On Assignment to the Planet of the Exalted

by Helena Puumala

  “He said that the Forest Spirit was upset,” she ventured in a low voice.

  “He spoke to you?” Jorun asked.

  “Yes. I asked him what was wrong, and offered to help if I could. He said that he didn’t think that I could do anything because the Forest Spirit was ‘more than upset’—those were his words. That was after I had laid my hand on his arm and he had grabbed it—to grip it like he is, right now.”

  “The Forest Spirit? This must be affecting the others of our Klenser group,” Jorun deduced, echoing Roxanna’s earlier thoughts. “Maybe it’s affecting every Klenser on the continent.”

  Roxanna had not thought of that, but now that Jorun mentioned it—it was obvious. She nodded, wordlessly.

  “Listen, Roxanna,” Jorun said, apparently having come to a decision. “Stay here with him, for now, and see if you can get him to talk about it, to describe to you what is happening to him. If we had your friend, Kati, here, she could enter his mind and find out what was going on, but she’s not here so we’ll have to rely on the old-fashioned ways.”

  Roxanna nearly burst into relieved laughter to hear Jorun echoing this one of her thoughts, too.

  “I can try to do that,” she murmured. “He seems to like and trust me.”

  “That’s right.” Jorun stood up. “I’ll go and check on the rest of our Klensers, and make sure that there are people easing their suffering, too; if that’s possible. And I’ll roust up Mathilde, since she’ll be able to take your place with Zass.”

  Roxanna breathed a sigh of relief. Jorun always seemed to be able to figure out a course of action, even if there was no certainty that it would get them anywhere! But then, that’s why he was acknowledged as the Leader of the Underground Base, and had no rivals for the position.

  “Zass,” she said to the young Klenser, enunciating her words very carefully, “can you try to tell me what is going on with the Forest Spirit? You said that he—it, is very upset, right?”

  “Yes,” Zass replied. “It’s very upset. It’s upset because another part—it calls it his sister, is very pissed off. There’s something happening on an island in the sea—I can’t quite understand what.”

  “So what’s going on doesn’t have anything to do with Kati, and the group you and Mathilde were travelling with?”

  Kati was in the Capital City, not on any island in the sea. This difficulty must have been something completely different from the Investigation the Troupe was involved in. Well, there was plenty of crap happening on Vultaire, and not all strands were necessarily connected.

  “No—yes—it does have to do with them,” Zass responded.

  He loosened his grip on Roxanna’s hand and held it gently with his, and the young woman felt that the tables had suddenly turned, and the Klenser was trying to comfort her, instead of her comforting him.

  “There is great danger,” Zass said then. “The Exalted are crazy. They see their power and privileges slipping away; the off-worlders want to strip those from them. The Exalted don’t want to lose what they think is theirs. But they can’t hang on, and they shouldn’t, because they’re hurting the people and the land. The craziness has spread off-world, too, and the powers there have decided to dig it all out! They’re bringing a big, nasty machine to threaten the Capital City; the machine could flatten the City and kill everyone in it within seconds—it must not be used!”

  Now Zass was all agitated again. Roxanna murmured soothing words and took both the youth’s hands into hers, trying to calm him with her touch, while at the same time furiously thinking about what she had just heard.

  The big, nasty machine that was being brought to threaten the Capital City had to be a Torrones Warship—what had Kati and the other Troupe members said about the Torrones? The Torrones were the ultimate threat used by the Federation; they were a race that loved war, and as such were an instrument of peace only because the other races had succeeded in arranging matters so that the Torrones had to remain under Federation control at all times, or else give up translation nodes. They were a threat of violence which the Federation used to ensure compliance with its laws under extreme circumstances. What was going on that this Federation for which Kati apparently was working, had decided to bring its attack dogs to threaten the Vultairian Capital City?

  Zass opened his eyes and stared directly at Roxanna.

  “I have to go,” he said, speaking very clearly now. “We have to go. We, the Klensers, have to go to the Capital City. All the Klensers. Nobody will flatten the Capital City if all the Klensers are there. We have to go. The Forest Spirit asks that of us, and we will do it.”

  He let go of Roxanna’s hands and began to get up, onto less than steady feet. Roxanna scrambled up right beside him, grabbing hold of the hand which had just released hers.

  “Wait,” she said. “How are you planning to go the Capital City? You can’t just walk there; that would take days, even weeks. When I came here I was huddled in that hidden compartment in the cart that brought me, for what seemed like forever. Please, Zass, we have to talk to Jorun about this.”

  Zass looked confused and undecided.

  “But the Forest Spirit needs my help,” he protested. “It needs the help of all the Klensers. I will help it.”

  “Oh, I believe you, Zass,” Roxanna said. “And I’ll help you to help the Forest Spirit any way I can. But we’ll have to think this through. You can’t just go out and start walking, not even if the other Klensers come with you. Someone would recognize you and call in some Exalted with his flyer to pick you up and take you to a Klenser Farm. We can’t have that; that won’t help anybody.”

  “The Klensers from the Farms are going to the Capital City, too,” Zass told her. “Nobody can stop them, because they’re just going, going, going.”

  “Wait a second,” Roxanna said, her face brightening. “Aren’t the Carmaks Exalted? And they have flyers? Maybe we could get them to give you and the others a lift to the Capital City, if you absolutely insist on going?”

  “Roxanna, that’s an excellent idea,” Jorun’s voice said behind her.

  She turned to see him arrive with the six other Klensers, and Cathe and Sari trailing behind him, Kaya clutching her baby daughter to her chest. The Base workers looked very worried, just as worried as Roxanna herself was feeling.

  “I’ll send a runner to take a message to be forwarded to Carmakville, to Hector and Marina,” Jorun added. “Then we’ll get this group ready to walk to Bouldertown: Hector, or whoever will do the ferrying, can pick them up there. There’s no way I’m allowing Kaya with her baby to walk any farther than Bouldertown. I do wish that the Forest Spirit had exempted her from its request, but that seems not to be the case, and Kaya is determined to go.”

  “If this is to be some kind of a mass protest,” Roxanna said, “her presence with the baby will be very good. Hurting a baby and her mother is not going to win anyone any friends, nor will it influence people. But someone will have to look after Kaya and Katimi.”

  “We all will,” Jebo stated loyally, looking around at the other Klensers for confirmation. Even Zass nodded seriously at the words.

  “Maybe Sira and I could go,” Cathe said a bit hesitantly. “No-one in the Capital City would recognize either of us. I’m from the seaside and Sira’s from the Plains, we’re both pretty far from home, here, and in the Capital City.”

  “Except I don’t really want to lose our health-care workers,” Jorun protested. “Roxanna and I will talk this over in my office, and I’ll call in whoever is on runner duty. Start gathering provisions for the group that is to go—include anything that Katimi might need.”

  Roxanna ceded Zass into Cathe and Sira’s care, pleased to hear that Mathilde had been informed of the Klensers’ compulsion and would be coming to see to her brother. On the way to Jorun’s office she said to the Base Leader:

  “Guaranteed, Mathilde will want to go with the Klensers. It might not be a bad idea to let her go. She’s young but she’s pretty resourceful. Sh
e did spend all that time with the Troupe on the road; I bet that she picked up some ideas watching Kati operate.”

  “I think I may as well include her,” Jorun agreed. “She’ll be determined to go with her brother whether or not she has my blessing. Although, it is possible that some Exalted in the Capital City recognizes her from the Port City. But you’re right, she had plenty of opportunity to watch Kati of Terra play tricks, and she’s bright enough to have learned a lesson, or several.”

  When they reached the office, the communicator that Lank had cleared for untraceable use was chiming. Someone was trying to reach the Base.

  “That has got to be someone from the Team,” Roxanna said. “Nobody else knows the call co-ordinates that Lank set for it. They must have got their hands on another safe communicator; I wonder if it’s another one that Lank debugged?”

  “Why don’t you answer it for me?” Jorun suggested. “You’re younger than I am, and as an off-worlder, much more familiar with the gadgets from outer space.”

  “Actually, your second statement is not a fact,” Roxanna answered with a grin, “but I did take lessons from Lank—and Keros, too—in communicator use. They’re easier to use than cell-phones were on my world, and that makes them pretty darn simple.”

  She picked the thing up, and clicked it on.

  “Roxanna at the Base,” she said in a low voice into the tiny microphone, abruptly afraid that she had somehow misjudged the situation, and would find herself talking to some ass of an Exalted who was spying on her and Jorun.

  “Roxanna!”

  It was Kati. Roxanna heaved a sigh of relief!

  “Katie! Kati—I mean! Oh, it’s good to hear your voice! Did you guys manage to get your hands on another com which could be rendered safe? Are you in the Capital City?”

  “It’s great to talk to you, too. But—no, and no, to your questions. I’m using Mikal’s communicator—a fancy Shelonian object which he brought with him from the Federation Space Station. And the Team, we’re on an island off the coast, an island known as the Margolis Estate.

  “There’s serious shit going on here; we’ve met with Mikal and his partner to attempt a rescue, but before we do that, I thought that I ought to warn the Underground that a big chunk of crap is about to hit the fan! The good news is that there’s no way the Oligarchs are going to get away with what they’re up to; they have overstepped a few too many civilized boundaries. The bad news is that, guaranteed, they won’t play nice and fold up their tents peacefully; they have everything to lose. There are going to be threats hurled across the divide between the Federation and the Exalted before this is over, although the Federation wants this done with no loss of sentient life. But, Mikal tells me that you people should be prepared for anything at all, especially to back us up against the Oligarchs.”

  Jorun, standing beside her and listening in, nodded when Roxanna turned to look up at him.

  “Of course we’ll back them up against the Oligarchs.” He grinned fiercely. “We in the Underground would back up the Demons of the Icy Wastes against the Oligarchs right now. But tell her about the Klensers and what the Forest Spirit is pushing them to do.”

  Oh, yes. Roxanna explained to Kati what had happened, and about the notion of getting the Carmaks Family to help transport the Klensers from the Base to the Capital City.

  “Ah, I’m glad you told me that. It sounds like we might have scared the daylights out of the Forest Spirit and its marine counterpart, the Ocean Sister. Apparently a Torrones Warship is on its way to Vultaire, and Mikal is planning to have it take position above the Capital City, threatening to destroy the seat of the Government if the Oligarchs refuse to back down. I guess I’ll have to try to commune with the Spirits again, and try to convince them that we really don’t intend to kill a single person.”

  “Kati wait.” In her mind, Roxanna could see all the figures that she had been studying and adding up in the past months. “Don’t interfere with the Forest Spirit’s plans. Most of the wealth that the Exalted depend on for their luxuries comes from the sale of the Klensers’ services to the Fringe Worlds. I know this for a fact because I’ve been studying the figures for Jorun. There’s some other income, too, that we can’t account for, but even so, most of Vultaire’s Space Lanes Credit comes from where it has always come, and that’s the Klenser services. The Oligarchs might be more likely to see reason if they fear that their biggest income source is threatened.”

  “Good heavens, Roxanna, when and where did you turn into a high-stakes gambler?”

  “You just told me that the Federation wants to do this without killing a single person,” Roxanna protested.

  “Roxanna.” A male voice took over from Kati. “That’s actually excellent, Roxanna. This is Mikal, and my vote is with you. You might want to ask Jorun what he thinks about this; he’s a Vultairian, an honourable one, Kati tells me, and he should have a say in how we try to wrest his world away from those who have been despoiling it, and using it as a haven for criminal activity. I’m serious about the business about avoiding all human death; as Kati well knows I’m sworn to not allow any killing on my watch.”

  Roxanna looked at Jorun, and he took the com from her and spoke into it.

  “If you can do this, Mikal of the Federation, the Ordinary Citizens of Vultaire will thank you. Although I must say that I can’t see how you can avoid all killing—the Oligarchs don’t have any qualms about that. But if you can—the more power to you.”

  *****

  “So, Mikal,” Kati snapped, once Mikal had turned the communicator off. “You’re going to threaten to blow up, not just Vultaire’s capital city, but also the foundation of its economy. Not to mention all the people living in the Capital City, or the Klensers who, everything the Oligarchs say aside, are also, quite simply, human beings.”

  Mikal smiled at the angry expression on her face.

  “Actually, that’s not quite how my plan goes,” he said. “I think it might be more effective if I ask the Torrones to, yes, park their ship in a geosynchronous orbit above the Capital City, but then send down a contingent of their Warriors to take over the City. The Torrones will love it; it’ll be a chance for them to stride about brandishing their weapons, and look dangerous. The goons of the Vultairian Exalted will dirty their underwear when they see what they’re facing, and the Exalted themselves will certainly not want to go up against a single Torrones Warrior.”

  “He means that the goons will shit their pants at the sight of the Torrones,” Rakil explained unnecessarily to Jock and Lank, in a tone meant to be a whisper, but to also carry to every pair of ears in the flyer.

  Joaley giggled, and Malin, at the open hatch, chortled. Mikal made a face at his cousin, and Kati glared at him.

  “And you figure that you can keep the goons, the Exalted, and the Torrones Warriors from shooting at each other in this situation? And you’ll guarantee that none of the innocent bystanders such as the Klensers are going to be ripped apart by blaster fire while the rulers of Vultaire are being intimidated into submission?”

  “Kati, Kati, Kati, you know I’m sworn to protect all sentient life! Do you really think that I would be doing this if I didn’t believe that it has an excellent chance of resolving itself with no deaths?”

  “I’m wondering if you haven’t lost your marbles, actually,” Kati sighed. “What’s stopping some goon from taking pot-shots at the Torrones, who then retaliate in kind? And suddenly we’ve got a major bloody mess on our hands, with people dying all over the place!”

  Mikal shook his head.

  “Wrong. You’ve been watching too many lurid story-vids,” he said. “People really aren’t all that keen on dying violently. They are, in fact, generally, extremely keen on not dying violently. Kati, you saw the Torrones on that ship that brought us to Lamania from the Drowned Planet. Remember how impressive those guys and gals were?”

  At Kati’s nod he continued:

  “Well, those Torrones Soldiers on that ship, were amateurs co
mpared to the contingent we have on their way here. I did ask for a ship of the best that the Torrones have, and Vascorn agreed to get it for me, since, like it or not, Vultaire still is an old, established Federation member. These Warriors know how to strut and look threatening, but they are enormously self-controlled, and cool as glacier ice. If they have orders to not shoot, but to look like they might at the slightest provocation, that’s what we’ll get. And that’s what I asked for; the idea is to scare the daylights out of the planet-side goons who are pretty unsophisticated, since the Exalted have made sure that all the inhabitants of Vultaire are naive.”

  He sighed.

  “It’s not what happens in the Capital City that I worry about; what does worry me is how we handle what’s immediately in front of us. I’m more worried about getting Xoraya and Canna off this island in one piece, and keeping intact evidence of this drug laboratory that the Margolises seem to be running as a side business. A business which supplies Gorsh with mind-tangler, if I’m not badly mistaken.”

  Kati thought about what Mikal had said. She recalled her first impression of the Torrones, when she had, along with Mikal, Arya r’pa Dorral and Joffo r’pa Ney boarded the Torrones ship which had been one of the two sent to the Drowned Planet when the Peace Officer Corps Human Trafficking Section had found out that Mikal was on that world. The Torrones had looked awesome to her, enormous men and women, as tall as the Vultairians were, but much broader of build, all muscle and bone. They had been very dark in colouring, even as the much smaller Shelonians were, but their skin had glistened, and the tightly braided long hair had been coiled on their heads to create an impression of further bulk. Had it not been for the grins that the Lamanians’ presence had brought to their faces, and the courtesy with which the Ship Captain had greeted Mikal, she would have considered them creatures from a nightmare. But, apparently, the Torrones had accepted the leadership of the tiny, seemingly frail Lamanians hundreds of years ago, after waging war had made them pariahs to the Brain Planet which supplied the civilizations of this Galaxy with the live little nubs that were the translation nodes.