Freedom’s Choice (26 page)

“The consensus of opinion is that they might have been looking for you,” Mitford told Zainal. “Get in, the pair of you. Let the others unpack the Tub.”

“We just made it into the channel when the ship passed overhead,” Kris said, taking a seat. “We were well started when we heard the reports about the landing in the Drop Field, and Zainal here,” and she gave him a little grin, “put the pedal to the metal and headed toward the channel as fast as the Tub would go. It wouldn't have done for them to spot it when it's supposed to be shards in space with the rest of the KDL.” She glanced at Zainal.

She'd said nothing to him about her other suspicion, which Mitford had voiced, that the ship might be looking for him. At least, not until the skiff was reported landing where Lenvec had, and where they had hijacked the scout vehicle. That was when Zainal started driving faster than was safe over the rough terrain. He was racing to the channel, to get as deep as the Tub could safely
go. That was when she knew Zainal was really worried. Now he seemed amused by the incident and shrugged off Mitford's report.

“Worry saw three Eosi?” Zainal asked, his yellow eyes sparkling with an almost demonic glitter.

“Yeah, and they scared the shit out of him and Leon Dane.”

Zainal's smile widened with irony. “They are frightful. It was only with great effort that I did not embarrass my father and all my line by losing water.” Then he gave his big shoulders one of his characteristic shrugs. “But only the first time.”

“Is that what you would have become if you'd gone back?” Mitford asked, not quite meeting Zainal's eyes.

The Catteni nodded once, slowly. “So they came back? And looked at the machinery in Narrow, and at the field and at Camp Rock, and didn't find Catteni-life signs. But they have gone. There was nothing on the screen when we got out at the bay. What happened? I wish to hear more.”

“There is more to tell, too, that you wouldn't have seen underwater. The brass-heads are waiting for you,” Mitford said with a big grin, stopping the air-cushion by the stairs at the KDL's open hatch.

They climbed in.

“Good news, sarge?” Kris asked, remembering those last few klicks before the Tub immersed itself. Zainal's expression had been so grim, so…frightened? She didn't like to think of anything frightening Zainal even if she knew very well that the Eosi did. Did he suspect the ship might be searching for him…still? Especially if the others did. Could his brother, Lenvec, still be conscious enough to make an Eosi search him out and take revenge?

“Well, sort of good news,” Mitford said with an odd twist to his smile. “Tell me, Zainal, could that warship scan underwater?”

“I hope not,” Zainal said, and Kris, watching him closely, saw his jaw muscles tighten.

“If it's any consolation, I don't think they can because otherwise they would have found you, if you're what they were looking for,” Mitford said. “They did spend a lot of time circling the channel on the other side, about where you would have submerged.”

“We cut it pretty close, I think,” Kris said, her eyes on Zainal.

“But they have gone away,” Zainal said with a satisfied nod.

“They've gone. With a bang,” Mitford said. Neither Kris nor Zainal had time to question him further because they had reached the bridge where Scott, Beverly, and Marrucci waited for them.

“Glad you made it here safely, after all,” Scott said in welcome, but he gestured for Zainal and Kris to join him at the big screen. “Gino, replay the Catteni ship's departure, will you?”

Marrucci, grinning from ear to ear, tapped in the necessary keys as if he'd handled Catteni equipment all his professional life.

Zainal echoed the gasp Kris gave when she saw the blip of the Catteni vessel stop short.

“How could it hit a wall in space?” she asked. Only then did she notice the barely visible skin of the Bubble. “That's what stopped it?” She turned first to Beverly and then Scott and Mitford, and finally to Zainal.

He was shaking his head but his eyes were gleaming with intense satisfaction.

“It circles the planet?” he asked.

“We have reason to believe so. But watch,” Scott said, holding up one hand, fingers wide to give his eyes some protection from the flash.

“Wow!” Kris said, blinking to clear the afterimage from her eyes. “What was that?”

“The forward blasters of the ship firing at once,”
Zainal said in a very odd tone of voice. “And it isn't enough?” He continued to watch but a half smile turned the corner of his mouth and he began to chuckle. Now he folded his arms across his chest and, still chuckling, watched as the Catteni warship slowly pushed its way through the obstacle and became invisible. “Ah!” He dropped his arms. “That is very interesting indeed,” he said, turning to Scott.

“Yes, we think so,” and Scott settled himself on the edge of the screen control panel. “We think they were looking for you…”

“I told them,” Mitford said, seating himself at the next work station.

Scott shot him a glance. “Could they have been?”

“For what purpose?” Zainal lifted one shoulder negligently. “I speeded the Tub so they would not see it out in the open. They might have seen it submerging, if they had the scanners in the right direction. If they came, it was to see what their orbital saw. It was in place when the whiz-ball came over, and it was also there when the big one sent down all the new machines. The Eosi looked at those, did they not?”

Mitford's expression was one of relief and Scott regarded Zainal with a look close to embarrassment.

“They come to see what's new on Botany,” Zainal repeated, showing his teeth in a full grin. “Not for me.”

Kris allowed herself to relax a trifle. She'd forgotten all about the fact that the Catteni orbital would have sent reports back. Of course that's what they had come to see! Zainal didn't enter into the matter. He was dropped and he stayed.

“So, do you think the Farmers erected that space barrier?” Scott asked, his eyes intently on Zainal's face.

“Who else? Since the warship had to blast its way out,” Zainal said. “The watch did not report anything happening in space?”

“Just that the Catteni orbital seemed to have developed
a shadow,” Marrucci said. “I was watch officer when the Catteni arrived. There was nothing, nothing there then.”

“Is the shadow still with the orbital?”

Marrucci grinned. “Can't see that far anymore.” But he did call up the log for that period and showed them the tiny shadow behind the orbital.

“If that's the gadget that did the trick, why didn't it move fast enough,” Mitford said in a low grumble, “to keep the Eosi from getting in at all?”

“Maybe it just took time to spread out,” Beverly suggested. Then he turned to Marrucci and added, “Even that Tholian Web took time, didn't it, to enclose the
Enterprise
?”

“The
Enterprise
?” Kris exclaimed in surprise. “The Tholian Web? Oh, I remember that episode.”

“D'you remember how the
Enterprise
got free?” Marrucci asked hopefully.

“No,” she replied sheepishly.

“You're no help.”

“Enough,” Scott said, making a cutting gesture to stop their levity. “This episode has no happy ending. This planet is now enclosed.”

“To keep us in?” Kris asked softly, and knew the others had the same question in their minds. “Maybe they want to be sure their machinery stays intact. Even if they can't differentiate between us and loo-cows, they surely will look at a warship that big with some uneasiness.”

“But the Catteni ships were coming in and out of here like yo-yos,” Mitford said.

“But the Farmers weren't alerted to the change in…tenants, shall I say?” and Scott gave a mirthless smile, “until that homing device was sent off…”

“By the way, whose bright idea was that?” Beverly asked, frowning.

“It got a reaction, which is what we wanted,” Mitford
said, declining to name a name. Which, Kris felt, was more forbearance than Dick Aarens deserved.

“Not for—how many months was it…” Beverly asked, “before the whiz-ball arrived?”

“Seven,” Zainal said, “and then only three weeks until the big ship arrived to replace the machines.”

“What I can't understand,” Kris said, “is why that scan of theirs hasn't apparently taken any notice of the existence of a new type of life-form on their planet? Loo-cows have six legs, noticeably, and we have only two. Surely that was noted somewhere?” She raised her hands in a puzzled gesture.

“And the barrier did let the Catteni warship out,” Beverly said in a puzzled tone.

“For which I, and I'm certain, Zainal, too, is very grateful,” Kris said in an undertone. Beverly shot her an understanding smile, his eyes flicking over Zainal beside her.

“Indeed,” Scott said, clearing his throat nervously.

“Very grateful,” Zainal added in a low, fervent tone, leaning back in his chair, stretching out his long legs, and giving a sigh of relief.

“But why did it?” Scott asked, pursuing the puzzle.

“Because the ship used weapons against it?” Zainal asked.

“That is a possibility, of course, if the Farmers are pacific by nature,” Scott went on. “But we don't know that, do we?”

“We know by the valleys,” Zainal said, “which were to keep something in, or something out. But not to kill it. Only now we are kept in and danger is kept out.” He pointed to the screen where the Catteni ship's departure was on replay. “I think the Eosi have been given much to think about.”

“But where does that leave us,” and Scott glanced around those on the KDL's bridge, “in relation to the Farmers?”

“Remember that we all felt we'd been scanned?” Mitford began, making sure he had everyone's attention. “Okay, so the whiz-ball orbital did an inventory and the supply ship dropped off what was needed to fill in the gaps. Let's say that, like all the Farmers' stuff, it was programmed to expect certain life-forms and recorded a great many more of an unidentifiable sort. Maybe that's why there's a bubble around us, until the Farmers can come and have a closer look with something that isn't programmed.”

“You're just hoping that's the case, Mitford,” Scott said. “It would vindicate everything you originally aimed to do. Attract their attention and their help.” When Mitford nodded, he went on. “Only your plan's gone aglae, as the Scotsman said.”

“Not much aglae, sir. Not yet, at any rate.”

“It would if the Farmers decide that we're some sort of malignant life-form which has contaminated their planet.”

Kris glared up at Scott, appalled that he'd say such a thing. Then she paused and amended her thinking: that he'd say what possibly everyone else feared. His expression gave no apology for his blunt speech.

“No,” Zainal said into the dismayed silence Scott's observation caused. “No,” he added in a stronger tone, and sat forward, clapping his big hands to his knees to emphasize that denial. “The Farmers are cultivators, a race that protects. The valleys prove that to me. The scan could have killed a malignant life-form but did not. The barrier could have destroyed the warship. It did not. But it let it out. We will prove we are cultivators, savers, protectors, too. When the Farmers come…”

“You think they will?” Marrucci asked, his thick eyebrows raised in hope of a negative response.

“I think they will but I will not wait until they do,” Zainal said with a wry grin on his face. “I will not worry until they do. I will live well until they do.”

“I think I agree with you on that, Zainal,” Beverly said.

“Me, too,” said Marrucci.

“I may have reservations, Zainal,” Scott said, “but worry is futile, especially,” and now he flung out both arms in a gesture of resignation, “when faced with a far, far superior force.”

“This planet has a great potential,” Beverly said in a quiet, affirmative voice. “Let us make as much of it as we can and hope that the Farmers see us as cultivators and, perhaps, useful tenants.”

“Amen to that,” Marrucci added, and made the sign of the cross.

Kris ducked her head respectfully even as she reached for Zainal's hand. He did not mention Phase Three but, by the way he returned the pressure of her hand, she knew that he had not forgotten it.

W
hile the brass-heads, with Peter Easley, Yuri Palit, and Chuck Mitford, visited the various communal mess halls set up around Retreat Bay and farther inland to counteract rumors and explain what had happened, Zainal and the flyboys discussed a quick run in the scout to examine the Bubble. Bert Put, Marrucci, Raisha, Beverly, and Vic Yowell were dying to see the phenomenon. The argument had been that, if the satellites could no longer see what they were doing on the surface, there was no harm in making use of the aircraft for exploratory purposes. And one of the first things to be explored was the Bubble. “As close as one could get to it.”