Power Play

by Anne McCaffrey

  “Well, you’re an up-and-coming independent planet then. Big tourist trade?”

  “Tourist? Oh, you mean the hunters? Well, we don’t know yet how they come to know about us.” Clearly, Adak did not approve. “They don’t know how to hunt proper on Petaybee. Worse, they keep getting lost and not knowing how to speak to Petaybee to find out where they are.”

  “Speak to Petaybee?”

  “Wal, some of ’em’s not done bad. But now the whole kit and kaboodle’s here we can’t get rid of ’em. Them and the druggists . . .”

  “What would druggists . . .”

  “Oh, you know the sort, Dama, big shots from drug companies. They think all they gotta do is dig plants or strip leaves and make pots of stuff to sell for bags of credits,” Adak scoffed. “They’ve another think coming, and most of ’em is awful slow. They eat a lot, too.”

  “And that’s bad?”

  “Wal, lucky we had a good harvest this year, long spring, good summer. Got a bumper crop, or would have if all these folks hadn’t dumped on us. Opportooo-nists is what Sean calls ’em. They sure are lousing up our opportunities.”

  “Maybe we should go to Kilcoole?” Dinah suggested.

  Adak eyed her shipsuit and her neat jacket critically. “Wal, you ain’t dressed proper for anything but the snocle, Dama, and one of our drivers is unfortunately being held by pirates offa the planet. Sorry for the inconvenience. You can sit over there.” He pointed to the rough benches lining the wall. “Won’t be too long. A coupla hours till those guys bring us whatever pile o’ junk’s going to Sean this time.”

  Dinah and Megenda exchanged glances but obediently sat themselves down. The cube might appear windowless from outside, but there was a strip of one-way plasgas all around, affording them a good view of the activity around the spacer through the light snowfall.

  “Captain Louchard’s not going to like us waiting about,” Megenda murmured to Dinah.

  “I know, but it can’t be helped,” she replied, and crossed her slim legs. She had much to think over while she waited. At least the building was warmish. And the snow would hide the little shuttle craft she and Megenda had arrived in. She fingered the finder in her pocket, which would allow them to locate the craft no matter how much snow covered it.

  Adak O’Connor had turned away from them to his comm unit. “. . . that Muktuk wrote,” he was saying. “That’s a rog, Una.”

  Dinah had been a pirate long enough that she didn’t care for it when someone was communicating long-distance while she was in the room and without an escape route. She sauntered back up to O’Connor’s desk as if bored and sat on the edge of the desk.

  “So tell me, Adak. I’m awfully curious about this Tanana Bay. Where is it anyway? Actually, I was wondering if there was a map of this planet or something. I can’t imagine the whole place being arctic.”

  “Well, it is, Dama. Dr. Fiske says that’s ’cause we only got continents on the poles with nothin’ in the middle—well, not so far. Governor says the planet’s workin’ on makin’ middle bits, but it’ll take a spell. Now then, as for a map . . .” He reached into the middle drawer of a desk and drew forth a much-creased sheet of paper with a monochrome photo on it. “There’s not a lot, but Dr. Fiske gave us this serial map and showed us where Kilcoole is. I can show you where other places are, if you got a bit of time.”

  She smiled sweetly. “From what you say, I’ve quite a bit of that. So, then, where is it?”

  “Right about—well, first you have to find Savoy and Harrison’s Fjord, which are—”

  “Why, when I want to go to Tanana Bay?”

  “ ‘Snot that simple, Dama. You have to get your reference points like, and—”

  The desk was suddenly thrown into shadow as Megenda loomed as only he could. “Stop stalling. Give us the coordinates.”

  Sean streaked from the Kilcoole cube in a stream of papers when Una gave him Adak’s message.

  “He said the lady Muktuk and Chumia wrote to was here looking for her relatives, Sean,” Una told him. “Said she was an O’Neill if ever he saw one. He’ll try to keep them there.”

  “Are Muktuk and Chumia still in town?”

  “No, sir. They went home right after leaving the message.”

  “Send a team after them, and if you can’t locate one, send Sinead on skis. She’s the fastest in the village. Damn, without the company here, we’re going to have to organize some kind of police force.”

  “How about Madame Algemeine’s organization?”

  “Good idea. Ask Whit to get a message to Gal Three. But no one is to move in until we can safeguard Yana and the others.”

  “Where are you going, sir?”

  “For a swim,” he said.

  Una shook her head as she watched him tear off his fur vest and shirt as he ran toward the river. Other people bundled up to go outdoors in this weather. Sean stripped down. She liked these people, she really did, but she doubted she’d ever understand them.

  Even in seal form, swimming as fast as his flippers could take him, Sean arrived at SpaceBase too late. Adak was on the floor of the cube, a large bump purpling on his head. “Big sucker hit me,” he said. “The lady was nice enough, though. They wanted a map to Tanana Bay.”

  “Did they now? At least we know where they’re going.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t think there’s any way we can get there in time.”

  “I can,” Sean said grimly.

  Fortunately, the river ran close by the cube, and Sean dashed back out the door, still stark naked, dived in, and disappeared under the water. Adak touched his bump gingerly. “Musta got him outta bed or somethin’,” he said. “I coulda loaned him some pants anyway, if he’d stopped long enough . . .”

  Megenda was already at the shuttle’s controls and Dinah O’Neill was just about to climb in when a disturbance on the river caused her to pause. She was here to suss out this planet and its peculiarities, after all.

  Her eye had been caught by the sight of the river ice bursting open, frothing with bubbles, then geysering three feet in the air as a large silvery seal jumped onto the bank. She was about to turn away when the seal turned into a well-built naked man, one of her favorite tourist attractions.

  The man ran into the cube, and Dinah smiled.

  “You comin’?” Megenda grunted.

  “In a moment,” she said, and her wait was rewarded. After a few minutes the door to the cube was flung open and the naked man ran out, jumped back into the water, and disappeared beneath the ice.

  She saw Adak O’Connor standing in the doorway, scratching his head, looking slightly nonplussed, not much the worse for wear, and not terribly surprised at his visitor’s appearance. Perhaps she was being unimaginative in her assessment of the possibilities of this place.

  20

  Southern Continent

  Oh, Lordee, thought Johnny, kidnapping’s come back into vogue! This is ridiculous. “And so,” he said aloud, “just how many d’you think you can cram in my copter?”

  Zing Chi smiled with pleasant malevolence. “You will call for others.”

  At that point, Loncie snorted, Pablo guffawed, and Johnny just grinned.

  “Man, you’re looking at the sole and only copter available in this or any other Petaybean hemisphere. And I only got so much fuel left in the tanks. So stop waving that thing at me like it could argue the case for you.”

  ’Cita noticed that the light had gradually faded while they stood talking; it was becoming hard to see the men.

  Youngling, you are safe? Coaxtl’s rumbly mental voice was like a warm blanket.

  “Yes,” she answered, automatically looking around to spot her friend.

  At the edge of the ring of armed workers she could dimly make out the shadowy form of the boy she had seen earlier from the copter. Beside him, a pair of eyes shone. ’Cita knew it was Coaxtl. Then she saw the next pair of eyes, lower down, and the outline of a pair of smaller tufted ears. Another pair of eyes was beside Coaxtl’
s then, and, coming from the darkness, another and another and another.

  She was about to tug at Captain Johnny’s sleeve to point out what she saw when someone screamed and, all at once, several other people did, too.

  “Quiet!” Zing Chi hollered. “Quiet, you morons! What is the matter with you?” He strode into the crowd and smacked the first screamer he met. But when he raised his hand to smack the next, a tall man, Zing Chi’s head tilted back as his gaze traveled up and up and up, into the snarling face of a standing polar bear.

  The crowd suddenly grew much more dense, as the hundred or so workers shrank toward the copter and the ring of Petaybean snow lions and polar bears, wolverines and wolves, and other large animals stalked slowly forward.

  Zing Chi retreated until he came up against Johnny. Johnny had taken the opportunity to draw his sidearm, and now he gave ’Cita an inquiring glance.

  Just then Coaxtl’s voice spoke in her head. None will hurt you, youngling. But these ones are a plague to the Home and we have come to see that they go no further.

  ’Cita pulled Johnny’s shoulder down and whispered this information in his ear.

  Johnny covered Zing Chi and said, “If those weedwhips of yours will burn, I suggest you build a fire. These critters don’t like fire very much.”

  “I guess you don’t want to tell them the bad news, eh, Captain Johnny?” Pablo asked.

  “What bad news?” Zing Chi asked.

  “We only told you what cures people make on this planet. Animals have their own remedies. A polar bear that hasn’t mated for a while, for instance . . .”

  On board the pirate ship

  Yana was lying on her bunk listening to Namid give Diego and Bunny an astronomy lesson. Bunny soaked up everything Namid had to say, while Diego made a pain of himself, playing teaching assistant. Marmie was asleep.

  The door to their cramped quarters opened and Dinah O’Neill poked her head in. “Yana, could we talk?”

  “What about?” Yana asked cautiously.

  Dinah smiled sweetly. “Just a little girl-to-girl stuff. I thought you might want to. I’ve been down to see your planet. I think I may have seen your husband.”

  Yana was on her feet and at the door so quickly she almost ran Dinah down.

  “What did Sean say?” she asked, recklessly grabbing the smaller woman’s arm. “How on earth could he meet your demands?” Surely Sean’s loyalty to Petaybee was more urgent than even his love for her and their unborn child.

  Dinah gave her a secretive feline smile. “I didn’t exactly talk to him.”

  “But you did see him?”

  “Nice-looking guy who turns into a seal?”

  How had she learned Sean’s secret? Well, since the wedding, a slightly more open secret. Yana nodded. “That would be Sean.”

  “Oh yes, I saw him—quite a lot of him actually. How does he do that?”

  For a change Dinah was not accompanied by Megenda or any other heavies. Yana toyed with the idea of overpowering her, but curiosity about what Dinah had seen on Petaybee made her decide to wait. Besides, once she overpowered Dinah, then what? Take on the rest of the pirates? She could hold Dinah hostage, but pirates like Louchard weren’t known for their unswerving devotion to their friends.

  Dinah led her into a tiny room that boasted a desk and a double bed. Yana raised an eyebrow.

  “I didn’t realize Namid was so serious about the divorce when I brought him aboard. I thought I could get him to reconsider. What did you think? I take turns with the crew?”

  Yana said nothing, but the eyebrow stayed aloft.

  “You did, didn’t you?” Dinah seemed amused, but there had been an edge to her query.

  “What you do in bed is none of my business, and I don’t think that’s why you wanted to talk to me. What’s on your mind?”

  “Now, Yana—”

  “I prefer Colonel Maddock-Shongili, if you don’t mind.”

  “Heavens, there’s no need to be so stuffy. You’re coadministrator of a whole planet now. That makes you a politician. I’m a privateer. So you see, we have a lot in common.”

  “If you only brought me here to insult me, I’d like to return to my nice, convivial cell, please.”

  “You aren’t making this easy,” Dinah said.

  “Gee, I’m sorry. I didn’t know I was supposed to.”

  “I thought you wanted to return to your planet. I’m just trying to tell you that there might be a way, but it’ll be tricky.”

  “Getting Louchard to agree?”

  “Believe it or not, the captain will be easier to convince than the crew. If it was up to Megenda, you’d all be spaced. You have no idea the personnel problems one has trying to obtain crewmen who are rough enough to do the job but still controllable. It can be a real nightmare.”

  “I’m sure you didn’t ask me here to tell me how hard it is to get good help these days, Dinah. Will you get to the fraggin’ point?”

  Dinah dropped her confidential air and became very businesslike. “The fraggin’ point, Colonel Maddock-Shongili, is that under certain circumstances I can use my influence to return you to the planet. One of those circumstances is that you must personally guarantee my safety and that of my crew, when and if we release you.”

  “I certainly won’t be able to arrange for your guarantee unless I am free to do so,” Yana said acerbically. “What else?”

  “I have business in a place called Tanana Bay. I’ve obtained an aerial map which leaves a lot to be desired . . .”

  “How? Sean didn’t just give it to you!”

  “No, a cunning old devil named Adak pointed it out.”

  “Adak is Bunny’s uncle. You didn’t hurt him?”

  Dinah shrugged. “Megenda had to give him a love tap. But he was standing in the door of a Nakatira Cube that seemed to be functioning as an immigrations office, alert, and watching your spouse’s bare ass sink into the river when last I saw him. He’s fine. But the map is too damned indistinct—no roads, no towns, no names. We’ll need a guide to the settlement, and I also want to find one of those—whaddayacallems? Communion caves?”

  “Wouldn’t you prefer the one at McGee’s Pass perhaps, or Savoy, to view the fruits of your previous efforts?”

  “After what happened to Satok and company? No, thanks. Listen, I hope you’re not holding that against me, too—”

  “It’s not me you have to worry about, mate,” Yana said drolly.

  “Well, then, I have to worry about whatever it is that allegedly makes Petaybee . . . unusual—at least unusual enough to allow a human being to do what your husband did. Change, I mean. I hope whatever that is won’t hold Satok’s operation against me. All I knew about that business was that the men delivered such and such an ore to such and such a site and that they had developed something involving Petraseal that let them succeed at mining where the company had been unable to.”

  Yana leaned forward and said with all the earnestness in her, “Dinah, if I have to personally cover every inch of ground near Tanana Bay to find the communion place for you, I will do so just to watch you tell that story to the planet and hear what response you get. But what are you going to tell Louchard if the planet refuses to consider your demands?”

  “I’ll think of something,” Dinah said. “Now, however, it’s time for us all to climb into the shuttle and take you home, don’t you think?”

  “And Bunny, Diego, Marmion, and Namid? Bunny’s probably the best one to guide you.”

  “And not much good to me otherwise. Actually, Marmion has become a bit of a liability, delightful as her company has been. Had it not been for her offer of a transport fee, I’m afraid the boss might have done something drastic to, er, eliminate the danger. But a fee is a fee, and I’d much rather drop her off on your quaint little planet than, er, deliver her to her door on Gal Three, where I’m sure her friends and employees would all be there to greet me. And I suppose I’d best face it that it’s all over between Namid and me. Petaybee’s as good
a place as any for the tasteless bastard.” She gave a deep sigh. “Oh, very well. You can have it all your way for now. There! It’s settled! Don’t you feel better now that we’ve talked things over? I know I do!”

  The moment the hatch opened, Bunny took a sniff and said, with a deep sigh of satisfaction, “Home.”

  Snow was falling against a pink and tangerine twilight, gilding the heavy snow cover with rose and gold, a glistening sheet stretching to mountains dwarfed by the distance.

  “Very good, sweetie,” Dinah O’Neill snapped, “but I knew this was your home already. Where exactly and specifically are we?”

  Megenda was climbing out behind Dinah, but as soon as he stepped on the narrow gangplank, the port side of the shuttle sank approximately four feet into the ground, cracking the big pirate’s chin on the ledge.

  Bunny made a face. “Sinkholes. From the permafrost, you know.”

  Megenda’s foot was trapped between the side of the hole and the shuttle. The other two pirates were left inside the shuttle, which continued to list further into the water.

  “The fraggin’ hole’s filling up with water,” Megenda bellowed. The words were just out of his mouth when the hatch closed abruptly.

  “Oops,” Yana said, watching the shuttle and the pirate sink further. “I don’t think that’s a sinkhole after all, Bunny. I think we may have landed on ice and it broke through under the shuttle’s weight.” She called down into the hole, “Hope you can swim, Megenda.”

  Dinah stepped to the edge of the hole to help the first mate, but the ice broke under her foot. Had Namid not grabbed her, she, too, would have fallen in the black and freezing water. As the hole broadened, Megenda lurched with his hands to find a hold on the exterior of the shuttle and managed to catch one of the security hooks, his heavy body precariously dangling from one hand.

  “Help him!” Dinah said, reaching for her laser pistol. But it was gone, extracted from her belt by Namid, when he had rescued her from falling into the hole. “Damn!” She clenched her fists in frustration.