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"And because," Ni Morgana took up the explanation, "I was doing research on the Oort cloud, Captain Fargoe ordered the gig to investigate. As she will tell you herself when you meet her, it saves you, the surviving colonists, any cost."
Chio mumbled something.
"Say again?" Ni Morgana asked very gently, smiling reassurance.
"Kimmer said we would be paupers."
"With black diamonds? The rarest kind of all?" Ni Morgana managed to convey a depth of astonishment that surprised Benden. "And you've kilos of them among you. And those medicines, Faith," she went on, turning to the one sister who appeared to be really listening to what was being said. "Especially that numbweed salve of yours. Why, the patents on that alone will buy you a penthouse in any Federation city. If that's where you want to live."
"The salve?" Sheer surprise animated Faith. "But it's common—"
"On Pern, perhaps, but I've a degree in alien pharmacology and I've never come across anything as mild and effective as that," Ni Morgana assured her. "You did bring seed, as well as salve, because I don't think that's the sort of medication that can be artificially reproduced and provide the same effect."
"We had to gather the leaves and boil them for hours," Hope said wonderingly. "The stink made it a miserable job, but he made us do it each year."
"And numbweed can make us rich?" Charity asked doubtfully.
"I have no reason to lie to you, " Ni Morgana said with such dignity that the girl flushed.
"But Kimmer is dead," Chio said, a sob catching in her throat, and she turned her head away, her shoulders shaking.
"He is dead of greed," Kimo said in an implacable voice. "And we are alive, Chio. We can make new lives for ourselves and do what we want to do now."
"That would be very nice," Faith said in a low, wistful voice.
"We won't be Kimmer's slaves anymore," Kimo added.
"We would all have died without Kimmer after Mother died," Chio turned back, mastering her tears, unable to stop defending the man who had dominated her for so long.
"Died because she had too many stillborn babies," Kimo said. "You forget that, Chio. You forget that you were pregnant two months after you became a woman. You forget how you cried. I do not."
Chio stared at her brother, her face a mask of sorrow. Then she turned to Benden and Ni Morgana, her eyes narrow. "And will you tell this captain of yours about Kimmer's death?"
"Yes, we will naturally have to mention that unfortunate incident in our report," Benden said.
"And who killed him?" She shot the question at them both.
"We don't know who killed him, or if he cycled the lock open himself."
Chio was startled, as if that possibility had not occurred to her until then. She pulled at Kimo's sleeve. "Is that possible?"
Kimo shrugged. "He believed his own lies, Chio. Once the metal was found, he would consider himself to be poor. He was at least honorable enough to commit suicide."
"Yes, honorable," Chio murmured so softly her words were barely audible. "I am tired. I wish to sleep." She turned herself toward the wall.
Kimo gave the two officers a nod of triumph. Faith covered her sister and gestured for them to leave.
Over the next several days, passengers and crew settled into an easier relationship. The youngsters sat for hours in front of the tri-d screen, going through the gig's library of tapes. Saraidh cajoled Chio and the girls into watching some of them as well, as a gentle introduction to the marvels of modern high-tech civilization.
"I can't tell whether they're reassured or scared witless," she reported to Benden, who was standing his watch at the gig's console. They still had not made contact with the Amherst, though he had no real cause for worry on that score—yet. "How many times have you worked those equations, Ross?" she asked, noticing what he had on his pad.
"Often enough to know there's no mathematical errors," he said with a wry grin. "We'll only have the one chance."
"I'm not worried," she said with a shrug and a smile. "Off you get. It's my watch." And she shooed him out of the cabin.
"Leutenant?" Nev's voice reverberated excitedly down the companionway the next afternoon. "I've raised the Amherst!"
There was a cheer as Ross propelled himself to the cabin.
"Neither loud nor clear, sir, but definitely voice contact," Nev said with a grin,
Ross gri
Fargoe acknowledged him, and though her voice broke up in transmission, he really didn't need to hear every syllable to know what she was saying.
"Ma'am, we've had to abort our original course. We are currently aiming for a slingshot around the first planet."
"You want a sunburn, Benden?"
"No, ma'am, but we have only two-point-three KPs of Delta V remaining."
"How did you cut it that fine?"
"Humanitarian reasons required us to rescue the ten remaining survivors of the expedition."
"Ten?" There was a pause that had nothing to do with interference on the line. "I shall be very interested In your report, Benden. That is, if your humanitarianism allows you to make it. What is the total of the excess weight you're carrying?"
Nev handed over his pad, and Benden read off the figures.
"Hmm. Offhand I don't think we can match orbits. Can you make it five KPs?"
"No, ma'am."
"Roger. Hold on while we refigure your course and rendezvous point."
Benden tried not to look toward Nev, or at Saraidh, who had joined them at the command console. He tried not to look nervous, but he felt various parts of himself twitching, unusual enough in gravity and damned a
"Erica? Captain Fargoe here. What can you jettison?"
"How much is required?" Benden thought of the wealth they had just consigned to space.
"You've got to jettison forty-nine-point-zero-five kilos. You will need to make a ten-g burn for one-point-three seconds around the first planet, commencing at ninety-one degrees right ascension. That will put you on course, speed, and direction, and we devoutly hope, in time to make a new rendezvous. Good luck, Lieutenant." Her voice indicated that he'd need it.
He didn't like a 10g burn, even for 1.3 seconds. They'd all black out. It would be rough on the kids. But it would be a lot rougher to turn into cinders.
"You heard the captain," he said, turning first to Saraidh and then Nev. "Let's snap to it."
"What'll we toss, Lieutenant?" Nev asked.
"Just about everything that isn't bolted down," Saraidh said, "and probably some of that. I'll start in the galley."
In the end they made up the required kilos out of material Saraidh knew could be most easily replaced by Stores on the Amherst: extra power packs; oxygen tanks, which accounted for a good deal of the necessary weight; the messroom table; and all but one of the beacon missiles the gig carried.
"If Captain Fargoe decides you weren't negligent," Saraidh told Ross, her face expressionless, as they both watched the articles sliding out of the airlock into space, "you won't have to pay for ‘em."
"What?" Then he saw she was teasing and gri
"Now, now, Ross." Saraidh waggled a finger at him. They were alone in the corridor. "Don't hang Kimmer about your neck. I subscribe completely to the suicide theory. Temporarily of unsound mind due to the failure of his plan. He might just have done it to be awkward, too."