Power Play

23

‘Neva-Marie? Looks like we got ourselves a situation here.' Johnny Greene spoke calmly and soothingly enough to quiet any of the savage beasts who were circling. 'We're up to our collective arse in planet-rapers, polar bears and pumas, so to speak… How many what?… Oh, planet-rapers? Oh, a couple hundred or maybe a little less… Nope, sorry, I'm not going to count the polar bears and pumas for you. Let's just say there's enough, shall we?… My position is about - ummm - a hundred and fifty miles south south-west of Bogota, pretty much in the middle of nowhere special. It's flat, it's dark, and me, Mr and Mrs Ondelacy and the Town Council as well as little Cita Rourke got ourselves surrounded first by these planet-rapers, then somehow or other got our position reinforced by the polar bears and the pumas and other associated species. It's dark. It's cold. We want outta here muy pronto… I damn sure know I drive the only winged beast in the vicinity but we need help fast. I don't care how. There's too many here to take out and I don't have the fuel to run a ferry service between here and Bogota and I - er - rather suspect the planet-rapers would take it ill if I tried to leave without them. Besides, goodness only knows what they'd do to the polar bears… Well,'' don't know what you're supposed to do, sweetheart. Call Adak to call Sean and see if he's got any bright ideas. If Oscar O'Neill hasn't left the planet yet maybe he could lend a hand… Call Loncie's kids and tell them to send a dogsled posse. But hurry. There's a polar bear eyeing me lustfully even as we speak and I was saving myself for you. Out now, love. I really miss you.’

Tanana Bay

The dogsleds were loaded and the teams hitched and ready to go when Liam Maloney mushed in, accompanied by Dinah, his late mother's lead dog, and Nanook, most companionable of Sean's large track cats. Dinah, the good sled dog that she was, leapt up on Diego at once and began washing his face with a tongue that smelt like fish. Diego called her by name several times, looking over to see the effect on Dinah, but she, the human, didn't change expression.

‘Kind of you to come, Liam,' Sinead said a touch sarcastically. 'A bit late, but welcome nonetheless.’

‘I was delayed,' he said, pushing back the parka hood and running his mittens over the ice that had formed in his hair and moustache. 'Nanook had a hairy knicker attack on the way here and wouldn't let us proceed for quite some time. I couldn't get it out of him what was wrong, but once he decided to move he all but left us behind.’

Sean squatted down and held out his arms, 'What's the problem, Nanook?’

‘Don't tell me it talks too?' Dinah O'Neill, the person, asked.

‘Anything wrong with talking cats?' Diego demanded, rubbing Dinah-the-dog's ears.

‘Nothing at all. After what the darling little orange pussycat did for us, I have become a born-again cat lover, especially of Petaybean cats. I suppose export is out of the question?’

Sean looked up and said, 'Here's another first. Coaxtl is sending to Nanook that her cub - by that I take it she means Cita - is in trouble with bad humans. She went down to see Loncie when Johnny and O. O. took the last Cube to Bogota.' He stroked Nanook worriedly. 'While I'm gratified to see that the planet is expanding its communications network to cover the whole globe, I don't have a notion what we can do to help Cita.’

Chumia said, 'That was the other spot on the map in the communion place then, wasn't it? That's what the waves were for and the circles - there's more trouble down south. You're right, Sean. I've never known the planet to tell us anything about what was happening down there before.’

Muktuk shook his head. 'My dogs'd take me anywhere but they ain't real big on winter ocean swimming.’

‘I'd swim it myself,' Sean said, 'but the mental picture I'm getting is of someplace far inland, away from any waterways. I can't imagine how the bears came so far from the ice-pack.’

‘Bears?' Bunny asked. ''Polar bears? Cita's down there with polar bears? Uncle Sean, we've got to save her!’

Sean gave her a small, wry smile. 'Funny, that's what she said when she heard you'd been kidnapped by pirates, and you've come out of it well enough.’

‘I'd take Petaybean polar bears over pirates any time, gatita,' Diego told Bunny, releasing one arm from the dog's neck to hold her hand. 'At least they have the planet to answer to. Whereas Two-Foot Dinah here only has Louchard.’

Dinah O'Neill lifted an eyebrow and said, 'Perhaps. But I do happen to have command of a space shuttle that could be placed at your disposal to solve this little inconvenience. That is, if it could be freed.’

The rescue expedition was mounted forthwith and with great despatch, especially since they now had the means to rescue Cita from the polar bears. Sean, Yana and Bunny were everywhere at once, organizing. The snow had not fallen so thickly that Bunny's trail couldn't be retraced in the darkness and the dog sleds broadened the track. The nights were longer in northerly Tanana Bay than they were even in Kilcoole, but all the drivers and dogs were used to travelling in darkness. Fifteen sleds left the village, containing rope, chain, fishnets, winches, anything that might help free the shuttle. Dinah-Four-Feet and Nanook trotted alongside. Dinah-Two-Foot, the pirate's representative, accompanied the rescuers, but Megenda had been locked inside the communion cave for safekeeping and to recover fully from his narrow escape from frostbite and pneumonia.

‘Let's not get too close,' Bunny called to the sleds as they neared the hole in the ice containing the shuttle. 'It broke with just me.’

‘Make way, clear off the trail,' Muktuk Murphy's voice called from the rear. 'Comin' through.’

Behind his he led a curly mare and behind her trotted three of the wild curly stallions, each sporting a businesslike horn.

‘Where'd you get them, Muktuk?' Sean asked. 'They're beauties.’

‘Part of the Tanana Bay herd,' Muktuk said proudly, with an affectionate slap on the heavy neck of the mare beside him. 'I told her we had a job to do for the smartest so she picked her own get. They can do more for us in this season than fight with each other over who gets what filly. Not that this is the time a' year for breedin'. That's for springtime,' he added with a grin.

‘Hmmm,' Dinah O'Neill said under her breath just loudly enough that Yana heard her. 'That's quite a display they're putting on. Didn't know animals acted like that. Showing off like cadets who've just got their pilot's licences.’

Yana shot her an enigmatic smile, as enthralled by the rearing, bucking, biting antics of the males as Dinah. The sleds with their teams of wagging, howling dogs slewed to either side of the trail and broadened their circle around the hole while Muktuk led his mare forward.

‘Why don't they just use ice-saws?' Diego asked.

Behind her hand Bunny said, 'First 'cos I think Cousin Muktuk is showing off for Cousin Dinah's benefit, and second because it's said that the curlycorns can judge ice so well they can play tag on the icepack during breakup and never once fall in.’

‘Fascinating!' Dinah-Two-Feet said.

Yana was both amused and appalled, watching this laughing tourist who had assisted in their kidnapping, had stood by while Megenda struck both Diego and Bunny, and, according to the kids, had been a party to the murders of the Gal-3 repair crew members. If Yana had anything to say about it, as soon as that shuttle was out of the water and the crewmen out of the shuttle, crew and Dinah O'Neill would be put on ice with Megenda. Never mind'safe passage'. Petaybee had no kind of law and order beyond that which made good sense to most people, but Gal-3 had plenty.

Dinah O'Neill was laughing again. 'Look at those creatures go! I've never seen a unicorn before, Muktuk. Is it true they only like virgins?’

Muktuk snorted with good-natured contempt for her ignorance. 'Curly-coats aren't proper unicorns. They'll mount anything. Our Sedna here is mother to all three stallions and, since she's bell mare for the Tanana Bay herd, they mind her right good.’

To Yana, it seemed as though the activity of the curly unicorns was frantic, driven, and no more purposeful than to break through any random chunk of ice to reach what lay beneath. The remarkable result was that the effects of their seemingly random efforts were beginning to show. They had made it into some sort of game, spurred on by Sedna who went from one to the other, like a foreman, so that every muscular ripple was a challenge to do better: every thrust and gouge of a horn was accompanied by a snort of derision for the others: every stamp of the hoof broke through a newly dislodged block of ice and sent it bouncing off the trapped shuttle into the black waters below.

In less than an hour, during which Dinah, Diego and Yana were bundled into sleds, the shuttle floated free of the ice. It bounced out of its trap in a wobbly fashion. Then the crew forthwith fired up the engines and landed it beyond the ice at the position of the outermost dogsled.

If a shuttle door could open timidly, this one did. Dinah O'Neill was there to greet them.

‘Come on out, gentlemen. Throw down your weapons. I'm afraid we're surrounded by superior firepower.’

A slight variation of the facts, of course, although Dinah did have her own laser pistol pointed at her.

And truth was served when the crew, having thrown out their handweapons, found them turned purposefully on themselves as the Petaybeans augmented their harpoons, drawn bows, hunting knives and the two simple ballistic firearms with the sophisticated weaponry. With the crew in custody, Dinah began to climb the ramp but Muktuk caught one arm, Yana the other.

‘I wouldn't dream of taking you away from either your crew or your newfound family when you've just got here, Dama,' Yana said sweetly. 'I've flown this class shuttle all over the galaxy. I'm sure Sean and I can manage. You join the others.’

‘Oh, curses! Foiled again, I suppose,' Dinah muttered. 'But, very well. Have it your way. Muktuk, Chumia, you did promise to share the family history with me and I have a bit to tell you. Shall we return to your lovely home and thaw out?’

Southern Continent

‘Coaxtl says there is a storm coming, Captain Johnny,' Cita said. 'She says that if all will follow me, one at a time, she will lead us to a warm place of safety.’

Zing Chi looked down at her scornfully. 'This is no time for childish prattling. You people obviously indulge your children too much if they feel they may interrupt adults dealing with such a crisis.’

Cita couldn't help herself. Her wicked streak surfaced.

‘They do not indulge children! I should know. I have been beaten well and often as I so frequently deserve. But the words I spoke were the words of Coaxtl and

no-one beats Coaxtl. And Captain Johnny would not have a crisis to deal with if you had not caused it! I may be unworthy and a mere child, but you are a wicked, greedy man and very impolite as well to come to the Home and take things without asking!’

Zing Chi spat disgustedly. 'Your pardon, Captain. I didn't realize the child was mentally unbalanced.’

But Captain Johnny gave him the same sort of look Zing Chi had given Cita and asked her, 'Would Coaxtl know if it would be safe for me to fly?’

Cita asked and reported the answer. 'She says there will be strong winds and much snow and all will be whiteness. We must follow now to find the safe place.’

‘In other words, no flying. Loncie, Pablo, you heard? What do you think?' Johnny asked.

‘Follow your lion, muchacha,' Loncie told Cita approvingly. 'We will follow you.’

‘We won't,' Zing Chi declared. 'You think I am fooled by your notion that animals talk? That animals know things that humans don't? Especially about flying conditions. This is a trick to separate us so we can be taken and it does not work with Zing Chi. Those animals are only waiting until we separate so that they can pick us off more easily.’

Cita had had quite enough of this rude and grabby man. She pushed through the crowd to Coaxtl, who easily cut a swath from the outer ring of animals through the huddle of people. Behind her, Cita heard Johnny say, 'Oh, no, Zing Chi. As far as the polar bears are concerned, larger groups are a more satisfying entree. But suit yourself. I'm following the cat and,' he raised his voice to shout over the wind, 'if any of you other folks want to get in out of the cold before a big storm comes, follow us, one at a time!’

Hurry, Youngling, the place is far and time is short, Coaxtl said.

Cita felt the warm softness of another, smaller cat brushing her legs, twisting about her ankles and then the prickle of claws on her thigh. She looked down into the gold-coin eyes of a lion cub.

Behind her, a voice said, 'It wants to go with you. I will too. I don't care what the others are doing.’

Cita looked back and saw the boy she had glimpsed from the copter. He was bending over to stroke the cub. She nodded and Coaxtl preceded her back through the throng to the copter, where Johnny, Loncie, Pablo and the others from Bogota fell in behind herself and the boy. Zing Chi was shouting at his people that it was all a trap. Not that there was another option open, for the circle of animals closed tighter and tighter around the people, funnelling them in behind Cita's group.

As Coaxtl reached the outer edge of the humans she stepped forward, Cita following, and marched with great unconcern between two long ranks of animals with fetid breath, white teeth, and shining eyes.