Freedom's Challenge (15 page)

Reacting subconsciously to being followed, Kris turned about in her seat but Gino laughed.

“Don't worry, Kris,” and Gino patted her knee. “Zay and I spotted them. Way back. We took off before they expected us to so they were late leaving the space station. They'll try to track us by the ion trail and let's hope another ship crosses ours and confuses them. Any way, we'll be in the asteroid belt long before they make it. You wait, Kris, you'll see.”

“See if this so-called friend of Zainal's is setting us up?”

Gino shook his head. “Not Kamiton. You know how reserved Catteni are? Well, this guy all but kissed Zay he was so glad to see him. Not that he knew who he was at first…and in fact, damned suspicious because he had known Venlik, the Emassi Zay's pretending to be, and hated the man. So there was a bit of an impasse at first. Until Zay removed the cheek pieces and reminded Kamiton of a few details only the real Zainal could have known. You should have seen Kamiton's face when he realized who Zainal really was. And I like Kamiton. He can smile, and he's got that same wacky sense of humor Zay has.” When Gino noticed how dubious she was, he laughed. “Look, hon, I've been a good judge of people all my life and there's not that damned much difference between us and Catteni when you get down to basics.”

Then unaccountably Gino blushed.

“Well, if you say so, Gino,” Kris said, ignoring the blush since she had a good idea what caused Gino Marrucci's
sudden embarrassment. There was indeed one very notable difference between Human and Catteni that she happened to enjoy exceedingly. And Gino had suddenly remembered that. “I'll reserve my opinion until I meet him. If I ever do.”

“I think you will,” the pilot said, recovering his composure quickly. “He's the first one Zay wants to bring through the Bubble.”

“Really?”

“Yup, because if they had a Missouri on Catten, Kamiton'd be from there. We gotta show him the Farmers' part of Botany and what we've managed to do on our continent before he'll really believe what we told him. Humans speaking Catteni are not that uncommon these days, but Humans living beyond Eosi control need to be seen to be believed.”

Kris nodded. “Sometimes I don't believe it myself.”

“Hell, kid, you were making it happen before I got transported.”

“That doesn't change the fantastical aspects of it, Gino.”

They were silent for a long while, watching the stars, then Gino pointed out some of the anomalous primary colors, and even one double star. They were so far away as to resemble opaque marbles rather than suns. Gino crossed his arms on this chest, a slight grin on his face, and shook his head ever so slightly.

“Never thought you'd be this far from our solar system, huh?”

“You got it.”

“Hungry?”

“Something hot would go down well, food and drink, if you don't mind, Kris.”

“Drassi hear, Drassi obey,” she said with mock humility and made her way back to the companionway. She
had become so accustomed to the heavy gravity that a normal one had her bouncing along.

Snores from the various sleeping accommodations indicated that the others were well and truly asleep. She had the galley to herself and prepared enough food for them both. Then she remembered she didn't need to wear the lenses anymore so she took hers out, cleansed them once more before putting them back in the little container. She got an extra cup of water for Gino to get rid of his.

As she handed him his tray of food, he gave her a puzzled glance and then chuckled. “Excuse me, while I get my own eyes back.” He put his lenses in the cup and put that to one side. “I'll clean 'em later. I'm hungry enough I might eat 'em as hors d'oeuvres.”

“Naw, they don't taste at all like oysters,” she retorted facetiously and started in on the stew she'd reheated for them.

•   •   •

SEVERAL HOURS LATER SHE DECIDED THAT there was nothing to do and she would certainly know which lights indicated trouble in any section of the ship.

“Go get some rest, Gino. I can sit here and look at the telltales just as sensibly as you can.”

“Not quite yet,” and he pointed ahead, without taking his eyes from the sensitive scope he was using. “The pulsar I've been looking for. We make a course correction when we line up with that. Then I'll go get some sleep. And wake Zainal up. He said to.”

•   •   •

WHEN ZAINAL TOOK OVER THE BRIDGE, HE first pressed his cheek against hers and kept one arm about her shoulders even after he had seated himself.

“Did Gino bring you…how does he put it? Up to speed?”

“Including your brush with another Catteni.”

“He asked for it. But he's a mere nothing,” and Zainal gave a contemptuous flick of his hand. “Getting Kamiton on our side was more than I expected. Tubelin, Kasturi, and Nitin can be valuable to us, but they don't have the connections that Kamiton has. Or the family prestige.”

“And?” she prompted.

He ruffled her short hair, tipped her face toward him so he saw she had removed the lenses. “You look much better with your own eyes. You did make a convincing Drassi.”

“Noble Emassi, you are too kind.”

Zainal chuckled in that bass rumble that made her grin. “Don't let that get around just yet. However, all four are due to go back to Earth for various tasks. If we could somehow get them in touch with our Humans there, we could begin to make the Catteni regret what they've been doing to your planet.”

Kris thought that over. “But you're Catteni. And you said ‘our' Humans.”

“I like the way Humans think better than I like the way Catteni don't ever think.”

“Some of them must. You do.”

“Luck.”

“What are our chances of doing what you want? Getting rid of the Eosi, with or without the help of the Farmers?”

“I heard something I have never heard about an Eosi Mentat before,” he said, his tone very somber and thoughtful. “The one who subsumed my brother went totally out of control and his juniors had a very difficult time reducing his…wildness. He's the one that wants to burst our Bubble no matter how long it takes.”

“Eosi can have nervous breakdowns?” She was astonished.

“I don't know about nervous, but Ix was dangerously out of control.”

“What does it take to kill an Eosi?”

He gave her a quick look and a humph. “I've never heard that one has ever been killed. Though…” and he paused reflectively, “killing one has never been tried. They are well protected, by the fear of them that is instilled from the time we understand anything outside childish needs. We don't even know how long an individual Eosi lives. Except that it needs to change hosts.”

“Poison it?”

Zainal shook his head, drawing the corners of his mouth down. He gave her a sideways look. “You Humans say you do not like to take Human lives. It is against your laws.”

“The Eosi are not Human,” she said tartly.

“The Farmers would not like it.”

“You haven't given up then, on gaining their assistance?”

“No,” he replied.

“What if Humans managed to kill an Eosi…”

Zainal waved both hands in a cutting negative gesture. “The numbers they would kill in retaliation would decimate your population.”

“The Eosi are already doing that, aren't they?”

“They are, on a small scale, but if an Eosi was known to have been killed by some Human agency, they are just as likely to destroy the entire planet.”

“Well, there goes another good idea. We have to kill them all then.”

“What is it Ninety says? Bloodtirsty?”

“Bloodthirsty,” she corrected him. “I just want my planet free of them.”

“As I want my planet free of them. We've had them longer. We get the first chance.”

“Not without us right there beside you, Zainal. You Catteni can't have all the fun.” Then a yawn overtook her.

“Get some sleep, Kris. You've served a double watch already.”

She tried to argue but with one hand, he lifted her out of the chair.

“Get some sleep. I can hear the sergeant moving around.” He reached into one of his thigh pockets. “Tell him to take this powder in water. It'll help.”

She took the packet he handed her.

“Didn't know Catteni ever needed hangover remedies,” she said, amused.

“Headaches are caused by other things than too much Mayock.”

Kris left before he could see the guilty expression on her face. She found Chuck, looking more green than gray, just coming out of the head, one hand clutching the door frame. He was definitely in need of whatever remedy Zainal had given her for him if it had taken him this long to sleep off the hangover. She cleared her throat, and her mind, of other details.

“Zainal said this will help.”

His eyes weren't really focusing, but she'd got the lenses out before they could have irritated the eyelids. Mind you, his eyes were pretty bloodshot in spite of having no lens aggravation. She took his other hand and—sternly forgetting what her erotic dreams reminded her his hands had been doing—slapped the packet into the palm.

“All in the line of duty, sarge,” she said brightly. “Take it immediately in water. I'll even get the water…”

“I'll get my own water, Bjornsen,” he said with great dignity and straightened himself out and walked, however slowly and carefully, back to the galley.

IT TOOK NEARLY TWO WEEKS TO REACH the coordinates Kamiton had given Zainal. Kris said nothing about it, but she hadn't realized she'd be so long away from Zane. She thought a lot about him and there was plenty of time to think as they hurtled at top speed toward their destination. “Top speed” was somewhat dampened by a device which Zainal had attached to the propulsion unit just before they shifted to a new heading, and before they left what would have been a well-traveled area of Catteni-controlled space.

“It alters the ion emissions slightly,” he explained. “We may not be as easy to follow. Certainly it will delay pursuit. Kamiton knows where to meet us.”

“He's
meeting
us?” Chuck exclaimed.

“Didn't Gino tell you?” Zainal asked.

“He told me that Kamiton would have to see before he'd join wholeheartedly,” Kris said.

“Oh,” for once Mitford was taken aback. He rubbed his forehead. “I seem to be missing a lot.”

“There are alcoholic drinks even I wouldn't take,”
Zainal said reassuringly. “I think Kivel probably did his best to get information from you.”

“Fraggit, I thought I could hold anything and not spill any beans,” Chuck said. “I did hear you mention Kamiton but I didn't know you intended to take him back to Botany.”

“Him and how many others?” was Ninety's query.

“Only Kamiton,” Zainal said. “He is a scout explorer, which is why he knows about this asteroid belt where we will meet him, and then return to Botany. Spatially we are traveling in a triangle so we won't be long getting home once we contact him.”

“Do we have to be Catteni with him?” Gino asked, rubbing at the stubble over his gray skin.

“No, because it will give us the…the upper hand,” and Zainal grinned, “to show him how well we can fool Catteni, even on their own world.”

Kris was not the only one who took in the significance of his last phrase. Ninety nodded slowly, and Gino grinned more broadly than ever. Coo and Pess nodded. Mack Dargle made a comical grimace.

“What did I say?” asked Zainal who was becoming more and more sensitive to Human nuances.

“Their own world,” Kris said, enunciating the three words slowly.

“I would give my eyeteeth to hear other Emassi speak that way of Catteni,” Mack said.

The asteroid field was a spectacular vision as they passed the heavy Uranus-type planet well away from the slowly orbiting mass of space detritus. Chunks large enough to be small moons were interspersed with smaller, uneven hunks following eccentric orbits about each other as well as the big planet, which, like some interstellar miser, seemed unwilling to release any of its satellites. The cosmic do-si-do dance was almost mesmerizing. Gino wondered just how many of the original
inner worlds and moons had been involved in a collision of such magnitude. And how it had occurred. Two charred and dead planets, pockmarked by impacts centuries old, wobbled on erratic Mercury- and Venus-type orbits, each with more small moons of spatial debris attracted by the gravity of the planets they now orbited but not large enough to head for final dissolution in the primary. The star was dying, according to the spectroscope analysis Gino had done: the readings suggested that the star was doing its damnedest to continue to live. Yes, all this space junk wasn't really an asteroid belt…a field of planetary and lunar fragments hugging the one thing that gave it some stability—the heavy Uranus planet. The area would take days to circumnavigate. To wend a way through it would require not only a very, very experienced pilot but a ship with heavy shielding and good gunners to explode those bits and pieces that were too small for them to avoid and too big to bounce harmlessly off the shielding.

“Only someone like Kamiton would find a…a curiosity like this.” Zainal shrugged and settled himself more firmly in the pilot's chair, hands poised over the control panel.

“How'll we ever find the one we want with that mess churning around like that?” Gino asked, his hands tense as he readied himself to use the thrusters on Zainal's command. “It's damned near a light year across.”

“No,” Zainal replied prosaically, “but certainly it covers an enormous area.”

They'd rehearsed the maneuvering tactics all the previous day, using the diagram that Kamiton had given Zainal. They were to approach from coordinates at the ecliptic and weave a course that, in itself, would have thrown any pursuer off. Not that the ship's detectors had spotted anything following them. Kris wondered how anyone could rely on the diagram since every rock, boulder,
mountain, and small moon seemed to be on a totally erratic orbit.