Power Play - Anne McCaffrey [85]
Luzon moved a discreet step to one side. “Well, I’m no longer au courant to the latest developments, but they have been amazing. Truly amazing. I wonder that none of your medical advisers have suggested the Petaybean Cure to you. It’d make a new man of you, I’m sure.” From the avid expression in Ball’s eyes, Luzon knew that his little spiel had had the desired effect. “Do hope you’re feeling better real soon, Farrie. Nice to have seen you. Must rush.”
As soon as he had left the gaggle behind him, Luzon indulged in a smugly satisfied chuckle. The transport business he had backed to get as many people to Petaybee’s surface as possible might have come to a crashing halt, but there were other ways of overloading the planet and proving that it could not take care of itself and/or its inhabitants, much less any visitors. CIS would have to step in and alter the current arrangement. Planets could not, should not, go about managing themselves, not in a well-organized intergalactic civilization. Citizens of the galaxy had the right to pursue commercial ventures whenever these were possible. Citizens were also guaranteed certain basic rights—rights that Petaybee jeopardized by its very existence.
And then there was the matter of Marmion de Revers Algemeine. Luzon had heard nothing on the news media, about the kidnapping. “Nothing” on that situation was the best news he could possibly imagine. That took care of her—permanently. When was it he and Torkel Fiske were to meet? He tapped up his engagements on his wrist pad. Ah, this evening. Very good. They had a lot to talk about. Petaybee might not be a lost world after all.
21
Tanana Bay
Muktuk and Chumia had been home ten days when Sinead arrived on skis. As she was delivering her message while wrapped in warm blankets and sipping from the hot tea Chumia brewed for her, one of the men on sea watch reported that a very funny-looking seal had just beached itself off the ice pack.
“Sean!” Sinead cried. She threw off her blankets, pulled on her still snow-wet coat, and headed out the door, the others behind her.
“Sean?” Chumia asked, open-mouthed. “Your brother Sean?”
“Bring clothes!” Sinead yelled back over her shoulder to Muktuk, but Chumia had already shoved Muktuk’s latchkay snowpants and parka into his arms.
“By all the powers that be, if it ain’t the guy himself!” Muktuk said when he saw Sean striding briskly toward them, sanguine, purposeful, and naked.
“Nobody mentioned this was a dress occasion,” Sean said, grinning. “Sis, I’m glad to see you. Have you told them what’s up?”
“She said somethin’ about that pirate kinswoman of ours maybe comin’ for a visit,” Muktuk said.
“That’s right,” Sean said, pulling on the snowpants. “And we want to make sure she has a warm reception, don’t we? We’ll need to get as many folks as possible armed with whatever they have.”
“We told her if she lost her job she should come,” Muktuk said reluctantly. “Greeting her with an armed mob doesn’t seem real hospitable.”
“Not a mob, a posse,” Sean said. “She and one of her henchmen hit Adak O’Connor over the head and stole that aerial map Whittaker Fiske gave us to get them here. I don’t think she’s coming here to settle, Muktuk. I’m hoping she’s ready to do a deal for Yana, Bunny, and the others. I doubt she’ll come without a suitable escort of her own, so we’ll need a suitable one, too.”
“Right you are, guy.”
Sean was impatient to get the welcoming organized, but Chumia was firm that he needed to be fed and dried properly. While doing that, he could still tell them what he had in mind.
“We don’t want to be rash and hurt the poor girl if she’s only running scared,” Chumia said. “Perhaps her boss made her hit Adak. Maybe that other man was her boss and she’s still tryin’ to get loose from him.”
“You’ve seen no sign of a shuttle? Or any strangers walking in?”
Muktuk snorted at the latter and shook his head over the former.
“Well, either way,” Sean said, “I need to visit the communion place.”
“Sure thing, guv. Chumia, you get that