Anne McCaffrey
Freedom's Ransom
In putting together the details required for a book, the author is some-times thrown out of his/her depth and seeks the help of experts in particular fields for advice and information.
In this fourth of the Catteni/Freedom series, I required more knowledge of dentistry than my experience or memory could give me. Dr. Les Latner, DMS, Los Angeles, and A. M. Price, DMD, were generous with their help in answering my somewhat rambling re-quests for information.
Thanks to my loyal friend, Lea Day, I was put in touch with Tony Diorio of Dariene Coffee, Babylon, New York, who gave me infor-mation about the transport of coffee beans from their various loca-tions and how it is handled. Wendy Gilbert (aka Hishin) surfed the Web and friends and found out more about coffee plantations in Kenya, for which I am indebted.
Bobbie Parker (aka Short Wave, aka Jake) improved my under-standing of satellites beyond the information I found on the Net at various locations. He put me wise to certain minor space difficulties and even designed the KDM ships that transported my heroic crew on their space adventures. It's not so much gaining information as interpreting it correctly for my needs that is my major problem. Therefore, all mistakes are mine!
My son, Todd J. McCaffrey, a licensed private pilot, was once again on the spot with accurate landing-type protocols.
I also wish to let it be known that I am grateful for the encour-agement and help I received from chat line participants on my Web site. They were wonderfully generous with their time, thoughts, and en-couragements. They even let me use some of their real names and not just their on-line nicknames. As I have met very few of them, I hope I did not offend in my portrayals from just a name and chats on-line.
My collaborator, Margaret Ball, found me more information about the Masai and their tribal system.
And finally, my thanks to my daughter, Georgeanne Kennedy, for her careful editing and comments. My deepest gratitude to Susan Allison at Putnam Berkley for her continued encouragement and es-pecially for her patience.
This book is respectfully dedicated to the people I've met on my chat line: here-with listed in their on-line nicknames. I apologize in advance if I have forgot-ten anyone, and this list is current even to newbies as of June 19, 2001.
Many of you gave me your time, encouragement, and often explicit help throughout this book. I am pleased to have met all of you listed below. Ciao.
PREFACE
When the Catteni, mercenaries for an alien race called the Eosi, invaded Earth, they used their standard tactic of domination by landing in fifty cities across the planet and removing entire urban populations. These they distributed throughout the Catteni worlds and sold as slaves along with other conquered species.
A group rounded up from the prisons on the planet Barevi, a hub of the Catteni empire, was dumped on an M-type planet of unknown quality, given rations and tools, and left to deal with the conditions of the planet. Chuck Mitford, former marine sergeant, took charge of the mixed group, which included sullen, pugnacious Turs, spiderlike Deski, hairy Rugarians, vague Ilginish, and gaunt Morphins, with Humans in the majority. Astonishingly enough, there was one Catteni, Emassi Zainal, who had been shanghaied onto the prison ship. Though there were those who wanted to kill him immediately, Kris Bjornsen, latterly of Denver, suggested that he might have valuable information about the planet on which they were stranded. Zainal's knowledge of the planet's predators, scant as it was, saved their lives.
Installed in a rocky site, with cliffs and caves to give them protection, Mitford quickly organized a camp, using the specific abilities of each species and assigning tasks to everyone in this unusual commu-nity. However, the planet was soon discovered to be inhabited-by machines, the Mechs, which automatically tended extensive croplands and the six-legged bovine animals. The colonists quickly learned how to dismantle the machines and design the sort of equipment they needed.
In a confrontation with yet another slave ship, dropping off more prisoners, the colonists got hold of aerial maps of the planet. Among the features of the maps was what appeared to be a big artificial installation, presumably constructed by the original owners of the planet. A member of the discovery team launched a homing device more for curiosity than intent. Both the Eosi overlords looking for Zainal and the genuine owners of the planet noted the release of the device. An Eosi search crew sent to bring Zainal back to face his familial duty to be an Eosian host failed. The owners of the planet, whom the colonists named the "Farmers," came and were revealed as peaceful life forms with no connection to the Eosi. The Farmers made it clear that the colonists were welcome to stay, and even acted to protect them from the Eosi.
As they explored the new world together, Kris learned that Zainal had a three-phase plan-one that he hoped would end the domina-tion of his people by the Eosi and, incidentally, would include the lib-eration of Earth. Zainal explained to Mitford and to other naval, airforce, and army personnel how he meant to proceed-initially by capturing the next Catteni ship to drop slaves on Botany.
The successful execution of Zainal's plan netted the colonists not one but two usable spaceships. Even with the capability of leaving Botany, Zainal was often heard to say, "I dropped, I stay," a defiant attitude, and a phrase that became a rallying cry for the Botany colonists.
While the Eosi surveillance satellites were on the other side of the Botany world, the two ships now available to the colony were able to successfully infiltrate Barevi and acquire much-needed fuel and supplies. Kris, who had already learned enough Catteni to deal with merchants, and other Catteni-speakers disguised themselves to accompany Zainal on this mission. While there, they rescued a number of Humans whose minds had been wiped by the Eosi. While on Barevi, Zainal also made contact with dissident Emassi, Catteni leaders also pledged to end Eosian domination.
With Zainal's first efforts so successful and Botany safe, the colonists were more than ready to follow his leadership. To continue his efforts to free not only his own people but also Earth's, a special mission was sent to Earth, where an active underground movement was already eroding Catteni occupation.
In Freedom's Challenge, Zainal risks his life in a bid to destroy the Eosi with the help of the dissident Catteni hierarchy and wins free-dom for Botany and other enforced colony worlds inhabited by Hu mans. But that was the first phase of his plan. Kris knows Zainal well enough to understand that he still intends to make contact with the Farmers and discover their home world. But that wish is yet again in-terrupted when the colonists discover that most of the technical ma-terials they need have been looted from Earth and are now stored on Barevi. As the Barevian merchants insist on being paid to surrender the loot, Zainal and Kris must again face the necessity of leaving Botany and finding a way to ransom the materials they desperately need to help both Earth and Botany.
Chapter One
Kamiton's messenger came in a Baby-type fast scout, and Jerry Short, the duty officer in the hangar, immediately in-formed Zainal of its imminent arrival and request to land.
Zainal, in turn, called Kris, Peter Easley, and Dorothy Dwardie, as members of the Botany Management Board, to join him. He had good relations with Kamiton and wanted to keep everything "above-board," Kris's often-used idiom for openness. He recognized the call sign of the scout as one that Kamiton frequently used so he was somewhat prepared for bad news but did not warn the others, preferring that they take whatever news came with this messenger without any predisposition. It might not be bad news. But why else would Kamiton be sending a messenger, which suggested something he did not wish broadcast on the Botany comm lines?