“Whaddawe got left?” he asked, turning to those in the boats around him.
“Just about everything we’ve been able to keep dry enough to plant if we ever get the chance,” a woman said. “But right now I’d settle for clean water. Josh.”
“We’ll also undertake to inform the authorities of these Starfarers who are blackmailing you,” Calum said. “Unauthorized interference with a developing planet is a serious offense.”
“Tell them!” half a dozen voices chorused as even more fingers pointed skyward.
Joshua pointed to the group in one of the motorized boats. “Jason?” he called, and the man at the tiller answered with a loud”Yo!”
“You got the security code. Get us some chicka-chicka peas and greens seeds. And bring a few seedling chard and rhubarbs. And a canister of Solution B.” He turned back to Calum and Acoma, showing his eagerness to complete the deal. “Anything else?”
“You wouldn’t happen to have alfalfa seeds, would you?” Acorna asked wistfully.
“A sack of alfalfa it is, ma’am. Now, lemme see this purifier of yours’
“I’ll just get one,” she said, and before Calum could ask her what the hell she had in mind, she was down the companionway, moving in the direction of the storage compartment.
When Calum turned back to the flotilla, he saw that some children were splashing about in clear water up to their knees, laughing as they whooshed water at each other.
“It’s been lack of clean water that’s been the worst part to bear,” Flouse said, shaking his head. “Boiled water isn’t the same, and we couldn’t even bathe or wash clothes without the smell staying in. Flooded out our sewage system by the third week, and we hadn’t a chance of stopping it. Some folks”-Flouse jerked his head in a northerly direction-“have tried sending tankers just to get our water to keep crops going, but the convoys keep getting blown up by lightning. Midday, at that, and not a blink of warning. Just zap!” – he brought both hands together in a resounding slap that momentarily stopped the kids playing – “whole damned convoy’s crisped.”
“How do they expect you to pay them if they’ve ruined your economy? “
“They’ll lift the weather controls if we agree to supply them with all their food and the other agricultural stuff we were producing to pay off our colonial debts.”
Calum nodded, understanding the basic crunch of producing sufficient to feed themselves with an excess to export to acquit the indebtedness of the initial expense of colonial expansion.
“Only they’re going to send … administrators to see that each town and county supplies the quotas they’re setting.”
From the dolorous expression on the faces of Flouse and the others, Calum quickly saw that the Rushimese would be left with barely enough to feed their own families. “Any idea where they came from?” “Dunno. They’re mighty short on explanations.” They both could hear metallic whangs and bangs echoing down the companionway, and Calum had to pretend he knew exactly what Acorna was doing … when he was dying of suspense and anxiety.
But while she was contrapting whatever she was making, he found out all he could extract from Flouse and the others. The return of the launch coincided with Acorna’s reappearance at the hatch, carrying a length of ordinary three-centimeter pipe, with valves on each end which were obviously meant to be attached to an intake point of the main town water supply. “Now, this purifier has interstellar patents from here to the last century,” Acorna said, pointing to the center piece. “I wouldn’t try to investigate, as the purifier is also delicate-useless once it has been unsealed. But I can guarantee that any water running through the purifier will come out one hundred percent pure.”
The launch slowed beside the ramp and willing hands transferred the seeds, seedlings, and nutrient canister to Calum just as Acorna placed the “purifier” in Flouse’s eager hands. That was when he noticed the small slice that she had taken from her horn. Was she going to be read a riot act when they were safely away from here!!! Calum did not forget to switch back on the field that separated them from the crowd. But they had what they needed, and so did the Aca()eck.l.