"I thought Gwinett was just a holding place pending a Federation hearing and maybe trial if they decide to take the charges in question seriously," Guthe said, sounding surprised, though he had actually heard a thing or two about Gwinett in the past. Prisoners tortured to death before they even got to their cells. Sick prisoners left in filth where they died. Prisoners with open wounds made to clean cesspits or other jobs that would result in infection, amputation, death. Routine beatings by guards. It was all coming back to him now. Madame surely wouldn't have to worry about that kind of thing, though. They wouldn't dare treat her that way, would they?
As if reading his thoughts, the soldier said, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall. You can see how it might be real profitable for some folks to watch Mrs.
Algemeine fall such a long way she never came up again. And it will be a big relief to the company bigwigs and some of our esteemed Federation Council members to have the Shongilis out of the way as well."
Guthe gave a low whistle, realizing that out of the mouths of grunts came good insight into bad motives. "But they won't make the injured people, young mamas, and little kids stay there, will they?"
"Not to worry. The injured ones probably won't survive the first week. There's a special island for orphans, where we can keep an eye on them. As for the young mamas…" He waggled his thin blond eyebrows in a suggestive way that made Guthe suddenly like him even less than he was originally inclined. "We can always find something useful for them to do."
RICK HAD ALERTED Yana as soon as he received the Piaf's transmission on the copter's com. He fed it to the earphones she wore during the journey back to
Kilcoole. Yana listened to each grim word but the burst was fairly brief. Within a few minutes the interference surrounding Petaybee from the volcanic activity scrambled the signal beyond all possibility of deciphering it.
Frag it all, the PTBs never stopped their harassment, did they? For a long period,
Petaybee's autonomy had been respected and they had been allowed to guide Petaybee's affairs according to Federation guidelines. This was largely thanks to Marmie's influence. So when Marmie offended Cally by showing him up for the incompetent coward he was, the colonel had evidently interested some of her powerful enemies in trumped-up charges that would remove her and them from stewardship of the planet. By now it was well known that you couldn't take a Petaybean off Petaybee without killing them. That was no doubt fine with their enemies.
As she listened to the rest of the transmission, her teeth clenched angrily hearing the frightened, indignant questions of the young mothers and the crying of the children who sensed something was wrong. There were several bursts where the voice of First Officer Robineau asked after the comfort of her captors.
Later, as if accentuating the difference in priorities between the Piaf's crew and their captors, Robineau's voice rose amid the wails of the children. She announced that the ship's cat, Zuzu, wanted to meet them. The wailing gradually turned to snuffles and then giggles and delighted squeals while the cat entertained the frightened kids. Meanwhile, Robineau talked in a low voice with the mothers. Her voice was lost in static before Yana could tell what she was saying, but she had heard enough.
It had been snowing heavily as the copter flew across the landscape, and Kilcoole was already thickly overlaid with drifts and folds of glistening snow by the time they landed.
Yana and Sinead stopped long enough to strap on snowshoes before hurrying to the village's small but modern hospital and clinic. There, Clodagh and her assistant, Deirdre, dispensed soothing teas and herbal remedies. From the time they first arrived, the facility's physicians had accepted the help of Petaybee's native healers.
It was a direct conduit to the planet's own powerful healing properties. Though it had been mere hours since the injured were delivered, they seemed to have made considerable recovery already. However, everyone was perplexed by the Piaf's sudden departure. They didn't know enough yet to be furious or frightened.
Yana hung her parka on the rack inside the hospital's mud room before going to find Clodagh to tell her about the transmission. She heard the mobile signal buzzing behind her but it wasn't until Sinead touched her on the shoulder that the nature of the sound actually registered.
"Yana, Sean just called. He and Ke-ola are back where we left them. Ke-ola took a spill before they could reach Murel so now Sean's got to go hunt for her again.
Meanwhile, I called Perfect and they're sending out a snocle for Ke-ola and others to wait for Sean and the kids. I checked with Rick and Johnny, but the soldiers who took the Piaf emptied the fuel station before they left and we've not even enough to make a round-trip as far as the snowline in the copter."
"But there's enough to get me there, right?" Yana asked, pulling on her mukluks.
"There was enough fuel left in the tank when we returned for that, at least."
"Yes, but how will you get the copter back?"
"We won't. We'll hide it when we go to ground ourselves, along with Clodagh and her patients and anyone else the PTBs are targeting with their witch hunt. I've warned Clodagh, and Deirdre has gone out into the village to organize the evacuation to the caves."
Sinead grinned wryly. "These pests must be new to our fair planet. They don't seem to have any idea what they're messing with when they mess with Petaybee. It will be interesting to see what happens if they try to take our people out of the caves."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Yana said. "I just wish there was some way we could help the people on the Piaf. For now, I need to join Sean and the kids."
"I'm going to find Aisling," Sinead said. They both strapped their snowshoes on again. When they opened the clinic door, they were met by the rest of Kilcoole, people, track cats, dog teams, and curly coats, all laden with blankets and packs of provisions to sustain themselves and the hospital's staff and patients.
FROM WHAT THE seals had told him, Sean felt certain the kids were all right, or at least had been. The seals also claimed that the strange underwater city was not far. That was what he clung to as he battled the seas, though it could have been within a few lengths of him and he would not have known it. With the whales gone, the seals saw no reason to stay close to the lagoon or to be overly helpful.
They also had no reason to struggle with the water as he was doing. The seas had roughened considerably since Ke-ola fell into the water, and now the waves towered higher than the tallest icebergs and plummeted so low they threatened to sweep the seaweed from the ocean floor.
Sean could hardly blame the seals. Though creatures would go here and there for food, mating, giving birth, most of them most of the time would quite literally "go with the flow." The ocean was bigger than all of them and had a mind of its own that seemed distinctive even from the larger consciousness of the planet.
After Sean had been swimming what seemed an endless time, he spun around on the crest of a wave to judge his distance from shore. It looked as though he hadn't moved from the place where he put in.
Mountainous waves tossed him back and forth while the field of icebergs tumbled around him, threatening to grind him between their jagged edges and battering him as they crashed past.
He tried to search for the kids using sonar, but the icebergs and the violence of the waves created constant interference. He called and called to them both with his seal voice and his thought-voice, but he couldn't hear himself think, much less expect them to do so.