“It’s what he’s done to the planet that’s more awful,” Bunny contradicted him with a fierce look, and tears started in her eyes. “I could escape, but oh, Uncle Sean, he’s made it impossible for anyone to talk to the planet at McGee’s Pass.”
“He was going to rape you!” Diego said, almost shouting.
“He’s already raped our planet!” Bunny yelled back, fists on her waist, body inclined angrily toward Diego.
“Bunny! Diego!” Sean said, snapping out their names in a quiet but very firm voice. “Now that Dinah’s safe, you can take turns while we all eat, giving us a complete telling of what happened at McGee’s Pass.”
“Quite right,” Ardis said, pushing first one and then the other young person to a seat at the table while Fingaard brought over the baked fish. Yana quickly added the vegetable bowls to the table, and order was restored as appetites were attended to.
“Diego’s making a song about it, too,” Bunny said.
Diego glared at her, a mix of irritation, pleasure, and artistic indignation. “It’s nowhere near ready.”
“It’ll be some song when it is, I can tell you that,” Bunny said, beaming at him.
“We’ll listen very closely whenever the song is ready. Diego,” Ardis said reassuringly.
“Now, step by step, please,” Sean said, bringing them back to the report.
None of the adults interrupted the two youngsters, as they gave a very credible narration of all that had happened, each giving due credit to the other and to Krisuk’s efforts. Both Sean and Fingaard had them repeat several points, such as the question of the Petraseal and how far it extended into the cave, and all the details of Satok’s background that Bunny had so cleverly wheedled out of him.
“You sly and clever puss,” Sean had said, ruffling her hair with affectionate approval. When he saw Diego scowl darkly, he ruffled the boy’s, too, laughing when Diego pulled away. “She is my niece, lad. You’re lucky I’m willing to share her company with you!”
“Huh?” was Diego’s stunned response.
“Now,” Fingaard said, taking charge, his roughened scale-scarred finger making circles on the wooden table, “we have an enemy who needs watching. We have a cave that has been damaged. Can this Petraseal be dissolved?”
“Yes, but the chemical compound of such a solvent is not available at SpaceBase,” Sean said.
“It’d take barrels of solvent,” Diego said, widening his eyes as he estimated the area to be resurrected. “An awful lot.”
”Yes,” Sean said. “Any solvent strong enough to dissolve Petraseal might very well be more harmful to Petaybee than the Petraseal is.”
“If this has been done at McGee’s Pass where the people are just like us, only vulnerable from not having a shanachie for so long,” Ardis said, frowning in concern, “can it have been done elsewhere, too? Is it so easy for this Satok to mislead people so they can fail to hear the planet?
“That thought had also occurred to me,” Sean said and sighed heavily. “We came here with a specific purpose …”
Fingaard’s great hand came down on Sean’s shoulder “There is much we can do now that we know what has happened, my friend, and you can pursue your personal quest which, I have come to feel, is as important as this new problem.”
“Then you believed that Aoifa and Mala were right that there’d been an undersea passage to the south from the ford caves? If they were right, we could establish communications, maybe even a trade route, with the southern continent without company technology for air travel or ice-breaking ships.”
Fingaard nodded solemnly several times. “In my father’s time creatures emerged from the caves that were born on land, and not undersea, and not here in the north. Mala sent his track-cat back, but she had been badly injured. Only the great loyalty these creatures have for those they love could have kept the beast going until it reached us. We searched, as you know, as far as we could, but the cavern roof had collapsed and our way was blocked.” This time his nod was full of sorrowful regret. “But we also saw nothing of Aoifa or her track-cat, Ugraine, so perhaps they were able to go further.”