Power Play - Anne McCaffrey [106]
“Unusual planet.”
At that sally, Namid did laugh. “You have a sense of humor, don’t you? I think we shall get on very well together.”
“Very well. Talk”
A low moan that ended on a piteous sob interrupted any further talk at that juncture. The moan had echoed quite near, and Namid, being a compassionate person, was compelled to investigate. Just beyond the bend in the passage, he saw the figure of Dinah, looking smaller and, indeed, when he turned her over in his arms, almost wizened of face. Her hair had turned completely white. She was breathing regularly, and although her pulse was slow, it was strong enough to reassure him. All the questions that had brimmed to his mind to ask Petaybee—could it speak with its primary? with its sister planets? communicate with its moons, and how?—went out of his head along with the questions he had framed to ask Dinah. She was patently in no condition to answer—even to her own name.
A guttural “eh” made him investigate farther down the corridor, where he saw three more figures, each of them curled in a tight fetal position and giving off odors of excrement and vomit that made Namid glad that he had eaten nothing yet in his haste to seek Dinah.
Megenda and the two crewmen had succumbed to Petaybee’s justice. But Namid felt that Dinah had not. He carried her up the stairs and banged on the trapdoor to be readmitted into the cabin; he found the room crowded with Marmion, Bunny, Diego, and the Murphys.
“Oh, dear, what has happened to her?” Marmion asked, reaching out compassionate hands to Namid’s limp burden.
Muktuk took her from Namid and carried her to the bed he and Chumia shared. “Petaybee’s happened to her,” he said with the resigned tone of someone who has accepted justice, fair or undeserved.
“I found a portable holo projector that produces an image of the pirate we all thought was Louchard,” Marmion told him. “It was in Dinah’s pocket. She was Louchard all along.”
Muktuk stroked the white hair back from Dinah’s face, and Chumia took her hand.
“Poor lass,” Muktuk said. “But us kindred of Handy Red have all got a wild streak.”
“Hitch the team, Muktuk,” Chumia said. “She’s beyond my skill. Clodagh in Kilcoole is best at this.”
Namid turned away from them and left the cabin, still agitated but reassured that here Dinah would receive, maybe not just what she deserved, but what she had needed all along.
25
Sometime in the middle of the blizzard, Nanook clawed at the shuttle hatch until Yana opened it wide enough for him to jump the drift blocking it and land with a thud on the deck. He seemed to have brought half of the great outdoors in on his coat and paws. But Sean reported good news as he rubbed the cat dry.
“Coaxtl says the youngling and the others are in shelter. Nanook can lead us there after the storm.”
Nanook did. They landed the shuttle in a snowbank, awakening the polar bears, who unhumped themselves, rose, and lumbered off without a backward glance. Yana and Sean disembarked and started for the cave entrance now unblocked by bears, but Nanook barred their way, growled, and preceded them.
Yana had thought to bring a laser lantern. It burned brightly enough to show the most eclectic gathering of Petaybean wildlife she had ever seen curled, draped, stacked, lying, sitting, standing, washing, yawning, and sleeping just inside the cave entrance.
Nanook growled warningly, but before they took another step, Coaxtl sauntered toward them, yawning. The other cats ignored the humans.
’Cita was right behind her friend, and ran to Sean to embrace him. “Did you bring anything to eat?”
Loncie Ondelacy and Pablo Ghompas and their community followed. “Yana, Sean, glad you came. But there are casualties, and we all need to eat.”
Wading deeper into the cavern, Yana looked at the twisted, mumbling people lying on the floor all around. “I’m glad we came, too. But now what do we do?”
“Whatcha drivin’ ?” Johnny Greene asked. Yana told him. “Not big enough,” he said. “We need serious transportation. Can you get help from Intergal?”
Sean shook