Crisis On Doona

by Anne McCaffrey

  “If there is any celebration to look forward to,” Anne Boncyk said sourly, from just in front of the dais. She had been passing on the whispers she heard to anyone who’d listen that Ken Reeve and his son Todd had disappeared rather than appear in court to defend allegations against them. “They’re probably headed for one of the outer worlds where they have all that money hidden away,” she confided out loud to Randall McKee.

  But she picked the wrong target for such a statement.

  “You know better than that, Anne,” Randall replied, rising to the defense of both Reeves.

  “Yes, indeed,” and Vic Solinari joined McKee, facing down the woman’s gossip. “There’ll be a bloody damned good explanation for their disappearance, just you wait and see.”

  “I’ll wait but I don’t think I’ll see,” she replied tauntingly. “Those Reeves never could run things right.”

  “Confound it, Anne Boncyk,” and now Ben Adjei confronted the small woman, “if you mean how they run the Snake Hunt, I’ve told you three times for every pig you own, Anne, if you’d have chosen a different homestead than the one you did, the snakes wouldn’t come anywhere near your spread.”

  “They’re supposed to make sure all livestock is safe all along the way,” Anne retorted, getting angrier.

  “Those reptiles have been sliding up and back between the dunes and the marshes along that stretch since before your acres had even surfaced out of the sea. I showed you a dozen better sites when you came here. You’d be better off if you moved.”

  “I might not have a choice, thanks to those Perfect Twins you all think so much of.” Anne sniffed, turning away from the burly veterinarian and looking around to make sure Hrriss was not within earshot. “What I’ve heard is, if they’re judged guilty, then the Treaty won’t be renewed. All along, you thought they were such saints, and look what they’re doing to us!”

  “Todd and Hrriss are innocent,” Vic Solinari said. “Most of the charges against them have been proved bogus. You know that as well as anyone else here, Anne Boncyk, so stop acting the maggot.”

  “If they’re so innocent, why isn’t Todd here to stand beside Hrriss and prove it? Because if they don’t, we’re off Doona! The Hrrubans will confiscate our homes, our stock, everything we’ve worked for.”

  “Hrrubans do not intend to confiscate Hayuman homes,” said Hrrula, stepping through the crowd around them. “I, Hrrula, know that Zodd Rrev is innocent.”

  “Well, we’re not sure of that,” a Human woman cried out.

  “Yet your system of justice, like ours, clearly states that one is innocent until proved guilty. If, after knowing how hard both Todd and Hrriss have worked to make this colony succeed, you think they are guilty, then this great Experiment is already over.”

  There was a moment’s stunned silence as Hrrula’s words condemned many for their lack of faith. Hrriss, standing well back in the crowd, lowered his head in shame. He had endured much calumny and heard his dearest friend slandered. Nothing he had said, or proved with the precious documents they had worked so hard to gather, would change the minds of many of these distressed folk, Hrruban and Hayuman, when they realized that all their hard work could be swept away at any moment by the dissolution of the Treaty and the Doona/Rrala Experiment.

  “No, the Experiment has not failed,” cried Hu Shih, struggling to the dais. “Not if we, Hayuman and Hrruban alike, present a unified front. We must be of one mind now, more than ever, putting aside petty questions of innocence or guilt. The Colonial Department and the Speakers will have to realize that we, Hayumans and Hrrubans, are sincere and dedicated to the principles of the Decision at Doona and the Cohabitation Treaty.”

  “Well said, well said!” Clapping his hands above his head in Hayuman fashion, Hrrestan jumped to the dais to stand beside the slender little Hu Shih. “This colony is a state of mind as well as a place for both species to live and prosper. It was founded on hope. Let us keep that hope alive. Now! Let us hope that our faith in those young men is vindicated as I know it will be!” And to the surprise of everyone listening, Hrrestan threw his head back and uttered an ancient Hrruban challenge.

  It had barely died away when others repeated the challenge, Hrrubans with their uncanny howl and Hayumans with wild ululating cheers.

  “Okay, folks,” and Vic Solinari leaped to the dais. “No one’s called off the ceremonies so let’s make sure they start on time. Senior dignitaries from Earth and Hrruba are due in shortly. Let’s show them as united a front as we did twenty-five years ago. They didn’t believe us then, and we made them as united a front as we did twenty-five years ago. They didn’t believe us then, and we made them. Let’s revive that spirit and show ’em now, today! We’re here to stay,” he motioned the Hrrubans and Hayumans for silence. “We got a lot of work to do now, everybody, so let’s hop to it. First Village has sent rails of brrnas for roasting, and Wayne Boncyk’s given us four of his boars to roast. Norris has donated a hundredweight of those special sausages he makes, Phyllis here has ssliss eggs by the cartload, and I dunno how many women have been baking. Let’s get organized, folks!”

  He sprang down from the dais, genially pushing one group one way, another toward the doors, gesturing at the fire pits that were already glowing.

  “We have the crop of our berry harvest to offer,” called out Hrrmova of the Third Hrruban Village. “A bounty of blackberries and drroilanas.”

  “The Launch Bar will donate beer, mlada, and wine,” the owner called. “If any spacers come wanting a drink, they’ll have to find me here. I don’t want to miss a minute of the celebration.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Vic Solinari cheered him. “Hrrestan, where should I put my two hundred kilos of good aged urfa cheese?”

  “We shall find a place, my friend,” the Hrruban said, “for I know that many Hrrubans are particularly fond of that commodity.”

  “And the hunters of First Village,” Hu Shih said, “have made a record catch of the hatchlings. Snake stew must be on the menu.”

  “We’re doing all this for nothing!” Martinson of the Launch Center shouted, pushing through a crowd which had recovered its hope. “We’ll all be off this planet before that food can be cooked, much less served.”

  But this warning elicited more jeers than agreement.

  “You may leave now, if that is how you feel, Martinson,” Hrrestan replied, letting his eyes slit as he looked at the portmaster. He didn’t show the irritation he felt at this attempt to puncture the delicate mood of optimism that was beginning to build. “Go if you do not share our hopes. We will not miss you.” And resolutely he turned away.

  Martinson stared after him, looking around the room, but others had turned away, too. He stamped out of the Hall, cursing fools and fatheads and men who wouldn’t face reality.

  Soon even the most pessimistic caught the growing spirit of hope and resolve. There was a lot to be done, however the events of the next day turned out. After all, twenty-five years ago, there had been less hope for those who remembered that fateful day. Was it wrong to expect a second miracle?

  Hrrestan hoped that he sounded more convinced than he felt. If some worked only because it was something to do, that was better than doing nothing. And so the preparations for the feast began, Hrrubans and Hayumans working side by side.

  * * *

  The next day dawned, for better or for worse. Pat forced herself out of bed and set about kneading bread dough which had risen during the night. She put the loaf pans on the sun porch to rise again. Deftly she put fancy touches on each, spread glazes on some and sprinkled seed on others. For someone who had never baked a loaf of bread before she came to Doona, over time Pat had mastered the skill until she had pride in it. If she worked, she didn’t think about how frightened she was. Once again she was alone on Doona without Ken: she hadn’t liked it the first time it had happened twenty-five years ago and she didn’t like it
now. He should be here with her. Where was he? Where was Todd? And where were Kelly and Nrrna? Safe, they said, but where was safe these days? Kelly had given her so much support, ever since Todd had woken up to what everyone else had seen—that he and Kelly were so well suited to each other. The bread made, she had only to wait until it was ready to bake. Only to wait? That was the hardest part of all. Wait for what?

  The handle of the front door rattled, and Pat flew to answer it. On the doorstep was her daughter Ilsa, and her two small daughters.

  “Oh, sweetheart,” Pat gasped. “I’d almost forgotten you were coming.”

  Ilsa put down her bags and threw her arms around her mother.

  “Happy Treaty Renewal Day, Mom,” she said happily, embracing Pat, and then stood back at her expression. “If it is. What’s wrong?”

  Pat bent to cuddle her two small granddaughters, four and seven they were now.

  “How would you two like to help me make bread?” she asked, diverting them as well as herself. “Wash your hands now,” and when they had, she showed them how to shape spare scraps of dough into little loaves and left them to it.

  With them happily occupied, she explained to Ilsa what had been happening since their last contact.

  Ilsa listened quietly and thoughtfully to the most recent troubles. Knowing her brother’s sense of honor, Ilsa had expected Todd to have cleared up all that nonsense about smuggling and stealing and things. She kept to herself her anxiety when she learned of the disappearance of both her father and brother.

  “Why didn’t you comp-line me, Mother? If Dad and Todd are on Earth, we could have gone to Poldep to instigate a search for them.”

  “I didn’t want to worry you, dear,” Pat replied, knowing that she hadn’t considered her gentle daughter could be much help in such circumstances. “Every minute I expect them back, to walk in that door and explain where they’ve been. And there’s no time left now. Nothing they could do even if they do make it back today.”

  “Now, now, Mother, I’ll just make us a nice cup of tea and think what to do.”

  * * *

  When the baking was done, the two women put the still-steaming loaves and buns in the flitter and went to the Assembly Hall kitchen. The room was uncomfortably silent. The previous day’s ebullience had dissipated when dawn brought no sign of the missing Reeves. Preparations for the feast were proceeding, but the mood was of people performing chores by rote or by sheer and dogged obstinacy, with none of the laughter and joking and excitement that should infect such a task on a day of such historic importance.

  Those who would cling to their hope and faith until the bitter end of all expectation tried to resist the spread of despair. Some of the faces were stunned and incredulous, others resentful. A few doomsayers murmured to any who would listen that there was no way to avoid or escape the inexorable end of this sad day.

  Hrrula, Hrrestan, Mrrva, the Solinaris, and the Shihs moved constantly about the work parties, encouraging, complimenting, urging people to greater efforts. The preparations continued in spite of the general depression. It looked like it would be a magnificent feast, in the very best tradition of Doona. Even if it did turn out to be the last one, the condemned would eat heartily.

  “You always present food so beautifully, Miranda,” Pat told one of the young women who had just been carving Doona blossoms out of root vegetables. Smiling, the girl glanced up at the compliment and her smile turned to a sneer as she swiftly moved away.

  Pat felt as if she had been slapped. She glanced up and met the eyes of one of the Hrruban males who were helping trim roasts, and he too turned his head, without changing expression. Pat cast wildly about for Ilsa and found she’d watched the whole thing. The young woman’s eyes were full of shocked hurt. Pat was embarrassed that her daughter had to be witness to her mother’s humiliation. It was so obvious that people unconsciously blamed Todd, and Ken, for their predicament.

  “Pat, I’d appreciate your help outside,” Dr. Kate Moody said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and escorting her firmly to the door. Once they were hidden behind a cultivated hedge which separated the rear of the kitchen from plain view, Pat let go and sobbed bitterly on Kate’s shoulder.

  “You’ve been a model of fortitude, Pat, don’t spoil it now,” the colony pediatrician murmured to her, patting her on the back. “This isn’t a personal rejection of you, you know. Everyone’s tense, frustrated. I don’t have a notion what happened to Ken or Todd but I’m damned sure they’d be here if they could! And I keep hoping any minute now they’ll come striding over that bridge and set everything straight. Mind you, they may be cutting their timing a bit close, but they’ll come.”

  “If I could believe that ...” Pat wiped her eyes with the doctor’s handkerchief and let out a sigh. She wanted that very scene to take place, and soon. She looked over at the bridge, hoping against hope that Ken and Todd would materialize from the grid. “I can’t blame people, Kate. If ... We’ll all lose our homes and everything we’ve worked for and we really don’t belong anywhere now but Doona. And why is it that both Todd and Hrriss have to be at the hearing? Hrriss has almost all the evidence. Why, that Mayday beacon being found on Earth, and Dr. Tylanio proving the log tape was doctored beyond recognition. That proves that the boys didn’t steal those things because they weren’t even near those planets, just as they’ve always said.” Pat had to stop to blow her nose. “And if Hrriss is innocent, then Todd is, too. Or that’s what Hrruvula assured me. And that’s how he’s going to present the documentation we have!”

  Kate smiled at her. “Well, you’re a lot more generous with the fools than I’d be. Come on back inside. There’s a lot left to be done, and we need you. I know they’ve got almost all the evidence, but they may hang us all on the specific wording of the Speakers’ resolution. Both boys and all charges dismissed. No one could ever keep either Ken or Todd down for long. And you know it.” Kate lifted Pat’s chin and smiled at her. “So hold your head up and shame the devil.”

  Pat managed a weak laugh. “My grandmother used to say that. If I just knew that they were both ... okay ...” She couldn’t bring herself to use any other word. “I feel so lost without them.”

  “Well, you’re not lost, and you’re not alone. You have all of us. Let’s see if I can remind these doubting fainthearts of that.”

  Kate pushed through the door and escorted Pat back to the cake-decorating station. With a firm hand, she sat her down on a stool and put tools in front of her. To the others who glanced at them in surprise, the pediatrician stated in a loud voice:

  “Now let’s get something straight, you gaggle of gossiping grannies. No, you’re acting like preteens, and I’ve the right to kick sense into that age group. You know where to lay the blame for all the anxiety we’re experiencing, and it isn’t on Pat Reeve’s shoulders. It’s because her husband and her son haven’t turned up. Do you know them so little after twenty-five years that you’d honestly believe they’d leave us in a lurch?

  “Well, I don’t, and there’re plenty of others who agree with me. Someone, or some group of ones, made sure Ken and Todd never made it to Earth. ’Cause there’s no way they’d go unnoticed there! Not those big-striding, proud-walking men. Can you imagine them mincy-mincing,” and she mimicked the short polite stride of the Terran natives, drawing a giggle from some quarters, “along Corridors and Aisles without being noticed? We know they’re not on Doona because where we Hayumans haven’t looked, we Hrrubans have! And any of us silly enough to believe that there aren’t some Hayumans and Hrrubans who’d both prefer never to set eyes on the Reeves again better take the next shuttle out of here.”

  “We’ll have to anyhow, won’t we, if the Reeves don’t show up?” a woman murmured.

  “Well, I got hopes on that score, too. We’ve got Hrruvula, no narrow-stripe mince-stepped poseur either, to present the documentation that has been assembled. And if Hrriss can b
e proved innocent then ipso facto, Todd Reeve is. And that ought to be good enough for everyone here and good enough to sway the Councillors. And, I don’t want to hear another sour word from anyone.” She clapped her hands vigorously. “We got a lot to do. Let’s do it. And with a few smiles to make the work go quicker.”

  Few could argue with her facts or the good sense for which Kate Moody had always been noted. Flagging hopes revived again and soon a few smiles appeared on faces. Several people deliberately came up to Pat, giving her affectionate squeezes on her forearm or apologizing for their unkindness. Instead of seeking for something or someone new to blame, long glances passed between friends who were fearful that they would never see one another again. Work resumed at a more energetic pace with the renewed sense of solidarity.

  Old Abe Dautrish, carefully decanting wines of his own recipes from herbs and local berries, spoke in reminiscence. “Remember that first winter? Ten months of misery. Living in one miserable plastic hut until we could get the others up. Remember what that was like? Who’d believe we could come so far?”

  “And together,” said Lee Lawrence, smacking Hrrula on the back.

  “All was bezzer when we became friends,” a Hrruban woman said, with dropped jaw.

  “We’ll fight this,” Phyllis Shih stated, whipping a bowlful of eggs with a vengeance. “They can’t throw us out of here. This is our home. We’ll take the appeal to the Amalgamated Worlds court ourselves if we need to.”

  “That’s the old Doona spirit,” Kate Moody said with satisfaction. She winked at Pat.

  All the preparations were complete by midafternoon. The First Village’s hunters, following Hrriss, returned with dozens of young snakes and a few wild fowl for the stewpot. Carcasses of dozens of urfas, pigs, and cows rotated over coals in the many roasting pits downwind of the kitchen.

  The transportation grid was brought over the bridge from the Hrruban side and laid in front of the Assembly Hall’s big double doors. Its posts had been draped with floral streamers. Not long thereafter, diplomats of both races began to appear and were escorted into the Hall with much attendant dignity.