Freedom's Ransom Part 3

'I won't need anything they gave me once I'm back in civilization,' she muttered under her breath. But redeemed herself in Kris's good opinion by turning towards the group of women and making a broad gesture of farewell, giving the older woman a dignified nod. 'Can I board the ship now?' she asked Kris.

'Can't wait to leave, can you?'

'You better believe it,' Floss replied and sauntered, still swinging her hips in a s.e.xy manner, which Kris thought was provocative; she disappeared up the ramp and into the ship. By the time Kris, following her, had made her way to the flight deck, she heard more feet on the ramp and the whine of machinery as the ramp was retracted. Zainal came forward to the pilot's seat. As if it were his prerogative, Bazil took the secondary seat. Kris took the jump seat behind Zainal and motioned for the boys and Floss to strap in. As they took off and Zainal dipped Baby in a farewell salute over the Masai EnKang, Floss heaved a long sigh.

'Thank G.o.d you came. They were going to marry me off to a bag of bones and shrivelled skin,' she muttered to Kris.

Kris felt a pang of guilt for having forgotten Floss for so long and wondered how the girl had coped. There was little doubt in Kris's mind that Floss had filled out in a very womanly fashion, and she was glad they had rescued her from an ancient spouse. That would only have caused more problems and indubitably Floss would never have waited pa.s.sively to enjoy marital bliss.

'So what's the caper?' she asked, leaning towards Zainal, her eyes glittering.

Zainal responded in his best Ema.s.si manner but the only words Kris recognized were 'know' and 'time'. Floss had no trouble understanding and leaned back in her seat, folding her arms across her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Full b.r.e.a.s.t.s, Kris noticed, and hoped they could get the girl off-planet and to Barevi before she caused havoc among the unmarried males at the Botanists' main settlement at Retreat. The girl was much too young to settle down, although she seemed to have learned manners and deference among the Masai. Oh Lord, they only had spare beds enough for Zainal's sons. There were, however, bunks and cabins aboard the Baby, which must have been Zainal's thought because he landed in the clearing he had used before, not all that far from their cabin.

'Well, this is a step up,' Floss said and winked at Clune.

'You boys can bunk on Baby tonight,' Zainal said, gesturing down the companionway to the crew and officer quarters. 'Floss, you'd better stay in the main house.'

'Main house?' Floss echoed, glancing negligently at the cabin.

'Our home,' Kris said with a quelling glare.

'Well, it beats a straw hut all hollow,' Floss replied with more deference as Kris ushered her inside. 'And I really do like the decor. Informal, rustic, but neat!'

'Thanks,' Kris said. She sniffed, aware of an enticing aroma, and noticed the stew pan on the stove. 'That was kindly,' she said, picking up the spoon and stirring the mixture.

'I smell spices,' Floss remarked, an antic.i.p.atory grin on her face. 'Smells sort of like home and holiday.' And her eyes suddenly filled with tears.

'We don't have many spices but this is one of Dorothy's pots, so we'll know who to thank. There are knives and forks in the second drawer in the chest, Floss, if you can remember how to set a table. I'll call the others,' Kris gave Floss's shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Bread had also been left for them so they could make a good meal, which was devoured with much smacking of lips. Floss had forgotten which side forks go on but she had found gla.s.ses and poured water and put out plates. She was obviously accustomed to a.s.sisting, a definite improvement over her att.i.tude before she was sent to the Masai camp.

Clime had asked where to wash his hands and the other boys followed his example, despite their obvious desire to eat. Kris dished out spartan servings since whoever had brought the food had not antic.i.p.ated eight people dining on the pot's contents. She had some slightly stale cake to serve for 'afters', which the boys and Floss consumed avidly.

'Sorry about the hard rations. But there's usually plenty to eat at the dining hall,' Kris said. 'We generally eat there and take our turns cleaning up.'

'That was lovely,' Floss said with a replete sigh. 'Human cooking.'

'We ate well enough with the Masai,' Clune said, almost embarra.s.sed by her remark.

'There was always enough,' Ditsy blurted out, as if the quant.i.ty was far more important than the quality. Then he glanced at Clune as if he regretted having spoken.

'There were plenty of times we didn't have enough,' Clune said with quiet authority.

'Oh, we did well enough in the Washington kip,' Floss said with an airy shrug. 'You guys were good scroungers, and Jerry could make nothing taste like something!' She gave a sigh for 'times past'.

'I've always preferred to eat regular,' Ferris added, speaking almost for the first time. He had a very husky voice and there was an old scar along his throat. Kris resolved to have Dane check all of them over before they were enlisted for this mission. They probably needed to be wormed: Kris squirmed at the thought.

'Scuse me, ma'am,' Ferris went on, his brown eyes troubled, 'but does anyone know who's left on Earth?'

'You had family there, Ferris?' Kris asked.

'Think they escaped the roundup but I don't know. Any way I can find out?'

'We've some survivor lists, Ferris, and a long one from the DC area. We can check for you later. What about you, Floss?'

She gave an indifferent shrug. 'Knowing my father, they'd've survived in fine style. Somehow, somewhere.'

Clune levelled a stern glance at her. 'You used to worry about your mother and your sisters.'

'Oh' - she twitched her right shoulder - 'I did but I had to give them up for lost, didn't I?'

'You do know not to walk about at night, don't you?' Kris asked.

'Sure do. Never want that to happen to me,' Floss said in a more subdued tone and grimaced at the notion. Night crawlers were indigenous creatures on Botany that would attack anything animal, or human, in the night and ingest them. 'Thought there weren't as many night crawlers up north.'

'You do know to stamp a lot at night if you are caught off the stone paths?' Zainal continued. And all six kids nodded solemnly.

'You boys can stay in the ship but I'm locking everything else down. I don't want anyone flying off on us.'

'Ema.s.si Zainal,' Clime began formally, 'what exactly did we volunteer for?'

'Translating Catteni into English and English into Catteni,' Zainal replied. 'And a little grunt work. The rest I'll explain when we get to Barevi and when you need to know.'

'Oh, the old need-to-know routine,' Clime said with a long-suffering sigh.

Zainal laughed and clapped him so firmly on the shoulder that, st.u.r.dy as he was, Clune rocked on the bench. 'And now, boys, come with me,' and he urged them all out the door and towards Baby.

Without being asked, Floss rose and started clearing off the table, taking the dirty plates and utensils to the sink. She turned on the tap and crowed with delight. 'Hot water!'

'Yes, we have all the comforts of home.'

'Would you also have a shower? And maybe some shampoo?' Floss asked in a hushed voice, a look on her face of such keen antic.i.p.ation that Kris felt all the more guilty for having forgotten the girl.

'Yes, but I think you'd better shower first and quickly. Zainal likes a wash in the evening, and we don't have quite enough water for two long showers and the dishes, too. Come with me.' Kris paused only long enough to get a towel out of the cupboard and some shampoo - homemade though it was - from another cupboard before leading Floss to the shower room.

'Oh, if you knew how I've dreamed of this,' Floss murmured, stripping off the wraparound garment.

'I'll have to get you some clothes tomorrow but for now 1 have only a clean spare jumpsuit, Floss.' Kris retrieved one from the closet as well as a spare leather belt, which the slender Floss might need around the much too ample waistband. 'Nothing I own would fit you.'

'Yes'm,' Floss replied courteously and without a touch of sarcasm.

Somehow, Floss contrived to give the utilitarian garment an air of style.

'You wouldn't have a scarf or anything?' she asked as she reappeared in the main room. 'It's kind of bare up here,' and she touched her throat.

Kris had never cared much about fashion but she could see that a scarf of some sort of colour would reduce the uniform look and also draw attention to Floss's bosom, which was certainly ample and pushing against the confines of the dull fabric. She wondered if there were any bra.s.sieres in the main commissary. With the ratio of four men to one woman, this nubile girl could be at risk.

Maybe that was the real reason Floss had wanted to be released from the Masai encampment, where females were zealously guarded until a marriage had been arranged for them. Albeit Kris wouldn't have agreed to her being wed to an elderly man, she didn't want her to wh.o.r.e around Retreat either.

Zainal's appraisal of Floss, now clean and with her blond hair gleaming in the last of the daylight coming in the window, only consolidated Kris's observation.

'Did the boys settle down?' Kris asked, opening a neutral topic.

Zainal grinned. 'Being allowed to sleep in a scout?' He gave an indulgent laugh. 'They are excited but Clune said he'd listen for them. He's more than able to handle them.'

'Clune is respected among his age-set with the Masai,' Floss said with a little smirk, as if she denied that status. 'But he's worked a lot with both Bazil and Peran and they will obey him. This elder stuff works with impressionable boys.' She shot Zainal an inquiring look.

'It is a Catteni att.i.tude,' Zainal said in his language, and she inclined her head to show that she understood him.

'I have put out an extra blanket for you, Floss,' Kris said, wanting to be private with Zainal. 'It is much colder up here than it is in the south.'

The girl yawned and stretched, an action that showed off her lithe body in the jumpsuit.

'Oh, I'll survive,' she remarked and sauntered, again with swaying hips, over to the cots. 'It'll be such a relief to have a place to myself, with no one snoring or shouting in nightmares.' She gave Kris a smile and picked up the spare blanket, to flip it deftly across the bed. 'Even a mattress. A great luxury, I a.s.sure you.'

Somehow she managed to make slipping into the cot a voluptuous action. Zainal grinned and turned his back on her, walking towards their bedroom. Kris waved a good night and followed him.

'We'll have trouble with that girl,' she murmured when she closed the door behind her.

'Trouble's name is Clune,' Zainal said. 'He made it clear to me that he considers her, and her behaviour, his business.'

They were both tired, and although Zainal took a quick shower, muttering about lukewarm water, Kris wondered if Floss's presence in their living room had something to do with her own inhibitions, for she made no attempt to entice Zainal into her arms and he was equally reserved. Well, they needed the sleep.

A loud and eerie ululation woke them both the next morning, Zainal on his way to the door before Kris stopped him, pointing to his naked body. He cursed but stopped long enough to don his trousers before he exited. She dressed more slowly and was relieved when Zainal poked his head into the room.

'It seems the Masai keep to daylight hours and it is daylight!'

She finished dressing and found that Floss and Zainal had put bread, cheese and fruit on the table. Zainal called the boys in. Clune looked clean and neat and must have found the nearby stream for his hair was still wet. Bazil and Peran must have bathed also, for their faces were fresh and the fringes of their hair damp. Ferris needed to shave and Ditsy could have used a shower. There wouldn't be much hot water yet as the solar panels hadn't been recharged but she wanted them all cleaned up before they went up to the main buildings.

Before they took off for Barevi, they would have to get some suitable clothing for Floss and the boys, who were wearing only the minimum required for Masai modesty - breechclouts would not be acceptable on Barevi. If they wished to be seriously considered as negotiators, they had to look more presentable. This whole ransom business meant that Zainal would have to suspend his plan to seek out the Farmers' home world, or at least whatever depot they used to store the grain and the meat they farmed on Botany. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed that he would be denied that opportunity. However, it was only spring here and the Farmers' cargo containers did not come until after the autumn harvest. He had some time to spare. And his plans for Botany, and the repatriation of Terran slaves, were certainly as important to him, she knew, as his somewhat grandiose and quite possibly dangerous scheme to track the Farmers' vehicle to its destination. She did wonder, as Zainal did, why the Farmers, with their advanced robotechnology, needed so much produce. She sighed. Every time she thought she understood a lot, she came smack up against something else unknown, tantalizing, unfamiliar and, she sighed again, more than likely very dangerous.

Surely the Farmers would have had to have the means to supply themselves on any one of a number of Botanytype planets? Since the Eosi and Catteni had already explored neighbouring s.p.a.ce, surely they would have come across some vestige of the Farmers' culture? She wondered if indeed the Eosi had and merely kept the knowledge secret. Having secrets made people feel superior and secure. Or perhaps Human frailties were not part of Eosian characteristics. They certainly had extended their life spans by subsuming young hosts. For years, Humans had been investigating the possibility of cloning to sustain characteristics and supply body parts that would not be rejected in transplant. She shuddered. She could not, in conscience, go along with that. There was a reason for a life to have a span, predestined or not. How she would feel if she needed new organs to remain alive, she didn't know as she herself enjoyed vigorous health.

She caught the almost proprietary look on Clune's face as Floss swarmed up to him, offering him more bread. Yes, she would have to speak to Dane about this young couple. She had no doubts at all, from the expression on Floss's face, that she cared very much for the young Afro-American man. It had been at Floss's instigation that her Diplomatic group had practised birth control when they'd been running loose and free after the invasion. The same contingencies were not now in force but discretion was required until after the ransom negotiations were concluded. That is, if the youngsters proved as valuable as she thought they probably were, considering the success of the covert operations that had kept them free when most of the populace had been rounded up and carted off on Catteni slave ships. That might have been just luck but this mission needed that in quant.i.ty.

Everyone at Retreat pretended to be pleased to see Floss, approving the change in the girl from the intransigent, loud-mouthed brat of her first introduction to Botany. She was not overly enthusiastic about the garments produced for her to wear at the stores house. Most of the women had been making their own blouses and dresses out of the fabric and accessories that Kris had brought back from Barevi. Kris had to admit that utilitarian was not the style a girl Floss's age would appreciate, but she was offered fabric to make her own clothing, patterns, and even the use of the one sewing machine that Retreat owned.

'I learned how to sew skins together,' Floss said with some contempt, 'not how to cut and fit them. I wouldn't want to waste good material.'

That won her some points with the stores keeper, who was a good seamstress, and Kris saw the two in conversation and hoped something would materialize. A girl in her teens as attractive as Floss would certainly want something pretty and well fitting to wear. Someone did produce a silk scarf for her and she spent time in front of a mirror deciding how to tie and drape it - her longing for pretty and becoming things quite obvious to others in the room.

Beth Isbell offered to trim her hair, which Floss instantly accepted. 'You don't happen to have a conditioner, do you? I had to use a very strong soap at Masai camp and it's just ruined my hair.'

'We do have a herbal rinse that will help,' Beth said. 'A local herb but much like rosemary - it brings out the sheen.'

'Oh, that would be marvellous. I almost hate touching my hair, it's so brittle and dry.'

'It works with mine,' Beth said, fluffing out her blond hair, sun-streaked but shiny with health. 'C'mon. The shower water should be hot. I'll shampoo and trim it and it will be much improved.'

'Oh, thank you very much,' Floss said, showing a genuine warmth and enthusiasm.

'Why did you bring that renegade back?' Sally Stoffers asked in a discreetly low voice when they had left.

'She speaks Catteni and so do that gang of hers.'

'She's a troublemaker, born and bred!'

Kris turned, almost defensively, to Sally, who also was a Catteni-speaker. 'Zainal's option. Remember, those kids survived in the post-invasion turmoil, so they were either very lucky or very clever. Clune, the oldest boy, has negotiated and bartered with Catteni before and we will desperately need that type of experience. How are you at driving bargains?'

'She seems more biddable but she's a flirt, that one,' Sally repeated, her tone and expression spiteful.

'Clune will watch out for her,' Kris replied firmly and began folding the new clothing that would const.i.tute Floss's improved underwear. She didn't think they would find any purloined clothing in the Barevi stores but perhaps there would be some. The Catteni had been magpies as to what they loaded on board their cargo ships. When she was nineteen, she had wanted to look well dressed at college so she appreciated Floss's lack of interest in longwearing, st.u.r.dy work garments. The scarf would be treasured. She had noticed how Floss had run it through her work-hardened hands, savouring the feel of the silk. A sapphire blue would look very well on Floss, and Kris tried to recall the bolts she had seen, of silk and satin, the last time she was on Barevi. But then, she hadn't had Floss in mind when she'd bought fabric. Well, they'd have a look with Floss in mind while they were there this time. Who knows who would trade fabric for gold? She wished she knew what was most in demand at Barevi. Maybe Chuck could remember something. Gold teeth were simply not enough of an 'inducement'. What they needed was a real crowd-gatherer: something that even the most conservative of the Catteni would not ignore. Would kill to have!

Leaving Floss in Beth's hands and saying that she could be found in the mess hall, Kris went for a cup of coffee. The work roster, prominently located as one entered the mess hall, listed her as a.s.signed to Zainal's mission with no concurrent duties. Their latest recruits had been listed at the bottom as being part of the Barevi team. She was glad that she didn't have to sign Floss up for mess hall duties - at least not immediately. Maybe by the time they returned from Barevi, Floss would be more willing to take her turn at the less glamorous duties. Even KP would take precedence over marital duties to an old man. As she entered the big room, she glanced around and saw Eric, hunched over printouts. She waved at him, indicating a wish to join him and he nodded vigorously. She got her one cup of the rationed coffee and some fresh rolls, inhaling the aroma of the drink and fresh bread. She also wondered how much longer this treat would be available and if they could possibly search out additional supplies, possibly as trade goods since the Catteni had come to appreciate the caffeine hit. How many coffee beans and/or cups of the brew would buy a carton of stolen goods? She wondered, not for the first time, if the merchants had set any value on the cartons of spare parts they were now trying to sell. She had seen such a diversity of goods on display on her last trip. Surely not all of them - toasters and electric frying pans - were viable on Barevi. Much less automotive parts and spark plugs. Well, you never knew what would capture another species' interest. Certainly not the Catteni, who now evidently prized coffee, chocolate and gold caps. Did any of them realize how easily they had picked up Terran vices like coffee? She smiled at the notion of the conquerors corrupted.

She made her way to Eric's table and was cordially greeted, noticing that some of his paperwork included maps: maps that showed the destruction of vast areas of New York City.

'I think I might be lucky. The building remains standing,' he began tapping the map. 'And there is relatively little damage below Fourteenth Street, where the dental supply house is. What'll we be able to use for barter back on Earth?'

'I think we'll be able to take some wheat with us. Possibly even the rock squats, as fresh food would be appreciated,' Kris replied. 'There are hunting parties out today to see what they can gather and, from the smell of the kitchen, some are being roasted even as we speak. And I smell fresh bread cooking.'

'Now, all we need to figure out is how to hump heavy equipment down eighteen flights of stairs,' Eric said with a despondent sigh.

'Oh' - she smiled at him - 'you didn't know that the Catteni have "lift" platforms that handle that sort of thing quite comfortably?'

'No, I didn't, but see me grinning,' Eric replied, and he was, his eyes sparkling with relief and humour. 'Glad I asked. Those units are very heavy and even with a lot of manpower, getting them down to where they can be loaded was worrying me.'

She patted his hand. 'Well, fret no more. That was actually the least of our problems.'

'What's the most?'

Kris was thoughtful. 'Being sure we have the right stuff to trade with the Barevi.'

'Count on me, Kris! And, if we can find him, I know another dentist who does splendid work. Also in my building. He has the sort of personality that would deal well with the Catteni. Even as allies, they would be tricky, I suppose.' He gave her a shrewd glance.

'Some more than others,' she replied, grinning.

'Answer me a question, if it's not out of line,' Eric went on, c.o.c.king his head to one side. 'Why is Zainal seemingly working against his own people?'

'It might look that way, but it was the Eosi that he wanted to overthrow-'

'And did, I understand, with no small effort on his part.' His manner was that of someone hoping to be told more than he had actually asked for.

'When he was dropped here as an unwilling colonist - with the rest of us' - her gesture included everyone in the dining room - 'he wanted to free his people from Eosi domination.'

'He did that,' Eric agreed, wanting her to continue toexplain a situation she really didn't have an explanation for.

'There were other like-minded Catteni Ema.s.si, remember. He couldn't have pulled it off without their help.'