The Mystery of Ireta_ Dinosaur Planet & Dinosaur Planet Survivors - Anne McCaffrey [176]
As soon as the door had slid shut, Sassinak swiveled her chair and looked directly at them. Fordeliton made an adjustment on the console and Sassinak smiled.
“Did you two catch the entire act?” She raised one hand to massage her neck muscles.
“Your timing was as usual superb, Commander,” Fordeliton said.
“They had the contingencies covered, all right enough, including documentation to that heavy-worlder colony two systems down. Unless I am mistaken, and I want you to check it out, Ford, that world has reached its colonial quota. Varian, were all your records destroyed?”
“If you mean, do we have the homing capsule serial number on file, yes, it’s probably in the shuttle’s memory banks. We can retrieve it once Portegin has the shuttle’s console fully operational. But that capsule was stolen from our stores before the stampede . . .”
“Did you mention that fact in the report I hope you have for me?”
“I did—” Varian glanced at Kai for his answer.
“I did, too. Commander?”
“Yes?”
“Do you believe that they detoured here to answer a shipwreck message?”
“I would have had no reason to doubt it, would I, if you weren’t alive to give a conflicting account. They have, I do believe,” and Sassinak’s smile was smugly malicious, “hoisted themselves on their own petards in this case since you can prove the complicity. They don’t know that you lived—”
“Aygar does.” Kai’s voice was harsh.
“Do you think we’ve allowed Aygar and his friends to communicate with the colonists? Come, come, Leader Kai. I shall permit no intercourse between the two groups, and the surviving mutineer is in maximum security on this vessel. Would he recognize you?”
Varian answered. “When I encountered Tanegli, at first he thought I was from the colony ship. When I told him that I was part of a rescue team, he couldn’t wait to get rid of me. On the other hand, he wouldn’t be expecting to see Varian. For him a long time has elapsed.”
“Yes, so it has,” Sassinak mused, a slight smile on her face. “It really doesn’t do for the heavy-worlders to get so arrogant and presumptuous with us light-weights, does it?” Sassinak leaned forward, her expression sad. “The irony of these instances is that those who struggled to pave a way would have found themselves discarded by such as Cruss, castaway entirely, once their purpose had been served—I wonder if Tanegli and his fellow mutineers ever considered that possibility. Of course,” and a complacent smile bowed the commander’s mouth, “your survival is as unexpected as my arrival. Not to mention the interest the Thek are evincing in Ireta—can you explain that for me, Kai?”
“No, Commander. I haven’t been able to get any of them to speak to me. My personal contact, the one called Tor, is not among them. May I have access to your computer on the subject of Thek? I want to check other occurrences of such numbers descending on a planet. They seem to be settling on the points where we discovered existing cores.”
“Existing cores?” Sassinak was surprised. “According to Fleet records, this planet has never been explored.”
“That was our understanding, too, Commander,” Kai’s tone was dry. “Nevertheless, my geology team found cores of extreme antiquity in place.”
“Fascinating. I can only hope that we shall be enlightened in due course.”
“Commander Sassinak,” Kai began more formally, “does your presence here constitute the relief of the ARCT-10 expeditionary team?”
“How could it, my dear Kai?” Sassinak grinned. “I didn’t know you existed. My jurisdiction begins and ends with that transport out there. You were, and still are, an authorized exploration team to Ireta. As Varian has reminded me, that makes you both governors pro-tem on Ireta. Since your EV has not collected you in the time allotted for your explorations, in FSP law that makes you shipwrecked