Now Sean picked up a piece of paper, this one from the Ambassador of someplace called Petra 6. 'To whom it may concern,' it began.
We have recently been apprised of information leading us to believe that relatives of some of our settlers reside on Planet Terraform B. Our people would like to know how to comply with the visa process on your world in order to be reunited with their estranged family members.
Yrs Truly,
Alphonsina Torunsdotter, Ambassador.
Before he could think of a reply, the door to the cabin banged open and a pair of battered men, bound tightly with sinew rope and each wearing a dead animal around his neck, fell into the room. They were closely followed by the fuming form of Sean's sister, Sinead, who slammed the door shut.
‘You won't believe what I caught these two, these two murderers doing, Sean!' Sinead said.
‘I believe exhibits A and B might already be tied around their necks, Sis,' Sean said mildly.
‘Yes, but they didn't claim this fox or this wolf from any of the culling places. They went into the woods and using their so-called civilized weapons -' she slapped two laser rifles atop a tottering pile of papers, causing an avalanche which all but buried the prisoners '- simply slaughtered these perfectly healthy creatures without so much as a by-your-leave or a thank-you!’
‘MMMhmmm,' Sean said, eyeing the prisoners. 'And what do you have to say for yourselves?’
‘Well,' the bearded one began, 'we did ask weeks ago how to apply for a hunting licence on Petaybee, after some Corps buddies of ours told us about all the game here, but we never got an answer so we figured, backwater planet, wide open, anything goes.’
Sinead grabbed him by the hair and pulled his face back so that he could only see her cross-eyed glare. 'You figured wrong, wormbreath.’
‘You should', Sean told the men, 'have been patient. How did you get here anyway? SpaceBase is only transporting official personnel these days.’
‘We - uh - we caught the shuttle.’
‘What shuttle?’
‘The PTS shuttle our soldier buddies told us about.’
‘Excuse me,' Sinead said.
‘Stands for Petaybean Tourist Service,' the man whose hair she had hold of said quickly. 'Looks like it's brand new - arrived on MoonBase a few hours before we did.’
The other man said, 'I demand that you and this -this amazon of yours’
‘The lady', Sean said, 'is my sister.’
‘That you and your sister untie us and inform us of what laws we have broken and notify our Ambassador at once. I am Dr Vincent de Peugh, vice-president in charge of resource utilization for Intergal's Terra Section Delta and this is my colleague, Dr Raymond Ersol, vice-president in charge of air quality control. We do not intend to spend our vacations being victimized by your government on some trumped-up charges.’
Sean rose from behind the paperwork, lifted several sheets from the head and shoulders of Dr Ersol and neatly replaced them on the desk, which he then leaned against, ankles and arms crossed.
‘Well, gentlemen, I can see that you've been misled. You've broken no written law, as such, since we have yet to write any. Quite simply, the people who live here know that one hunts only to live on Petaybee and one takes only the game which offers itself. What I would like to see from you is your authorization to be here at all. As far as I know, at this time, only official personnel and designated settlers approved and transported by Intergal are allowed to be here - not off-world employees looking for what you consider recreation. What we, as Sinead has so tactfully explained, consider wanton murder of an allied species. You see, and as a resource manager, Dr Peugh, I'm sure you'll understand this, we of Petaybee, people, animals, plants and planet, have a system and we all depend on each other. You've just gone and upset that system something terrible. Now then, Sinead will be glad to release you after you've accompanied her to make due restitution to those you've offended.’
‘And our property?' Ersol nodded to the rifles.
‘We'll return it to you on Earth, if you'd care to leave a forwarding address. Might take a while though. Backwater place like Petaybee, the postal service is atrocious. No doubt that's why I never received your request, or if I did,' and he gestured to the piles of paper, 'I haven't got around to answering it yet. Sinead, I think maybe you might get Liam to accompany you and maybe Dinah. She's been driving Liam nuts since Diego left. And you could loosen the hobbles on these gentlemen so you don't have to carry them outside again.’
Sinead gave him a mock salute and hauled her prisoners back outside again.
Sean sighed. It didn't look like he was going to be bored while Yana was shipside anyway. Now he'd better see if he could enlist Whit Fiske to help him find out about this Petaybean Tourist Service shuttle business.
Shipside
Yana, Bunny, Diego and Marmion were all together in the forward viewing lounge as the great sprawling array of interlocking circles that was Gal-3 grew from a glittering spot of light to its real majestic splendour. The circles were stacked five deep 'horizontally' and, in places, nine in'vertical' alignment. There were two more thick, squat circles at nadir and zenith of the complex which housed its defensive equipment. Yana stared in fascination. She'd never had such a view of the facility: both of her trips here had been made in the belly of a troop transport. She rather thought they'd been docked on one of the nadirward circles.
Diego was explaining the various levels to a goggle-eyed Bunny: the upper level was for executives and company chairpersons, the next level was general for the Gal-3 resident population, housing recreation and mercantile areas, the middle one was probably all accommodation, transients and residents, while the fourth was devoted to repair, environmental controls, and so on, and the fifth storage, while the blobs on top and bottom were restricted to Federation personnel, defence and administration.
‘Wait a min, Diego.' Bunny finally got her awe under control. 'People live all their lives on this… thing?’
‘Sure. I haven't lived that long on a planetary surface, you know,' he replied.
Her look was clearly 'you poor deprived kid' but he didn't notice it, for he was waxing verbose on the entertainment and catering treats that were in store for her.
‘Oh, and I have just the right couple to be sure you don't miss the right places,' Marmion said cheerfully. 'My nephew and niece… or rather, my late husband Henri Algemeine's nephew and niece but they are such charming youngsters that I know you won't object to their company.’
Yana could see Diego wincing and Bunny's blink of astonishment.
‘They really do know their way around,' Marmion went on firmly to squelch incipient rebellion. 'Bailey Algemeine's sixteen’
‘Eighteen, Marmion,' Sally corrected her.