Freedom's Challenge by Anne McCaffrey

Author:Anne McCaffrey [McCaffrey, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Adventure, Space colonies, Space warfare, Human-alien encounters
ISBN: 9780552146272
Publisher: Corgi
Published: 1999-04-30T23:00:00+00:00

Her heart pounding, she exhaled. "Don't scare me like that:'

Zainal chuckled.

"Baby got off all right? The Ix was still at it when I finished my

shift."

"They must have ordnance--that's the English word, isn't it--"

"Right on;' Kris grinned.

"Resupply vessels. Only a Mentat would continue like this," he said.

"The Mentat, who once was your brother," she said and when he nodded,

she continued. "Is there any connection? I mean, would... the Lenvec

personality have any influence on the Mentat?"

Zainal leaned back, idly sliding a pencil through his fingers, up and

down on the surface of the table.

"It could, but I'm,not certain how. The subsumation takes in the entire

personality and then the dominant Mentat is in total control..." He

paused. "Although it was the Ix Mentat, once my brother, who

investigated Ayres Rock and then seemed to be searching over the sea we

were safely under... possibly for me."

Kris began to assemble dishes and utensils to serve their meal. Zane

was playing with his goes-inters--the shapes that Zainal had made for

him to fit together. These afforded the child hours of pleasure. As

she leaned over to put a glass before Zainal, she got a better look at

the diagrams.

"Isn't that the space station?"

He nodded.

"When is the brave captain Venlik and his crew likely to set out for

another mining expedition?"

Zainal gave a shrug. "First Baby has to return. Then we have to wait

to see what Beverly finds out about the other drop planets.

"There's a good deal of feeling that Botany's population is large enough

right now," she said.

"We know," he said and jotted down something else in a combination of

Catteni and English. He gave her a wry smile as she chuckled at the

mish-mash. "It is difficult for me now to remember which language to

think in for the words I need."

The barrage of the Bubble continued but in nowhere near the force that

had been first launched against it. All four Catteni found that amusing

as well as reassuring.

"It takes time to call in sufficient Mentats and senior Eosi to deal

with an obsession like the Ix's," Zainal explained. "I will worry more

when it stops," OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS, certainly while Baby was on her

mission, Kris sensed that Zainal was hiding something. She couldn't

think what because they had had no previous secrets from each other, and

he was as willing as ever to talk about any subject: especially the

upcoming forays.

Several times Zainal was dragged out of bed in the middle of their sleep

period to race to the hangar to speak to some of the Catteni dissidents

on the com link. He used a code that had proved successful. At least

none of their group had been arrested by Eosi, or suspected by High

Emassi supervisors.

The bombardment turned sporadic and occasionally a force tried to

penetrate another point on the Bubble, or several at once, since they

had failed to pierce it with all their might.

Kasturi, Tubdin, and Kamiton--not so much Nitin, though the older man,

for all his pessimism, seemed to be a vital key in the subversive

actions-were able, by means of careful codes, to be in contact with

many of their adherents. What was being set up, Zainal did not say, or

if even something was.

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