Freedom's Ransom

Chapter Seventeen

Kris had more sense than to struggle as she and Kathy were hauled away, Floss and Jax weeping, while Chuck had to re-strain Clime and the boys from giving the bullies accompa-nying Kapash any excuse to knock them about with the heavy cudgels they carried: part weapon, part symbol of their func-tion. The last thing she saw was Ferris, disappearing from view, un-doubtedly running to find Zainal. And Ferris would, wherever her mate was.

"Misrepresentation of products, indeed!" she muttered to Kathy. "You know how careful we are to explain exactly how to grind beans and brew coffee," Kathy was saying, sniffling with fear and wringing her hands.

Chuck disliked hand-wringing women almost as much as weep-ing ones, but he felt like weeping in fear himself. Natchi had warned him that morning that a slaver had made port early and would leave as soon as it was filled. Frankly, he wouldn't put it past Kapash to en-sure that Kris and Kathy were on it, a nasty result of the specious charge leveled against them.

Where was Zainal? Oh, and here was the merchant he was to see today! Speaking more calmly than he felt, Chuck greeted the man and asked him which coffee he preferred.

"The stronger bean," Nilink said with an easy smile. "I shall need my wits today, bargaining with Emassi Zainal. It is amazing to find coffee on Barevi. I should have filled my hold with the beans and I'd've done well with such spoils."

"You are a spaceship captain, Emassi?" Chuck asked politely.

The man's clothing gave away little about him, though it was well cut and of good, durable fabric. He also had the air of some-one accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed. Rather like Zainal, in fact, Chuck thought, wondering where the big Cat-teni was.

"I was indeed a captain," Nilink replied, "as was Zainal, I un-derstand."

Ferris came running back, almost careening into Nilink but halt-ing just in time with an apologetic bow to the Emassi. "I caught Zainal. He has gone to Kapash. My pardon, good Emassi," he added. ris and Kathy, still professing innocence of whatever it was the head steward accused them of, were thrust into a dark, dank prison cell, already well filled to judge by the number of people they disturbed by their entry.

Oh Lord, not again! Kris thought, for the ambience put her force-fully in mind of the first time she had been in this situation, before she had been dropped on Botany-when she and Zainal had been gassed during the riot of Terrans. Only this morning Chuck had mentioned that a slave ship had docked, and the thought filled her with dread.

Beside her, Kathy was trying to rearrange her clothing after the rough handling they had received from Kapash's police.

"We didn't misrepresent anything. Was it that squint-eyed fellow from yesterday, d'you suppose?"

Inadvertently she trod on someone's arm and the man tried to knock her feet out from under her, cursing.

Kris steadied Kathy and motioned her to the wall, where they might find a safer place to wait.

"Zainal will come for us, won't he?" Kathy asked.

"Yes, of course he will, Kathy," Kris said positively. "Chuck will have sent Ferris running for him."

They found a place to sit but they were not far from the commu-nal slop pots and the stench was overpowering, so they moved, care-fully, through the other prisoners to find a less redolent place.

Most of the inmates were sprawled, getting what sleep they could. The air certainly stank of stale beer and whatever other alcohol had been consumed: the stench was incredible.

"He will come?" There was understandable anxiety in Kathy's voice. "He will come!" Kris replied in an unarguable tone of voice and then, finding a space against the wall in the corner, pulled Kathy down to sit beside her.

"I'm thirsty," Kathy said. "Don't think about it, Kathy."

Kris did not think Kathy's courage would improve by being told that prisoners in Barevi prisons were rarely fed or watered: at least not until prior to being forced onto a slave ship. She composed herself to remain calm and await Zainal's arrival. Ferris would have found him, no matter where Zainal had been.

But barely had they got themselves settled when the prison doors swung open and jailors, cracking nerve whips, roused the inmates with harsh commands to stand up and move out. She was startled when a door in the side of the prison was opened to reveal a ramp. She remembered that sort of ramp and tried to suppress a surge of fear. Kathy didn't realize what was happening and Kris wasn't going to tell her. The prisoners were being driven toward the ramp. Kris caught Kathy's arm, holding her back. "Zainal, where are you?" she murmured urgently.

They were among the last to be driven up the ramp, Kris looking over her shoulder at the main entrance, hoping against hope to see Zainal's large form in the doorway and hear his voice commanding the guards to leave her alone. Surely he would come to free them. The tip of the nerve whip caught her arm, though her clothing absorbed most of the painful strike, and despite her reluctance, she was driven up the ramp and into the hold of a KDM.

"We're on a ship," Kathy said, frightened.

"So we are," Kris remarked, amazed at how calm she managed to sound.

"What are we doing on a ship, Kris? Where is Zainal?"

"Trying to get us free, I'm sure," Kris replied, though the smell of the hold was no reassurance at all. This was a slave ship: it stank of fear and human excrement.

The ramp door swung shut and was dogged tight by a guard. "Find a wall space, Kathy," Kris said, holding tight to Kathy's hand so they wouldn't be separated as the other prisoners milled about aimlessly.

"Find us, Zainal," Kris chanted to herself. "Find us. Free us."

A sudden movement of the ship as it undocked threw both women to their knees, and Kris barely managed to keep from crying out with fear and pain as her right knee connected painfully with a bolt on the steel floor. There would be no pleasant Botany at the end of this forced journey.

They both felt the surge as the ship took off, sending them slid-ing into other bodies and pushing them back against the far wall of the hold.

"I'm scared, Kris," Kathy said as the metal beneath them throbbed with the power of takeoff. Her voice was close to a wail and Kris threw an arm around her shoulders.

"Me too," Kris agreed. "Zainal will stop this farce. Just you wait."