The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall (34 page)

The lockers in which the 23.5-kilo personal allowances had been stowed also proved to be lined with platinum.

“You know,” Ni Morgana remarked, bending one of the thin sheets she had found under Benden’s bunk, “individually these don’t weight much, but they damned near coated the gig with ’em. Ingenious.”

There were sheets everywhere, and still more were found and piled at the airlock hatch.

Nev, remembering how he’d entertained Hope and Charity by showing them the cabin, found metal glued to the bottom of the blast couches, lining the inside of the control panel, and thin rolls of metal tacked to the baseboards, looking for all the worlds like innocuous decorations. Inspection of viewports revealed platinum-decorated seals, which sent Nev and Scag searching all the ports.

When the pile at the inner airlock door reached the window, abruptly Benden realized the airlock was empty.

“Kimmer? Where’s Kimmer?” he cried. “Who let him out? Where is he?”

But Kimmer was nowhere in the ship. A gesture from Benden had the marines on his heels as they propelled themselves to the galley, where the brothers were still searching.

“Which of you depressed the evac button?” Benden demanded, seething with impotent anger.

“Depressed—” Shensu’s look of astonishment was, Benden felt, genuine. There was no regret, however, on his face or his brothers’.

“I’m not sure I blame you, Shensu, but it constitutes murder. You had opportunities enough while we were searching the ship.”

“We were searching the ship, too,” Shensu said with dignity. “We were as busy as you, trying to save our lives.”

“Perhaps,” Jiro said softly, “he committed suicide rather than face the failure of that brainstorm of his.”

“That is a possibility,” Ni Morgana said composedly, but Benden knew she believed that no more than he did.

“This will be investigated more fully when we have time,” Ross Benden promised them fervently, pinning each of the three brothers with his angry glare. “I won’t condone murder!” Though at just that moment, Benden had several he would have liked to commit himself.

Returning to the airlock, he found Nev busy with a chisel: the ensign let out a hoot of triumph as he peeled off a paper-thin sheet of platinum.

“I’m sure Captain Fargoe wouldn’t mind having a platinum-plated gig . . .” His voice trailed off when he caught sight of Benden’s expression. He gulped. “There’d be another twenty kilos right in here.” And he applied himself to the task of removing it.

Benden signaled for two of the marines to assist Nev while he and the others piled the accumulated sheets, pipings, strips, and lozenges into the lock.

“Amazing!” Ni Morgana said, shaking her head wearily. “That ought to make up the rest of the four-hundred-ninety-five-point-five-six kilos.”

She stepped out of the lock and gestured to Benden, who was at the controls. With a feeling of intense relief, he pressed the evac button and saw the metal slide slowly out into space, a glittering cascade left behind the
Erica.
It was still visible as the outer door cycled shut.

“I’ve half a mind to add their personal allowances,” Benden began, feeling more vicious and vengeful than he would have thought possible, “which would give us another hundred kilos’ leeway.”

“More than that,” said the literal-minded Nev, and then gawped at the lieutenant. “Oh, you mean just the women’s stuff.”

“No,” Ni Morgana said on a gusty sigh. “They’ve suffered enough from Kimmer. I don’t see the point in further retribution.”

“If it hadn’t been for the extra fuel, we wouldn’t have lifted off the planet,” Nev suddenly remarked.

“If it hadn’t been for the extra fuel, I don’t think we’d’ve had this trouble with Kimmer,” Ni Morgana said sardonically.

“He’d’ve tried something else,” Benden said. “He’d planned the contingency of rescue a long, long time. Those vests and pants weren’t whipped up overnight. Not with everything else those women were doing.”

“That’s possible,” Ni Morgana said thoughtfully. “He was a crafty old bugger. All along he counted on our rescuing him. And he’d know we’d have to check body weight.”

“D’you suppose he also fooled us,” Nev asked anxiously, “about there being more survivors somewhere?”

That thought had been like a pain in Benden’s guts since Kimmer’s duplicity had come to light. And yet . . . There
had
been no sign of other survivors on the southern continent. Nor had their instruments given them any positive readings as they spiraled across the snowy northern landmass. Then there was Shensu’s story, and that man had no reason to lie. Benden shook his head wearily and once again regarded the ship’s digital. The search had taken a lot longer than he’d realized.

“Look alive,” he said, rising to his feet with as good an appearance of energy as he could muster. “Nev, try to raise the
Amherst
again.” He knew beforehand that the
Amherst
was unlikely to be receiving. He also knew that he had to alter the course
now,
before they went too far along the aborted trajectory. He didn’t have any option. He made his calculations for the appropriate roll to get the
Erica
on the new flight path. He’d worry about contacting the
Amherst
later. A three-second burn at one g would do it. That wouldn’t take up much fuel. And he breathed a silent prayer of thanksgiving. “Nev, Greene, Vartry, check our passengers. We’ve got to burn to our new heading in two minutes forty-five seconds.”

He felt better after the burn. The gig was handling easily again. Like the thoroughbred she was, she had eased onto her new heading. And he had done something positive about their perilous situation.

“Now, let’s be sure we get every last strip Kimmer added to the
Erica
,” he said, unbuckling his seat restraints. He’d also go through the gig with an eye to what else could be jettisoned, he decided. But they had a long trip ahead of them and precious few comforts for those on board.

“I’ll check the women first,” Ni Morgana said, pushing herself off deftly from the back of her couch and grabbing the handhold to propel herself down the companionway. “And see about some grub. Breakfast was a long time ago.”

Benden realized how right she was, but under stress, he never noticed hunger pangs. He did now.

“Chow’s the best idea yet,” he said, and managed a reasonably cheerful grin for her.

When she checked the women, she found them still shaken by the emotional prelude, and though they helped her in the galley, they were apathetic. Chio wept silently, ignoring the food Faith tried to get her to eat. She seemed wrapped in so deep a depression that Saraidh reported her condition to Benden.

“She won’t last the journey in this condition, Ross,” Saraidh said. “She’s deeply disturbed, and I don’t think it’s losing Kimmer.”

“Isn’t it just that she was so dependent on him? You heard what Shensu said.”

“Well, if it is, we ought to sort it out. We can’t avoid discussing Kimmer’s demise.”

“I know, and I don’t intend to. His demise”—he drawled out the euphemism—”was accidental. I would have preferred to have him alive and standing trial for his attempt to disable the
Erica
,” he replied grimly. “What I want to know is how he got those women to sabotage us. They must have known from our conversations that their extra mass would seriously burden the ship.”

Shensu had floated down the corridor during the last sentence, and he gave them a terse nod.

“You must explain to my sisters that the gemstones alone will provide suitably for them,” he said. “That the stones will not be confiscated by the Fleet to pay for this rescue.”

“What?” Ni Morgana exclaimed. “Where did they get that notion?” She held up her hand. “Never mind. I know. Kimmer. What maggots had he got in his brain?”

“The maggot of greed,” Shensu said. “Come, reassure my sisters. They are so fearful. They only cooperated with him on the metal because he said that would be the only wealth left to them.”

“And how did Kimmer plan to remove all that platinum from the
Erica
?” Benden demanded, knowing that his voice was rising in frustration but unable to stifle it. “The man was deranged.”

“Quite likely,” Shensu said with a shrug. “For decades he has clung to the hope that his message would be answered. Or else all he had accumulated, the gems, the metals, meant nothing.”

They had reached the marines’ quarters and heard Chio’s soft weeping.

“Get the kids out of here, Nev,” Benden told the ensign in a low voice, “and amuse them. Shensu, ask your sisters to join us here and, by whatever you hold sacred, tell them we mean them no harm.”

It took hours to reassure the four women. Benden stuck to his matter-of-fact, commonsense approach.

“Please believe me,” he said with genuine concern at Chio’s almost total collapse, “that the Fleet has special regulations about castaways or stranded persons. Stranded you were. It would be totally different if the Colonial Authority or Federated Headquarters had organized an official search—then there would have been staggering retrieval costs. But the
Amherst
only happened to be in the area and the system was orange-flagged . . .”

“And because,” Ni Morgana took up the explanation, “I was doing research on the Oort cloud, Captain Fargoe ordered the gig to investigate. As she will tell you herself when you meet her, it saves you, the surviving colonists, any cost.”

Chio mumbled something.

“Say again?” Ni Morgana asked very gently, smiling reassurance.

“Kimmer said we would be paupers.”

“With black diamonds? The rarest kind of all?” Ni Morgana managed to convey a depth of astonishment that surprised Benden. “And you’ve kilos of them among you. And those medicines, Faith,” she went on, turning to the one sister who appeared to be really listening to what was being said. “Especially that numbweed salve of yours. Why, the patents on that alone will buy you a penthouse in any Federation city. If that’s where you want to live.”

“The salve?” Sheer surprise animated Faith. “But it’s common—”

“On Pern, perhaps, but I’ve a degree in alien pharmacology and I’ve never come across anything as mild and effective as that,” Ni Morgana assured her. “You did bring seed, as well as salve, because I don’t think that’s the sort of medication that can be artificially reproduced and provide the same effect.”

“We had to gather the leaves and boil them for hours,” Hope said wonderingly. “The stink made it a miserable job, but he made us do it each year.”

“And numbweed can make us rich?” Charity asked doubtfully.

“I have no reason to lie to you,” Ni Morgana said with such dignity that the girl flushed.

“But Kimmer is dead,” Chio said, a sob catching in her throat, and she turned her head away, her shoulders shaking.

“He is dead of greed,” Kimo said in an implacable voice. “And we are alive, Chio. We can make new lives for ourselves and do what we want to do now.”

“That would be very nice,” Faith said in a low, wistful voice.

“We won’t be Kimmer’s slaves anymore,” Kimo added.

“We would all have died without Kimmer after Mother died,” Chio turned back, mastering her tears, unable to stop defending the man who had dominated her for so long.

“Died because she had too many stillborn babies,” Kimo said. “You forget that, Chio. You forget that you were pregnant two months after you became a woman. You forget how you cried. I do not.”

Chio stared at her brother, her face a mask of sorrow. Then she turned to Benden and Ni Morgana, her eyes narrow. “And will you tell this captain of yours about Kimmer’s death?”

“Yes, we will naturally have to mention that unfortunate incident in our report,” Benden said.

“And who killed him?” She shot the question at them both.

“We don’t know who killed him, or if he cycled the lock open himself.”

Chio was startled, as if that possibility had not occurred to her until then. She pulled at Kimo’s sleeve. “Is that possible?”

Kimo shrugged. “He believed his own lies, Chio. Once the metal was found, he would consider himself to be poor. He was at least honorable enough to commit suicide.”

“Yes, honorable,” Chio murmured so softly her words were barely audible. “I am tired. I wish to sleep.” She turned herself toward the wall.

Kimo gave the two officers a nod of triumph. Faith covered her sister and gestured for them to leave.

Over the next several days, passengers and crew settled into an easier relationship. The youngsters sat for hours in front of the tri-d screen, going through the gig’s library of tapes. Saraidh cajoled Chio and the girls into watching some of them as well, as a gentle introduction to the marvels of modern high-tech civilization.

“I can’t tell whether they’re reassured or scared witless,” she reported to Benden, who was standing his watch at the gig’s console. They still had not made contact with the
Amherst,
though he had no real cause for worry oil that score—yet. “How many times have you worked those equations, Ross?” she asked, noticing what he had on his pad.

“Often enough to know there’s no mathematical errors,” he said with a wry grin. “We’ll only have the one chance.”

“I’m not worried,” she said with a shrug and a smile. “Off you get. It’s my watch.” And she shooed him out of the cabin.

“Lieutenant?” Nev’s voice reverberated excitedly down the companionway the next afternoon. “I’ve raised the
Amherst!”

There was a cheer as Ross propelled himself to the cabin.

“Neither loud nor clear, sir, but definitely voice contact,” Nev said with a grin.

Ross grinned back at him in relief and depressed the talk toggle on his seat arm. “Ross Benden reporting, sir. We need to make a new rendezvous.”

Fargoe acknowledged him, and though her voice broke up in transmission, he really didn’t need to hear every syllable to know what she was saying.

“Ma’am, we’ve had to abort our original course. We are currently aiming for a slingshot around the first planet.”

“You want a sunburn, Benden?”

“No, ma’am, but we have only two-point-three KPs of Delta V remaining.”