'She has delta vee to burn. Not that I'll waste any.'
'She's our one auxiliary until the hyperwave gang rejoin us.'
'Samurai will be close, with several, in case of emergency. Which is ridiculously improbable. And you know I'm a qualified pilot.'
'Why, however, when our probes are not even all deployed?' the captain asked.
'Precisely for that reason. A live brain, a trained eye, alert for the unforeseeable. Which, at present, is virtually everything in and around Kumukahi. I'll wager you a month's pay we'll be rewriting the robots' programs immediately after my first excursion.'
Worning scowled. 'I do not take the bet, because I will not allow this. It is reckless.'
Affability and persuasiveness flooded over him. 'Captain, with due and considerable respect, I beg leave to prove to you that it isn't. Instead, it's the best investment we can make. Time is short. We can't afford to miss a single chance of learning something. It'll never come again.'
He'll win, Tyra knew, and go cometing off, laughing for sheer joy. He will return like a knight of old from a joust with giants.
She could well-nigh see plume and pennon flying in the wind of his gallop.
7
She had planned to conduct some interviews aboard Samurai, but it was an astonishment to be invited, virtually bidden, over there just four days after Freuchen took orbit. A naval auxiliary with a tight-lipped pilot flitted her quickly across the few hundred klicks between, and she was conducted directly to a communications-outfitted cabin. Captain Bihari sat alone at a desk, confronting a screen live but blank. The door slid shut behind her. 'Be seated,' was the brusque greeting. However, when Tyra had taken a chair opposite, the officer said with a grim smile, 'This should give you quite an interesting story.' The tone was serious. 'For my part, I want a responsible outside observer, to report the truth afterward. Already we're having a crisis with the kzin. Please stay where you are and keep silence while I am transmitting. You will note that you can see what goes on but are not in the scanner field. I don't suppose these ones would recognize you and recall the part you played against their kind, but if any of them did, matters could get entirely out of hand. The situation is bad enough without taking the slightest added risk.'
'I could have stayed aboard the Freuchen, patched in,' Tyra said. Bihari frowned. 'Too many others could eavesdrop. I don't call them untrustworthy, but-different people interpret things in different ways, and soon rumors run wild.' She sighed. 'The political balance on Earth is such that we have to-we have orders to avoid any unnecessary word or action that might conceivably be taken as 'aggressive' or 'provocative.' '
Tyra stiffened. 'Really? Well, ma'am, you must decide what is necessary, mustn't you?'
'Yes, and justify it, here and at home. I wouldn't put it past certain parties to claim we falsified our databases. Easy to do, after all.'
No, Tyra thought, Craig would never be so paranoid. He simply, genuinely wants peace-what decent human being doesn't?-and believes we can have it if we try. 'I see, ma'am. I'm your impartial witness.' Is that possible for me?… I'll have my opinions, but I won't write lies.
'You've come barely in time. I have commenced conversation'-again the wolf's grin-'as the diplomats say, with Ghrul-Captain aboard their mother ship. His response to my complaint, as the diplomats would also say, should arrive shortly.' Eight or nine minutes either way for radio to travel between the vessels circling Pele.
Dismay: 'It's about Birgit and the Dalmadys, isn't it?'
'Who or what else would it be?'
The fact jabbed through Tyra. Eisenberg had piloted a boat carrying the biological team to the third planet, Kama-pua'a. The second was less favorably positioned at present; though the third orbited farther out, it wasn't much more than thirty hours off, at one gee with midpoint turnover. If something unexpected began happening to Kumukahi, which it might at any moment, the boat would be wanted back straightaway. Meanwhile, husband and wife could do science yonder.
'But-they weren't going to land where the kzinti are,' Tyra protested. More remembrance. Kama-pua'a was another giant, with a swarm of moons. The two biggest had thin atmospheres. They were close enough that tidal flexion, as well as whatever internal heat remained, kept them warm enough that life was perhaps, barely, germinating on either or both. Its origins were so various, probably many of the possibilities still unknown… The boat had sent images back, a great spheroid banded with clouds and storms, the craggy surface of Moku-ola ahead, the joyful expectations inboard…
The kzinti had established their bases on the small outer satellite the humans called Poliahu, obviously mostly ice.
'You know and the kzinti know what sensitive instruments can do, especially at short ranges like that,' Bihari said. 'Frankly, I would have liked very much to send some of ours along, but my orders- Hold.'
The screen filled with a tigerish countenance. The voice rumbled with a menace and-glee?-that the flat English of the translator had no need to convey. 'Your words are insolent. No Hero can tolerate such. You will make amends for the intrusion, amends which I will specify, or your spies will suffer the consequences that they have earned.'
Bihari kept her tone level, steeliness only in the dark face. 'I deny again that they are spies and that your gang had any right whatsoever to seize them. They will be returned promptly, unharmed, or there will indeed be consequences. However, as a point of information, what demands have you in mind?' She ceased transmission pending the reply, turned to Tyra, and said, 'This is preposterous, as I think even a kzin must realize. They can scarcely be carrying on military work there.'
'No,' Tyra answered. 'Not exactly. I can guess what it is.'
'Tell me.'
'They used a special kind of tug at the old red sun where Captain Saxtorph surprised them. It could fly close, to nudge ferriferous objects into trajectories for collection. The crew survived those passages because the craft, besides having big reflecting surfaces, was heavily loaded with water. Vented to space, the water cooled it during the time of exposure. I think these kzinti have one like it along, though it must be smaller.'
Bihari nodded. 'Yes, of course I remember the reports, but thank you for reminding me.' She stroked her chin. 'Our own long-range observations do show large excavations, and structures that may well be prefabricated facilities for purification and transfer… Yes, I feel sure you are right. Thank you again. You have done us a service.'
Our instruments are all directed at Pele and Kumukahi, Tyra thought. 'They can't claim that's military.'
'Not logically. If it were, it would be a violation of the peace treaty. But proprietary processes-I can't predict how an Earthside court would rule. I suspect dear Ghrul-Captain was rather well briefed before he left home. The kzin may be mad, but they are not stupid; and… there have been humans eager to inform them. There doubtless still are.'
'Civilian, military, no difference to them anyway,' said Tyra with a bitterness that the memory of her brother redoubled.
'You understand.'
'He's been on the lurk for an excuse, any excuse, to make trouble for us. What can we do?'
'That will be seen,' said Bihari.
They spoke little more but sat each with her thoughts until the kzin face came back.
'Your two ships will move to hyperspacing distance,' stated Ghrul-Captain. 'When they have done so, we will allow the three creatures we hold to rendezvous with you. You will then depart.'
'And leave further discoveries to you,' Bihari retorted. 'Sir, you know how underequipped you are. Priceless knowledge will be lost, which it is our mission to obtain.' She paused. 'Very well, you have made your-initial offer, shall we say? Mine is that you release our people and their boat immediately, unconditionally, and unharmed. In return, we will consider this a misunderstanding which, fortunately, was resolved by mutual reasonableness. I expect your decision as quickly as transmission lag allows.'
The screen blanked.
