Without another word Holia and Clyn pushed their manes and tails back into their suits and helmets and, with one last look, walked back to their spacecraft. By the time they were inside powering up the engines, Dax and Reniola had gone.
The idea that Reniola’s ample frame could filter away into the atmosphere amused the original owner. ‘Seems strange there wasn’t any more it.’ Holia eased the craft out of the thin atmosphere and towards the more agreeable climate of their own world, hidden from the prying eyes of the Mott inside the centre of a huge, apparently gaseous, planet.
Clyn smiled. ‘My goodness, those two are really going to upset the Mott - and they won’t even know it isn’t us.’
‘Mind you, it’d be enjoyable just to see what they intend to get up to. The idea of all those gallant warriors being beaten up by a couple of pacifists appeals to me.’
‘With their powers, they’ll be able to do anything - Mind that planetoid, can’t you! I want to get back alive to enjoy this.’
‘Damn junk everywhere,’ Holia complained. ‘Ever since the Mott blew those planets up, this route has been an obstacle course.’
‘That was only because they were too pretty for them.’
‘Never. It was because they couldn’t make any strategic use of them and weren’t going to leave them for anyone else to colonise.’
‘What a waste with the way things are now. There are too few habitable planets as it is.’
‘Haven’t you heard the latest?’ Holia swerved the craft to avoid another chunk of debris.
‘No, what?’
‘They’re going to shake the planet dwellers from their homes with a space-distort net invented by a friend of yours.’
‘The planet dwellers?’ Clyn didn’t believe her. ‘That’s impossible. I don’t know anyone intelligent enough to invent a device that could.’
‘Not even that loveable green Kulp?’ Holia reminded her.
Clyn shuddered. ‘I’m glad I changed my name. Now I won’t have to admit to ever knowing that arrogant, poisonous slime squirt. Four tours of the K 49 cluster I did with him, then he decided to turn me over to the Mott when he knew the price was right. Did you know they grew him in a jar under a grey light?’
‘No, really?’
‘Yes. The Olmuke forgot how to reproduce ages ago. They just keep using the stock of sperm and eggs they collected before females were banned.’
Holia laughed. ‘You must have come as a horrible shock to him.’
‘No, I think it just annoyed him. At first he thought I was some bio-mechanoid. Then he discovered that I was living. That’s what really upset him. Can’t stand to be made a fool of. Hides everything that goes through his evil calculating brain very well though. His homeworld didn’t realise what he’d do when they withheld a grant for him to develop a solar blaster.’
‘What did he do?’ asked Holia.
‘Developed an invisible atmosphere dye instead. He sprayed it over five major cities. When their inhabitants now go into the sunlight they turn bright pink. And you can guess how much the Olmuke would love that colour. There was no antidote for it, so a quarter of the planet’s population have to spend their days under shelter or turn pink and become social outcasts.’
‘Very nasty. But you’ve got to admit it does have style.’
‘I’ve no doubt the infernal contraption he’s invented to dislodge the planet dwellers will have even more “style”. Of all the inoffensive individuals to start on, they couldn’t have picked a more harmless.’
‘It’s not as if they can even flee to safety. None of them can exist without their planet.’
‘Unless...’
‘Of course,’ Holia smiled. ‘I wonder...’
The ribbons of vapour parted slightly to let their spacecraft slip through the shell of the ostensibly gaseous planet. Down into the massive giant they sped to the small terrestrial world at its centre.
‘What do you mean? Double the price!’ the multi-footed creature with the dental problem spluttered. ‘Why didn’t you tell me that when you first came in?’
Kulp sneered. ‘I’m sorry I made you behave reasonably under false pretences, but there’s no way I can isolate that collapsar under the original system. If you don’t like it, I’ll find another buyer.’
If that didn’t sweeten the Mott’s temper, it at least stopped his abuse in mid flow. That planet was strategically vital to the Mott’s conquest of several star clusters, and to lose it to a higher bidder wouldn’t endear him to his superiors. He had to get the price down somehow.
‘Why don’t we make a compromise?’ His four feet shuffled his shape of all body and little brain annoyingly about the implacable Kulp. ‘Can’t you drop a few terminals and tighten the net a little?’
‘That would mean having one on the planet’s surface,’ Kulp reminded him. ‘It’d be a gamble if you want it to be habitable after Moosevan has gone.’
The Mott weighed up the risk against what it could save in cost and immediately decided. ‘That’s what we’ll do then, and it’ll be on your ugly head if it goes wrong.’
Kulp said nothing. He preferred the thick-skulled creature to go on underestimating him. The watching Jannu and Tolt were just relieved they hadn’t resorted to anything more violent than words.
‘How predictable are things down there?’ Jannu asked apprehensively, not ignorant of the danger in going to the planet’s surface.
‘It hasn’t moved for the last few years or so,’ the Mott replied without any trace of sentiment that could be called scientific. ‘Though once it realises what we’re up to it might well start thrashing about. I only know I’m not going down there.’
‘Spoken like a true fearless warrior,’ said Kulp.
‘You’re the one that’s paid to be fearless,’ snapped the Mott. ‘You’ve got too much invested in your own self-importance to believe anything could happen to you.’
‘I know what I’m doing. Unlike anyone else who has tried to tackle this before.’
‘I won’t say you’d better be right, because I’ve no doubt you are. But survival doesn’t always depend on being right,’ the Mott threatened.
‘We’ll see, we’ll see.’ Kulp grinned provokingly. ‘Just make sure when you pay me the credits are untraceable. I don’t want Olmuke tax inspectors pouncing on them.’
All avenues of conversation explored, Kulp returned to his ship.
Although Kulp and the Mott commander could be considered as equally objectionable, their reasoning was species apart. What the Mott could achieve out of ignorance pure greed, Kulp could achieve far better out of greed alone. Any other emotion was an encumbrance. This green engineer had so much lack of charm he could give orphans a bad name. Kulp didn’t believe any mortal, or immortal, Nemesis would descend on him for his sins. He had been the agent behind many outrages inflicted on unsuspecting and innocent people and could still sleep soundly, though he ensured his spacecraft was the fastest his ill-gotten gains could buy. His associates, Jannu and Tolt, were cowardly and easy to manipulate. It was a simple matter to predict their actions. At that moment they would be bumbling around in one of the freighter’s robot controls talking about everything they wouldn’t dare say in front of him.
‘What a way to spend this quarter’s festival,’ complained Jannu as he jarred his unfortunate robots back into life once again.
‘Don’t worry,’ Tolt reassured him. ‘After they discover we’ve teamed up with Kulp, they’ll never let us back on the homeworld again anyway.’
‘The last quarter, Tritten’s moon was blasted out of orbit and a portrait of the supreme commander was made out of its fragments. It could be seen right across the system when the old supernova was above the pole,’ reminisced Jannu. ‘I doubt if we’ll ever witness the like of such things again.’
‘The glory of the empire we sold to the Mott and the deterioration in the hatchery stock are the only things we’ll have to celebrate from now on. That and how hero Kulp managed to blast numer
ous creatures from their rightful homes so the glorious Mott could claim their planets.’
Jannu fed in yet more of Kulp’s modifications to the unprotesting robots. ‘Are you complaining?’
‘I would be if I could see a better way of life, but there are too many Motts and too many Kulps between us and the nearest civilisation for that to happen.’
‘You’re beginning to sound like a Torran sympathiser. I’d keep those thoughts dark. You know what Kulp thinks of their species.’
‘I have heard, but didn’t believe anyone could get the better of our infallible partner.’
‘Well, someone did,’ Jannu’s voice dropped to a whisper. ‘A Torran female called Dax.’
‘Go on.’ Tolt lowered his voice as well, so intent on learning the scandal he didn’t notice the panel in the ceiling slide silently back.
‘She was a pilot on a freighter touring the K 49 cluster when he was chief technician and second in command. He always thought she was synthetic until she used the hold to evacuate some refugees from a planet poisoned by the Mott. Kulp wanted to use the space for more freight and was going to open the hold doors and ditch them. She managed to get hold of some of the dye he used on our planet and sprayed it through the ventilator into his room, then altered all the freighter’s lighting to shine in the same wavelength as our sun.’ Jannu stopped briefly as Tolt began to snigger in his distracting way. ‘He couldn’t do anything about the refugees after that because he daren’t leave his quarters. And what’s the betting that when he goes down to that planet he won’t want any company?’
By this time Tolt was rolling about in delight and Jannu had to stop feeding the robots information for fear of making a mistake.
‘What did he do?’ Tolt gasped.
‘Oh, as soon as he was able to put the lights straight without being seen, he trumped up something to frame the Torran with and handed her over to the Mott. They couldn’t understand the complexity of the crime he invented, so they put a mark on her and let her go. He got paid for it though.’
‘Trust him to land on his feet,’ Tolt sniffed, as his six fingers wiped his tears away. ‘I don’t suppose Kulp would take kindly to us knowing that one.’
‘It’d be sudden death if he thought we did. As long as that Torran lives, so does his moment of ignominy.’
‘I’ll keep it to myself and relish it whenever he lapses into one of his least bearable moods.’ Tolt was too overcome to look up and see the panel in the ceiling silently slide back.
CHAPTER 6
Diana left her cottage where Julia and one of her friends were sitting mesmerised in front of the television, and slipped out across the meadow to check on Yuri. In the midsummer dusk, she saw two shapes standing by his cottage. One was very distinctive, had two heads, four legs, and created a sinister silhouette against the setting sun. The other was equally recognisable. It was small, agitated and making the motions of an enraged Eva. The words of the conversation not so much drifted down, they were blasted towards Diana. She could tell by the tenor of the voices that she should approach with extreme stealth, if at all. It was only concern for what had happened to Yuri that didn’t drive Diana back inside to mind her own business. She knew Daphne Trotter’s attitude towards the astronomer, and was partially convinced that Eva’s was little better. To have the two women descend on him in his present condition could well make him permanently dependent on tranquillisers and gin.
Fortunately the two women were so involved in their own exchange of opinions they didn’t hear her creep closer with the concealing help of some wild rose bushes.
‘Don’t tell me how to run my affairs, lady muck!’ Eva was advising the booted figure towering above her on the black horse. ‘I own the lease to this land and am selling it to no one, so there’s no need to try any more devious little deals with my solicitor.’
‘Be careful how you talk to me,’ Daphne threatened darkly.
‘Oh, but I am, and I’m enjoying every moment of it. If I catch you on this land, whether it’s knocking gates off their hinges or frolicking about in the stinging nettles, I’ll have you bound over so fast you won’t even have time to recognise yourself in the local rag. I would consider it the crowning achievement of my career to see your fat arse kicked about this county by every person your malevolent claws have sunk themselves into.’
‘Have you quite finished?’ Daphne just managed to chip in.
Not for long: Eva had only stopped for breath.
‘No chance, you racist, blue-bottomed turd. I’m not one of your locally intimidated parishioners. You’re likely to have one hell of a job if you start poking around in our territory, up or down, so don’t try threatening me again!’
‘You and your friend Diana should camp out here together. You’re obsessive about your little plot of land and I think she’s in love with that mental Russian. She never seems to keep away from him. I don’t know, perhaps the feeling’s mutual. I’m sure that whatever it is, we’re not likely to hear wedding bells. She’s always taken care never to marry before.’
‘Leave her name out of this, flint features. Just because your husband made a mistake and thought the dowry was worth it, doesn’t make you morally superior. If a good thought ever did cross your mind it would never get any further than your backside and then it would escape through the hole in your knickers!’
A strangled sound escaped from the larger silhouette. It could either have been Daphne gurgling in rage or the horse passing wind.
‘You are mad, woman!’ Daphne’s shrill voice shrieked. ‘You have no right to talk to me like this!’
‘Do something about it then, you whining fox tormentor, but just be careful someone doesn’t come knocking at your stable door for the damage the hunt do to the telescope tracks.’
‘You can’t prove that.’
‘We will when we electrocute one of you bleeders.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Next time your little party of obese businessmen and stuck-up nouveaux riches come trip-trapping over our bridge there’ll be a few volts running through the track.’
‘You wouldn’t dare!’
‘Oh, not enough to hurt the animals or give you an excuse to close us down - just enough to make a horse wonder what made its shoes tingle. And even I know what horses do when their tiny inbred brains can’t give ready enough explanations.’
‘You scruffy, despicable little female!’ Daphne started to storm, then rage made the words stick in her throat.
‘Some of us have this sense of self-preservation brought about by secondary school education. Our telescopes are more important than your Sunday excursions to assassinate the dwindling wildlife in this neighbourhood. If your wretched building contractors don’t build on some poor little bleeder’s nesting area, one of you are liable to come after it with a gun. Just like that thug Bert Wheeler. If you two had the same accents I wouldn’t be surprised if you wore each other’s boots.’
Diana had just started to wonder which one was playing the part of Godzilla and which King Kong when Daphne’s horse started to show signs of shell shock. It flicked its tail and swivelled its ears in a spasm of annoyance before advancing sideways down the meadow with Eva shouting after it and its rider.
‘And just remember what I said about trespassing on this land, you jack-booted crow!’
The horse beat a hasty retreat and took Daphne out of earshot before she could add any more.
Remaining concealed, Diana pondered why Eva had never mentioned the fact that she had the lease of Yuri’s cottage. She was even more mystified when the astronomer turned and walked through the open front door. Never having spied on anyone before, Diana silently made her way past the partially dismembered gate and into the hall where she peered into the living room. Eva was still steaming with the exertion of combat and Yuri was too drunk to notice her.
Diana watched in amazement as Eva prised a gin bottle from Yuri’s vice-like grip and poured herself a substantial swig of the stuff
in an enamel mug.
‘You disgusting, addled little astronomer,’ Eva commented in an affectionately exasperated way, then hiccupped at having drunk the gin too rapidly. ‘Hell,’ she sighed, ‘what on earth possessed you to believe that stupid woman? The one about the apparition in the fairy ring had more sense - are you listening to me?’ she demanded at the top of Yuri’s head which was slumped on the table.
The grey frizzy locks lifted themselves briefly so their owner could say, ‘It does not matter... nothing matters...’ Then gravity took over and his head hit the table with a thump.
‘Couldn’t you think up something more cheerful than the end of the world?’ Eva went on. ‘If I have to come and spend hours listening to you babbling on, I’d occasionally like to hear something with laughs in it.’
Again Yuri endeavoured to sit upright. When he had partially succeeded, Diana could see the bleary expression on his face; the one he usually only wore when he was unconscious.
‘You are practical,’ he murmured. ‘Why not laugh at the thought of the world being blown apart?’
‘Are you trying to drive me crackers as well? When you’re like this you really have to be taken in small doses. If Spalding ever had a case of incurable optimism on his hands, he could prescribe you.’
‘Still you will not believe me.’ Yuri smiled with drunken cynicism. ‘I wish I could think myself as crazy as you do. I would not have to believe it then.’
‘But it isn’t true, Yuri. You’re tormenting yourself over nothing. It’s all such a pointless waste.’
‘To you I owe everything ... I am nothing but albatross round your neck, but you treat me good. All this I would surrender if you would just this once believe me. Check my findings,’ he pleaded, ‘you are one of few who could.’
‘I thought it was too late by your calculations? Isn’t the world going to be shattered by this infernal device the day after tomorrow or something? What benefit would anyone, human or alien, gain by reducing the Earth to rubble, for pity’s sake?’
Yuri rolled his head in a drunken stupor as though no longer wanting to hold onto the reality of the conversation. He lurched out of his chair to snatch up a handful of exercise books.
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