"Scrags?!" Kathryn hissed, and Berry saw her sudden fury mirrored in more than one face. She could literally feel the hatred rising about her, and she started to shrink back. But then, to her own surprise, her spine stiffened and she raised her chin.
"Yes," she said flatly. "It would be more accurate to call them ex-Scrags, actually. 'Amazons' is what Thandi is calling them now, and they're busy trying their best to grow into the new role she expects of them." The "Princess" chuckled suddenly. "Believe me-you don't want to disappoint Thandi. Not if you know what's good for you!"
Kathryn looked a bit more mollified, but not a lot, and Berry shrugged.
"You have my personal assurance that Thandi's Amazons will do exactly what she tells them to… and that they have their own personal reasons to hate Mesans and-especially-the Masadans aboard this ship every bit as much as you do. For that matter, they've already saved my life from other Scrags aboard the space station." She paused, considering that last sentence, then shrugged again. "Well, actually, they helped Thandi do it and sort of held her coat for her while she kicked the crap out of the Scrag in question barehanded."
Kathryn gazed at her for a few more moment, then barked a sharp, sudden laugh. It was not at all a pleasant sound, but it seemed to have banished any lingering reservations about the nature of the assault party, and she started giving orders. Within seconds, most of the onlookers were gone, hurrying to spread the word through the slave quarters.
"Okay," she said, turning back to Berry. "That'll avoid any possible immediate problems. But then what happens? Assuming that your Lieutenant Palane-and Victor Cachat-manage to take the ship back from the Masadans." She made a little sweeping hand gesture, indicating all the slaves. "What happens to us?"
Berry started to explain. Within seconds, the feeling of surrealism was back in full force.
Being a "princess" is weird enough. Being a "prophetess" is even weirder.
Chapter 38
"All right, Prin-uh, Berry," Thandi said, quietly but firmly. She rose from her squatting position in front of the hatch, where she'd been watching Ruth at her work. "Now you get your butt out of here."
For a moment, Ruth looked mulish. Smiling, Berry hauled her away from the hatch.
"Leave it be, 'Berry,' " she whispered. "You are not trained as a commando."
As reluctant as she might be to break away from the action-it was obvious to Berry that, deny it however she might, Ruth had been having the time of her life-the Princess didn't really put up a struggle. The young royal was adventurous, true, but she wasn't downright insane. She'd already done what she needed to do: break the codes which would enable Thandi to open the hatch leading to the bridge without setting off any alarms. From here, it would be all mayhem and fast-moving havoc. As relatively athletic as she was, Princess Ruth had no chance at all of keeping up with Thandi Palane and her Amazons. She'd just get in their way, and she knew it.
Berry guided her toward the hatch on the opposite side of the small chamber, which led back into the slave quarters.
"Damn," Ruth muttered. "You know as well as I do that once my aunt finds out about this…" She made a face. "I'll be lucky if she ever lets me out of my own suite in Mount Royal Palace. Till I'm dead or she is."
"Hush," whispered Berry, nodding meaningfully toward the hatch she was starting to open. "And don't forget that you're still me and I'm still you."
Ruth nodded. She and Berry had managed a quick, whispered consultation after Thandi and her assault team had been welcomed into the slave quarters. They'd both agreed that it would be best to keep the masquerade going.
That had been Berry's suggestion, and she still felt weird about it. There was actually no reason to maintain the subterfuge, from the standpoint of the Masadan enemy. Those enemies would either be dead in a few minutes or they'd all be dead when the ship exploded. So why keep up the rigmarole?
But the simple fact was that-
Weird-weird-weird.
– by now, Berry had established a peculiar position among the slaves. The combination of the news she'd brought and her assumed identity as a "princess" seemed to settle their nerves. She'd noticed that the steering committee, which had been in continuous-and often raucous-session since they'd learned of the plans for Congo, was now often turning to her to serve as something in the way an informal court of final appeal.
Weird-weird-weird.
Still, it seemed to work. The steering committee's members were all strong-willed, were by no means all personally fond of each other, did not necessarily share the same political opinions, and had little experience working together-not to mention that the committee itself had been slapped together in the press of circumstances. Even with Kathryn's generally sure leadership, tempers had gotten frayed.
But, they'd never snapped-and not least of all because, very quickly, Kathryn had started using Berry as a calming agent. It didn't even matter so much what Berry said or didn't say in the disputes. As a rule, she said as little as possible, being mainly concerned simply with keeping everybody calm.
It was simply who she was. Or, rather, was supposed to be.
"Princess." What was it, Berry wondered, that gave that term-a fake term, as it happened-such a peculiar magic?
Ruth had seemed to understand it immediately, when Berry tried to explain.
"Oh, sure," Ruth whispered. "It's 'cause your authority doesn't derive from anything really legitimate. Might be better to say, from an arbitrary legitimacy that stands outside of the hurly-burly. Monarchy's really a silly business, when you get right down to it-but don't you dare tell Aunt Elizabeth I said so. I'm going to be in enough trouble as it is."
The two girls shared a conspiratorial glance around the mess compartment. Fortunately, all of the slaves were still completely preoccupied by the presence in their midst of Thandi Palane and her Amazons.
"Amazons." When Thandi and her women had first entered the mess compartment being used for the slave headquarters, Berry had been sure there'd be a brawl right then and there, despite her own efforts to prepare against it. Any slave of Manpower would have immediately recognized the tell-tale genetic traces on the faces of the "Amazons," and within two seconds, prepared or not, they'd been like so many dogs facing off in an alley with their hackles raised and their fangs bared.
Scrags. The self-proclaimed supermen who had, for several generations now, served Manpower as its bully boys. It was enough to be a "Scrag" to be under sentence of immediate death, so far as any member of the Audubon Ballroom was concerned.
Fortunately, Thandi's glower had intimidated everyone for just long enough. And a very intimidating glower it was, too, coupled to that fearsome physique. Berry had made an immediate private vow to make sure that Thandi remained her "big sister." Had given that priority, in fact, precedence over her vow to start exercising and taking political lessons from Web Du Havel.
(It had been an easy vow to make, of course. Being on close personal terms with Thandi Palane did not fall into Berry Zilwicki's definition of oh, yuck.)
Just long enough-for Berry to pitch in and capitalize on her own earlier spadework to settle it all down.
"Thandi!" she'd exclaimed, leaping from her seat and practically hurling herself into a embrace. Then, quickly, disengaging the embrace and hurling herself upon the nearest Amazon.