Uncle Press and I followed Spader to the far side of the aqua-neer barracks. As we got closer, we heard yelling coming from the building. “I warned her, yes I did! I saw this coming but no one believed me!”
It was coming from Wu Yenza’s office. When we peeked in the door, we saw Yenza behind a desk, looking stern, as usual. Spader stood to the back of the room, listening. All the hubba was coming from two agronomers who stood in front of Yenza’s desk. They were the same man and woman I had seen outside the pilot house on Magorran shortly after the crash. They were arguing then, and they were still arguing now. At least now I had the chance to hear what it was all about. The man was a short, balding guy with an elfiike face named Ty Manoo. In another life, he could have easily gotten a gig in Santa’s workshop. The guy paced, flailed his arms for emphasis, and spit when he talked.
“We set something in motion that must be stopped!” he shouted.
The woman didn’t seem all that worried. Her name was Po Nassi. She was tall and slim with sharp features that reminded me of a sly cat. She stood with her arms folded, looking bored, as if Manoo were nothing more than an annoying kid.
“You are overreacting again,” she said while rolling her eyes.
“Overreacting!” Manoo shot back. “There are hundreds dead on Magorran! We were attacked by raiders! What kind of reaction would you suggest?”
“What is the problem?” asked Spader.
“The problem is we caused the poisoning on Magorran,” Manoo spit out.
Whoa. New development. Uncle Press and I looked at each other and entered the office. It was time to get involved. Yenza saw us and stood up. She looked kind of flustered, like she was losing control of the situation and from what I saw of Yenza, she did not like to lose control.
“Spader, get your friends out of here,” she ordered.
“No,” Spader shot back. “They’re here to help us.”
“I don’t want to cause a panic,” Yenza argued. “Until we find out exactly what happened, we don’t need rumors circulating.”
Uncle Press spoke to Yenza in a calm, controlled voice. “If I may, Commander. Pendragon and I have come from a long way off because we heard there might be some… difficulty here. We won’t spread rumors; we won’t cause a panic. Our only goal is to help see you through this crisis.”
Yenza looked into Uncle Press’s eyes, and I could see her relax. It was kind of creepy, actually. Uncle Press’s soothing words had taken the fight out of her. It reminded me of the quiet way that Loor’s mother, Osa, had a calming effect on people. It was almost hypnotic. I wondered if this were some kind of Traveler trick and made a mental note to ask about it later.
“They already helped save Grallion once,” Spader added. “They’re friends.”
Yenza looked us over. Finally she sat back down and said to the agronomers, “Tell them what you told me.”
Immediately the little guy, Manoo, took over.
“It was an experiment,” he started. “The population of Cloral is growing. The demand for food is always getting greater.”
Nassi didn’t want to be left out and added, “We calculated that at the present rate, there was a good possibility the day would come when the demand for food would be greater than the supply. So we set out to perform an important service.”
“We started looking for ways to increase plant growth,” Manoo continued. “We figured if we could get crops to grow bigger and faster, we’d never have to worry about having enough food. We experimented with fertilizers and crossbreeding and found ways to change the very cell structure of plants. But it was wrong!”
“It wasn’t wrong!” countered Nassi. “It’s a work in progress!”
“But we were changing nature!” cried Manoo. “I tried to tell them we were headed for disaster, but no one listened.”
“That’s because we were successful!” Nassi argued.
“Successful?” shouted Manoo. “We changed nature! We created plants that grew faster but turned poisonous!”
Manoo was a mess. He wiped his sweaty forehead with his sleeve and continued.
“It was the fertilizer,” he said. “We created a fertilizer that affected the normal growth cycle of plants and changed their genetic structure. It was incredible. Plants grew seven times faster and yielded twice as much fruit. We were all so excited that we wanted to share the discovery with everyone. But we moved too fast. We didn’t test the results.”
“It was only recently that we discovered an unfortunate… side effect,” Nassi said, trying to sound casual, as if it were no big deal. “Some of the mutated crops became poisonous. We never actually used the fertilizer on Grallion’s crops. We’re safe here.”
“But, we had already sent a sample of the fertilizer to the Agronomy Society. We only wanted them to study it, but they were so impressed they immediately began manufacturing it and sending it all over Cloral!” shouted Manoo.
Yenza jumped to her feet. “You’re telling me that a fertilizer is being used all over Cloral that turns crops deadly?” she screamed, trying to control her horror.
“Yes!” shouted Manoo. “What happened on Magorran is just the beginning!”
This put a whole new spin on things. Could it be that Saint Dane wasn’t responsible for the poison crops after all? Was he simply taking advantage of the situation? The creation of this killer fertilizer seemed to be the turning point on this territory, but it looked to be the people of Cloral who brought it on themselves.
“The Agronomy Society is on Panger City,” Spader said. “We’ve got to get there and stop them from sending out more fertilizer.”
“That’sexactlywhat we have to do!” squealed Manoo.
“Give us a speeder craft,” added Spader. “We can be in Panger City before nightfall.” Spader was being very clever. Stopping the fertilizer was critical, but the main reason he wanted to get to Panger City was to protect his mum. There was a whole “two birds with one stone” thing happening.
“I’m going too!” added Manoo. He then turned to Nassi, stuck a finger in her face and spit out, “You are too. I’m not going to take full blame for this.”
Nassi shrugged and said, “Fine, whatever you want. I don’t mind taking the credit. Once we perfect the process, we’ll be heroes.”
“But right now, we’re killers,” Manoo said angrily.
This got a reaction from Nassi. Up until then she was only looking at the problem as a science experiment. Being called a killer was a whole ‘nother ballgame. She actually looked shaken.
“I’ll go,” she said, cowed.
Yenza came around from behind her desk heading for the door.
“Meet me at the stern dock in two pecks,” she ordered. “I’ll prepare a speeder. We’reallgoing to Panger City.” Then just before she left the office she turned back and lifted a finger.
“Do not mention this to anyone,” she commanded sternly. “Any of you. If Grallion is safe, there’s no need to cause panic.”
She then left. Nassi and Manoo followed after her, leaving us alone with Spader.
“Is it possible?” he asked. “Could Saint Dane have nothing to do with this?”
“It’s possible, but it doesn’t matter,” answered Uncle Press. “He may not have started it, but he’ll take advantage of it.”
“And there’s still the stuff about Faar,” I added. “How does that fit in?”
“Hopefully we’ll find out on Panger City,” answered Uncle Press.
Forty minutes later, or two pecks, depending on where you come from, the six of us were at the dock, ready to leave for Panger City. I stood with Uncle Press, Spader, and the two agronomers, Nassi and Manoo. The speeder we were going to take was a coolio-looking powerboat that looked about forty feet long. It was painted the same sea-green color as the raiders’ battle cruiser. It had a cabin up front that was big enough to hold a galley and some bunks. The wheelhouse was on top of the cabin. Wu Yenza was already there, powering up. The deck was large, with seats along the rails. It kind of reminded me of the dive boats Uncle Press used to take me on. But unlike dive
