"I think that the Eosi," Ray said slowly but with a glint of satisfaction in his eyes, "have underestimated Humans."
Kamiton smiled. "They have and it gives us," and his thick thumb chest, signifying his group of dissidents, "immense satisfaction.
And hope. How best may I serve you, Emassi?" Kamiton bent his head toward Ray in an unexpected gesture of compliance.
"My rank was admiral, Emassi Kamiton," Ray said, with a grin. "And it looks likely that I may resume it. We'll have to consider how best to use your services. Welcome aboard." Then he stood up and turned to Zainal.
"I think that perhaps it would be wise if you all," and he gestured to include Gino and Chuck, "escort KaroitOh up to the hall and make sure everyone knows he's on our side. I'll see how soon we can schedule a tactical conference, but right now, unloading and the disposition of our latest arrivals takes precedence."
Kris was on her feet. "And I have a son to see:' Clearly it was safe for her to leave now that Zainal was himself again. And she was suddenly overcome with the urge to see Zane.
"Take my runabout, Kris," Ray said expansively. "I've got reports to write while all this is fresh in my mind."
Chapter Six.
ZANE WAS SO INVOLVED, PLAYING WITH others his age, giggling outrageously over something they found funny that she stood and watched, drinking in the sight of him.
Suddenly they went dead quiet, eyes wide open and staring. One of the little girls whimpered in fright but was instantly comforted by Sarah McDouall, one of the carets on duty at the crlche.
"Great heavens, where did they come from?"
she said, her voice part surprise and part reassurance.
Kris turned and saw a line of the tall thin Maasai men and women striding up the hill.
They had not been outfitted with the customary Catteni coverails, possibly because the Catteni hadn't made any that size before, so they wore the tatters of their traditional garb. And were as proud and dignified as she remembered seeing them in occasional news broadcasts when there had been that awful drought in Africa and Bob Geldof had started Band Aid.
The size of Maasai would intimidate more than two- and three-year-olds.
"How come you're leading the Maasai, Bart?" Kris asked, noticing him in the front, almost lost among the tall folk.
"They seem to trust me. Now a few smiles wouldn't go amiss right now/' Bart Tom/said firmly and immediately everyone complied, waving as well. "Hassan says 'Jambo' is a greeting. Can we have a chorus from you all?"
Everyone obediently repeated the greeting. The Maasai beside Bart looked surprised, eyebrows ascending up his wrinkled forehead but he stopped. So did the others behind him.
Abruptly Sarah brought the child she was holding closer, waving its arm as she did so. The transformation of the Maasai from surprise to delight was amazing. They all smiled now, at the children, rather than the adults.
The leader came right up to the playground, the picket fencing not as high as his knees, grinning broadly and saying something that Kris heard as "kasserianingera?"
Sarah held out the little girl's hand to the man. Smiling with very white teeth and bending his tall frame down to her level, he very gently touched her fingers, so gently that the child, wide-eyed though she was, did not withdraw.
The Maasai nodded and stepped back, then smiled at all the children.
Behind him, the rest of his tribe, if that's who they were, nodded and smiled and murmured their response of "jambo."
"Good, good," Bart said. "That's the first any of them have reacted at all."
"I'd heard/' Sarah said, "that they love children. And cattle. Our loo-cows are going to give them quite a shock."
The little girl had a grin hovering on her lips, but she burrowed her head into Sarah's shoulder, peeking coyly at the tall man. But the break occurred and a ripple of soft words went down the line. The sai all had smiles now and strode forward more cheerfully.
Bart pointed toward the hall. Then, looking down at a strip of paper [n his hand added in Swahili. "Hapa chakula kizuri! Get me?"
"Ndio, ndio," the leader said, nodding and looking around to gesture for the progress to continue. "Hapa chakula kizuri!" He repeated the same words Bart had used but with the proper inflections, and the Maasai behind grinned and nodded.
"So much for Hassan's instant Swahili lessons," Bart said, grinning as he stuffed his paper back into a thigh pocket.
At that moment, Zane came running towards Kris, arms outstretched to be picked up. "Mommy, mommy, mommy."
She was only too glad to collect him and hug him tightly and kiss him over. Then she took his arm, turned, and had him waving at the Maasai flowed by in their long striding gait.
"Mommy?" Zane whispered in her ear, his eyes wide.
"These are good people, Zane."
"Not Deski, not Rugars…"
"No, Maasai."
"Massssi."
"Maas-ai," she corrected him and he got it right.
"Has a quick ear, this one," Sarah said. "Have a good trip?"
Kris chuckled, thinking of some of the elements she was not going to mention. "Mind you, all we brought back was a dissident Catteni which isnt much against the increase in Botany's fleet…
"Dissident Catteni?" Sarah made round eyes at that. "Do tell!"
"Didn't you see him go up to the hall with Zainal a few minutes back?"
"Can't say as I did. But then, I can't say as I knew of any Catteni disSidents either:' Sarah grinned. "Nice to know we might have inside help, we?"
"Tell you later:'
"Over lunch perhaps?" Sarah said, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.
"If you share what you've heard that I haven't had time to find out."
"Good. It's nearly lunchtime and sandwiches are all made. LUNCHTIME/' Sarah called.
Out the window of the crche dining room, they saw the procession of what Sarah called the "repossessed," mainly Africans, but some whites, and their nationality not so obvious as they had been given Catteni cover-alls.
"Not so many injured either," Kris remarked.
"We did the unloading," Sarah said, "and wait 'til you see what else we got."
"Zainal came back with equipment as well," Kris said. "But it got loaded in such a hurry I don't know what all he acquired."
"Did you see much of the planet?" Sarah asked, as others joined their table, eager to hear of Kris' adventures.
Kris shook her head, breaking a piece off her own sandwich, which Zane evidently preferred to what was on his plate. "The gravity damned near wore me out. I stayed on board and answered the com unit. My Cat-teni's good enough for that but I don't look the part. And I sure couldn't operate in that gravity! Chuck did all the fronting for us. I'll tell you one thing for sure, I was awful glad to lift off safely." Then she laughed. "We ended up in an asteroid belt and whatever created it must have been one hel-luvan explosion."
She told them the ruse they'd used so that the space station hadn't wanted them to land there, which would have meant handling more formalities than was wise. So they'd got to land on the surface of the planet, far enough away from any settlement so that their "faulty" systems would cause no damage. "And we sure were sent to the boondocks.! did see the Rassi and they are…" she gave a shudder, "really little more than animals.
You can't call them morons or retarded because they don't have much intelligence at all. They copy what they are shown to do and even that has to be repeated over and over. But Zainal and the others got into the main city and made contact with Kamiton."
She could relate the deception about having to off-load an extremely ore cargo, which is why they came back via the asteroid belt, and could get back to Catten if they wished.