"She has a Temple cat? Why was I not told of this before?"
"She said he was merely their ship's cat, Mulzar, and after what she did for our guardians, we thought…"
"You didn't think! That cat was of our strain, you can tell by looking at it. You can even see from examining the claw marks on my arm. The ambassador is a spy. I knew it! Pretending to heal the guardians, she has subverted them. I must notify Lieutenant Commander Macostut of this at once and have the woman's friends taken into custody. She abducted an acolyte, as well, and the four guardians and my cousin, brought a contraband cat among us, and hijacked the wagons we graciously lent her friend to help our poor people."
The surgeon, who was in charge of the persuasive methods by which the captive handlers were forced to answer the Mulzar's questions asked, "Should we send a party after them now, Mulzar?"
Edu waved a dismissive hand. Actually, Acorna and Nadhari had done him a large favor with their rash actions. He now had a good excuse to wage the ultimate war he wanted, and locate the Aridini Stronghold. And if it was discovered later that he had violated the taboo against Federation technology to do so, he would explain that of course he had to retrieve the Temple cats from the clutches of the foreigners. Bring them back into his own clutches. Yes, indeed. "We have better things to do," he said. "We will launch a holy war on our enemies. No doubt we will sweep up the wagons and their treasonous occupants when we do so. Ready our armies."
"The sacrifice, Mulzar?"
"Since we cannot sacrifice the guardians, we will sacrifice the handlers who were so careless as to let them escape."
"Mulzar!" The surgeon was aghast. Only the day before the Mulzar had implied that a pretense of harming the guardians would flush out a cult. Now it seemed the Mulzar had actually intended to sacrifice the cats.
Hearing the threat of mutiny in the surgeon's voice, Kando realized his mistake. He winked at the doctor conspiratorially and saw the man relax. "Yes, I think they will strengthen the walls of the Temple with their sacrifice. Wall them up with that other old fool. That should draw out the conspirators, eh?"
The pulling beasts were exhausted from their mad dash from the city, and all the living beings in their little convoy were thirsty. No water had been packed in the provisions MacDonald brought with him. He'd planned to load up on water outside the city at the livestock yards.
More important, Acorna thought, as she saw RK and the guardians nosing and pawing among the load, nothing a cat could eat had been packed in the wagon's cargo, either.
While Tagoth and Nadhari were sparring, and Scar MacDonald, whose questions were not being answered, contented himself with checking on and adjusting his Metleiter boxes to ride more securely in the wagon, RK hopped onto the buckboard where Acorna still sat. He walked onto her knees, looked into her face, and opened his mouth in a yowl that was silent to everyone except Acorna and the other cats.
(I want to go home nyowwww,) he said. (I want to go back to the Condor. These silly things we're riding on will never get us anywhere in time to save anybody.)
(RK, you know very well we can't just make Becker take off into space and land where we need him to. There are rules about bringing spacefaring technology out of the Federation port.)
RK yawned. (Rules? You're boring me. There're rules against poisoning cats here, too -yes, I know. I read you very well, at least as well as you read that murdering mule-whatever-he-calls-himself. Besides, you personally won't be breaking the rule. Tell Becker I want to come home. He will come and get me, and he doesn't care about rules any more than I do.)
(Hmmm,) Acorna thought. And as he punctuated his argument with his claws she added: (Ouch! Yes, you have a point. Nevertheless, that is a very obnoxious habit you've developed. That hurts, you know.)
(Tell him and stop whining, Linyaari girl! You are self-sealing.)
Grimla walked out from under Miw-Sher's strokes and nudged RK aside to give Acorna a smile with her delicately curved mouth. She was purring and suddenly she stood on her hind paws, front paws curled daintily close to her own chest, and rubbed her face against Acorna's jaw.
Pash, Haji, and Sher-Paw strolled over to see what was happening and add a few comments of their own.
Acorna laughed, scratched RK's and Grimla's ears in surrender, and transmitted as narrowly as she could, (Captain Becker, your first mate wants to come home and the rest of us could use help.)
(I read you, Princess, loud and clear, and the damned cat, too. On my way.)
(On my way.) Becker transmitted the thought to Acorna, and as he did, saw that he was not the only one heading toward his friends. At the Federation gate, a delegation of the four warrior-priests from the Temple were joined by four Federation troops.
There was a hail on the com unit. "Uh, get that, Mac, would you?" Becker asked. "And stall for all you're worth."
"Stall? But, Captain, we have landed and are docked. Why should I stall, and how can I do so?"
"Keep whoever is calling, and I can practically guarantee that it will be Macostut, from stating his business and demanding to see me. Do not let on that you know where I am."
"And where will that be, Captain?"
"I'm going to help Acorna. She just-uh - hailed me on a private channel."
"So you will be trying out the flitter I readied for such an eventuality? It is an excellent flitter, of Linyaari design. I added to it several modifications usually found only on larger Linyaari crafts, such as the excellent Linyaari shielding device. I would be happy to point them out to you. Wouldn't you like me to accompany you?"
"Nope. You're going to have to hold the fort here. In fact your job's going to be much nastier than mine. Get that? Stall. Keep them off my ship." Becker ducked out of sight.
"Yes, sir. Stalling, sir." Mac answered the com call. "This is Special Technician MacKenZ of the Salvage ship Condor speaking. Please identify yourself."
A stern face appeared on the com screen. "This is Lieutenant Commander Dsu Macostut. I must speak with Captain Jonas Becker immediately."
"I apologize, Lieutenant Commander Dsu Macostut, but Captain Becker is indisposed at the moment."
"Indisposed how?"
"Oh, it is a highly interesting process, sir. You see, when Captain Becker takes on fuel to maintain adequate personal function and energy levels, not all of the fuel is acceptable to his operating system. Therefore, it is necessary that this excess fuel be ejected at some point…"
Becker grinned into his mustache as he heard Mac's explanation of Becker's digestive and excretory processes, while Macostut stuttered and attempted to break in to notify Becker of the arrest that was about to take place, if the look of the men marching on the Condor was any indication. Acorna's message of trouble plus all those marching men meant Becker's butt was going to be in a sling if he didn't get it out of there. But what was Acorna planning? How had she got the high mucky-mucks so riled up in such a short time? The last time Becker had checked in with his friends, everything had been just fine. Peachy keen, even. If they were in hot water now, the Federation had the authority to keep the Condor from leaving this benighted planet if necessary. If Becker brought Acorna and RK and presumably Nadhari back to the ship, they would be in even more trouble than they already were in, wouldn't they?
Then, as he was slipping into the flitter and opening the hull hatch to fly her out, he received another message from Acorna.
"Captain, RK wanted me to remind you to bring lots of cat food."
Edu Kando stood beside Macostut as their combined troops closed on the Condor.
"I'm sorry about this, Edu," Macostut said. "We would never have let them come near Hissim except that your cousin was with them."