“It’s worse than I could have dreamed,” Todd said. “This isn’t a simple case of an interdiction infraction. Oh, no, nothing simple or easily explained like answering a Mayday call. Hrriss and I seem to have been to many planets in many interdicted systems, doing a fine job of smuggling rarities and classified items, all of which we have been secretly stashing around the Albie.” He grinned sourly at the gasps that elicited. “We’re bigtime looters and purveyors of illegal artifacts, and up on charges of smuggling and contraband, using our prestigious position on Doona/Rrala to perpetrate crimes against Hrruba and Terra, and half the planets in between. That log entry we felt would clear us has had some very interesting additions.” He rubbed his eyes with one hand. “I don’t know how they got there. One thing is certain: neither Hrriss nor I put them there. Then Rogitel kept insisting that we falsified the Mayday signal to get into the Hrrilnorr system, to steal a Byzanian Glow Stone.”
“A Glow Stone? A real one?” Kelly asked, her voice breaking with incredulity. “They’ve got one of those in the remote-handling research lab on Hrruba. They’re considered ultra-dangerous. And,” she added with a facial grimace, “they are only found on Hrrilnorr IV.”
“Well, one was found in the communications cabinet,” Todd said. “And whatever else it does, it deleted the short-term memory of the marine standing nearby. So Hrriss and I are not only smugglers and looters, we’re stupidly dangerous pirates.” His mother opened her mouth to protest and closed it, her eyes sparking with suppressed anger and resentment. “At that we got off lightly. The Councillors placed Hrriss and me under house arrest while they’re investigating. We’re not supposed to communicate at all.” At that point, Todd’s broad shoulders sagged, and he looked as dejected as a small boy, all the droll defensiveness and outrage gone. “We haven’t been separated since I started wearing rope tails.”
Pat Reeve could restrain herself no longer. “This whole thing is ridiculous. Why, neither you nor Hrriss have stolen so much as a ... brrna.” She spat that out after a good long hesitation as she tried to remember any other incident of petty crime. “How can they possibly accuse you and Hrriss of piracy or smuggling? Anyone else could have done it. Anyone on the launch pad could have access to your ship.”
Todd had sunk to a chair, elbows on his knees, head in his hands, diminished more by the separation than the absurd charges. Sighing, he propped his chin on his hands and told his mother and Kelly about the additional landings and launches noted in the log, and the even stranger omissions concerning the orbiting alarm beacon. Kelly stood by him, not quite touching him, alert to any cues. When she moved toward him he caught her hand, squeezed it once, and then dropped it as if he shouldn’t hold it—or her.
She was perplexed by that gesture, sensing it to be a “keep off” signal. She backed off. This was so unlike the resilient Todd she’d always known, but if he felt himself ostracized, perhaps he didn’t wish her contaminated by his disgrace. That, too, was unlike the Todd she’d always known. But then, Todd had never been under such vile suspicions before and shouldn’t be now, Kelly thought in seething outrage.
“This whole affair is ridiculous,” she said, dropping her hands helplessly. “It’s absurd to think of you two as smugglers! The Council must all be strangers, to let Rogitel get away with an accusation like that.”
“The Treaty Controller this term is one of Third Speaker’s nominees,” Todd said in a dull voice. “I recognized him as soon as I came into the chamber. You both know him; he’d let us get into a war if it would remove the Human threat to Hrruba.”
Irritably Kelly shook her head. “Surely we have some friends on the Council. I hoped Madam Dupuis would be on your side. She used to live around here.”
“She’s got to go by the evidence, the same as the other Councillors,” Todd pointed out. “Any way you present it, it’s damning. She had no option. That log tape was tampered with! Very cleverly, by someone who knew exactly how to match holo images perfectly.” He sounded more like himself and then suddenly slumped again, scrubbing at his rumpled hair. “I don’t know how we can prove that. Why didn’t I open the recording unit when the log tape jammed! I’d’ve found that wretched Glow Stone then and we’d’ve known we were being set up. That was a costly kick.” A flash of Todd’s usual spirit accompanied that remark. “And whaddya bet,” he went on in a bitter tone, “the Hrrilnorr warning beacon will show we spent far more time in that system than we say we did.”
“What about the beacons at the other planets you’re supposed to have visited?” Pat asked, grasping at the possibility. “Surely, if you’re supposed to have been at so many other worlds, all of those beacons can’t have been got at?”
Todd regarded his mother almost pityingly and shook his head. “This was all too well planned, Mother, for them to neglect that sort of verification. Remember, it’s Spacedep involved and they have the resources to do just this sort of documentation.”
“Look, Todd,” Kelly began in a firm tone, being as positive as she knew how, “you two have an enviable reputation on Earth. Much better than Rogitel’s. There’s going to be a lot of talk when he comes up with this sort of a crazy charge. And I don’t care how much evidence there is against you. He doesn’t have as good a reputation as you and Hrriss, and Doona, have. I’ll see what I can find out. I’ll talk to everyone I know about this ridiculous accusation. Furthermore,” and her smile was malicious, “Hrringa can start the action. He’ll do it for me. And”—her voice rose in triumph now—“I’ll enlist Jilamey Landreau!”
Todd gave her a frankly contemptuous look.
“Don’t be so skeptical, pal,” she said. “He’s been following me around all afternoon in hopes of finding you. He only gave up an hour ago. He’s got a superlative hangover, but he’s still raving about you saving his life. I’ll send the rumor about your entrapment home with him. Yes, entrapment!” For Todd had looked up with some glimmer of hope in his dull eyes. “What else would you call it? You and Hrriss were framed. To ruin the Treaty negotiations. We’ll beat this, er, rap,” Kelly exclaimed, her eyes flashing.
“This what?” asked Pat.
Kelly grinned. “Well, I’m studying ancient colloquialisms.” She leaned over, grabbing Todd by the shoulders, and kissed his cheek. “It’s okay for one of your other good friends to visit you again, isn’t it?” Immediately, she regretted her choice of phrases because a shadow crossed Todd’s face: the friend he most wanted to see was forbidden him.
“It’s okay for you to visit, Kelly, anytime you want,” Todd answered, putting as much welcome into his voice as he could. He touched his cheek where she had kissed it. “Soon, please?”
“I’d better go now. I’ll be back again tomorrow, and we’ll have a council meeting of our own.” She started to go, but turned back a few steps from the door. “Think you should know, Todd, how many people have said how much they enjoyed Snake Hunt and the feast last night. I’m not the first to tell you that you did a good job.” She gave him a wry smile and wrinkled her nose. “I won’t be the last and you’ll feel better when you know how many people are solidly on your side. Anyway, the Hunt was the greatest.”
Todd managed to smile back. “Thanks, Kelly. That Hunt seems to have happened years ago, not just hours,” he said, then rallied, sitting up and straightening his shoulders. “But it was a good one. Thanks again for all your help.”
“I intend to repay that in kind,” she said, grinning wickedly. “You wait and see!” She waggled her finger at him, and that brought a slight grin of remembrance for all the times he had used that gesture and spoken that phrase to her. “I gotta go now, Todd, Pat. We’re expecting dozens of Home Week visitors and Mother’ll shoot me if I don’t put in an appearance soon.”
Todd closed his eyes against the thought of the dozens of Home Week visitors his family generally entertained after the Hunt. Everything good about his life seemed to have been ripped away in a single m
orning: his best friend, his reputation, and his honor. He heard the front door close softly and Kelly clattering down the steps. Then he felt his mother’s gentle hand on his shoulder and he patted it.
“She’s a staunch friend,” his mother said, then she added in a teasing tone, “and still as much the tomboy as ever.”
“Not quite,” Todd said, forcing himself out of despair. He looked up at his mother with a lopsided grin. “Not at the Hunt party she wasn’t.”
“Oh?” Pat rolled her eyes facetiously. “You noticed?”
“Of course I noticed,” Todd said, hearing an edge of irritation in his tone.
Pat put up her hands to ward off an imaginary attack. “I’m not, I swear I’m not,” she said. “But she is a staunch friend and she’ll do all she can to help. She’s smart. Anne says Kelly graduated second in her class, even with all the discrimination against ‘colonial types.’ ”
“I didn’t know she’d got that high,” Todd said, impressed. “But why didn’t she make first?”
“Oh, you,” and Pat play-batted at him. “She’ll call in every favor she’s owed on Earth. You just wait and see.”
“Oh, Mom, how did we ever get ourselves in such a mess!” He dropped his head and began digging with the heels of his hands at eyes that hadn’t seen the danger. Pat dropped beside him, her arm supportively about his shoulders. “When did that stuff get hidden on the Albie?”
“We’ll find out, son, we’ll find out,” his mother said. “You’ve always been motivated by conscience, by truth, and you’ve always respected the rights of others and your responsibilities to them. No one who knows you and Hrriss will believe this vile canard.”
“What about those who want to? Who want to see this colony disbanded, discredited?” Todd said in a soft but caustic tone.
“We both know such people exist and they have caused this entrapment,” his mother said. “But there is a way out of it. The truth, and we’ll shove the doubting faces into that truth. Just you believe we will!”
Todd uncovered his eyes, reddened by his rubbing and the tears he was trying to repress. “I wonder if we haven’t been a little naive here on paradisiacal Doona.”
“That’s a possibility, but we’re not too long in the tooth to protect what we’ve earned by hard work and fair dealings. You’ll see!” She gave him a firm clap on the back, wanting him, he knew, to buck up.
“Yes, Mother, we will!” he replied with as much feeling as he could instill in his tone.
“Now, I’ve always found that the best way to work out a problem is to work! Since you’ve obviously been struck off the diplomatic lists, you can just go help Lon Adjei round up the horses for their annual injections. Since Mark Aden went offplanet, we’ve been a little shorthanded. Not that he was much help as a stablehand when he spent so much time mooning over Inessa. She and Robin are already out there. I’d go but we’ve had New Home Week callers all day long.” She gave him a second, playful thump on the back. “Go on, hon. Have a shower to clear your head.”
Todd gave her a grateful glance. “That’s the best idea anyone’s had all day.”
He went to shower and change. Wrangling horses would get him away from the house and give him something to occupy his mind. But, even as he showered, his mind kept whirling around the morning’s bizarre events.
“Machines can’t lie,” Rogitel had said. The phrase kept running through Todd’s mind. No, they couldn’t lie, but they could be tampered with. But when? And how? And by whom? No face filled the void when he tried to figure out who had set a trap for them. If only he and Hrriss could sit down and think this mess through ... The two of them could discover the answers in no time, he knew they could. They had solved countless puzzles together over the years. Not to be able to communicate with Hrriss, as he had done every day since he was six years old, made him feel empty and lost. He jerked the shower control over to cold and steeled himself to accept the chill.
After a hard day’s work, Todd returned home. As the evening stretched interminably out before him, again and again, Todd found himself starting out the door to go over the bridge to the Hrruban village, as he had done nearly every day for the last quarter of a century. Quelling that urge, he sat down at the computer unit and almost typed in Hrriss’s comp number. But that would be a violation. Could he send his brother Robin over the bridge with a note? Just to let Hrriss know he was thinking about him? No, not even that solace was permissible until the accusations were dismissed. No communication meant just that, and Todd had given his solemn word. He had never broken it. He and Hrriss were honor bound, and honor meant everything to them. Someone was playing on that to keep them apart. Divide and conquer. Well, Todd was determined that no one would conquer without facing a fight.
“YOU’LL BE welcome at home for a change, my cub,” Mrrva said kindly, bringing Hrriss inside as the guards withdrew from the door.
Hrriss still felt himself torn apart by the harshness of the restriction. He had never thought of himself as complacent, or smug about his reputation for honesty, but to have it so smirched and casually disregarded shocked him.
“There is considerable physical evidence against us, Mother,” he said wearily. From their front window, he could see the Friendship Bridge, built so long ago by Hrrubans and Hayumans in the spirit of cooperation. Across it, not very far, lay Zodd. He forced himself to turn away. “It is false evidence, but they must believe what they see. I know only that if we were allowed to be together we could solve the mystery in half the time. We could discuss it until we understood it. It is so difficult to have a lifelong companion torn away from one’s side, Mother.”
Mrrva’s heart went out to him. “I am sorry to learn that you and Zodd must be separated but it will be only temporary. In no time they will see that Zodd and you are innocent of any crime, and you will be together again.” She guided him through the house and out through the back door. “Wait here for me, little love.” She settled him under the arbor in the garden behind the house, and hastened out to the dining area to bring cool drinks for both of them. It was a fine day, and the sun warmed the colors of her sprawling flower beds. She had nearly forgotten how solitary a cub Hrriss had been. Only the explosive arrival on the scene of the lively Hayuman boy Zodd had demonstrated how lonely he had been.
“Don’t dwell on the apartness,” Mrrva said, urging him to take the cold drink. She had pitched her voice to intimate levels to give her words more weight. “You will only make yourself ill. Later, when you have relaxed, you shall explore the facts. For now, let yourself relax. It is so seldom I have you all to myself.”
The herbal drink loosened some of the tightness in his throat. “Have I neglected my duty to you?” Hrriss asked sadly. “I offer apologies to you and Father.”
“No, no! Not at all,” Mrrva assured him in a purr. “We are more than proud of the way you have grown up and the way you hold yourself in honor. Since you first met, Zodd has been welcomed daily as your friend. And ours. He is nearly my second cub. The tasks which I have set you over the years have been done twice as quickly by two sets of hands instead of one.” Mrrva let her jaw drop ever so slightly. “The only way in which you have perhaps slipped in your duties is in the begetting of an heir to the Stripe. Have you forgotten that you are Hrrestan’s only cub? When will you choose a mate? I have waited for the matter to occur naturally to your mind.” She paused, blinking solemnly.
Hrriss lowered his head, abashed. “I have not thought of a mate. My life has been so full up until now that there has been no urgency.”
Mrrva gave him an understanding sideways glance. “Please to consider it now, then. I wish for your happiness, but it would increase your father’s if you do not allow the Stripe to pass to another’s offspring.”
Hrriss flinched. He couldn’t allow the line succession to die just because he was too indolent to find a mate. It would be easy, he thought, merely to mate wi
th a willing female and produce an heir, but, without affection, such a union would be sterile. Matches based on duty were no longer common in Hrruban society, though they did still exist. But the example set by his parents, who were bound by mutual respect and admiration, was one he hoped to emulate. Hayumans chose their mates based on mutual appeal and affection. When they’d been just approaching manhood, he and Zodd had often talked about mating, but in a clinical fashion, comparing the difference imposed by the physical variations of their separate species. Once they had been able for the duties of adult males, they had both been too busy for wives and children. The time had come to review the situation. In several aspects.
Since the sordid accusations this morning, the previous tenor of his life and ways had been drastically altered. He had never imagined a different style of life. Certainly not a life without Zodd in it every day, going out on missions, or taking care of their tasks at home, but now that he thought of it, there was an itch he hadn’t bothered to scratch. Who knew how long he would be kept from acting as an emissary of Doona, and whether others would ever again consider him to fit that post. A Stripe without honor had no place in society. He must be cleared and pronounced innocent, or his life was over!
Since there was nothing more he could do that day to clear his name, Hrriss seriously considered his duty to his Stripe. Now was the time to find a suitable female. More than time. He was already much older than his father had been when he was born. It wasn’t that he’d missed female companionship. He had joyfully given relief to many charming partners during their seasonal heats, vying with other young males to serve their need. No male Hrruban would touch a female without her permission, but many females had made their preference for his attentions quite blatant. Centuries of civilized behavior hadn’t quite reduced that primal urge, though in these modern times, many females used contraception remedies when procreation wasn’t an objective.
Hayumans were not as natural as Hrrubans about sexual matters. It seemed strange to Hrriss that a society which was so much like his own often ruthlessly repressed their natural urges and behaviors. Even when Hrruba had been reduced to crowded quarters for each den and new litters were no longer blessings, the traditional openness about sex had remained.
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