Power Play - Anne McCaffrey [24]
The colonel was anxious, too, he could tell. One day she and Sally swung by to collect Bunny on the way to the doctor. Yana was getting checked for her pregnancy and she wanted to see if Bunny was having any problem being cut off from the planet.
When she returned, Bunny was oddly quiet, and fingered the little bag of Petaybean dirt that now looked so incongruous with the modern fuchsia and teal-striped bodytight.
“How’d it go, Bun?” he asked her.
“Okay,” she said. “The doctor says my immune system should hold up a few more years and my brown fat deposit isn’t large enough yet to make me uncomfortable off-planet. After I’m about twenty or so, though, I won’t be able to leave for very long, ever, or I’ll end up like Lavelle.”
“So what? You don’t want to leave Petaybee anyway, do you?”
“Not for good, no, but Charmion asked me to come to her family’s chalet in the Strigian Alps sometime to help her set up a dog team and ski. She showed me pictures and it’s really beautiful there—all these beautiful houses, and there’s flowers all the time, even when the mountains are covered in snow. It’s not that I want to leave Petaybee, really. It’s just that I want to be able to if—you know, if I want to.”
“Not me,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. “I’ve been lots of places, and Petaybee is the best.”
“Sure it is,” she said. “But at least you got to pick.”
“You’ll get a chance to wear those formal clothes this evening,” Marmion said, emerging from her office to the main room, where her guests were lounging. They had spent the morning exploring yet another level, as well as making another visit to the extensive gymnasium that so fascinated Bunny. Marmion was delighted with the way Bailey and Charmion were filling their days on Gal Three, and the youngsters all appeared to like each other, though young Diego seemed rather quiet at times, and for the last day or two Bunny had been less bubbly than usual.
Once Yana and Bunny had been assured by a visit to Marmion’s personal physicians that their absence from Petaybee was causing harm neither to them nor to Yana’s unborn child, Yana had relaxed considerably. Afterward, Sally had induced Yana to enjoy some of the beauty treatments available on Second Level. But, even with so much to do, the continual delays in convening the CIS hearing were irritating and nerve-racking.
Distraction on a grander scale was needed, Marmion decided.
Calling for the attention of her guests, she waved a sheaf of messages in her hand. “We could go to a party on every single level. How do they find out so quickly that I’m back?” The question was rhetorical. “But I’ve chosen just the one for us,” she went on. “A sort of welcome for a new executive in . . .” She peered down at the sheet in her hand. “Oh, Rothschild’s. So everyone who is anybody on Gal Three will come, but that limits the attendance nicely.”
“It does?” Yana asked, raising her eyebrows in surprised amusement.
“Certainly. There aren’t that many ‘anybodies’ on Gal Three at the moment.” Marmion gave a trill of her delightful laughter. “I already checked the guest list and most of them are the sort of people I’d like you to meet anyway while you’re here. So that’s settled. We’ll leave at 2030 hours. All right? And everyone dressed in your finest.”
Bunny and Diego groaned, while Bailey and Charmion looked quite pleased.
“That’ll be loads of fun,” Charmion said, and turned to encourage Bunny and Diego. “This’ll be much nicer than you know. More like what you were describing as a latchkay, only Gal Three style.”
“People sing?”
“The ones who are paid to,” Charmion said. “But if you want to join in, no one will object.”
“Could I see you a moment, Yana?” Marmion asked, gesturing politely for Yana to join her in her office.
The “social lady” side of Marmion disappeared the moment the panel