Freedom's Landing
- Автор: Маккефри Энн
- Серия: Catteni Sequence #1
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Freedom's Landing». Краткое содержание книги:
The alien Catteni value strength and intelligence in their slaves—and Kristin has managed to survive her enslavement while hundreds of other humans have not. But her trial has just begun, for now she finds herself part of a massive experiment. The aliens have discovered a new world, and they have a simple way of finding out if it’s habitable: drop hundreds of slaves on the surface and see what happens.
If they survive, colonization can begin. If not, there are always more slaves.
She allowed herself to stroke his skin, softer than its greyness looked. And exhaled, trying to shake off a sensation in her gut.
Lusting after a Cateeni, girl? You are the pits!
Nevertheless, the opportunity to touch him in more than a nurse-patient relationship was almost too much to resist. She smoothed back his silky grey hair, as fine as a baby's. In repose his features were even more patrician, when she compared him to some of the other Catteni she remembered. Yes, decidedly he was several castes above the average male mercenary. She was so accustomed to the look of him now that he didn't even seem alien any more. Hmmm. Well, that attitude was better than rampant xenophobia!
Between her sessions of watering him - she also got him to take some of the broth which had cooled enough to be dripped into his mouth - she rested on her bed, drowsing occasionally. She wondered if he knew they were trying their best to help him because he lay stolidly unmoving, even when the poultice was still hot. The only response he gave was to swallow when moisture was offered.
Time to water him again.
More noise outside, muted though it was, warned her of increased activity in the hospital. Lenny popped his head in.
"He may not be eating, but you should." Until he mentioned it, she hadn't realized how empty her stomach was.
"So, what's for din-dins?" she asked facetiously.
He grinned and brought a plate from behind his back, complete with pottery-domed lid.
"We're getting quite fawncy, this weather," he said.
Then he lifted the top.
"My God, it looks human," she said in pleased surprise.
For the meal consisted of more tubers, boiled by the look of them, a section of avian, to judge by the configuration of the wing, and two portions of greens.
"Just what the doctor ordered! Leave you to it! Oh," and he reappeared in the doorway, "mass meeting this evening at the sound of the gong!" "Gong?" she asked but he was out of earshot.
She ate with a good appetite and the food was delicious.
The ration bars and the travel meal had doubtless been nutritious but real food of differing texture, now that was civilized.
Leon came bustling in when she had finished and he was looking rested.
"Got some sleep, did you? Report?"
"He's been taking both water and broth whenever I offer them and I've cooled him down in between.
But he doesn't move much," she ended lamely, looking expectantly at Leon Dane.
"Hmmm. They don't. Real adherents of the grin-andbear brigade.
They suffer in silence. I suspect he's more conscious of what's going on than you realize. Zainal?" Leon leaned over the Catteni, hand on his brow and then on the main artery on the left of his neck. He proceeded downwards, checking the temperature of the skin and then palpating the thigh tissues. "Hmmmm."
"Your "hmmrns" are getting longer," Kris remarked sardonically "When in doubt a thoughtful "hmInm" is reassuring."
"To whom?"
"Whommmm does it as well, y' know," and Leon was now delicately prodding the wound area, having lifted the poultice.
It had turned an obnoxious shade of grey/orange/green. "Yes indeed.
I think that's doing it."
"You do?" and Kris leant over to see what he could possibly have taken as encouragement. The ghastly hole did look…"healthier" was the only word she could find. Nicely red instead of raw red, and the swelling had noticeably subsided so that the kneecap was once again visible. "I think I agree."
"Keep on with watering him. Ah, you're with us," Leon added suddenly when Zainal startled them both by opening his eyes.
"I need to lose water," Zainal said clearly.
Laughing, Leon collected a cleverly shaped pottery utensil at the end of the bough bed which Kris hadn't actually noticed before, and she beat a hasty retreat while Leon attended the patient.
He came out with the utensil in his hand, chuckling to himself.
"He'll do fine. Just fine. Don't forget the meeting tonight, will you?"
"How long have you been awake, Zainal?" Kris asked in a diffident tone of voice.
"Off and on," he said, his eyes closed but he held out his hand and when she took it, his eyes opened. They held a look which made her chest swell with some unidentifiable emotion, so strong that her eyes began to water. His grip was very delicate and his skin still more than warm. "I knew you were here. You were there, by the water, too.
Good of you, very good of you."
"Not at all," and she covered his hand with her free one. "You're… we're buddies. We look out for each other." His eyes flicked open. "Buddies?"
"For lack of a better tem, yes. I won't let you down."
"That I know." Then he released her hand and dropped his arm to his side, closing his eyes again. "Water?
I am no longer full." And his lips lengthened in a slight smile.
"The tasty water."
"We call it broth."
"Good." She fed him and felt good about it.
The meeting was very well attended though Kris missed some of Mitford's usual satellites, the Rugarians, as well as the Doyles. Even patients who could be moved out to the ledge in front of the hospital were present: Anna and her baby, the fracture cases - everyone except Zainal.
Kris was obliquely offended by that but talked herself out of indignation: plainly Zainal was too ill to be moved and she could report to him - and defend him if necessary. Now why was she feeling so defensive about the Catteni?
Jay Greene had Patti Sue on one side of him. She joined them, leaning against the rockface on Jay's left side.
"What's up?"
"Oh, a Mitford morale-building session and the latest news." Jay grinned.
"What latest news?" Kris demanded, knowing he was baiting her and giving him an ingenuous grin.
"The batch you and Zainal discovered weren't the only drops that night. Mitford sent off an exploratory patrol to see how many fields got seeded in what we believe is the typical Catteni drop pattern."
"More people?" Kris gave a frantic glance around the cave system, certainly overcrowded by the latest group of refugees. How were they going to cope? Then a rattle of the alarm triangle brought a wave of hush over the congregation. Mitford stood up, waiting until he had complete silence.
"OK, folks, listen up. There're more drop-ins.. -" He paused until the mutter - Kris thought she heard resentment as well as surprise and concern - had subsided.
"I take it as a good omen, considering what debriefing I've had." He chuckled. "The Catteni aren't finding it as easy to subdue good ol' Earth as they expected." A cheer went up.
"And they've just increased our specialist departinent by four doctors, eighteen nurses, nine computer specialists, fourteen engineers, some good ol' hunter types from Australia, and a bunch of other real useful individuals, including some professional cooks so we oughta be eating even better in the near future."
"Even with so many mouths to feed, Sarge?" a woman shouted.
He waved off that concern. "We got a whole planet to hunt and plenty of grain stored where we can get it."
"Winter's coming "So's Christmas and we'll have heating units from those solar panels long before. Now settle down. What we're going to do to relieve the housing shortage here is move into the buildings we know are empty, and already plumbed for our benefit."