“What, what is it?” Ethan pressed him.
“It is the scholar!”
“The scholar?”
“Williams, he sees Williams,” September said gleefully. “Our scholar.”
“It is so. The respected one has returned with help.”
“But that’s impossible.” Hwang had to stand on tiptoes to see past them. They could make out individual shapes moving on the deck of the huge air-repulsion craft, but not faces. “There are no skimmers based at Brass Monkey.”
“I don’t give a toot if the little bookworm pulled it out of his shoe!” September was dancing and twirling like a madman, scattering Tran and humans alike. “The teacher’s come back and school’s in session!”
“I don’t understand.” Ethan managed to be a bit more restrained in his reaction to Williams’s return. “Where did he get the skimmer?”
“We will know soon enough,” Hunnar said, “because the skyboat comes straight for us.”
September was right about its size. It was a large industrial transport vehicle, fully a third as big as the Slanderscree itself. The survival-suited figures that lined its railing hefted weapons that sparkled in the sun. No cannon, but plenty of rifles, each with greater range and power than the most modern hand beamer and certainly more deadly than anything in Bamaputra’s limited armory.
As they looked on, it floated effortlessly over the harbor gate to settle alongside the icerigger. Williams would have briefed its driver on where to hover. Then the diminutive schoolteacher was cautiously walking across the boarding ramp that the Slanderscree’s sailors extended over to the sky boat.
He’d survived the difficult two-way journey in good condition, only to find himself nearly smothered by the effusive greetings and congratulations of those he’d left behind. Cheela Hwang almost suffocated him all by herself.
“We ain’t going to get any answers out of him right away.” September grinned as he appraised the extended clinch. “Come on, let’s go over and see where he found these folks.”
Ethan followed his friend. “Maybe after a while each outpost automatically rates a small military contingent. Maybe they arrived in our absence just in time for Milliken to request their services and assistance. They could have come down as part of one of the recent monthly shipments.”
“Maybe.” September hopped off the boarding ramp onto the skimmer’s deck. Ethan followed.
Men and women of varying ages watched them quietly. Many chatted among themselves and ignored the new arrivals. All looked competent and professional. This wasn’t a group of volunteers Williams had recruited at Brass Monkey. These people were comfortable with weapons.
He continued to cling to his theory that for some reason a small military presence had been assigned to the outpost, until someone else emerged from belowdecks. At first he couldn’t make out the face because light flaring off a window temporarily blinded him, but he recognized the voice instantly. A moment later she saw him.
“Hello, Ethan. It’s good to see you again. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be saying those words.”
September grunted. “Now don’t this just take the cake.”
It was more eloquent than anything Ethan had to say. He was speechless.
She pouted prettily. “Can’t you say something? Here I drop everything to come back to this frigid place just in time to save your frozen neck, and I don’t even get a hello kiss?”
A powerful hand shoved Ethan toward her. He glared back at September, who only grinned broadly. “You heard the lady, young feller-me-lad. Kiss ’er.”
Ethan gingerly touched his lips to those of the woman who’d emerged from the interior of the skimmer. She pulled back, frowning.
“If that’s the best you can do I’m taking my people and going straight back to Brass Monkey. You can sit out here and play dice with ice cubes until your fingers turn blue.”
“Sorry, Colette. I’m still in shock a little.” He put both arms around as much of her as he could and bussed her good and hard. She responded passionately while the troopers on the skimmer looked on with interest.
September had sidled over to a tall, lean fellow about his own age who had the look of a Man in Charge. “Ethan there, he and Ms. du Kane go back a ways.”
“No kidding.” The soldier studied the on-going clinch casually. “I wondered why we were coming to a place like this. Ms. du Kane said she had unfinished business here. Always it’s unfinished business, but none of us suspected this was what she had in mind.” He glanced up at September. “You know her, too, then?”
“You heard about the time she and her paterfamilias were kidnapped?”
“Oh. You must be Skua September. Everyone’s heard about it. They’d make a tridee sequence out of it if some production company thought they could get away with it, but the missus won’t let ’em and she’s got too strong a legal program on her side. So it’s all true?”
“Yep. Every bit of it.”
“None of us are surprised she came through.” He nodded toward the embracing couple. “I’ve been with the du Kane family twenty years. She’s tough as duralloy, but not a bad boss.” He extended a gloved hand. “I’m Iriole, Roger Iriole. I’m in charge of the household troops, though most people would say bodyguards.”
September’s huge hand enveloped the slightly smaller one. “Thought it might be something like that. You folks couldn’t have shown up at a better time. How’d you get those past customs?” He gestured at the energy rifles.
Iriole shrugged. “Ms. du Kane usually gets what she wants. Apparently she knows what this world is like and she wanted to make sure she came prepared.” He turned and stared toward the city. “Mind telling me what’s going on? What you’re all doing here and why you’re so glad to see a bunch of guns? Your schoolteacher friend gave us a quick rundown on the way out but I confess I didn’t get much out of it.”
“Not real complicated. Just your usual case of genocide for profit.” He preceded to explain in as few words as possible.
Meanwhile Ethan and Colette had walked to the side of the skimmer that faced the Slanderscree.
“The old ship doesn’t look much different than I remember her.”
“Not much has changed. You haven’t been away that long.”
“Feels like years. That’s Hunnar Redbeard, isn’t it? And Elfa Kudrag…”
“Kurdagh-Vlata,” he corrected her. “They’re married now.”
“How is this union you stayed here to help get started coming along?”
“Well enough. Several important city-states are formally allied and others are debating joining.”
“Sounds promising.” A darker undertone abruptly slipped into her voice. “Milliken’s told me all about what’s going on here. We’ll put a stop to that right now.”
“It’s not your problem. Why not let the authorities take care of it?”
“Milliken’s worried about the time that would take and the damage these unmentionables could do in the interim. I don’t just live for commerce, Ethan. I have larger values just like everyone else. We’re going to put these people under citizen’s arrest and haul the ringleaders back to the outpost. Then the government can take over.” She indicated the crowded railing opposite.
“The Tran did well by my father and me. We owe them.”
“How is your father?”
“Hellespont du Kane died four months ago. If you’ll remember, Dad hadn’t been well for years. His mind wasn’t the only part of him that was failing, and dragging him across Tran-ky-ky didn’t do him any good. He was too far gone for any kind of transplant, but I don’t think he would’ve made himself a candidate anyway. He was tired. His passing wasn’t unexpected. I’d been running the day-to-day operations of the conglomerate for years anyway. I told you that.”