Read Online Freedom's Challenge by Anne McCaffrey - Free Book Online Page B

head.
    â€œWhy? She was saved the mines.”
    â€œOne day, she’ll find out. I hope,” Kris added as an afterthought, “the notion that she is beholden to you doesn’t throw her.”
    â€œShe is good in lab, they say,” Zainal remarked.
    â€œSo she is. We’d better go.”
    Kris saw the biggest of the flatbed vehicles draw up to the dining hall and heard it toot its horn. Half the diners immediately made their way to the door and climbed on the transport.
    â€¢Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â â€¢
    THEY WERE DELIVERED TO THE IMMENSE main hangar where the scout ship and the two transports lurked in the shadows cast by the one work light left on in their area. Not for the first time, Kris wondered whatthe Farmers had used this vast area for, so neatly carved from the mountainside.
    In the center of some of the unused space, chairs and benches had been set up, facing five large mounted slates that were still the best Botany solution for large displays. She could see that one held the diagram of this system and another of Earth. The other two were probably the systems in which the Barevi planet and the home planet of the Catteni were situated. The fifth held lists and names.
    So, thought Kris with a surge of anticipation, we are moving outside again.
    There was a table to one side of the slates with chairs crowding around it. Judge Iri Bempechat was seated in the center and was obviously the moderator for the meeting. Kris liked the old man enormously for his wit, his humor, and his vast store of judicial wisdom. So far no one had contested any of his decisions and she hoped the situation would remain that way. On his right was Ray Scott, on his left two men who were vaguely familiar to her: they also had the gaunt look of Victims despite two weeks of restorative treatment and therapy. Even those who had played “doggo” showed the effects of their incarceration in the brutal open pens where the Eosi had contained them. Dorothy Dwardie sat beyond those two men. The rest of the Council, from Chuck Mitford to Leon Dane, occupied the other spaces. Raisha and Gino sat together, trying to look unconcerned and anonymous at the end of the right side.
    Two seats were still unoccupied and, as Kris and Zainal entered, he gave his head a slight tilt toward the table, indicating those chairs were for them. Kris was quite glad to join him there. That gave her a chance to see who else had been invited. Mostly those who were technically skilled in one way or another, including Dick Aarens, and a great many of those who had been in the Fifth and Sixth Drops.
    Well, she thought, we won’t have to contend with Anna Bollinger and Janet.
    Ray stood up and whatever private conversations had been going ceased.
    â€œZainal has proposed several plans of action since we cannot be sure that the Farmers will answer our latest message to them, nor when. We’ve been fortunate enough to have the latest information of Earth from those we rescued from the Barevi slave pens. Zainal?” Ray sat down and Zainal stood, going to the slates.
    â€œFirst, we need to know who or what is watching Botany outside the Bubble,” he said. “This is the point where the Eosi tried to ram their way in.” Someone had drawn in cartoons of the debris. “They left enough behind so that I believe the scout ship can poke her nose outside the Bubble and have a look.”
    â€œWhat about the geo-synchronous satellite up there?” Aarens asked, jumping to his feet to forestall the others who more politely raised their hands to signify that they had a query.
    â€œIt may or may not be able to see the scout’s nose among the rubble,” Zainal said, “but by the time the report is sent back, Baby will no longer be there. The records will show only what has been seen before. Unless the film is sent to a very high-ranking Eosi, it will be considered what you call a glitch. In order to get out of the