"I can't see any benefit to Belazir in this." She pointed at the body on the sled. "This is his son-according to Soamosa-his oldest son. You tell me, why would he sacrifice him?"
Joseph turned away with a disgusted sound, then he swung back and said in a low fierce voice, "We have only his word that he is Belazir's son. I do not call that proof."
"It's not like you to be blinded by prejudice, Joe. Look at him. If there's one thing I'm not likely to forget, it's what Belazir t'Marid looks like. That boy is a copy of him. In any event, the first time in recorded history that a Kolnari does a good deed, I don't think the proper response is to stuff him out the air-lock. So, you're just going to have to be patient with me and put up with him."
Without another word Joseph turned and walked over to Amos, leaning close to speak with him.
Joat rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue in dismay. The quarantine hold wasn't that big. Hah!, the ship isn't big enough to hold this kind of rancor. Wake up, Amos! We need you.
She strolled over to the sled and tapped Soamosa on the shoulder.
"I need you to help me get the Captain in here."
"Oh," the girl looked distressed. "Must I go?" She indicated Seg with a fluid gesture. "Could not your assistant aid you?"
"My friend is helping your friend," Joat explained patiently. "Besides, the Captain will know you, where he doesn't know us."
"No," Soamosa murmured, shaking her head sadly, "he will not. Nor does he recognize anyone else, or anything." Her eyes filled with sorrow: "It is truly terrible, what they have done to him."
"Yeah," Joat agreed. "The Kolnari specialize in that sort of thing. And I'm not too happy about what they've done to Amos, either."
"Amos? The Benisur Amos?"
For the first time the girl looked around her. Immediately, her eyes fell on Amos, laying deathly still in the rescue pod, looking like nothing so much as a man in his coffin.
She shrieked and fell to her knees, babbling, "No, oh no, oh no…" over and over.
Joseph walked over to her again and knelt beside her, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"He is well, Lady. Only drugged, but the Benisur is conscious, he knows you are here. Will you come and speak to him?"
Soamosa looked at him in horror.
"He is well, I assure you. Dr.!T'sel here was looking for an antidote to the drug the Kolnari gave him. But then he was distracted." Joseph glared at Seg as he said this.
"This is a very sick man," Seg told him firmly, "I'm afraid that takes precedence. The Benisur will recover from the drug very nicely all on his own. Karak here is going to need some doctoring."
Joat watched Soamosa's distress grow, the girl's head whipped from Karak, to Joseph, to Amos and back again.
She laid her hand on Soamosa's shoulder and said briskly, "You'll have plenty of time later to talk to Amos, and Karak is in good hands with Seg. Meanwhile I need help with Captain Sung and you're already in a suit." She gave Soamosa a reassuring smile. "We'll only be a few minutes."
Soamosa closed her eyes and took a deep breath, releasing it slowly, she stood.
"Very well," she said calmly, her voice shaking only a little.
Joat raised a brow, impressed. Not quite the sheltered Bethelite maiden she seems. I think this oasis rose was carved from steelite.
Soamosa turned to Joseph and spoke with the hauteur of twenty generations of aristocrats: "Ser ben Said, if you can not reconcile your feelings for the Kolnari, then I suggest that you keep away from my friend. For I will not suffer him to be hurt." She narrowed her eyes. "Neither will I tolerate any insult being offered to him. Do I make myself clear?"
"Quite clear, Lady," Joseph answered quietly.
Well said, young cousin, Amos thought. I am sorry that you have had this terrible experience, and yet, you have grown. You sound like a woman now and not a silly girl.
To find her changed so much for the better, in spite of the pain and humiliation she had endured at Belazir's hands was nothing short of a miracle. Inside his mind he smiled. I do not think your mother will find you very easy to manipulate after this. He imagined her mother's face as Soamosa presented Karak as her dear friend and hero.
Oh child, he thought in amused dismay, she will never speak to either of us again. For that matter, they'd probably be stoned to death anywhere on Bethel, unless he put guards around them every hour of the day-and he would have to pick the guards carefully. No Bethelite would accept any Kolnari on equal terms; never mind as a potential son-in-law. They had lost too many loved ones to the Kolnari's casual cruelty. Not a family on the planet had been untouched by the brief but violent occupation. And the pirates had planned to sear the world down to bedrock when they finished looting it.
This will not be easy, he thought. It may not even be possible. Child, child…
Joat sank exhausted into her chair on the bridge. She didn't know what was worse: Sung's blank-eyed terror and the small shrill sounds he made when they'd suddenly passed into the Wyal's gravity, or the infantile gratitude with which he'd hugged Soamosa when she took off her helmet.
She shuddered. Then she popped the top on the container of coffee she'd grabbed from the galley and gratefully took a sip of the hot, fragrant brew.
Kraig's nostrils flared at the scent, but he remained quiet, watching her carefully from the prison of his frozen suit.
"Rand, patch me through to Al, will you?"
In a moment Alvec's voice came through the com.
"Yo, boss. You wanted to talk to me?"
"Just wanted to know how it's going out there, buddy."
"Quiet. Nothin' to report, really. Wyal's where the action is."
"You've got that right, Al. Would you believe Soamosa's in love with that Kolnari she brought in? Joe wants me to space him, Seg, I don't doubt, wants to study him, and Amos just lies there. Who knows what he wants."
She sighed wearily. "I think we should blow the fighter they came in. It's contaminated and we can't be bothered to salvage it, not with so much else to do. Can you manage that for us?"
"No problem, boss." By his voice Joat knew his eyes were gleaming. "You should see this weapons system ol' Kraig's got here."
"Yeah, when it comes to weapons there's no such thing as enough, for the Kolnari. Only things left regretfully behind."
Seg came quietly onto the bridge.
At Joat's questioning look he said, "I've got the young Kolnari stabilized. Fascinating reaction. I can't tell you how much I miss my lab!"
It was obvious from the passion in his voice. Joat smiled. Seg was a different being when he was in professional mode. As an espionage wannabe he might be a figure of fun, but as a scientist he was definitely a being to respect.
"I'm receiving a transmission from Central Worlds," Rand announced.
"Attention merchanter ship Wyal. Message received. Repeat, message received. We will act on your information immediately. Message ends."
"That's it?" Joat sat forward in outrage. "That's all they have to say?"
"Well, they wouldn't tell us anything that might be intercepted," Alvec mumbled. Under his breath: "I never did like those straight-leg bast… children of irregular origin."
"You can't intercept a tight-beam message," she snapped. She flung herself back in her seat. "It could be days. It's already been days." Her lips narrowed to an angry line, and her fingers beat a rapid tattoo on the arms of her chair. "We've got to do something or he's dead."
Her eyes strayed to her prisoner and met Kraig's. She smiled, showing her teeth and his Adam's apple bobbed prodigiously. "That's right," she murmured, "be afraid-be very afraid."