"Emassi!" was the appropriate reply said in crisp unison and then each went to the duty station they had been assigned.
Coo and Pess buckled into the two drops seats that had been placed on the bridge for their use in takeoff and landing.
Zainal never spoke another word of English during the entire eight-day voyage. Neither did they after one of Zainal's thumps, and Kris was no exception though she didn't think he whacked her as hard as he did Gino, Chuck, Mack, or Ninety. But it sure reminded her to keep in her part.
The yellow lenses irritated Mack's eyes. Riz had mentioned that someone might have trouble and sent along eyewash, with the recommendation to keep the contacts in for short periods, lengthening the time each day to allow the eyeball to adjust. By the time they were orbiting Catten, he could keep them in most of the day.
Seen from outer space, Catten was a lovely planet! Almost as beautiful as the pictures of Earth sent back from space by Russian and American astronauts.
There were larger landmasses but inland lakes the size of seas and several enormous rivers to judge by the width of them. It was also remarkably green, which caused a good deal of surprise.
Zainal grinned. And said in Catten: "They have destroyed enough planets so that they are careful about this one. All manufacturing work is done on other worlds."
"You should see Earth," Ninety said proudly.
"Not all of it is as pleasant as…" Mark paused because there was no Catteni word for Ireland, "where you live."
"More unpleasant since Catteni come," added Gino grimly with an apologetic glance at Zainal who merely nodded. "KDM and… yaya…"
which was all Gino could think of as a Catteni description of "Baby," "will not like what is there now."
Everyone paused in reflection on that unhappy observation. Then Gino pointed to a good-sized satellite. "How many moons?"
"Four," Zainal replied, then added as an immense space station spun leisurely into view in its geo-synchronous orbit above Catten, "we do not want to dock there."
Everyone gawked at the sight of the monstrous edifice, with gantries and netted supplies far larger than the KDL floating on tethers about it.
Ships of all sizes made their way in and out of docking slips. One entire quadrant seemed to be a shipyard, taking advantage of the lack of gravity to push large structural members into position for assembly.
Suddenly the com unit blurted out a harsh barking which was either muffled or distorted so much that only Zainal understood; the others caught maybe one word clearly.
"… chouma."
Zainal rattled off his assumed name, the fact that his ship was damaged and requested landing at an isolated emergency site on planet.
By listening with intense concentration to the Catteni language, the crew got most of the next exchange, demanding details of the damage.
Zainal responded that he could not maneuver into the moon base with currently faulty equipment. Immediately he was bluntly told to sheer off his present course while a landing site could be warned of his imminent arrival.
' Zainal twitched fingers behind his back to indicate to the others how well their scheme was going. Considering the size and complexity of the space station, the Terrans could well appreciate the need for caution, and why ships had to be in maneuverable condition. They were probably as fastidious about unstable cargoes.
The interrogation went on. What was the trouble? Where had the KCX been? Was it contaminated? What cargo did it have on board?
Zainal signaled to Gino to go into his well-rehearsed reply, the pilot scrambling to get his notes out of his pocket in case he needed to refer to them.
"Engineer Tobako speaking;' he said. He'd had fun choosing an alias.
"Gyro unit, two-three-eight…:' and he spoke the Catten letters appended to the part, "realfunctioned in meteor swarm, flash-back damaging many boards in control panel and causing helm problems. Maneuvering affected.
Suffered hull and interior damages. Landed on largest meteor to repair damage. Gyro part badly made," and Gino infused a lot of contempt in his voice for that failing. "Imperfect metal. Had to reduce cargo to lift from meteor. Only one cargo deck remains. Three crew died."
"Only one part cargo?" The contempt and dismay was clearly audible and nothing at all was said about the loss of lives. "Go to field at…:' and the Catten rattled off the coordinates so quickly that, while Gino managed to jot down the English equivalents of the first four numbers, that was as far as he had got by the end of the message. He gave Zainal a startled and anxious look. Zainal nodded to assure those on the bridge that he had heard all he needed to obey.
"What is the cargo?"
"Platinum, gold, rhenium, some germanium." Zainal took up the report now.
"Ah…:' and that drawled exclamation was close to approval. "Is there more where that was found?"
"Yes. All can be collected again. I will return to the meteor with a repaired ship, and braver crewmen than the Drassi who died. These were only a step above Rassi…" Zainal paused to be sure that his complaint was understood. "It is a cargo I do not wish others to get."
"Ah…" and there was more warmth and approval. "A vehicle and mechanical support will meet you on the surface. Klotnik."
"Klotnik," Zainal responded. "Out:'
When the com line had been cut, every one reacted, sighing, or whistling or mimicking the wipe of a sweaty brow. In fact, Ninety took out a square of doth and was about to mop his face when Zainal thumped him.
Immediately Ninety used his finger to scrape off the sweat, as a real Drassi would do.
"There is really not that much of a cargo," Kris said dubiously. Would they get in trouble with what they had? It was all that Walter Duxie, the head miner, could find that might be considered valuable by the Catteni in the short time he had to do any prospecting. The germanium had been pure luck. And what little of the platinum groups they had so far discovered.
While the gold had seemed a real sacrifice to some people, the metal had little intrinsic value on Botany. The two professional and many amateur jewelers used it as settings for some of the rather magnificent gemstones which had turned up on the planet during the general assessment of mineral and metal deposits.
"It is enough, since they think we go back for what was left," Zainal said and grinned, looking more like the man she knew so well than the very Cat-teni Emassi who had barked answers over the com. "It has gone well. Now proceed slowly until we are in atmosphere and remember to vent smoke often."
That was an effect that Peter Snyder had been particularly pleased to install. It would dissipate fast enough in space but would certainly be visible from the space station, to enhance the story of a "damaged" ship.
"Much traffic," Gino said, glad enough to be steering away from the space station with so many other vehicles zipping here and there or ponderously moving out.
"There are two dreadnoughts in dock, nine large surface landers," Zainal said, pointing to the stern ends.
They were visible once you knew what to look for, Kris realized. They looked bigger to her than the Empire ship from Star Wars.
"I count eighteen H-type ships;' and again Zainal indicated where to look. What initially looked just like protrusions of the spaceship were, in fact, spaceships in dock. The H-types were similar to the one Kris remembered landing at Denver. She shuddered. Zainal went on. "Look beyond the station to your right, past the freighters and drones." His big finger now indicated a three o'clock position. "There's a full flotilla there."
"I can spot another one on the screen, farther out," and Gino tapped the screen with the proximity display.
"Wow!" Mack swallowed as he saw the incredible number of ships'…