Escape from the Drowned Planet

by Helena Puumala

  Kati turned to stare at him, her mouth falling half-open. She had been sitting on the bed cross-legged, at her ease; now her body tensed visibly. She closed her mouth and set to ponder the question.

  “I can’t say for certain,” she said. “There were no doubt people on that ship that I never saw. If I saw one of the ones that I did see, yes, I expect that I could recognize them. I am assuming here that you’re talking about the crew members, and not the cargo.”

  “Right. I don’t imagine that he’d let any more of the cargo loose, certainly not on this World.”

  Mikal made a face; it was an attempt at humour, but there was tension behind it.

  “You think that your slaver might be here?” Yarm asked.

  “I think that someone from his crew has been here for some time, waiting for us to arrive. For me to arrive.” Mikal’s tone of voice held no room for doubt.

  No wonder he had not been in a rush to get to this place, Kati thought. They were back into the cat and mouse game!

  “Not Guzi and Dakra,” Jocan said, partly as a statement, partly as a question.

  Mikal shook his head.

  “Not Guzi and Dakra,” he agreed. “We made sure that any locator beacon that they had on their flyer was smashed to smithereens. And the one that they had in their room, you and Simos determined that it had not been activated before the Seabird’s Raiders stunned those two.”

  “Right,” Jocan said with a relieved nod. “And it went into the safe at the Reclamation Project where it should still be sitting, unactivated.”

  “So I expect that Guzi and Dakra are still where they are supposed to be—in the Sickle Island Jail,” Mikal responded. “And Gorsh would have no idea where to look for them, even if he cared to do so.”

  “You sound pretty certain that they would have found this place,” Yarm said.

  “I think that they must have some gizmo that can locate a beacon for them,” Mikal answered. “The beacons are an old technology; there’s no reason why someone wouldn’t have come up with a way to find them while on a ship orbiting the planet, or even by using a handful of mini-satellites placed in strategic orbits around the World. Kati and I were able to locate the thing, and Gorsh and company, or someone they knew, had set up the dummy beacon that nearly did me in, in River City. I’m sure that they know where we have to come to get off the planet, and I’m just as sure that Gorsh won’t let an opportunity like this to pass by without making one last try to either capture me or, failing that, to kill me.”

  “A happy thought,” Kati groaned. “And here I had thought we were in the clear, and only had to give your associates a shout. Stupid of me, when I stop to think about it.”

  “I didn’t want to spoil your trip until I had to,” Mikal said a little sadly, his eyes on her.

  “Well,” Kati said, shifting mental gears, “I guess the question is, what do we do about it? And how do we go about doing it?”

  “That’s two questions, Kati,” Yarm said, grinning. He gave himself a shake. “I love the way you let irrelevancies drop and get down to the issues that matter. Indeed, we must deal with the situation as it is, not as we wish it were. Anyone have any ideas on how to proceed?”

  “One thing that we have on our side is that they’d have little idea as to when Kati and I would be arriving here,” Mikal said.

  He had stopped pacing and pulled up a chair from the four that surrounded the rectangular table at which Yarm and Jocan were already seated. He turned the chair around and sat, straddling it.

  “That means that they must have left people here, likely some time ago already, some people who were not essential to the ship’s operation, nor absolutely needed for managing the cargo.”

  “You’re talking of a small number, then,” Yarm said.

  “My guess would be two,” Mikal said. “Three at the most, and I find it hard to believe that he would have three to spare—don’t forget that he’s lost two already. It might even be that there’s only one, well-armed, however, and with a beacon of his own with which to call Gorsh as soon as I’m comatose. And a flyer or a flit, hidden somewhere very near, ready to fly him and what’s left of Kati and me to a secluded location to await pick-up.”

  “As well-armed as Guzi and Dakra were on Sickle Island?” Jocan asked.

  “At least that well,” Mikal replied with a shake of his head. “For these types the answer to every problem is more firepower. It’s stupid; how many times can you kill a single person after all? And presumably he’s supposed to take me alive; that bunch wants to pick my brain for information about what the Federation is up to and capable of. Trouble is that idiots with big guns are dangerous to the innocents around them, too, which means that by wanting to get off this world I’m putting the inhabitants of this town at risk. The thought has me hopping mad.”

  “We’re just going to have to figure out some way to get around the problem,” Kati said flatly.

  “Well, I’m going to do my thinking in the bath,” said Yarm, standing up from his chair. “At least for the next half-an-hour or so.”

  “I’m coming too,” said Jocan, “since my brain works just as well when I’m clean as when I’m not. You going to join us Mikal? I bet Kati wants to use the Women’s Bath, so you might as well.”

  He followed Yarm out, throwing a leering grin at them on his way out. Kati stuck her tongue out at him before the door closed behind him; then she, too, stood up.

  “He’s right, I do want a bath,” she said, starting to dig in her pack for clean underwear.

  “I guess there’s no point in sweating it,” Mikal said with a sigh, and got up and went to his own pack. “If whoever’s after us recognizes us but we don’t recognize him, there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.”

  “Wait a second,” Kati said. “Can’t the nodes do some kind of record-keeping or something? Aren’t we doing nodal records on this whole escapade even as we live through it? And there’s a way to download it to Peace Officer Corps equipment when we get back?”

  “Yeah,” Mikal replied carefully. He waited for her to go on.

  “The granda node was on Gorsh’s ship for some time before I got it, and I did get a glimpse or so of a number of persons on that ship. Could granda clarify my images of the crew members that I did see, and could it add from its store of knowledge to mine? And would it be possible for me to share these images with you? If it is possible, at least you’d have a chance of being forewarned, whereas right now we’re depending on my fallible memory.”

  Mikal pulled out some clean clothes out of his pack and stood up, stretching himself.

  “When you’re in your bath,” Kati, he said, “ask your bad boy to answer those questions. And ask yourself if you’re willing to do what that sort of a thing would require of you.”

  He went out, leaving her to stare after him, confused.

  *****

  “My dear girl,” subvocalized the granda, and Kati found that she was seeing it in her mind’s eye as a plump, aged, homely man in a monk’s brown robe. “Of course we can do those things. That’s what I am for, after all. They call us translation nodes but we are much, much more than that. One of the things we are is a memory aid, and you would be amazed how detailed even your most fleeting of memories prove to be, when a node directs your attention to it, and gets you to look at it—truly to look at it—instead of just letting it slip by under your radar, so to speak.”

  “What about the crew members that perhaps I didn’t see, but you were aware of in your ephemeral mental state, before Guzi sewed you into my neck?” she inquired subvocally.

  “I think I can build images of them for you,” replied the monkish man in her head. “More than that, I can give you a list of the ones that Gorsh was most likely to punish by making them take on this job. The crew members thought of being sent onto this untechnological world as punishment, even Guzi and Dakra did, although Guzi was used to being flayed for the fact that he often did not see eye to eye with Gorsh.”


  “Well, well, well,” Kati muttered aloud, glad that she was alone in the Women’s Bath and no-one would hear her talking to herself. “All the things I didn’t know even though it was all right there, in my head.”

  “You’re only learning of the extensive uses to which a granda node can be put,” the monk subvocalized rather smugly. “Understand that I am at your service, whenever, and however I can be.”

  Did this mean that the damn thing had accepted her oversight, and would no longer try to fight her when tempting, nasty weapons came into reach? Or was this another ploy by the ancient reprobate, one that had something to do with the arsenal that Gorsh’s agents were no doubt hauling with them? She decided that for the moment it was wiser not to ask about that directly—but she was not going to let go of her vigilance, either. The granda was not going to put her to sleep by playing Friar Tuck.

  “All right,” she subvocalized, “so you can clarify my crewmember images, get images of the others that you had awareness of but I didn’t, and make a list of the likeliest ones to be waiting for us. Now, can we get the images somehow projected so Mikal can see them, too? The list of names I can just tell him, but it won’t mean a thing to him without faces, and he was under that damn drug the whole time he was on Gorsh’s ship, so he won’t remember much.”

  “Look down at your left hand,” the granda commanded her. “Feel your left thumb with one of your other fingers. Remember that?”

  It tingled. Kati remembered being told on Gorsh’s ship that the node would form a sensitive spot or a connector point, on her left thumb. She had forgotten about it since under normal daily life it was completely unnoticeable.

  ”You take hold of Mikal’s hand and press your thumb against his; left thumb to left thumb. Anything you want Mikal to know will pass across, from me to his node. He has lived with a node all his life so he’ll be quite adept at using it; it’ll be fine. Likely it’ll feel something like what the connection among you, him and the Kitfi Farseer was like; in no way invasive or forced. If it bothers you, just let go of his thumb.”

  “O-kay. That’s all there is to it?” It did make her a bit uneasy.

  “For this purpose, yes. For other purposes, no. If you want to explore the connection, try making love while connected thumb to thumb.”

  It was too damn bad that she couldn’t soak the monk with a pailful. She snarled and plunged her soaped head into warm water, then grabbed the nearby hose and hosed herself down from head to toe.

  “Smart-ass node,” she muttered out loud, as she grabbed a towel to dry herself.

  The monk in her mind was laughing.

  *****

  “The granda says it’s not a problem,” Kati said to Mikal when they met in their room after their respective baths. “It can clarify my memories of all the crewmembers that I saw, and build images of the ones I didn’t see, but that it was aware of while it was on the ship before it was implanted into my neck. Apparently a granda node has an awareness of its surroundings when it’s between hosts.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Mikal said, tossing aside the robe he had worn while walking back from the Men’s Bath, and starting to dress. “I guess that’s why they can choose their hosts.”

  “Yeah, I remember it telling me that I wasn’t its first choice, but preferable to Gorsh’s son who was supposed to get it.”

  Kati had found the pair of pants and a shirt that she wanted to wear and began to put them on.

  “It can even make a list of the crewmembers that are the most likely to have been shunted off to this job—he says that it’s not a job anyone wants, and would go to someone whom Gorsh wanted to punish.”

  “That makes sense. I’m certain that this World would not rate as interesting to the run-of-the-mill Space Crooks. Nothing much to steal, no high-powered weapons to play with, and not much in the way of gambling and whorehouses. No fast vehicles to drive or fly, and although the runnerbeasts of both kinds can move fast, what’s there to hunt with them?”

  “You don’t think the Star Lanes’ underworld types are interested in chasing hares?” Kati asked, feigning innocence.

  “No, I don’t--,” he stopped and pounced on her, pinning her down on the bed where she had been sitting while pulling on her trousers.

  “Chasing hares, my eye.” He kissed her. “I’ll chase you, you wicked, lovely woman.”

  *****

  On the way to the Inn’s restaurant, Kati explained to Mikal that the granda had told her that she could pass him the information through the contact points on their left thumbs.

  “Yeah, I expected that. The left thumb is what we always use to access or pass on information, ‘nodally’, I guess you could call it.” He was holding her left hand tightly in his right one. “I just didn’t want to broach the notion of doing the person to person thing; I didn’t know if you were ready for it psychologically, considering that you’ve only had the node in your head for a limited time, and also considering that it’s a granda.”

  “Something new is happening in my relationship with it,” Kati said slowly. “It reassured me about the contact, saying that it wouldn’t be much different from the mental sharing which we experienced with the Farseer, for one thing.”

  “That’s probably not a bad comparison,” Mikal answered, “although it’s not, of course exact. What else was there?”

  “I’m now mentally seeing an image of the granda,” Kati added, “whenever it communicates with me. It looks like a plumpish old monk, if you can believe that.”

  Mikal chuckled.

  “Seriously false advertising,” he said cheerfully. “Or maybe the old thing is mellowing in your presence.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. It also said that we should try sex while connected via our left thumbs.”

  Mikal stopped walking and pulled her to a stop, too. He wrapped his arms around her for a moment, then let her go.

  “No, sweetheart, that is not a good idea. I don’t know what game your monk is playing, but remember this: don’t get that close to anyone until you’ve known him for at least ten years.”

  She shrugged.

  “I don’t really need to reach for new highs,” she replied. “I’m perfectly content as is.”

  “Good. Someday when we’re old and jaded we’ll play that card. And maybe you’ll hate me forever afterwards.”

  *****

  Yarm and Jocan were halfway through their meals by the time Mikal and Kati joined them, but neither of them commented on the couple’s lateness.

  Yarm had ordered for the whole table in the local manner, and the newcomers were able to dig into the dishes on the table immediately. As Kati piled food on her plate she called upon the granda to help her unobtrusively check all the patrons in the room, just in case one of them happened to be on the node’s list. None were, and by the time she started eating she began to relax. Mikal gave her a questioning glance and she shook her head.

  “All clear, for the moment, at least,” she commented for Yarm and Jocan’s benefit.

  “I sense something useful in the air,” Yarm said, looking from Kati to Mikal and back again.

  “Kati believes that with the help of her node she can recognize our enemies if she sees them. It’s a start; at least they can’t just walk up to us and poke me with a poisoned needle, and blast Kati while they’re at it.” Mikal did not look happy exactly, but a touch more relaxed than he had seemed earlier.

  “And the granda node tells me that it can transfer the information about the crewmembers likeliest to be here, to Mikal. We’ll try that tonight; if it works it’ll gives us a bit more security since then neither of us will be walking around blind.”

  “Ah, the grand old granda,” Jocan joked.

  “I suppose there’s no way to pass the information to Jocan and me?” Yarm asked, not very hopefully.

  “Afraid not. Not with the level of technology on this World,” Mikal replied with a shake of his head.

  “It’s too bad,” was Yarm’s comment. “If we knew
who we were looking for, we could locate them while you two hid in your room.”

  “Pity we couldn’t bring Sany with us,” said Jocan. “I bet Kati could have passed that information to her easily enough, no technology needed.”

  That would have been a solution of sorts, Kati thought. Of course, it would have meant allowing a teenage girl to wander around town, looking for a couple of strangers with an arsenal. Rober and Kaina would not have thanked her for that.

  “It’s just as well that Sany’s not here,” she said firmly. “She’s much, much safer at home. We’ll figure something out for ourselves.”

  “I agree,” added Mikal. “We’re endangering plenty enough people as it is.”

  “No Mikal,” Yarm protested heatedly. “We are not—you are not—endangering anyone. It’s your lovely slaver, Gorsh, and his delightful, murderous crewmembers, who are doing the endangering. Surely you can understand the difference!”

  “Yeah, I can, dear friend,” Mikal said mirthlessly. “The trouble is that the end result is the same—unless we can somehow prevent the worst from happening.”

  “Mikal,” Kati said, placing a hand over his. “Quit fretting about what has not happened yet. We’ll stop it from happening, somehow.”

  “Yeah, let’s do some serious thinking about this situation, everybody,” Jocan threw in. “Surely we’ll come up with a good idea or two, or three, if we kick this around for a while.”

  “All right,” Yarm said in the tones of a lecturer. “Let’s define the problem, as precisely as we can. To begin with, Mikal, you are certain that the slavers from whom you and Kati escaped, have discovered the location of the beacon which you need to activate, to get a Federation space craft to come and pick Kati and you up. Right?”

  “Right.” answered Mikal. “And we have now arrived in Faithville, the town in which the Temple holding the beacon is located. Since the slavers don’t want Kati and me to pass what information we have about them, to Federation Law Enforcement, we can expect them to make a final attempt to stop us from getting off this World alive, here in this town.”