Freedom's Ransom Part 7

'How do we know that? How do we know this business with the Barevi merchants isn't another way of robbing us and Botany of resources?' Aarens demanded, waggling an accusing finger at Palit.

'Considering what Zainal has already put on the line for us,' Chuck said, his face flushed with anger, 'your suggestion is impertinent.'

'I'm always impertinent,' Aarens retorted, pleased. 'You are also out of order,' Iri Bempechat said with a crack of his gavel.

'Let me straighten one thing out,' Zainal said. 'We have a Council,' and he gestured to the dais, 'to decide matters of planetary significance. Which this is, since it is Botany's a.s.sets that I hope to use to get the components we need to put more communication satellites in orbit around Botany and to restore the rest of the network around Earth. If that goal seems wrong to any of you, you have a chance to say so now, impertinent or pertinent. And I want d.i.c.k Aarens to come with us since he is an expert in circuitry.'

'That's a safe enough offer,' d.i.c.k Aarens said with a sneer. 'You know I won't go out into s.p.a.ce again.'

Not everyone caught the second part of his comment because everyone wanted a turn to speak and the judge had to bang his gavel to restore order.

Zainal raised his hands high for silence, too, and when it was reinstated, he went on.

'We also have several s.p.a.ceships which are currently not in use. I suggest that one of these could be profitably sold to cover costs.'

There was a roar of disapproval at that suggestion. Botanists took great pride in their s.p.a.ce capability.

'We can dig more gold and stuff, but we can't get another s.p.a.ceship as easily!'

'We'll all get something useful out of that gold 'n' stuff. Go to it, Zainal.'

'I'll dig for more. Just show me where!'

'Are you sure this'll work, Zainal?'

'I have been a.s.sured it will,' Zainal said. 'As sure as one can be. You all know my deal with Kamiton, but he didn't figure on the stubbornness of Barevi merchants. Therefore it's up to me to do a private deal with them personally. And I take that responsibility very much to heart. We wouldn't have the problem we have now if I hadn't forgotten how materialistic that group are.'

'Not your fault, Zainal,' Chuck said, bringing his fist down on the table with a bang that startled everyone sitting around him.

'Don't blame yourself, Zainal,' Dorothy Dwardie said, pointing her finger at him. 'You made a deal with Kamiton, and it's not your fault that he welshed on it.'

' 'Welshed on it"?' Zainal asked, blinking at her.

'Couldn't deliver,' Kris translated. 'Make good on his word. Kamiton seems to have some internal difficulties in his new government.' She grinned and then confided to the a.s.sembly, 'We'll sort it out, I'm sure. And we'll bring some coffee back with us, too.'

There was a cheer to that statement.

'They'll be sorry they started on a coffee addiction. We can make that work for us, you know. Demand for goods is always a good incentive to trade.'

'What about the gold teeth?'

'It takes a lot longer to make teeth than it does to brew good coffee.'

'Ah, coffee!'

'Hey, did they get a taste for chocolate, too?' a woman wanted to know.

'Hey, that can be just as addictive!' There was goodnatured laughter at that.

'You will keep records of where the ransom goes, won't you, Zainal?'

'We certainly will,' Chuck answered stoutly. 'Every flake of gold, every ounce of copper and tin and every grain of minerals will be accounted for. Won't it, Sally?'

'Am I going too?' Sally Stoffers asked, eyes wide with excitement.

'You were an accountant once, weren't you?' Chuck asked.

'Yes, but only on Earth.'

'Accounting is accounting wherever it's done,' Chuck said emphatically.

'I move to put the matter of our colony's a.s.sets being turned over to Zainal for the purposes of obtaining technological parts to the vote,' cried Walter Duxie.

'I second that motion,' said Mike Miller.

'All in favour, please stand!' Iri signalled to Dorothy, as Council secretary, to count the vote.

It was not a unanimous vote but more than two-thirds of those attending the meeting approved and that was all, Judge Bempechat said, that was needed.

'Let's devoutly hope we succeed,' Kris murmured to Peter, sitting next to her.

'That was almost too easy,' he replied, 'or have such diehards as Anna and Janet changed their tunes?'

Kris had not looked to see if those two conservative women who had such high and righteous morals and little compa.s.sion were in the audience. It took her a time to find them, sitting at the back. 'They don't look happy, do they?' she said, for she had been certain they'd have a negative response from that pair.

'Well, they do have family back on Earth, as I'm sure you've heard them tell.'

Kris nodded and then caught her breath as Janet got to her feet.

'I raise the question of relatives being allowed here on Botany. I know that some folk are in terrible physical condition and could benefit by being here, away from the scenes of stress and destruction.'

Dorothy raised her hand to Iri to be heard.

'We have, indeed, been addressing that problem in the Council, Janet. As you will have heard, Chuck has brought his cousins back, and we will certainly entertain other applications for refuge. But, as you all know, Botany works because we all do. We can, of course, admit a quant.i.ty of folk whose mental and physical state would improve by a change of scenery, but we must weigh our resources and staffing levels. If you would like, Dr. Hessian and I will set up interviews with those wishing to offer s.p.a.ce available to relatives. Would that be acceptable, Janet?'

'What about those valleys? And the one we fixed up for the Catteni families?'

'It has limited occupancy but it certainly figures in our plans to accommodate affected folk.'

'Affected?' Janet retorted, incensed. 'I'll have you know-'

'Discuss what you know with me in the interview,' Dorothy said firmly, effectively cutting off Janet's spiel before she could get started. 'See me after this meeting and we'll arrange a time, Janet.'

Kris would have liked to throttle Janet - once again. Botany was a sanctuary and should be available to those suffering from trauma: but not on a wholesale basis. The recovery of those victims who had suffered from the effects of the mind-machine had proved that Botany's serene beauty could eradicate stress and injury. Certainly there were people here trained - and available - to help.

One more reason to have better communications between the two planets: to forestall a ma.s.s exodus from Earth to Botany. This planet could sustain the people already here but not a ma.s.s immigration from Earth. She liked Botany as it currently existed, with a good balance of people and skills. If it were to be overbalanced in one direction - like becoming a vast hospital - it would founder under such weight. Still, it was the resilience of the community that had proved its strongest a.s.set. Then she wondered about the feasibility of constantly running s.p.a.ceships back and forth.

'Are there any more matters that need to come before the Council and the people?' Iri Bempechat asked, looking around the room.

'Hearyez, hearyez,' Chuck said, using his paradeground voice to cut through the babble to be sure Iri's message had been heard. 'Any more business for the Council and the a.s.sembled?'

A long pause answered that query.

'We got schedules to keep then,' Leon Dane said, rising to his feet.

The judge gave one more bang of his gavel then got to his feet - a little stiffer for having sat for so long in one position. Then he put his gavel back inside his official robe and walked off the dais.

The a.s.sembled broke up into small groups to discuss the meeting, and Janet was at the foot of the small flight of steps to intercept Dorothy Dwardie.

'Is this town-meeting approach how you've managed so much out of so little?' Captain Harvey asked Kris as she leaped down from the front of the dais.

'More or less,' she said and grinned when she saw some of the male Botanists whom she knew were still single homing in on the attractive officer.

'Look, don't get yourself stuck with the shiftless coming in droves to live off the fat of the land here,' Captain Harvey added, discreetly shielding what she said from the approaching males.

'What do you mean, shiftless?'

'There are always losers who a.s.sume the mantle of vulnerability to take the easy way out. What would you do with those who won't perform?'

'Don't know yet. We'll probably try to screen those who come and limit how long they can stay,' Kris said. 'But staying on Botany will definitely require showing they can contribute.'

'That's what old Earth is discovering right now. Who can contribute. Not all in the same degree, but there are many ways of contributing to a common good, aren't there?'

'Yes, Captain, there are. Captain Harvey, may I introduce Bob Sterling, Ben Wately and Ian Halstrip. You may have a lot in common since they man our communications.'

'Thanks, Kris,' Bob Sterling said in his unmistakable Aussie accent. 'Appreciate the intro.'

'Actually, we need the captain's advice if she wouldn't mind?'

Not at all,' the redhead replied, shaking hands in turn with each of them. 'What have you in mind?'

'Well, if you'd like some refreshment,' and Ben managed to take her arm in a courteous fashion as he gestured towards the drinks and desserts that were being served at the main counter, 'we thought we might settle a few technical problems.'

As the captain allowed herself to be led away, Kris grinned and looked around for Zainal. They still had a lot of details to sort out before the morning. To start with, where were they going first? Earth? The good Dr. Hessian, for all he could be a crashing bore, had turned up a tremendous amount of information on coffee, and if she couldn't find what she needed in Brazil or Venezuela, there were always Zaire and Ethiopia and Java. And she had had several tons of grain released to the expedition: less than a skimming of two silos, so she didn't feel she was plundering anything. It always paid to have more than one string to your bow, didn't it? And if the shine of nuggets wouldn't do it, maybe 'black gold' would!

The KDM had its new ID painted on its bow and emblazoned along both sides: Ba.s.s-1, for Botany Airforce s.p.a.ceship 1. Or Baker Alpha Sugar Sugar 1.

Kris thought it looked pretty smart before she became involved in organizing the food supplies on board, into the cargo s.p.a.ce or the refrigerated unit. Flats and flats of roasted rock squat and loaves of bread were boarded as well as convenient twenty-five-pound sacks of wheat and a dozen of flour, enough for her to make bread on the journeys and at Barevi.

Many fluent Catteni-speakers were coming along as well as some specialists like Herb Bayes, an electrician who'd be needed on Barevi, plus Captain Kathy Harvey to complete her pilot training and Mpatane c.u.mmings, the communications expert, Eric Sachs, Floss, Clune, Ferris, Ditsy and Zainal's two boys, who were very excited about going. Kris wondered if Zainal had warned the boys that he would be getting them a tutor on Barevi. Well, she wasn't going to cloy their excitement with a detail that was, in some respects, not her business. Sally Stoffers was along as their bookkeeper and accountant. She was bunking with Floss, a situation neither woman liked but there was only so much cabin s.p.a.ce on the KDM, adequate enough for the numbers that had good reason to be on this expedition.

4.

When they got close enough to Terra, looking much the same as Kris remembered it from NASA shuttle photos, they could also see some of the larger s.p.a.ce junk.

'Let's just see what is still operational,' Zainal said. 'If it's only the spare parts that are needed, maybe we can supply those.'

'We don't have them... yet,' Kris reminded him.

Jacqueline Kiznet, who preferred to be called Jax, brought up a screen image of the satellite distribution.

'Earth looks like a porcupine with all that junk,' she exclaimed.

"'Junk" is probably accurate,' Kathy muttered. 'As I heard it, the Catteni used the comm sats for target practice.'

'Some are obviously still working since the communications network is functioning, even with occasional gaps,' Mpatane remarked. 'So not all are gone. Since I'm up here, I can get the working ones to respond to a code I happen to know.'

Zainal drifted over to the nearest units, some with three long solar panels and some with only two, and eased close to one whose solar panels on the nearest port side were gone. The same damage was visible on the next four they pa.s.sed. Mpatane kept a record of their IDs.

'They don't look damaged otherwise,' she murmured. 'Still have their ears.'

'Ears?' Zainal asked, surprised.

'Those round objects are actually called "ears", and they catch the signals and bounce them on to their coded destinations.'

'No power, no work,' Gail Sullivan said, a sad tone to her voice.

'We shall need to get as many solar sails as we can find, then,' Zainal said, as if that solved the whole problem.

Some did answer, feebly in a few cases, others more robustly, to Mpatane's signals, each new response raising the hopes of the entire crew.

The suggestion of redistributing the operational ones was met with the remark that each satellite had a mission package that defined its parameters so that they were not interchangeable.

'And this next one,' Jax Kiznet said from her pilot's chair, 'is a loose cannon. See how it wobbles?'

'Looks to me as if it got its controls blasted,' Harvey said, peering at the twisted protuberances that would have provided guidance. 'Its solar wings don't seem to be damaged.'

'This KDM has a tractor beam, doesn't it?' Mpatane asked Zainal, who nodded. 'Could we capture it?' 'We could, but why?'

'Well, for one thing, it's small enough to be hauled on board so we could examine it at our leisure. Work experience for when we need to repair other units,' she said.

Zainal enabled the tractor beam, which locked onto the spinning comm sat. The jerk of contact went through the ship, rocking several folks roughly about. But no one was injured.

Getting the comm sat on board was not as easy, although the cargo area could be sealed off from the rest of the ship so the outer hatch could be opened. Gravity on the KDM could also be turned off, to make manoeuvring the unit easier. It was, Kathy Harvey remarked, rather like getting a whale onto a trawler.

'If we just had someone to give it a good push,' McColl remarked, smoothing his white brush moustache as if that action generated useful thought. He was the oldest of the pilots Chuck had seconded.

'Do we have any cargo nets left on board the ship?' Zainal asked thoughtfully.

'Yes,' Chuck Mitford replied. 'Steel mesh, too. Are you going to do a cowboy act?'