The Mystery of Ireta

by Anne McCaffrey

  “I generally am, but green is a flattering color, and you were very thoughtful to fill the need.”

  “I got the notion that dress clothes might not have been on your most needed list and, after I saw the preparations going on in the officers’ mess, I decided I’d better play costumer for you. Blue for you, Kai, and this garnet red should be most becoming, Varian. Sorry about arriving unannounced. Those pteranodons of yours are magnificent.”

  “So are these,” Lunzie said, one blunt-fingered hand stroking the deep green fabric. “Just how big are the Zaid-Dayan’s stores?”

  “Pretty damned all-inclusive,” Mayerd said with pride. “We’re only four months into this tour so our supplies are basically untouched. Maybe not esoteric. Why? What do you need?”

  “A few odd domes, some heavy duty force-screens . . .”

  “Capable of frying fringes?” Mayerd asked with a sympathetic chuckle.

  “You got it in one!”

  “Just hand me your list. Clever of you to be related to the commander, isn’t it?”

  “Providential!”

  “We haven’t actually written up a list yet,” Varian said. “We only just decided to leave here before the giffs lose their fur in fright.”

  “A cavern did seem an odd place to set up as a major campsite,” Mayerd remarked.

  “It was a good port in a . . .” Varian broke off her sentence because one of Ireta’s sudden boisterous squalls erupted, blowing the vines inward, rain and debris falling just short of the little group.

  “Not that the heaviest duty force-screen would keep off that sort of storm,” Mayerd said, establishing herself beyond the storm wrack on a hearth stool. She took a pad and scripter out of her thigh pocket and looked about her expectantly. “Now, how many domes? How large a force-screen? Furnishings? Supplies? Old lamps for new?”

  By the time Mayerd had left, she had prompted a far more exhaustive list of requirements from them than they would ever have listed without her encouragement. When Varian suggested that they might be overdoing it, Mayerd dismissed the notion immediately.

  “Sassinak has given orders that you are to be given any reasonable quantity of supplies—”

  “I wouldn’t call that exactly reasonable,” Varian said, indicating the filled pad.

  Mayerd regarded her with eyebrows raised in polite surprise.

  “When Sassinak sees domes, force-screens—”

  “Sassinak,” and Mayerd paused briefly to emphasize her commander’s name, “won’t see a trivial list like this. She’s got one very big problem in a transport, occupying her waking hours. This,” and Mayerd waved the pad, “goes directly into QM, and I’ll see that it’s delivered to the site tomorrow morning.” She moved lightly to the little one-man craft, slid back the canopy, and seated herself. “That is, assuming any of us are capable tomorrow morning. Let me check the coordinates of that campsite now, while I’m able.” Kai glanced at the notation and confirmed it. “See you later.”

  Varian couldn’t resist the temptation to swing out on one of the vines and see what the giffs made of the speed of Mayerd’s craft. Some younger fliers took off in pursuit, but it was immediately obvious that they could never catch the speedy sled, so they began to make lazy swirls in the clearing sky, first to the left and then to the right. Almost, Varian thought, as if they made the tip of first one wing and then the other the pivot of a private circle of sky.

  “I wish you wouldn’t take risks like that,” Kai said, frowning anxiously as she reached the safety inside the cave and released the vine.

  “It’s exhilarating, for one thing. For another, I had to move fast or miss the sight, and the ladder was too far away. Kai,” and Varian held out one hand, meaning to clasp his arm to transmit understanding. The gesture was not completed because she remembered his handicap and wasn’t sure just how light a touch might harm. She dropped her hand. “Kai, I just wanted to say that I think you’re perfectly splendid to shift camps to protect the giffs from unnecessary interference.”

  Kai shrugged. “Being here would make your job impossible if you wanted to catch the giffs going about their regular routine. If they have one. And anyhow,” he grinned ruefully, “I think it would lay a lot of ghosts to rest to go back there. D’you want to keep the shuttle as your base?”

  Varian looked about her, at the amenities which Captain Godheir and Obir had so thoughtfully arranged.

  “I’d be very comfortable here, without the shuttle. And then there’s the matter of the giffs’ reaction to the departure of the shuttle. That’ll be interesting to observe.” She grinned.

  “D’you think they’ve wondered if it will sprout wings when it’s big enough? Or hatch?”

  “They’ve been that road once, when Tor paid you the visit.”

  They grinned, once again in harmony with each other. Then Kai gave her arm an affectionate squeeze.

  “C’mon. Once again we’ve got some organizing to do.”

  13

  KAI, Lunzie and Varian arrived at the Zaid-Dayan as the brief Iretan twilight fell over the edge into night. Lights winked on in the settlement, a huge spotlight illuminating the large clearing around which the individual residences were grouped. Red nightlights went on around the looming mass of the heavy-worlder transport, making the great ship seem more ominous than ever. Twinkling here and there, patrol vehicles flitted on seemingly random courses like fireflies. The patrol carts were little more than powered platforms for the two men seated on them, but they were effective mobile sentry units. The gangway was clearly lit, and as Varian landed the sled, she was surprised to see men trotting out to form an honor guard from the gangway to their sled.

  “Why is it that you never have human escorts when you really need them?” Lunzie murmured. The usual three giffs had guided them to the plateau.

  “Have they gone?” Varian asked. Far above them hung a layer of thick black clouds, under which the visibility was unusually lucid in the twilight, which was punctuated now and then with lightning.

  “Now that they’ve delivered us safely to the big eggs.” Lunzie was in good spirits, and Kai wondered if she could continue that way all evening. It could be a dinner to be remembered for many reasons.

  A sudden shrill whistle greeted them as they emerged from the sled.

  “Muhlah! She’s thrown the whole ceremony at us,” Kai exclaimed, forgetting to watch his movements and catching his hand on the canopy frame. Neither Varian nor Lunzie noticed as their attention was on the naval honors being accorded them. He glanced quickly down at his gloved hand but saw no damage. He quickly fell in step behind the women, as complimented by the courtesies as they.

  “Blessings on Mayerd for her parcels,” Varian said quickly to Kai.

  “Well, now look what we have here!” Lunzie cried, holding her arms wide apart.

  In the companionway Fordeliton stood in the silver, black, and blue dress uniform of the Fleet, complete with all his honors—and there were many—on his breast. Slightly to one side waited Mayerd, equally splendid, with the Medical sash crossing her chest. Neither were a patch on Sassinak, however, who also awaited her guests. The commander wore a flowing black gown, its full skirts decorated with tiny stars while the close fitting bodice was goffered with blue. Tiny jeweled formal-dress honors adorned her left breast while the rank emblems were jeweled shoulder ornaments. Kai did not remember ever seeing the ARCT’s officers in full-dress regalia, but perhaps EVs followed customs different from those of the Fleet.

  “Lunzie, it is indeed a privilege and a pleasure to meet you!” Sassinak stood very straight and saluted crisply.

  “It is a unique occasion, certainly,” Lunzie replied in a drawl, but there was no diffidence in her firm handshake.

  The two women stood for a long moment, then Sassinak grinned, cocking her head slightly to one side in a mannerism so like Lunzie that Kai and Varian exchanged startled looks.

  “You have been exceedingly generous to a stranded relative, Commander Sassinak.
That brandy went down very smoothly.”

  “Sassinak, please,” and the commander indicated the direction they should take. “Surely one must mark the chance encounter with an ancestor.”

  “This is going to be some evening,” Mayerd murmured as she took Kai by the arm.

  “Stand down the honor guard, Besler,” Fordeliton ordered the duty officer with a salute. “This way, Governor Varian . . .”

  It was indeed an evening long remembered by the participants. Fordeliton abandoned any pretext of composure after Lunzie’s fourth outrageous pun. Varian had no compunction and howled with laughter. Kai grinned so broadly he wondered if he was doing his face an injury. Mayerd had few inhibitions anyway and was respectful but unawed by her commander. The stewards managed to keep their expressions under reasonable control, but several times Varian was certain that she had heard bursts of laughter erupting from the serving alcove. And the food was superb! Varian watched Kai sample the unfamiliar portions with a tact born of the desire not to embarrass Lunzie. Varian found the dishes so utterly delicious, unusual, and much tastier than their recent fare that she felt Kai ought to have eaten with greater gusto. Each subtle taste was balanced by the next and none of the portions was too large, each was enough merely to tempt the palate to the next course. Their glasses were changed with each new course, and the wines were perfect.

  When they conferred together on the point later, Varian and Kai were both disappointed not to learn more about Lunzie’s early career or her planet of origin. Not even the name of the child who had produced this latter-day descendant, Sassinak. That the two were actually bloodkin was obvious in a dozen small resemblances, in mannerisms or expressions, a gesture, a tilt of the head, a quirk of the eyebrow, and a shared humor that certainly bridged the generation gap.

  All but the tiny cups of cha and elegant afterdinner liqueur glasses had been cleared when Sassinak turned to Kai.

  “I understand that you are shifting back to your original camp site, Kai. Wasn’t that where the fringe attacked you?”

  “Yes, but I feel only because Tor’s warmth had attracted it. We exude a fraction of the body heat of a Thek. Forty years ago we didn’t see any land fringes though we had a full complement in the camp. The campsite has not lost the advantages which led us to choose it in the first place.”

  “I believe I can offer you an even greater security, at least while we’re still in the vicinity. Fordeliton, don’t you think we should give the globes a test run in this unusual situation?”

  “Yes, indeed, I do, Commander. They haven’t yet been tested by such diverse life-forms. Thek, human, dinosaur, the avian golden fliers, and fringes! This environment will be a very good test of globe capability.”

  “Globes are an early warning device that have recently been released for Fleet use. I can’t go into specifics, but with a properly programmed globe hanging over your encampment, Kai, you’ll be safe from such predators as the fringes and the bigger dinosaurs. Now tell me, just how did you escape from the dome and avoid the stampede?”

  “It’s in my report,” Kai said, surprised.

  “Your report, and I quote, says, ‘We exited from the rear of the dome and reached the safety of the shuttle just as the vanguard of the stampeding hadrasaurs breached the forcescreen.’ ” Sassinak stared hard at Kai for a long moment and then turned to Varian. “You were even less forthcoming. ‘We escaped from the dome and reached the shuttle.’ Period. So how exactly did you escape to the shuttle?”

  “Triv and I called on Discipline and parted the dome at the seam.”

  “At the seam?” Fordeliton was impressed and glanced at his commander, who merely nodded.

  “The young man, Bonnard, had not been apprehended by the heavy-worlders?”

  “No, Bonnard was at large,” Kai said, with a wry grin. “He’d the great good sense to hide the power packs—”

  “Rendering the sleds inoperative. Good strategy. I would suggest that the mutineers made the usual classic mistake—they underestimated their opponents. A lesson Naval Tactics always emphasizes, does it not, Ford?” Sassinak raised one eyebrow and regarded her aide with a tolerant smile.

  “Indeed, yes.” Fordeliton dabbed at his mouth with his napkin and looked anywhere but at Sassinak.

  “Leaping ahead in your story, then, Kai and Varian, the golden fliers must be discriminating indeed if they protect you, and yet are aggressive to the Iretans, a hostility I infer from Aygar’s remark this morning.”

  “The giffs had thresholds for their behavior, one of which was stimulated—and this is surmise—by the mutineers who probably searched near enough to the giff caves to provoke attack. They would repel anyone approaching our refuge from the ravine side. They also seem to be able to distinguish among sled engines.”

  “What more have you observed about the giffs?”

  “Not as much as I would like. To date, my observations have mainly dealt with their reactions to us, not interactions among themselves. That’s what I’d like to explore.”

  “Excellent! Excellent! That’s just what you should do.”

  “What interested me most,” Mayerd said, hitching forward in her chair, “was the fact that those creatures knew a specific remedy for the fringe poison. And realized that you needed it. I’d say that places their intelligence level well above primitive norms.”

  “What establishes them above primitive norms is . . .” Sassinak broke off, aware of a shadow hovering anxiously just out of sight in the corridor. “Yes, what is it?”

  Borander stepped into view, every inch of him reluctant to interrupt the gathering.

  “You ordered that you be informed of any attempt at communication between the transport and the Iretans, Commander.”

  “Indeed. Who’s trying to get in touch with whom?” Sassinak shed her party manner in that instant.

  “A transmission from the transport has been monitored, directed at the Iretan settlement and requesting it to open communications.”

  “And?”

  “There has been no reply from the settlement.”

  “How could the Iretans reply?” Lunzie asked. “They haven’t any comunits!”

  “They don’t?” Now Fordeliton registered amazement.

  “It isn’t likely that the original units have survived forty-three years in this climate,” Varian said. “Unless the Iretans were issued replacements.”

  Fordeliton shook his head. “We were surprised, but Aygar said that he didn’t have much need for that sort of equipment. Nor did they request any power units suitable for a comunit of any current type.”

  “On what frequency was Cruss broadcasting?” Kai asked suddenly. Sassinak raised her eyebrows with approval. When Borander gave the frequency, Kai smiled with satisfaction. “That was the frequency the expedition used, Commander.”

  “Very interesting, indeed. Now how would our innocent Captain Cruss have learned that from the ‘message’ in the damaged homing capsule? I’ve read and reread the text. The frequencies were not included. He has well and truly used enough rope.”

  Lunzie chuckled. “I wonder why Cruss is trying to contact people who don’t wish contact with him.”

  “Could Aygar be playing a deep game?” Sassinak asked.

  “I wouldn’t say he was playing any game,” Varian said, watching the frown on Kai’s face deepen at her remark. “He has stated his position quite clearly—this is his planet and he intends to remain on it.”

  “More power to him if he can,” Sassinak replied. “Borander, my compliments to Lieutenant Commander Dupaynil. I think this is a matter for his skills.” As Borander went off on his errand, Sassinak turned to her guests. “Dupaynil’s Naval Intelligence. Varian, do the Iretans have any particular accent or provincial dialect? . . .” And when Varian reassured her, she continued, “My friends, too many attempts at planetary piracy have been successful, too many well-organized expeditions have appeared on planets which were not scheduled to be colonized for a half century. And—to be c
andid—generally not by groups which are amenable to observing Federated Charter obligations as regards ecology, minority, and nonaggression. The unusual circumstances of the spontaneous settlement are all reasonably explained—always after the fact, when the Federation is powerless to disband a by-then established, productive colony. The more we can discover about the modus operandi, the quicker we can squash the whole movement.”

  “Are the heavy-worlders always the pirates?” Kai asked.

  “By no means,” Sassinak replied, twirling her liqueur glass gently around on the damask table-covering. “But they have been the most successful at the game, usurping planets that were destined for other minorities. Ireta is a good case in point. Gravity is normal here.”

  “That’s about the only thing that is,” Lunzie muttered under her breath.

  “Be that as it may,” and Sassinak shot her relative a sympathetic glance, “Ireta is too rich a plum to be plucked by the fardling heavy-worlders! Let them find high-gravity worlds where their mutation is useful.”

  “It would be quite valuable, then, to discover if a group has been organizing these piratical ventures?” Lunzie asked.

  “Invaluable, my dear great-great-great-grandmother Lunzie, invaluable. Have you any ideas?”

  “One which I see no point in discussing prematurely. It’s just that something you said is twitching a memory.” Lunzie flung up one hand in disgust at her inability to recall it. “I’d like to assist this Intelligence man of yours, if I may . . .” and her glance took in Varian and Kai as well as the commander.

  Varian shrugged and looked to Kai.

  “It would afford me considerable pleasure,” he said, “if we could thwart the planetary pirates.”

  A discreet rap on the door was immediately acknowledged by Sassinak and a slim, swarthy man eased into the wardroom. After one quick glance around the table, he gave all his attention to his commander.