‘Which you will then translate to coordinates I can follow, huh?' Yana shook her head in doubt, glancing from the white on white outside and back to Nanook.
Sean gave her one of his slow cryptic smiles. 'He operates best in these conditions.’
The shuttle sank a little further, settling into the snow. Nanook was already at the shuttle lock. He gracefully leapt out and almost instantly disappeared from view, though a thrashing of the snow in the direction he had left was visible for a while.
Yana looked over at Sean. 'Now what do we do?’
Sean grinned. 'Wait.’
With a bit of chopping and changing, Tanana Bay folks were able to find enough warm clothing to equip Dinah, Megenda still in the communion caves, and the two pirates most recently freed from the shuttle. Their clothing was suitable only to the controlled environment on spaceship or shuttle. In helping Dinah, Marmion felt a heavy rectangle under Dinah's light jacket and, with a sleight of hand worthy of a less respectable profession, slipped it out of the pocket. Then, with a flurry, she began to hustle Dinah and the crew down the stairs into the communion place with the sure knowledge that they could not escape. Nor did Dinah have the time to realize she was without that device, whatever it was.
‘That should keep them safe,' Muktuk said, flipping the rug over the trapdoor.
‘And undoubtedly change their attitudes,' Sinead said with great satisfaction. 'With so many types coming down to see what Petaybee has to offer, maybe the first thing we ought to offer them is communion time.’
‘I'm hoping', Marmion said to Namid as the table was replaced,' this will do Dinah a world of good. She's not all bad. She certainly tried to make things easier for us with Captain Louchard.’
Namid gave a little laugh. 'She's not all bad. If half of what she confided in me is based on truth, she had the most miserable childhood and didn't fare that well in her teens, either.’
‘Such impressionable stages in a life, aren't they?' Then she hefted the equipment. 'A little too heavy for a comunit, wouldn't you say, Namid?’
He got one good look at it and pushed her hands to return the device to her pocket. 'Later, Marmion. Later,' he murmured urgently and then smiled broadly at the other folks in the crowded room.
It took time to sort out who would bunk where in the small village of Tanana Bay. Ultimately, after a cup of soup to 'warm bodies for a cold night', Bunny and Diego went with one family, Liam and Sinead with another, while Marmion and Namid were given the Sirgituks' cabin to themselves as everyone was of the opinion that at least the good Dama Algemeine deserved what privacy Tanana had to offer.
When they had been installed, new furs supplied for the beds, and the fire freshened for the rest of the cold night, Marmion and Namid were left to their own devices. Namid sprang to the window and watched to be sure their hosts were all dispersed to their separate accommodations. Then, with a sigh of relief, he nodded to Marmion who gingerly deposited the heavy unit on the table.
‘What is it that had you in such a panic, Namid?’
‘I think it's a portable holo-unit,' he said. He hovered, looking at it from all angles, and touching the control plate with a careful fingertip. 'I can't imagine why…’
His fingertip was not quite careful enough and inadvertently he activated the display. Suddenly the image of Captain Onidi Louchard solidified in and around the table. The creature just stood there, inanimate, while Marmion and Namid looked at each other, openmouthed.
‘It was on Dinah?' Namid recovered enough to ask.
‘Dinah!’
Tentatively, Namid picked up the broadcaster and suddenly he was enveloped in the image of Captain Louchard.
‘Well, what about that!' exclaimed Marmion, delighted and appalled at the same time. 'Why, that woman had us all hoodwinked. When I think of the
games she played with us as Dinah when all the time she was also Louchard…' Words failed Marmion.
‘Not to mention how she manipulated her crew,' Namid-Louchard said in a deep bass voice, with an odd inflection to both tone and words. 'No wonder no-one ever caught sight of the infamous Captain Louchard.’
Marmion laughed, well, giggled, and sat down to enjoy her mirth. 'Really, Namid. I never would have suspected. She's a consummate actress.’
‘Among other things,' Namid said in a sterner tone as he switched back to his own self and replaced the device on the table. 'She never wore it in my presence but then, she wouldn't have needed to be Louchard to her husband.’
‘Not unless you turned into a wife-beater.’
‘Oh, that had happened to her, too. I saw the scars,' Namid replied gravely. Then he sighed, prodding the device with a finger, then waving his hand to dismiss it all. 'So what do we do about this disclosure?’
Marmion had obviously been pondering the same question. She tapped her cheek with one finger. 'It will take some heavy thinking, and I'm suddenly much too tired to do any more tonight.' She glanced wistfully at the bed. 'And don't suggest that you take the floor, Namid,' she added in a firm tone but her smile was suddenly demure.
‘I was about to be the gentleman, Marmion,' Namid said but his mouth and eyes smiled.
‘Gentle, yes, man, yes, but…' The uplift to the final word was all the invitation Namid required to be both, in the right order.
One could only watch and wait, and sometimes sleep, while the humans made themselves at Home.
Through the howling winds one had brought them safely here through snow like swarms of icy insects biting into one's eyes, ears and nose. Even with the watchfulness of the Others, some had slipped between their reluctant guardians to wander, freeze and die. They would not be found before the snows had melted once more.
Coaxtl and the Youngling were at rest. The metal bird's master was at rest, as were the cave dwellers of Bogota. Inside the Home, the hotspring burbled warmth throughout. Outside, the snows swathed the world with seas of snow growing deeper by the moment. At the entrance of the cave, the bears humped like living drifts away from the warmth of the inner cave. The other clouded leopards, the snow lions, the white tigers, the lynx and bobcats, waited out the storm within the cave as well, crowding the humans deep within the inner chambers of the Home.
Some, like the young male with the cub, stared with open delight at the Home, hearing its singing in his blood, seeing its colours inside his eyes, vibrating with its rhythms. The Youngling and her kin smiled in their hard-won sleep.
As for those others, though! The noises they made as they flailed about were so shrill and penetrating that at last one was forced to put one's paws over one's ears to achieve any rest.
Namid slipped gently from Marmion's bed, put more wood in the stove and, after a few false starts, stirred up the fire in the hearth. Then he donned his borrowed warm clothing, long underwear, heavy woollen socks, woollen pants, shirt, leather sheepskin-lined boots painted with beaver oil for water resistance, scarf, hat, mittens, and parka. Into the pocket of his parka, he slipped the holo-disk. Then with a last lingering look at his sleeping lover, opened the door and walked out into the pastel Petaybean dawn.
He crunched down the wide track leading between the homes of Tanana Bay to the O'Neills' cabin, and let himself in through the unlocked door. He had hoped to be alone on this mission, but he saw that young Diego Metaxos lay in a sleeping bag with his ear against the trapdoor.
The boy awoke as the cold air entered the cabin with Namid.
‘Morning,' he said, in a clear, wide-awake voice.
Namid nodded. He didn't feel much like conversation.