by neetha Napew
‘I don’t see why I can’t ride one of those lovely creatures,’ she cried, then with a flirtatious appeal to her new kinsman, ‘Muktuk, dear, you did say they were not the virgin-exclusive sort of mythical-beastie unicorns and I am quite a good rider.’
‘I’m sure you are, cousin,’ Chumia said firmly before her mate could be cajoled. ‘But since you’ve fallen in with evil companions who are known to be a bit free with other folks’ property, we’d like to get to know you better before we entrust one of our curlies to you.’
Dinah opened her mouth and closed it again, nonplussed, and allowed herself to be bundled on to one of the sleds. She did sufficiently recover her aplomb after being so uncompromisingly confronted to complain in an exaggerated whine that a dogsled was not the same thing as a unicorn ride at all.
Yana used the pirate comunit to monitor the Intergal satellite. Not only would it still be night for another six hours at Bogota, but the whole of the Southern Continent was wrapped in a massive blizzard, making flying anything at all inadvisable.
‘I could try,’ she said. ‘I hate to leave Cita in the lurch.’
Sean thought for a moment and shook his head decisively.
‘No. Johnny’s there with the copter and Coaxtl won’t let anything happen to her. If those two can’t take care of her, we won’t add much to the equation, especially with you half frozen and about to drop.’
So they bedded down on the shuttle, happily warming each other, to await a more appropriate time to start their journey. If they didn’t get to sleep immediately, they had been parted a long time for newlyweds. Nanook, who had insisted on staying with them, discreetly adjourned to the next cabin.
When they awoke, Yana checked the comunit again, once more monitoring Intergal Station for a weather check. She had gotten out of the habit of such facilities, what with having been on Gal-Three where weather reports dealt with solar winds or worm-hole distortions. She was also still slightly disoriented after long inactivity on the pirate ship.
Though they’d land in daylight now, the weather was no better but they decided not to delay any further. After all, they had the map which Petaybee itself had presented them with, indicating all the trouble spots. The shuttle had only the one spatial view of Petaybee - the northern quadrant that included SpaceBase and no other sites. Sean knew the location of Bogota though and its coordinates. In a shuttle of this class, it was not a long journey but their destination was lost in the swirling mass of a first-rate late spring blizzard.
‘I’m a good pilot,’ Yana insisted to Sean as she fought the controls which buffeted the sturdy space-worthy shuttle, ‘but I was too preoccupied to pay much attention to my surroundings the last time I was here. What am I looking for exactly?’
‘A cluster of buildings…’
‘Which I can’t see in what is virtually a white-out.’ There was a slight edge to her voice because Yana was prudently aware of her limitations. Piloting a shuttle when you could see where you were going, even if you didn’t know what you were looking for was one thing. Flying blind over unfamiliar terrain in these conditions without a beacon to set you down was another.
‘Put us down anywhere. Nanook’ll reconnoitre,’ Sean said understandingly.
‘He’ll know where we are?’
‘He’ll be in touch with Coaxtl. And while Coaxtl may not know where we are, he’ll know where he is, and can give Nanook directions in - er - cat terms, I suppose.’
‘Which you will then translate to coordinates I can follow, huh?’ Yana shook her head in doubt, glancing from the white on white outside and back to Nanook.
Sean gave her one of his slow cryptic smiles. ‘He operates best in these conditions.’
The shuttle sank a little further, settling into the snow. Nanook was already at the shuttle lock. He gracefully leapt out and almost instantly disappeared from view, though a thrashing of the snow in the direction he had left was visible for a while.
Yana looked over at Sean. ‘Now what do we do?’
Sean grinned. ‘Wait.’
With a bit of chopping and changing, Tanana Bay folks were able to find enough warm clothing to equip Dinah, Megenda still in the communion caves, and the two pirates most recently freed from the shuttle. Their clothing was suitable only to the controlled environment on spaceship or shuttle. In helping Dinah, Marmion felt a heavy rectangle under Dinah’s light jacket and, with a sleight of hand worthy of a less respectable profession, slipped it out of the pocket. Then, with a flurry, she began to hustle Dinah and the crew down the stairs into the communion place with the sure knowledge that they could not escape. Nor did Dinah have the time to realize she was without that device, whatever it was.
‘That should keep them safe,’ Muktuk said, flipping the rug over the trapdoor.
‘And undoubtedly change their attitudes,’ Sinead said with great satisfaction. ‘With so many types coming down to see what Petaybee has to offer, maybe the first thing we ought to offer them is communion time.’
‘I’m hoping’, Marmion said to Namid as the table was replaced,’ this will do Dinah a world of good. She’s not all bad. She certainly tried to make things easier for us with Captain Louchard.’
Namid gave a little laugh. ‘She’s not all bad. If half of what she confided in me is based on truth, she had the most miserable childhood and didn’t fare that well in her teens, either.’
‘Such impressionable stages in a life, aren’t they?’ Then she hefted the equipment. ‘A little too heavy for a comunit, wouldn’t you say, Namid?’
He got one good look at it and pushed her hands to return the device to her pocket. ‘Later, Marmion. Later,’ he murmured urgently and then smiled broadly at the other folks in the crowded room.
It took time to sort out who would bunk where in the small village of Tanana Bay. Ultimately, after a cup of soup to ‘warm bodies for a cold night’, Bunny and Diego went with one family, Liam and Sinead with another, while Marmion and Namid were given the Sirgituks’ cabin to themselves as everyone was of the opinion that at least the good Dama Algemeine deserved what privacy Tanana had to offer.
When they had been installed, new furs supplied for the beds, and the fire freshened for the rest of the cold night, Marmion and Namid were left to their own devices. Namid sprang to the window and watched to be sure their hosts were all dispersed to their separate accommodations. Then, with a sigh of relief, he nodded to Marmion who gingerly deposited the heavy unit on the table.
‘What is it that had you in such a panic, Namid?’
‘I think it’s a portable holo-unit,’ he said. He hovered, looking at it from all angles, and touching the control plate with a careful fingertip. ‘I can’t imagine why…’
His fingertip was not quite careful enough and inadvertently he activated the display. Suddenly the image of Captain Onidi Louchard solidified in and around the table. The creature just stood there, inanimate, while Marmion and Namid looked at each other, openmouthed.
‘It was on Dinah?’ Namid recovered enough to ask.
‘Dinah!’
Tentatively, Namid picked up the broadcaster and suddenly he was enveloped in the image of Captain Louchard.
‘Well, what about that!’ exclaimed Marmion, delighted and appalled at the same time. ‘Why, that woman had us all hoodwinked. When I think of the
games she played with us as Dinah when all the time she was also Louchard…’ Words failed Marmion.
‘Not to mention how she manipulated her crew,’ Namid-Louchard said in a deep bass voice, with an odd inflection to both tone and words. ‘No wonder no-one ever caught sight of the infamous Captain Louchard.’
Marmion laughed, well, giggled, and sat down to enjoy her mirth. ‘Really, Namid. I never would have suspected. She’s a consummate actress.’
‘Among other things,’ Namid said in a sterner tone as he switched back to his own self and replaced the device on the table. ‘She never wore it in my presence but then, she wouldn’t have needed to be Louch
ard to her husband.’
‘Not unless you turned into a wife-beater.’
‘Oh, that had happened to her, too. I saw the scars,’ Namid replied gravely. Then he sighed, prodding the device with a finger, then waving his hand to dismiss it all. ‘So what do we do about this disclosure?’
Marmion had obviously been pondering the same question. She tapped her cheek with one finger. ‘It will take some heavy thinking, and I’m suddenly much too tired to do any more tonight.’ She glanced wistfully at the bed. ‘And don’t suggest that you take the floor, Namid,’ she added in a firm tone but her smile was suddenly demure.
‘I was about to be the gentleman, Marmion,’ Namid said but his mouth and eyes smiled.
‘Gentle, yes, man, yes, but…’ The uplift to the final word was all the invitation Namid required to be both, in the right order.
One could only watch and wait, and sometimes sleep, while the humans made themselves at Home.
Through the howling winds one had brought them safely here through snow like swarms of icy insects biting into one’s eyes, ears and nose. Even with the watchfulness of the Others, some had slipped between their reluctant guardians to wander, freeze and die. They would not be found before the snows had melted once more.
Coaxtl and the Youngling were at rest. The metal bird’s master was at rest, as were the cave dwellers of Bogota. Inside the Home, the hotspring burbled warmth throughout. Outside, the snows swathed the world with seas of snow growing deeper by the moment. At the entrance of the cave, the bears humped like living drifts away from the warmth of the inner cave. The other clouded leopards, the snow lions, the white tigers, the lynx and bobcats, waited out the storm within the cave as well, crowding the humans deep within the inner chambers of the Home.
Some, like the young male with the cub, stared with open delight at the Home, hearing its singing in his blood, seeing its colours inside his eyes, vibrating with its rhythms. The Youngling and her kin smiled in their hard-won sleep.
As for those others, though! The noises they made as they flailed about were so shrill and penetrating that at last one was forced to put one’s paws over one’s ears to achieve any rest.
Namid slipped gently from Marmion’s bed, put more wood in the stove and, after a few false starts, stirred up the fire in the hearth. Then he donned his borrowed warm clothing, long underwear, heavy woollen socks, woollen pants, shirt, leather sheepskin-lined boots painted with beaver oil for water resistance, scarf, hat, mittens, and parka. Into the pocket of his parka, he slipped the holo-disk. Then with a last lingering look at his sleeping lover, opened the door and walked out into the pastel Petaybean dawn.
He crunched down the wide track leading between the homes of Tanana Bay to the O’Neills’ cabin, and let himself in through the unlocked door. He had hoped to be alone on this mission, but he saw that young Diego Metaxos lay in a sleeping bag with his ear against the trapdoor.
The boy awoke as the cold air entered the cabin with Namid.
‘Morning,’ he said, in a clear, wide-awake voice.
Namid nodded. He didn’t feel much like conversation.
‘You’re up early,’ Diego said.
‘I need to speak to Dinah.’
‘I don’t think she’ll be able to talk to you,’ Diego said.
‘Why not? What’s happened to her?’
Diego shrugged. ‘I dunno. But judging from how contact with the planet affected my dad at first, I think she’ll be in a pretty bad way. They were carrying on until way late last night.’
‘What do you mean “carrying on”? Has something hurt her?’
‘No worse than she’s hurt others, I expect. But for people with certain kinds of mindset, their first contact with the planet can be devastating. You might find it that way yourself.’
‘But you didn’t?’
‘No. It’s always been wonderful to me. I was just lying here, thinking of a song to write about all that’s happened. I suppose it’s safe enough for me to go down there now but I’m not sure about you.’
Til risk it. But - no offence, I’d rather go alone.’
‘It’d be easier for you with one of us.’ The boy was exuding a subtle air of male challenge.
‘You’re not native and you’ve been all right.’
‘Yes, but I’m young.’
‘If you’ll excuse me, I’ll try it on my own. My mind isn’t that rigid and set in its ways yet.’
Diego shrugged. ‘Suit yourself. But I’m going down in a few minutes anyway. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a talk with Petaybee. I may not be native, but I’ve missed it,’
He stepped out of the way and Namid descended the stairs, not seeing the small orange cat that darted through the trapdoor at the last minute and scooted down the stairs ahead of him.
Bunny awoke and looked around for Diego in the other sleeping bag on the floor of their hosts’ house. He was gone. Gentle snores arose from their host family.
That was good, actually, because she didn’t want to talk to Diego this morning as much as she wanted to try to get a moment alone with Marmion. Diego might not understand. She had planned to say she was just going to help Marmie with her fire and breakfast.
She dressed quickly and left the cabin, closing first the inner door so the cold wouldn’t reach the family, and then the outer entrance door beyond the arctic foyer where the snowshoes, skis, extra dog harness and other tools were kept.
She knocked lightly on the Sirgituks’ door and a rather dreamy voice called, ‘Hello?’
Marmie looked less put-together and much happier than Bunny had ever seen her. She wore the tunic jacket she had been captured in as a robe over long-handled underwear bottoms and woolly socks. She was sitting at Sirgituk’s table sipping something steamy from a cup. Her expression was bemused, to put it lightly.
‘Thought you might need help putting a kettle on,’ Bunny said.
‘Not at all. If you’ll remember, I’m rather a good cook and this stove is not so different from the one at my grandfather’s hunting lodge on Banff 2 where I sometimes spent my holidays as a child.’
‘Must be nice to get to live any way you like,’ Bunny said, pulling off her mittens.
‘Ye-es, it is. What’s the matter, Buneka dear? You sound rather sad and I just can’t bear that when I’m feeling so good myself. Have a cup of this lovely berry tea and tell me all about it and we’ll see if I can fix it.’
‘Thanks,’ Bunny said with a little smile. ‘The tea will be great but I don’t think there’s anything you can do about the rest of it.’
She finished taking off her wraps, poured her tea and sat down, warming her hands on her cup and watching the steam rise between herself and Marmie. Marmie had a way of making you feel like you were the most important person in the world when she was talking to you. Bunny wished she could be like that.
‘I wouldn’t want you to get me wrong, Dama, I love Petaybee. I never want to live anywhere else -permanently, that is.’
Marmie nodded, encouragingly, as the words had a hard time coming out.
‘But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. See, the thing is, I never knew what was out there before. All we ever saw was SpaceBase and that was pretty grim and a lot of the recruits who left didn’t return and if they did, they sometimes wouldn’t even sing about it. I never dreamed there could be some place like Gal-Three or some of the stations and planets Charmion showed me holos of.’
Marmie smiled. ‘Can’t keep ‘em down on the farm no more, huh, now they’ve seen Paree?’
‘Scuse me?’
‘Another old song. Sorry dear, it just means that once you’ve seen some of the universe, you can develop a taste for more. Is that what’s troubling you?’
‘That’s part of it. I suppose I might not care so much if I thought I could go other places if I wished. ‘Cept, that’s not exactly true. Y’see, there’s so much to learn out there. I saw things I think we might be able to manage for Petaybee, and not hurt anything, if
only someone knew how. But I can’t learn about them here. I’ve always been mechanical, you know, and Diego showed me some gadgets that sure would improve servicing the snocles, for instance. I don’t know. I guess I’m not saying it very well. It’s just knowing that I have to leave by a certain time or I won’t be able to…’
Marmie placed her hand on Bunny’s. ‘We all resent our limitations, dear. Actually, though, you’re starting school a little later than most do. There is no reason why you couldn’t begin long-distance studies here, and then when you find you absolutely must go off-planet to satisfy your curiosity, you can go - surely that will be before you’re twenty or so. And you can always come back, you know, whenever you like. Petaybean troops do. It’s just that I suppose you have to decide now instead of waiting till you’re… oh, forty.’
Bunny grinned. It had all been so obvious but the idea was so new to her she hadn’t considered the really salient factors.
‘Furthermore, it will be my pleasure to present you with a suitable study unit and all the hard-copy books you wish. Among my inheritances are the contents of several libraries. And when you’re ready to go off-planet you can be the pilot student for the Petaybean Off-World Civilian Scholarship programme.’
‘I didn’t know there was one!’
‘That’s because I just decided to sponsor it.’
Bunny reached across the table and gave her a hug. ‘You’re aces, Marmie!’
‘Likewise. Tell me, you haven’t seen Namid, have you?’
‘Nope. Nor Diego. But I came straight here after I got dressed.’
‘Then I think I’ll get dressed as well and we’ll go find them, shall we?’
If Dinah O’Neill, aka the fearsome Captain Onidi Louchard, had known what was in store for her, she would have fought her incarceration with every one of the many combat skills she had learnt since she’d been a defenceless pre-teen. She did hear Megenda mumbling incoherencies as she was propelled down the ladder. She did notice the odd indirect lighting but she blithely ventured further into the cavern, towards the warmth she felt on her face. She thought that at least this prison was comfortably warmer than the cabin she’d just left.