Power Play

21

Muktuk and Chumia had been home ten days when Sinead arrived on skis. As she was delivering her message while wrapped in warm blankets and sipping from the hot tea Chumia brewed for her, one of the men on sea-watch reported that a very funny-looking seal had just beached itself off the ice-pack.

‘Sean!' Sinead cried, and threw off her blankets, pulled on her still snow-wet coat, and headed out the door, the others behind her.

‘Sean?' Chumia asked, open-mouthed. 'Your brother Sean?’

‘Bring clothes!' Sinead yelled back over her shoulder to Muktuk, but Chumia had already shoved Muktuk's latchkay snowpants and parka into his arms.

‘By all the powers that be, if it ain't the guv himself!' Muktuk said when he saw Sean striding briskly towards them, sanguine, purposeful and naked.

‘Nobody mentioned this was a dress occasion,' Sean said, grinning. 'Sis, I'm glad to see you. Have you told them what's up?’

‘She said somethin' about that pirate kinswoman of ours maybe comin' for a visit…' Muktuk said.

‘That's right,' Sean said, pulling on the snowpants. 'And we want to make sure she has a warm reception, don't we? We'll need to get as many folks as possible armed with whatever they have.’

‘We told her if she lost her job she should come,' Muktuk said reluctantly. 'Greeting her with an armed mob doesn't seem real hospitable.’

‘Not a mob, a posse,' Sean said. 'She and one of her henchmen hit Adak Rourke over the head and stole that aerial map Whittaker Fiske gave us to get them here. I don't think she's coming here to settle, Muktuk. I'm hoping she's ready to do a deal for Yana, Bunny and the others. I doubt she'll come without a suitable escort of her own so we'll need a suitable one, too.’

‘Right you are, guv.’

Sean was impatient to get the 'welcoming' organized, but Chumia was firm that he needed to be fed and dried properly. While doing that, he could still tell them what he had in mind…

‘We don't want to be rash and hurt the poor girl if she's only running scared,' Chumia said. 'Perhaps her boss made her hit Adak. Maybe that other man was her boss and she's still tryin' to get loose from him.’

‘You've seen no sign of a shuttle? Or any strangers walking in?’

Muktuk snorted at that latter possibility and shook his head over the former.

‘Well, either way,' Sean said. 'I need to visit the communion place.’

‘Sure thing, guv. Chumia, you get that end of the rug and I'll get this,' he said and together the O'Neills pulled away the thick rug woven in shades of green and gold in a stair-step pattern. A trapdoor was revealed, and well-worn steps which led to the permafrost cave Sean remembered from three former latchkays. The first time he'd come to Tanana Bay for a latchkay and had seen three villages' worth of people pouring into the O'Neills' tiny cabin, he'd been astounded, until he'd seen a line of folks disappearing into the floor.

Now he and Sinead descended the stairs carved out of stone and ice. Chumia held a lamp for them while the family cat scampered ahead, nearly tripping them. 'It'll be dark down there,' Chumia said.

But it wasn't. One entire wall of the entrance chamber was glowing with a pattern of phosphorescence similar to the sort which Sean had seen in the under-river grotto.

‘My goodness, will you look at that?' Chumia clucked while the cat rubbed against the wall then stretched so that its paws touched the lower part of the design. 'You're going to think I'm a terrible housekeeper, guv, letting mould grow in the communion place. It's never done that before. Didn't think it could, permafrost being ice and all.’

‘Never? These aren't here from the last latchkay?’

‘No, sir. What's all these wiggles mean?’

‘Looks like waves,' Sinead said, peering closely. 'Here and here.’

‘Waves…' the cave repeated.

The cat chirruped as if it too was trying to say 'waves'.

‘It is,' Sean said, pointing to the apex. 'This must be where we are now - near these waves, and this circle represents the rest of the North - then more waves outside and the outer circle.’

‘Waves, circlessssss…’

‘What about the lines that end in circles here?' and, ignoring the echo, Sinead pointed to the spiralled figure somewhat to the left of the midpoint between the lines. 'And here? This one's clear down beyond the waves. What do you suppose it means?’

‘Trouble spots?' Sean guessed. 'Like before?’

This time the echo didn't repeat itself. 'Means trouble spots like before,' it said distinctly.

The cat jumped as if someone had thrown water on it and bolted back up the steps and into the house. They could hear the cat-flap still flapping as they continued studying the diagram.

Dinah O'Neill was not happy about leaving her shuttle stranded on the ice, like some sort of monstrous sea animal.

‘It's watertight, isn't it?' Bunny asked her and shrugged when Dinah had to admit it was. 'Then even if it falls into the water, they're all right in there, aren't they?’

‘Sink?' Dinah cried aghast.

‘Well, not really,' Bunny said and there might have been some who thought she was deliberately teasing Dinah O'Neill but she was merely talking out loud. 'Besides, I think that hole'll freeze over as soon as it turns dark and the shuttle'll be OK. Frozen in, of course, but safe. Speaking of freezing, we'd better get going. Yana, I'll scout ahead. You keep the others moving, OK?’

Yana flipped her a salute. 'Aye, aye, ma'am. We're right behind you.’

What Bunny didn't say - nor did either Yana or Diego mention - was very obvious to her: the sun was westering and they hadn't much daylight left to get where they wouldn't freeze. Bunny struck out at a good pace in the general direction of Tanana Bay. She would have preferred to go straight across the frozen inlet towards the main trail but that would waste time which they didn't have that much of. So she headed towards the nearest high ground. Maybe there she could get a good look at the lay of the land and correct their path.

She was also aware - though she didn't mention it -that her little pouch was like a miniature hot-bottle and the warmth from it was keeping her warm.

Humans were so dense and so slow. Punjab didn't know how the planet put up with them sometimes. Even drawing them a big picture wasn't enough.

Obviously that business across the water would have to be delegated - if humans were too thick to understand, perhaps birds or walruses would have to explain it to them - but it was not a job for cats. This simple task clearly was, however.

With satisfaction, Punjab felt the snow freezing to ice with each warm touch of his heavily furred paw, Home co-operating with its chosen messenger - the feet of the planet, as his kind considered themselves. Confidently, he trotted on towards his quarry.

Bunny devoutly wished for her snowshoes as she blazed a trail through the two-foot-high drifts, her foot sinking through to the knee with each step. She deliberately squashed down as much snow as she could every time she made a track, but it was laborious going. After a short time, she returned to the others to encourage them and see if she could help them.

Megenda was shivering so much he staggered with the shakings. She thought of giving him her jacket, since she could stand the cold better than he could, but it was far too small for him. As was everyone else's. And the pouch which was doing such a fine job and making her feel warm wouldn't do the first mate one damned bit of good.

When they reached the first copse, she did consider starting a fire to dry him out but that would take too much time out of the little daylight they had left.

Bunny gave Megenda full marks for keeping up, despite his shuddering chills. It was Dinah O'Neill who was having the worst time of it, being rather short in the leg and having to take little running steps to keep up with the others. But she grimly plodded, skipped, hopped on and didn't fall more than a step behind.

Diego was beginning to puff, too. He wasn't as fit as he had been, what with lounging around Marmion's apartment on Gal-3 and then the kidnapping. Those walks around the pirate ship had not been any substitute for proper exercise. He was grumbling and acted annoyed that Bunny didn't seem to be as affected as he was. But he noticed that Yana was clutching at her side from time to time.

Bunny knew she couldn't help Diego or the others by slowing down. She trudged back up the path she had made and then began laboriously cutting through the snow once more. It was heavy work and she was soon so weary of it she felt like crying but the tears would only freeze and make her more miserable. Wouldn't it be weird to have been freed from the pirates and finally return home, only to freeze to death before she could be found? Actually, with the new-falling snow masking the fading horizon, help could be quite close by and they'd never know until they found her frozen corpse. And the others. It had happened more than once.

‘Helllooo, anybody!' she called into the gathering darkness. 'Slainte! It's me, Bunny! Is anybody there? Hellooo! Come and get me now!’

Then something that wasn't supposed to be possible happened. She was right out there in the open air, not in a cave or a valley or anything and an echo picked up her voice, like it had done a few weeks ago when Phon

Tho visited, like it had done at Yana and Sean's wedding.

‘HELLOO, IT'S ME, ME, ME, ME…' the echo said.

And then it blended with a somewhat smaller voice, 'MEOW MEOW meow!', a cat's meow complaining over and over again.

Bunny called back, glad to hear the cat. Did that mean that Clodagh was behind? But no, the cat was alone, appearing off to the right of her like a little pinpoint of orange flame at first, crying impatiently for her to hurry forward. When Bunny backtracked to get the others, the cat sat at the end of the trail she had made, waiting for them.

‘We're saved!' she told Yana. 'A cat came for us!’

‘Good,' Megenda said. 'How do you cook 'em?’

‘You don't,' Diego said. 'You follow them.’

‘I've heard of a wild goose chase but this is ridiculous,' Dinah said. Bunny turned her back on them and returned to the end of her trail. As soon as it saw her, the cat sashayed forward, tail held low to protect the tenderest parts and brushing the snow. Single-file, they slogged forward after it.

The distant lights of Tanana Bay appeared just about the time some of the party were thinking that perhaps they'd do better for a bit of a rest, despite the fact that night had already fallen and the air grew colder by the minute, knifing through their skin until at last it was too numb to pain them. Only the luminous eyes of the cat guided them when it turned in its tracks to regard them with impatience. Didn't they realize it had supper waiting and a nap to take?

The feeling in Bunny's legs had drained away some time ago though she continued to piston them in and out of the snow while the others followed. Once they spotted the cabins, the cat cast her a glance, then scampered away to disappear into the town.

The welcome sight of cabins in the trees revived the flagging energies of everyone in the party. It helped that the snow closer to the settlement was already trampled into trails and they followed one of these easily to the outermost cabin.

It was empty, though smoke still poured from the chimney. They all gratefully crowded inside to warm themselves by the fire. When Megenda would have crawled into the fireplace, Bunny hauled him back so he wouldn't scorch himself. She did grab a fur cover from the nearest bunk and draped it around his shoulders. He could not seem to stop the shivering. There was soup in the kettle on the hob so Bunny ladled him out a cup which he could barely hold in his hands without spilling.

‘Don't know how much of someone's supper we can take without them going short,' Bunny said by way of explanation when she saw the hopeful expression on Dinah O'Neill's face as she, too, crowded into the fireplace. Bunny was right proud that neither Diego nor Yana seemed to need the fire. Just being in out of the cold was sufficient. 'No-one would object to Megenda having a cup of soup to stop those shivers. You all get warm while I go see where people are,' she said, taking a parka off the peg on the back of the door. The temperature would be dropping like a stone from a height.

Tanana Bay didn't boast half as many cabins as Kilcoole did but Bunny had been in several empty places before she came to the Murphys, where the cat sat beside the fire cleaning the snow from between its pawpads. The cat glanced up at her, then returned to its cleaning. She saw the raised trapdoor and the open hole in the floor. Leaning over the opening she could hear voices, excited voices, lots of them.

‘Hallooo down there?’

There was no immediate response, except an echo of her call, probably because everyone was talking so loudly. After waiting a moment, Bunny descended. She'd never seen a communion place entrance so bright, which would certainly have provoked a lot of discussion on any occasion.

What she didn't expect to see were men and women armed with all kinds of homely weapons: axes, staves, nets, pitchforks as well as the usual bows, lances and knives.

‘What's happening?' she cried, touching the first man on the arm.

‘Glad you could make it,' he said, giving her a scant look. 'We got big trouble coming to Tanana Bay and we'll need everybody we can get to turn 'em back.’

‘Turn who back?' And Bunny felt a gelid spurt of fear. What had happened while they were off-planet? Had Intergal gone back on its word?

‘That pirate! Louchard!' Someone else explained, leaning around the first man to put in his quarter credit.

‘Hey, you don't come from around here.’

‘No, I'm from Kilcoole but…’

‘Buneka!' said the Voice.

‘Buneka?' and that shout came from Sean's throat.

Bunny was so astonished to hear the Voice come out with her own real name that she didn't react until Sean had her in his arms and was whirling her about, laughing and crying.

‘You're free. You're all right,' and he was feeling her over to be sure she was, his eyes both glad and anxious, then he looked around her. 'Yana?’

‘She's all right, too, Sean, really, she's fine.’

Sinead pushed through the crowd then and embraced Bunny as warmly as Sean had done, also asking where Yana was.

‘Hold it down,' Sean said in a loud voice because everyone in the communion place was trying to understand who the newcomer was that the Voice had recognized so unexpectedly.

So it took minutes before Bunny could explain and then minutes more before she made it clear that the pirate was not on Petaybee, only his first mate and Dinah O'Neill were. Then she had to calm Muktuk and Chumia down because they were so astonished, and gratified, that their kinswoman was right in Tanana Bay. Immediately, they were in a quandary about welcoming her if she wasn't bringing good news about Louchard and his kidnap victims.

‘A moment's hush, please,' Sean said in a loud authoritative voice. He was instantly obeyed as he bowed his head to consider what to do next. Everyone tried not to fidget.

‘So,' and now Sean was ready to recap, 'you've all been released and everyone is safe?’

‘Thanks to the cat upstairs,' Bunny said. 'I don't know how it managed to find us - maybe it was out hunting and heard me call, I suppose.’

Sean and the others exchanged sheepish glances. 'We all had a map,' he admitted with a thumb jerked back to the still-glowing wall of the cave. 'But the cat acted on it while the rest of us were gathering a force to protect ourselves from the pirates.’

‘The only two that are here are warming themselves near by. There's a couple of others on ice, you might say, about where the map says,' she indicated the slowly fading spiral and line, dribbling away as the microscopic animals forming the phosphorescence deserted the map to go on to more important matters. Chumia busily sketched the whole map on the back of her hand. The portion of the map that crossed waves remained as bright and deliberate as it had been when Bunny first arrived.

‘Yana talked Dinah into getting Louchard to release Marmie and Namid too, since they're afraid to return Marmie to Gal-Three and can't get any ransom for her.’

‘Wait, wait! Who's this Namid?' Sinead asked.

‘An astronomer Louchard's also got imprisoned.' Bunny didn't explain about Namid being divorced from Dinah because it wasn't really an important detail. 'We came in the Jenny's shuttle, only the damned fool landed right on the edge of the ice so they're about to take a dive off the ice into the inlet…' At Sean's gasp of horror, 'Oh, Yana, Diego and me as well as Dinah O'Neill and the first mate got ashore OK, but there are crewmen still inside and they can't go nowhere right now.’

‘And they'd have nowhere to go here either, so crowded we are,' Sinead said sourly.

So everyone started talking at once again until Sean, in mid-flight up the stairs on his way to Yana, stopped and held up his hands.

‘OK now, folks, let's just calm down. If the ship's disabled, we can relax. There's just two people to be considered and I think we can handle this, Muktuk, Chumia, Sinead and me. Go on back to your homes and your dinners. And thank you very much for being so ready to stand on the line. Sure do appreciate your support.’

Then, followed by Bunny, Sinead and the two Murphys, Sean swarmed up the steps two at a time.

‘Where did you say you stashed them, Bunny?' Sean asked when they got outside.

‘First cabin I came to,' and Bunny pointed. 'Megenda was shaking so bad he needed to get warm't't'

‘Oh, that'd be the Sirgituks',' Chumia said, smiling. 'They won't mind. They're still down below. Shall I ask them to stay here, in our place, until we've got things all settled?’

‘Would you please, Chumia?' Sean said with an appreciative smile but he kept right on striding towards the place where Yana was.

In fact, he was at least ten strides in front of Bunny and Muktuk when he reached the door and went in. Bunny trotted to catch up and heard a very surprised Yana call out Sean's name. When Bunny entered the Sirgituks' cabin, they were locked in each other's arms, cheek to cheek, eyes closed, rocking back and forth and not saying a word. Yana's face was wet with tears.

Dinah O'Neill was looking Sean up and down as if she was hunting for something she wasn't seeing and there was a bit of a smirk to her grin. Megenda was still shivering, though not quite as violently now that he had the warmth of the soup in him. Yana and Diego had removed both of the pirates' clothing and their own in Bunny's absence, and were wrapped in the Sirgituks' extra clothing and blankets. A kettle boiled on the stove.

‘Dinah O'Neill, this is Muktuk Murphy-O'Neill and Chumia Murphy-O'Neill, your kinfolk. And the man by the fire is First Mate Megenda of the Jenny,' said Bunny.

‘Greetings, kinswoman,' Muktuk said, 'though I think we gotta do some straight talking before anyone's going to want to welcome you proper, like. Now let's get this fella seen to. Whatcha think, Sinead? Give him a tot of the Juice?’

Sinead had followed Muktuk in and was eyeing Dinah O'Neill with a less than charitable expression on her face. She had relaxed on seeing that Yana was well enough to cling to Sean and now she gave the shuddering Megenda her attention.

‘D'you have some of Clodagh's Juice?’

Muktuk nodded. 'Always keep some handy since the time it brought my brother back to life, when he fell into the fish-hole that winter.’

He rummaged in one of the overhead cupboards in the kitchen corner of the house and dragged out a medium-sized brown bottle, held it up to the light and twirled it, checking the level of the liquid. Satisfied, he got down a glass, poured in an exact two fingers of liquid, then handed the glass to Megenda.

‘This'll stop those shivers before you come loose at the joints.’

Megenda was evidently willing, at this point, to drink anything that might reduce the chill he had taken. Grasping both edges of the fur rug in one big hand, he took the glass in the other and swallowed the contents in one gulp.

Muktuk regarded him, and Megenda looked right back, sort of superciliously, until the Juice made itself known in his gullet. Then his eyes bulged out, fit to pop from his head, and he gasped, exhaling, and even Bunny, on the far side of the room, recoiled as his exhalation reached her.

Dinah O'Neill looked angry. 'What did you give him?’

‘Just what Clodagh would have given if she was here,' Bunny said smugly. 'You watch. It'll stop those shivers as if he'd swallowed a hot poker.’

Megenda, mouth still wide open, dragged in a breath as deep as the one he had just expelled, settled it in his lungs, shook his head, and stood straight and tremorless in front of the fire.

‘What was in that?' he asked in a raspy voice, letting the fur drop from his head. His observers could now see the beads of sweat standing out on his forehead. Close as he'd stood to the fire, it hadn't been able to warm him to sweating.

Sean grinned. 'Clodagh Senungatuck makes it up for dogsled drivers to use in case of a ducking. Used it a time or two myself to good effect.’

‘When you come out of the water after a good swim?' asked Dinah O'Neill with an odd smile on her lips as she regarded Sean, her head tilted to one side.

He gave her a long stare. Then he smiled back at her. 'I don't need it on those occasions, Dama. I'm in my element then.' He gestured to the table, pulled out one of the chairs and settled Yana in it. He hadn't let go of her hand all this time and he continued to hold it throughout the next discussions.

‘That stuff keep its whammy long?' Dinah asked, looking respectfully at the bottle as she took a seat. When Sean nodded, she asked, 'That's the sort of thing Petaybee does like no other culture?’

‘We have developed certain medications that are effective in this sort of climate, yes. That's one. I doubt it would have much use on, say, a tropical world where the general demand would be small.’

‘But something that when it's needed, there isn't anything as efficacious?' Dinah went on.

Sean inclined his head. 'Like the cough syrup that cured my wife's…" and he gave Yana such a fond look that Dinah O'Neill blinked wistfully, 'cough. How is it now, dear?’

‘I haven't so much as sputtered since I got back into Petaybean air, Sean,' Yana replied, squeezing his fingers.

‘No, you haven't.' Dinah O'Neill blinked again and then frowned before she gave her head a little shake. 'No, you didn't manufacture those coughing fits.’

‘No, I did not,' Yana said firmly. 'I definitely did not. But I'm not going to go off-planet ever again…' and this time her free hand went to the pouch at her neck, 'not for any reason, no matter how damned important.’

‘Not that Sean'd let you,' Bunny said.

‘Now, Dama, what do we do?' Sean said directly to Dinah O'Neill. 'Have you indeed come to seek sanctuary here from your pirate captain?’

‘Actually,' and now the famous O'Neill smile broke across Dinah's pert face, 'I'm here as spokesperson for Captain Louchard to discover what… ah, shall I say, local wealth, can be used to defray his costs.’

‘His costs?' Diego said, angrily.

‘Well, yes, of course, he has to make some profit from what has turned out to be an ill-advised undertaking.’

‘Won't restoration of the half-sunk shuttle suffice?' Sean asked, a twitch of a smile on his lips.

‘Oh, dear heavens, no. The shuttle can either sink on its own or the Jenny's tractor beam will lift it,' Dinah O'Neill said airily. 'No, the Captain expended a considerable amount of time and energy, plus rations and accommodations…’

‘Rations and accommodations…" Diego burst out.

‘Why, you were fed from the Captain's table…’

‘I doubt that,' Yana muttered.

‘Well, my table, then,' Dinah corrected herself. 'And fresh fruit and good meat…’

‘Only when we threatened hunger striking,' Diego said irately.

‘Whatever,' Dinah said, dismissing his complaint. 'Time and effort, as well as supplies, mean some compensation must be forthcoming or I fear the Captain will do something drastic.’

Sean cleared his throat. 'I do know that the gentlefolk in Marmion Algemeine's social sphere have set up certain precautions that make ransom impossible.’

‘She'd rather die than say yes?' Dinah said in an arch manner with appropriate gestures of hands and eyes.

‘Exactly,' Sean replied in a flat no-nonsense tone of voice. 'None of her rank are good kidnap targets. Your captain missed a trick there.’

‘Captain Louchard don't make mistakes,' Megenda said menacingly.

‘Oh dear,' Dinah O'Neill said, pretending dismay and she leaned conspiratorially across the table to Sean and Yana. 'The first mate isn't going to be very easy to deal with, what with all he's gone through.’

‘Then he'd better be grateful we bothered to save his skin,' Bunny said fiercely. 'Because I'll never do it again.’

‘You will find, Dama, that none of your captives are ransomable.’

‘I'm not so sure about that,' Dinah said sweetly. 'You've already proved conclusively that this planet has products that are life-saving.’

‘The Juice is useful, that's true, but let's face it, how many hypothermic victims have you encountered in your line of work?' Sean asked. 'And while it doesn't cost much to produce, there's not what you'd call a good profit margin in Juice either.’

‘Ah, but there may be other items with which to pay your ransom… like your swimming… ah, shall I say, technique?’

Sean threw back his head and laughed heartily. 'That's hereditary, Dama, and not many would put up with the inconveniences.’

‘Like running around starkers in minus-forty Celsius?’

‘Exactly.’

‘I think I need to speak to the Powers That Be on this place. You are, if you'll pardon me, really not the final authority. Or so I've been led to believe.' Dinah had cocked her head again at Sean. Then she turned abruptly to Bunny. 'You promised to guide me to one of the communion places of this planet. Do so now.' She rose. So did Megenda.

‘I will guide my kinswoman,' Muktuk said, putting a hand on Sean's shoulder to keep him seated by Yana.

Dinah gave Bunny and Diego a stern look and pointed her index finger at them. Megenda took the half-step necessary to loom above them. Bunny shrugged. Diego glowered but both rose from the bench. So did Sinead, who eyed Megenda as she idly caressed the handle of her skinning knife.

‘Remember to listen carefully, Dama,' Sean said and paid no more attention to the group setting out to the communion place.

‘Let's go and get this over with,' Megenda said in a growl, herding everyone before him. At the door, he looked back over his shoulder at the bottle, still visible on the worktop, and shook his head.