“It was Hauness who devised a way to get messages off Optheria for us. Post hypnotic requests – yes, yes, I know, and don’t think it was an easy matter for him to violate his ethics as a physician-healer, but we were getting desperate. A suggestion to receive and later mail a letter from the nearest transfer point seemed a minor infraction. I am certain that Hauness only capitulated because Nahia was suffering so much distress. She had to cope with such a devastating increase of suicide potentials. She’s an empath, Trag – ”
“You must encounter Nahia, Trag, before you leave Optheria,” Killashandra said, twining her fingers reassuringly about Lars’s. He gave her a quick and grateful glance.
“That’s why, if you would go to Ironwood to check out the organ there, you would surely encounter Nahia and Hauness,” Lars said eagerly.
“I would?” Trag asked.
“Quite likely, if you were suddenly taken ill.”
Trag regarded him steadily. “Crystal singers do not succumb to planet-based diseases.”
“Not even food poisoning?” Lars was not to be deterred.
“And that’s a likelihood if you eat often with the Elders. Or do I mean starvation?” Killashandra remarked.
“That way, you can warn Nahia and Hauness, and they can alert others.” Lars leaned forward, eagerly waiting for Trag’s decision. “I couldn’t save myself at the expense of my friends.”
“How large a group do you have, Lars Dahl?” Trag asked.
“I don’t know at the moment. We had about two thousand, and more were being investigated. The Elder’s search and seize to find Killashandra reduced our ranks considerably.” Regret for having provoked the Elders to such action colored Lars’s expression. He squared his shoulders, accepting that responsibility. “I fervently hope more sacrifices will not be required.”
“Do your islanders perpetrate many outrages on the Main land?”
“Outrages on the Mainland?” Lars burst out laughing. “We leave the Mainland to stew in its own juice! If you wish to punish an island child, you threaten to send him to a Mainland school. What crimes were being laid on our beaches?”
“Crimes hinted at darkly but never specified, apart from the attack on Killashandra – ”
“Ampris instigated that – ” Killashandra said angrily.
“And her abduction.”
“And I have laid that firmly on the shoulders of unknown malfeasants. I thought they’d bought that.”
“They might have if the attachment between you and Lars Dahl was not so apparent, almost as if you were in resonance with each other. However,” and Trag went on quickly, “Torkes contended that young Lars Dahl could scarcely have found you so conveniently if he had not known where you were. The islands being so numerous and widespread he does not accept coincidence.”
“I think Torkes is in for a large surprise on the mechanics of coincidence,” Killashandra said in her most caustic tone. She had poured another stiff drink for herself, trying to dull anger and indignation. “Trag, I don’t see why the Federated Council cannot act expeditiously – ”
“This planet is not threatened by destruction.”
“Our much vaunted Federated Council is not much better than the Elders Council, is it?”
“I will do everything in my power, Lars Dahl, to ensure the physical and psychological integrity of your adherents,” Trag said. “And if that includes servicing every instrument on this planet, I will do that, too.” A slight shift of the alignment of his lips gave him an appearance of smiling. “Greed provokes me. And all this talk has made me thirsty. What is this?” he asked, obliquely requesting a refill.
“The fermented juice of the ubiquitous polly fruit.” Lars said, serving him. “The Elders may complain about the islands but they are its best customers.”
“Tell me again about the security arrangements at the shuttle port,” Trag went on. “A liner is due in two weeks’ time. I should like to have you both on it.”
“There’s more chance of sailing a straight course in the islands, Trag,” Lars said, shaking his head discouragingly. “If anyone had been able to discover a flaw in the security curtain at the shuttle port, it would have been done. My father had the unique honor of adjusting the screens to prevent a mass attack. Father came here on a short-term contract to provide security micro-units for the Optherian Council. Father was co-opted by the Federated Council because of his expertise with microchip installations. The Federation wanted him to find out why another agent had never reported back to them. But, while he was installing the chips, he didn’t have much luck with the covert assignment. So when the Optherians offered him the shuttleport contract, he took it. No one mentioned the fact that three to four months was the longest it was safe to stay on Optheria without getting trapped. When he realized that he was, and even he couldn’t get past the shuttleport curtain, he talked himself into his position as Angel Island Harbor Master. Far enough away from the shuttleport to satisfy the Elders, and far enough away for him to feel safe from them.”
“How is cargo transferred?” Trag asked.
“What little there is, is unloaded through the main passenger lock, which is operated by the shuttle pilots, true and loyal, incorruptible citizens of Optheria. The only way into the shuttleport is past the detector’s arc. And if the detector is set off without first presenting the right pass to those rehabbed guards,” he made a popping sound, “you’re dead.”
“Ah, but Thyrol was right beside me as we left the port, Lars,” Killashandra said, “ And the arc did not go off. Yet you say that it goes off whenever the mineral residue is detected.”
“Crystal resonance might mask or confuse the detector,” Trag remarked, choosing his words slowly. “For the same thing occurred, and with Thyrol beside me, when I exited the port.”
“Why don’t we just boldly go under the fardling arc then? Both of us with Lars between.”
“You no longer resonate, Killashandra,” Trag said.
“Besides, that only helps me, Killa. I won’t leave the others vulnerable to the Elder’s reprisals.”
“Impasse!” Killashandra threw her hands out in disgust but she had to admire Lars’s stand. “Wait a minute. I may not resonate, but white crystal does. Trag, they blow out the monitors at the sound of an A. Won’t crystal resonance affect other piezoelectrical equipment? I know it’d be folly to try to blow out the shuttleport detector . . . .”
“That’s been tried, too, Killa.” Lars interrupted her with a rueful grin.
“Trag? – If crystal resonance provides a mask . . .”
“I should not like to put it to the test and fail.”
Killashandra turned to Lars. “You said something about your father being able to detect Council agents. Does he have a unit?”
“A small one.”
“If we had it, we could test crystal resonance with it. We’ve got all those crystal shards, Trag, and you know how interactive white is.”
“First we have to contact my father,” Lars said with an ironic laugh, “then get him and the device here. Oh, it’s not large but certainly not something you carry bare-faced through City streets.” But, even as Lars spoke in pessimistic terms, it was clear to Killashandra that she had revived his hopes. “All the more reason, Trag, for, you to get to Ironwood and make contact with Nahia and Hauness. They’ve got the oceanjet. They could discreetly bring Father and the device as far as Ironwood.”
“There are no other embarkation clearances at the shuttleport?” Trag asked.
Lars shook his head slowly. “No other beside the security curtain has ever been needed. You forget, Trag, that loyal, happy, natural Optherians have no desire to leave their planet. Only tourists, who can buy tickets anywhere, so long as they’ve enough credit.”