Power Play Part 3

Hsst, the cat's voice cautioned. the cat's voice cautioned. Hide. A man thing comes. Hide. A man thing comes.

"What? Where? Coaxtl, I can't find you. Where are are you?" she asked, and rustled the brush trying to find sight of the cat. But while her back was turned, she suddenly smelled what must have alerted the cat long before, and saw a small flat vessel, not like the copters she had once known as Company Angels, but what Bunny had referred to as a "shuttle." It had letters on the side. Bunny had been showing her stupid sister letters before she left. She thought the names of those letters were P, like the first letter of Petaybee or Pobrecita, and I-no, the table on top, that was it! Bunny had said that a T had a table on top! PT-S like snake or serpent. PTS. That was what it said on it. you?" she asked, and rustled the brush trying to find sight of the cat. But while her back was turned, she suddenly smelled what must have alerted the cat long before, and saw a small flat vessel, not like the copters she had once known as Company Angels, but what Bunny had referred to as a "shuttle." It had letters on the side. Bunny had been showing her stupid sister letters before she left. She thought the names of those letters were P, like the first letter of Petaybee or Pobrecita, and I-no, the table on top, that was it! Bunny had said that a T had a table on top! PT-S like snake or serpent. PTS. That was what it said on it.

She was so proud of herself for puzzling this out that she didn't think to hide. She had become somewhat easier among people since her move to Kilcoole, and more accustomed to what Coaxtl called man things. The Shepherd Howling had not cared much for such things unless they were bringing supplies, so machinery had played little part in the terror of her life among the flock before she met Coaxtl.

So mostly she was curious and watched the shuttle land, despite many hissings from Coaxtl.

She had no idea that such an important-looking craft or the people from it would take any notice of someone like her.

One by one they climbed out and sank promptly into the squooshy hillocks of muskeg. Their lower clothing and legs and feet would be very wet, she knew. Some of them carried long metal sticks; some of them had on long white skirts, and others wore short skirts and high fur boots, and leaned on the arms of companions. Still others wore shiny pants. All of them were much too warmly dressed in layers and layers of fur and down, mittens, boots, coats, m.u.f.flers, and hats.

"Aha!" one of the ones in a skirt cried. "There's one!"

"One what?" asked a woman's bored voice.

"An aboriginal Petaybean."

"There's no such thing," another protested.

"Ah, you, sir, as a businessman, obviously do not understand the spiritual nature of the relationship between the Petaybean native and his or her Great Benefactor. It has been explained to me and my brethren, however, by an expert on the subject." And without waiting for further argument, the man in the white skirt slogged forward, squooshing up to his knees with every step. "You there?"

"Brethren." He had said "Brethren." Shepherd Howling talked that way, and Dr. Luzon. They were not very nice people, but she had learned to obey them. Half of her wanted to shrink back into the brush, but she stood as if rooted while the man approached, and waited for him to demand that she do something she didn't want to.

"Oh, little girl, yoo hoo!" another white skirt, this one a woman, called.

"Yes, you!" the man said. "You are an indigenous native of this glorious being upon which we stand?"

"Well," the girl began.

Youngling... Coaxtl's voice whispered. Coaxtl's voice whispered.

"Well, yes, I guess so."

"Ah!" The man's nervous smile broadened into a wide grin and he beckoned to those waiting behind the shuttle. "She is! Come along, it's all right then."

The others surged forward as awkwardly as the first, carrying their bags and their metal sticks and baskets.

The woman in the white skirt was the first to arrive. "Brother Shale, you've been too hasty as usual and frightened her." The woman pulled back her hood to reveal a shaven head, and took off her mitten to stick out a hand. "h.e.l.lo, honey. I'm Sister Igneous Rock. Take us to your leader."

Ponopei II

Torkel Fiske had disguised himself before leaving his shuttle. He didn't care to be recognized by any of his father's cronies. A dark colorwash and a quick weave altered his hairstyle to s.h.a.ggily long with a part instead of his usual cropped red cut; he wore a dark mustache that looked utterly convincing, and a pair of dark gla.s.ses well suited for the climate of the resort moon Ponopei II. The white synlin suit and Caribbe seascape-designed shirt were unlike anything he ever wore anywhere else. Woven sandals, no socks, and the sort of jewelry he normally wouldn't be caught dead in completed his ensemble. He had chemically altered his skin color with the substance designed to keep shipsiders from feeling out of place where sun and sea worship were the norm.

Running an all-view holo to check his appearance, he didn't recognize himself. He looked like a pirate on vacation.

Good. Onidi Louchard wouldn't take him for a rich, regimented fool then, a company flunky who had risen to power on his father's reputation. More and more he was starting to feel that people around him viewed him in that light, and he hated it.

Fortunately, he had experience at disguising himself on company business. A little fiddling with the computers altered the ident.i.ty codes to provide him with yet another persona. His shuttle was an Intergal rental registered to M'sser J. LaFitte, a gem dealer from Burroughs Ca.n.a.l, Mars.

He had come to Ponopei II often enough that he was known there, so he was gratified when none of the docking authorities recognized him, nor the florist where he bought his leis, one for himself and one to seal the deal with Louchard. The maitre d' at his favorite restaurant failed to recognize, him as well, saying only, on consulting the reservation, "Ah, M'sser LaFitte, your companion has not yet arrived, but your chamber is ready. This way, sir."

Torkel spent the next fifteen minutes sizing up the people who entered after him, wondering which one could be Louchard. After watching three men in shorts and sandals, another in a yellow business suit similar to his own, five giggling young girls, and one slightly older, pet.i.te, demure looker, dressed to kill-a society trophy wife, he guessed-he thought he had been stood up.

Then the trophy wife in the soft lavender and blue sarong dress turned her snappy high-heeled sandals his way. Her legs were very nice, he noted. Pity women seldom showed them in public anymore-except here, of course, where they showed everything. In taking in her appearance, he saw that she was somewhat older than he had a.s.sumed at first, her dark blond hair tufted at the ears and crowned with silver. Then he realized she was wearing a blue frangipani behind one ear. Louchard's communique had melodramatically mentioned a blue flower and that he was to bring leis.

The woman with the blue flower smiled and extended a tiny, beringed hand. All the rings had gems that matched her dress except for a prodigious stack of gold ones on the ring finger of her right hand. He admitted her to the chamber, and shut out the sights and sounds of the soft pink sands of the beach, the lime green waters, and the multicolored gardens by closing the hatch of the privacy bubble behind her and drawing the beaded curtain.

"It's Captain Captain LaFitte, surely, isn't it?" the woman inquired, sliding neatly across from him. LaFitte, surely, isn't it?" the woman inquired, sliding neatly across from him.

"It's Captain Fiske, as your organization was told," he said. "And I was told I would negotiate with Louchard."

"Louchard couldn't make it," the woman said with a charming show of teeth in a pink-lipsticked mouth. "I represent the organization. We understood you had business to discuss, and I am the business manager, Dinah O'Neill."

"I see," he said, and he did. She was no more a business manager than he was Jean LaFitte. The appearance of Onidi Louchard was a carefully guarded secret, but he had heard that the pirate was female. And this lady's eyes were as cold and calculating as he always fancied himself to be. They understood each other quite well already. "The deal is simply this. I recently met some gentlemen in business with Louchard on the planet known to the locals as Petaybee. It's a treacherous world that refuses to give up its secrets to outsiders, but seems to have a fondness for certain people who live there. Three of those people are now on Gal Three. The one I'm concerned with is a former company corps officer, Yanaba Maddock. She and her paramour, a suspicious local named Shongili, have maneuvered themselves into being named coadministrators of the governmental affairs of Terraform B. They're the ones who threw a monkey wrench in your operation on the planet, and they're now the ones in charge of future resource use. Maddock is pregnant. Her husband is, for a variety of complicated reasons, unable to leave the planet. The teenagers accompanying her are a boy of no particular consequence and a girl who is the husband's niece. But the important one is Maddock."

"I can see where holding her would give you a certain-leverage. But I fail to see where there's any profit in that for us," said Dinah O'Neill.

"I really should have spoken to your leader then," Torkel said. "He "He would have understood at once. Petaybean mineral wealth is still waiting to be mined. Captain Louchard has seen this..." would have understood at once. Petaybean mineral wealth is still waiting to be mined. Captain Louchard has seen this..."

She shrugged. "That is true, but it's also true, Captain, that there are many other worlds to mine. Petaybean ore and gems are top quality, but are proving costly... to extract. In addition to losing four men and the supplies invested in their operation, you now want us to kidnap some settlers? That planet doesn't yield its largesse to them either, and they're all poor as dirt. Sounds to me like you've got a personal problem with these people, Captain. We're not terrorists, we're businesspeople."

"So is the woman who is hosting Yana Maddock and the children. I'm sure as a 'businessperson' you'll be familiar with the name Marmion de Revers Algemeine?"

"Naturally, though regrettably she has never shown an inclination to avail herself of our services. If the parties you're interested in detaining are in her her care, however, I must tell you that such an operation would be so difficult it would be no more cost-effective than your other proposal." care, however, I must tell you that such an operation would be so difficult it would be no more cost-effective than your other proposal."

"Even if detaining Algemeine as well as Maddock is possible? I would think that the lady would command an extremely high ransom."

The woman shook her head and looked at him pityingly. "So would the board of directors of Intergal, but we do know our limits, Captain."

He leaned over and boldly took her hand. "So do I-on my own. You don't think I'd suggest this unless I knew I could expedite access to the targets, do you? Just say yes and we can make this happen."

She smiled and covered his hand with her other one. The rings bit into the back of his knuckles. "I never could resist a smooth-talking man who wears more jewelry than I do. Expedite away, Captain, and have your people get in touch with our people. You know how."

5.

Outside Kilcoole

After asking to be taken to 'Cita's leader, whoever that was, the white-robed Sister Igneous Rock continued to look at 'Cita expectantly while the others chimed in.

"A very good idea, oddly enough, considering the source," one of the women in very short skirts said. "Do take us to your leader. I'd like to speak to whoever is in charge. I represent BIEX, the galaxy's leading pharmaceutical concern, and-" take us to your leader. I'd like to speak to whoever is in charge. I represent BIEX, the galaxy's leading pharmaceutical concern, and-"

"Come off it, Portia," said one of the men in shiny pants. "She's just a kid. Doesn't even look like she speaks English."

"Petaybeans don't need to speak English," Sister Igneous Rock told the man sternly. "They communicate instinctively with the Beneficent Source. Please take us there, dear. Can you give us a name, perhaps?"

"This unworthy one has been called Goat-dung," 'Cita began timorously, awed by the presence of such strange, if apparently ignorant, ones.

"Not by me," Sister Igneous Rock said indignantly, wrinkling her nose as if 'Cita smelled like her namesake. "Really, dear, while natural names are pleasing to the Beneficence, I would not dream of calling the first actual denizen of Petaybee I meet by such a demeaning name as 'Goat-dung.' "

"Mostly I answer to 'Cita."

Sister Igneous Rock nodded and seemed gratified, but the rest once more began talking as if 'Cita was not there.

"Coaxtl, what shall I do?" the girl asked softly, hoping the big cat could hear her, for she could no longer see her friend. "Who is it they wish to see? It is too far to take them back to Uncle Sean before nightfall, and the ones in the short clothes will freeze after dark..."

"I don't want to see any d.a.m.ned leader," one of the men with the metal sticks was saying. "They had plenty of time to answer our applications for hunting permits. That fella I talked to said they had cats here big as horses with pelts that would fetch thousands, and unicorns that if you cut off their horns and drank them in a powder, would let you do it as many times a night as you wanted."

Do not not tell them one is here, youngling, tell them one is here, youngling, Coaxtl said. Coaxtl said.

"There's no need to bother this child at all," an older woman said. "Once we find my family, they can help us all sort out our problems. Honey, do you know a family named Monaghan? We got separated when the company resettled us during the Troubles. I've been living on Coventry all these years and I just now heard that some of the folks from my village were settled here."

'Cita shook her head. The woman looked nice and 'Cita wanted to help her, but this was all very confusing. "I haven't lived in Kilcoole long, but we could ask my Uncle Sean, if he's not too busy. Or Clodagh. I guess they're leaders."

"No, no, child," Brother Shale said. "We don't mean human leaders. We want to make the acquaintance of the Beneficence. We want to offer up our service and adoration..."

"In all due humility, of course," added a third white-robed figure. Behind him was a fourth that 'Cita had not previously noticed.

"Brothers Shale and Schist are correct," this new person, a woman, added. "We have no use for human leaders. I am Sister Agate, and I personally would like to state"-and as she said this, she turned about this way and that to shout over the heads of all of the people, including 'Cita-"that I am delighted to be here and will a.s.sist the Beneficent Ent.i.ty in any way I possibly can."

"Hush, Agate. We all will. It's not right to put yourself forward like that," Sister Igneous Rock said.

"I don't know about any Beni-whatsis," 'Cita said, "or that family either. But I'm very young and ignorant. They'd know in Kilcoole. Except it's almost night now and it'll be dark before we can get there and I'm afraid I'm too stupid to find my way in the dark."

"Kilcoole? That's where the government is supposed to be," the woman called Portia said. "How far is it?"

"Many klicks," 'Cita said after trying to figure out how to explain distances on Petaybee.

"Coaxtl, where can I take them to spend the night?" she asked while they argued among themselves. But the big cat didn't answer. She was all alone with these strangers. Finally she drew them into the woods, where they would not get snowed upon, and with the help of the white-robed ones, who could be most insistent, got them to bundle together beds of leaves and needles and lie close together, the most warmly dressed to the outside.

"Ah, rocked to sleep by the breeze of the Beneficence," Sister Agate said through chattering teeth, as she curled near Portia, who kicked her viciously.

The men with the metal sticks refused to obey and sat with their backs to trees, shivering despite their winter clothing, holding their sticks menacingly in front of them. When they fell asleep, in spite of themselves, 'Cita crept over to them and took the sticks from their hands and buried them beneath bushes.

Brother Schist muttered constantly under his breath, and the man in the shiny pants tried to snuggle Sister Igneous Rock.

'Cita huddled alone in the dark, searching for a particular touch in her head, a particular pair of eyes kindling in the darkness. She had actually dropped off to sleep when she felt a familiar warmth against her side.

Help comes, Coaxtl said simply. That was when 'Cita noticed that Coaxtl's warmth was joined by another, smaller purring bundle. Coaxtl said simply. That was when 'Cita noticed that Coaxtl's warmth was joined by another, smaller purring bundle.

An orange cat rubbed herself against Coaxtl, who rumbled a low growly remark.

Clodagh is on her way to us with the curly-coats. She will be here soon.

'Cita was so relieved she could almost cry. She was so incompetent and everyone was always helping her out of the problems she seemed to find.

Do not bow your head, youngling, Coaxtl rumbled. Coaxtl rumbled. You have done exceeding well, as the Clodagh person will tell you, even as her messenger does. You have saved the furred and feathered ones from the men with the metal sticks, and the men with the metal sticks from the wrath of the Home. You have also saved these puny others from wandering unguided in lands which are unfamiliar to them and in which they are unfit to travel. Clodagh is pleased with you. You have done exceeding well, as the Clodagh person will tell you, even as her messenger does. You have saved the furred and feathered ones from the men with the metal sticks, and the men with the metal sticks from the wrath of the Home. You have also saved these puny others from wandering unguided in lands which are unfamiliar to them and in which they are unfit to travel. Clodagh is pleased with you. Then Coaxtl sighed. Then Coaxtl sighed. Even if we must return to the false caves of men. Even if we must return to the false caves of men.

"Oh, Coaxtl! And you are so miserable..."

How can one be miserable when there are warm places to lie, food to eat, snow to roll in, and a youngling to lick into shape? Coaxtl interrupted her. Coaxtl interrupted her. One may prefer the inner chambers, but wherever one sets one's paws they touch the Home. One may prefer the inner chambers, but wherever one sets one's paws they touch the Home. Coaxtl raised her head and lapped at a snowflake, the first of several now drifting from the sky. Coaxtl raised her head and lapped at a snowflake, the first of several now drifting from the sky. Ah! See you, youngling? The Home, knowing that we sought snow and were prevented from reaching it, sends it to us. We are rewarded. You have brought honor to the pride and snow to us both. This is a good thing, yes? Ah! See you, youngling? The Home, knowing that we sought snow and were prevented from reaching it, sends it to us. We are rewarded. You have brought honor to the pride and snow to us both. This is a good thing, yes?

'Cita nodded, still uncertain. "I can see that it's working out well. And it is a good thing to achieve honor, even if I did it accidentally. Still, is it not better to achieve honor by being in the right place at the right time?"

Coaxtl blindsided her with a ma.s.sive lick to her face. This is no time to ponder on the mysteries of life, youngling. Now, compose yourself for what sleep you may achieve with all this noise. This is no time to ponder on the mysteries of life, youngling. Now, compose yourself for what sleep you may achieve with all this noise. When the girl obeyed, the great clouded cat settled herself and curled about 'Cita's body. In moments, the girl was asleep, despite the snores that filled the air. When the girl obeyed, the great clouded cat settled herself and curled about 'Cita's body. In moments, the girl was asleep, despite the snores that filled the air.

Having delivered its message, the orange cat had already disappeared.

When 'Cita opened her eyes again, the sky through the trees was ivory with snow and she was covered with a light coating of it. Coaxtl was not to be seen, but her side where the cat had lain against her was still warm.

The people from the shuttle stirred restlessly under a thin blanket of snow.

One of the would-be huntsmen awoke with a start and reached for the weapon that wasn't there, and a moment later the head of a curly-coat appeared through the brush.

"Clodagh!" 'Cita called with relief. Behind Clodagh were Uncle Seamus and three of the grown Rourke cousins, leading what looked like every curly-coat in the village.

"Coaxtl tells us you've been hunting, Aoifa Rourke," Clodagh said. "I hope you caught game enough to feed all of these while you were at it."

Watching the newcomers trying to mount the curlies made 'Cita feel as though she was not the only one who was ignorant and clumsy. The woman Portia had to leave her scantily clad legs open to the snow while her short skirt rode up to her waist as she mounted, a detail not lost on the male Rourke cousins.

The men who came with metal sticks were angry when they found their sticks gone, especially when Coaxtl and Nanook appeared alongside the curlies to guide them.

"I told you!" one of the men said to the other. "Cats as big as horses! I told you. That's what that fellow said and it's true. Wouldn't that pelt make a magnificent rug?"

Coaxtl coughed and Clodagh said, "No, Coaxtl, they're guests."

"Did it talk to you?" the third man asked.

"Oh, yes. Coaxtl and Nanook and the other track-cats can be very eloquent, but sometimes not very nice."

"What did it say?" Brother Schist asked. 'Cita, who generally understood Coaxtl very well, thought that the cat had merely coughed.

But Clodagh said to the hunter, "Coaxtl says your your pelt is too thin and hairless to be good for much of anything." pelt is too thin and hairless to be good for much of anything."

It took a long time to return to Kilcoole, what with having to make sure everyone stayed mounted. Poor curlies! 'Cita thought. She'd have to go gather some of the late carrots from everyone's gardens to give them a treat after this.

"Are you the mayor or the governor or whatever of this town we're going to?" the man-who-didn't-like-Portia asked Clodagh.