There was a celebration for the placement of the permanent Botany com sat when it was connected to the inner arrays. The NASA folk had managed to jury-rig one to serve in the interim.
The infirmary, which now had satellite clinics dotting the continent, had received much needed diagnostic equipment, an ex-ray machine, and generators large enough to power them. And sufficient oil and gasoline to run them. (Empty barrels were then recycled as anti-night crawler defenses and the bases for stilt homes.)
Nitin, Tubelin, and Kasturi began to learn enough English to respond to greetings. They would not conduct meetings with the Head Council in anything but Catteni. Kris often sat in as translator, so did Chuck Mitford, Mack, and Ninety. Their trips had at least improved vocabulary and usage.
Though there were a few phrases which none of the men would translate for Kris. She decided they must be so pejorative and anti-female that she'd rather not know.
Nitin was agitating for speedy returns, to acquire more spaceships-and missiles. He wanted to see the total destruction of all Eosi on Catten.
He dismissed the problem of getting armed ships past the space station that guarded the planet from attack, even a sneak one, by units of its own space force. The ships used in attack missions were based in another system. He pointed out that he knew all the code words to gain access to naval ordnance: there was even a high-ranking officer who was a member of their covert group. But he had been an administrator until he had been dismissed from his post and a much younger junior with excellent blood and Eosian connections had taken his place. That had been sufficient for Nitin to wish to retaliate against a hierarchy that had not rewarded his many years of devoted service.
"Almost Human of him," Hassan Moussa said with a chuckle. "Happens often in Israel."
"But does that attitude assure us of his loyalty?" Ray bluntly asked Zainal.
"Considering that his family bloodlines date back to the Original Hundred, yes, it does. He needs to wipe that dismissal from his family's history," Zainal replied.
The latest news from Earth was both good and bad--the good being that the Eosi had given up their mind-wipe program. The bad was that they were now concentrating on razing cities, towns, settlements of any size, to the ground.
ZAINAL SEEMED TO HAVE NO TROUBLE playing with Zane in the affectionate way he had always used with the child who was walking without assistance. If he fell down, he got himself up. If he bruised himself in doing so and started to cry, Zainal would cock his head and the tears would dry up.
Kris didn't approve of Zainal's attitude toward perfectly reasonable tears. They had another fight over that.
"If he is badly hurt, he may cry," Zainal said. "But, on Botany, he must learn to take tumbles and get up and walk on," he added. "As you did on our initial treks."
"I was an adult, not a baby;' She was also stung that he would bring up those incidents, so long ago she'd forgotten them.
"If Zane walks, he is no longer a baby."
"He's my child and I'll dictate what he may or may not do."
"Tell him not to bother me then;' "Bother you?"
"He seeks my company."
"And you never push him away."
"No, but I will if you do not like the way I treat the son of my mate."
Zainal's face had assumed the cold Catteni look that devastated her, and she caved in.
"I want you to be fatherly toward Zane. He couldn't understand you changing," she said more meekly than she meant to sound.
"I do as I see other fathers here do, Kris;' he replied in a quiet, kinder tone. Then he caressed her cheek. "And when my sons learn that you are really Emassi in spite of being female, I would like you to be elder mother to them."
"Truce?" she said, holding out her hand.
"Truce? Yes, truce. We two should not be angry at each other over nothing."
"Nothing?" That was enough to get her back up all over again but Zainal stopped the incipient quarrel by kissing her so thoroughly that she had to cling to him to keep upright.
He was learning some other tricks of Human males, too, she thought as he carried her to their bed. It was nearly midday but neither was due for duty for another hour so. Zane was already in the crche. They had not been together often enough recently, she thought. No wonder they were fighting.
When they had finished a very satisfactory passage in arms, Kris asked Zainal how plans were going for the next series of "raids." Despite the inconveniences of masquerading and enduring the heavier gravity of Catten, she realized there must be a piraticalcertainly aViking-streak from her ancestry that gave her such enjoyment in these forays. It was so very satisfying to sneak:m under Catteni noses and get away with such good plunder.
Though she gave a little shudder thinking what might happen if they didn't get away with their deceptions. She quickly gave up thinking about that.
"The Council thinks hard about the next step. We," and Zainal turned his thumb in on himself so that Kris knew he meant the other Catteni, "must make additional contact with those who can help with our challenge to Eosi domination."
"Will that mean only you go?" she asked. After being with him again, she hated to be separated. Not that they could indulge in intimacies aboard even the larger KDL, but she would miss him acutely no matter how short a separation.
BY THE FALL OF NIGHT THAT DAY, the residents had another problem.
Some of those brought in on the last G-class ship were young folks, aged between five and twelve: children who had grown up knowing nothing but the Catteni domination. Most of them were either orphaned or had been separated from their parents, and three could not even remember their names. Dorothy Dwardie turned the most violent over to Dr. Hessian since his Freudian training would be valuable in these instances. Their childhoods, if one could use the word, had been so traumatic that, unless therapy was used, they would be neurotic by their teens.
"Children can survive the most appalling circumstances;' Dorothy said as she addressed those who had volunteered to house the orphans, "but the one thing they have, which adults often lack, is resilience. Shown kindness, especially fair play, will do much to show them what we, here on Botany at least, consider 'normal' behavior."
Some of the wildest had had to be sedated throughout the trip. Laugh-rey, who had been captain of the purloined ship, said his crew had been totally unable to cope with this group.
"We did find out that, when we brought them to the ship.. · the first time;' and he grimaced, "we were Human quislings and were taking them to work to death as slaves. When we rounded them up again, we had to sedate them. Most were covered with infected sores-well, you've seen their scars-and wounds. In my opinion, they're worse off than the Victims. And they're just as much Victims of the Eosi as the mind-wiped."
Every attempt was made over the next few weeks to integrate the children.
The placements were not universally successful, though Sarah and Joe lurked out with a five-year-old girl. Once she realized that she was safe, she refused to be separated from her foster parents and either Sarah or Joe had to have her in tow. She also didn't speak, but Dorothy Dwardie felt that, once she felt really, truly safe, she would talk.
"Children pick up speech patterns from their carets. If they've had no carers, of any kind," and Dorothy shrugged. "There's certainly no impediment in her vocal equipment."
The psychologist grinned, reminding the foster parents of the screams the child had uttered when she was given her three-in-one injection. Two of the children on board the G-ship had had measles so preventative shots were essential.
Maizie, the name Sarah and Joe had given their waif, was derived from her constant look of amazement at foodmall she wanted to eat-and dean covers on a bed that only she occupied. She did take to carrying the fluff-filled pillow with her everywhere. That was a useful habit, not only reinforcing her sense of security, but because she was inclined to take unexpected naps, both hands clutching the pillow.