Freedom’s Choice (42 page)

“You'll use one of those homing capsules the Farmers have in the Command Post?”

“The Farmers do not approve the species' injury.
Once they see what Eosi do, we will hear from them again.”

“What if the Farmers can live with that?” Scott asked bitterly.

“That's what we'll have to find out, won't we?” Zainal said, but the tone of his voice told Kris that he wouldn't rest until he had completed Phase Three, no matter what it took.

* * *

There was considerable discussion about whether or not the Farmers would be able to play the pictorial record when Zainal, Kris, and the former movie cameraman had finished making it. Baxter, however, did still photographs that were indeed worth a thousand words of explanation and these were carefully inserted in the message tube.

The homing device had no trouble penetrating the Bubble on its way to its destination. Its departure was once again noted by the orbital and the geosynchronous satellite as well as its abrupt disappearance just past the heliopause. The event was immediately sent to Eosi headquarters for distribution.

The Ix Mentat, just returned from its almost futile investigations on the rebellious planet, was so contorted with rage that its juniors feared it might lose connection with its host. It had only just received a report from Barevi, citing the disappearance of one of the new transporter vessels as well as over two thousand slaves, destined for the mining colony at Ble Sot Fac Set, which had been expecting replacements for unavoidable casualties in a major shaft collapse. When the report got to the composition of that shipment, the Ix Mentat came closer to self-extinction than any of its peer group in their long history.

Its recovery from such a seizure was slow: its host had suffered bodily injury and had to be repaired, an
almost unheard-of complication in an Eosi-Emassi symbiosis.

To calm their senior, Mentats Co and Se issued orders that an installation was to be built on the innermost moon of the subject planet: a second orbital, programmed for a slower rotation, would provide constant surveillance and prevent the recalcitrant population from effecting another covert exit, since it was now obvious that they had two, or more, spaceships.

When the Mentat Ix recovered fully from its incapacity, it began to organize the largest expedition ever mounted by Catteni forces. It would wreak the most horrific vengeance on that recalcitrant planet that had ever been mounted by Eosi Mentat. Afterwards, there would be no opposition left in the galaxy that could subject an Eosi to such humiliation. But first, they must find the weapons or the method to breach the barrier around the colony planet. A planet, the Mentat Ix stoutly told all its colleagues, which was undoubtedly the cause of all the problems recently encountered by Catteni and Eosi alike. Once it was destroyed, the Eosi could resume their normal activities and enjoy their conquests unopposed.