“Really? Is there any proof of this?”
“Tests on any mature Petaybean will yield similar anomalies, Scan says.”
“I see. We can run the tests on Sigdhu and the other woman then, I suppose.”
“You can, but you need to bring them back to Petaybee ASAP and run the tests here. From what I understand, the adaptive mechanisms making the inhabitants suitable for a cold planet of this type would make them exceedingly uncomfortable in temperatures you find normal. And recycled air would contain viruses and bacteria which their immune systems couldn’t handle. That’s what actually killed Lavelle Maloney, and what may soon kill the other two if they aren’t returned here.” Before he could say anything, she continued. “Torkel, until the company can figure out a way of adjusting these peoples’ highly sensitive immune systems to all of the free-spinning viruses and bacteria on satellites or other planets, the kind of move you say the company’s proposing would amount to genocide.”
“That’s a fairly dramatic statement to extrapolate from the autopsy of one offplanet Petaybean, Yana. Besides, it’s the Petaybeans themselves who are making this necessary, with their guerilla sabotage against our geographical and mining exploration expeditions.”
Yana cocked a cynical eyebrow at him. “There’re no guerillas on Petaybee, Torkel, no sabotage! If anything, it’s the other way round.”
“How so? The company owns the planet. The company terraformed the planet. It has the right to extract mineral deposits.”
“The company might own the right to inhabit the surface of the planet, Torkel, and under normal circumstances, it might have the right to harvest certain resources the terraforming process sowed. But owning the planet itself?” She slowly shook her head. “This planet was here way before Intergal was formed or terraforming was invented. You don’t own this planet.”
Torkel gave a scornful snort. “If the company doesn’t, who does? Not the inhabitants that the company put here.”
She awarded him a pitying glance. “No, they just occupy it. The planet owns itself. It’s sentient, Torkel. A living entity.”
“Now you sound like Metaxos and his boy.” Torkel threw up his hands in exasperation.
“That’s because I’ve seen what they saw. Or, rather, ‘seen’ isn’t exactly the right word. Felt it, experienced it, heard it, been touched by it. Whatever. The locals say it’s a way of communicating with the planet, and you have to be willing to be touched by it or you can become disoriented enough to be in the same shape as Metaxos. Or, like some of the other missing teams, if you’re too far from help, die as a result.”
He regarded her a long moment. “And Metaxos aged in this process?”
“That’s a possibility. The phenomenon can take a lot out of someone who resists it.” Something occurred to her suddenly. “Do I … look any older to you than I did the last time you saw me, Torkel?”
“No. Younger if anything. There’s a glow about you that, if you had ever given me any encouragement would make me jealous.” He briefly dropped his lids over his eyes.
She smiled like one of Clodagh’s cats after a snootful of fish. “Other than that?”
“No. So you contend that you’ve been through the same thing as Metaxos? And didn’t fight it, so came out revived? So where did this happen? In one of these illusive mineral deposits?”
“I didn’t find any deposits.” Yana was unsettled by that shot. “I-found-myself in a quite ordinary cave formation, same kind I’ve seen other places occurring naturally under hills. According to the spatial map I received with my briefing, the cave isn’t in one of the spots where your instruments have detected mineral wealth.” She tried another tack. “Look, the locals accept me to a greater degree than you, Giancarlo, or anyone else. That makes me the best qualified to organize this operation in a way that won’t be harmful to the natives or the planet.”
Torkel gave her one of his suave smiles, which she had begun to find infuriatingly smug and condescending. “Yana, get real! We own the planet, and the natives are technically nothing more than employees. Also, it seems to me that you’re treading-you should pardon the expression-on thin ice here. Are you really offering to do this job, or have you, in fact, gone over to the side of the people you were supposed to be investigating?”