If her parents were there, she knew they'd think of something clever to do, something Marl wouldn't be expecting. She wished they were there to take charge. This adventure had ceased being fun when Marl had hijacked the ship. Better yet, she wished she were with them and nowhere near Marl Fidd. If she weren't here, if he hadn't figured out her secret, he wouldn't have dared to exploit the plague as he was doing. Maybe she could convince Marl to go to Paloduro. Then he'd be sorry he tried to use the Linyaari to help him carry out his illegal, immoral, and repulsive scheme.
Meanwhile, she went through the motions of purifying the loaders and the stacks of cartons of drugs he pointed to. Actually, they did not appear to be contaminated, showing none of the plague aura. But she pretended to cleanse them and helped stow them on the shuttle anyway.
"Snap to it, kiddies. This is just the first load. There's a lot of room in the cargo bays for valuable stuff like this. I want as much of this warehouse as you can fit in those cargo bays."
"It will go faster if you'll let me repair Elviiz," she said. "He's very strong."
"Fine, but try anything, and we're going to have to load up another ship because the Mana will go nova." Marl lorded over them with a superior smile on his face, like a man who held all the cards. Right then Khorii knew that, pacifist nature or not, she would do whatever she could to make sure he didn't get away with his despicable plan.
Khiindi was right where he wanted to be, but now what was he going to do? He sat down and thought about it for a while and caught Hap's thought, "Come on, kitty, it's you and me, why don't you help me?" It wasn't that Hap knew what Khiindi really was, or that the cat could understand his thoughts. Hap was simply in the habit of talking to, and thinking at, his friends who were gifted with more than two legs. Khiindi considered the situation.
Stupid boy. He was nice enough, but how had he managed to get himself so thoroughly taped up anyway?
Unseen, Khiindi had managed to slip into the engine room behind Marl and Khorii. His original impulse was simply to go where Khorii went since he did not want her anywhere alone with Marl. Unfortunately, there had been no opportunity to slip out of his hiding place before Marl sealed the door again. Not able to reach the control panel set into the wall, Khiindi could not open the door himself. He thought about leaping at the control panel in an effort to open the door, but the nearest counter was several feet away, and while he could cover the distance, the chances of his hitting the correct button were very small, while the chances of him bashing his head into the wall were fairly high. Captain Bates was on the bridge and was the only other human aboard except for Hap. She was much too far away to help and even if he went to the intercom, what was he going to do? Mew at her? He doubted she'd get the point. Besides, even if she did come down, she couldn't get through the locked door either.
No, the hapless Hap was his best hope for release. He was not about to gum up his fangs with that vast amount of tape binding the boy, however. Maybe the hands.That was where those handy thumbs were located. He slid in close to Hap's fingers, which automatically moved to scratch his fur. In spite of himself he purred, but then set to work on the tape. It was not that difficult to puncture, but Khiindi found that he could not position himself properly to tear it away. He stood with one hind paw between Haps hands and the other outside, while using his jaws to try to rip the tape away without ripping Hap. Hap, ungrateful lout that he was, kept complaining that Khiindi's tail tickled his nose and ouch, he felt that. So Khiindi then tried it from the other direction, back paws on the deck, forepaws and teeth working at the tape from between Haps wrists. It got too slippery from blood to be of any use, and Hap's mental cursing offended Khiindi's pointed ears. He was just trying to help after all. His claws and teeth wouldn't be any good to Hap if they weren't sharp enough to pierce a little flesh. Some humans were entirely too delicate.
Finally, he clawed a strip about a half inch deep in the tape. Then it wouldn't budge any farther. He grabbed the edge in his teeth and pulled with all his might. Maybe it was true he dug his claws into Hap's hands while he pulled, but even a cat needed traction.
And for all of Haps mental cursing and muffled moaning, Khiindi finally found the way to free the boy's hands of tape. Hap bled into it so much, it came loose, and between him and Khiindi they managed to wiggle it loose.
By that time Hap had managed to rub the tape off his mouth as well. "Okay, boy, I don't know how I'm going to stand it, but you have to do my arms next."
Khiindi sat back on his haunches, panting like a dog. The hands were free, and not lacerated seriously enough to be life-threatening. Nothing Khorii couldn't fix when she returned. But he simply didn't have the strength to go through all that again, and it was entirely possible that by the time they were finished Hap wouldn't have a sufficient amount blood left in him to do anything either.
Let the cursed kid free himself the rest of the way, Khiindi thought, washing the blood from his fur and whiskers with a pristine paw. He would get all matted if he let it set.
Meanwhile Hap was making a nuisance of himself, mentally urging, "Come back here, you wretched cat, and finish this, will you?"
No, really, he needed a nap and some refreshment before continuing. He hopped up on the table Hap had set up to repair or fabricate some of the things these people used in their spaceships. Khiindi had no idea what they were. Much too primitive for his taste. However, among the tools was a pair of cable shears. Picking these up in his teeth, which would probably be falling out after the abuse they'd just taken, he used the chair, then Hap's leg for steps to get down, stepping carefully. If he jumped too fast, the shears would fall out of his mouth and be much harder to pick up from a flat position.
He did drop them before he got them to Hap's hands, as they were just too heavy for a cat's mouth. However, there was more than one way to free a human without skinning him. Khiindi was a powerful batter, and he slapped the scissors between his forepaws until they rested within Hap's reach. Once he saw the boy's fingers touching the handles of the shears, he figured his work was done and jumped back up on the table to curl up for a well-earned nap. Everything was in Hap's hands now.
Chapter 27
The cargo shuttle docked aboard the Mana. Khorii and the others were forced to unload it. Marl didn't even bother bringing the loaders in to stow the cargo properly. Once they emptied it, he couldn't wait to go down and get some more.
Khorii had never met anyone like Marl before. She thought Captain Becker, whom she had called greedy once, was the soul of generosity and restraint by comparison. He didn't hurt people to get his salvage, or walk over their injured bodies. And he put away what he acquired before acquiring more. Of course, the Condor was much smaller, usually. It varied depending on what parts of what ships Becker was using at the time to patch his own vessel, but it did stay more or less the same size. The size made it necessary to use imagination to find places to put everything. Neatness counted, on a ship like that.
But as soon as the boxes were stacked in the next docking bay, Marl herded everyone back into the shuttle, and they returned to the surface for another load.
On the way down he told Jaya, "Find us a warehouse where they keep weapons.We're going to need some firepower to hang on to this lot."
"What do you mean 'we'?" Jaya asked.
"Okay, maybe not you babies, but I'm sure I can find some like-minded guys to work for me. This is wonderful. I always wanted to be a warlord when I grew up, but never thought I'd actually have the opportunity. It just goes to show that dreams really do come true."