Hiraf set his cup carefully on the table, and retrieved his hat from the deck. He rose, quickly followed by Cale and Dee. "You understand my position, of course. I am here as King Rajo's representative. I am to report to him what I have learned." He started for the lock. Tess opened it, and he began to enter, and then stopped.
"Sire Rankin, Lady Rankin," he said, turning. "I should not do this. It is not part of my instructions. But you have greeted me politely and treated me with courtesy and respect, despite your great power. So, I tell you this. I will report to my king that you are the most dangerous enemy we have ever encountered. You are enemies of my family and of my king. If you import a thousand 'wizards', what will become of the people of Jumbo? I will tell you. We will become slaves or worse. I must recommend to my king that he use every method in his power to destroy you before you can bring this curse to our land.
"So, flee, star man. Fly high and far. Do it before my king can return with his army. And never approach our domain again!" He turned without another word and left the ship.
Cale was stunned. He had not seen that reaction coming. Judging by her expression, neither had Dee. "What happened?" he asked of no one in particular.
Dee's shocked expression faded to a rueful smile. "I'd say your sales pitch fell flat," she said.
"But . . ." he began, but Tess interrupted. "Cale, he advised us to flee, and I concur. He has told us what he will report, and that we will have until he reaches the palace. I suggest we prepare to lift."
Cale snorted. "It will take them half an hour to even get that . . . sillymobile moving," he said. "We have plenty of time."
"I disagree," Tess responded. "All that is necessary is for Hiraf to order those soldiers to move a bit closer, and we will be effectively pinned to this spot. I cannot lift if a human may be injured, and I seriously doubt you would do so manually. And Cheetah is not a lifeboat. You cannot simply singe them. Given enough time, even their primitive artillery will eventually penetrate my hull."
Cale looked startled. "Artillery?"
"Yes," Tess replied. "Apparently among his family's 'discoveries' has been a simple, low-order explosive called 'gunpowder' or 'black powder'."
Cale's expression turned pensive. "You're right, Tess. I couldn't cook those soldiers, even though they want to kill me. By all means, let's get out of here. Jump us to orbit; we need time to think about this.
"Yes, sir." The rumble of the lift engines spinning up began even before she finished speaking.
"Okay," Cale said when they were once again orbiting alongside the lifeboat. "Somehow I managed to blow that. But I'm still not quite sure how."
"Well," Dee said wryly, "Aside from telling him that you were going to put him and his king out of the business their families have been running for four generations, I can't think of a thing."
"And," Tess added, "Perhaps telling a man whose family's welfare is based upon the high level of their learning that you wanted to bring in more than a thousand people more learned than himself may have been a minor factor."
Cale raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. Y'know, it's funny, but I don't remember either of you jumping in to save the day."
Dee flashed a guilty grin. "Hindsight is 20/20," she said. "It never even occurred to me until after he left."
"Nor me," Tess added. "But I should have seen it. I have been studying humans for over 400 years. You tried to appeal to his apparent mission to help his people back up the ladder of civilization, completely forgetting about his personal and selfish interest."
Cale shook his head. "Water under the bridge. The thing is, what do we do now? We can't land those colonists anywhere within range of King Rajo's power, and he's the strongest king on the planet."
"I don't think approaching the nomads is an option, at least not until we know more about them," said Tess.
Dee looked troubled. "Well, I'm not interested in going back and telling our clients their only option is to stay away from all other humans,"
Cale shook his head, "Neither am I. If I were a prospective colonist, that would be a deal-breaker for me. No, we can't just give up."
A gloomy silence fell.
"The problem is," Cale began after a few minutes' thought, "We just don't know enough. We thought the advanced state of Valhalla's development would make things easy for us. Well, there is no 'easy', and there are no shortcuts.
"Tess, did you get any footage of the people at Valhalla? I don't mean the soldiers; I mean people standing around, or just moving around on their usual business."
"As a matter of fact, I have quite bit of footage. Once Hiraf entered Cheetah, people gathered around. At a respectful distance, of course. They scattered as soon as he exited."
"Do you think your 'bots could sew up some clothing like theirs for us? They don't have to be perfect, just good enough to pass casual inspection until we can buy or steal some real ones."
Dee rolled her eyes. "Oh, no. We talked about this. You want to try to actually move among these people. It won't work, Cale. Look at the trouble you had with Hiraf – and he was educated in the 'old' way of talking."
"I can provide clothing that resembles those of the people," Tess replied, "but I cannot synthesize the rough fabrics themselves. Close examination will reveal the differences. And I can only produce the outer garments. We do not know what undergarments, if any, are worn."
Cale shrugged. "If they strip us to our underwear we're already in trouble. Judging by Hiraf's robe, I suspect most of the material is homespun. Just make us outer garments that look as crude as possible. Dee's right about the speech, though. How is that translator program coming?"
"It's nearing completion," Tess replied. "It will help you understand their speech, but it will not help you speak. Translators are designed to be worn by both parties, so that each can speak his own language and be understood by the other."
"See?" Dee insisted. "You'll get yourself burned as a witch, or something, speaking Standard. Forget it!"
Cale sighed. "I can't, Dee. We can't go back without even trying to get information on the farmers and even the nomads. We have to know what the colonists will be facing."
Dee's face clouded, and it seemed she was about to erupt, but suddenly she sagged in her couch and sighed deeply. "You're right. I hate it, but you're right. We have to try. But I go with you, and we both go armed. Agreed?"
Cale brightened. "Agreed. But that still leaves the language problem. Tess, is there any chance you could use your translator program to program a hypnogogue?"
Dee groaned. "Oh, God, I hate those things. Hypnotic learning always gives me a headache."
"It seems possible, Cale," Tess replied, "but it will take several hours to convert the program and ready the hypnogogue. And I cannot guarantee complete reliability. I suspect you will have an odd accent."
Cale shrugged. "We'll be impersonating itinerant traders, so maybe that won't be too much of a problem."
"We hope." Dee added.
Cale grinned. "Fervently!"
"I will have packs made for you," Tess said. "What about trade goods?"
Cale shrugged. "We can't take much from off-planet," he replied. "But I would like to have a couple of good quality ceramic knives, and maybe a few trinkets that can prove we're from off-planet if necessary. We might grab a few cook pots and things from the space station. But I think we'll have to get most of the stuff on-planet."
"We really don't have time to raid a city," Dee protested. "Besides we might get caught!"
Cale shook his head. "I had something else in mind. Tess, in your maps, do you show any ruins that are so far from the occupied areas that they are unlikely to have been looted?"
"There are a number of them," Tess replied. "Comparing the old maps with our own, I have power broadcast stations, scientific stations on both continents, and even hunting camps."