"How much gold is available?"
"Its value depends on the rate of exchange, but I've over thirty pounds of dust, a bagful of forty-five nuggets of various sizes, and a couple of bars where we melted down the little stuff so we wouldn't lose the flakes." She quickly jotted down a note about the variety of raw materials. "About a hundred pounds each of tin, copper, and zinc. I'm told the Catteni are in chronic need of raw materials."
"Thanks, Mike. I'll get back to you," she said, signing off the line. She gathered up her notes, thanked Jerry with a nod, and went back to the office, where she passed Zainal the note without comment. When he pointed to her scribble of "gold," she tapped a front tooth. "The main point is, Paxel, if we bring goods, will the merchants trade?"
The young Catteni leaned forward, opening his hands wide in en-treaty. "Any business will be welcome right now, I think." He gave Zainal a knowing smile. "With the Eosi gone, and no new devel opment available, they are feeling a pinch they haven't known in decades."
If Kris said "too bad" to herself, she smiled winningly at Paxel. "Can Kamiton guarantee their 'cooperation'?"
Paxel shrugged diffidently. "He expected their cooperation before now, especially since your people have provided so many unusual items for Barevi markets and Barevi wants to continue the influx.
Barevi has a reputation to maintain." He grinned. "So the need is al-ways to have many new items to intrigue and entertain customers." "I wouldn't have taken the Catteni culture as consumer-oriented," Peter remarked.
"Never mind that they can't use half the stuff they have in stor-age," Zainal said, leaning back in his chair and smiling. "They always did display a wide variety of goods."
Paxel grinned back. "There are always Emassi to supply. Our scout ships, as you should know, Zainal, often use trade items when en-countering a native species."
"Ah, yes," Zainal murmured.
"I always wondered," Dorothy remarked with an acid-sweet smile, "what they first offered Terrans in trade. Beads?"
"Those records are sealed," Paxel replied, but his eyes sparkled. "Do you think someone sold you out to the Catteni?" Zainal asked, giving her a sharp look.
"'Take me to your leader' was never a headline prior to the in-vasion fleet," she said noncommittally. "But that didn't mean there weren't private deals made."
"Nor that it was a very equable trade," Peter remarked, "whatever was offered."
"Beads probably, or was it tomahawks and firearms?" Dorothy said with a very bright smile.
Paxel's reference to scouts and ships reminded Zainal of a very important fact. All scouting-mission reports as well as booty were processed through Central Barevi Air Traffic records, as well as where slave ships had taken their cargoes, so all the records they needed to repatriate Terrans were on file at Barevi-somewhere. Now that he had a legitimate reason to go to Barevi, he could possibly accomplish a lot more than just reclaiming loot. A gold nugget in the appropriate hand and he might be able to review those records. The Resistance movement had lists identifying which ships had landed in which major population centers on Earth, and now he could find out where the various ships had deposited their cargoes. So he'd be able to repa-triate specialists vitally needed back on their home worlds. Zainal had no idea how he might accomplish such an exchange.
Lives were wasted on the mining planets. More workers had al-ways been available to the Eosi "development" program. New sup-plies of workers had been one of the primary aims of Eosi searches. The other had been finding planets with the raw materials necessary to supply the ever-increasing requirements of the Eosi. The Turs had been the first reasonably intelligent species the Eosi had found and were almost as difficult to deal with as Catteni. The Rugarians had been slightly more cooperative, but the Deski had been physically un-suited to the hard labor required of captives. The Terrans were phys-ically more suited to such arduous work. It was likely to prove difficult to exchange the current laborers at those facilities.
This Barevi trip might provide him with more information than Kamiton wanted him to have, but since the opportunity had been dropped into Zainal's lap, he would "stay" with it. It was also a chance for him to take his sons into a Catteni world where, he hoped, they would absorb more of the training they would need to function as adults. The Masai on Botany, where he had sent the boys to study a warrior culture, had done well with them, but they needed more than that to cope successfully in the Catteni culture. He would find a tutor for them at the hiring hall in Barevi. He was pleased that they had learned English-albeit with a Masai cadence-but they needed to acquire an adult Catteni vocabulary and adult Catteni skills. Kris al-ways wanted to see more of his sons, and this would be a good op-portunity. They had toughened and she would no longer feel "sorry" for them and treat them with the softness so often exhibited by Ter-ran mothers. Not that he doubted Kris's sincere desire to do well by her mate's offspring. He had a lot to get under way now that he knew what the situation on Barevi was and how Botany could mitigate the problem. He would wind up this conference with Paxel and send him back-unharmed-to Kamiton, he hoped not much the wiser of how things were progressing on Botany: save that there were Catteni-style cargo ships, KDLs, lying idle outside the landing field.
"Well, Paxel, delighted to see you and do give my greetings to your mother, my favorite sister, and your sire. And to Kamiton, of course. I expect there will be no trouble if I arrive in one of the cargo ships?" "No, none at all. Kamiton asked me to encourage you."
"To solve the problem, no doubt."
"I believe he hopes you can," and Paxel leaned in a little on the fi-nal word, and then realized that might have been less than diplomatic but had the sense not to try to retrieve the error.
"I'm sure he does," Zainal replied amiably, smiling. "Expect us within five days."
"Or perhaps a little later," Kris said. They'd particularly need Chuck Mitford's assistance and possibly that of some of the others who had returned to help rebuild Earth. "There's a lot to organize, es pecially as some of our more fluent Catteni-speakers are currently on Earth and will need to be recalled."
"That is all too true, Paxel."
Paxel nodded. "It is up to Zainal, and you, to set the time of re-turn, Excellent Lady Emassi," he said, giving her a polite but stiff nod of his head. Plainly he was surprised that a woman would enter into a conversation with a male, especially one of Zainal's status. But, even on Catteni, certain mates did have special privileges, and doubtless he knew her reputation since he had addressed her with her honorary Catteni title.
"Then we shall collect the members of our delegation," Zainal said, straightening up and looking Paxel in the eye, "and inform Kamiton that we shall presently arrive on Barevi and settle this onerous problem once and for all. I need the security codes presently in ef-fect at Barevi."
If Paxel's eyes widened at Zainal's demand, he placed one hand on his chest and bowed again.
"I return with all speed, Emassi."
Retrieving the message he had delivered, Paxel jotted down a few words and figures and passed the notation to Zainal. "That code will continue for the next five weeks."
Kris thought that Zainal had impressed his young nephew and hoped there would be no repercussions when Paxel delivered the re-sponse. Zainal shot her an amused glance as if he suspected her thoughts before he turned back to the other Botany colonists.
"We must first recall those Catteni-speakers who have gone to Terra. Does someone have the list?"
As there was no such list and Zainal must have known it, Kris made a move to the file cabinet and started flipping through docu-ments. Peter urgently tapped a command on the nearest keyboard, and Dorothy was industriously writing notes.