Doomstar. Part 13

Nedri gave the glad cry, the crushing handshake, and they seemed as genuine as the others. But now Kettrick was feel-ing brittle and edgy, and hating it, because they were all his friends.

Well, that was what he had come to the Market for, to meet friends and talk. Might as well jump in with both feet and get it over with. The time, he thought, will not be long.

The little pied man brought a tray of drinks and put them down. "You can all pay," he said to the others. "This is on the house, for Johnny." He pulled a nearly full bottle of good Terran bourbon out of his tunic and banged it down in front of Kettrick.

Kettrick said, meaning it, "I have never seen anything so beautiful, Quip. And I am going to drink a great deal of it. So if you can dig me up a good thick Terran steak, or the equivalent thereof, to serve as blotting paper..."

"Oh, yes," said Quip. "I know what you like.""And the same for my friend here, but heavy on the meat." He turned to Chai, who had sat down beside his chair. In her own tongue he said, "Look at me and say no names. Did this man come often to the house where you used to live?"

She knew perfectly well which man he meant. "No. Once, twice. Long time ago. Then never."

Kettrick nodded and turned again to Quip. "And she'd like a pitcher of water. She's too smart to drink the stuff we do."

Quip bounced away. Nedri was looking hard at Chai.

"Is that one of Seri's?"

"No," said Kettrick. "Why?"

"I remember he had a pair of them, that's all."

"How is Seri?"

Nedri shrugged. "Haven't seen him to speak to for almost two years. He fired me, not long after you left." He added cheerfully, "I've managed to live without him."

"Seri Otku?" said Clutha. "h.e.l.l, he was here just a few days ago, in the Market. Had to put his ship in repair and decided to sell off his cargo."

"I'd like to see him," Kettrick said. "Do you know where he's staying?"

Clutha grunted. "He didn't exactly tell me, Johnny. I'd met him a few times at Ree Darva, you remember, when Boker was with you, so I said h.e.l.lo, and he like to froze me in my tracks. Seemed he just didn't want to be bothered with old acquaintances."

"Not only Seri," the Darvan said. "The whole d.a.m.n crew. The engineer in Starbird used to be with me. Used to be a nice guy. I went over to say h.e.l.lo too, after they went into repair. Thought we could have a few drinks together, a night on the town, like old times. He wasn't interested. Definitely." Nedri shook his head. "It all changed after you left, Johnny. I'd have quit anyhow. Seri began bringing in new people, people I didn't like, and then he took to shipping out himself and leaving the main office to somebody else to run, and I didn't like those people either."

"Well, the h.e.l.l with Seri," said the long-faced man, whose name was Enago. "I never met him and he doesn't sound like much. Let's talk about Johnny."

"Wait," said Kettrick. "Just a minute." He took a bit swal-low of bourbon and the hot shock of it hitting his stomach seemed to trigger off something in his mind. A thought that had lain dormant there banged suddenly into the open. "Nedri, what else beside Starbird was in the repair dock?"

Nedri frowned. "Oh, this and that. A couple of traders, the usual thing. Starbird was kind of off by herself, sitting one-two with a yacht, as though she was too snooty to a.s.so-ciate with her own kind."

Nedri grinned and held up his gla.s.s. "Excuse me for getting cute. This stuff always. .h.i.ts me on a hot day."

"A yacht?" said Kettrick.

"Yes." Nedri gave him an odd look. "Is this important?"

They were all looking at him now. Quip chose that moment to come with the food, bustling, chattering, so full of un-affected good nature that Kettrick could have strangled him. Finally he went away.

Kettrick said, "Let's get back to that yacht. Did you happen to notice..."

"I always notice a beautiful ship, Johnny. Fact, I walked around her to admire her from all sides. She was the Silverwing. Belongs to the curodai of Achern, what's his name...?""Ssessorn," said Clutha, imitating the soft sibilants of Achernan speech. "What's the matter, Johnny?

You look kind of green."

"Nothing," said Kettrick. "Not a thing." He ate mechani-cally, because in spite of everything he was hungry as a wolf.

The curodai of Achern. Not the head of the local government, but close to it, and about fourth in the government of Kirnanoc. Sssessorn, a powerful and important man, whose private s.p.a.ce yacht happened to be in the repair dock at the same time as Starbird, and side by side.

"Hey," said Enago, "this party's gone sour. I think our Johnny has got troubles."

"Well, I knew that from the beginning," said Clutha, "I've just been waiting for him to open up."

They sat, letting him take his own time, drinking quietly.

Kettrick washed the last of his dinner down with some of the bourbon. He felt better now, well able to march to his execution.

"We landed Grellah this afternoon. Boker, Hurth, Glevan...and us, not listed. The s.p.a.ceport guards arrested Boker, Hurth, and Glevan."

Clutha leaned forward. "Why?"

"Because Boker asked about Starbird" Kettrick rose ab-ruptly. "I've got to call the I-C."

"But Johnny..."

"Later." He went to the opposite side of the room, where the plastic bubble of the communicator booth shone dimly at the end of the bar. "The curodai of Achern," he thought. "That tears it. They won't dare touch the d.a.m.ned yacht be-cause if they're wrong..."

Oh yes they would, because what would happen if they were wrong was nothing at all compared to what would happen if they were right.

The one who would really suffer was Johnny Kettrick, if he had guessed wrong.

But if he were wrong, and Silverwing did not carry the Doomstar, then it wouldn't matter, because then certainly the Doomstar would shine, and nothing would matter any more. Nothing, at least, as small as the affairs of one man.

He opened the plastic bubble and was about to step in-side when Chai grunted behind him and he turned around and saw five Achernans in wrinkled cloaks and damp tunics come in the front door, accompanied by three more Acher-nans in the black-and-gold tunics and polished helmets of the police.

18.

They saw Kettrick. One of the five pointed, there was a soft hissing explosion in the Achernan language, and one of the police called out to Kettrick to stand where he was. They advanced toward him, cutting off any escape route to the rear of the tavern.

At the same time the men who had been sitting with Ket-trick jumped up from the table and headed for the Acher-nans. Behind them all, outside, Kettrick was aware of a large muttering tumult that seemed to be coming closer. Quip stood poised beside the bar, a tray of drinks forgotten in his hand.

Nedri, looking as haughty and contemptuous as any Achernan, said, "What seems to be the trouble?"

The policeman who had spoken before said with icy politeness, "We have a complaint against this man. Please to stand back."Under the rim of his helmet his black eyes were shifting here and there as the other men in the tavern began to get up by twos and threes to slouch over and join Nedri and the others. They were not at all interested in Johnny Kettrick and his problems, but Johnny Kettrick was human and the Market was a human enclave, and they disliked the Achernans coming into it to arrest one of them. They disliked the Achernans, period.

"Perhaps," said Nedri, "it would be better to discuss this?"

"That is impossible. We have a complaint. Please to..."

The muttering from outside had grown louder. Now it spilled in through the door. It looked to Kettrick as though half the men in the Market were there and the rest coming.

Abruptly Quip set down the tray and pointed to the back of the room. "Go quick, Johnny. Out the left-hand door."

He plunged forward into the knot of men, pushing one of them so that he lurched forward and pushed somebody else and the whole group swayed a little into the forefront of the Achernan group.

They gave back a step. More and more men poured in the door, around the Achernans, who were talking among themselves now and beginning to look ugly.

Kettrick called to Chai and ran, toward the left-hand door at the back.

He had almost reached it when there was a sudden flurry around the front door and a man's voice shouted, "Johnny!"

Kettrick stopped as though something had hit him.

"Just stand still, Johnny," the voice said. "Quite still."

Kettrick stood, but he turned around enough that he could see.

Sekma was there, with three or four others in the green I-C uniform. They had their shockers drawn, and pointed chiefly in Kettrick's direction. Sekma was talking now to the crowd.

"Let's hold it quiet, boys. There won't be any trouble. Suppose you all step back a little and give the gentlemen room."

The crowd began to move doubtfully back from the Achernans. Sekma nodded to a couple of the I-C men, who walked quickly toward Kettrick.

Chai said, "Fight, John-nee?"

"No," said Kettrick. "For G.o.d's sake no." He held his hands up as the men came to him. One was the placid plum-colored young Shargonese he had seen at Thwayn. He let them go over him and remove the knife from his tunic, trying to keep his face expressionless. Without looking at them directly he could see that at least two of the Achernan police had drawn their own weapons, nasty little black tubes not nearly so humane as the shockers, from which you could be expected to recover. He shivered, wondering whether he and Chai would really have reached that door.

The I-C men closed in on either side of him and he stood between them. Chai remained behind him, puzzled but obedient. Imperceptibly the center of the I-C group shifted toward Kettrick and away from the Achernans, who were still surrounded but not quite so closely as before.

Sekma smiled at the Achernan police and spoke to them politely. "I am grateful to you. We have been after this man for a long time."

The civilians hissed furiously in their own tongue. Their eyes were hot with anger.

The policeman said, "We have a complaint against this man. I must ask that you let us have him."

"Oh?" said Sekma. "May I hear the complaint?"Again the civilians interposed.

The policeman said, "That is not necessary. Please sur-render the..."

Sekma began to recite. "Article Four-Nine-Three-Nought-Seven, Paragraph A, of the League Code governing interworld commerce, to which Kirnanoc is signatory, states as follows: 'When there is disputed jurisdiction between local authorities and officers of the Bureau of Interworld Com-merce, etcetera etcetera, an offense against the Code shall take precedence over an offense against a local ordinance.'" Sekma smiled again at the policeman. "I'm sure it would be simpler to settle the matter here than to go to all the trouble of a court hearing. What is the complaint?"

The policeman capitulated to Article 49307.

"Drunkenness, physical a.s.sault, malicious destruction of property, and unlawful flight."

One of the civilians said in lingua, "He attacked us on the ca.n.a.l. He deliberately rammed and sank our boat. We were nearly drowned."

"Ah," said Sekma. "Regrettable. And exceedingly wicked. Keep it in mind, and when he gets out of Narkad you can have him brought back here for trial. In the meantime, he is wanted for illegal entry into the Cl.u.s.ter, for illegally engaging in trade within the Cl.u.s.ter, for illegal operation of a ship en-gaged in interworld commerce, and for other Code viola-tions with which I will not bore you. I don't believe there is any dispute?"

There was a moment's silence. The three police, very stiff now and looking as ugly as ever, hesitated, still holding their drawn weapons. Kettrick knew what was in their minds. They hated to have to back down in front of all these stinking humans who had swarmed around to challenge them. He knew they were weighing the alternatives, and he thought that if there had been a shred of legality to back them up they would have risked a full-scale riot to take him.

There was not, and so they decided against it. Sekma was clearly in the right, and while their respect for the rights and laws of humans would never have stopped them, they did not quite want to tangle with the whole League of Cl.u.s.ter Worlds, which the I-C represented.

The police turned and marched out, the crowd parting to let them through, and they said a few words to the protesting civilians, who looked at Kettrick and Sekma and the I-C men with the eyes of basilisks and then hurried after the police not wishing to be left behind among the humans.

Sekma, in a very quiet voice, said, "Let's get the h.e.l.l out of here. No, out the back, Johnny. You wouldn't have gotten away even if you'd made it." He looked at Nedri and the others. "That wasn't very smart, you know. You could have gotten yourselves killed." He smiled. "But you'll never know how grateful I am."

"Me too," said Kettrick, thinking it was about the lamest thing a man had ever said. At the moment, he couldn't think of anything better.

Enago said, "I'm kind of sorry they decided not to fight What about it, Johnny? You happy now?

There's a lot of us here..."

"I'm happy," Kettrick said. "Thanks anyway."

Clutha came up, looking from Kettrick to Sekma. "What about Boker? And Hurth? Johnny said..."

"They're all right," said Sekma. "Article Four-Nine-Three-Nought-Seven."

Kettrick gave a rebel yell and pulled a wad of crumpled credit notes out of his pocket. He tossed them to Quip. "Ev-erybody get drunk for me, I won't have time."

He pa.s.sed into the dark corridor, moving fast with the I-C men around him. A door swung open.

Warm night air hit him, and a dash of rain. There was an I-C launch in the river at the back of the tavern,with more men waiting beside it.

They all piled in, finding s.p.a.ce on the narrow seat that ran around the c.o.c.kpit. There was an awning, and curtains which were drawn tight except for some un.o.btrusive spyholes. Sekma spoke to the man at the wheel and then sat down beside Kettrick, on the other side from Chai. The launch rushed forward, away from the island. It swept into the barge ca.n.a.l. The Market dropped behind and the lights of the s.p.a.ceport grew brighter ahead.

Sekma drew a long breath and let it out again. Kettrick realized suddenly that he was shaking.

"What a chase you've led me, Johnny." He swore, in a way that Kettrick had never heard from him before. "By G.o.d, I'd throw you into Narkad for the rest of your life, if..." He left the "if" hanging in the air.

"I'm sorry," said Kettrick meekly. "Things happened aw-fully fast. I..."

In the dim glow of the c.o.c.kpit lights he could see Sekma's face, robbed of all its color and vivacity, showing only as a lined mask, infinitely tired, shockingly old. It spoke, so smoothly and naturally in the Tch.e.l.l tongue that it might indeed only have been saying h.e.l.lo to an old acquaintance.

"Chai," he said, "you watch. And man not talk."

And Kettrick understood that even here he was not safe.

The launch docked at the I-C landing on the barge ca.n.a.l. An official carrier was waiting to take them the rest of the way, along the perimeter road to the Administration Building. Ket-trick noticed that the driver avoided going into the garage underneath the wing where the I-C offices were. He pulled up instead in the open lot by the front of the building. They went in through the Personnel entrance.

When at last he and Chai were in Sekma's office and Sekma said, "You can talk now," Kettrick shook his head, appalled.

"Even in the I-C?"