by neetha Napew
“It’s too late to worry about a minor detail like that,’ Kelly said, nervousness making her snappish.
“What about me limping and crouching over like I’m ancient or hurt?”
“That is a very good idea, Kelly, and Nrrna nodded approvingly.
“I am your dutiful daughter, taking you to see the beauties of the countryside.
It is fortuitous that the fur you took is a white pelt.
Here.” Nrrna made some rapid adjustments with her delicate hands, and, although Kelly felt she was more in danger of suffocation than discovery, she let Nrrna’s strong hands guide her as she settled into a limping gait which she felt suggested advanced age and decrepitude.
With corridors and aisles separating blocklike buildings many levels deep, Hrruba was not unlike Earth, which surprised Kelly, though she managed only a few glimpses behind the folds of the pelt.
They rode a slow-moving beltway to a remote section of the capital city of Hrruba. Around them, Hrruban workers, clad in tool belts or robes to denote profession and status, passed them on every side. The only differences between the Human workers of Earth and the Hrrubans were the preponderance of bright colors in the latter’s dress, the inborn grace with which they moved, and the scent. Scent, not smell, for although it was just as strong as the odors of Earth’s passages, it was different.
“Do not speak if anyone bumps you,’ Nrrna whispered. “Your Hrruban is good, but your accent would inform anyone that you are from a colony.” “I couldn’t talk if I wanted to. Is it much farther?” Kelly murmured. Her right hip was protesting the unnatural gait, and she ached to stretch her back up.
Nrrna peered at the lettering on the block they were passing, and her pupils contracted to slits in the strong light. “Not very far. We are nearing the passageway. We must get off as soon as we see a lift.
First Speaker lives on the top floor.” Hrruna’s retreat was in a well-soundproofed block of the Hrruban residential complex. To the surprise of both Kelly and Nrrna, no one guarded the entrance or any of the lifts. Though only one, Nrrna discovered, went as far as the twenty-second story. When the lift stopped, the door slid back and, to their utter consternation, the First Speaker faced them. Later Kelly would remember that a green light blinked above the lift, informing the First Speaker that someone was coming to his retreat.
“By the first mother, what brings such a lovely young one to the door of such an old man? Is this your mother who comes to entreat me?
Or to protect her cub?” He beckoned them to leave the protection of the lift.
Once they had moved on into the first of the boxlike rooms that comprised the retreat, Kelly opened her hood. Hrruna’s eyes widened with surprise and the barest trace of amusement.
“Not an aged and grieving mother, but a redheaded Hayuman. I have heard that such hair color is possible but never have I seen it.” His wise eyes twinkled at her.
what surprised her most was his voice, clear and musical, and young! She could not believe that the greatest Hrruban of all would sound so young. She had met some of the other Speakers who came to New Home Weeks or other celebrations of importance on Rrala, but First rarely left Hrruba.
He had been old when the Treaty was first signed, but, in the intervening years, he seemed to have changed little from his image in the old tapes. His mane was as white as snow, and the fur on his face and chest was faded, too, making a striking setting for the characteristic bright green eyes of his kind.
First’s eyes, under fluffy frontal crests which served the catlike race for eyebrows, were kindly and wise.
Kelly felt quite shy under his scrutiny, but she knew immediately that she could trust him. So she fell to her knees, threw back her cloak, and deposited the precious pouch of documents on the floor before him.
As Nrrna appeared to be speechless, Kelly began in her best High Hrruban. “My name is Kelly Solinari. This is Nrrna, daughter of Urrda.
We came from Rrala seeking an audience with you. We apologize most profoundly for disturbing you in the privacy of your retreat but we had no option save an appeal directly at your feet.” The old Hrruban’s jaw dropped with pleasure.
“That sort of posture is all very well for formal occasions, young Kelly Solinari,’ he said, responding in Middle Hrruban, “but this is not an official visit or I should have been informed of it by the appropriate underling. Please, raise yourself and walk as a Hayuman should, tall and proud. And be welcome in my home.” This was evidently the dayroom, furnished in a fashion similar to that of the Treaty Controller’s apartments on Doona. A translucent panel gave onto a terrace, open to the sky and surrounded ol all sides by high walls.
The rarefied air had the chil of the mountains, though none could be distinguished because of the walls. If Hrruba wa!
anything like Earth, many of its original heights hac been terraformed into plateaus, to provide solic building bases for residences and factories. All th( view Hrruna had was an unending plain of buildings. No wonder the Hrrubans were as desperate a the Terrans to find suitable colony worlds on whic to expand.
Someone (and quite likely, Kelly thought1
Hrruna) had filled this little space with colorful flowering plants from the hydroponics laboratorie deep inside his planet, and from the wild plains ol Rrala. The effect was the equivalent of a miniature Square Mile park. Overhead, though neither heard nor seen, a forcescreen kept out the choking pollution that stained the air above a sickly gray.
The atmosphere inside the conservatory was sweet with the scent of the plants.
Hrruna beckoned to the girls to sit down in the garden. Kelly hadn’t been born yet when he accompanied Todd back to Doona to save the Human colonists from deportation, and to negotiate the Treaty of Doona.
She had no idea how he would receive the information she had for him now.
“So what is it that makes two lovely young ladies risk safety and freedom to visit an old man?” Hrruna asked. He glanced warmly at Nrrna, who was made somewhat uncomfortable by his openly ardent expression.
With a deep breath1 Kelly began. She had rehearsed what she would say to Hrruna, if they got to him. “It is of the greatest importance to us, sir, that the Treaty of Rrala is renewed in two days. To cohabit and cooperate with your people on that world a joy to all us Hayumans is,’ Kelly said.
Despite Hrruna’s use of Middle Hrruban, she couldn’t switch from what she had so carefully memorized. And she was certain she had the right rhythm, the pitch and inflection to say what was needed in High Hrruban, which was as difficult as singing opera. “There may be a difficulty to the Renewal of the Treaty. We come to you to prevent that difficulty. The First Speaker Hrruna is the only, personage to prevent rapidly approaching disaster.
“You are perhaps a friend of the young Zodd?” Hrruna asked in his kind young-sounding voice. “I seem to have had several visits from and on the behalf of that young man. What is it this time? And do not worry about the form of address. We speak as friends.” With great relief, Kelly lapsed into the more familiar idiom to relate the events of the past several weeks. When appropriate, she handed him the relevant documentation. He read through Hrriss’s translations, sheet by sheet. Although not all Dalkey’s lists had been done in Hrruban, there was more than enough in Hrruban script to show First Speaker sufficient proof of illegal payments out of Spacedep funds. That is, if he chose to believe that neither Todd nor Hrriss was guilty.
The First Speaker was skilled at posing questions in a natural progression, making the conversation a comfortable chat instead of a headlong plea for help. Kelly hardly felt she was speaking to him of planet-shaking matters in which the safety of her friends and her home was at stake. He considered everything she told him with a gentle gravity, nodding as she pointed out items that had seemed to Todd to be the most important.
“Why are you emissaries of Zodd?” Hrruna asked at last, his jaw dropping in a smile. “Why did he not come himself?”
“He and his father have disappe
ared. They are not the sort of people who run from trouble,’ Kelly said, once again feeling her crushing worry for Todd’s safety.
“Neither son nor father is craven or thin-striped,’ Hrruna said encouragingly.
“We’re afraid they’ve been abducted.” Saying that aloud in Hrruna’s presence made it sound so horribly true that Kelly burst into tears.
She was exhausted and worried. Nrrna sat beside her, holding her hand and muttering soothing phrases. Hrruna offered her a small glass of clear water and she sipped it, determined to control herself. This was no time to show weakness. The water helped. Then she could tell Hrruna what Todd and Hrriss had learned at the Launch Center, what Kiachif had discovered about the incriminating tapes, and if the tapes had been falsified, that neither Todd nor Hrriss could have stolen anything they were accused of stealing, including that awful Byzanian Glow Stone.
“But Mr. Reeve was taken from his house, and Todd from the Launch Center, by Commander Rogitel. They were taken by aircraft to the Treaty Island to go by the grid to speak before the Amalgamated Worlds panel and they never got there.” Kelly forced back tears. “They wanted to clear their reputations. But they didn’t even get that chance!” And then she stuck her fists against her mouth so she wouldn’t disgrace herself with more tears.
“I do not like what you have told me,’ Hrruna said, his voice suddenly sounding very old.
“It is the truth, most honored Speaker,’ Nrrna said, speaking for the first time.
Kelly hiccupped back her sobs. “You’re the only one we know who can demand an investigation into their disappearance. No one on Earth even cares what happens to them!” she added bitterly.
“Please, please, most honored First Speaker, help us! Help Rrala!” Nrrna’s voice was low but so sweetly imploring that Hrruna leaned down to pat her cheek.
“I must assist you,’ Hrruna said, his voice kindly but firm. “I have known much of what you related, but you have also brought me the proofs which were withheld, or falsified, or conveniently misplaced.” Hrruna chuckled, a series of throaty grunts.
“I was truly unable to interfere until now. The continuation of the Rralan colony is far more important to me, as Hrruna, and as First Speaker.
than I am willing to let any of my colleagues realize.
If, however, I tried to interfere, that would give leave to others who are less altruistic to meddle in their own fashions and for their own reasons, which would not be as benevolent as mine. So I sheathe my claws to give others no excuse to sharpen theirs.
They are compelled to show restraint, or suffer censure. A subtle means to an end but sometimes a more potent weapon than it first appears. When reputation and honor are more important than life, it becomes a greater lever.” He sighed. “Perhaps not long enough a lever, for it does not appear to have unbalanced Rrala’s greatest foes. I have been watching this contest from a distance. The players are not only fearful Hayumans. Some are very powerfully connected Hrruban xenophobes, including ones living on Rrala, who are trying to abort the Treaty.” “You know all this?” Kelly asked, and then bit her tongue for such impudence. “I beg your pardon, honored sir,’ she said humbly.
She hadn’t learned quite enough at Alreldep. She really had no business dealing at such a level.
First Speaker took no offense. “I have my sources,’ he said.
“Young Hrrula has not been idle throughout all this, reporting directly to me. He is intelligent and most discreet. I value his observations enormously. He is devoted to Rrala, as well as to his world of birth.
If you had asked him, he might have been able to bring you directly to me.
Hrrestan knows of my trust in Hrrula.” Kelly and Nrrna looked at one another in amazement. “I didn’t know that. Neither of us knew that. And with Hrriss gone . . .” She broke off.
“Exceptions have been made before now,’ Hrruna said enigmatically.
“But someone has lowered himself to the dishonorable practice of kidnapping. I see the ramifications of that clearly.
If Zodd and Hrriss do not appear in court with the proofs you have shown me, they are guilty by default. One more tool has been used by the hands of those without honor who would see Rrala fail.
The involvement of Admiral Landreau, Commander Rogitel, and Codep Varnorian is known.
The dishonorable Hrruban is not.”
“It’s the Treaty Controller working under Third Speaker’s orders,’ Kelly said, and then closed her eyes because now she had to admit to her own dishonorable sins. “I, urn, I sneaked into Treaty Controller’s rooms to look for that document box Nrrna and I knew he had received and which he was so fussed about.
Well, we had to know what he meant by the days being numbered,’ she said, defending herself, but Hrruna merely looked amused. “I couldn’t unlock it, but it had been sealed by Third Speaker’s personal sigil.” “There is no crime in his receiving such a package,’ Hrruna reminded them. “Third is his sponsor, after all.”
“Yes, but why did he feel it necessary to hide that case in a specially made place at the bottom of a chest instead of putting it in the safe in his office or in the Archives? If the documents were innocuous, why didn’t they arrive in a courier pouch?”
“You took out all the drawcrs in his bureau?” Hrruna asked, chuckling merrily. Kelly turned red.
“I am not judging your actions, child. But I do see the point of your suspicions. Third may indeed be involved in this conspiracy. It is not beyond him when he feels thwarted. Yes, I am sure he is not uninvolved. Rrala is a nightmare to him. If the Treaty is not renewed, he would be unimaginably relieved.”
“Please, honored sir.
Don’t let them scuttle the Treaty! Surely you can keep Treaty Controller from listening to the pessimists on Hrruba?” Kelly begged.
“Rralans are no threat to Hrruban society,’ Nrrna said. “We want to live our own life in peace.” Hrruna nodded his approval. “I think it would be best if Rrala continued as it is, I agree. But there are those who feel that once we unleash the ocelot, we will cease to be master of the hunt, and one day may even become prey. An all-Hrruban colony will behave as any Hrrubans will anywhere else. When you add in the Hayuman factor, behavior becomes more uncertain. I prefer to trust, but others cannot.
It is not in their natures. I must not interfere in the negotiations or decisions of the Council, or it would not be a genuine agreement. It would be forced.
But I will see what I can do to keep others from meddling so deeply.”
With some difficulty, First Speaker rose stiffly to his feet.
“A line of inquiry will be initiated immediately, even though I said I would spend my day in private. I hope, pretty one,’ he addressed Nrrna, “that you will stay, so we can get to know one another better.
Though I am old, I would be entirely at your assistance, should you care to remain with me.” Nrrna shot Kelly a black-pupilled look of entreaty and the fur stood up on the backs of her forearms and on her tail. Such an invitation from the First Speaker was a high honor and Nrrna could not think of how to answer in a polite but negative way.
It had been one thing for her to vie with other females for Hrriss’s notice, but to diplomatically extricate herself from the attention of another, more assertive male, especially one of the broadest Stripe on Hrruba was more than she could handle.
Kelly had noticed how fascinated Hrruna was with Nrrna’s dainty beauty and realized it was now her turn to rescue her friend before Nrrna really panicked.
“0 most honorable First Speaker, how we wish we could stay, both of us.” Kelly ignored the glance he flicked at her that suggested the Hayuman had not been included in his invitation. She rose to her feet.
“But we will be missed and awkward questions might arise from our disappearance - especially as we are known to be the promised mates of Todd and Hrriss.” Giving Kelly a long and somewhat amused look, Hrruna shook his head. “I suggest both of you remain with me, for safety’s sake, my dear Ha
yuman. A tactful message will be sent to Hrrula to settle disquiet in both your houses. But should any whisper fall upon the breezes near Treaty Island that you have come to the First Speaker, you would be in mortal danger if you returned to Rrala.”
“Oh,’ Kelly said in a very small voice. She sat down again and exchanged looks of alarm with Nrrna. Put in that light, neither of them was eager to go.
Hrruna’s jaw dropped as he watched the byplay between them.
“I was preparing food when the lift light flashed that visitors were on their way to me. Come, we will eat together, for we will need our strength. You may even assist me. Then we will set to work, for there is more to be done than I thought and I will need your assistance “That’s what we came to get,1 Kelly said, and grinned broadly at him.
Nrrna even managed a soft purr.
Hrriss had found a safe haven with the Reeve family, keeping out of sight in the house and trying to piece together from them what Kelly and Nrrna rnigit have learned that had sent them into hiding, too.
According to his betrothed’s mother, Kelly had arrived to see Nrrna.
She had left Calypso in the village pasture and her saddle was still in Nrrna’s room. Mrrva had been busy with her tasks, somewhat worried by the strangers in the village center, and when she had gone to call the girls to eat at midday, they were gone. No one had seen them since.
“I’ve called all the nearby ranches and no one has seen either Kelly or Nrrna,’ Pat Reeve told Hrriss.
“Did you have any luck?” Hrriss had contacted every Hrruban he knew to be trustworthy, and some had set out discreet search groups to the farms around Nrrna’s home village and some of the ranches where Nrrna had friends, but no one remembered seeing the girls.