Treaty at Doona Page 4

  “As planetary administrator,” Todd said instantly, “I need to be on hand for any decisions that affect Doonarrala.”

  Barnstable gave him a long, measuring look, then nodded his head sharply once.

  “Zis surprise arrival affects more zan just Rraladoona,” Hrrto said promptly. “I must be present, as well.”

  “I go, too,” said Hrriss, glancing at Todd, who nodded agreement. Their estrangement over the spaceport was momentarily forgotten in this new crisis.

  “I must accompany the Speaker,” Mllaba said, glaring at Hrriss as if he had usurped some prerogative of hers.

  “Hrrubans on a Spacedep military ship?” Barnstable said with sudden pompous suspicion.

  “Zese are exzraordinary circumstances,” Second Speaker said urgently, his tense stance suggesting he would brook no refusal. “I wish to see what you see when you see it. We will coordinaze wiz ze Hrruban ship from zere.”

  “Dammit, very well! Come along! But let’s get a move on!” the Admiral barked.

  “We don’t know that anything’s wrong, love,” Todd whispered to Kelly as he gave her a quick farewell hug. “Don’t panic when there’s no need.”

  Kelly let her head rest briefly on his shoulder, as if memorizing his touch and scent, then pushed herself firmly away. “I’ll wait with Nrrna and the kids.”

  “Thata girl,” Todd said almost flippantly. “Don’t I always come back to you?”

  Nearly giving way to the very panic he had mentioned, she caught herself in time and said, “Just don’t take any unnecessary chances.”

  “Me? Never!” He gave her his most charismatic grin and then turned back to the emergency before him. “Ali, I believe that the Admiral’s shuttle is already on the Hamilton. Can you get us another one?”

  “No tussle, trouble, or toil there,” the Codep captain said, cheerfully, “providing we don’t get shot out of space on the way. Follow me, all.”

  KIACHIF TOOK the skiff off in a fast-climbing orbit, cleaving the atmosphere. Crowded into its forward cabin behind Kiachif and Hrriss in the pilot’s couches were Barnstable, Todd, Second Speaker and his assistant Mllaba, Hrrestan, Barnstable’s personal aide-de-camp, and Jilamey Landreau, who squeezed on board through the closing airlock before he could be stopped. Rather than waste any more time, he was allowed to remain.

  Below them the vivid blue of the Doonan sky glowed, illuminating the nearside of vessels hovering in local space above. Communication satellites, merchant ships, and beacons went by unheeded. As soon as the skiff attained its first looping orbit, the unknown ship came into view, watched cautiously at a prudent distance by the Spacedep and Hrruban Space Arm vessels. The invader had made no overt movements, either hostile or friendly. It just hung there in space, circling the planet at a distance. Everyone stared in turn at the screens and the forward port, as if to make certain what they saw on the screen existed in real space.

  “Where did that large leviathanic liner come from?” Ali Kiachif demanded. His eyes gleamed. “I’d powerful like to take her for a test spin, make no mistake about that. Wonder what fuel she runs on?”

  “Brr! It looks dangerous,” Jilamey exclaimed. “All those bits and pieces sticking out. Surely that’s not good design.” The visitor plunged into the nightside of Doonarrala, making itself a sinister shadow against the stars.

  “Isn’t that a breakaway orbit?” Kiachif asked, checking his sensors. “Is she doing a spit, split and flit if anyone so much as says ‘boo’ to her?”

  Todd scrutinized the outlines of the ship as it reached dayside again. The vessel was slowing down.

  “Seems to be settling into a stationary orbit, Ali,” he said. Details were hard to pick out on the black hull. He could see nothing at all that he could identify as weaponry, nor did the skiff’s monitors register any telltale radiation glow. “They look like they mean to stay awhile,” he added very softly.

  Hrriss, beside him, was the only one to hear that comment. “I know what I wish zey are doing here,” the cat man said wistfully.

  “Me, too,” Todd agreed, smiling slightly. Once again, he and Hrriss were in the minority. He was positive that most of the others were reacting with various degrees of xenophobia. Had neither race learned anything from the Doona Experiment? Or were they two the only ones who understood the true significance of this unique colony? Bearing in mind the result of his father’s initial encounter with two small Hrrubans over thirty years ago, Todd believed a show of friendship might once again prove more useful than overt hostility. The very fact that this skiff contained persons from two races, observing a possible confrontation with a third, surely meant some good had been achieved by the Decision at Doona. His grin for Hrriss broadened. “Well, if wishes were hrrrses . . .” he murmured in a very good imitation of Hrriss.

  “It is a trrrifying giant,” Mllaba said, exhaling with a hiss as she shivered.

  The skiff caught up with the leviathan, passed underneath, and shot out in front. Kiachif turned the craft out of an ascension trajectory and headed for the Spacedep cruiser.

  * * *

  Captain Castleton was waiting for them at the docking bay. Todd had met her once before, two years back, at a Treaty Day observance. He didn’t know much about her, except that she was a good dancer. Her crew considered her a tartar because she expected honesty and tireless dedication from everyone who served under her. She appeared unruffled and calm, saluting the Admiral smartly before holding out a firm hand to each of the others.

  “Welcome on board the Hamilton, gentlemen, madam,” she said. Mllaba shook her hand gravely.

  “Grace, I’m glad to see you,” Barnstable said at his heartiest. “We’ve just had a good look at your mystery guest. Damned if I know what it is. Any new info?” The Admiral turned to acknowledge another uniformed figure in the bay with a lift of his thick white eyebrows. “Ah, Jon, there you are. My aide, Jon Greene,” he said to the others. “I’ll want your reading on this ASAP, Greene.”

  “Of course, sir,” Greene said, stepping forward. “My report is waiting for you.”

  Todd decided the aide was about his own age but a handspan shorter, compact and trim in his dark blue uniform. Greene glanced at the civilians behind his CO, meeting Todd’s eyes, then focusing, as if identifying him. Greene’s look of concentration faded abruptly, dismissing the civilians as unimportant, and he returned his gaze to his superior. Todd felt a swift flush of irritation at being so negligently dismissed.

  Castleton went on. “Sir, I’ve invited Captain Hrrrv of the Hrruban vessel to take part in this conference.”

  Barnstable nodded. “Good. In the ready room?”

  “This way, Admiral,” Castleton said, indicating the portside corridor.

  It was then that Todd saw the two Humans in dark blue uniforms with security flashes on their shoulders. They peeled away from the group waiting behind the sliding doors and fell in behind the Hrrubans as they went down the blue-gray corridor. As everyone filed out of the bay, more of the ratings took positions behind the other Hrrubans. It was not very subtly done and Todd could see that Second’s spine was stiff under his red robe. Mllaba’s tail switched angrily back and forth. After so many years since the Decision at Doonarrala, it was infuriating to see that there was still such blatant evidence of distrust.

  * * *

  “Blast it out of space,” the Hrruban captain suggested, his fangs clicking together with a sound of finality. He waved an imperious hand at the image hanging on the large screen. Hrrrv bore a broad, dark stripe down the middle of his gold-furred back, sure indication of his clan’s high position on Hrruba. Both cruisers were now matching the stranger’s orbit, but with one fourth the curve of the great blue planet between them for safety. The Hrruban’s ship was just barely visible in the corner of the view screen. “I do not like its appearance,” Hrrrv said, “I think it means us no good.” He walked up and down one si
de of the ready room, switching his tail irritably.

  “Captain Castleton, when the ship did not answer any standard hailing messages, did you try any other methods of communication?” Todd asked, exasperated by the military mind.

  Grace Castleton regarded him with surprise. “I tried all known codes . . . on all frequencies available to my equipment.” Her tone and look implied that she had the very best, state-of-the-art equipment. “Oh, I see what you’re driving at,” she said after a moment, her face lightening.

  “Thank goodness someone does,” Todd said, throwing up his hands in gratitude.

  “And just what is that?” Admiral Barnstable demanded, annoyed.

  “Sir, how can they communicate with us if there isn’t a common language? Or symbols or even a medium of communication. My father had the advantage of being face to face with two members of another species.”

  “And how do you propose to emulate your father, then?” Barnstable asked.

  “By going to meet them.”

  Barnstable’s eyes protruded and his face flushed with either surprise or anger, but Todd kept his ingenuous smile in place. “Worked before,” he said.

  “That’s why we ended up learning Hrruban,” Jilamey broke in. When he saw Barnstable, Castleton, and Greene giving him a concerted cold glance, he demanded, “What was wrong with that? We learned it. I think Todd’s got the right approach. Go meet ’em and find out what they want. It doesn’t do us any good to sit here in space with that big thing looming over us, neither side making a move. Their ship may be bigger, but”—he waggled his finger around the room—“we got more. They could be the ones scared stiff to do anything, you know. Make the wrong move and get blasted out of space.”

  Todd rubbed at his mouth, trying to make his lips behave. Jilamey was making exactly the point that Todd wanted to.

  “Landreau’s talking sense,” Ali Kiachif said. “Don’t know why I didn’t see it that way myself, since I’ve traded with some mighty odd folk, using signs and trying to savvy their grunts, groans, and gargles.”

  “D’you mean to say,” Castleton asked Todd, leaning forward across the table, “that you’re willing to approach them?”

  “If you’ll let us have a tender, Captain,” Todd said equably.

  “But . . . but that could be a vanguard!” Barnstable protested.

  “A vanguard? That big?” Kiachif asked incredulously. “If that’s Baby, I don’t want to meet Papa, if you get my drift.”

  “An unarmed baby,” Todd said, seizing the initiative again. “Unarmed. I’m more than willing to go . . .”

  “I’ll go with you,” Hrriss said.

  “I wouldn’t mind the trip myself. Be sort of fun,” Jilamey said, grinning in his eagerness.

  “Now see here,” Barnstable began, trying to regain control. “That is not standard procedure.”

  “I didn’t realize there was a standard procedure for encountering large unknown spacecraft, Admiral,” Todd said. He stood up. “If you’ll be good enough to assign us a shuttle to make first contact, Captain Castleton . . .”

  “Dammit, young man,” and Barnstable thumped the table with both fists, “nothing’s been decided.”

  “I know,” Todd said, gesturing to Hrriss and Jilamey. “That’s why I decided to do something on my own initiative as co-leader of the planet, which I do not honestly believe is in any danger from this visitor. But the sooner we establish communications, the sooner we learn exactly why they are in our space and what they want.”

  “They’ll want to blast you to motes if you’re foolhardy enough to approach them,” Barnstable said.

  “With what, Admiral?” Todd asked, feeling the tide of aggravation rising in his blood. “You’ve established—at least you say you have”—he glanced for confirmation at Castleton and Hrrrv—“that the ship is unarmed . . .”

  Barnstable waved that consideration away. “You can’t know what kind of weapons they might have. The whole ship, in that peculiar configuration, might act as an amplifier for some kind of huge energy beam! Who knows what those bulges on the surface are for?”

  “I’m willing to take that risk, Admiral,” Todd said, adding grimly, “I’ve also considered that they might have biological armament which doesn’t require high-powered delivery systems. But I prefer to believe that they’re friendly; only waiting for an invitation from us. Enemies barge in; friends wait for invitations.”

  “Good point, Todd,” Kiachif said, grinning broadly. “ ‘Enemies barge in; friends wait for invitations.’ Great notion.”

  A notion which did not appear to amuse many of those present. Hrrto’s expression was unreadable, though his tail tip twitched. Mllaba’s was extremely active.

  “Admiral, remember that thirty-four years ago,” Todd went on earnestly, “Humans discovered that we were not alone in the galaxy, that there was another sentient race with whom we could be friends,” and he nodded solemnly at Hrrto, who looked pleased, and grinned at Hrriss and Hrrestan, dropping his glance lastly on Mllaba, who sniffed back at him. “The presence of a sophisticated spaceship that big means that whoever is aboard is not only sentient but of an intelligent and advanced civilization. The fact that they haven’t opened fire or made any threatening moves against us, I take to mean that they are not aggressive. I’m willing to test that belief.”

  “So am I,” Hrriss said.

  “Me, too,” Jilamey piped up, grinning in an inane fashion.

  “So, do we have a shuttle, Admiral?” Todd was becoming more and more irked at the specious delays. He wouldn’t call them cowardly, but certainly close to it.

  Grace Castleton flicked a glance at Admiral Barnstable.

  “You can use my skiff, Reeve,” Ali Kiachif said then, with a glance of veiled contempt at the naval officers. “Glad to oblige . . .”

  Barnstable was on his feet; so was Hrrrv.

  “Now see here, Reeve, that’s encroaching on military prerogatives . . .”

  “It’s our planet down there, Barnstable. C’mon, Ali, you can pilot while this lot dithers.”

  Grace Castleton slid in front of Todd before he had taken a full step. “Stow that, Reeve. I take your point, and I’m sure the Admiral does, too, even if your method is high-handed . . . especially while you’re on board my ship.” She gave him a wry grin. “You’ve volunteered to test the intentions of our . . .”

  “Visitor?” Todd suggested in an edged tone.

  She nodded. “Visitor. But Spacedep is responsible for the safety of all its citizens, and Captain Hrrrv for his nationals.”

  Todd gave her full marks for remembering the Hrruban presence, naval and diplomatic. “That is true, but as these are aliens, whatever form they take, the approach falls in the province of Alreldep, of which I’m a representative.”

  “Out of the question,” Barnstable said firmly. “Alien Relations or no. Until these beings, whatever they are, are proven harmless, it is still a Spacedep matter. I concur that logic suggests that Reeve lead a first-contact team . . .”

  “And the elder Reeve,” Todd said. “He has, after all, had more experience than anyone else in successful first contacts.”

  “Your father?”

  “The very one.”

  “Humph. Well—” Barnstable cleared his throat. “Makes sense.”

  “I’ll lead the armed guard.” Greene said, taking a step forward.

  “There’ll be no armed guard,” Todd and Hrriss said in unison.

  Barnstable bristled but Hrrestan’s eyes flashed. “A show of arms is unnecessary. And might even be considered an insult. A friend advances with open hands.”

  “It worked before,” Todd said, exchanging glances with Hrriss. Out of the corner of his eye then, Todd caught a look of intense disgust on Greene’s face. Here was one man who didn’t hold with the pacific approach. And probably one who might be a borde
rline xenophobe. “I think we’ve discussed this matter long enough. Too long a delay might jeopardize good relations. They’ll have seen the skiff arriving. Captain, may I get in touch with my father on Doonarrala?”

  As Grace Castleton bent to the terminal to instruct the comm officer, Todd saw the resolute glint in Greene’s eyes. That man’s middle name might be “trouble,” he thought: he had a skeptical and suspicious air about him. Then the line to the surface of Doonarrala was open.

  * * *

  Ken Reeve was delighted to be asked. “I wondered what the lines were humming so hot and heavy for,” he said, his image beaming an ear-to-ear smile at them from the screen. “I knew the perimeter alarms went off because I was jawing with Martinson at the Space Center up here between the First Villages. It was too late for the shush order when it followed. The gossips hanging around in port spread it all over town in jig time. Everyone’s speculating on who’s come calling.”

  Barnstable looked grim. “I was afraid of that. What’s the response?”

  “Not exactly what you’d think by your reaction, Admiral,” Ken said with a grin. “Doonans are more inclined to think that outsiders who don’t come in shooting are minded to be friendly. We know we’re not the only ones out there, and I for one am happy for a chance to be one of the first to meet these new friends.”

  “They aren’t friends yet,” Greene reminded him sharply. Ken glanced over Barnstable’s shoulder at the commander, his black eyebrows mounting into his hairline.

  “Nor yet enemies,” Ken replied quickly. “How can I get up to you?”

  “I’ll send a shuttle for you,” Barnstable said, cutting Ken off and putting an end to the argument. “In the meantime, this is still a security matter. Please consider this as top secret. You may not inform anyone where you are going or what you’ll be doing.”