“Nadhari Kando might be available for security,” Rafik said.
“Excellent! I am glad you concur. She has been traveling with us. She should be joining us here soon, as a matter of fact, but she wished first to oversee certain arrangements aboard the SharazaD before we set off again.”
Karina placed her silver gilt fingertips to her temples and said, “Ahh-you see, Hafiz? Rafik said exactly what I foretold!”
“Indeed, my dear. Actually, nephew, Karina sensed that you would wish to employ that formidable lady, so I have already offered her command of the outpost’s guard and given her full rein to recruit her own staff.”
“It is well, my uncle, Madame Karina,” he said with a courtly inclination of his head to his ‘aunt.’ Hafiz’s bride had a gift for “sensing” matters that she would have had to be comatose not to know, but she made Hafiz happy, and for this Rafik was prepared to regard her “powers” with tolerance, if not with the awe she seemed to think they should invoke in him.
Hafiz continued. “If we are to be beyond Federation assistance, I will want the best people, even^ if Nadhari has to lure them away from Federation forces, and naturally she will require the latest and most effective weaponry as well. And she is one who may be trusted to acquire what is needed with the utmost discretion and dispatch.”
“True,” Rafik agreed.
“Your partner and your senior wife, the ugly one, will be required, as well as your current light of love and her illustrious km.”
Rafik grinned. Hafiz’s mention of Rank’s senior, ugly wife was an inside joke. Back when Rafik had been a space miner, he and his partners-Calum Baird and Declan “Gill” Giloglie-had found the infant Acorna adrift in space, saved her from certain death, and raised her. The first time the three miners and Acorna had approached Hafiz together, in order to keep Hafiz from attempting to “collect” Acorna as a “rare specimen,” Rafik had veiled and robed both Acorna and Calum and presented them as his wives. He’d told his uncle he had converted to Neo-Hadithianism, a radical fundamentalist branch of the True Faith that permitted and even encouraged polygamy. He had counted on his uncle’s respect for his nephew’s “wives” to protect Acorna from acquisition. It hadn’t worked, and before their visit was over Acorna had been revealed for what she was and Calum for what he was. But before Hafiz could resort to anything too nefarious in his quest to acquire Acorna, he had learned that Acorna was not a one-of-a-kind creature, but only one among many of a populous alien race. Consequently Hafiz had lost interest in Acorna as an acquisition, and learned to value her as an adopted niece. Calum, however, had never quite lived down posing as the senior, very ugly, wife.
I’m sure they will be most eager to assist in this endeavor, Uncle. However, there is the small matter of Maganos Moonbase to manage, the education of the children …”
Details! Such ideas as mine are as the towering pyramids of the ancients, not to be smothered in the details as numerous as grains of sand. Bring the children! Let them learn! They can staff the new businesses, apprentice themselves to the artisans and technicians, provide support. It will be a marvelous experience, an unparalleled learning experience for them!” He considered. “Also, many of the elder ones have already learned how to set up artificial atmospheres and life support systems on life less rocks such as this one was prior to its transformation. Their previous training -will, no doubt, be helpful-”
“In which case, they should be paid,” said Calum Baird, joining them with a mug in his hand, into which he poured a fresh infusion of tea from the tray between Rank and the Harakamians.
“Like all who join us, the students will be suitably taken care of,” Hafiz said. “Food, lodging, travel, richly rewarding associations, toys for the young ones …”
Calum rubbed the thumb and first two fingers of his right hand together in a time-honored gesture used for many generations by his canny Celtic ancestors. “The ready, Hafiz. If the children are to learn business, they must also learn to manage their own money. To do so, they need to earn some. If they are to -work, they must have a share of the profits. And even at that, I’m not sure “we should allow it. To take innocent children beyond the protection of the Federation!”