“Won’t Metaxos need better care than the infirmary here can provide?” she asked. “I heard his condition was pretty bad.”
“Oh, care here’s going to improve shortly. We’re bringing in more troops and support teams to try to crack this case. Between the two of us, there’s even some talk of evacuating the planet and doing some serious mining until it pays back.”
“I thought it was a high-recruitment area.”
“It is. Has been very good. But lately there have been fewer new recruits despite the austere conditions. Seems like the natives just don’t want to leave.” He smiled at her again, his eyes, even in this light, clear and a beautiful light brown, the color of Clodagh’s tea. “If you’re going to be here, I won’t want to leave either.”
“Good,” Yana said, softening her briskness by smiling warmly at him. “I can’t imagine anyone handier to run into right now. Giancarlo, as I mentioned, is being difficult. Now then, Torkel, repeat after me: ‘Is there anything you need, Yana?’ “
He leaned closer, and she could feel his breath as he said, stroking her palm with his thumb, “Is-there-anything- you-need-Yana?”
“I have a list,” she said.
What sorta hold you got on the captain?” Bunny asked as she helped Yana load the snocle. “He tol’ me to come back and get you.”
“It’s called the ‘old buddy network/ ” Yana said, trying not to feel smug over the haul she had just made. “By the way, a burst went out to Steve Margolies. Diego’ll have company here real soon.”
Bunny paused in hefting the pack of “clothing, winter wear, one of each” Yana had freed up. “That’s great, Yana. Only how?” She gave Yana a searching look.
“I suggested that maybe the dad would come round faster if he had the support of his family unit.” Yana hesitated then, not sure if she should confide in Bunny some of the plans for Petaybee that Torkel had mentioned. “You may be busier than ever soon,” she heard herself adding.
“How so?”
“They’re bringing in more troops and some support teams.”
Bunny snorted. “What good’ll those do ‘em if they don’t believe what they been told!”
“Intergal is trying damned hard to find those minerals they can see from up there.”
“Yeah, they do keep trying, don’t they?” That amused Bunny. “There. All your gear stowed safe and tight. Let’s get home. I got dogs to feed.” When they had reached the main road out of SpaceBase, she had other questions. “Who’s this captain dude, anyway? The colonel really snapped to when he arrived, like he wasn’t expected and not all that welcome, either.”
Yana chuckled. “His name’s Fiske, Torkel Fiske. Son of the family that developed the terraforming process used here.”
“They did Petaybee?” Bunny turned very wide eyes on Yana. “How come you know him?”
“Served on the same ship a coupla times. That’s all.”
“That’s “//?”
“That’s all, Bunny,” Yana said in a tone to discourage further queries. And yet, it started her to thinking. Torkel had sure acted glad to see her. Now, when a guy like Torkel Fiske could bed practically any female he wanted, why had he been so attentive to her, Yanaba Maddock? Mad he actually known, all along, that she was on a covert mission in the village? He had sounded genuinely surprised. Or was he just surprised to have run into her at SpaceBase? Had he meant what he said, about the possibility of evacuating everyone from Petaybee so they could blast the planet apart to find the minerals they had been after for so many years? “Ever wanted to get off Petaybee, Bunny? Get to see other worlds, where the living’s a bit easier?”
Bunny shot her a quick glance. “Why would I want to leave Petaybee? I belong here, Yana. Not just because I was born here. I belong here! I belong to this planet.” Then she clamped her lips shut and concentrated on her driving.
She had returned to her normal cheerful self when she slowed the snocle to a stop exactly parallel with the steps to Yana’s little house.
“I’ll unload, Yana,” she said. “You go tend your fire. Some of this stuff won’t do for freezing.”