Part 20 (1/2)
”The Index entries were written to cover the appearance of the clones should any of them travel, while indicating a range of values as if they were from a limited but normal colonial gene pool. His somatype has been faked, Sa.s.sinak. That's why you didn't catch it. No one would, who didn't know about clone colonies in general and Makstein VII in particular. And you couldn't find out because it's not in the files anymore.”
”But someone knows,” said Sa.s.sinak, hardly breathing for the thought of it. ”Someone knew to fake his ID that way. ...”
”I wonder if your clever Lieutenant Commander Dupaynil could ask Mr. Prosser where he actually does come from?” Lunzie said in a drawl as she examined her fingertips, a mannerism which made Sa.s.sinak blink for it was much her own.
She keyed in Dupaynil's office and when he acknowledged, she sent him the spurious ID they'd uncovered. ”Detain,” was all she said but she knew Dupaynil would understand. ”Great-great-great-grandmother,” she said silkily, well pleased, ”you're far too smart to stay in civilian medicine.”
”Are you offering me a job?” The tone was meek, but the sharp glance belied it.
”Not a job exactly,” Sa.s.sinak began. ”A new career, a mid-life change, just right for fresh eyes that see with old knowledge that has somehow got lost for us who need it.” Lunzie raised an inquiring eyebrow but her expression was alert, not skeptical. Sa.s.sinak went on with mounting enthusiasm, building on that little inkling she'd had before lunch. ”Listen up, great-great. Do you realize what you have, to replace what you think you've lost? Files in your head, accessible facts that weren't wiped . . . and who knows how many more than just references to a prohibited colony!”
The old clone colony trick works only once, great-great.”
”Let's not put arbitrary limits to what you have in your skull, revered ancestress. The old clone colony trick may not be all you've saved behind your fresh old eyes. You've got an immediate access to things forty-three and even a hundred and five years old which to me are either lost in datafiles or completely unknown. And this planetary piracy's been going on a long, long time by either of our standards.” She saw the leap of interest in Lunzie's eyes and then the filming of old, sadder memories before the new hope replaced them. ”I'm not offering you a job, old dear, I'm declaring you a team member, a refined intelligence that those planet hungry moneygrubbing ratguts could never expect to have ranged against them. How could they? A family team with almost the same time-in-service of say, the Paradens ...”
”Yes, the Paradens,” and Lunzie sounded very grim. Then her thin lips curved into a smile that lit up her eyes. ”A team? A planet pirate breaking team. I probably do know more than one useful thing. You're a commander, with a s.h.i.+p at your disposal...”
”Which is supposed to be hunting these planet pirates ...”
”You're Fleet and you can ask certain questions and get certain information. But I'm,” and Lunzie swelled with self-pride, ”a n.o.body, no big family, no fortune, no connections - bar my present elegant company - and they don't need to know that. Yes, esteemed descendant, I accept your offer of a team action.”
Sa.s.sinak had just picked up the brandy bottle to charge their gla.s.ses when a loud thump on the bulkhead and raised voices indicated some disturbance. Sa.s.sinak rolled her eyes at Lunzie and went to see what it was.
Aygar was poised on the b.a.l.l.s of his feet just outside her office, with two marines denying him entry.
”Sorry about the noise, captain,” said one of them. ”He wants to speak to you and we told him ...”
”You said,” Aygar burst out to Sa.s.sinak, ”that as members of FSP, we had privileges ...”
”Interrupting my work isn't one of them,” said Sa.s.sinak crisply. She felt a discreet tug on her sleeve. ”However, I've a few moments to spare right now,” and she dismissed the marines.
Aygar came into her office with slightly less swagger than usual. If he ever dropped that halfsulk of his, Sa.s.sinak thought he'd be extremely presentable. He didn't have the gross heavyworlder appearance. He could, in fact if he mended his att.i.tude, be taken as just a very well developed normal human type. He'd fill out a marine uniform very well indeed. And fill in other places.
”Did Major Currald recruit you?”
”He's trying,” and that unexpected humor of Aygar flashed through again.
”I thought you intended to remain on Ireta, to protect all your hard work,” Lunzie said in the mild sort of voice that Sa.s.sinak would use to elicit information. But she had a gleam in her eye as she regarded the handsome young Iretan that Sa.s.sinak also instantly recognized. It surprised her for a moment.
”I ... I thought I wanted to stay,” he said slowly, ”if Ireta was going to remain our world. But it's not. And there are hundreds of worlds out there ...”
”Which you could certainly visit as a marine.” Sa.s.sinak sweetened her tone and added a smile. Two could play this game and she wasn't about to let her great-great- great-grandmother outmaneuver her in her own office.
Aygar regarded her through narrowed eyes. ”I've also had an earful of the sort of prejudice heavyworlders face.”
”My friend, if you act friendly and well behaved, people will like a young man as well favored as you,” Sa.s.sinak said, ignoring Lunzie. ”Life on Ireta and out of high-g environment has done you a favor. You look normal, although I'd wager that you'd withstand high-g stress better than most. Act friendly and most people will accept you with no qualms. Swagger around threatening them with your strength or size, and people will react with fear and hatred.” Sa.s.sinak shrugged. ”You're smart enough to catch on to that. You'd make an admirable marine.”
Aygar c.o.c.ked an eyebrow in challenge. ”I think I can do better than that. Commander. I'm not about to settle for second best. Not again. I want the chance to learn. That's a privilege in the FSP, too, I understand. I want to learn what they didn't and wouldn't teach us. They consistently lied to us.” Anger flashed in his eyes, a carefully contained anger that fascinated Sa.s.sinak for she hadn't expected such depths to this young man. ”And they kept us ignorant!” That rankled the deepest. Sa.s.sinak could almost bless the cautious, paranoid mutineers for that blunder. ”Because we,” and when Aygar jabbed, his thumb into his chest he meant all of his generations, ”were not meant to have a part of this planet at all!”
”No,” Sa.s.sinak said, suddenly recalling another snippet of information gleaned from the cathedral's Thekian homily, ”you weren't.”
”In fact,” Lunzie began, in a voice as sweet as her descendant's, ”you've a score to settle with the planet pirates, too. With the heavyworlders who sent Cruss and that transport s.h.i.+p.”
Aygar shot the medic such a keen look that Sa.s.sinak d.a.m.ned her own lapse - that'd teach her to look at the exterior of a man and forget what made him tick.
”You might say I do at that,” he replied in much too mild a tone.
”In that case,” Sa.s.sinak said, glancing for approval at Lunzie, ”I think we could actually take you on as a ... mmm . . . special advisor?”
”I've just signed on in a similar capacity,” Lunzie said when she saw Aygar hesitate. ”Special duties. Special training.”
”Not in the usual chain of command,” Sa.s.sinak gave him a look that had melted scores of junior officers.
”And who do I have to take orders from?” he asked, looking from Sa.s.sinak to Lunzie with the blandest of expressions on his handsome face.
”I'm still the captain,” Sa.s.sinak said firmly, with a glare for her great-great-great-grandmother, who only grinned.
”You may be a lightweight, captain, but I think I can endure it,” he said in a drawl, holding her gaze with his twinkling eyes.
”Welcome aboard, specialist Aygar!” And Sa.s.sinak extended her hand to take his in a firm shake of commitment.
Lunzie chuckled wickedly. ”I think this is going to be a most ...” her pause was pregnant ”... instructive voyage, granddaughter. Shall we toss for it?”
Just for a moment, Aygar looked from one to the other, with the expression of someone who suspects he hasn't quite caught a hidden meaning.
”We specialists should stick together,” she added, offering him a gla.s.s of the amber brandy. ”You'll drink to that, won't you. Commander?”
'That, and other things! Like 'down with planet piracy!' ” She pinned Lunzie with a meaningful stare, wondering just what she'd got herself in for this trip.
”Hear, hear!” Lunzie l.u.s.tily agreed.
BOOK ONE.
Chapter One.
The single engaged engine of the empty spherical ore carrier thrummed hollowly through the hull. It set the decks and bulkheads of the personnel quarters vibrating at a frequency which at first, depending on one's mood, could be soothing or irritating. After four weeks aboard the Tau Ceti registered mining vessel Nellie Mine Nellie Mine, Lunzie Mespil had to think about it to remember that the hum was there at all. When she first boarded, as the newly hired doctor for the Descartes Mining Platform Number 6, the sound drove her halfway to distraction. There wasn't much to do except read and sleep and listen, or rather, feel the engine noise. Later, she discovered that the sound was conducive to easy sleep and relaxation, like being aboard a gently swaying monorail pa.s.senger carrier. Whether her fellow employees knew it or not, one of the chief reasons that the Descartes Mining Corporation had so few duels and mutinies on delivery runs was due to the peace-inducing hum of the engines.
The first few days she spent in the tiny, plain-walled cubicle which doubled as her sleeping quarters and office were a trifle lonely. Lunzie had too many hours to think of her daughter Fiona. Fiona, fourteen, lovely and precocious in Lunzie's unbiased opinion, had been left behind in the care of a friend who was the chief medical officer on the newly colonized planet of Tau Ceti. The settlement was surprisingly comfortable for one so recently established. It had a good climate, a biosphere reasonably friendly toward humankind, marked seasons, and plenty of arable land that allowed both Earth-type and hybrid seeds to prosper. Lunzie hoped to settle down there herself when she finished her tour of duty on the Platform, but she wasn't independently wealthy. Even a commodity as precious as medical expertise wasn't sufficient to buy into the Tau Ceti a.s.sociation. She needed to earn a stake, and there was little call on an atmosphere-and-gravity world for her to practice her specialty of psychological s.p.a.ce-incurred trauma. There was no help for it: she was compelled to go off-planet to earn money. To her great dismay, all of the posts which were best suited to her profession and experience - and paid the most - were on isolated facilities. She would not be able to take Fiona with her. After much negotiation, Lunzie signed on with Descartes for a stint on a remote mining platform.
Fiona had been angry that she couldn't accompany her mother to the Descartes Platform, and had refused to accept the fact. In the last days before Lunzie's departure, Fiona had avoided speaking to her, and stubbornly unpacked Lunzie's two five-kilo duffels as often as her mother filled them up. It was an adolescent prank, but one that showed Lunzie how hurt Fiona felt to be abandoned. Since she was born, they had never been apart more than a day or so. Lunzie herself was aching at the impending separation, but she understood, as Fiona would not, the economic necessity that caused her to take a medical berth so far away and leave Fiona behind.
Their s.p.a.cefare to Tau Ceti had been paid on speculation by the science council, who were testing the viability of a clone breeding center on the newly colonized planet. Lunzie had been approached by the ethics council to join them, their interest stemming from her involvement as the student advisor on a similar panel during her days in medical school which had resulted in an experimental colony. Surprisingly, the data on that earlier effort was unavailable even to the partic.i.p.ants on the panel. Her former term-husband Sion had also given her his recommendation. He was becoming very well known and respected in genetic studies, mainly involved in working on controlling the heavyworld human mutations.
There were four or five meetings of the ethics council, which quickly determined that even so altruistic a project as fostering a survival-oriented genome was self-defeating in just a few generations, and no further action was taken. Lunzie was out of work in a colony that didn't need her. Because of the cla.s.sified nature of the study, she was unable even to explain to her daughter why she wasn't employed in the job which they had traveled to Tau Ceti to take.
After the fifth or sixth time she had to repack her case, Lunzie knew by heart the few possessions she was taking with her, and locked her luggage up in the poisons cabinet in the Tau Ceti medical center to keep Fiona away from it.