''No. We're next door to them, one jump over. Grampa came out a different set of jumps. Figured us to be five good long jumps from anyone. But we're only three jumps, if you don't mind a real crazy sermon after the second one.''
''How do they feel about you taking their rebels?'' Kris said.
''It's working out fine. We weren't interested in the rest of the human race any more than they were. We just didn't mind if you skipped assembly meetings. Didn't have any real assemblies except for square dancing every Saturday night.''
''Do they know you're here?''
''No, the ship that dropped by had been to Xanadu and gotten the very cold shoulder. But as they were about to close down their on-planet sales, a couple of dozen immigrants showed up and asked for a ride to Pandemonium.
''A market that close got the skipper's attention, and he was mighty glad for the guiding hand. Anyway, I can't really say we weren't glad for his coming, either. Our population had grown quite a bit, and we needed just about everything he had.''
''Which he gave you out of kindness?'' Kris said.
''Nope, we don't have that much hayseed in our hair. In the early years, Grampa paid for the start-up using some really strange hydrocarbon strings native to the planet. It had been a while since anyone came by, and we had a lot of them stored up. I'm told that some of them do really nice things with food.''
The strange biologies among the stars had provided more than one new spice and cured several diseases. The real question was why a ship captain who had such a source would quit visiting.
''He has fifty containers,'' Captain Drago put in. ''We'd have no problem carrying them.''
''So, do we head to Pandemonium direct or via Xanadu?'' Kris asked.
''You're in charge,'' Drago said. Kris snorted at that.
''Why not leave the crazies alone?'' mFumbo suggested.
''I don't think either my grampa or my father would like that,'' Kris said slowly. ''You got nutcases who think we all need to crawl back into Mother Earth's womb to hide from some really nasty alien horde they say is coming. And aren't a bit bothered by the thousands of people that would have to die for every one that survived. On top of that, they believe that some kind of good aliens will take them away when they die, and if you died doing what the Guides tell you to do, those selfsame aliens will treat you like kings and queens.''
Kris shook her head. ''Seems to me that we ought to check in on them every fifty years or so.''
''That sounds fairly logical,'' Jack said, with only a bit of a scowl on his face. ''But are you sure it's not just a Longknife thing? Something horribly dangerous needs doing so, of course, you've got to be the one to do it … on a shoestring?''
''Could be, but let's just suppose you're a Guide and you hate all things human. Who do you want to be the first human that pries open your Pandora's box of worms, snakes, and worse? Some Joe Blow merchant captain or one of those damn Longknifes?''
The farmer glanced at the captain. ''You didn't tell me there was a Longknife involved here.''
''I distinctly remember you did not ask.''
''All the ships in human space,'' the young farmer groaned, ''and I have to walk onto this one.''
''I rest my case,'' Kris said. What was it with her family!
8
It took three days to get away from Cuzco. Kris found it painfully slow, but Captain Drago assured her they were actually making record time … all things considered.
Those ''things'' included affidavits that everyone involved in the capture of a pirate had to make concerning everything they did to capture said pirate. Luckily, the crew of the Wasp managed to account for every pirate.
There was also the matter of loading fifty more containers on a ship that really wasn't intended to load and unload any. When Kris asked how they would unload the containers to a planet with no station, Captain Drago assured her he was leasing two shuttles specifically designed to make easy work of lifting the containers from orbit down to a planet's surface.
That was something Kris wanted to see. Or better yet, actually fly herself.
And the local Nuu Enterprises came up with a dewar holding a hundred pounds of Smart Metal™ to replace what they'd lost in the fight and to reinforce their shields. Even the crew that winched the dewar into place on their bow and programmed the Smart Metal™ to flow smoothly into place called the use they put it to ''shields.'' Kris gave up. Let someone else fight it out with the copyright lawyers.
Kris didn't have a moment to herself until they locked down ship, slipped their mooring cables, and backed out of dock. Only then did she breathe a deep sigh of relief.
Jack caught her doing it. ''You spend a couple of days with lawyers, station hands, and cops doing things where all you risk is breaking a nail, and sigh like you're free from the labors of Hercules when we cast off. We're headed for a bunch of crazies armed with who knows what, and you look delighted at the prospects. Woman, you are crazy.''
Kris thought about that for a moment, then gave her Marine the best imitation of one of Abby's disapproving sniffs. ''Who's the crazy? The nut leading you, or the nut following?''
Jack turned away, muttering to himself.
Abby watched the station recede on the monitors. ''I see that the Surprise is still docked on the station. What do you think they're up to?''
Kris eyed the planet below and the cruiser above. ''Cuzco is a big place, and last I heard it's part of the Iberium Association. Surely they can hold their own against one cruiser.''
''It ain't the cruiser that worries me. It's that redheaded harridan on it. Vicky Peterwald.''
''You mean Ensign Vicky,'' Kris said. ''Last I noticed she was learning how to stand a comm officer's watch. You keep a boot ensign properly busy, and even Vicky's gonna have trouble scheduling enough free time to sleep and conquer the universe.''
''Humph'' was Abby's conclusion.
Kris let her have the last word. Unless you've been a sleep-deprived boot ensign, it's hard to describe how much trouble you have juggling all the absolutely-must-be-done-now minutiae that seniors dump on those poor, damned JOs.
* * *
Kris was on the bridge three days later when they completed their second jump. Initial reports on the system were all negative. ''Where's that farmer? Fronour, isn't he?''
Two minutes later he was on the bridge. ''Is this Xanadu's system?'' Kris asked.
''Are you picking up anything on the radio?''
''Not a thing,'' Chief Beni reported from Sensors.
''Then I guess it might be. Skipper I rode out with said he wouldn't have believed that a planet could have people on it and be so quiet.''
''I guess if you were afraid of the boogeyman, you wouldn't be sending out any ‘hellos' either,'' Jack observed.
''There is one planet in the habitable zone,'' Sulwan said.
''Let's see what it looks like up close,'' Captain Drago said.
That would cost them two days, even at 1.5 gees.
As they went into orbit, the planet was still silent as an undiscovered tomb. ''They aren't transmitting anything,'' Chief Beni reported. ''Either there is nobody down there, or every one of my sensors has gone bust or''—Beni paused a moment to scowl at those instruments—''somebody has dug a very deep hole in a planet and hid better than my daddy ever thought anybody could.''
''Professor mFumbo,'' Kris said to her commlink, ''you've got two orbits to tell us where the inhabitants are hiding on this planet. Let me know when you find them.''
''I can tell you that we haven't found them. I'll call you when I have.''
''Thank you,'' Kris said, then turned to the bridge crew. ''Shall we start a pool to see how long it takes our boffins to find the Abdicators? I want the full three hours.''