‘After what happened to Satok and company? No thanks. Listen, I hope you're not holding that against me too?’
‘It's not me you have to worry about, mate,' Yana said drolly.
‘Well, then, I have to worry about whatever it is that allegedly makes Petaybee… unusual - at least unusual enough to allow a human being to do what your husband did. Change, I mean. I hope whatever that is won't hold Satok's operation against me. All I knew about that business was that the men delivered such and such an ore to such and such a site and that they had developed something involving Petraseal that let them succeed at mining where the Company had been unable to.’
Yana leaned forward and said with all the earnestness in her, 'Dinah, if I have to personally cover every inch of ground near Tanana Bay to find the communion place for you I will do so just to watch you tell that story to the planet and hear what response you get. But what are you going to tell Louchard if the planet refuses to consider your demands?’
Til think of something,' she said. 'Now, however, it's time for us all to climb into the shuttle and take you home, don't you think?’
‘And Bunny, Diego, Marmion and Namid? Bunny's probably the best one to guide you.’
‘And not much good to me otherwise. Actually, Marmion has become a bit of a liability, delightful as her company has been. Had it not been for her offer of a transport fee, I'm afraid the boss might have done something drastic to… er… eliminate the danger.
But a fee is a fee and I'd much rather drop her off on your quaint little planet than deliver her to her door on Gal-Three where I'm sure her friends and employees would all be there to greet me. And I suppose I'd best face it that it's all over between Namid and me. Petaybee's as good a place as any for the tasteless bastard.' She gave a deep sigh. 'Oh, very well. You can have it all your way for now. There! It's settled! Don't you feel better now that we've talked things over? I know I do!’
The moment the hatch opened, Bunny took a sniff and said, with a deep sigh of satisfaction, 'Home.’
Snow was falling against a pink and tangerine twilight, gilding the heavy snow-cover with rose and gold, a glistening sheet stretching to mountains dwarfed by the distance.
‘Very good, sweetie,' Dinah O'Neill snapped. 'But I already knew this was your home. Where exactly and specifically are we?’
Megenda was climbing out behind Dinah, but as soon as he stepped on the narrow gangplank, the port side of the shuttle sank approximately four feet into the ground, cracking the big pirate's chin on the ledge.
Bunny made a face. 'Sinkholes. From the permafrost, you know.’
Megenda's foot was trapped between the side of the hole and the shuttle. The other two pirates were left inside the shuttle which continued to list further into the water.
‘The fraggin' hole's filling up with water,' Megenda bellowed. The words were just out of his mouth when the hatch closed abruptly.
‘Oops,' Yana said, watching the shuttle and the pirate sink further. 'I don't think that's a sinkhole after all, Bunny. I think we may have landed on ice and it broke through under the shuttle's weight.' She called down into the hole, 'Hope you can swim, Megenda.' Dinah stepped to the edge of the hole to help the first mate but the ice broke under her foot. Had Namid not grabbed her, she, too, would have fallen in the black and freezing water. As the hole broadened, Megenda lurched with his hands to find a hold on the exterior of the shuttle and managed to catch one of the security hooks, his heavy body precariously dangling now from the one hand.
‘Help him!' Dinah said, reaching for her laser pistol which Namid had deftly extracted from her belt when he kept her from falling into the hole. 'Damn!' and she clenched her fists in frustration at its loss. 'Why should I help him?' Diego asked. 'You guaranteed safe conduct,' Dinah reminded
Yana.
‘I didn't mean against natural disasters,' Yana said.
‘He'd be no great loss to me.’
‘He's still a human in trouble on my planet,' Bunny said, down on her stomach and ready to give assistance. 'Diego, Namid, hold on to my ankles!’
Marmion hesitated only a moment before extending the link by grabbing Diego's ankles.
‘Oh, very well,' Yana said, and started to flop down on the ground, but Namid shoved her away and took her place, holding Marmion's ankles.
‘You must think of your child, Colonel,' he told her. 'Here, Megenda! Take my hands,' Bunny told the pirate. 'We can pull you out but you're going to have to turn loose of the shuttle first. Swing your body this way.' Megenda let go of the shuttle and grabbed Bunny's arms so quickly she screamed in pain. Next he got a hold of her long hair, pulling himself half out of the water, literally climbing over her to get out of the freezing water.
The ice cracked ominously under the load it now bore and the edge disintegrated abruptly so that Bunny hung face down into the opening, looking into black water while the pirate hoisted himself over her legs to Diego, whose grip on Bunny's ankles slipped as she tilted downwards.
When Megenda hauled himself on to the secure bank, Yana walloped him on the jaw with Dinah's laser pistol which Namid had passed over to her.
‘Get off those kids, you ass!' she commanded. He slumped sideways, relinquishing his hold on both Diego's arms. Dinah and Yana both scrambled forward on their knees to haul the girl out of the hole.
Yana collapsed in the snow, coughing and panting, while Diego and Bunny nursed various bruises and strains the big pirate had inflicted.
Dinah crept forward and peered over the edge of the hole and then considered the precarious cant to the shuttle.
‘I don't suppose they can just fly out of there, can they?' Yana asked.
Dinah shook her head. 'One skid is caught under the edge of the ice. They're off balance.’
‘On the bridge side, at least the shuttle seems to be able to float.’
Bunny said, 'Yana, we gotta get out of here. I can feel the temperature dropping and this gear of theirs isn't good for more than minus seventy-five.’
‘It gets colder than that this early?' Dinah asked appalled.
Bunny nodded. 'I'd be all right, I expect, but the rest of you are in trouble unless we get to shelter pretty quick.’
‘Have you got a clue where the town is, Bunny?’
Yana asked.
‘If we're right on - almost in - the Bay, it's got to be over that way,' Bunny said, pointing to what looked to Yana like an identical piece of the snow-covered terrain all around them. 'Sorry. I usually come by dogsled along the trail and don't need to pass this way. I've no landmarks here, except the mountains, so we'll have to head that way until I can get my bearings. And we do have to move or you're all going to freeze.’
‘Right,' Yana said. 'How about the communion place? Do you know where that is from here?’
Bunny shook her head. 'It's within the town someplace is all I know. When it was their turn to give the latchkay I was sick and couldn't go.’
‘OK, then,' Yana said, 'let's move out. On your feet, you,' she commanded, using her toe to nudge Megenda, who groaned but remained limp.
‘You shouldn't have hit him so hard,' Dinah said.
‘I should have let him drown,' Yana told her. 'And he'll be the first to freeze, wet as he is. So come on, Namid, Diego, you're strong! Let's get him up and head on out of here.’
Gal-3
Dr Matthew Luzon, striding along the corridor from the shuttle which had brought him back to his head offices on Gal-3, was feeling very good in himself. Assiduous application of the physiotherapy exercises, careful diet and self-discipline had completely restored him to the level of physical fitness which he deemed necessary for a man with his responsibilities.