‘Oh,' and Yana's wondering fingers caught at the Petaybean designs discreetly worked into the pocket flaps.
‘Marmion was so taken with the Petaybean designs when we first arrived on the planet that we asked Aisling to do us some treatments. Subtle but noticeable and definitely smart. That woman has an excellent clothes sense. Too bad it's been limited to rabbit skins and handwovens, not that' - and Sally hastily corrected the impression that she might be disparaging -'those haven't been handsome fabrics - just more… ah… practical than you'd need on Station.’
‘Which are we going to, by the way? Marmion didn't say.’
‘Oh,' and Sally tossed out this bombshell as nonchalantly as she could, 'Gal-Three, of course.’
Yana gulped and her mind raced from one consideration to another: it was the largest of the Space
Cities, certainly in this sector of inhabited space, the headquarters of half a dozen of the more massive and prominent diversified enterprises as well as CIS, Gallegal, Gal-naval and other galactic agencies. It was immense and was constantly updating its facilities with state-of-the-art technologies. Bunny would be totally overwhelmed and Yana understood why Marmion was going to such lengths to dress them - clothes can give you confidence just as uniforms can bestow anonymity at times - and why they would need hidden alert devices and 'assistants'. Yana hoped that Diego knew something about Gal-3 - at least its reputation.
‘Baptism into civilization by total immersion?' she quipped at Sally to cover her uneasy chagrin.
‘She'll be well protected, Yana.' Sally was deadly serious.
‘Then who've you got riding herd on her?’
‘Riding herd? Oh, yes. Good term.' Sally grinned. 'Marmion has roped -' Sally grinned to ease Yana's tension, '- a pair of her young relatives… not too young, though, and very knowledgeable… to help out. And a very competent person as the discreet guard. She'll have fun, too. This is going to be quite a learning experience.’
‘Not just for her,' Yana said with a sigh.
‘Well, do you approve?' Marmion asked, coming in to the cabin with a loaded tray.
‘I'll never be as well dressed again,' Yana said, on the end of a sigh. 'Oh, that smells divine…’
‘Good natural foods always do. This is earth chook.’
'Chicken?'
‘Prepared from a much coveted family recipe known to The famille de Revers as the Colonel's Southern Fried Chicken,' said Marmion, snatching off the cover of the main dish with a dramatic gesture. 'The colonel was my many-greats ancestor who fought in some sort of early war on Earth.’
‘Ohhh,' and Yana, sniffing deeply, made no more concessions to courtesy but sank down on the chair by the table and served herself from the large platter.
‘What smells so good?' Bunny asked, Diego right behind her, sniffing with his not so small proboscis.
‘Yummy!’
‘There's enough for all and more that can be hotted up if anyone has an appetite,' Marmion said with understandable pride as the young people pulled chairs up to the table.
Marmion and Sally exchanged glances at the success of their agenda.
3
Sean forced himself back to work after seeing Yana off. He had hoped that they would have had a little time to spend together. He'd arranged his investigations in the south so that they could. Damn CIS. But he had to trust Marmion de Revers Algemeine. She was awake on every count and more than able to handle whatever the ungood Captain Torkel Fiske and ex-chairperson Dr Matthew Luzon could be up to. Sean did not doubt for a moment that they had plans underway to discredit Marmion, Yana, Bunny and Diego, perhaps even to discredit Anaciliact - though he would be the hardest person to compromise of the lot of them that had gone so bravely forth today. Sean just didn't see either Torkel Fiske or Matthew Luzon forgetting the indignities both had suffered on Petaybee, well deserved though they had been.
Luzon may have broken legs but with new healing techniques those injuries wouldn't put him out of action much longer. And nothing had broken his brains any more than they already were or altered the sense of outrage the man had sustained when all his calculations had backfired. Of course, he had lost credibility with Farringer Ball, the secretary general of Intergal, but that would only make him more anxious to retaliate.
The Company too, was retaliating, apparently intent on drowning the newly appointed interim joint governors of affairs Petaybean, himself and Yana, under a mountain of paperwork.
At SpaceBase, most of the several tons of paper that was stacked ceiling high in Yana's little cabin would have been electronically transmitted. So far Kilcoole had no electrical power, nor did it want to acquire any in the near future. The generator which ran Adak's radio was inadequate for the volume of communication the Company suddenly found necessary to transmit. The battery-powered comunits weren't up to the job either. So couriers were sent several times a day via two of the hovershuttles that had been sent down to aid in the repair of SpaceBase.
Three weeks after the planet had destroyed the landing fields and many of the surrounding buildings by extruding massed rock up through the centre of the facility, SpaceBase had been all but evacuated. Meanwhile, troops were busily relocating buildings around the old cleared perimeter and salvaging what they could until small shuttles could ferry enough material to build a new landing pad. Before the first shipment could arrive, however, the planet gave the Company another demonstration of its power.
Sean and Yana were riding the curlies towards SpaceBase and were just in sight of the standing stones the planet had made of the landing field. Suddenly both curlies shied and whinnied. About the same time, the trees began to shimmy, the river alongside the trail churned as if stirred by millions of giant fish, and the ground shuddered. Both curlies abruptly sat down, Sean and Yana still astride them.
‘Earthquake!' Yana yelled but Sean had found himself grinning back at her and pointing.
For the standing stones were tumbling. The planet, with a mighty swallow followed by several small sips, was retrieving the stones and earth with which it had made such an impression on Intergal's principal Petaybean outpost.
Yana grinned back at him through the cloud of gritty dust and the grinding roar and slam of the planet's machinations.
‘Well, isn't that something?' she said when the tremors subsided. The curlies rose to their feet. The soldiers working around the edge of the base crept back to survey the damage done when the structures the planet had hoisted aloft suddenly settled back to ground level again, though not exactly in their former places or conformation. 'And what, do you suppose, was that all about?’
‘Scientifically, I suppose this subsidence probably has something to do with the volcanic and seismic activity happening near the equator - since it's busy building up layers in the sea there. Maybe it needed this bit elsewhere. What it looks like, however, is in light of the Company's agreement to be sensible, Petaybee is showing that it's willing to let bygones be bygones.’
Now he was wishing his planet was not so forgiving.
Though repairs and replacements had only brought SpaceBase back to about a fourth of its former capacity, it seemed to have plenty of power to generate the damned paperwork which only Sean and Yana were available or able to handle. Frank Metaxos and Steve Margolies, though literate and willing to be helpful, were still Company employees and as such kept far too busy with their own work to assist in administrative chores.
,' really must get a literacy programme going as soon as possible, he reflected ruefully.
Until now he hadn't really been aware of the volume of work, since he had been out canvassing the planet, trying to find out which needs the people wanted met, how they perceived the planet's wishes in their areas, what sort of interaction they desired with the Company. He also assisted Clodagh in finding new areas where the plants for her cures grew and generally tried to obtain a feeling for what was needed beyond Kilcoole. Fortunately, Lonciana Ondelacy, a former Company Corpswoman, was also literate and she was able to do much of the work in the South. Unfortunately, all of the paperwork still had to be processed at SpaceBase before that destined for the South could be sent to Loncie. Portage, the southern continent's landing base, wasn't equipped for a large volume of traffic or anything much larger than a shuttle. Whittaker Fiske had been helping transfer relevant documents to Loncie by loaning Petaybee's new administration the services and copter of his personal pilot, Johnny Greene.