"We've had to, Lieutenant."
"Do you have computers here?" He was expecting a negative. "The best I could find at Barevi the last time I was there," she said, wishing her tone hadn't been so defensive. He didn't look annoyed and grinned at her.
"Plenty of RAM and speed, Lieutenant. Kris got only the best and we do have printers," Beth went on proudly, "but not that much ink. Lordy, we've only just been able to find a source of pulp so our production of paper is still inadequate to the need. You'd think this planet ran on paper."
"I'd say you were speedy enough for an enforced colony, Miz Isbell."
"You ain't seen nothin' yet, Lieutenant. May I borrow a land cart to take the lieutenant back to his ship, Kris?"
"Of course."
"We may actually have enough paper in the stores on board. Ships publish a lot of paper, too, you know," Ed Douglas was saying as Beth Isbell gestured for him to leave the room with her. "What sort of printers did Kris liberate?"
"Hewlett-Packards, of course," Beth replied as they made their way out.
"Good for her!" was Douglas's approving reply, and then they were gone.
"I studied typing in high school," Clime murmured to her. "And I have a good speed and know Catteni so I wouldn't make mistakes." "Thanks, Clime, but you may be needed for other priorities. Don't know what Zainal has in store for you and the other boys."
"Any damned thing he wants, Kris. Some guy!" Clime was clearly in awe. "Ditsy even says so and Ditsy don't waste words, you know" "Did you boys have it rough with the Masai?"
"Not rough, Kris, but different. Masai have a much different culture than we do. Sure am glad you got Floss out of there when you did. You shoulda seen the old man they were going to tie her up to."
"I heard." Then she gave Clime a stern look. "You get Dane to give you some condoms, you hear me?"
"I hear you good, Emassi Kris." His face tightened suddenly. "But you don't mind it's me, do you?"
"Why should I? You have long-term loyalties I wouldn't think of challenging. And I appoint you Floss's undercover bodyguard."
"I've been that for six years, even before the Catteni landed. My father was a chief of his tribe." He tossed his head in a defensive if proud fashion. "Of all his sons, I was sent to the States to be educated."
"I should've guessed something like that," Kris said at her most approving. "You've an air about you, you know. You'll need that to deal with Barevian merchants. Floss said you've already done a lot of negotiating with Catteni?"
"Had to, Kris, though some thought we were trucking with the invaders, but we weren't. We were staying alive and out of the round-ups." His expression changed to one of intense concern. "Where did all those thousands of people get dropped, Kris?"
"We'll find out, Clime, we'll find out. Another thing to investi-gate on Barevi."
"They'll be sorry they ever invaded our system."
"The Eosi already are," Kris responded with an ironic laugh. "Barevi will be sorrier soon."
"I hope."
"Me too. Indeed I do," she said in a brightly positive tone, squelching once again that tiny fear of failure she refused to entertain. When she recalled all they had managed to do, she didn't think she was being too optimistic. Well, maybe a little. This expedition was going to be difficult even if all the breaks were on their side. What she really looked forward to was less adventure, dull as that might be after all that had happened to her in the last six years. But there was more, as Zainal had said so emphatically, that somehow had become her responsibility as well as his and Botany's. Well, that was Life, wasn't it? She hadn't even graduated from college yet and she had a lifetime career already!
The newcomers were mingling with the residents now, with questions of their own to be answered. Chuck's cousins were also in the room, looking bewildered. She was about to approach them when she saw Dorothy and Chuck gather them up. She also saw that Zainal's two boys seemed to be talking comfortably to a group of people, so she didn't have to worry about them. Even Ditsy was involved in a conversation, so she didn't see where exactly she might be needed. Then Chuck, Dorothy, and his cousins made a beeline for her.
"Do you have a minute, Kris?" Chuck asked, his face flushed. "I'd like to be introduced to my daughter."
"Oh, Lord, in all the fuss I forgot you haven't seen her. Let's go right away, before someone catches me for something absolutely essential right now"
Flustered, Kris started for the door, wondering how to explain her maternity when she had been introduced to the cousins as Zainal's mate.
She felt someone touch her elbow and realized that Chuck was striding right beside her. "Don't worry. Dorothy explained about the colony's decision to widen the gene pool."
Yes, thought Kris wildly to herself, but she didn't have to get drunk while stuck on that ship on Catten and all but seduce Chuck when he had been almost legless from drinking the local hooch with the airfield commandant.
Kris wasn't sure that explanation would sit well with two older-generation women who obviously adored their cousin.
"Don't fret, Kris. They're just so happy that I have a baby at all." He kept them a little distance ahead of Dorothy, Cherry, and Rose on their way to the creche and continued his low-voiced explanations. "Leon says they'll improve here on Botany. Texas had a hard winter with more snow than usual and they hadn't any transport to get into the town when the community started. They didn't lack for much, but when they ran out of flour for bread, they put up a bonfire and attracted a rider who took Rose to town and then they were fine. Even had canned stuff to barter for flour." He looked extremely proud of his relatives. Then he swung his chin in Dorothy's direction. "They've always wanted me to marry, and they seem to like Dorothy."
"She's easy to like, Chuck. We don't know whom Amy looks like. Neither you nor me."
"She's pretty young to look like anyone but herself, ain't she?" Kris was laughing then as she led them into the creche. Amy was in a playpen, lying on her back and whirling her arms in response to the babble of sound around her.
"Great Lord above, she's the spit of your mother, our cousin Mary," Rose said, clasping her hands to her mouth in feminine shock. "Why, just look at her hair, and the darling shape of her face. I re member one of the photos in the family album: and that child is Mary Mitford to the life! Oh, may I cuddle her, Kris?"
"Certainly," Kris replied, delighted. Rose knew how, and Amy settled into her arms as if she'd always known them. Growing up as she had with many people attending her, she had never been shy. Few of the creche kids were. Even Daisy, whom the medics had once thought might be muted by the traumas she had lived through, now babbled away without inhibitions.
Cherry began to sniffle and gulp back tears. "Oh, she's adorable, Chuck. How did you two ever manage to produce such a lovely girl child?" Then she, too, put hand to lips, widening her eyes in consternation at what she had blurted out.
"A happy match of compatible genes, I'd say," Dorothy replied quickly. "We've actually seen a lot of that since we started increasing Botany's indigenous population."
Zane, who seemed to have a special antenna for his mother's presence, came bouncing into the infant section of the creche and pounced on her. So she introduced him to the Mitford cousins.
"This one looks so much like his dad," she said, ruffling Zane's hair, "that I'm relieved we've found how Amy got so pretty."
"You're pretty, Mom," Zane said loyally, daring anyone to defy him. "Who does Amy look like?"
"Very much like Chuck's mother, God rest her soul," said Rose, startled at the boy's question. "Oh, we do have a very old picture of Mary. One of the things you must rescue for us, Charles, the next time you're back on Earth."