Washed, shaved, scrubbed, cleaned, filled with good food and slightly
awash with alcoholic drink, Jason collapsed into the acceleration
couch and firmly swore that life was worth living after all.
"You can't appreciate the simple things of life until you have gone
without them for a while. Or the better things either." He reached out
and took Meta's hand. She pulled it away and fed more digits into the
computer.
"How did you find me?" he asked, trying to discover a subject that she
might warm to.
"That should be obvious. We saw the markings on the ship that took you
away and charted a directional trace before it went into jump-space.
We identified the markings and I went to Cassylia, but the ship had
never arrived there. I back-tracked the straight-line course and found
three possible planets near enough to have registered in the ship
during jump-space flight. Two are highly organized with modern
spaceports and would have known if the ship had landed. It hadn't.
Therefore you must have forced the ship down on the planet we just
left. And once you were there you would find one of the radios to send
a message. Which is what you did. It is obvious. Who is she?" The
final words were in a distinctly chillier tone of voice, and there
could be only one she, Ijale, who crouched across the room, obviously
unhappy and wide-eyed with fear at this voyage in a spaceship, not
understanding the language the others spoke.
"I've told you before--just a friend. She was with us, and helped us,
too. I couldn't let her go back to the life in the desert, it's more
brutal than you can possibly imagine. There is an entire planetful of
slaves back there, and of course I can't save them all. But I can do
this much, take out the one person there who would rather see me live
than die."
"What do you intend to do with her?" The sub-zero temperature of
Meta's voice left no doubt as to what she wanted to do with her. Jason
had already given this a good deal of thought, and if Ijale was going
to live much longer she had to be separated as soon as possible from
the deadly threat of female Pyrran jealousy.
"We stop at the next civilized planet and let her off. I have enough
money to leave a deposit in a bank that will last her for years. Make
arrangements for it to be paid out only a bit at a time, so no matter
how she is cheated she will still have enough. I'm not going to worry
about her, if she was able to survive in the _krenoj_ legion she can
get along well anywhere on a settled world."
He could hear the complaints on when he broke the news to Ijale, but
it was for her own survival.
"I shall care for and lead her in the paths of righteousness," a
remembered voice spoke from the doorway. Mikah stood there, clutching
to the jamb, a turban of bandages on his head.
"That's a wonderful idea," Jason agreed enthusiastically. He turned to
Ijale and spoke in her own language. "Did you hear that? Mikah is
going to take you home with him and look after you. I'll arrange for
some money to be paid to you for all your needs, he'll explain to you
what money is. I want you to listen to him carefully, note exactly
what he says, then do the exact opposite. You must promise me you will
do that and never break your word. In that way you may make some
mistakes and will be wrong sometimes, but all the rest of the time
things will go very smoothly."
"I cannot leave you! Take me with you--I'll be your slave always!" she
wailed.
"What did she say?" Meta snapped, catching some of the meaning.
"You are evil, Jason," Mikah declaimed, getting the needle back into
the familiar groove. "She will obey you, I know that, so no matter how
I labor she will always do as you say."
"I sincerely hope so," Jason said fervently. "One has to be born into
your particular brand of illogic to get any pleasure from it. The rest
of us are happier bending a bit under the impact of existence, and
exacting a mite more pleasure from the physical life around us."
"Evil I say, and you shall not go unpunished." His hand appeared from
behind the door jamb and it held a pistol that he had found below. "I
am taking command of this ship. You will secure the two women so that
they can cause no trouble, then we will proceed to Cassylia for your
trial."
Meta had her back turned to Mikah and was sitting in the control chair
a good five meters from him with her hands filled with navigational
notes. She slowly raised her head and looked at Jason and a smile
broke across her face.
"You said once you didn't want him killed."
"I still don't want him killed, but I also have no intention of going
to Cassylia." He echoed her smile and turned away.
He sighed happily and there was a sudden rush of feet behind his back.
No shots were fired but a hoarse scream, a thud and a sharp cracking
noise told him that Mikah had lost his last argument.
* * * * *