She pulsed an update of her earlier message with these details to the nearest Fleet facility-a good ten days away even by the speed of a pulse. The Admiralty had sworn blind that they intended to wipe Kolnari pirates out of space forever. So here was a chance for an ambitious picket commander to make that clean sweep and get a promotion. A small, modern force could easily overwhelm this shag-bag-rag-bag of barely spaceworthy vehicles. On the other hand, the Kolnari would fight to the last male child able to wield a weapon or fire a missile… and they had rather a few of those. Even Kolnari females were vicious fighters. Reviewing what was known of their lifestyle, it was likely a great many of the women were slaves, captured and forced to breed up more Kolnari offspring.
She sped on, wishing she had more information on the Chloes. Living close to nature on another planet was fine in theory, but practice was another thing altogether. As the original religious group had found out the hard way on Daphnis and Chloe a hundred years ago.
She had completed a holographic account of the less palatable habits of the Kolnari, including the modus operandi of their invasion of the peaceful planet, Bethel. The Tri-D coverage had been found in the space wreckage and used in the trial against those that had been captured at SS900. She was delighted to have found the one that showed vividly how the Kolnari dealt with anyone who defied them. That was the short sharp lesson she needed to project. She edited it, added some voice-over, and then programmed the exterior vid systems to play it.
That ought to cut down the waste of time spent arguing. She wanted every single female resident of Ravel safely hidden away when the Kolnari arrived.
She didn't rouse Niall-why bother him when he was sleeping like the dead-or rather the holo of him. He had always been hard to wake, though once roused, he altered from sleepy to alert in seconds. She had the time, so she did a leisurely spin-in, quartering the globe from darkside to daylight and identifying congregates of life signs… all too many. She'd never make it to every settlement. How could these piously celibate folk have increased almost fourfold from the numbers of the registered settlers? "Multiply and be fruitful" might be a Biblical injunction but, if the last bunch had come four decades before, there were a great many more than there ought to be. Rabbits might multiply so. But virgin rabbits? Well, she'd get to as many… what had they called themselves-ah, cloisters-as she could. Maybe they had some form of communication between the settlements, widespread as they were on the sprawling main continent. She'd simply have to ignore the island groups and concentrate on the larger, juicier targets that the Kolnari would be likely to attack first.
Smack-dab in the middle of the main continent, she easily identified what had been the landing field-well, a few square acres of burnt-out ground, a flimsy concrete-covered grid where ships or shuttles had landed to off-load people and supplies. Rows of temporary barracks, weathered and in need of maintenance, bordered two sides of the field to show that humans had once been accommodated there for however brief a time. There was a low-power source discernible and vegetation had not grown back over the landing area, though in forty-some years there should have been some weeds regaining a root hold. A blocky tower, now tilting sideways, held the corner position of the two barrack rows. From her aerial advantage, she could also see four roads, each going away from the deserted landing place: north, south, east and west. She could see where auxiliary lanes had split off from the main ones, smaller arteries leading to probably smaller settlements. Though none appeared to be more than dirt tracks, the vigorous growths had not reclaimed the track, leaving a clear margin on both sides. Some sort of chemical must have been used to discourage succession.
"I wonder how they decided who went in which direction," she murmured, forgetting that oddity in the press of more important concerns.
"Probably by divine intervention," Niall said, and there he was, seated at the pilot's console.
She hadn't put a voice-operated command in the program, but there he was, and she was rather pleased to hear another voice after the silent days of inward travel.
"Makes it easier to have just four main directions to search in."
"Those tracks were made over a period of years or they wouldn't be quite so visible since the last time they were used forty years ago."
"True. So, eeny, meeny, miny, moe… which track will we follow now? East is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet," he said in one of his whimsical moods.
"Nothing for north and south?"
"Well, we could go this way?" And he crossed his arms, pointing in two separate directions, neither of which was a cardinal compass point.
"North, I think, and then swing round…" Helva decided.
"In ever-increasing circles?" His tone was so caustically bright!
"Mountains, too. That's good."
" 'Purple mountains' majesty, above the fruited plain'…" he quoted.
"That doesn't sound right."
"I've forgot how it goes," he said, frowning.
"They do say that memory is the first thing that aging affects…"
"Thanks! I'll remember that."
Cloaked and at low altitude, she followed the northern track, noting the offshoots and realizing she had bit off quite a lot to chew if she was going to warn even half the inhabitants. She refused to allow the fact to discourage her from her chosen task. And night was falling on the continent.
"Ah-ha!" Niall pointed urgently at the view port. "Fires. Port three degrees."
"And far too much forest for me to land in."
"I don't mind backtracking when you can find a landing spot… Oh, no, I can't, can I?"
"No, you can't, but I appreciate your willingness to offer. Especially since I need to show my little vid to stir them to action."
"You could use the prosthesis," he said in a wheedling tone, grinning at her.
She said nothing-pointedly-and he chuckled. She might have to at that if daylight didn't show her settlements she could reach. She could hover… but she'd need something to project the vid on to for maximum effectiveness.
"I'll just use the darkness for reconnaissance and find out how many places I'm going to have to visit."
"Good thinking. I'll make a list of the coordinates. You might need them if the Fleet does come to our aid and comfort."
By morning his list of settlements, in all directions, had reached the three hundred mark. Some were small in the forested areas, but the plains or rolling hill country had many with several hundred inhabitants. All were ringed with walls, and these seemed to exude the power that showed up at every settlement, as well as a land-dike that Niall called a margin of no-woman's-land. The largest congregation was sited at the confluence of two rivers.
"If they have such a thing as an administrative center, that is likely it," she said. "We'll go there first thing in the morning. When I've had a quick look at that island complex."
"Whatever you say, love," Niall remarked with unusual compliance.
So she-they-arrived bright and early as the sun rose over the cup of the mountains that surrounded the largest congregation of Ravel's Chloe-ites.
"Rather impressive, wouldn't you say?" Niall remarked. "Orderly, neat. Everyone must have a private domicile. Thought you said they were a cloistered order."
The arrangement of the town, small city, did surprise Helva. Streets laid out in the center while garden plots and some large fields were positioned all around but within the customary low surrounding wall. There were main gates at each of the cardinal points of the compass but they weren't substantiaclass="underline" a Kolnari war axe would have reduced them to splinters with the first blow. A power source was visible on her sensors but it seemed to power the wall. What could they be keeping out that wasn't very tall or large or strong? Odd. Larger buildings set in the midst of fenced fields suggested either storage or barn shelters. She saw nothing grazing, though the season looked to be spring, to judge by the delicate green of cultivated fields, all within the walled boundary.