The Tatja Grimm's World Read Online Free Page B

village: the Science .

THREE
    C rew and publishing folk spent the next few hours speculating: Why was the Science ambushed? What would Tarulle do about it? The barge stayed several miles offshore, but rumor held that fastboats were doing close recon under cover of the midday eclipse. The only word from the executive deck was that there would be no immediate landing.
    Top management was not asleep — just terribly indecisive. Rey Guille bluffed his way onto the bridge shortly before eclipsend. All the biggies were there, both from Ownership and Operations. The atmosphere was that of an incipient brawl: consensus time had not arrived.
    “—and I say, sail into catapult range and burn their filthy village to the ground! Barbarians must learn that ambushing merchants is a dangerous sport.” The speaker was one of Tarulle’s nephews, an arrogant pip-squeak who’d be scrubbing decks if it
weren’t for his relatives. The little man looked angrily around the room, daring anyone to disagree. Fortunately for the company, there were some strong personalities present:
    Barge Captain Maccioso stood near the helm, facing the rest. His form was a vague, intimidating shadow in the eclipse light. Maccioso was a huge man; the bridge itself had been rebuilt to accommodate his six-foot eight-inch height. He was in his early fifties and only just beginning to go to fat. The first twenty years of his career had been spent in the Chainpearls Navy. The man had retired an admiral, and the greatest hero of the Loretto Bight affair. Now he crossed his ham-like arms and seemed to lean toward Tarulle’s nephew. “Warlike talk coming from …” a wee wimp who couldn’t cock a bow , the pause seemed to say, “from those who need customers to live. It’s true, I could torch the village. It would be expensive; we wouldn’t be left with much reserve. And what would we get for it? The Termite Folk are isolated, Master Craeto. There would be few to learn from the lesson. The Tarulle Company would lose one — admittedly minor—customer. The barge has visited here four times since I’ve been Captain. We’ve had less trouble than in some civilized ports. These people are not pirates. The Science crew did something, broke some taboo … .”
    Maccioso turned to look into the harbor; sunbreak was almost upon them. The land was bright with washed-out pastels. When he continued, his voice held more frustration than certainty. “Sure. We have the power to raze the place. But we could never bring off an assault landing. There’s no way we can rescue the survivors and find out how to avoid such a debacle in the future.”
    Survivors? Someone had lived through the pet’ bombing. Rey felt a surge of joy. No one else seemed moved by the news; they already knew. This must be a major point of the debate. “We can’t just leave them there!” The words popped out of Guille’s mouth without conscious thought.
    Dead silence greeted his words. The people closest to him moved slightly away, but didn’t look at him; it was as though he had made a bad smell. Maccioso turned and his gaze swept the bridge. “Master Tounse!”
    “ Sir! ”
    The barge captain pointed at Rey Guille. “Take this man out and …” Rey’s guts went cold; there were stories about Ked Maccioso’s command of the Chainpearl Armada, “ brief him.”
    “Yessir!”
    Brailly Tounse emerged from the crowd and hustled Rey onto the open walkway beyond the bridge. The printmaster shut the hatch and turned to face him. “‘Brief you?’ The commercial life is turning Ked soft.” It took a moment for Rey to realize that the other man was suppressing laughter. “Don’t you understand that a rescue is what Ked is dying to do? For almost an hour, he’s been trying to trick these flightless bats into backing one.”
    “Oh.” Rey was both embarrassed and encouraged. “Maybe my, uh, little outburst will start something.”
    “I hope so.” Brailly stopped smiling. “But even by