Physically she was feeling better than she had at the outset of their imprisonment but the mental strain of uncertainty was beginning to mount, as was the tension of being restricted. Not that her long voyages on troop carriers hadn't been restrictive, but this was restraint of a different nature. And one she bitterly resented, although she tried not to, fearing that it might mar the foetus in some bizarre fashion. Her fears had taken the form of nightmares in which her born or unborn child appeared as some sort of monster. She shuddered.
Just then the panel opened and there was the second officer, not nearly as ferocious as Megenda, but almost as repellent in a slimy sort of way.
‘Time for walkies,' he said and gestured brusquely for them to fall in and take the exercise offered.
SpaceBase
Adak was on duty at the SpaceBase Cube. Simon Furey had painted a sign which had been nailed above the entry:
‘WELCOME TO PETAYBEE!
PETAYBEAN IMMIGRATION AND INFORMATION!’
With the demise of PTS, the only spacecraft using the now flat, but somewhat pitted and broken, landing field were from the Intergal Station. Mostly, they were employed in lifting equipment off the planet. On the far side of the field the mounds of disembodied walls, floors and roofs marked the graveyard of the old facilities, damaged when Petaybee had erected its ziggurat complaint against the Intergal despoilation. Adak and some of the other Kilcoole residents kept a sharp eye on this debris, most of which they could repair and put to good use once Intergal officials had cleared away and left them to the salvage.
Adak could keep track of comings and goings from the Station by the discreet tap into the Intergal Comnet, which Simon Furey had been able to make, so he knew when ships - with possible 'invaders' -might be landing. That left him with a lot of free time to mooch round the piles, which suited him fine. Though there was enough of a snow-cover to run the dogs through the woods, the river had only a thin crust of ice on it, not strong enough for the snocles to use as a road. The really heavy weather hadn't set in yet but he sure hoped Intergal would settle out soon so they could get to work. With all the people coming in and nowhere to put them, they'd be right glad of any son of shelter that could be cobbled together.
A small vessel had just set down at the Station but he hadn't seen any passengers emerge, just the crews unloading the sort of stores that wouldn't be harmed by sitting out in the snow on the plascrete. Yet two people were now striding up to the door: a slim little woman with light brown hair, tufted with silver, lynx-like, above her ears and on her crown, lightly sprinkled with snowflakes, and a big guy who walked like a long-time spacer.
‘Hello?' Dinah O'Neill smiled her most ingenuous smile at the fur-clad round-faced little man who peered at them in round-mouthed surprise. 'Is this the right place to find out how to get to Tanana Bay?’
‘It's the only place and why would you want to be going to Tanana Bay? It's snowing and we've had blizzard warnings,' the little man said. 'But much as it pains me to admit it, I'm after bein' the closest thing to a bureaucrat we got here 'cept for the Governor. Adak Rourke, immigrations officer, more or less, at your service, ma'am. And what could I do for you, exactly?’
‘I believe I may have some relatives here in a place called Tanana Bay,' Dinah O'Neill said, and altered her smile to a sad expression. 'I wanted to come and see if we really are related and if perhaps I could make a home here near them as all my other family have died out and I've nowhere else to go.’
‘You really must be hard up to come to Petaybee, then.’
‘Blood is thicker than water. Even frozen water,' she added, indicating the snowfall. Privately Dinah wondered how the hell the planet could afford state-of-the-art Nabatira Structural Cubes like this one if the planet's economy was so marginal. Still, the old man's response had been immediate and she didn't think him guileful. One wanted to attract folks to a planet, not send 'em running. Or maybe they did, to keep all the wealth to themselves. 'Actually, I wouldn't have dreamed of coming here until just recently. I met a man who was telling me about how he'd been down with a committee investigating a so-called sentient planet settled by a lot of the people relocated by Intergal in the time of the Reunification War in Ireland, where my people come from. In the course of his work, the man I talked to had met some people he thought resembled me who shared a similar surname. So, I decided to check it out.’
‘And how about you, sir?' Adak Rourke turned to Megenda, who had been standing at bored ease behind Dinah throughout the conversation. 'I take it you and the lady here are together? Would you have relatives here too, then? Maybe some of them Andean folk on the Southern Continent?’
Megenda cast a wild sideways look at Dinah and she said smoothly, 'He's an old family retainer. I can't pay him any longer but I couldn't convince him to leave me. He's very protective.’
‘That's real good of you, sir, to look after the lady so,' Adak Rourke said approvingly. Megenda nodded and glowered.
‘Now then,' Dinah said brightly. 'Where can I get transport to Tanana Bay? Here?’
‘Here?' And Adak Rourke crowed a laugh, then sobered. 'Well, here's as good a place to hear the bad news as any. Right now, all the curlies are busy with them hunters that keep swarmin' in like summer bite-hards. The dog teams are booked up for the next two weeks.’
‘What about shuttles? Surely…' and she waved vaguely at the space port.
‘Dama, I don't know where you come from but there's one copter available to this entire planet and it's borrowed and late returning from where it went to, and no other air transport at all since Intergal reclaimed all they had.’
‘Really? I've heard this planet is full of opportunities.’
Rourke snorted, shuffling papers around as if he knew what he was doing with things that had to be read.
‘Who was it exactly told you all this? Not that I mean to pry, Dama, but someone misled you proper.’
Dinah waved vaguely. 'I can't recall his name. I was so excited about what he was saying. He said he'd been here with a Captain Fiske.’
‘Huh!' Rourke's eyebrows climbed in search of his receding hairline. 'Captain Fiske ain't exactly had Petaybee's best interests at heart. You should be careful where you get your information, Dama. But just because Fiske's a curly's arse ain't no reason you're not welcome. You know anything about deep sea fishin'?’
‘Not much,' Dinah admitted, 'but I'm willing to learn.’
Adak snorted again. 'Little thing like you might have fast fingers and be good at gutting but you're a mite light for fishin' work.’
‘Is that all that happens at Tanana Bay?’
‘Sure, ain't much else up that way.’
Dinah said, 'Nevertheless, I'd like to go, unless, of course, my information was wrong. Where could I get in touch with the town leaders and enquire about my relations?’
‘Short of Tanana Bay, nowhere.’
‘You've a comunit…’
‘Oh, that one! That only tells me when there's spacers comin' in. Ain't got no link to anywhere. Not even Kilcoole.’
‘Kilcoole?' Dinah paused. 'That name sounds familiar.’
‘You could get to Kilcoole. Snocle'll be back on its regular run soon. Got some mail and stuff for the Governor.’
‘The Governor?' Dinah asked as innocently as if she hadn't been sending the man ransom demands for the past few days.
‘Yeah, Sean Shongili,' and now the little man seemed to swell his chest out with pride. 'He's even got a Cube like this one.’
‘Oh?’
‘Had to,' Adak rattled on with a broad grin. 'Yana's cabin - she's Colonel now - was so chuck full of paperwork you could barely find Sean in the middle of it all.’