“Can you tell us what has happened to your planet? For something most disastrous has,” she said in her sweet and calming voice. Kven Calum began to feel more serene, less anxious. He blinked. With water still dribbling down the corners of his mouth, the spokesman regarded her with considerably less animosity than he had accorded Calum.
“Them Starfarers”-he ^erked a finger heavenward- “they’re running a bloody bandulu bidness.” “Huh?”
“Protection racket,” the young man who’d read iA\e AcaSecki’s registration translated. “They offered to give us weatherprediction services for a fee, and when we said we didn’t need ‘em as our climate is so even- “
“That baggy on the com – “
“Woman,” the younger man interpreted. “Give a nasty snigger, she did, and said we might be getting some climate changes. We’ve had nothing but rain since then … drowned all our winter crops before we could harvest anything, and there’s no point in trying to raise anything in this.” He pointed to the floodland. “And if we tried rice, they’d fry us.”
“WHO?” Calum and Acorna said with such incredulity and outrage that their chorus provided more evidence of their innocence than any eloquence.
“Starfarers,” was the universal reply. “They’ve been making a mess of the weather.”
“Starfarers? I thought they -were just a political protest group,” Calum said.
“They’ve been ‘making it rain’?” Acorna was still dumbfounded and glanced at Calum, but she was also surreptitiously moving nearer the ramp.
“Can you manipulate weather like that?” she asked Calum with such incredulity that it provoked sour laughter from several sources.
“Not with any accuracy,” Calum said, “and you have to work off existing weather conditions.”
The spokesman gave a hollow laugh. “Well, then, they got ‘em some kin’ obeah beyond any you know. They got half our fields soaked and t’other half dried up like a desert, and it ain’t gonna get better till we pays up.”
“That’s extortion,” Acorna said indignantly. She had learned a good deal about extortion, blackmail, and such terrorizing activities on Kezdet, but those had been industrial or economic, not ecological. There was humorless laughter from the crowd, but Calum was relieved that the belligerence apparent at their arrival seemed to have eased.
“And how’d you fix the com unit? ” the spokesman said.
“A new length of cable was all it needed, and the sun we had this morning.”
“First sun we’ve seen in yonks.” Then the man gestured to the flooded land. “Not that it’ll do much good. We’re promised”-and his expression was sour-“… another six inches of rain if we fail to accept their ‘protection.’”
“You say this has been going on since the Starfarers arrived?” Calum asked. “By the way, I’m Calum Baird, Li Moon Alining Enterprises, and this lovely lady is Acorna DelszakiHarakamian.”
“Know those names,” the younger man said. “You’re connected with the House Harakamian?” he asked Acorna, and didn’t seem to realize that she had edged closer to the side of the ship, nearer the ramp.
“Mr. Delszaki Li and the House Harakamian are my guardians,” she said proudly. “If you know them, then you realize that we have nothing whatever to do with … this!”
“I’m Joshua Flouse, mayor of this.” He gestured contemptuously at the lake. “Is that purifier device of yours on the market? “
“Why, yes, it is,” Acorna said with a bright smile, taking one step closer to the ramp. “I’ll just get you one, shall I?”
Calum’s left hand depressed the field-generator switch, and he gave her a nod. With a nimble and unexpected leap, she was on the ramp and moving inside while Calum reinstated the protective field just in time to slow the startled Flouse, who had lunged forward after Acorna only to find his arms slowed as if swimming through cold molasses.
“That is,” Calum said crisply, feeling more able to take a firni line now that Acorna was safe, “we’ll trade our water-purification services for seeds-legumes and broad-leafed greens for choice. Oh, and zinc and copper sulfates to replace the trace elements our system accidentally dumped. We’d only need small quantities.”
Flouse s expression showed his disappointment at Acorna s escape. But she was smiling at him so charmingly that he shook his head, abashed, and shrugged.