The Inheritors - A. Bertram Chandler [5]
"Analogous," contributed Maggie Lazenby, "to the colonization of many Pacific islands by Polynesians in Earth's remote past. But this colony that we're supposed to be looking for, John . . ."
"Yes. I was getting around to that. It's supposed to be in the Argo Sector. It was stumbled upon by a Dog Star Line ship that made a deviation to recalibrate her Mannschenn Drive controls. It won't be a Lost Colony for much longer."
"Why not?" asked Forsby.
"To begin with, the Dog Star Line people know about it. The Shaara know about it. We know about it. And Drongo Kane knows about it."
"Drongo Kane?" This was Forsby again, of course. "Who's he?"
Grimes sighed. He supposed that his physicist knew his own subject, but he seemed to know very little outside it. He turned his regard to his officers, said, "Tell him."
"Drongo Kane . . ." murmured Saul in his deep, rich voice. "Smuggler, gunrunner . . ."
"Pirate . . ." contributed Timmins.
"That was never proven," Grimes told him.
"Perhaps not, sir. But I was on watch—it was when I was a junior in Scorpio—when Bremerhaven's distress call came through."
"Mphm. As I recall it, Bremerhaven's own activities at the time were somewhat dubious . . . ."
"Slaver . . ." said Saul.
"Somebody had to take the people off Ganda before the radiation from their sun fried them. Whatever ships were available had to be employed."
"But Kane was paid by the Duke of Waldegren for the people he carried in Southerly Buster."
"Just a fee," said Grimes, "or commission, or whatever, for the delivery of indentured labor."
"What about this bloody Lost Colony?" demanded Maggie Lazenby.
"We're supposed to find it." Grimes gestured toward the folder on his desk with the stem of his pipe. "I've had copies made of all the bumf that was given to me. It consists mainly of reports made by agents on quite a few worlds. Our man at Port Llangowan, on Siluria, recorded a conversation between officers of Corgi and Pomeranian in one of the local pubs. Corgi had found this world—which seems to be called Morrowvia—quite by chance. Our man at Port Brrooun, on Drroomoorr, recorded a conversation between the second mate of Corgi and a Shaara drone; once again Morrowvia was mentioned. The same young gentleman—the second mate, not the drone—got into trouble at Port Mackay on Rob Roy. Normally he'd have been emptied out there and then by Corgi's master—but keeping him on board must have been the lesser of two evils."
"Why?" asked Forsby.
"Because," Grimes told him patiently, "the master of Corgi didn't want word of a new world that could well be included in the Dog Star Line's economic empire spread all over the galaxy. Where was I? Yes. Our woman at Port Fortinbras, on Elsinore, recorded a conversation between the owner of a repair yard and the owner of a ship chandlery. The repair yard was doing some work on Drongo Kane's ship, Southerly Buster—the mounting of armament, among other things. Kane had told the owner of the yard something—not much, but something—about a Lost Colony found by a Dog Star tramp . . . ."
"And what are we supposed to do, Captain?" asked Forsby."Plant the Federation's flag, or something?"
"Or something," said Maggie Lazenby. "You can rest assured of that."
Or something, thought Grimes.
4
As far as Grimes knew there was no real urgency—nonetheless he pushed Seeker along at her maximum safe velocity. This entailed acceleration slightly in excess of 1.5 G, with a temporal precession rate that did not quite, as Maggie Lazenby tartly put it, have all hands and the cook living backward. But Maggie had been born and reared on Arcadia, a relatively low gravity planet and, furthermore, disliked and distrusted the time-twisting Mannschenn Drive even more than the average spaceman or—woman. However, Lieutenant Brian Connery was an extremely competent engineer and well able to