Freedom's Challenge

by Anne McCaffrey

  “Did he beat someone up?” Kris asked when she felt they were safely away.

  “To a faretheewell,” grinned Gino, and then he rolled his eyes. “Some nerd sycophant of an Eosi. I don’t think the ones we met were that anxious for trouble. At least not the ones that Worry and Leon saw. Now the guys I met…One was humongously wide and I made myself as small as possible against the nearest wall. But the ones in an ugly mood were worse than anything Hollywood ever dreamed up, including the aliens in Aliens.”

  Zainal now leaned back in the command chair and stretched until every joint and tendon seemed to crack.

  “Let’s hope Duxie can get us some more of that high-grade ore and we’ll be the toast of the capitol,” Gino added, “in and out as often as we choose.”

  “Gino, are you okay?” Zainal asked, rising.

  “I’m great, Zay, you need the rest.”

  “Chuck’s in your bed,” Kris said.

  “Where is immaterial so long as I am horizontal,” Zainal said and, pointing to Mack and Ninety, “and you’re off duty, too. It should be all clear ahead, Gino, but wake me if something you don’t understand comes up.”

  “Get some rest, Zay,” Gino said and made shooing motions with his right hand. “You, too.”

  Kris looked around for Pess and Coo. Surely they’d need some rest as much as the others, but neither Deski was there.

  “They zonked out as soon as we made orbit,” Gino said. “Move up here, Kris, and I’ll give you a rundown of all we did and what Zainal managed, smooth as a baby’s butt.”

  • • •

  A DRASSI CLERK NOTICED THE EXCESSIVE charges and ill-assorted cargo registered against this particular vessel. When he checked through to administration, holding the com line open for nearly an hour, he was told that the ship had sufficient credit to cover the expenses. There was no problem. He was to return to his duties. Being a Drassi, he did so, but felt more abused by his superiors than ever. There were no rewards for being diligent on behalf of his Emassi. But what choice had he?

  Chapter Five

  “I HAVE TO TELL YOU, KRIS,” GINO BEGAN, “I wasn’t all that keen on seeing a Catteni there on Botany, but…” and Gino whistled expertly and shrilly through his teeth, “when you see how that guy operates, I’d walk through fire for him now.”

  “He does have a way about him,” Kris admitted with a grin, “so how did he operate?”

  “Blizte was a boondock of a berg, all Rassi in godawful hovels, just staring at us. Or to be more precise, staring at nothing really. Two Catteni vets—one had both legs missing and the other was minus an arm—managed the one—get it—the one eatery in Blizte. They were sitting on a bench as we went past. Zainal got a wave. A few klicks on and we came to a surfaced road. Don’t know with what but there were few ruts in it and that old banger could move when you put your pedal to the metal.” Gino executed a joint cracking stretch, and Kris wondered if she couldn’t possibly manage the bridge and let him sleep, too. “No, I’m fine,” he told her, hands back on the armrests. “I can sleep anywhere and be fresh with half an hour’s catnap. I slept on the way back from the city.

  “And that was an eye-opener.” Again that distinctive whistle of respectful awe. “Like something from future worlds ’n’ stuff. Beautiful layout and even the important buildings weren’t squared-off in plate glass but…” he mimicked a commercial voice-over, “‘ecologically situated so as not to mar the natural beauty and making good use of flora and fauna.’ Nothing higher than one story. Mostly because the buildings are built down rather than up. Zainal says some of them go down a good hundred plegs.”

  “What do the Eosi live in?” Her curiosity got the better of her dislike of the overlords.

  Gino raised his eyebrows. “Only for Zainal pointing them out, I wouldn’t have guessed. Though they do enclose their properties with high walls and force screens. Saw a bird-like thing get fried trying to land on one. So we didn’t get to see anything inside the compounds. They’re also scattered all over Cattena—which is what they have so imaginatively named the city. Still, if it weren’t for the neighbors, it’d be better than Beverly Hills. Or even Carmel.

  “Zainal showed us where his family home was, and it’s spread out over quite a hunk of real estate. Zay says it’s because so many Eosi hosts have come from his lineage, or pedigree or whatever you want call it.”

  “Did you see an Eosi?”

  Gino’s shudder was not faked. “Four of ’em. Big bastards, even when you know the poor damned Catteni that got stuck with being subsumed was big to start with. Crazy eyes! Scare the shit out of me…begging your pardon.” Again his whistle. “Sure was glad Zay got out of that living death. Worse than a zombie in my opinion.

  “However, he stops at a place where there’re public com units and made a half dozen calls, while we ambled over to the eatery.” This time Gino grimaced. “They don’t know a damned thing about good eating. Cram anything into their mouths, but Zay had told us what to order and we did and that was pretty good. Almost as good as what we regularly eat on Botany.” He said that with an air of condescension.

  “He couldn’t reach all the guys he wanted to see, but he said that these four were the best and he was just lucky to find any one of them at Cattena. We did the secret hand signs and passwords and stuff and met at what passes for a service station here. Sort of Catteni-style garage sales.” He grinned impishly at her for his witticism. “We made as if we were trying to sell the transport so much of the conversation between Zainal and the others appeared to be discussing the condition of the truck and the engine it uses. That engine is stuck above one of the ground level panels. Zay had parked obliquely to the station so no one could see anyone coming or going. One of us was there to keep the mechanics or whatever they were from closing in when inconvenient. There were two or three other vehicles being inspected so it was a good cover to use.”

  He paused, rubbed the side of his nose.

  “And?” Kris prompted him.

  He chuckled a smug “he he he he” of satisfaction. “There seem to be a lot of Catteni Emassi fed up to here,” and he levelled his hand with his nose, “with Eosi domination. Especially…” and he paused again for emphasis, “since Mentat Ix—that’s the one Zay’s brother’s lugging around—and Co and Se have been agitating every one of the other Eosi about demolishing Botany, diverting all naval forces to that end.”

  Gino looked worried. “No one has ever seen the Mentats—they’re the leaders among the Eosi—going so ballistic. They’ve got to penetrate or burst or explode or implode the Bubble—because it’s there, I think, and has them stumped. And stumped, they don’t like to be.”

  “Anything said about Earth?”

  “Yeah, and it’s not good. They haven’t stopped mind-wiping specialists so those who were lucky enough to escape being caught have had to go into hiding. And hiding places are getting filled up and harder to find…especially as we have no air transport at all. And very few working trucks or cars. The Eosi have found another use for petroleum products—all theirs. It’s not as if they can burn the Bubble away—no oxygen in space, thank God.

  “And the Emassi Zay talked to are not the only ones beginning to get ideas from the rebellion on Earth.” Gino nodded in satisfaction. “Evidently we’ve really got ’em going, Catteni and Eosi. Never had so much opposition before. We might not be as technically advanced as Eosi, but I’ll tell you, there’re not enough Emassi to deal with what we’re giving ’em back on Earth.”

  “So we could actually rebel enough to get Earth back?” Kris felt a surge of triumph flow through her.

  “I didn’t say that,” Gino replied cautiously, tilting his head to show his skepticism. “In the first place,” he held up one finger, “Emassi and Drassi like Earth and want to keep it—just get rid of the troublesome population. Meanwhile they’re looting everything that isn’t cemented into the ground and sometimes they jackhammer loose what they fancy. In the second place, they have stopped ruining
manufacturing complexes and keep some of the specialized companies working nonstop…which means until the workers drop from exhaustion. I mean, shift work was never like that. Nor those sweatshops in India and Asia we were hearing so much about. We do have some items high on the list of acquisition and they’re being turned out in bulk. While there might not be enough good Emassi to help a worldwide coup, I’ll tell you one thing: the Eosi invasion sure stopped all the petty squabbles and got all Earth working toward one real good goal—getting rid of the invaders.”

  “I always did think a really bad extraterrestrial menace would unite the world,” Kris said.

  “It sure has. Palestinians join Israelis; the Northern Irish have allied with the Brits in covert actions against any Catteni on the British Isles. Even North and South Korea are cooperating against the mutual enemy. The African nations got some real rough treatment—because they’re black fer Gods’ sake and the Catteni tried to make Rassi out of them.” Gino snorted. “That didn’t work. In fact, I think the African nations have wracked up more fatalities among the Drassi and Emassi than any other race. Turnabout’s fair play. Now, if that will hold when we’ve thrown out the invaders, it’ll be the first wonder of the twentieth century.”

  Kris sighed in a hopeful breath. “I suppose it could happen.”

  “Might not until the twenty-first but we’ll see. We’ve a few years to spare.”

  “So, where does that leave us?”

  “Well, I’m not quite sure, since this is going to take a lot of planning and under difficult circumstances. We’ve got to wait until Baby and the KDM make it back. Then we’ll have to somehow get some of the Emassi sympathizers to Botany so we can correlate plans and stuff.”

  “Lord, how’ll we do that?”

  Gino laughed. “Zay’s started the process and, as long as we can keep bringing in the high-grade ore, no one’s going to wonder where he’s getting it. So he can check in as much as he needs to to mobilize dissidents.”

  “What did he mean about being followed? By the friends of the Catteni he beat up?”

  “Oh, him. He didn’t have friends smart enough to follow us. But there are others, Eosi, in particular who might try,” Gino said with a laugh. “Probably will. But one of his Emassi friends gave him a chart of an asteroid belt so dense you could hide the entire Catteni fleet in it and they wouldn’t be able to spot each other unless they knew exactly where the other ship is. There’re so much heavy elements in the belt, supposedly, that it jams all signals. We can slip in and out of there neat as a whistle. In fact, that’s where we’re headed right now.”

  Reacting subconsciously to being followed, Kris turned about in her seat but Gino laughed.

  “Don’t worry, Kris,” and Gino patted her knee. “Zay and I spotted them. Way back. We took off before they expected us to so they were late leaving the space station. They’ll try to track us by the ion trail and let’s hope another ship crosses ours and confuses them. Any way, we’ll be in the asteroid belt long before they make it. You wait, Kris, you’ll see.”

  “See if this so-called friend of Zainal’s is setting us up?”

  Gino shook his head. “Not Kamiton. You know how reserved Catteni are? Well, this guy all but kissed Zay he was so glad to see him. Not that he knew who he was at first…and in fact, damned suspicious because he had known Venlik, the Emassi Zay’s pretending to be, and hated the man. So there was a bit of an impasse at first. Until Zay removed the cheek pieces and reminded Kamiton of a few details only the real Zainal could have known. You should have seen Kamiton’s face when he realized who Zainal really was. And I like Kamiton. He can smile, and he’s got that same wacky sense of humor Zay has.” When Gino noticed how dubious she was, he laughed. “Look, hon, I’ve been a good judge of people all my life and there’s not that damned much difference between us and Catteni when you get down to basics.”

  Then unaccountably Gino blushed.

  “Well, if you say so, Gino,” Kris said, ignoring the blush since she had a good idea what caused Gino Marrucci’s sudden embarrassment. There was indeed one very notable difference between Human and Catteni that she happened to enjoy exceedingly. And Gino had suddenly remembered that. “I’ll reserve my opinion until I meet him. If I ever do.”

  “I think you will,” the pilot said, recovering his composure quickly. “He’s the first one Zay wants to bring through the Bubble.”

  “Really?”

  “Yup, because if they had a Missouri on Catten, Kamiton’d be from there. We gotta show him the Farmers’ part of Botany and what we’ve managed to do on our continent before he’ll really believe what we told him. Humans speaking Catteni are not that uncommon these days, but Humans living beyond Eosi control need to be seen to be believed.”

  Kris nodded. “Sometimes I don’t believe it myself.”

  “Hell, kid, you were making it happen before I got transported.”

  “That doesn’t change the fantastical aspects of it, Gino.”

  They were silent for a long while, watching the stars, then Gino pointed out some of the anomalous primary colors, and even one double star. They were so far away as to resemble opaque marbles rather than suns. Gino crossed his arms on this chest, a slight grin on his face, and shook his head ever so slightly.

  “Never thought you’d be this far from our solar system, huh?”

  “You got it.”

  “Hungry?”

  “Something hot would go down well, food and drink, if you don’t mind, Kris.”

  “Drassi hear, Drassi obey,” she said with mock humility and made her way back to the companionway. She had become so accustomed to the heavy gravity that a normal one had her bouncing along.

  Snores from the various sleeping accommodations indicated that the others were well and truly asleep. She had the galley to herself and prepared enough food for them both. Then she remembered she didn’t need to wear the lenses anymore so she took hers out, cleansed them once more before putting them back in the little container. She got an extra cup of water for Gino to get rid of his.

  As she handed him his tray of food, he gave her a puzzled glance and then chuckled. “Excuse me, while I get my own eyes back.” He put his lenses in the cup and put that to one side. “I’ll clean ’em later. I’m hungry enough I might eat ’em as hors d’oeuvres.”

  “Naw, they don’t taste at all like oysters,” she retorted facetiously and started in on the stew she’d reheated for them.

  • • •

  SEVERAL HOURS LATER SHE DECIDED THAT there was nothing to do and she would certainly know which lights indicated trouble in any section of the ship.

  “Go get some rest, Gino. I can sit here and look at the telltales just as sensibly as you can.”

  “Not quite yet,” and he pointed ahead, without taking his eyes from the sensitive scope he was using. “The pulsar I’ve been looking for. We make a course correction when we line up with that. Then I’ll go get some sleep. And wake Zainal up. He said to.”

  • • •

  WHEN ZAINAL TOOK OVER THE BRIDGE, HE first pressed his cheek against hers and kept one arm about her shoulders even after he had seated himself.

  “Did Gino bring you…how does he put it? Up to speed?”

  “Including your brush with another Catteni.”

  “He asked for it. But he’s a mere nothing,” and Zainal gave a contemptuous flick of his hand. “Getting Kamiton on our side was more than I expected. Tubelin, Kasturi, and Nitin can be valuable to us, but they don’t have the connections that Kamiton has. Or the family prestige.”

  “And?” she prompted.

  He ruffled her short hair, tipped her face toward him so he saw she had removed the lenses. “You look much better with your own eyes. You did make a convincing Drassi.”

  “Noble Emassi, you are too kind.”

  Zainal chuckled in that bass rumble that made her grin. “Don’t let that get around just yet. However, all four are due to go back to Earth for various tasks. If we could some
how get them in touch with our Humans there, we could begin to make the Catteni regret what they’ve been doing to your planet.”

  Kris thought that over. “But you’re Catteni. And you said ‘our’ Humans.”

  “I like the way Humans think better than I like the way Catteni don’t ever think.”

  “Some of them must. You do.”

  “Luck.”

  “What are our chances of doing what you want? Getting rid of the Eosi, with or without the help of the Farmers?”

  “I heard something I have never heard about an Eosi Mentat before,” he said, his tone very somber and thoughtful. “The one who subsumed my brother went totally out of control and his juniors had a very difficult time reducing his…wildness. He’s the one that wants to burst our Bubble no matter how long it takes.”

  “Eosi can have nervous breakdowns?” She was astonished.

  “I don’t know about nervous, but Ix was dangerously out of control.”

  “What does it take to kill an Eosi?”

  He gave her a quick look and a humph. “I’ve never heard that one has ever been killed. Though…” and he paused reflectively, “killing one has never been tried. They are well protected, by the fear of them that is instilled from the time we understand anything outside childish needs. We don’t even know how long an individual Eosi lives. Except that it needs to change hosts.”

  “Poison it?”

  Zainal shook his head, drawing the corners of his mouth down. He gave her a sideways look. “You Humans say you do not like to take Human lives. It is against your laws.”

  “The Eosi are not Human,” she said tartly.

  “The Farmers would not like it.”

  “You haven’t given up then, on gaining their assistance?”

  “No,” he replied.

  “What if Humans managed to kill an Eosi…”

  Zainal waved both hands in a cutting negative gesture. “The numbers they would kill in retaliation would decimate your population.”