Read Online Skeen's Search by Jo Clayton - Free Book Online Page B

ever managed to get off-world without being ransomed, a slow trickle of men escaped from the mines and the farms into the wildlands where they managed to scrape a precarious existence ignored by the Kliu. They were a problem time resolved; there were no females of any species on Pillory; the Kliu refused to take them. The native beasts (no intelligent lifeforms there) were budders and splitters and completely asexual. The escapees went where they chose however they could, made some minor raids on Kliu installations and shipments, never sufficient nuisance to justify hunting them down.
    Rostico Burn had been nearly two years on Pillory when Picarefy slid undetected into a quiet section of the Asteroid Belt.
    Picarefy’s lights seemed to blush as she showed off the warroom she and Lipitero had put together somehow in the intervals between other activities. “A surprise for your birthday,” she told Skeen with patent insincerity, “nothing important.” With a sigh in her voice, she added, “We haven’t had time to finish incorporating some of Petro’s innovations, so there are blind spots, but she’s promised to work on that while we’re splitting to Rallen.” Her lights danced with pleasure, an exuberance that leaked out into the room and tickled Skeen into grinning. “I can see farther and faster than any ship living,” she exulted, “I can wiggle through any screen I ever heard of and maybe some not invented yet. Petro has, listen to this, worked out a way to slice loose from set buoys if there aren’t too many of them and …” dramatic pause … “even a way of maybe snapping back at a snagship.” Remotes came rolling in with tea and sandwiches, laid out a light meal on the handsome conference table that took up part of the space in the smallish room. “Sit and let Petro tell you about it.”
    Being particularly fond of rare roast beef sandwiches, Lipitero piled them on her plate and spooned honey into her tea before she said anything. Tibo was amused by the situation, preferring to sit back and watch it unfold without getting involved. Timka too had nothing to say; the sleep teacher had inserted enough information into her head to give her some grasp of what was being offered, but none of it was felt-knowledge. Skeen was exasperated and amused, but far from detached; she had too much riding on the utility of Lipitero’s offerings. After several minutes of silence filled with the soft sounds of eating and drinking, she said, “Well?”
    Lipitero put down the remains of a sandwich, patted at her mouth with her napkin. “I’m not sure how much you know about the old Ykx?”
    Skeen made an impatient gesture. “Assume I know anything you told Picarefy.”
    â€œI thought as much, but I wanted to be sure. Two things you should keep in mind. My ancestors turned elusiveness into a high art, and they lived in a region that had at least one minor war going at any given moment and sometimes several.” She took a sip from her tea bowl. “There was always the chance one side or another was out tracing ships, and they weren’t particular whose, and snatching them into realspace which was hard on the ships and crews and often deadly since the hooks were clumsy things and one time in three exploded the fish rather than reeling it in. They kept refining the snatchers, first one species then another, and the old Ykx fought to keep up with them. So. The Remmyo dug out and duplicated for me the flakes we had from the time before the Gate; that’s his joychoice, he’s a student of ancient things. On Mistommerk we didn’t have much use for a lot of that technology.” Again she stopped talking, sipped at the cooling tea. “No starships, for one thing. Lifefire’s blessing on his playtime, otherwise no one would have remembered those cobwebby remnants and the information on them. Picarefy helping