The Ferret and Fox
(1) Jo Kaori climbs the rocks upstream from the village. Her little glass tubes are filling with lichen and moss samples. Her hands are muddy, and she's having a great time, though the hem of her long dress may never be the same. Holding it up carefully, she scrambles back down the water course to the flat of the flood plain that holds the village's rich crops of grains and pulses.
She pauses to change at the hostel - no point in having the library/stronghold guards remark on a muddy priestess! - then heads to the hideout.
As she enters, routinely surveying the mindscape within, she realizes first that Ester's there, reading something from the computer's database. Assuming it's local herblore, Kaori takes a quick surface peek.
In point of fact, Ester is reading the next, exciting chapter of My Sister Can't be Dictator, as it describes Princess Ji bribing General Dolong of the Railroad Police with a sack of a potatoes to derail the train of the Lingong, so Lingong, who the princess hates. will be late for the Special Experimental School #234's prom and the coveted title of prom queen will be awarded to Princess Ji! The story's knife edge intrigue is so dense it makes Ester's hands shake. No doubt the saga of how such an item ended up in files created and kept by Shadow Rangers is equally intriguing.
Kaori enters the lab with a grin. "Tut, tut, Ester - and here I thought you were dedicated to finding anything in the files that will help your patient Elin."
Ester looks up, not at all embarrassed. "Oh, I have a reasonable idea what is wrong with her, except I really need a med scanner to be sure, and a lot more stuff to fix it. Still, maybe I can ease her suffering if anyone here is good at distillation."
"The landlady of the tavern and her husband are brewers, and they also distill a sort of whiskey for higher-paying customers."
"Hmm that might work." The doctor closes the cache of novels she's discovered in the database, and gets up and walks out of the bunker, checking the contents of her small cloth bag before leaving the library. As she steps out of the building, she's aware of the guards gawking at her teeth and sighs before walking off in search of the tavern. Kaori grins behind the shelter of her headscarf, blesses the guards, and falls in beside her.
They encounter Shana Barr on the way. "Greetings Healer," Shana says.
"Ala - I mean, there you are, Shana, what is the latest entry on the Fisherman's wife's illness?"
"She is fading fast I fear, Healer."
"Hmm, not surpring, unfortunately."
"The husband is at his wit's end..."
"I understand. Well, where is this tavern?"
Kaori says, "We passed it on our first day here. This way - near the harbour, of course."
"Ah, here we are."
Shana says, "Commander, Healer, I will leave you to it. I should be checking over the ahem...equipment."
Kaori smiles sedately, as a priestess should. "Your duty, of course." Again she reminds herself to talk to Shana about using out-of-character titles.
"Very well," Ester says, waving her left hand at Shana and stepping into the tavern.
The landlady is behind the counter, setting out fresh bread; she's very easy to distinguish from the barmaid, who has a tray of beer and the village's lowest-cut neckline. "Greeting, good Lady, I am in need of your distillation skills."
The landlady casts an experienced eye over the prospective new customers. "I ain't seen ye folks around these parts. Ye be strangers?"
Kaori bows slightly. "Peace be on you and your house. We are pilgrims, studying in village library before we go up mountain to see Monk. I am Kaori, priestess on home island. This is Ester, healer."
"The MONK!? Ye be here to see the Monk, then ye're of course welcome."
Ester smiles and bows. "And the fisherman over yonder has asked me to aid his wife, who is dreadfully ill."
"Ah, it's Elin you're meaning. Poor thing be deathly ill, a month or more, Healer."
"Forty days, Aldan say," Kaori replies softly. "Since her return from the healing shrine."
"Aye Priestess, that it be." She gestures to the barmaid who has unloaded her tray at one of the outdoor tables. "Bessy, get them some drink, girl."
(2) Ester says, "Still, perhaps we can make a remedy as antidote to what ails her."
"Ah, Healer, if ye can do what ye say then the Monk himself need be learnin from ye."
Kaori slides onto a stool and accepts beer from the barmaid with an appreciative nod.
"Good Tavern Keeper, I need you to distill a tonic out of this material for Elin." She puts a bag on the counter that contains a mixture of herbs and some bread with a white mold on it. "It will need a day and a night."
The landlady raises a doubtful eyebrow. "Aye...if ye be needin' our still, ye be welcome to it but....be this somethin' that will anger the goddess, Healer? It won't do to anger the goddess."
Kaori bows her head, hastily taking what she needs to respond from the woman's mind. "The goddess blesses healers and their arts, and distilling is ancient practice. Distillation in service of healing is accepted."
"This is a medicine revealed to our island by the wisdom of the Goddess herself." Ester pauses and smiles. "And do I look like a witch?"
The landlady looks between Kaori and the Healer (who perhaps does look just a little witch-like, with all those white, white teeth), then nods for the barmaid to take the stuff into the distillery room. "If the Goddess herself has blessed this concoction then who be we ta stand in yer way, Healer?"
Ester smiles again. "Indeed, the gods may chose to challenge us with misfortune, but we mortals shouldn't fear to use the crafts they taught to bring remedy."
"Indeed healer..indeed." The landlady pauses with a sly look. Submission and calculation fight for dominance in her emotionscape. Kaori waits for the payment demand hovering on the woman's tongue.
"Uh, we will be happy ta assist ye, Priestess and Healer, er...fer the small price of 20 coin. A small price ta be helpin the students of the Goddess, eh?"
"20 - is that copper coin, or silver?" Kaori asks, for a moment forgetting what she knows of the art of the barter.
"Ye have silver?? Er...I mean...silver of course."
Kaori slaps herself mentally for even mentioning silver. She should have known better after yesterday's dickers, purely in coppers, for the food and the basket.
Ester studies the tavern keeper's face. "This is but a trival thing, and for one of your own...kin's life. " It's a fairly safe gamble that Elin and the landlady are related, given the challenges for everyone other than sailors of travelling more than a day's distance; most marriages take place close to home, over spans of generations.
"Ah yes Healer, ye be correct of course, but to prepare this will interrupt the current batch of whiskey and that will cause hardship on the other families of the village and the local economy and such. Surely ye see the dilemma, Healer? 20 silver and yer wish is me command." She smiles slyly and hold out a greedy hand.
"I am sure, sister, that two silvers will be more than enough to offset your losses," Kaori says in her kindest start-of-barter voice, mentally preparing to settle for seven or eight.
Ester whispers. "Your kinswoman is being called to the land of the dead. What would they think if we all didn't do our part to help her? And I gather her husband is a man of strong passions," she says, skillfully adjusting her tone as she studies the tavernkeeper's face.
Kaori watches, fascinated, as she observes the effect of the Voice for the first time. She can almost see the landlady's emotionscape change colour.
"Oh very well then...2 and I'm only doing this cause I like ye. Come back at this time tomorrow and it will be ready, this concoction ye be askin fer."
Kaori blinks at the quick surrender. She looks sharply at Ester, but hands over the silvers and closes her pouch. "Blessings on this house, on its brew, and on those who serve its guests so well," she says in the same sing-song voice she used at Aldan's.
Ester smiles, showing many perfect teeth "Very good, Tavern keep, I will leave you to your art."
Kaori rises. "And it's time to resume our studies. My thanks for the beer, Mistress." She sets the two coppers, the usual local price for a tankard of beer, on the counter.
The tavern keeper grunts. Two silvers is more than generous for a day's use of the still, but she is starting to wonder what her husband will think if he learns two was merely the first counteroffer.
Ester turns to Kaori. "Well, what is next?"
(3) Kaori catches a surprised though silent laugh from the barmaid who's realized her mistress's dilemma. "Back to the library," she says, hiding a chuckle of her own.
In the bunker, Kaori makes a beeline for the lab and starts sorting her lichens and mosses for genetic analysis. Shana's there already, listening to open broadcast messages on the comms.
Ester says pensively, "I should have a got a free dinner from the Keeper too, oh well."
"You might want to be careful with that, Ester," Kaori says as she pulls out the multicompartment tray that will take the samples. "The barmaid was flabbergasted that we got away with just two silvers - pleased, but flabbergasted. The last thing we want is for people to start wondering because they do things for you that they wouldn't normally."
"Oh, she wanted to help her cousin, I will wager. I just needed to help the Keeper see beyond her reflex to take an outsider for all she could."
Kaori smiles in spite of herself. "It was a pretty strong reflex! But their goddess would approve of the motive...I think. I still haven't found out much about her."
Ester says, "Those in the tavern didn't react to the Healing goddess like it was a personage, more of an abstraction to them."
Shana suddenly tears the earphones from her head and hits a switch so everyone can hear. "Everyone listen to this! Something is going on at Shadow Fox Station!"
In orbit aboard Shadow Fox, Isabella Ingram strolls down the ramp into the operations centre. She's finally admitted the depth of Kahn's dislike for having people peer over her shoulder, so she goes straight to Jovitz' station - but turns back to Kahn as she catches shocking words.
"Master Chief Guezo, did you say you think there is a bomb on the GravDime?"
Bella spins on her heels. Not the best time to be here - on the station, let alone on the same level as the drive - but on the other hand - She starts recording.
Chief Guezo is speaking. "Yes Captain, this looks like a low grade bomb but if it goes off next to the Gravdime it could set off a second explosion that could take out the whole station and some of Naeya with it."
On the surface, Shana Barr gasps at the mention of a bomb on the Gravdime drive unit...
Ester looks at the speaker and frowns at the tone of the voices coming out of it. She mutters, "all prophets and prophecies are true."
Sergeant Reizo gets on the station comms. <<Master Chief, bring the bomb to me, by the Level 1 airlock. I will get it away from the station.>>
Bella glances out the viewportport, where Naeya's currently snowy south pole is slowly spinning past. She gulps. Low-grade explosive plus GravDime... Despite herself, she's moving closer to the drive for better photos.
The comms crackle. >> Captain Kahn speaking. Everyone stay out the way of the ramps so Master Chief can quickly get the bomb to the Sergeant on Level 1."
Guezo quickly removes the bomb, thinking this was set here to go off the next time we tested the Gravdime. Fortunately it's lightly held by a magnet to the underside of a strut, not firmly attached in some more inaccessible location. Planting it has to have been a rush job.
Bella runs through the list of people who've been on the station since the jump to Naeya four days earlier, her thoughts unknowingly on a parallel with Guezo's.
With the the bomb in his hands, Guezo quickly runs down the ramp to where Sergeant Riezo is waiting with the airlock's inner hatch already open. Reizo reaches out and says, "Give it to me, Master Chief, quickly "
Guezo says, "Sergeant, how are you going to get this away from the Station? Does not look like you have an oxygen tank on?"
Reizo just grabs the bomb and runs into the air lock. The hatch slides shut and seals before Guezo has a chance to intercept her. The moment air's vented, Reizo opens the outer hatch and dives out, using her gravity boots' reverse function to push her and the bomb away.
Crackle and static is heard over the comms.
"Damn, damn, damn," Bella mutters from her perch on the safety wall by the ramp on Ops level...she can hear what's happening below, but can't see much other than an empty bit of deck at the ramp's foot.
Master Chief Guezo comes over the comms. <<Captain Kahn the station is safe now.>>
Bella dashes to the airlock's side of the station and looks out. A sphere of fire is expanding in the black, at perhaps half a kilometer's distance.
Captain Kahn leans forward and speaks tightly into her headset. <<What about Sergeant Reizo?>>
Heavily, Master Chief says <<Captain she did not make it. She was not planning to. She knew exactly what needed to be done, and how quickly. I did not realize it until she took the bomb. She probably saved thousands, maybe millions."
At the viewport, Bella is doing a visual search, with little hope than more than bits of debris will be left of the day's hero. At other viewports, many of Reizo's shipmates are doing the same.
Bella walks quietly to Kahn's station, but doesn't venture to ask anything - questions will have to come after the crew, and Kahn, have had a chance to process this. She starts sorting mentally through the short, short list of recent visitors...tries to remember if anyone in the expedition came into ops between the jump and their departure...looks around, and wishes she had Kaori's telepathic gift.
(4) Tech McBribe walks away from the viewport with his head held low...
On Naeya, Ester's watching the comm speaker. "Hmm the prophecy averted or not yet complete?" she asks the air.
Kaori looks at the technician, whose silence is a scream. "Did you know Reizo well?" she asks gently.
"She trained me, Commander. One of the finest NonComs I knew." Shana sniffles and fights to hold back a tear.
Kaori places a soft hand on Shana's shoulder, radiating empathy. "It seems hollow to say that she's on the path to Unity...but surely she's blessed."
"I hope so commander...I hope so." She holds her head low.
Kaori breathes out. Her hand goes to the Buddhist icon beneath her chemise. "Many of my people believe in reincarnation...that the virtuous return to lives that are in some way a reward. But that doesn't ease the loss for those of us still coping with the wheel of the world."
Ester's eyes flash back and forth as she thinks. "I had a dream that the station was destroyed in an explosion, it was so, vivid, like a sā́welyos,.. and now it almost came true.... how odd."
Dully, Shana looks up at her. "Perhaps we should analyze your dreams in future. Healer."
Ester whispers, "Maybe..."
Shana stands, still fighting tears. "I'm...going back to the hostel." Kaori gives her a quick hug; Shana hugs back, and disappears up the tunnel.
There's a small beep. Kaori steps back to the analyzer and examines the readout on the screen. "Well."
Ester blinks, coming out of her thoughts, and looks over at Kaori.
"Eight different lichens," Kaori says. "Normally lichens of these types are quick to adopt genetic material from parallel locally-evolved organisms if chemistries are in any way compatible...even when a professional terraforming team is available to make constant adjustments over centuries. But only one of these varieties shows even a hint of something that might be pre-settlement DNA." She sets the program to run another series.
Ester glances at the readout. "So someone or something is monitoring the planet."
"The planetary survey says indigenous life is now restricted to high-altitude and polar zones, and possibly deeper areas of the seas," Kaori replies. "I though that sounded strange, for Naeya to transform so completely in just a thousand cycles, with no tech available since the first generation of settlement. When we go up the mountain...I want to get high enough to get indigenous samples. Not easy, without an oxygen condenser."
"Hmm, what is the pressure up there?"
"Above 5.5 km, atmosphere's too thin for us to survive. We'd have to climb to at least 5 km - survivable, but not without taking it very easy."
"Hmm, that would be quite a time consuming hike. Perhaps for later."
Kaori nods. "After we've found out what we can from the Monk, and about the Monk."
Director Merci arrives aboard Shadow Fox via TP from EIS Panther and strides down the ramps from the hangar on Level 4 to Ops on Level 2. Without preamble, she says, "Someone... Captain Kahn ... you know their head is going to roll. There will be an investigation."
Kahn nods "Yes, Director. The Master Chief will be conducting the investigation. He's motivated."
Bella Ingram glances at Merci. Wordless, she proffers her padd, on which she's listed every non-crew person who's been on the station - at least that she knows of - since early on the day of the jump to Naeya. As usual, Merci ignores her.
