Power Play - Anne McCaffrey [6]
“I understand your concern,” Marmion said, “and discretion certainly has been urged on all parties where Petaybee is involved. I’m afraid what you’re dealing with now is only, if you’ll pardon the expression, the tip of the iceberg. Some of our board members are expressing concern that other colonized worlds might try to claim similar status. They’re worried that Petaybee will set a precedent. If there were some way to reassure them that this is a once-off case of planetary sentience . . .” She cocked her head hopefully at Yana.
“You expect me to be able to answer that, Marmion? I can barely cope with the knowledge that there’s one . . .”
“And that’s exactly the attitude you ought to take, if I may make such a suggestion. Reaffirming it whenever asked just as you did to me now.”
“But suppose Petaybee isn’t a once-off? . . .” Yana liked to know she was telling the truth, inadvertently or otherwise.
Marmion sighed. “All the more reason, from the board’s standpoint, for keeping information about Petaybee hush-hush. They’d just as soon not give inhabitants of other terraformed planets any ideas, but at the same time, I expect CIS is going to want some sort of poll to try to determine if other worlds formerly considered habitats are indeed sentient beings.”
She gave a gusty sigh. “It all seemed so easy back there.” She flicked her fingers in the general spatial direction of Petaybee. “Lots of things seemed easy back there.”
“Mostly because there weren’t so many things to cloud perceptions,” Yana said.
“Well, that’s item one, Yana,” Marmion went on briskly. “We have no way of knowing if there are more sentient planets, so we’ll pretend Petaybee’s an exception. As such, it will make our job that much easier. I think.”
“What’s item two?”
“Matthew Luzon is recovering from his injuries and . . .”
“Determined to somehow make us all pay for the indignities he suffered?” Yana supplied when Marmion hesitated.
“Yes, not to refine too much on it. That’s why I’ve put some precautions in train. Sally . . .” She gestured to her aide, who immediately handed Yana a slim device that had a variety of depressible keys. “This is precaution number one. Carry it with you at all times and as inconspicuously as possible. It’ll fit nicely in your brassiere. Put it on the left, depression side up, and memorize the positions of the various function keys so you can just”— she placed a casual hand over her left breast—“signal what’s needed.” She grinned. “As you’ll see, it’s got a sensitive recorder and a few offstage tricks that can be implemented. Rather handy.”
“Have you needed such a device?” Yana examined it, noting the icons as well as the self-explanatory abbreviations like REC and MAY.
“Not ‘needed’ precisely,” Marmion allowed, “but I always felt more . . . secure . . . when I was in unknown space, as it were, with that gadget in place. Then I’ve also appointed you ‘assistants.’ ” Now she did look slightly embarrassed.
“Assistants?” Yana cocked her head at Marmion.
“Yes, well, everyone who is anyone has them . . .”
“And I must appear to be ‘everyone’ or ‘anyone’ . . . so who’s my assistant?”
“You have three, Sally and Millard Ephasios for show, and someone who may not be needed to tell,” Marmion explained, finishing with her charmingly ingenuous smile immediately counteracted by a sly wink. “And you won’t know who that is.”
“Hmm. All these subversive—”
“Discreet, my dear Yana,” Marmion corrected her.
“—measures are necessary, you feel?”
“I don’t like the weather report,” Marmion said.
“Have you minders for Diego and Bunny?”
“I do, and I know they’ll suit right down to the ground.”
“Are you giving Bunny one of these?” Yana held up the slim device, which was no more than two fingers long and two knuckles