Crisis On Doona Part 15

"Cause Cuddy was a pinto, not a leopard Apple."

"Could they have used a chemical to neutralize the original brand mark?" Pat asked, studying the printout of the descriptions of the horses whose numbers had appeared on the wrong hides.

Ken shook his head. "There's no chemical that can do that. "A laser?" Robin asked brightly, sure he'd come up with the logical solution. "That looks like chemical burns sometimes.

"Black magic is the more likely answer,' Kelly said in a gloomy tone, leaning back from the microscope. "I'd swear that was genuine and the only mark that hide had ever worn."

"You raise Apples, Kelly,' Ken began.

"Yeah, but we don't sell our leopards. You know that. And if one of ours had gone missing, you know that Dad and Michael would have combed the planet to find it. Ken knew that was true enough.

"Todd, I got a job for you,' he said, placing an arm about his son's shoulder. "We've got to get all the other ranches to let us do a read-only search of missing stock and the brands they wore. If we find a missing horse wearing one of those brands,' and he pointed to the lists, "we'll have some solid evidence to give DeVeer.

With a wry grin, Todd said, "The old fogey didn't suggest that your son might be using his ol' dad's legitimate brand marks to sell stock off-world, did he?" Ken wasn't quite quick enough to mask his annoyance-and dismay at Todd's droll query.

"What'll they think of next to hang on Todd's neck?" Kelly demanded indignantly. "As if you could fit one horse in the Albatross, let alone seventeen or twenty!" Ken snapped his fingers. "d.a.m.n, now why didn't I think of that factor?"

"You were probably far too mad to do so,' Pat said, raising her eyebrows in amus.e.m.e.nt.

"You're right about that. Now, let's get back to work. Robin, have you had a chance to find out who's missing stock?" Robin produced a flimsy from his pocket. "And Mr. Hu said a rancher named Tobin's been complaining that some of his stock has run off."

"Let's get details on those animals, then, and not just freeze brands, but full descriptions and markings.

"Maybe Hrriss could . . ." Inessa began, and then clapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes big with regret at mentioning that name in Todd's hearing.

"You can ask him, Inessa,' Todd said evenly.

"You're not under any restraint. Find out if Hrruban ranches are missing horses, too. Maybe the rustling's only aimed at Hayumans.

"You can't possibly mean to imply that Hrrubans would stoop to rustling?" Kelly asked, regretting the statement the instant the words were out of her mouth.

"They'd be the last to rustle hrrsses,' Todd said, whimsically using Hrriss's p.r.o.nunciation. "But someone might like to make it look that way."

"Good point, Todd,' Ken said. "Now let's "Let's have dinner,' Pat interjected, "before it's spoiled. The hides will keep.

After dinner, in which theory and speculation were rife, everyone went off on their designated searches. Robin took the family flitter and zoomed away to visit the Dautrish farm. Kelly went off in hers, promising to do a thorough search of the Solinari records and see if perhaps the leopard Apple had been bred by another rancher. Ken used the office system to double-check his records at source and Todd settled in at the computer terminal in his room.

He put up a mail message to the hundreds of ranches on Doona, asking permission to do a readonly on their stock files, and leaving his user number and name as the signature. Then he put a control list of the numbers and hides that his father had gone through. Before he finished that, three ranchers had flashed back permission. First he listed missing stock, by number and description. He set up a separate file to isolate description matches.

When he thought of going to Main Records to obtain numbers of hides returned to Doona for leather processing, he used the ranch number, in case his was unacceptable to Treaty Island. He berated himself for the growing paranoia he sensed as a result of his house arrest, but he needed this information too badly to wish to be denied access.

He didn't dismiss the possibility that someone had made illicit use of the Reeve Ranch freezemark files. And although rustling had been an ongoing problem for ranchers, that sort of illegal entry smacked of a very long-term effort. Rustlers were in and out, making a quick profit from their hauls. They certainly wouldn't plan so precisely how to confuse records and an entire, viable industry. Or would they?

It was that leopard Apple hide with a blatantly Reeve brand that really baffled him. He knew he couldn't rest until he'd found where that horse had been bred and who had owned it.

As he was to discover in the next few days, lots of people had missed horses that they never traced, never found the carca.s.s of, and had never bothered reporting. Every rancher expected to lose a few to natural calamities. But the more he looked, the more he came to realize that no ranch had lost as many over the past ten years as the Reeves.

Branding an animal with some other ranch's ID simply wasn't the sort of practical joke ranchers played on each other. Not by the dozens, certainly.

While one bay hide could look like another bay hide, swirl marks were taken when an animal was registered. Broken-color horses were far easier to identify from their birth diagrams, which plainly indicated the shapes of the darker hair.

Then a thought struck him. Maybe these weren't Doonan horses at all. At least the ones whose hides Ken had found. Maybe that was the deception: horses stolen from another planet marked with Doona brands to satisfy innocent purchasers. No wonder there was a Zapata provenance. When he discovered how many colonial worlds bred horses, with vast herds far too large to be individually marked, Todd decided he'd leave that option till last.

He'd look first for those animals which had been discovered dead.

The cause of their demise would be in the records . . . and there were quite a few.

All with the initials MA for Mark Aden, Len Adjei's former a.s.sistant. SS meant ssersa poisoning, MS for snake, M for mda, A for accient-broken leg or some other injury which resulted in euthanasia.

The unexplained disappearances, however, began to increase over the last few years.

The fact that the Reeve Ranch suffered the most losses and that the spurious hide marks were all Reeve brands as well worried Todd.

Admiral Landreau was back on Doona. Any example of incompetence, any whiff of dishonesty that could be charged against the Reeves, could be seized on and used by Landreau and others to try and get them deported, could work against the welfare of the entire colony. This was too precarious a time for him to be trapped by a home arrest, out of circulation, out of action when he was most needed.

Anger suffused Todd. Ever since he set foot on Doona, he had defended the ideal it exemplifiedharmonious cohabitation. He knew to the marrow of his bones, the cells of his blood, the lungs that breathed clear Doonan air, that Huiss felt an equal dedication.

Why had he decided that they had to answer that Mayday? He answered himself. Because, being who he was, reared as he was, he could have done nothing else. And someone very clever had counted on that! He couldn't quite see Admiral Landreau being so psychologically astute. Rogitel, now, he might. But Todd had had little intercourse with the commander-only that one meeting on Hrretha.

Not really time enough in desultory formal responses for even a trained psychologist to have taken that kind of measure of anyone.

Another file for a missing horse recalled him to the task at hand and he punched the print b.u.t.ton.

The stack of films beside him was growing.

He'd had to make a joke out of DeVeer suspecting him of doing the smuggling for profit.

And yet, with all those valuables found on the Albatross, it wouldn't be so hard for someone else to accept that possibility. But for anyone to think that he, Todd Reeve, or Hrriss, son of Hrrestan, Hiruban leader of Rrala, would sully all they had lived for, worked for. that was very hard to swallow. The beautiful dream that was Doona was inexorably slipping away from his grasp, deny it though he might. lisa had never understood his pa.s.sion for Doona. And really, neither did Robin or Inessa, but they had never lived under the restraints of Earth society, so they'd no idea what they'd lose. He wished for the millionth time that he could talk to Hrriss. If it wasn't for the support of his family, the often stumbling rea.s.surances of old friends, the wisdom of Hrruvula, his counsel, and Kelly's daily visits, he would find that unendurable.

The cheery "One Moment Please' graphic appeared on the screen again. Todd felt another rush of hot rage, which he fought to dispel.

It didn't do any good to tear himself up, but he was frustrated and angry. Instead of being out there, offering support for the ongoing Treaty talks which would cement permanent relations between Earth and Hrruba, ensuring Doona's continuance, Todd was being used as a p.a.w.n to break the colony and the alliance. Every time he answered one charge or began to solve one problem, another cropped up to claim his attention. It was curious, because everything seemed centered on him or his father. And that incontrovertibly led to Admiral Al Landreau as the most likely origin of this complex conspiracy. He had no proof nor the freedom of movement to secure any.

Why did animosity consume Landreau to the point where his revenge on the Reeves, father and son, embraced Doona, and all the good that had been achieved over a quarter of a century?

Todd searched his memory of those early days on Doona. Of course, he had arrived after Ken and the other ten colonists had struggled through an unbelievably long and cold winter to build homes for their families when the ship arrived in the springtime. Eleven men, placed alone on a supposedly uninhabited planet, had to make all the decisions of socialization and civilization that would frame a new world. They courageously faced physical hazards and the incredible moral obligation. When Ken had discovered the Hrruban village, they had been ready to leave in obedience to the prohibitions which had been hammered into their heads almost from birth: cohabitation with another species could only result in the destruction of the other species. But the Hrrubans were no gentle, vulnerable, sensitive ephemerals.

Circ.u.mstances had swept the Terrans along at a furious pace, and they had found themselves cohabiting, with no way to adhere to their decision to leave Doona. Todd grinned, wishing he had been more aware when his father had lost his temper at the various bureaucrats who had blamed the colonists for the untenable situation. Once the mutual benefits of this trial cohabitation had been understood, Alreldep, with Admiral Sumitral, and Codep had accepted with fair grace. But Landreau, the s.p.a.cedep representative, never forgot and showed no hint of forgiveness.

Todd took a break from the computer and got up to stretch. He raised his arms over his head and heard the crack as muscles protested being forced to remain too long in the same position. At some point, his mother had quietly left a pitcher of juice, some b.u.t.tered bread, and the final wedge of the dinner pie on a tray on the worktop.

Gratefully he poured a gla.s.s of juice and, with the pie in one hand, walked to the window. He was thankful every day for the abundance of real and tasty food.

He still remembered the metallic taste of childhood meals, the sameness of each supposedly nutritous meal. He had always felt hungry.

He pushed open the window and leaned his elbows on the frame. The sun was starting to drop behind the trees over the river at the bottom of the pasture. He wished he could be out and doing, back at his job, able to visit his friends. Even when he was a small boy, he had hated confinement. Never mind that his prison was the many acres of his father's ranch: his freedom of movement had been severely curtailed and he was unused to that. It was, however, better than a genuine incarceration in a four-by-four-meter cell. The only times he had been allowed to leave the ranch over the last two weeks had been to appear on Treaty Island, for more questioning. Each time, he had hoped for a glimpse of Hrriss, but their visits didn't coincide.

The prosecutors were being careful to keep them strictly apart.

The incriminating evidence of illegal artifacts found on the Albatross was quite enough to convict them of criminal activities inconsonant with the positions of trust both he and Hrriss had held.

With Landreau and Rogitel briefingtheir attorneys, this could call into question the success of the Doona Experiment of Cohabitation.

That would be a rather farfetched allegation, since one Hayuman and one Finliban were involved, not two members of the same species working against the interests of the other.

Their defense attorney was Hrruvula, a brilliant Hrruban advocate of the same Stripe as First Speaker but young enough to be light-furred, a shade that the horseman in Todd named buckskin.

His stripe, while still narrow, was a dark accent to his fine hide. His Standard was as fluent as a nativeborn Terran and indeed he had a.s.siduously studied both the language and the legal systems of Earth as well as those of his home planet. He had one a.s.sistant, the physical opposite of his tall muscular self, a diminutive dark-haired, dark-complected Terran named Sue Bailey, a name Todd thought inordinately appropriate for a legal clerk. During all the sessions Todd had attended, she said little, rarely glancing up from the square portable over which her fingers flew in taking down their conversations.

Hrruvula made no bones about the fact that the evidence-tape and objects, and most especially the Byzanian Glow Stone-d.a.m.ned Todd and Hrriss. Todd suggested that Poldep had not investigated any of the anomalies or made any attempt to question other suspects.

"When they have you and Hrriss, with your fingers in the till as it were,' Hrruvula said, revealing a fine understanding of old Terran metaphors that would delight Kelly, "they have no motivation to look for anyone else. But you two have no motive that I have been able to discover.

You both have the reputation of indisputable honor and dedicated responsibility. You both have a splendid future on Doona, and only fools, which neither of you are, would jeopardize such a future so near to its real inauguration: the renegotiation of the Treaty of Doona." "Have you discovered anyone else with such motive?" Hrruvula lifted his shoulders. "As you suggested, Admiral Landreau's public animosity toward Doona as well as his frequent a.s.sertions that he would "get the Reeves" have been verified. Doc.u.mentation has been providcd by many eminent personages. But there is no proof.

"There has to be . . ." Todd had interrupted.

Hrruvula held up his first digit, claw tip showing.

His jaw had dropped slightly and his eyes sparkled.

"Yet." Then Hrruvula had asked if they had any more information about the hides.

The Treaty Council members sat looking austere and troubled, facing Commander Landreau over the Council table. The head of s.p.a.cedep was flanked by Rogitel, his a.s.sistant, and by Varnorian of Codep, who looked bored by the whole proceeding. Landreau sat hunched slightly over his clasped hands, like a moody predator bird, as he reiterated the charges against Todd Reeve and Hrriss.

Todd and Hrriss were not present for this introductory session.

They were, naturally, represented by Hrruvula, with Sue Bailey tapping quiet fingers on her keys. With a Poldep officer on guard, the illicit artifacts were displayed, the Glow Stone in a heavy plastic case.

Sampson DeVeer was also present, seated next to the recording secretary at the foot of the table.

"The accused, Todd Reeve and Hrriss, both colonists of this planet, have been granted numerous unusual privileges,' Landreau began.

"Among them, exclusive use of a scout-cla.s.s s.p.a.ceship and almost unlimited access to the Archives and other records.

"These "privileges" were warranted by their extra-planetary duties which they have faultlessly executed to the benefit of their native planets and their adopted world,' Hrruvula replied. "They were elected unanimously to fulfill the position of travelling emissaries for DoonaiRrala."

"Yes, and see how they reward the trust put in them,' Landreau spat out. "Illegal invasion of s.p.a.ce, piracy, smuggling!"

"We are by no means convinced, Admiral Landreau,' Madam Dupuis said in a stern tone, "that the defendants are guilty of piracy and smuggling.

They have both separately maintained that neither of them placed the artifacts on the Albatross, nor could the one have done so without the other's knowledge."

"But their own log claims otherwise." Landreau made his voice sound reasonable, even saddened by the clandestine activities of Todd and Hrriss. "I am not at all satisfied by the so-called confessions that your interview extracted from the, er, defendants."

"My clients would be happy, in fact delighted, to answer these allegations under oath,' Hrruvula replied.

"How good is the word of such deceitful parties?"

"Objection!" Hrruvula said, shooting to his feet.

"Sustained,' Madam Dupuis said, shooting a repressive look at Landreau.

The Admiral took a deep breath and, with a fixed smile, continued.

"Oaths in a case such as this are not good enough,' Landreau said, and began enumerating his reasons. They claim there was a robot beacon orbiting Hrrilnorr IV. Admiralty Records emphatically proves that no such beacon ever existed. On the off chance that a rogue beacon from some other system or pa.s.sing vessel had entered the system and been drawn to Hrrilnorr IV, a scout was dispatched to search. No trace of any mechanical devices was found except the ones a.s.signed to that system. But,' and now he waggled his finger, "an astonishing a.s.sortment of illegal objects and that Byzanian Glow Stone were unquestionably found secreted aboard the Albatross, and those two young men'-his tone made that designation an insult-'deny any knowledge of them." He paused dramatically. "1 insist on guaranteed veracity. They must submit to interrogation-by qualified technicians, of courseunder querastrin.

An agitated murmur rumbled through the Council chamber, although Hrruvula, whom Landreau was watching, appeared unmoved by such a drastic course. Querastrin was by no means a new truth drug, but it was a harsh one. It stripped the person under its influence of both privacy and dignity.

Suicides following querastrin interrogation were frequent: more often in the cases of those proved innocent under such a drug than those convicted of crimes they had denied.

Hrruvula fixed his deceptively mild green gaze on Landreau and allowed the pupils to slowly contract.

Landreau shuddered inwardly.

"But why should it be needed in this instance, Admiral?" the counsel asked. "Querastrin seems rather an extreme measure. Both Terran and Hrruban courts permit suspects of all but the most bizarre crimes to retain their dignity and give evidence under oath. My clients, on the occasion of the inspection in Councillor Dupuis's presence and separately during every interrogatory session, have explained the circ.u.mstances of their entry into the Hrrilnorr system.

Their account has not varied in any particular during any repet.i.tion." "But their "account" does not tally with the physical evidence supporting their arrest. The future of an entire colony is at stake here, don't you understand that?" Landreau asked plaintively, meeting every Councillor's eyes in turn. "Does that not count against the well-being of two single citizens? As a Human, I am appalled that one of my kind invaded a sector which you Hrrubans claimed as your own territory. A deliberate and premeditated abrogation of a specific Treaty clause, and that is the least of their acts against the Treaty.

Surely you must wish such unscrupulous persons removed from this society to prevent them tainting the minds of your young folk who have, I am told, become accustomed to following the lead of.

these two young men. Doona does not need such role models." Landreau allowed his dismay to be clearly seen.

The Treaty Controller nodded slowly as if agreeing with that a.s.sertion of opprobrium. Landreau's eyes narrowed slightly and the hint of a smile pulled at his thin lips. The common good was a sensible tack to take in ramming home his points.

A nice wedge, neatly driven in to make these idiots reexamine their values.

Hrruvula dismissed that with a wave of his hand.

"Who are we to consider to have tainted whom, Commander?" he asked.

"Cui bono, Counsellor,' Landreau said. "Who profits from the crimes? In the testimony given to this august body, the suspects failed curiously to address several interesting items which I have uncovered. Then, too, I have recently come into possession of evidence, just brought to my attention, on another matter entirely.

The government of Zapata Three felt obliged to submit this directly to me. This includes not only these financial records,' and Landreau extended a sheaf of flimsies for the court steward to present to the Councillors, "but a description of a male, one point nine meters tall, with dark brown hair and blue eyes, calling himself Rikard Baliff, the named depositor. This so-called Rikard Baliff has had a most lucrative and active account for the last ten years. The date of the first deposit, by chance, happens to be only two months after that scout, Albatross, was a.s.signed to Todd Reeve and Hrriss, son of Hrrestan. The most recent deposit was made only three weeks ago."

"I fail to see the relevance of these doc.u.ments,' Hrruvula remarked with a slight, exasperated sigh of boredom.

"It's obvious enough to me, to any thoughtful person,' Landreau replied, piqued. "Young Mr. Reeve has been building a stake himself, should the Doona Experiment fail. A new life, with a new name-financed, in part, we may now surmise on this new evidence-by the sale of horses bearing Reeve Ranch freeze marks as well as the rare artifacts found on the Albatross. I have depositions,' and he fluttered more sheets for the steward to hand over to the Councillors, "that this Rikard Baliff was always accompanied by a Hrruban.

Plainly the two have been in collusion for a long time." Madam Dupuis disguised her anger only by a great effort of will. Despjte this new and most unsettling evidence, she could not imagine Todd Reeve as a conniving rustler and smuggler any more than she could see Hrriss being led around by the nose as an accomplice in such a nefarious undertaking. Why, Todd would have been barely twenty-one at the time he allegedly started this galaxy-wide enterprise. Furthermore, someone in those ten years would surely have recognized Todd and Hrriss at some point during their visits to Zapata and commented on it. Especially if Todd and Hrriss were at the same time representing the colony at an official function. She eased from one b.u.t.tock to another, compelled by her oath as a Treaty Councillor to hear out this remarkable fabrication of Landreau's and fretting the way evidence upon evidence was being piled up.

When Landreau began to read from the doc.u.ments, as if the Councillors were too infirm to do so for themselves, she interrupted him. "Have you any witnesses who can testify to the presence of Todd Reeve and Hrriss on Zapata to conduct these transactions?"

"Only scan the frequency of deposits, Madam Dupuis, and you will see'-Landreau's smile broadened-'that the dates match the times-on List B-2-when Reeve and his Hrruban partner were logged off Doona on official visits." Madam Dupuis turned to her colleagues. "I would like to see their flight plans and log records for the past ten years."

"That is List B-3, Madam Dupuis,' Rogitel said helpfully.

"It would seem that they have become deft at altering the Albatross log to delete unauthorized landings at Zapata, and on other worlds,' Landreau said.