Power Play Part 8

They insisted on walking to the hot-springs cave barefoot, even though she warned them about the coo-berry brambles that still guarded the cave entrance from the unwary and uninvited. The coo-brambles had settled back into being ordinary weeds again, their extraordinary growth curtailed once the brambles had penetrated and removed all of the Petraseal and most of the people who had painted the sealant in four of the planet's communion caves. The brambles had been cut back, poisoned, and burned, but there was still a thriving growth at the hot springs. You just had to know how to avoid it.

Clodagh did avoid it. But the newcomers insisted on walking straight through the brambles, and she had an awful time getting them loose again, finally having to resort to the little mist bottle of coo-repellent she had thankfully remembered to carry with her.

Then the newcomers wanted to enter the cave by prostrating themselves and crawling in like worms, but Clodagh pointed out that since the entrance was through the waterfall, they could drown that way, and really, truly, the planet didn't care a bit how they came in as long as they didn't have any Petraseal with them.

They did insist on groveling and kissing the cave floor the moment they entered, though.

After genuflecting six or seven times, Sister Igneous Rock threw her outstretched arms into the air and cried, "Speak to us, O Beneficence..."

All they got was an echo, not of the last word, but of the O. It sounded like, "No, no, no..."

"Tell us what you would have us do! How can we dedicate our miserable lives to your service? How can we redeem the error of humankind to your greater glory? How can we demonstrate that, though unworthy, we are more than willing to do your bidding? How can we convince you to show us your will?"

"How?" echoed the others. "Tell us how."

Clodagh sighed. They could start by shutting up. Even if it had something to say today, which it apparently didn't, not even the planet could get a word in edgewise the way these folks carried on.

After a time, they did stop babbling. Clodagh had half fallen asleep by then.

Lazily, she roused herself. "You all done now?"

But just then, Brother Schist collapsed back down to his knees and yelled, "Halleluja! I just heard voices!"

"What? Where? Why should it talk to you and not to the rest of us? What did it reveal to you?" cried Sister Agate.

"It said, 'Fraggitall, these things have thorns thorns.' "

"Uh huh," Clodagh said, and stepped over them to the cave's entrance, sliding between the waterfall and the cliff face.

Portia Porter-Pendergra.s.s and Bill Guthrie were tangling themselves to shreds in coo-brambles.

Clodagh took her spray-mist bottle from her ap.r.o.n pocket, spritzed her way to them, and tried to help.

"Get away from me!" Portia shrieked. "Guthrie, what kind of a man are you? Make this-this witch-let go of me!"

"I thought you came to talk to me," Clodagh said, genuinely puzzled. "Sean said you folks wanted to."

"Pay no attention to her, Dama," Bill Guthrie said. "She's hysterical. She became addicted to one of her company's own tranquilizers-sad case, really. I wanted to talk to you about the pharmaceutical potential of some of the materia medica you have discovered on your charming planet, but Portia thought we should just begin taking samples. Unfortunately, the samples seem to have taken us."

"Sure looks that way," Clodagh said. "Dama, if you just stand up and pick off the ones stuck to your clothes, I think you're free now. It's startin' to snow anyway. Coo-brambles shrink when it snows. Come on over to the spring and let's wash and treat those scratches. You got some pretty deep ones."

The easiest place to give the distraught Portia and Guthrie a dry, bramble-free place to sit while was.h.i.+ng and treating their wounds was the inside of the cave. The "rock flock," as Clodagh was beginning to think of the white-robed pilgrims, eagerly a.s.sisted in "ministering," as they called it.

"What did you want samples of anyway?" Clodagh asked Portia Porter-Pendergra.s.s, just to distract her from screeching in the ear of her rescuers whenever Clodagh daubed a little sting-bush leaf on a scratch.

"That stuff you're putting on me now, for starters," she said. Her face and hands were a mess, and one thorn had narrowly missed her left eye. Clodagh felt bad for her.

"That's okay then, alannah," she said as if to a child, being as gentle as she could with a very deep scratch on the leg. "You can have the rest of this when we're done here. You'll need it anyway to make those scratches go away."

"How about me?" Bill Guthrie asked plaintively.

"You, too," Clodagh said, patting his knee. "Just be brave and hold on till I'm finished here, and I'll gather some more for you to take home."

"And that cough medicine you gave Yanaba Maddock?" Portia asked.

"Why? You got a cough?"

"Oh, yes," she said, giving a forced hack.

"Me, too," Bill Guthrie said.

"That stuff you sprayed on the bushes," Portia began as pitifully as she could.

But she got no further, for Sister Agate threw herself between the two coo-bramble victims and Clodagh.

"Do not harken to the false words of these infidels, Mother Clodagh..."

"I told you, I'm not your mother!"

"Clodagh, she's right," Brother Shale said, taking her shoulders and attempting to pull her away from the pharmaceutical reps. "These people are out only to exploit the Beneficence. They want to strip it of its miracles and synthesize its wonders for base motives of pecuniary profit."

"They'll desecrate the Beneficence," Sister Igneous Rock howled.

"Be quiet," Clodagh said.

"You mustn't-" Sister Agate began.

"They're crazy," Bill Guthrie said, shaking off Brother Shale.

But both were drowned out by a booming echo of Clodagh's voice, rebounding through the cave: "QUIET!! QUIET! Quiet! Quiet! "QUIET!! QUIET! Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! Quiet!... Et!... Et... Et!... Et..." Quiet! Quiet!... Et!... Et... Et!... Et..."

"It spoke!" Sister Igneous Rock whispered, clasping her heart.

"That was an echo, you idiot!" Portia Porter-Pendergra.s.s snarled.

"QUIET, IDIOT!" the echo said just once. And this time n.o.body spoke. the echo said just once. And this time n.o.body spoke.

Finally, Clodagh said, "You people quit fighting and stop being so silly. You lot-" She nodded at the rock flock. "The planet isn't a Creator any more than any of you. It's part of creation-the Powers That Be at Intergal even helped make it how it is now, though they only woke it up, they didn't create its life."

"But how do you know, know, Clodagh?" Brother Agate asked. "You are but a mere mortal, though favored..." Clodagh?" Brother Agate asked. "You are but a mere mortal, though favored..."

"I know 'cause the planet told me so, of course," she said. "And if you want it to tell you anything, you're gonna have to get rid of some of your funny ideas long enough to make room for what it's got to say. As for you folks," she added, nodding to Portia and Bill, "you can have any medicine you need and welcome to it."

"They'll a.n.a.lyze a.n.a.lyze it," Sister Agate moaned. it," Sister Agate moaned.

"They'll Synthesize Synthesize it," Brother Shale groaned. it," Brother Shale groaned.

"So?" Clodagh asked. "If there's sick folks needing medicine and they can make up stuff like we got here to cure them, that's a good thing."

"You don't understand!" Sister Igneous Rock wailed. "We've seen it happen before on other worlds! Our own worlds! We even aided in the desecration, may the Beneficence forgive us, before we realized what we had wrought and saw the light. Brother Shale was a geologist for the intergalactic energy rapists, and I myself engineered plants with which they could steal the treasures of other worlds. Even when I learned there were Better Ways Better Ways I could not convince my masters. They want only to destroy. Oh, believe me, Clodagh, for I have seen how they work. We have all seen it. They'll build factories here and pollute the waters, clog the voice of the Bene-the planet, they'll strip it bare of its healing plants and minerals!" I could not convince my masters. They want only to destroy. Oh, believe me, Clodagh, for I have seen how they work. We have all seen it. They'll build factories here and pollute the waters, clog the voice of the Bene-the planet, they'll strip it bare of its healing plants and minerals!"

"It'd just be a small small factory," Bill Guthrie said, holding up his thumb and forefinger with an inch spread between them to show how small the factory would be. factory," Bill Guthrie said, holding up his thumb and forefinger with an inch spread between them to show how small the factory would be.

"And if we took all of the mature plants, well, they're plants, they'll grow back, right? We call it a renewable resource, Clodagh," Portia said, as if she were talking to someone dumb enough to go out in midwinter without a coat on. "It's a growing thing."

"So's your skin," Clodagh said, shaking her head. "But if the coo-brambles stripped it all off you, it wouldn't grow back-at least not fast enough to keep you alive. Petaybee's just like you. You take off its skin and it'll be back to what it was-not dead maybe, but not awake, neither."

"But, don't you see, there are real lives, human human lives, being wasted for want of the cures Petaybee has to offer. You owe it to them..." As if in support of that argument, the cave began to echo with the cry, "Help! Help, please! Somebody help us." lives, being wasted for want of the cures Petaybee has to offer. You owe it to them..." As if in support of that argument, the cave began to echo with the cry, "Help! Help, please! Somebody help us."

10.

Gal Three repair bay

Bunny tried to get the s.h.i.+p's computer to sound an alert while Diego attempted to persuade the hatch to reopen. His bracelet didn't do the job, nor did any amount of trying different b.u.t.ton combinations on the pad located beneath a smooth metal panel. Finally, something clicked-he wasn't sure what-and the panel irised open. He heard footsteps in the corridor and looked to see where they were coming from.

"Bunny, quick, we've got to hide!" he said. "The white suits are coming back. They're carrying things. More bodies, it looks like."

"Can we run for it?"

"You can't outrun a laser."

"Diego, they've all got on the pressure suits. If they open the outer hatch while we're here, we're goners."

"That, too, although with them carrying stuff, they aren't likely to have free hands to pull the lasers on us."

"Come on, on, Diego. If we stand here arguing about it, we're goners for sure." Diego. If we stand here arguing about it, we're goners for sure."

"They're too close!" he said. He saw them clearly now, the white-suited figures carrying two women-Yana and Marmie! One of the figures, a tall man, wore the helmet but no white suit. Diego was pretty sure he hadn't been with them earlier.

"Let's go go," Bunny said, and pushed him out the door. They were halfway down the corridor when a cloud of sweet-smelling pink gas overtook them.

Yana awoke coughing so hard she thought for a moment her life of the last few months had been a dream and she was still in the infirmary following the Bremport ma.s.sacre. She had a sickly-sweet taste in her mouth and a constriction about her chest, which, she found when she stopped coughing, was caused by another body lying across her. She reached out and her hand was full of face-smooth, unlined face and a tangle of hair.

A chorus of coughing, not as violent as her own, erupted all around her, and then Bunny's voice grumbled in a sleepy-headed childish tone, "Ouch, your finger's in my eye."

Bunny wriggled away, provoking an "ouch" in turn from someone else. "Sorry, Diego," she said. "It's a little crowded in here."

"Yana..." Marmion's voice was faintly slurred, and she, too, began coughing, but daintily. "Was that party of Ples's much better than I thought it was?"

"I don't think so, unless she uses pink perfumed gas on her guests afterward," Yana said, coughing again.

"Merde alors! Is that what it was? Where are we?" Is that what it was? Where are we?"

"I don't know." Cough. "It's dark."

Then suddenly it wasn't, and a chirpy voice said, "Oh, good, our guests are awake. Tell me, none of you have any food allergies, do you? Anyone a vegetarian?"

Yana blinked fast and focused on the small port where a pert face dimpled in at them. Yana had seen hundreds of faces like that pus.h.i.+ng everything from shampoo to specific s.p.a.cecraft for flights to anywhere you cared to mention.

"What's it to ya?" Bunny asked, surprisingly pugnacious on such short notice.

"Now, honey, that's no way to be. Just because you have to be our guests for a while doesn't mean the experience has to be unpleasant. Sorry to crowd you all in like that, but we thought you'd feel rea.s.sured to find each other nearby when you woke up. I'm afraid the boys were a little careless how you landed. So, let's try again, shall we? Any food allergies?"

The tangle on the floor sorted themselves out. "I demand to know where we are and why we've been detained in this fas.h.i.+on," Marmion said.

"I'll be glad to explain, but really, the crew is going to be cross if they don't get their dinners on time, so could you please answer my question first?" the person at the port said with a trace of irritation.

"I would dislike causing your crew any inconvenience," Yana said in a trenchant tone. "None of us is a vegetarian but I-" She paused for a coughing fit. "-am sensitive to any sort of gas!"

"Fine, good. Wonderful. Back in a jiff," the person said, and left.

"Marmion," Yana said sotto voce, and when she had Marmion's attention in the dimly lit room, she gestured to where she had hidden her alarm. It was gone now; she'd have been surprised if it had still been there; that would have been a gross oversight on their captors' part.

Marmion gave the most imperceptible of nods and a sly smile. So, Yana thought, both of them had had a chance to send signals. Help ought to be on its way. Wherever they were.

"Macci's not here," Marmion said suddenly. "What have they done with him, do you suppose? There's just us four."

"Oh!"

Then Pert-face, as good as her word, was back. When she opened the hatch, she had two armed guards with her and the three of them stayed outside the room. The guards wore orange coveralls with no identifying patches. Pert-face wore a bodytight in green, with an aqua tunic of what appeared to be crocheted lace. Her hair was light brown, with lynxlike gray tufts at the ears and in a diamond pattern at the crown, extending into the fringe of hair accenting earnest brown eyes.

"I'm Dinah O'Neill," she introduced herself. "I represent Louchard Enterprises-"

"As what?" Yana asked.

"Oh, Public Relations, Legal, Administrative, what have you. I'm the representative. And you, I take it, must be Colonel Yanaba Maddock?"

Yana nodded but declined to shake her hand.

"And the famous Marmion de Revers Algemeine!" Dinah O'Neill said, the stars practically dancing in her eyes. "I'm thrilled to meet you."

"I wish I could say the same," Marmion said.