Freedom's Ransom

Chapter Twenty-Two

Just at that moment, Gino Marrucci entered the mess hall and came over to Zainal with a clipboard, on which a sheaf of papers flut-tered from the speed of his entrance.

"Hi, glad I caught you, Zainal." He looked down at his notes. "Got supplies lined up for all of the KDMs and the KDLs. Did you plan to use Baby, too?"

"She should be ready to fly in case we need her. Did Peter and Aarens manage to figure out a long-distance homing device?"

"Not for the distances we'll have to travel."

"Well, we can use Baby to check out that old Eosi excavation on our moon."

"D'you think an Eosi actually hid stuff there, too?" "It's a remote possibility," Zainal admitted.

"So were the bread-loaf chests in the junkyard," Kris reminded him. He gave a diffident shrug.

He went over the supply sheets with Gino and initialed the crews. "This is all contingent, you know," he reminded Gino.

"Every kid, including your own, is out hunting rock squats and the kitchen is prepared to roast and toast until they're all done." "Hope someone finds some nests and eggs. We can get an incu-bator for the trip out and present them with rock squat chicks," Kris remarked. "Personally, I don't like rock squat eggs but they're bet-ter than nothing." She had a vision of rock squat farms taking over from the piggeries on the Secaucus meadows, and Murray as a squat farmer. She giggled and waved off Zainal's look of inquiry. There was of course the problem of bringing alien life forms to Earth. The first incursion had not been a success.

Zainal got touchier and touchier during the afternoon and she worried about him. He had done so much already. What did he ex-pect of himself? Certainly far more than others expected of him. Sally Stoffers called in briefly to deliver a note.

"There never was a quotation on the stock market for the value of Catteni bunts against American dollars or English sterling. But Mike suggested we use the gold rate as a standard: those coins are twenty carat gold, just enough impurity to keep them from being too soft for use or clipped." She handed him her note. "That gives the equivalent, and it's far more than we borrowed from Mike Miller. That doesn't even include the jewelry, just the coin. The stones in some of those necklaces and rings and stuff would buy what's left of Manhattan. If it was still on the gold standard."

When Zainal finally decided it was time to go to the evening meeting, he looked more woebegone than ever and Kris couldn't think of anything to cheer him up.

"I didn't get everything I said I would get," he remarked as they reached the hall. Then he squared his shoulders and walked boldly into the meeting.

It was even better attended than the previous one, which encour-aged Kris even if Zainal did not seem to notice. Brone sat in the front row with the two boys, who waved wildly to catch their father's at tention before Brone murmured something to them. They both sat on their hands then and tried to contain such un-Catteni-like reac-tions. Ditsy, Clune, and Floss sat behind them, and Floss, her hair trimmed and neat around her face, wore the second of her two new dresses: the bright blue patterned one. Their shipmates had taken seats in the same row and were beaming at the entrance of Kris and Zainal, which caused a ripple of comment throughout the hall.

Dorothy Dwardie, Dr. Hessian, and the other members of the Botany Management Board, including Worry, took their places on the platform, so this time judge Iri Bempechat was last in, raising his gavel, preparatory to starting the meeting. A respectful silence fell over the hall.

"As you know, Zainal and his exploratory crew have safely re-turned and our coffee mugs are full. He wishes to explain in detail what occurred and why. Please give him your complete attention."

Zainal did not go up on the platform but faced the audience on their level.

"We did well, but not as well as I led you to believe we would," he said and was surprised when someone booed.

"You got back, you brought us coffee and a whole raft of materi- als we can't get anywhere else, Zainal. What's your problem with that?" It was Worry who had spoken, and Kris was relieved that it had not been one of the more vocal detractors.

"Sally Stoffers has a record of what I traded the Botany resources for," Zainal said, pointing at Sally in the audience.

"He did real good, folks. We all did. Got quite handy with bar-gaining, even when those Barevian merchants were being damned stingy."

Zainal gave her a grateful nod for her comment.

"I didn't do as much as I promised you I would and could." He was not apologizing, Kris realized, but explaining. "Barevi's a different world now than the one I knew"

"Yeah, they lost the war."

"That isn't what I meant," Zainal replied, exasperated and possi-bly unable to explain what was prompting him to make this confes-sion. "Though on balance, I think your planet has made the better adjustment."

"Good for Earth!" Someone hoisted a clenched fist skyward in an old gesture of supremacy.

"Botany is in an extraordinary situation," Zainal went on. "Both worlds are at a crossroads, I think. I know" Kris could see his chest rise as he took a deep breath. "I would like to think that we can do more: both for Earth, your planet, and for mine."

"Invade them?" someone called.

"The Eosi were manipulative and: and evil," Zainal said. "They perverted my world and subjugated many more. Many more." "That's their problem."

"No, it is ours as well. We inhabit the same galaxy. There is more we can do to assist recovery on your own world. I would like to have the same discretion to help mine: and ours!" He hurried on lest someone interrupt him. "The Botany Space Force would be in-valuable to both worlds, or I should say, all three, including Barevi."

"Mike?" Kris said, pointing in the direction of the men. "Practical spe-cialists like agrarians to see what Terran things, like potatoes, would do well here and what might be sent back to Earth to be propagated."

"And a dentist. With his equipment. Where is Eric Sachs?"

"Doing a very good business on Barevi. He didn't care to desert his patients at short notice."

"We'll pick him up on our next visit," Kris remarked, though she wondered if they would repatriate the ebullient Dr. Sachs.

"I'm sure we need time to discuss the details of these ideas," Judge Iri said, banging his gavel so he could be heard, "but let us be re-solved, here and now, to do what we can to relieve Earth's problems as best we can and to try to establish harmonious relationships with the Catteni government and the Barevi merchants. What say you?" There was a roar of approval, much stamping of feet, and loud ap-plause.

"You're stuck with it, Zainal," the judge said, with a tap on Zainal's shoulder for the work that he had cut out for himself. "You asked for it. You got it."

Kris rushed forward, ahead of the crowd, to hug Zainal, who was now grinning widely with relief.

Maybe this exceptional man could indeed manage the feats he had promoted himself for. He returned her embrace, not embarrassed to be seen displaying such an un-Catteni demonstration of affection. "I dropped, I stay."