"Admiral Ray Scott, this is Emassi Kamiton, a friend for many years and one as committed to removing the Eosi domination as I am." Zainal let the two men shake hands-he'd mentioned that custom to Kamiton since Catten/rarely touched in cordiality-and Ray did not wince at the grip Kamiton produced.
"You are welcome, Emassi," Scott said in Catten/, with a slight grin when he noticed Kamiton's surprise. "Most of us can speak a little Cat-ten…
these days. Come, join us, you, too, Kris, Chuck, Gino. We can debrief in turns." He added the last in English. "Report, I meant to say," he put in, remembering the Catten/words.
Kamiton was looking around with great interest, especially at some of the unusual people who were being helped out of one big H-class.
"We've almost doubled our population again," Ray said, gesturing for them all to go up to the hangar and his office. "Later, Emassi Kamiton, it will be my pleasure to introduce you to the leaders of our colony."
As they entered the hanger, Kris saw Baby already ensconced, her hatch wide open. How had they managed to get pilots enough for three more ships? The KDM had had Laughrey as a second pilot and Boris with Raisha on Baby, and Ricky Farmer, maybe that's how they did it. She shook her head. But none of them, except Laughrey who'd captained Concordes, would have any experience with such big vessels, which would also require a minimum crew.
"Kris…" and obviously Ray Scott was calling for her attention a second time, "there's coffee over there," he said with a broad grin. "And even some reasonably fresh milk."
"WHAT?"
That shook her out of her introspection.
"COFFEE?"
G/no and Chuck reached the serving table almost as soon as she did.
Chuck inhaled the aroma, eyes closed in ecstasy.
"I'll take a fresh cup, Kris," Scott said as he gestured the two Catten/ to the chairs around the long table.
"Maybe a cup of coffee'll help settle Zainal, too," Chuck murmured to her as she poured for them all. His eyes were twinkling but his expression was sober. "I don't ever want him to get that mad at me, and I've been chewed out by experts."
"You?" Gino said, trying to ease the tension he felt in the atmosphere.
"Sugar as well, Ray?" Kris called out, noticing the large package of it open on the table.
"Two," Scott answered and she wondered just how much sugar had been acquired.
Without even an apologetic look on his face, Chuck used three spoonfuls but no milk. Kris was still deliberating what to add to the two cups destined for the Catteni when Chuck splashed in both sugar and milk, stirring vigorously.
"They can always try it pure later," he said. "This is real army coffee."
He took three cups as deftly as Kris did while Gino, eyes glinting with amusement, carried his and Scott's over to the table.
"See if you like it, Zainal," Chuck said at his most affable in trying to placate Zainal's still visible anger. He spoke in Catteni but when he went on, he had to use the English words where there were no equivalents even in Barevi. "Army can't move without coffee, nor the navy."
"It is a pleasure for us all," Scott said, also in Catteni. Then he blew on the surface of his coffee before sipping judiciously. As the other Humans were following that example, so did Zainal and Kamiton. Then Scott dropped into English. "First thing Sandy Areson off-loaded was a huge pot of brew and doled it out. I got that pitcher and two refills. I think she'll be brewing for the rest of the day, we're all so eager for the taste of it. Boxes of tea as well, so Ainger's happy."
"How much coffee did she bring in?" Chuck asked hopefully.
"Sacks full, though not all may be as fresh as this," Ray said before he switched to Catten. "I don't think the Catteni;' and he nodded graciously at Kamiton, "realized…" and he made gestures of grinding with his two hands, "that the beans have to be ground to be useful."
"Sort of like potatoes when Sir Walter gave them to Queen Elizabeth," Kris said, slipping in the remark to allow Zainal more time to regain his usual dignity.
"Now, let me explain to you, Zainal, Kamiton, about the three ships," Ray said, sitting forward but keeping both hands on his coffee cup.
"I listen," Zainal said in a firm voice and sipped again at his coffee.
Kamiton did, too, rolling the liquid in his mouth and savoring it.
"Neither of the two ships we sent on this reconnaissance of Earth had any trouble with their ID's or traveling. As you said, Zainal, Catten/ships are moving about without any restrictions at all. All right, all right, that might change because of what happened next," Ray intercepted Zainal's objections.
"But considering how easy it all was to take over three more, I doubt they will be missed."
"They will not be missed," Karoiron said, having followed Ray's somewhat basic Catteni even with the ex-admiral's atrocious accent. He grinned broadly. "Everyone is too busy taking valuables and loading cargo drones.
Those who are assigned to the Eosi do not have the same freedom, but those, as you know, Zainal, are the chosen few!" Kamiton's smile was a mixture of contempt and condescension.
"Matt Su and Vic Yowell managed to find an unused channel on the communications band and kept in contact with our scout ship."Then Ray rubbed his forehead and, with an apologetic nod at Kamiton, asked Zainal to translate to Kamiton while he resorted to English. "That proved extremely useful because once Raisha and Boris saw what had been done to St. Petersburg, they were so shattered it took hours for Bull Fetterman and Lenny to talk them back into action." Ray paused briefly. 'I'll say this for them, once they got over their initial shock, they really showed the stuff they're made of. By then, the KDM had realized how easy it was to get in and out of any major Catteni landing field and were reconnoitering." He sighed heavily. "Not much is left of the major world capitol cities, except the ones that don't look big enough to be important. After the KDM dropped off Basil Whitby and Leila in England, they let Sandy off in what had been the Boston-Cambridge area, and Joe Latore in upper New Jersey.
the KDM proceeded, as planned, to Houston and the big Cat-1osi installation there.
"That's when they had the chance to take over the two H-class ships.
The H's had just been loaded with more folks and were headed to one of the mining planets. Matt Su pretended to be in command and reassigned 'Bert Put and John Beverly as the new Drassi officers in charge of the newly acquired HTS. It was loaded but had only two crewmen on board so they · were easily fooled into believing a change in command…"
Zainal actually grinned. "Perhaps it wasn't a bad idea, after all."
"No, because John Beverly knew where some air force personnel might into hiding. And they were. So that didn't leave just two fake Cat-teni to manage that big mother. They aren't that difficult to operate but some crew had to be used. Beverly got to the hideout-but he had a bit of a problem, dressed as a Catteni until he wiped off part of the makeup and recognized one or two officers he knew. After that, they had enough to crew half a dozen more ships;' Ray chuckled at the startied look on Zainal's face.
Kamiton grinned, shaking his head at the audacity.
"We also now have NASA ground crew personnel who'll know how to service the ships;' and Ray was obviously relieved about that aspect. "BevLaughrey and two more experienced Hercules pilots back with him to the Houston facility in the H's shuttle and enough men to crew a second H-ship;' Ray paused, noticed that his cup was empty. Chuck rose, took it, and went to fill both. "That's when we got the African contingent.
Even the Hutus and Tutsies resented Catteni interference with their little joined forces against the Gray Men. We've Maasai, Luo, and Kikuyo:and evidently a smattering of Tuareg and Zulu. The Catteni took savage all across Africa."