Chapter 13
Johnny landed his passengers at Kilcoole; then, once he and Diego had carried Sean into Clodagh’s house, he flew on to report to Whittaker Fiske at SpaceBase.
“That’s very interesting, son,” his boss said when Johnny had completed the debriefing. “Found the lost Rourke child and brought Shongili back, too. You didn’t happen to spot Torkel anywhere down there, did you?”
“No, sir, I didn’t.” Johnny kept private his notion that the presence of Captain Torkel Fiske would have been one burden too many. “Is he with one of the other investigative teams?”
Whit shook his head and then dismissed that problem with a wave of his hand.
They both looked up at the unmistakable rumble of a shuttle coming in to land.
“Cut it fine, didn’t you, son?” Whit grinned as he rose. “I’d best go out and see what I can do to pacify Matthew.”
“Sir, I had wounded …”
Whittaker Fiske nodded vigorously, raising his hand to reassure his copter pilot. “You did exactly as you should. And so did Major Maddock. The very idea of polygamy, especially for a religious purpose, with a prepubescent child is revolting in this day and age. And specifically against the Collective Interplanetary Societies’ Bill of Individual Rights. Better get that copter serviced, son. I want it kept ready to scramble.”
Johnny raised his eyebrows, hoping for a little off-the-record advice, but Whittaker’s expression suggested that he tend to his current orders.
Contrary to Whittaker’s expectations, he received neither call nor visit from Matthew Luzon, nor was there a complaint officially logged in against Captain John Greene. Nor, during that day, was there any message from his son or a whisper concerning his where abouts. Only the matter of a concussed guard found at one of the side access gates to SpaceBase.
Torkel Fiske was angry enough, but Satok was livid with rage, kicking at the crates, splintering half a dozen, and paying no attention to the rocks that bounced down on his boots, as if he welcomed the pain. Torkel also listened to the invective Satok cast on the head of that slatternly Luka and what he intended to do to her when he found her again. From the brief glimpses he’d had of the girl, Torkel could not quite believe that she had had the intelligence, much less the strength, to remove all the genuine ore samples, which Torkel had himself handled and seen, in the time they’d been absent from the shuttle.
Without proof of the find, however, the commission would pay scant attention to Satok and might reach their decision before the man could gather more samples. There were other ways to assert company control of this planet, of coursethe companybuilt and maintained roads, power plants, hospitals, and schools Torkel suggested to Marmion. All in the name of taking care of the colonists, of course. If they were better treated, more civilized, they’d be more cooperative. Especially when the planet was over run with corps troopsnot originally from Petaybee: he’d make sure of that this timedoing the building and maintaining. Especially if company doctors also made sure that the physiological aberrations peculiar to Petaybeans were studied and eliminated, and if birth control was strictly monitored so that the Petaybeans at no time grew too numerous to control. Company teachers would slant their curriculum to insure the loyalty of their students, and company communications systems would insure that inhabitants, both original and new to the planet, accepted the company agenda and kept the company side of any dispute foremost in their minds at all times. And if they didn’t, troops could travel by company roads to make sure people remembered their manners.
And the planet? The living planet? Within himself, Torkel didn’t sneer at the idea. Petaybee was sentient. He knew it. He had felt it, seen it, heard it himself. But that didn’t mean he liked it. That Satok had stolen ores from the body of the beast itself impressed Torkel no endbut only if the man could show the lodes. All they had in the shuttle were common rocks and dust. The ore was no better than the fairy gold of Grandmother Fiske’s bedtime stories.