Acorna’s People

by Anne McCaffrey

  If someone had offered to make Edacki Ganoosh king or emperor of the universe, he would have turned them down. He did not wish to have ultimate power or ultimate responsibility or ultimate visibility. He far preferred the joy of playing puppet master and pulling the strings that manipulated people and events for his amusement. Presently, he was both very happy and highly amused.

  His network’s tentacles had extended far beyond his customary haunts, into new galaxies where his allies had allies who had allies and those allies had allies who were quite accustomed to dealing with people who fit the description of the Linyaari. Also, like the Linyaari, these particular people were said to be quite advanced and peaceable and law-abiding by nature. Ganoosh, though he was not fond of abiding by rules himself, was very fond of such people. They were so much easier to control. Sometimes he wished his ward were more law-abiding but then, if she were, she probably still wouldn’t be alive now. She would have been much less trouble, but also much less useful.

  He was, in fact, quite anxious to hear from the dear girl. The Midas had not communicated for a very long time. The willful child was probably just trying to keep her dear guardian in the dark. He was greatly pleased at how quickly Ikwaskwan had taken control of the situation, his mercenaries now patriotically serving as Federation peacekeepers, traveling to the far-flung, non-Federation worlds that had been harboring the Linyaari renegades. These staunch uniformed troops let the non-Federation worlds know that continuing to aid and abet the Linyaari would sadly lead to a show of force on behalf of the Federation, which could not allow such people to just go running out of its jurisdiction after committing the interesting array of offenses Ikwaskwan and the others had dreamed up. As Ganoosh had suspected, the worlds frequented by Linyaari were as staid and peaceful and law-abiding as the unicorn girl’s visitors had claimed their own world was.

  Ganoosh considered it a great pity that the Khleevi Ikwaskwan’s men had helped defeat had no known allies or common language or communication with any other race. He felt that such ferocity as they were known to exhibit could be of value to his enterprises.

  The com unit sent forth a blast of the static that it was patented not to emit and then Kisla’s voice preceded her indistinct image on the comscreen. “Oh, Uncle Edacki, we have failed! Daddy is furious with me, I’m afraid, and says I am not fit to command a starship. Please please please don’t be mad at me! It was the crew’s fault really. They were such sissies when I wanted to torture Becker. They didn’t even want me to kick him around or kill the nasty cat.”

  “Calm down, sweetheart, and tell Uncle Edacki all about it now. You must remember the crew are corporate employees, not information-gathering specialists. I should have thought to send one along but I was trusting to your natural talent. I can scarcely believe you got your hands on the man and did not find the place from which the horns came or secure any more of them.”

  “Oh, I found it, all right. At least, I found the place he got the first ones from. But there weren’t any more and there are only a dozen or so in his sack.”

  “I have a hunch he is holding out on you, darling girl. Do ask him again nicely.”

  “I ca-a-a-n’t,” she wailed miserably.

  “He got away?”

  “No—I sort of, you know…” She made an approximation of the sound of a laser burning through flesh. She did it very well, and it was a difficult and unpleasant noise to reproduce.

  “Did you let your enthusiasm get away with you before you investigated thoroughly, Kisla Manjari?” Ganoosh asked her sternly.

  “Nooo! Really, Uncle! We checked his computers and according to them it was the right place. But after I zapped him, these little explosions started going off everywhere and the Midas was about to be hit so we took off and left him. We can always go back if you want us to, and take his ship and check the computers again.”

  “No, no, my dear, that would most likely be unproductive. I should have known persons such as the late Mr. Becker would have no truly valuable finds to share with us, no matter how prettily you asked.”

  “You’re not cross, are you, Uncle? Perhaps you could send me to the school, you know, where your information extraction specialists learn their trade. I know I can be very helpful in this work if you’ll just give me another chance.”

  “Oh, precious, don’t fret your little head about it. Of course I’m not cross with you. You did get more horns. All the horns Mr. Becker had. And I have no doubt but what, if a school for information extraction specialists existed, you would, except for that little tendency toward impatience of yours, be at the head of the class in no time. In fact, with your natural talent, I’m sure you could be an instructor.”

  He saw her well enough now to discern that she was blushing with pleasure. Positive reinforcement worked well with this girl.

  “I have so much faith in you, in fact, that I want you and the Midas to undertake a new mission.”

  “Oh, goody! What is it? Do I get to extract information?”

  “Certainly, my darling girl, and from a wealthy and pampered pair of newlyweds, one of whom is a very close personal friend of your own close personal enemy…”

  “Which one?” she asked eagerly and he could see her taking inventory of people she knew of who filled his description. “Oh, Uncle, you don’t mean that wily old sheik, do you?”

  “Now who is wily? You figured that out immediately. Bright girl. Good girl. Yes, I’m afraid the stupid Yasmin allowed herself to be found. To buy her own head she betrayed the tail I had on her. I expected no better, to tell you the truth. However, Harakamian’s ship the Shahrazad has just left the Rushiman orbit. Fortunately, Yasmin apparently did not feel it necessary to tell her captors about the secondary monitoring devices she placed aboard the ship. We are still able to get a fix on the Shahrazad without difficulty.”

  “Can I kill Yasmin for you when we get back?” Kisla asked. “She shouldn’t have tattled on our surveillance ship.”

  “I’ll think about it. Patience, remember, darling. Yasmin has her limitations but she may still prove useful if I can retrieve her from the settlers—preferably after she’s done a bit of hard penal labor to remind her who her friends are. No, I want you to follow, properly cloaked and shielded, until such time as you can board the Shahrazad and take the Harakamians prisoner. At that time you may use any methods you wish to determine the course Hafiz is employing to reach the unicorn girl’s home world.”

  Kisla was beaming. “Uncle Edacki, you are the best. I’ll find out for you at once!”

  “Make it so, sweetie. And Kisla? Lovie?”

  “Yes, Uncle?” Her impatience was now again evident, along with a certain defensiveness, like a dog who was afraid its treat would be snatched back.

  “You’re not to go there once you find out. Just relay the information and detain the Harakamians until I give you further orders.”

  “Awww, Uncle!”

  “Kisla!” he said warningly.

  “Oh, all right. May I hurt them while I detain them? Even if I can get the information some other way?”

  “There will be sufficient opportunity for that, dear heart, once we have the information you are after. Hafiz Harakamian has many secrets and I’m sure you will enjoy cajoling him to confide in you once I tell you what it is I wish to know. But that can wait. Now, scoot! You’ve a job to do, Commander Kisla!”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, blew him a kiss, and the screen went dark.

  Some aspects of Ganoosh’s plans were going even better than he could have hoped.

  His teams had found an entire chain of planets destroyed by the Khleevi. While the planets themselves were depressingly without commercial value, one of them had a serviceable moon. With the help of biosphere-type prefab experimental stations, it was soon able to support sufficient personnel for his purposes. Ganoosh installed his teams of scientists and security forces. The former were told what to look for and the latter were told where to find subjects. Nothing could be simpler.
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  General Ikwaskwan reported back to him via remote relay, and the reports were enormously satisfying to both Ganoosh and the general.

  One by one, the Linyaari trade partners were being identified—occasionally by the Linyaari taken into custody, and more often by the trading partners themselves. A few of the trading partners had proved awkward, but forceful persuasion generally was all it took to sway them into surrendering their Linyaari guests, and the location of any trading partners they knew about.

  Two large, secure wards were currently filled with the white, single-horned humanoids. If things went well, there would soon be more. More horns and more likelihood of breaking one of the Linyaari and finding the location of their home world.

  When the most recent arrivals were herded into the biosphere, General Ikwaskwan was in residence, listening to the complaints of the scientists. These unimaginative men claimed that they had all of these subjects, but unless the subjects could be observed doing whatever it was they supposedly did, the scientists would be unable to proceed. Linyaari were extremely stubborn, for a peaceful people. They seemed to be able to communicate without words, leaving the scientists continually feeling as if they were being discussed, even though the Linyaari never spoke in their presence, not even to complain, once they realized what the scientists wanted.

  “Sedate them,” Ikwaskwan said. “Put them in cold sleep until you need them. I don’t care.”

  “I thought so!” a loud, nasal, feminine Linyaari voice rang through the sphere. “General Ikwaskwan! Are these your people? There has been some mistake. You know who I am. Please tell them to release me and my crew and our people at once.”

  Ikwaskwan didn’t know the lady in question at first. For a heart-stopping moment, he thought he had actually captured Harakamian’s niece, Acorna. But no, there was something—older, about this woman. “Madam, you have the advantage of me,” he said, with a mocking, courtly bow.

  “I’ll refresh your memory then,” she said, dragging her captors nearer to him. He signaled for them to let her go. “I am Visedhaanye ferilii Neeva of the Linyaari people of narhii-Vhiliinyar. I demand to know the meaning of this outrageous imprisonment of myself and my people. The trumped-up charges your people used to abduct us are so patently ridiculous, I’m amazed you were able to take us without a formal protest from our hosts.”

  “Your hosts stood to gain a great deal by the transaction, madam, if you know what I mean,” Ikwaskwan said. “Besides, we were able to convince them that while you may be well-behaved in your own sector, you were definitely a criminally disruptive influence in ours. You are to be congratulated on finding so many supremely stodgy allies.”

  “Neeva, save your breath,” said another of the newcomers just as loudly, as if she thought they were all deaf. “There’s been no mistake. Obviously he is no longer an ally.”

  “Very astute, dear lady. I put my superb mercenary forces at the service of the highest bidder. As you see, the highest bidder has changed since our last meeting.”

  (Neeva! Is it really you? Oh, beloved lifemate, how I have longed to see you, but not here and now.)

  Ikwaskwan was rather amused to see the fight go out of Neeva as her attention was drawn to the others of her kind in the biosphere. He hoped what was said but so far unproven about this race was accurate. Otherwise they were a waste of good air and food, as far as he was concerned.

  He shrugged and left them to the scientists. He was ready to return to his own compound for a time and reunite with Nadhari. He had some rather splendid plans that would make good use of her. He planned to put her at the service of Ganoosh, whether or not she was willing.

  The titillating but distracting struggle for power between them would be over for the moment, if he did so, but it would be delicious to break her time and time again. Of course, the real point was to see how thoroughly these supposedly miracle-working Linyaari could put her back together again. She would never forgive him, of course, but that was part of the fun of it. The joy in conquering a woman was in playing the last trick and this, surely, would be the best trick anyone had ever played on Nadhari. Just to be sure he would be the one doing the taking, not the other way around, he brought along a company of the best troops he had who had not been trained by her.

  When the remaining communications officer buzzed the comlink in her room to tell Nadhari she was being hailed, she asked, “The general, I presume?”

  “As a matter of fact, ma’am, no,” the officer said. “This is another party. They’ve been cleared to speak to you, with your permission.”

  “You have it,” she said abruptly. She hadn’t spoken to anyone outside the station since the day Ganoosh called Ikky. Ikky had pretended nothing was happening, and Nadhari, aware of her precarious position, had gone along with the pretense, while keeping her senses tuned for an opportunity to turn the tables, escape, or at least get a message through to let the Kendoros know of the alliance.

  Fortunately, she hadn’t needed to maintain appearances for long before Ikky and most of his troops departed.

  She switched on the comlink. “Colonel Kando?” The halting question came from a young Starfarer girl she recognized from the Khleevi invasion of Rushima.

  “Yes?”

  “We would like to retain your services as a combat instructor, please,” the girl said.

  Nadhari watched a figure move into the comscreen. When the face appeared, she saw with relief that it belonged to Pal Kendoro.

  She knew she was being monitored and tried to figure out what she could say to tip them off to her situation.

  “Hello, Pal, long time no see. Are you running a day care facility these days?” she asked.

  “You know better than that, Nadhari,” Pal said. “Look, we’ve come to try to recruit your help, and the general’s if he’s available. We would like to dock and speak with you face to face, if possible.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Pal. I’m not at liberty to receive guests right now and the general isn’t here.”

  “Be that as it may, we’ve come all this way to talk to you. We request permission to dock. We have reason to believe there’s a threat to Acorna and her people. House Harakamian has authorized us to retain your services and the gen—”

  “This isn’t a good time to talk about it, Pal,” Nadhari said. “The general already knows—”

  Her transmission was suddenly interrupted by the smooth and friendly voice of Sergeant Erikson. “Permission to land granted, Haven. Just come on in and set’er down. We have a lot of vacancies right now.”

  Damn! How could she warn them off now?

  She was both pleased and surprised to find that her door irised open to her touch as usual, so she had not been confined to quarters. There was a trap in this situation somewhere. She knew it, and if she could keep the Haven from falling into it, she had to try. She sprinted for the docking bay.

  The canopy was open and the Haven was already landing before she could pull on her pressure suit and gravity boots. She waved at them to go back as she stood in the transparent viewport between the air lock and the open landing bay, but of course they didn’t understand. They thought she was greeting them. Damn. If she’d had a rock she’d have thrown it. The Haven set down as trustingly as a child settling onto its mother’s lap.

  Immediately afterward, as if by magic, Ikwaskwan’s flagship suddenly appeared above the bay. It had been cloaked, she realized. Lurking. It probably picked up the Haven’s signal from some distance away. Ikky apparently felt he had some business with the Haven, because Erikson would never have welcomed them without orders to do so.

  What was the general playing at now?

  The docking bay boasted a huge comscreen with loudspeakers and Ikky’s face appeared before them. Nadhari pulled on her helmet and stepped out into the bay. Despite the bulkiness of her suit, she felt naked without a side arm.

  The big face on the comscreen looked down at her as if she were a bacteria under a microscope. “Nadh
ari, you didn’t tell me you were expecting visitors or we’d have tried to make it home sooner. This is my lucky day! I get to see you again and also those plucky Starfarer kids.”

  Plucky? Oh, God, if he was being that phony the kids were done for, too. But if he was keeping up pretenses, she had one of her own to try. The mike in her helmet worked. “It was unexpected. They came on behalf of House Harakamian to retain our services. They’ve brought us, General, a substantial offer,” she said, almost hopeful that it would work. Money was Ikky’s native language. Maybe House Harakamian could buy him off?

  But as the flagship came to rest beside the Haven and the dome of the docking bay closed over them, a weapon she had not been aware of was deployed by Ikky from the safety of his ship. The air in the bay turned oddly greenish and a strong noxious-smelling mist soon filled the interior of the docking facility.

  She was staring at it in horrified fascination when Erikson and five other mercenaries entered the lock. She was suited up, and clumsy. They wore simple gas masks and were armed. She tore the mask off one of them and broke Erikson’s leg, but they didn’t fire on her. Instead, three of them subdued her while the others snatched her helmet off before raising their weapons. When the stun bolts hit her, the last thing she saw before the world faded to black was Erikson’s satisfied smile.

  She was not conscious when the Haven was boarded, after the hatch had been forced open by masked troops to allow the ship to fill with gas. One by one the Starfarers were carried out of their own ship and aboard the general’s, while Nadhari herself was tenderly scooped up by Ikwaskwan and later just as tenderly chained to his berth aboard the flagship. She did not feel this either. The flagship, full of this unexpected human bounty, began the voyage back to the experimental station, leaving the Haven, standing alone in the docking bay, forlorn and seemingly empty.