Power Play - Anne McCaffrey [82]
“Wouldn’t you prefer the one at McGee’s Pass perhaps, or Savoy, to view the fruits of your previous efforts?”
“After what happened to Satok and company? No, thanks. Listen, I hope you’re not holding that against me, too—”
“It’s not me you have to worry about, mate,” Yana said drolly.
“Well, then, I have to worry about whatever it is that allegedly makes Petaybee . . . unusual—at least unusual enough to allow a human being to do what your husband did. Change, I mean. I hope whatever that is won’t hold Satok’s operation against me. All I knew about that business was that the men delivered such and such an ore to such and such a site and that they had developed something involving Petraseal that let them succeed at mining where the company had been unable to.”
Yana leaned forward and said with all the earnestness in her, “Dinah, if I have to personally cover every inch of ground near Tanana Bay to find the communion place for you, I will do so just to watch you tell that story to the planet and hear what response you get. But what are you going to tell Louchard if the planet refuses to consider your demands?”
“I’ll think of something,” Dinah said. “Now, however, it’s time for us all to climb into the shuttle and take you home, don’t you think?”
“And Bunny, Diego, Marmion, and Namid? Bunny’s probably the best one to guide you.”
“And not much good to me otherwise. Actually, Marmion has become a bit of a liability, delightful as her company has been. Had it not been for her offer of a transport fee, I’m afraid the boss might have done something drastic to, er, eliminate the danger. But a fee is a fee, and I’d much rather drop her off on your quaint little planet than, er, deliver her to her door on Gal Three, where I’m sure her friends and employees would all be there to greet me. And I suppose I’d best face it that it’s all over between Namid and me. Petaybee’s as good a place as any for the tasteless bastard.” She gave a deep sigh. “Oh, very well. You can have it all your way for now. There! It’s settled! Don’t you feel better now that we’ve talked things over? I know I do!”
The moment the hatch opened, Bunny took a sniff and said, with a deep sigh of satisfaction, “Home.”
Snow was falling against a pink and tangerine twilight, gilding the heavy snow cover with rose and gold, a glistening sheet stretching to mountains dwarfed by the distance.
“Very good, sweetie,” Dinah O’Neill snapped, “but I knew this was your home already. Where exactly and specifically are we?”
Megenda was climbing out behind Dinah, but as soon as he stepped on the narrow gangplank, the port side of the shuttle sank approximately four feet into the ground, cracking the big pirate’s chin on the ledge.
Bunny made a face. “Sinkholes. From the permafrost, you know.”
Megenda’s foot was trapped between the side of the hole and the shuttle. The other two pirates were left inside the shuttle, which continued to list further into the water.
“The fraggin’ hole’s filling up with water,” Megenda bellowed. The words were just out of his mouth when the hatch closed abruptly.
“Oops,” Yana said, watching the shuttle and the pirate sink further. “I don’t think that’s a sinkhole after all, Bunny. I think we may have landed on ice and it broke through under the shuttle’s weight.” She called down into the hole, “Hope you can swim, Megenda.”
Dinah stepped to the edge of the hole to help the first mate, but the ice broke under her foot. Had Namid not grabbed her, she, too, would have fallen in the black and freezing water. As the hole broadened, Megenda lurched with his hands to find a hold on the exterior of the shuttle and managed to catch one of the security hooks, his heavy body precariously dangling from one hand.
“Help him!” Dinah said, reaching