"Just keep him away from me," said the Leewit. "I'm busy. Captain, Goth, lend me some strength?" They came forward and put their hands on her shoulders. Pausert opened himself up to the littlest witch.
Mebeckey gave a final convulsive shudder and lay still. "He's fine," said the Leewit. Then she hauled him upright and slapped his face until his eyes opened.
"Let him rest!" protested one of the brothers.
"He can rest when we're done," said the Leewit grimly. "Do you know what was wrong with you, Mebeckey?"
"Melchin." He pointed weakly at the black-green jointed hairlike mass. "The haploid stage. I thought it was dead, because it stopped controlling. . . . But I became part of the mother-plant again on Megair. When we reached the Melchin buildings, I was told to keep you there. To keep her there, especially." He nodded toward Goth.
"The Megair Cannibals are part of your Melchin? They've also got stuff like this in them?" demanded the captain.
"No," said Mebeckey. "The buildings were built by Melchin. Cool water-worlds were their first choice for colonies. Their animals thrived best on them. The Megair Cannibals simply took over the Melchin outpost there. Made the tunnels a bit higher. The Megair Cannibals just use the ruins of what was there."
"Meanwhile, what do we do with that thing?" asked Pausert, looking warily at the slow, writhing alien life-form. "I'd say blast it to ash, but we may need to keep some of it for the scientists. How about if I put it in a small space-crate? There were a few left in the hold."
"I reckon," said Goth. "I'll get one. You watch it, Captain."
"If it starts moving more than in little circles, I'll blast it first and let the scientists analyze the ash," said Pausert as she left.
"It is dying anyway," said Mebeckey. He stared at the filamentous plant. "The haploid needs animals to live in. Something about me poisoned it."
"Lucky you," said the captain, grimly.
"Yes," said Mebeckey.
He sounded faintly doubtful about it.
Goth came back with the space-crate. "How do we get it in?" she asked.
"Let's see if we can chivvy it in with a bit of heat," said the captain. "No one is to touch it."
It did move away from lowest setting heat from a UW, and into the crate. They snapped it closed with some relief. The crate was intended to be space-tight—so it ought, the captain theorized, to be alien-tight. But to make double sure, he bunged the little crate into the freezer, which he also locked. Mebeckey had made no objection to the fact they'd locked him into his own stateroom first. Pausert hoped he was "clean" of the alien life-form, but there was really no way of telling. And the idea of freezing the plant immediately paid some dividends as Pausert found a pack of smoked bollem steaks that had been missed by the looters.
They had something to digest along with the new information. Pausert was glad to find some food. The Leewit was still very young to be using so much klatha energy. Goth at least had a bit more experience and a bit more sense.
Pausert found he was still carefully separating Goth and Vala in his mind. That was going to take some getting used to, and he needed time to do it. The fact that Goth had not had a spare minute to change back from Vala's hair style and color made it more confusing. Pausert did not know if he wanted her to or not. On the other hand, it would make going back to accepting her as the old Goth easier. But did either of them want to? She was older now. Still the same person, but older. It was all very complicated.
Well . . . not really complicated, Pausert realized. Just very unsettling.
His feelings for Goth had been shaped by their relative ages when they met. And his feelings for Vala, the same. The problem was that those were very different feelings, indeed! He'd thought often about Vala over the years—although much less so, he now realized, after he'd met Goth. And some of those thoughts had been, well, pretty intense. You might even say, feverish. And now that he realized Goth and Vala were one and the same, and Goth was indeed getting older and coming to resemble Vala in his mind as well as in her actual appearance . . .
He forced his mind away from the matter. That was a problem for later. And Goth was talking again.
"So the information about where we were came from Mebeckey," she mused. "And the rest of this mother-plant Melchin is obviously wandering around the Empire. Presumably in the form of that ex-assistant of his, Marshi—whom you and I had a brush with back on Nikkeldepain. She seemed very strange, now that I really think of it."
"I didn't know anything about that," said Pausert. "I feel quite stupid about it now. But I wouldn't say 'wandering about.' I'd say throwing a lot of weight about, if she has the Sedmons and Hulik sending out so many ships."
"Well, you did pick up her wig," said Goth.
"That was her? The woman who kidnapped you?"
"Yep," chuckled Goth. "Boy, I had fun in no-shape looking after you!"
"You nearly got me arrested," said Pausert, smiling nostalgically back at her.
"Woo hoo! You two. Will you stop looking at each other like that?" said the Leewit. "You know, this trip is full of unwelcome visitors. You all forgot about that Megair Cannibal we locked up when we got back onto the ship."
Pausert slapped his head. "Entirely."
"He broke out," said the Leewit cheerfully. "The smell of frying steaks must have given him extra strength. He met Ta'zara and me in the passage. I think Ta'zara's mostly better now. He only bounced him around as much as he needed to, not as much as he could. He's tied the Cannibal up and locked him in again. After he gave him some water."
"You've done well with that patient," said Pausert. "He was a wreck. Now he's smiling occasionally. You should be proud."
"Yeah. It feels good," said the Leewit. "I've been thinking about Mebeckey. Little-bit says he 'tastes' better now. She must have been talking about that plant intelligence."
"Well done there too, little one," said the captain.
"If I'd treated him when he broke his arm instead of leaving it to those lame-brains, I might have caught it still alive and inside him. We could have used him to pull some very neat tricks on them, feeding them a pack of lies. On the other hand, you might not have found those steaks." She pulled a truly ferocious face. "And I guess I learned something that I am going to have to deal with. Don't like it much, though."
"And what would that be?"
"Not all your patients will be people you approve of," said the Leewit. "Or that you want to help. But you have to."
"That's a hard lesson," agreed Pausert. "We were just putting together all the pieces of story we know."
"Well, I can tell you one bit you didn't know," said the Leewit cheerfully.
"What?" asked Pausert, warily. The Leewit quite enjoyed springing unpalatable surprises on them.
This one, however, wasn't. "There are no Phantom ships behind us anymore," the Leewit said, pointing at the screen. "And if they'd left our detectors in one piece, they'd be telling you that there is a fleet of ships over there."
Goth peered at the screen. "And I think some more over there. Now which ones are friendly?"
"Well, we can go over and give them all analgesics and see if green filamenty gunk comes out of their noses," said Pausert.
"Do you think that is what made it come out?" asked the Leewit.
"Seems likely," said Goth. "Let's try hailing them, before we go to analgesics."
"It might save us quite a few, as it looks like a fair-sized fleet," said Goth, selecting the narrow-beam hailing frequency. "What ship?" she asked.
There was a pause. "This is Battlecraft
Grim
, Uldune Space Navy, Admiral Morecroft speaking," came the reply. The voice was tinged with respect. "Could you identify yourselves? You have the configuration of the ship we have been ordered to escort,
Venture 7333
."
"What is the name of Hantis's grik-dog?"
"Pul, Your Wisdom. If I might ask what planet she hailed from?"
"Nartheby. And we're glad to see you, Admiral. Any chance of a tender with some food and some extra air-cylinders? We're slowly losing pressure."
"Certainly, Your Wisdom. We have a possible hostile fleet in detector range, and so we'll make all speed back towards Uldune. Uh. If that's all right with you, that is? Or we can transfer you across to the flagship?"
"Thank you, Admiral," said the Leewit regally. "But we have things that probably need to stay on this ship for now. Might need decontamination. Besides, we love her."
"Understood, Your Wisdom. We'll take up a defensive formation around you."
So they formed up around the
Venture
, and a few minutes later a tender dropped a spacecrate on a limpet anchor at the cargo-bay airlock.
"Perfect," said Goth. "We even have a tractor to bring that in."
Soon they had more air-pressure and enough food for even the Leewit's ravening appetite, and had reassured Hulik and the Daals of Uldune that all was well and the ship was heading for the former pirate planet under safe escort. And the other fleet had turned and scattered.
"Well," said the Leewit, pushing away her plate finally. "What's next?"
"Talking to Threbus and Toll," said Goth grumpily. "I've got some words to say to our father about business and how to leave your affairs."
"And we need to find out just who all is involved in this search for Goth, and deal with this Marshi," said Pausert. "I think we might want to hold off on telling the Sedmons that we've discovered a serious chink in the Phantom ships' armor just yet."
"We've also got to go and find the circus," said Goth, her eyes twinkling at the Leewit. "But I guess you don't want to be there for that part, eh?"
"I'll get Ta'zara to hold you down," said the Leewit, darkly. "What will happen to him and the others, now?"
"I suppose the missionaries are free to go missionarying again. I am not too sure what we do with Mebeckey or your Megair Cannibal. As for Ta'zara," Goth scowled, "he's sworn to protect you, little sister. That's how the Na'kalauf work. But don't you even try to turn him on me. The captain will put you in a protective bubble if you do. And probably me too. But he'll let me out. And I'll make you swim home by the Egger Route."
"So when do we go to the circus?" demanded the Leewit, quite unperturbed by the threats.
There was, of course, a limit to what could be said via subradio. There was too much potential for eavesdropping, even on an encoded and narrow beam.
"We think we may have a handle on what was happening in the Chaladoor region," said Pausert. "And a possible way of protecting against it. But there are a whole crop of extra mysteries and problems that have come up as a result."
"Isn't that always the case," said Threbus, laughing. "And how are my daughters?"
"Quite a bit older in Goth's case, and the Leewit has acquired herself a Na'kalauf bodyguard. I think, just for the meanwhile, she should keep him. Oh, and we established exactly where the Megair Cannibals have their home base. But at the moment, the Phantom ships are preventing them and anyone else passing through the Chaladoor. We only got through by taking a long route,
Venture
's old route. An expedition that you did many years ago."
"Well, one's loss is another's gain," said Threbus. "I'd almost forgotten that expedition. It nearly bankrupted me. Paid off very poorly in terms of new discoveries or trade. So the route helped, eh?"
"You might say so," said Pausert, thinking of parts of it that he could have left out. "It was still tricky. And how goes the Imperial cultural tour?"
"Wildly," said Threbus.
Pausert had to laugh, imagining the little vatch problems. Then he handed Threbus over to his daughter—who gave him several kinds of hell about the state he had left his affairs in, back on Nikkeldepain.
Two days later they sat with Hulik and one of the Sedmons. As telepathically linked clones, the Sedmons didn't have to all be present to know exactly what was going on. And they avoided having more than one of them seen at any time. But the Leewit insisted on giving the feared Daal six hugs. Sedmon looked quite taken aback, but very touched.
"The woman called Marshi is operating under the name Tchab," explained Hulik.
"She has a criminal empire that may rival the Agandar's pirate one," said the Sedmons. "She has taken over a number of the criminal family syndicates. Moreover, it has been very difficult for us to penetrate her organization. She subverts our agents. It was more by luck than good judgment that we discovered that we were being penetrated instead, and we were able to intercept instructions about you."
The Leewit grimaced. "She's a plant."
"You mean she was put there by the Empire?" asked Hulik.
"No, I mean she's a plant. A vegetarian."
"You mean a vegetable," said Goth. "And I don't think that is quite what you mean either, Leewit. A vegetarian is a human that eats plants, this plant eats humans. She's—"
"Like I said: A plant. Like a weed. But one that grows in people." The Leewit gestured: "You know. Like really inside."
Hulik raised her perfect eyebrows. "Really?"
"Yes. And in a way she's rather like Sedmon of the six lives," said Pausert. "There is only one plant. But it has haploid plantlets growing in those it controls. They appear to be telepathically linked. Mebeckey—the first of our rescues in the Chaladoor—was a xenoarcheologist who was really the root cause of Marshi becoming infected with it. He was himself infected with the spores of the plant, and became a subordinate, but he was out of range of the telepathic plant most of the time. We think that he is clean now."
"So these things are out there, breeding and taking over humans?" said the Sedmon.
"No. Well, not if the xenoarcheologist is to be believed. This is the haploid stage. Normally the nondominant stage, with the mother-tree controlling all. To breed, they need a better host species than humans."
"That's not something I am unhappy about," said the Sedmon with his characteristic dry humor. "By the way, Hulik has something to tell you."