And he had another idea that might solve all their problems soon, if not immediately. He wished he could think of a reason to go for-ward with the plan right now to give the Botany group the resources to buy up everything they had come for, but acting too quickly might cause more problems than it solved. As wise to give the diffident merchants a little time to regret missing the chance to empty their ware-houses of useless products. Do them no harm.
Besides which, he thought with humor, they had to leave soon or the bananas would be overripe. Kris had her heart set on producing them at Botany. She had been much relieved to know that, although Kapash's men had taken all the remaining bean sacks in the hold, they had overlooked the beans in the roaster. Kris was glad for anything that diminished the benefit to Kapash of her trumped-up "ransom." There would be some beans for Botany as well as bananas.
"We shall get coffee plants the next time we're on Earth," Zainal told her, to cheer her up. "I think I remember that someone on one of the plantations told me that the plants would travel well and could adapt to new environments as long as the temperature and the rain were correct,"
"We are going back to Earth, are we?"
"I've got data for folks to figure out which slave ship went where, and who among the missing might still be located wherever they were sold," he assured her.
She gave a little shudder at how close she had come to being another name on those lists. "And we've loads of merchandise to ease the current shortages."
"And we did get the most updated register from Vitali, along with the air charts," Zainal said, nodding toward the worktop where he kept such things. Then he leaned back in his chair, locking his fingers behind his head.
"Why are you grinning, Zainal?" Kris asked, suspicious of such good humor.
"I think I have justified a short detour I want to make on our de-parture."
"Detour?" Kris repeated, mystified.
His grin widened. "As Chuck said, the best place to hide some-thing is right out in the open."
"What?"
"I won't say because I could be wrong.. "
"Who are you trying to impress now?"
"I want to show Botany more results than we've had."
"I don't think we've done that badly," Kris said encouragingly. "Sally said we got the most profit on the coffee beans-"
"Since they cost us nothing-"
"Apart from two lift platforms: and we do have a range of comm sat parts, the tires, the batteries and spark plugs-though they're for Earth, aren't they?"
Zainal nodded.
"So you intend to go back to Earth, just for coffee beans and the plants?"
"And possibly to find someone with enough experience to mar-age a Botany coffee plantation and bean warehouse."
"And the roasting," Kris said firmly. "I don't think I quite got the hang of it."
"But Floss saved the beans for us."
She flushed but managed a tentative smile for him. "Yes, but it isn't something I planned to do. I still have a score to settle with that smirking Kapash."
"Oh, last night was a good way to settle that score, dear heart," he said, pushing himself up out of the chair. On his way out of their "of-fice," he gave her a warm kiss. "I wonder if Brone ever had to visit the junkyard."
She stared after him. hey received permission to clear Barevi port the next morning, with Kathy, a willing but slightly nervous pilot, handling the dis-engagement of the docking clamps, easing the KDM into the traffic heading out for the space station. When they had passed the space station with an "all clear" to proceed, Zainal motioned Kathy out of her seat.
"But I did it right, didn't I?"
"Yes, indeed you did, Captain, but we're making a short detour," Zainal said and altered the settings so that the BASS-1 veered toward the jumble of waste material in the junkyard. Almost immediately a comm unit buzzed and Zainal answered it.
"You have changed course, BASS-1. Is there a problem?"
"No, I cleared this with your operations yesterday, Captain. We need to see if the junkyard has any spare KDM water tanks. We need one."
There was an obviously hasty conference at the space station. "All clear, BASS-One." Zainal didn't recognize the voice. "You may proceed. Good luck."
"I hope that wasn't Ladade," Kris muttered, more to herself than to anyone else.
"No, it was not," Zainal said. "Only the duty officer knew that my flight plan included the side trip."
"I didn't know we needed a spare tank," Kathy said.
"I want to see what else is there, in case we do need it, Kathy," Zainal said, slowing the forward motion of the BASS-1 as they ap-proached the jumbled elements of the junkyard.
"How are you going to find one in all that?" Kathy asked.
"Oh, one of us may spot what we're looking for. See if you can find anything that looks out of place in its company."
"Say again?" Kathy asked, confused.
"Brone, come to the control room, on the double," Zainal said on the interior com.
"Yes, Emassi," was the immediate response. Brone came with Peran and Bazil, who wedged their boyish bodies into the jump seat next to Kris and strapped in, as they were now in free fall. Kathy had vacated the second officer's position for Brone at Zainal's request but she hung on to the safety rail, not wishing to miss whatever was go-ing to happen.
The loosely spinning objects, some of them sides of battered hulls, twisted structural members, some of them fused together, con-tinued on their intrinsic orbit far from Barevi. Zainal matched veloc ity and, deftly using his thrusters, inserted himself into the moving mass, adjusting his speed as he edged farther into the swarm. "Watch the passing parade, crew, and point out anything that looks like it shouldn't be here."
Peran gave a snort. "How would we know what shouldn't be here?" he asked.
"You mean, like that large loaf of bread?" Kathy asked, pointing to a tumbling object whose matte-black angles reflected a gleam from one of the perimeter warning lights.
"Which one?" Zainal asked.
"Oh, I'd put it at eleven o'clock," Kathy replied, pointing.
"The scan says the contents are metallic," Brone said, reading the screen's assessment.
"Looks like an immense loaf of bread to me," Kathy repeated. "Wrapped with heavy chain, too, so whatever is in it won't fall out." Zainal inched the KDM closer.
"There's another one just like it at four o'clock," Kris said.
"Also full of metal," Brone said, having checked it out on the screen.
"Now, why isn't the metal just emptied in with all the other stuff?" Kathy asked-because, not only were the ship's proximity warnings shrieking, but there were pings as much smaller objects bounced against the hull of the BASS-1.
"Very good point, Kathy," Zainal said with an air of satisfaction. He switched on the intercom. "Chuck, stand by the airlock. We're going to try to collect some space garbage. Can you defuse the charge as we did with the comm sat?"
"Sure, Zainal," Chuck said. "In a few. I've been checking man-ifests."
They were closing in on the loaf when he announced his presence at the airlock, with a handy chain to take the static charge away from the BASS-1.
"Open airlock and be prepared to lose gravity," Zainal said and deftly hit the altitude thrusters so the broad side of the ship was pre-sented to the intended captive. Then, with a blast on the warning hooter, he flipped off the gravity. Once again, the object sparked as the defusing chain hit it and not long after found itself eased into the airlock and the hatch closed on its prize. "Stand by, Chuck. We have a possible second."
On the open link, they could hear Chuck wondering out loud why they needed garbage from an effing junkyard.
"Because they are right out in the open where anyone could see them," Zainal replied cryptically.