Freedom's Challenge (14 page)

“That's all?” Kris asked, her hands on the cargo controls.

“Yes. You didn't happen to do a pre-flight check, did you?” Zainal asked as she closed the cargo hatch. She nodded an affirmative. He and Coo were netting the cargo down, fastening the ropes tight to the deck cleats.

Gino had already gone forward. Mack and Ninety looked about done in as they leaned against the bulkhead.

“Had a good time, lads?” she asked blandly.

“It'll take the entire trip back to fill you in,” Ninety said with a ghost of his usual impudent grin. “Lenny will never believe what I've seen and done.”

“Yes, he will. I'll vouch for it.”

“C'mon, let's get strapped in for takeoff,” Zainal said, urgently pointing forward.

“Is anyone after us?” Kris asked anxiously.

“Not exactly,” Zainal said with a grin, “but they're not above following us back to where we left all that high-grade ore.”

“How can they find an asteroid that doesn't exist?” Kris asked, answering his grin.

“Ah,” and he put his hand under her elbow to speed her along the companionway, “but that is exactly what we must find before we can go home to Botany.”

They were almost to the bridge compartment when Kris remembered that Chuck wasn't strapped in. “I'll have to net Chuck down.”

“Don't waste any time,” Zainal said, turning sideways to squeeze past her. He smelled of something acrid which she couldn't identify.

“Zay's also got to be gone for at least a full Catteni day,” Mack muttered to her as she strapped in beside him.

Kris rolled her eyes. “You can't leave that man out of your sight but he gets into trouble.”

Fortunately Zainal was far too busy laying in the course with Gino, making the necessary com calls to hear their soft remarks.

“Tell you one thing, Kris, he's not a man I'd tangle with anywhere or anytime, and even in my own gravity,” Ninety said, impressed.

Mack chuckled. Having received clearance from Emassi Kivel himself, they proceeded to take off at a sedate vertical ascent.

“Kivel tried to get Chuck drunk enough last night to interrogate him,” Kris said. “I don't know what they use
for such purposes here on Catten, but it was a miracle Chuck made it back this morning.”

Kris severely berated herself for her adjustments to the exact truth but no one would be hurt by her version, and she might not even have any reason to explain anything to anyone.

After enduring the Catten homeworld gravity, the takeoff pressure was minimal. As they rounded Catten on the outward-bound orbit, Kris once again found the beauty of the planet almost breath-stopping.

The space station hove in sight and this time, one of the dreadnoughts was maneuvering out of its dock. By noticing some of the H-class ships nearby, Kris got a better idea of just how ginormous the dreadnoughts actually were. It was comparable to being in a Tomahawk with a 747 looming behind you. And these ships had
not
been able to penetrate the Bubble?

The com unit blurped, and Gino answered in a totally expressionless Catteni voice.

“Your destination?”

“This is Emassi Venlik. Eosi Ba is responsible for our destination,” Zainal said.

“Understood.”

Maybe Kris only imagined it, but there was even a note of awe in that response. Zainal grinned at Gino who chuckled softly when the com line was off.

The KDL executed a course alteration and then showed its stern to the space station. Zainal poured on the speed as the ship headed out to where thousands of stars gleamed in the black of space.

“Did he beat someone up?” Kris asked when she felt they were safely away.

“To a faretheewell,” grinned Gino, and then he rolled his eyes. “Some nerd sycophant of an Eosi. I don't think the ones we met were that anxious for trouble. At least not the ones that Worry and Leon saw. Now the guys I
met…One was humongously wide and I made myself as small as possible against the nearest wall. But the ones in an ugly mood were worse than anything Hollywood ever dreamed up, including the aliens in
Aliens.
”

Zainal now leaned back in the command chair and stretched until every joint and tendon seemed to crack.

“Let's hope Duxie can get us some more of that high-grade ore and we'll be the toast of the capitol,” Gino added, “in and out as often as we choose.”

“Gino, are you okay?” Zainal asked, rising.

“I'm great, Zay, you need the rest.”

“Chuck's in your bed,” Kris said.

“Where is immaterial so long as I am horizontal,” Zainal said and, pointing to Mack and Ninety, “and you're off duty, too. It should be all clear ahead, Gino, but wake me if something you don't understand comes up.”

“Get some rest, Zay,” Gino said and made shooing motions with his right hand. “You, too.”

Kris looked around for Pess and Coo. Surely they'd need some rest as much as the others, but neither Deski was there.

“They zonked out as soon as we made orbit,” Gino said. “Move up here, Kris, and I'll give you a rundown of all we did and what Zainal managed, smooth as a baby's butt.”

•   •   •

A DRASSI CLERK NOTICED THE EXCESSIVE charges and ill-assorted cargo registered against this particular vessel. When he checked through to administration, holding the com line open for nearly an hour, he was told that the ship had sufficient credit to cover the expenses. There was no problem. He was to return to his duties. Being a Drassi, he did so, but felt more abused by his superiors than ever. There were no rewards for being diligent on behalf of his Emassi. But what choice had he?

“I HAVE TO TELL YOU, KRIS,” GINO BEGAN, “I wasn't all that keen on seeing a Catteni there on Botany, but…” and Gino whistled expertly and shrilly through his teeth, “when you see how that guy operates, I'd walk through fire for him now.”

“He does have a way about him,” Kris admitted with a grin, “so how did he operate?”

“Blizte was a boondock of a berg, all Rassi in godawful hovels, just staring at us. Or to be more precise, staring at nothing really. Two Catteni vets—one had both legs missing and the other was minus an arm—managed the one—get it—the one eatery in Blizte. They were sitting on a bench as we went past. Zainal got a wave. A few klicks on and we came to a surfaced road. Don't know with what but there were few ruts in it and that old banger could move when you put your pedal to the metal.” Gino executed a joint cracking stretch, and Kris wondered if she couldn't possibly manage the bridge and let him sleep, too. “No, I'm fine,” he told her, hands back on the armrests. “I can
sleep anywhere and be fresh with half an hour's catnap. I slept on the way back from the city.

“And that was an eye-opener.” Again that distinctive whistle of respectful awe. “Like something from future worlds 'n' stuff. Beautiful layout and even the important buildings weren't squared-off in plate glass but…” he mimicked a commercial voice-over, “‘ecologically situated so as not to mar the natural beauty and making good use of flora and fauna.' Nothing higher than one story. Mostly because the buildings are built down rather than up. Zainal says some of them go down a good hundred plegs.”

“What do the Eosi live in?” Her curiosity got the better of her dislike of the overlords.

Gino raised his eyebrows. “Only for Zainal pointing them out, I wouldn't have guessed. Though they do enclose their properties with high walls and force screens. Saw a bird-like thing get fried trying to land on one. So we didn't get to see anything inside the compounds. They're also scattered all over Cattena—which is what they have so imaginatively named the city. Still, if it weren't for the neighbors, it'd be better than Beverly Hills. Or even Carmel.

“Zainal showed us where his family home was, and it's spread out over quite a hunk of real estate. Zay says it's because so many Eosi hosts have come from his lineage, or pedigree or whatever you want call it.”

“Did you see an Eosi?”

Gino's shudder was not faked. “Four of 'em. Big bastards, even when you know the poor damned Catteni that got stuck with being subsumed was big to start with. Crazy eyes! Scare the shit out of me…begging your pardon.” Again his whistle. “Sure was glad Zay got out of that living death. Worse than a zombie in my opinion.

“However, he stops at a place where there're public
com units and made a half dozen calls, while we ambled over to the eatery.” This time Gino grimaced. “They don't know a damned thing about good eating. Cram anything into their mouths, but Zay had told us what to order and we did and that was pretty good. Almost as good as what we regularly eat on Botany.” He said that with an air of condescension.

“He couldn't reach all the guys he wanted to see, but he said that these four were the best and he was just lucky to find any one of them at Cattena. We did the secret hand signs and passwords and stuff and met at what passes for a service station here. Sort of Catteni-style garage sales.” He grinned impishly at her for his witticism. “We made as if we were trying to sell the transport so much of the conversation between Zainal and the others appeared to be discussing the condition of the truck and the engine it uses. That engine is stuck above one of the ground level panels. Zay had parked obliquely to the station so no one could see anyone coming or going. One of us was there to keep the mechanics or whatever they were from closing in when inconvenient. There were two or three other vehicles being inspected so it was a good cover to use.”

He paused, rubbed the side of his nose.

“And?” Kris prompted him.

He chuckled a smug “he he he he” of satisfaction. “There seem to be a lot of Catteni Emassi fed up to here,” and he levelled his hand with his nose, “with Eosi domination. Especially…” and he paused again for emphasis, “since Mentat Ix—that's the one Zay's brother's lugging around—and Co and Se have been agitating every one of the other Eosi about demolishing Botany, diverting all naval forces to that end.”

Gino looked worried. “No one has ever seen the Mentats—they're the leaders among the Eosi—going so ballistic. They've
got
to penetrate or burst or explode or
implode the Bubble—because it's there, I think, and has them stumped. And stumped, they don't like to be.”

“Anything said about Earth?”

“Yeah, and it's not good. They haven't stopped mind-wiping specialists so those who were lucky enough to escape being caught have had to go into hiding. And hiding places are getting filled up and harder to find…especially as we have no air transport at all. And very few working trucks or cars. The Eosi have found another use for petroleum products—all theirs. It's not as if they can burn the Bubble away—no oxygen in space, thank God.

“And the Emassi Zay talked to are not the only ones beginning to get ideas from the rebellion on Earth.” Gino nodded in satisfaction. “Evidently we've really got 'em going, Catteni and Eosi. Never had so much opposition before. We might not be as technically advanced as Eosi, but I'll tell you, there're not enough Emassi to deal with what we're giving 'em back on Earth.”

“So we could actually rebel enough to get Earth back?” Kris felt a surge of triumph flow through her.

“I didn't say that,” Gino replied cautiously, tilting his head to show his skepticism. “In the first place,” he held up one finger, “Emassi and Drassi like Earth and want to keep it—just get rid of the troublesome population. Meanwhile they're looting everything that isn't cemented into the ground and sometimes they jackhammer loose what they fancy. In the second place, they have stopped ruining manufacturing complexes and keep some of the specialized companies working nonstop…which means until the workers drop from exhaustion. I mean, shift work was never like that. Nor those sweatshops in India and Asia we were hearing so much about. We do have some items high on the list of acquisition and they're being turned out in bulk. While there might not be enough
good
Emassi to help a worldwide coup, I'll tell you one thing: the Eosi invasion sure stopped all the petty
squabbles and got all Earth working toward one real good goal—getting rid of the invaders.”

“I always did think a really bad extraterrestrial menace would unite the world,” Kris said.

“It sure has. Palestinians join Israelis; the Northern Irish have allied with the Brits in covert actions against any Catteni on the British Isles. Even North and South Korea are cooperating against the mutual enemy. The African nations got some real rough treatment—because they're black fer Gods' sake and the Catteni tried to make Rassi out of them.” Gino snorted. “That didn't work. In fact, I think the African nations have wracked up more fatalities among the Drassi and Emassi than any other race. Turnabout's fair play. Now, if that will hold when we've thrown out the invaders, it'll be the first wonder of the twentieth century.”

Kris sighed in a hopeful breath. “I suppose it
could
happen.”

“Might not until the twenty-first but we'll see. We've a few years to spare.”

“So, where does that leave us?”

“Well, I'm not quite sure, since this is going to take a lot of planning and under difficult circumstances. We've got to wait until Baby and the KDM make it back. Then we'll have to somehow get some of the Emassi sympathizers to Botany so we can correlate plans and stuff.”

“Lord, how'll we do that?”

Gino laughed. “Zay's started the process and, as long as we can keep bringing in the high-grade ore, no one's going to wonder where he's getting it. So he can check in as much as he needs to to mobilize dissidents.”

“What did he mean about being followed? By the friends of the Catteni he beat up?”

“Oh, him. He didn't have friends smart enough to follow us. But there are others, Eosi, in particular who might try,” Gino said with a laugh. “Probably will. But one of
his Emassi friends gave him a chart of an asteroid belt so dense you could hide the entire Catteni fleet in it and they wouldn't be able to spot each other unless they knew exactly where the other ship is. There're so much heavy elements in the belt, supposedly, that it jams all signals. We can slip in and out of there neat as a whistle. In fact, that's where we're headed right now.”