant that Tubelin would probably side with Zainal, so it would be three Catteni for and one against.

No, she shook her head, correcting herself. The meeting was about other matters entirely. While wiping out the Eosi would be the answer to many problems, that wasn't the panacea for all the woes that currently beset Humanity.

That was the subject of the meeting.

John Beverly addressed those who crowded into the hangar. When the numbers attending exceeded space available, a com system was hurriedly set up to allow those outside to hear what was being said. Kris noted with approval that the four Maasai chiefs were there, with Hassan Moussa whispering translations.

“Our last trip to Earth showed us what the Eosi are doing to our planet…stripping it of anything valuable and destroying what they do not understand. They are also systematically shipping Humans out as slave labor. The old, the very young, the infirm, the injured or sick are being left to fend for themselves and many will die. We cannot, here on Botany, continue to provide succor to those, much as we would like to. There is a finite limit to what Botany can provide.

“However, Kamiton has been able to supply us with the information of the other planets—some of them as habitable as Botany—where Humans have been dropped, as we were, to make the best of what was available. We want to check on these. If necessary, support them with tools, medicines, and other supplies. That will mean healthy people to take back to Earth when it's ours again. I'd like volunteers to go with
our
”—and he paused to emphasize the recent acquisitions—“G-ships to show them how. There are five other drop”—and he grinned to use the term—“planets that we know of and we want to visit each. We also know of four installations where, according to Kasturi, Humans are being used as slave labor in appalling conditions. Some of our Maasai were sent to an ice planet. We want to free those we can. Right under Catteni noses, so to speak.” And Beverly flashed a smile when someone demanded to know how. “Pretend we're Catteni shifting work forces. We've inside help now besides Zainal.” And he turned to indicate the four dissident
Catteni seated to one side of the table. “We can't emancipate—” and again that roguish grin on the air force general's face “—all the slaves but we can try.”

“Why?” someone roared. “They'll be half-dead. I don't mind helping now and then, but all the time?”

There was considerable support to that complaint.

“I know, I know,” John said. “Altruism can go too far. And if we can, we will disperse these folk on some of the other planets we know about.

“Don't lose sight of the fact that the reason for these forays is to spread confusion among the Eosi and the Emassi in charge by a series of totally unexpected shifts of personnel and material which will disappear completely. The Eosi don't like mysteries.”

“Yeah, but won't they just retaliate by killing more of us back on Earth?”

“They might, if they could see the connection,” John Beverly said. “We'll be using Catteni ships they haven't yet realized we have. How can they hold Earth responsible when Catteni are the only ones involved?

“Meanwhile, Catteni dissidents will be mobilized—and there are many Catteni who want to be free of Eosian domination just as much as we do.”

“You going to use that dust to kill those bastards?” someone shouted.

John Beverly paused a moment, smiling. “Doesn't take long for rumor to circulate Retreat, does it?”

There were good-natured chuckles.

“We now have a means, but we don't have a way.”

“Set up a Ways and Means Committee then,” some wit shouted and laughter greeted that suggestion.

“We have. Any ideas are cheerfully received. Now,” and John looked down at his notes, “we're making another foray to Earth, to collect supplies, visit the other planets where Humans have been dropped, so I'm asking
for some of the First Drop to come along in case we can help. Zainal's making another run to contact other dissidents.”

Suddenly Gino Marrucci, who had been in the bridge on com link watch, came rushing up the steps to the platform and whispered something in Ray's ear.

He rose. “We may not be able to implement those plans just yet,” he said. “Gino says there's a massive attack force approaching. We may just have annoyed the Eosi too much.”

“What do we do now?” a woman wailed in the silence that followed the announcement.

Kris had no trouble identifying the wailer as Anna Bollinger.

“I think we go out the back door NOW,” Zainal said, gesturing for John Beverly to nominate his crews.

“What if the Bubble bursts?” Anna screamed.

“Don't be so stupid, woman.” And Aarens was on his feet and faced her. “The Farmers design much better than the Eosi do.”

Kris smothered her laugh. Anna's panic did spread. Those at the head table rose to try and restore calm. Beverly didn't waste any time, but pointed out those he wanted as crews for his ships. He took them off with him, gathering other men and women as he went. The hangar was emptying rapidly, with many running outside to look up in the darkening sky to check on the Bubble's distant nebulosity.

Many watched the barrage all night long. In some places, the force of the repeated assault turned the Bubble a glowing orange. There is no noise in space, of course, but there was plenty on the com sat link. Those who gathered in the bridge rooms of Baby and the two K-class in the hangar listened to the sharp exchange of Catteni and Eosi commands. Kris had joined Zainal and the other Catteni at the bridge installed in Ray's office where
the ex-admiral and the rest of the Council followed what they could of the attack.

“Mentat Ix seems to be in charge,” Ray said, looking at Zainal. “All the orders seem to be issued in his name.”

Zainal only nodded as he reached for paper and pencil and, with Kamiton's help, listed the force trying to batter down the Bubble.

“Both the new AA-ships,” Kamiton said, “and five of the big H's that have been refitted with missiles.”

“Ah,” and Nitin was cheered up slightly. “I hear Niassen is commander of one of the H's. He's useless.”

“All he has to do is follow orders,” Kasturi said, grinning.