'Easier than the job we did aboard the Star of Wonder,' Jack said. 'At least here I'll have you and the Essenay on hand to back me up.'
'Maybe,' Uncle Virge said ominously. 'Maybe not. Slavemaster estates aren't the easiest places in the world to break into, you know. When push comes to shove comes to a poke in the snoot, I may not be able to do much from the outside.
In which case, you and your K'da poet-warrior will be on your own.'
'We've been on our own before,' Jack reminded him. Still, Draycos could see the boy's throat muscles tighten a little more. 'Quit stalling. Let's get to it.'
Uncle Virge sighed. 'If you insist,' he said. 'I suppose you'll want a look at the place before we land.'
'That would be nice,' Jack said dryly. 'Pipe it back here, will you?'
The display screen on the dayroom wall had been showing a pleasant, peaceful scene of a sunlit mountain pass. Now it changed to a view of a cloud-mottled, bluish-green landscape far below. 'How soon till we can see something?' Jack asked.
'Give me a chance, Jack lad,' Uncle Virge huffed. 'We've only just reached the planet.'
'Okay, okay, don't pop a port,' Jack said soothingly. 'I can work on this awhile longer.'
'What help may I offer?' Draycos asked, padding across the room to Jack's side and looking down at the table. Jack had turned the surface transparent, and on the displays beneath it were rows of what looked like wiggled tracks made by extremely startled worms.
'It's a group of common Brummgan words, written in Brummgan script,' Jack said.
'Most Orion Arm computers have automatic translators built in, so I shouldn't have any trouble reading their data lists once I'm in. But there might be other stuff along the way I'll need to be able to read.'
'Very likely,' Draycos agreed. 'How may I help?'
'That screen over there shows the translations,' Jack said, pointing to the far end of the table. 'I'll mix these up and then try to read them. You see if I get them right.'
They went through the drill twice, with Jack missing only seven words the first time and four the second. By the time they were finished, the dayroom display was showing a high-resolution image of the ground below them.
'You'll have to settle for an angled view,' Uncle Virge said as the image shifted direction a little. 'We're heading for the Ponocce Regional Spaceport, at the southern edge of Ponocce City and about three miles from the Chookoock estate itself. Given our current vector, it would look suspicious for us to fly directly over them.'
'Just do the best you can,' Jack said.
'Right,' Uncle Virge said. 'Anyway, that's it coming up on the left, pressed right up against the eastern edge of the city. That white line there—see it?
That's the estate's outer wall.'
Stretching out his long neck, Draycos studied the image scrolling slowly across the display. The estate was a huge one, covering nearly as much territory as the city alongside it. The ribbon of white that Uncle Virge had identified as the outer wall snaked across the landscape, disappearing here and there behind low hills or tall bushes until it finally vanished completely behind the trees of a
thick forest. Along with the forest, the estate also included neat rectangles of cropland, areas of bushy undergrowth, a rock quarry, several ponds, and a small river.
The wall itself was deceptively plain and simple-looking, with no signs of guard towers or patrolling aircraft. It was almost as if it was there just for show.
Draycos didn't believe it for a minute. Neither, obviously, did Jack. 'So what's the story on that wall?' the boy asked.
'Some kind of hardened ceramic, looks like,' Uncle Virge said. 'Shape-wise, it seems to be a sort of X cross section. That means you have an overhang to deal with no matter which side you start climbing from.'
'That ought to discourage casual visitors,' Jack commented. 'What about non-casual ones?'
'Not sure,' Uncle Virge grunted. 'It looks like there may be a set of lasers running along the groove at the top, nestled down into the center of the X
and aiming upward. There may be some flame jets mixed in, too.'
Draycos felt the tip of his tail making slow circles. Lasers and flame jets, firing straight up out of the top of the wall. The Chookoock family was serious about keeping people out.
Or, perhaps, serious about keeping people in. 'How many slaves do they keep inside the estate itself?' he asked.
'Hundreds,' Uncle Virge said grimly. 'Humans and several other species. A lot of them are working the cropland and quarry, plus there's a big group in the forest.'
'Logging?' Jack asked.
'I don't know,' Uncle Virge said. 'Most of that batch are gathered around a particular line of bushes. Don't know what that's all about.'
'What about buildings?' Jack asked.
'There are several.' On the display, a red rectangle appeared, outlining a group of brown-and-green-speckled buildings that blended smoothly into their surroundings. 'The long buildings here and here are probably slave quarters,'
Uncle Virge said, marking them with red blips. 'We've also got service buildings—kitchens, laundry facilities, washrooms.'
'A complete community within the wall,' Draycos commented.
'Two communities, actually,' Uncle Virge said, sounding disgusted. 'The slaves'
area; and this.' The image shifted again, centering on a huge brown-roofed building. 'The Chookoock family mansion.'
Draycos leaned a little closer to the display. The mansion was set about half a
mile back from the western edge of the estate, with an extensive parking area in front and a long, winding drive connecting it to a wide gate in the white wall.
On both sides of the drive were formal gardens, complete with flower beds, shrubs, and occasional clumps of small trees.
To the north of the mansion was a large open area where the grass had been marked with a series of lines and circles. Some sort of sports ground, probably.
A tall grandstand sat facing the field at the south end, with tall flagpoles at its corners. Further to the north, between the open ground and the slave areas, was a thick line of brown and green that was probably another wall.
He turned his attention to the mansion itself. The structure was four stories high, judging from the window placement. It was composed of a central section with a number of small wings jutting out at odd angles. There was no particular symmetry to the design, but the final result was nevertheless not unpleasing to the eye.
The structure was built of irregular pieces of stone in shades of brown, tan, and gray. Probably stone from the estate's own quarry—he'd noticed similar shades of rock there. Overall, the whole thing reminded him of a rocky section of cliff from which the soil had been scraped or eroded away. Perhaps that had been the designer's intent.
'Cozy,' Jack said. 'Ideal for you and three hundred of your closest friends.
So, back to the perimeter wall. Any idea how high it is?'
Draycos looked at the wall. By comparing its shadow to that of the house, which he'd already estimated to be four stories tall... 'I would say about thirty feet high,' he offered.
'It's actually thirty-two,' Uncle Virge said.
Draycos felt his tail twitch with annoyance. Typical. With access to the Essenay's sensors, Uncle Virge had probably had that number several minutes ago.
But instead of saying anything, he'd let Draycos make his own estimate first.
And had then showed him to be wrong. Not very far wrong, but enough. Just one more subtle attempt to sow seeds of doubt and distrust toward Draycos in Jack's mind.
From the very beginning, Uncle Virge had tried to get the boy to see things in his own, self-absorbed way, to persuade him to wash his hands of the K'da poet-warrior and this mission to save a people Jack didn't even know.
Clearly, he hadn't given up that effort.
