Power Play

7

The next morning Yana couldn't remember the names of any of the other people she had met with the exception of Macci: not because Macci had been that unique, although in one sense he had - he was memorable - but because the others had blended into such an identical blur. Their faces, their voices, their apparel had had a sameness that made identifying one from the other very difficult. Yana did remember the things she ate and the wines she drank but the people? And these were those who were important on Gal-3? No-one appeared to want to talk about anything remotely'significant' considering they were persons whom Marmion had said were important for her to meet. When they weren't questioning her avidly, they gossiped about the people who hadn't been invited. Yana hoped that she'd never hear what was said about her or anyone else in Marmion's group. Petaybee was coming up more and more golden and real!

She was not the only one silent this morning. Bunny was slouched over her morning meal, and the measure of her discomfort was registered by the fact that she was wearing an outfit which Marmion had provided for her rather than some of the Gal-3 finery Charmion had urged her to purchase. She was moodily staring out of the lounge window at the comings and goings of station vehicles, tugs, and incoming traffic of all kinds.

Yana decided not to show Bunny the corn-message from Sean which asked Yana to see if Marmion could check out a firm trading as PTS, Petaybee Transport Shuttle, which was so busily landing new problems in his lap. People were being dumped back of beyond, wanting 'hotel' facilities, of all things, and he was running out of places to stash them. And food to feed them. And could this influx of unwanted and generally useless self-seekers please be stopped. To which Johnny Greene, who had sent the message from the space station on Whit Fiske's credit, had added a devout 'amen'.

‘Can we find out about these yabos, Millard?' Yana had asked although she took the tone of the message as one: amused, two: coping, and three: why was she staying away so long.

Millard glanced at the message, made a note on his wristpad, and smiled down at her. 'Sure thing.’

‘Hey, looka that,' Diego said suddenly, pointing to where a line of drones were being shepherded by little space tugs.

Millard smiled. 'Ah, the collies at work.’

‘Why're they called that?' Bunny asked.

‘Watch how they herd the ships in,' Millard said. 'Their names are actually the Megabite and the Maggie Lauder but we call them Meggie and Maggie.’

The speedy work vessels did indeed seem to be nipping at the skids of the drones, angling them into the correct alignment with their ultimate destination on the lower docking circle. But he was specifically pointing to the sleek, taper-ended vessel, clearly no drone, nearly the last one on the long drone tether. 'I wonder what holed that.’

‘Meteor, probably,' Millard replied, looking up and frowning slightly at the company the obvious space craft was keeping.

‘Looks big enough to have been holed by a shuttle craft,' Diego said, 'and a big one at that.’

‘Would the crew have survived such a holing?' Bunny asked, coming out of her slump long enough to peer about.

‘Depends on the speed with which the crew reacted to the disaster,' Millard said.

‘Cost a pretty pile of credits to fix it I'll bet,' Diego said.

‘Someone who can afford a craft that size has the credit,' Sally said. 'This is the biggest repair facility in the quadrant so they'd have to come here for that sort of major restoration.’

The collies bracketed the nose of the vessel now, manoeuvring it carefully down a half degree, to the port another fraction and then slowly forwards until it moved out of sight.

‘Wonder what happened to it?' Bunny said.

‘We could go see,' Diego suggested.

‘Could we?' she asked, brightening, and turning to Millard.

‘Bailey has some cronies down in the ship dock,' Millard said. Their faces fell. 'You really will have to wait until Bailey and Charmion are available,' he said and then his wrist set bleeped. 'Excuse me.' He read the message that came in and turned to Yana. 'This is interesting. The PTS is newly registered as a tourist transport in the civilian section of the Intergal Station. A B. Makem is listed as owner.’

‘B. Makem?' Yana blinked. The name was somehow familiar but, after last night's inundation of names, she couldn't put the name to a face.

‘Braddock Makem?' Sally asked, in a startled tone as she looked up from the report she was working on.

‘One of Matthew's little men?’

‘He isn't one of Dr Luzon's men any more,' Sally said. 'Luzon fired him. Scuttlebutt is that when Luzon woke up with broken legs, loss of pride and that massive deflation of amuition, he fired the lot of them.’

Yana grinned. 'Anything else, Millard?’

‘Funding's low but it's got a waiting list and paid passages for twenty on each of three weekly scheduled flights from Intergal Station.’

Yana gasped. 'There isn't room at Kilcoole for twenty extra bodies much less a hundred and twenty. What is Makem up to?’

‘I'd hazard Makem isn't up to anything,' Millard said, his eyes narrowing, 'but I'd suspect Matthew Luzon is. Does Sean say who's been landed?’

Just then Marmion came into the room, a flimsy in her hand and a look of total exasperation on her face.

‘Once again, there can be no meeting,' she said, waving the sheet.

‘But Phon Tho was coming back this morning. He said we'd hear today,' Yana said in protest.

‘We did,' Marmion said grimly, with another crisp flutter of the message, 'but not at all what we hoped to hear. Really, I think we are just going to have to do something.' She tapped her index finger across her lips and then brightened. 'Of course, we will put it about that you're leaving!’

‘But… but what good will that do?' Yana said, almost wailing with disappointment. She wanted to be back with Sean, to help him with these unexpected visitors - if only to shove them off-planet as fast as they arrived. She didn't want to have to come back here again whenever the CIS Council finally got its act together and all its members in attendance so she, Bunny and Diego could say their piece and have it done with. Mainly she wanted to be back with Sean. She was feeling'deprived'. She hadn't finally married again to spend her time away from the man of her heart and the father of her child.

‘Well, as long as they think you'll just sit about and wait for them to organize themselves, that's what they'll do,' Marmion said, then paused thoughtfully, regarding the flimsy as if there were unseen lines that required decoding. 'Though why this delay when they were so bloody eager to get you here in the first place… And we came as fast as anyone can… Hmmm. Well, they do have the depositions to work from…’

‘Something's rotten in Denmark?' Sally asked.

‘If it were on Denmark, I wouldn't give it a second thought. But this is Gal-Three… And it was presented to me as an in-and-out appearance.' Giving her shoulders a massive shrug, Marmion returned to her office.

‘Why,' Yana asked the room, 'would B. Makem want to start trouble for us on Petaybee? I thought we'd opened his eyes to that erstwhile employer of his.’

‘Yes,' Millard said thoughtfully, and began to tap out codes on his terminal. 'We'll just see.’

Yana began pacing restlessly, fretting about Sean. He'd have so much more to do now with who knows how many people foisted off on Petaybee. She reread the communique, her free hand going automatically to the little bag of Petaybean dirt that generally provided her with comfort as she tried to get more of Sean than the words conveyed. Even if Johnny Greene had sent the message, it was from Sean and by Sean and therefore 'Sean' and she gathered what comfort she could out of that contact. It was stupid of her, at her age, to need the man so desperately and yet she did. Here she was in the lap of luxury, being scrupulously cared for and pampered and wined and dined, and not liking it a bit simply because Sean wasn't here to share the absurdities with her like Macci and his Second-Skin and loincloth. Sean would have looked just as well in such attire: probably better since he had a second skin of his own, if it came to that. The memories that thought provoked made her smile, and she nibbled at the edge of the message, until she realized what she was doing. She really was being ungrateful, especially when Marmion was going out of her way to be so accommodating and helpful. Not that she didn't appreciate it all, except that she had managed to get accustomed to the discomforts of Petaybee. Now she'd have to learn to love them all over again. It would be snowing soon, and she'd miss it, and freeze-up and all the other wonders that Petaybee had in store for people in their first year. She resented her absence terribly and that reminded her of who might be responsible for all the delays.

‘Do you know where Matthew Luzon is right now?' she asked, stopping and turning to survey those in the lounge. 'And where are Diego and Bunny for that matter?' she asked Sally and Millard, and asked the same question of Bailey and Charmion who entered at that critical moment.

‘Must be around here somewhere,' Millard said, swivelling about as if the two had to be in the lounge, visible or invisible.

At that precise moment, there was a request for entry.

‘Macci Sendal,' was the response in a resonant voice.

Sally and Millard exchanged astonished glances.

‘You made a conquest, Yana,' Sally said, grinning. 'Shall I admit him?’

Yana was flustered. 'Whatever would he want with me?’

‘I suspect business,' Sally said. 'After all, Rothschild's have always diversified. I don't recall them having any Pharmaceuticals…’

‘Yes, they do,' Millard replied. 'They have recently acquired a major holding in SpayDe.’

‘You're quite right,' and Sally hurried to press the door release. Til just replicate some refreshments.’

Despite the fact the man was wearing more normal station apparel instead of the formal SecondSkin, he was as devastating as ever as he came forward to greet Yana. He had a small posy for her, smiles for Sally, Millard and Marmion's young relatives, and he accepted Sally's invitation for mid-morningses even as he led Yana, still holding the hand he had kissed so extravagantly, to one of the smaller seating arrangements on one side of the large room. Sally passed the refreshments and then, to Yana's amazement, left her with him. He bent a lambent gaze on her, ravishing her with his eyes, which was disconcerting to say the least. Had he been another officer she'd have known how to handle the situation but he was too highly placed in society, as well as the financial circles, for her to use those forthright tactics.

‘Now, tell me more about this magical planet you come from, Yana. There was no chance to discuss anything intelligent with you last night. Especially when Pies was acting hostess.' He caught her eyes with another of his ravishing glances - she did wish he wouldn't - and she felt herself flushing at the ardour he was projecting. Really, it was much too early in the morning - or did she mean too late - for this sort of… foreplay. He was leaning forward towards her now and the scent he was using oughtn't to be allowed, it was so aphrodisiac.

She had opened her mouth to answer when the entry chime rang again. And continued to ring with each new arrival, someone else who had attended that party who now wished to discuss 'business' with Yana.

Yana urgently motioned Sally and Millard to join her, and then Sally brought Cynthia and Cynthia thought that Marmion had better be involved.

‘You dear people, Petaybee's only a small planet,' Marmion said, arriving not a moment too soon and instantly assessing the scene. 'With very limited facilities. And while it's certainly marvellous of you to volunteer…' That word stopped any conversation as the various representatives turned blank faces in her direction. '… to help the Colonel set up a modern depot.' She smiled at the sobering effect of her little speech, for she, they - and the surprised Yana - knew that no-one had 'volunteered' anything. They'd all been trying to get into a best-advantage situation. 'How good of you to offer. Mind you, who knows what a planet is willing to pay for such amenities but it is a planet that is virtually untouched. Nabatira-san, I think you need to send at least five of those marvellous structural cubes to Petaybee, just to cope with the influx. Yana, you don't think Petaybee would mind an up-to-date self-catering hostel? No, two, I think: north and south.’

By the time the bemused entrepreneurs got a chance to retreat, Marmion had made sure that each had signed a contract to deliver, at a cost later to be discussed with the planet, sufficient of their products to replace what Intergal was taking off-planet. And of a higher quality and more modern design.

‘I think that about takes care of that, Yana, don't you?' Marmion said when the door to her suite finally closed on Macci's heels. 'Macci didn't get you to sign anything, did he?' she asked Yana.

Dazedly Yana shook her head. 'But another two seconds and I'd've signed anything he put in front of me. Is he always like that?’

‘He makes a habit of it. Dangerous man,' Marmion said, 'but you handled him very well considering none of us expected him to appear quite so soon this morning.' Then she made a full circuit of the room with her eyes. 'Where did Bunny and Diego get to?’

Sally and Millard exchanged horrified glances. Marmion, however, was looking straight at Bailey and Charmion.

‘Haven't seen them, Aunt Marmie,' Bailey said. 'We only just woke up when the mob arrived.’

‘While I don't blame them for a moment for leaving the babel…' Marmion broke off. 'Where are they?’