The spellbinding sequel to "Powers That Be," by Hugo and Nebula Award-winning authors Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.
The natives of Petaybee claimed their planet was sentient, but the officials of Intergal did not believe them . . . or want to believe them. The planet was rich in valuable ore, and Intergal was determined to mine that ore no matter what the cost. Yanaba Maddock, once a company spy, was adopted by the planet and its people as one of their own. Now her loyalties are to Petaybee, not Intergal, and she is dedicated to keeping Intergal from killing the world she has come to love. But without proof of the planet's sentience, Intergal will proceed with its mining operations. Can Yana find a way to convince Intergal of Petaybee's sentience before it is too late?
From the Hardcover edition.
1
SpaceBase occasionally still rumbled underfoot, as if to remind
everyone that Petaybee planet was by no means pacified. The riders from
Kilcoole village had kept well to the wooded trails farthest from the
steaming, freshly thawed river, now merely rimmed with ice like a
frosting of salt along the top of a glass. Several times on their
journey, the planet shook and shifted, as if telling them of the urgency
of their mission, but by now the Petaybeans calmly accepted the planet's
new mood.
Major Yanaba Maddock, Intergal Company Corps, Retired -- well, mostly
retired, anyway -- looked around at the faces of her lover and her new
friends and neighbors. Their own mood was both happy and expectant as
they dismounted in front of the SpaceBase headquarters building. Clodagh
Senungatuk, Kilcoole's healer and one-woman information center, dusted
her divided skirts while her curly-coated horse gazed impassively as
flurries of its freshly shed hairs floated on the unseasonably warm air.
Sinead Shongili, Yana's own beloved Sean's sister, assisted Aisling,
Clodagh's sister, from the saddle while Buneka Rourke held the reins of
her Uncle Seamus's and Aunt Moira's horses as they dismounted. The
churned mud that formed the roads at SpaceBase was dotted with stones
and boards and pieces of metal to be used as steps. Hopping from one of
these to the next, the party of Petaybeans made their way into the
building.
They all had such high hopes for this meeting, Yana thought, almost with
irritation. Personally, she hated meetings. Always had. Most of them
provided no more input than could be contained in a two-second burst on
a comm link. Waste of time, ordinarily. She took a deep breath and
neatly tucked in the shirttails of the uniform blouse that Dr. Whittaker
Fiske had suggested might be the politically tactful costume for the
occasion. Partisan as she was, she was the most neutral person attending
the meeting. While the company she kept announced her leanings, the
uniform would remind the bosses of her long-standing affiliation with
Intergal.
Sean Shongili, sensing her tension, reached up briefly to knead the back
of her neck, and she gave him a nervous smile. As the chief geneticist
for this area of the planet, Sean was a key member of the Petaybean
delegation. He and the others seemed to think that it was predestined
that the company men would see reason and accede to the requirements of
their planet and its people. Sean, who despite his profession was no
more experienced at being a prospective parent than she was, had already
suggested that her premeeting trepidation was in part at least a
hormonally stimulated response. He was wrong, but as he had been born
and bred on the planet, she could hardly expect him to understand.
Petaybeans gathered only to entertain themselves and each other or to
discuss a problem and arrive at a consensus for solution. Company
meetings were far more often power plays where the issue was secondary
to whose view prevailed. But then, Yana had never before been to any
meeting where the issue was the survival of a sentient planet and its
people.
Two deep breaths, and she followed Sean into the building and on into
the conference room. As the Petaybeans and Yana entered, Dr. Whittaker
Fiske stood, forcing the other dignitaries to do likewise. Here most of
the cracks from the earthquakes had been sealed. The screens along the
walls were still slightly askew on their brackets but functional.
