Unknown

Crisis on Doona

by Anne McCaffrey

Synopsis

For 25 years, humans and the cat-like alien Hrrubans have lived together on the unspoiled planet of Doona. But when their treaty comes up for renewal, someone tries to sabotage all that the two races have worked for by framing Doona's most worthy citizens for terrible crimes.

Anne McCaffrey was educated at Radcliffe College, Massachusetts, and has a degree cum laude in Slavonic Languages and Literature. She now lives in Ireland and enjoys riding, cooking and knitting. She is a past winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and has written many novels, short stories and novellas, and various articles. Her most celebrated series is the world4amous DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN saga.

Crisis on Doona

MAYDAY, MAYDAY,' a voice repeated over and over again in Middle Hrruban through thick static on the audio pickup. "Anyone who is within the sound of my voice, Mayday! We require assistance. Our ship is down and damaged. Mayday!" Todd Reeve and his friend Hiriss, at the controls of the Alien Relations Department scout ship Albatross, stared at one another in surprise. It was impossible to tell if the speaker was male or female, a Human like Todd, or a catlike Hrruban like Hiriss. The message repeated, sounding more panic-stricken.

"Where's that coming from?" Todd demanded, scanning the readouts on his control panel. They had just emerged from the second warp jump on their journey back to their home world of Doona from a diplomatic mission on the nascent colony world of Hrretha, and had not yet taken bearings on their position to initiate the third.

Hiriss's retractable claws extended as he reached for the controls. There was a low humming as the ship's benchmark program triangulated the distress signal and readings began to register. The readouts indicated they were positioned beyond the envelope of a star system whose blue-white primary glittered coldly on their screen. "Not too very far away. It comes from the vicinity of this sssystem's fourth planet,' he said in a low, cautious voice that resembled a cat's purr.

"We've got to respond,' Todd insisted at once.

Firriss shook his head, his pupils widening over green irises.

"Todd, we cannot. We bear the markings of a Trran ship, your Alrrreldep, and this system is interdicted by the Hrruban exploration arm. It would be a violation of the Zreaty of Doona to enter this sssystem."

"But it's a Mayday! You have to answer Maydays,' Todd insisted, staring at his friend in disbelief. "The oldest naval laws on Earth required it.

Space laws can't be so rigid as to deny assistance in an emergency. Someone's in trouble! They need our help. Why is this one interdicted?" Todd demanded. "What's so dangerous about it?" -"Explorers from my people have claimed this system, called Hrrilnorr, for mineral exploitation, but also perhaps for colonization,' the Hrruban explained.

In the Archives established on the Treaty Island back on DoonaiRrala, extensive records were kept of the status of various systems in each species' chosen sector of exploration. Though Doona was cohabited by Humans and Hrrubans, each race had committed to a Treaty spedfying separate territorial rights to all other claimed systems.

"There are trace radioactive elements on the inner, solid worlds,' Hiriss went on. "The Byzanian Glow Stones of the fourth planet have a curious, milky glow, most beautiful to look upon. They had a strange, mesmerizing effect upon my people, but even more odd upon the analysis equipment they carried. The glow affects short-term memory of both people and things. Until the effects have been proved hrrrmless, no one may enter here." Hiriss regarded Todd, his closest friend of either species anywhere in the galaxy. They both knew how Treaty Law read.

Violation of a system claimed by the other species was an overt act of hostility, which could end in war. The penalties for infractions started with grounding of the ship, and could end with them in prison on a hardship mining colony, or worse yet, remanded to Earth and Hrruba, separated forever.

Todd set his jaw. "If we start ignoring fellow beings' cries for help, we're no better than Rralan snakes. Someone's in trouble. We heard it. The voice said "our" ship. "We" require assistance. So there's more than one of them! We have to help." Hiriss shook his head slowly, clearly uneasy.

Todd took charge.

"Look, it's my responsibility. The ethics of my culture require me to act." He prodded his chest.

"I'd never forgive myself for ignoring that call and letting people die. Besides, we're in this sector of space and we could be in bigger trouble for ignoring a Mayday-if someone else comes by." Hiriss regarded his friend somberly. "This is not a very well travelled area and the system is interdicted." Hrriss then saw how Todd's jaw was set and the implacable expression on his face and knew that his friend would not yield. So the Hrruban gave a slow nod of acceptance. "We have both heard the Mayday. I will say that I insisted on answering though you argued that the system was interdicted!" The Hrruban dropped his jaw in his distinctive grin. "It is better thus. The initial blame is mine, for this is a Hrruban system. I convinced you we must respond." Todd's expression cleared immediately and he gripped his friend's shoulder in relief and approval.

"I'd rather acknowledge my own errors, Hrriss, but your idea makes too much sense in this instance.

So, just this once, I'll let you carry the can for one of my bright ideas. Anyway, the ship's recorders are. . . Wait a minim . .

." He tapped the small illuminated dial on the panel between them.

"Log's not recording, Hrriss. No movement whatever on the VU meter.

Those flaming Hrrethans. . .1 told them the Albatross had been serviced before we went out on this jaunt. . ." As he grumbled, he lifted himself out of his chair. "I'll go see."

"That recording is important, zOdd." Hrriss called after him.

"Don't I just know it?" Todd hurried down the narrow companionway to the engineering compartment, growling Hrruban curses under his breath.

Duplicate meters to those on the pilot's consoles were attached to the front of each panel in the rear section. Todd dashed past the standing cases that operated space drives, life support, landing gear, food service to a blue and pipeclay cabinet. The feed switcher in the center of the panel was on the correct output. The dials were jumping, following the audio of the Mayday call still blaring over the speakers.

Obviously the power was running. Only one set of dials wasn't working, the one attached to the holographic log recorder at the foot of the panel.

"Wouldn't you just know? Those Hrrethans aren't worth the leather they belt with!" Todd groaned. Every system had been in perfect working condition before the Hrrethans insisted on the mechanical-overhaul courtesy.

Frustrated, Todd kicked the front panel of the device and turned to look for the toolbox. With a wowing sound like a bear waking up from hibernation, the recorder started to move again, its disk turning and needles moving. Surprised, Todd glared at it and stalked disgustedly back to the pilot's chair.

"The good ol' reliable correcting kick. Try it again, Hrriss."

"A-OK now."

"Them and their "courtesy,"' Todd muttered, watching the VU activity as the Mayday was now obviously being recorded. That "courtesy' had been yet another delay when he was fretting to get back aboard the Albatross and out of the tight uniform he had to wear on such occasions. Sometimes the courtesy appearances that he and Hrriss had to undertake as representatives of their respective cultures' were unredeemed boredom as well as too much spit, polish, and restricting clothing: this latest jaunt to open a new transportation facility at Hrretha being an excellent example. "Wonder how long that Mayday's been bleating?" From his training in space flight, he knew the fate of spacers whose life support ran out. Recorders on passenger liners kept on until power was exhausted. Others ended when no more activity was recorded by the life support systems. "I'd hate to think we'd jeopardized everything for a cargo of corpses."

"We will assume rescue is required,' Hrriss said.

He transmitted a reply. "Stranded ship, this is the Albatross.

We meceive your message and are coming to help. I will make the course correction,' Hrriss added, working without looking up.

As they passed through the heliopause, a wild wailing made the cabin speakers vibrate unpleasantly. Hrriss's ears flattened against his head, and his eyes narrowed.

"Perimeter buoy,' he said, wincing. "I knew we ought to be close to one. Can never dodge them.

Good engineering. Records even the most fleeting pass,' he said, reading the control panel, "and our entry. It will also broadcast a rrrecord of the intrusion to the Zreaty Island beacon,' he reminded Todd, his tone gloomy.

"So? It's not as if we didn't expect one,' Todd said, his eyes on the screen. "We're committed now." His remark was more statement than a request for agreement.

The blue-white sun was a dwarf, much the size of Sol in the Earth home system. The Albatross had come out of its jump directly above it, so that the computer-plotted ellipses of its seven planets spread out below the ship like ripples in a pond.

The Mayday originated from the fourth planet from the sun, a small, solid sphere with a ring of eight small and irregular satellites. The triangulation crosshatches appeared on the viewscreen and closed down on a point near the planetary equator, and just passing into the night meridian. Anxiously they watched the blip disappear around the planet's curve.

Todd adjusted the Albatross's course to meet its orbit at the earliest possible moment.

Though it took a long time for the scout to cross the distance to the fourth planet, neither Todd nor Hrriss moved. Todd leaned forward, elbows on knees, watching the planet and its moons grow on the viewscreen. Unconsciously he rubbed at his neck where the tight formal tunic had rubbed the skin. Even though he was now in the comfortable one-piece shipsuit, he still felt the constriction.

Another reason he loathed these formal occasions.

Why they never made the collars or sleeves with sufficient material to encompass one's neck or biceps Todd could not figure out.

Hrriss sat, apparently at his ease in his impact couch, but his tail tip switched back and forth, revealing tension.

"That buoy was alive and kicking, so no smart marauder has tried to blank it and get in for a quick decco. Of course, if any of those stones turn up on the market, the vendor's in real deep kimchee,' Todd said, shooting Hrriss a mischievous grin. "Or maybe they'll try to tell us that their equipment's malfunctioning and they didn't "hear" the buoy." His grimace was mocking as he shoved a finger in his ear, pretending to clear it of a deafening obstacle.

"I am still uneasy myself about entering here,' Hrriss admitted.

"Zomezing makes my hackles rise." He shook his maned head and then extended both long arms in a gesture of futility. "But we have no choice if lives are at stake. "This shouldn't take that long,' Todd said reassurringly, making sure the Albatross was on course.

"Not more than a few hours. In any case, a rescue is surely a defensible reason for breaking prohibition." He sighed, once again easing the soft collar off the back of his rubbed neck. "I'll be glad when we can slough this sort of duty off on someone else.

I hated leaving home while all the Treaty Renewal debates are going on. I was needed there,' and he jabbed a finger in the spatial direction of Rrala, "not there!" A second jab, contemptuous this time, was for the system they had just left. Todd's eyes locked on the viewscreen showing the fourth planet, and he began to tap his fingers impatiently on the console.

"Will only your two hands hold back the flood tides of disaster?" Hrriss asked him teasingly, to relieve the tension.

Todd turned red and laughed sheepishly. "Hope there's no flooding at all. But you gotta admit, Hrriss, I speak the best formal High Hrruban of anyone on the Treaty Island."

"That I do admit,' and Hrriss's eyes glowed warmly. "Did I not help teach you myself?" What Hrriss did not add was that, in many eyes, Todd was the first real Doonan. The experts said you couldn't true-teach another language to an adult, but a very young child could assimilate one as if it was his mother tongue. Todd, with his booming voice, far-ranging ways, and quick mind, was the first Terran totally at home on Rrala, the Hrruban and official name for Doona. Life on Earth was too confining, too rigid for the six-year-old he was when he arrived on Doona. He was thirty-one now. His swift adoption of Hrruban ways and language, and his innate courtesy, made him, when he came of age, a natural choice for Alreldep's diplomatic service. Over the years, Todd had been careful to be most punctilious about courtesies and laws, schooling himself to ignore slights and insults that often roused his hot temper and begged for retaliation.

"I feel as you do about the Zreaty negtia~~5, Hrriss said firmly. "The arrangement must continue. I cannot conceive of going back to Hrruba.

My life is on Rrala. My career, my family, my hrrss . . . and my best friend." His grin exposed awesome teeth.

Todd grinned back. "Mine, too. Well, you'd think that twenty-five years of peaceful coexistence between Human and Hrruban on Rrala would convince them,' Todd offered. "The trouble is, we're the ones living with it. I'm worried about the politicians, too far removed from the situation, who have power over it. They're liable to dissolve the Treaty without considering the effect on the people already involved." "Zat is undoubtedly trrue,' Hrriss acknowledged.

"We have been on enough diplomatic missions to see where the distant governments have made purely political decisions that are irrrrelevant to the true needs of the colony. Theirr continued meddling without sufficient investigation borrrderrrs the rrridiculous.

"In the words of an unknown but often quoted Terran philosophist, "ain't that the truth!"

As the first successful attempt at colonization of a nonmining, pastoral world, Doona was the natural focus of much curiosity and speculation on Earth. The Space Department and the Colonial Department of the Amalgamated Worlds were beside themselves with pride and worry lest the experiment prove to be a failure, after all' leaving them without sufficient funding or approval to send more missions and colonists into space.

Spacedep, as represented by then-Commander Al Landreau, had suffered humiliation in the Amalgamated Worlds government when the first Terran colonists found a Hrruban village on Doona across the river from their own landing site. No habitation had shown up in any of Landreau's scans, but the village was discovered very much an inhabited site. Because it was Ken Reeve - and his six-year-old son, Todd-who had managed to prove that aliens were, in fact, resident on Doona, Landreau resented the Reeve family more than any of the other eleven original colonists. Not only did the mysterious appearance of an alien species on Doona seriously compromise the Phase I operation under Spacedep, and Commander Al Landreau; but also the repercussions reverberated through the Colonial Department (Codep) for permitting Phase II to be initiated and colonists placed on the planet.

The most stringent rule of the Terran Colonization Plan was to avoid planets which harbored another sentient species.

Landreau was not actually at fault. The Hrrubans had not been "in residence' at the time of his extensive survey. By matter transmitter, the Hrrubans had moved their entire village back to their home planet of Hrruba, since the winter months on DoonaiRrala were long and harsh.

But Landreau neither forgot nor forgave the humiliation of being wrong.

However, the visionary leaders of both species had decided to make the best of this coincidental colonization: to prove that two alien species could interact without exploitation or contamination.

DoonaiRrala became the vital test for Human and Hrruban.

The original colonists of both species were allowed to stay, and more of each species joined the project, under the loosest of control by their respective governments. Both races were determined to make this project work and prosper. And they were scrupulous in keeping to the rules laid down by the momentous Decision at Doona, where a six-year-Old boy translated the relevant clauses.

The original twenty-five years of that Decision were nearly over and renegotiation soon to be discussed. Both Todd and Hrriss knew of the recent incidents which they were certain had been arranged with the express aim of creating dissension between Hrruban and Human, rupturing the Treaty, and, more important, preventing a renewal of the unique settlement on DoonaiRrala.

Over 100,000 settlers, Doonan and Rralan5 now lived on the beautiful planet, year in and out, benefiting from their complementary skills and strengths, and surviving the intense and bitter winters by mutual support. If the Treaty was not renewed, the settlers would be forced to return to home worlds with which they were no longer in charity. More heart-rending, staunch friends would be forever separated: like Todd and Hrriss.

All the while that Hrrubans and Hayumans lived in harmony on their planet, space exploration had exploded in all directions-always aware that each species was forbidden to explore sectors clearly marked with space buoys of the other.

Although Landreau never forgave either species, he had gone on to discover so many other systems and planets useful to his owaiRrala were long and harsh.

But Landreau neither forgot nor forgave the humiliation of being wrong.

However, the visionary leaders of both species had decided to make the best of this coincidental colonization: to prove that two alien species could interact without exploitation or contamination.

DoonaiRrala became the vital test for Human and Hrruban.

Although Landreau never forgave either species, he had gone on to discover so many other systems and planets useful to his own kind that he quickly achieved the rank of Admiral. In a way he owed that to the Decision at Doona, which had brought him to the notice of his superiors. His own efforts had kept him in a highly visible situation.

Judicious manipulations on his part, the tacit assistance of powerful companies interested in acquiring rich planets, moons, and asteroids, and diplomatic overtures to high-ranking government officials had resulted in his promotion to the head of Spacedep, twenty-two years after the Doona affair.

Landreau had looked for, and found, others who shared his dislike of the Doona Decision. Some purists had always argued that a treaty promulgated through the linguistic precocity of a kid had to be defective. Certainly that most honest and unambiguous of treaties proved troublesome to some ambitious and aggressive Humans.

Landreau carefully cultivated such officials, always seeking a way to burst the Doonan idylland avenge himself on the Reeves. Subtly, of course, for he would not risk his current high status: especially one which allowed him the facilities of Spacedep's far-flung resources and highly skilled and trained personnel. If some of the immense budget available to Spacedep's Commander in Chief was siphoned off to explore a way to achieve personal vengeance, it was admirably hidden in the morass of official reports, payments, and analyses.

There was, however, another covert reason for subverting the Doona Experiment: Hrrubans and Humans, dissimilar in form, needed similar worlds to colonize, and for the same pressures. If Doona failed, all terms of the Treaty were null and void.

The forbidden sections of space would be open once again to Admiral Landreau's mighty vessels and well-armed fleets, and if the rich world was already inhabited by a Hrruban colony, tough on them! A few well-placed germbombs and the Cohabitation Principle was invalid.

Unless, of course, other factions of Earth's government could be persuaded how archaic the principle was and rescind it. How much easier would life be on Earth if dne could ship out the unwashed masses to fend for themselves on new worlds with viceroys to skim the riches off the top.

The Doonan settlers were certainly aware of Admiral Landreau's hatred, and his machinations, and there were many adherents on both home woilds that did their best to neutralize some of the worst of Landreau's subtle campaign in various government offices. Though Ken and Todd had never vocalized it' they knew that they were Landreau's particular target. I-andreau regarded Todd as an incorrigibly wild brat who went native with distressing speed after landing on Doona.

Todd's assimilation of the formalities of High Hrruban diplomacy at the age of six, Landreau dismissed as a fluke.

Hrriss, now nearly thirty-five, always had a cooler way of interpreting a situation than his tall friend. Hrrubans were unassailable by any power from Earth. By Treaty agreement, the arm of the galaxy which the Hrrubans chose to explore was off limits to Terrans. Hrruba's home system was protected by the same Treaty. Any incursion into either sphere would be an act of war. Even Landreau in his obsessive hatred for the Reeves would hardly start a war between the species to get at a single family. Though Hrruba was run by a bureaucracy of great antiquity fully as cumbersome as that of Earth, it was directed gently by one mind whose interests allowed expansion and alliance to proceed. Hrriss and his family were unlikely to be removed from their home for any reason less serious than war. It brought Hrriss's need to defend to two foci: Zodd and the Rrev family.

"I know Landreau's working every angle to spoil our chances if he can,' Todd said. "But the Doona Experiment is doing incredibly well, and everyone on Earth knows it, There would have to be an awful stink raised to bring the Experiment to an end at this point."

"A diplomatic insult, perhaps?" Hrriss suggested delicately. "A wedge need not be a large one to drive two elements apart. On Rrala, Terra, or Hrruba, it makes little difference.

"Well, if Landreau thought he could start one on this latest diplomatic mission of ours, he failed." Todd grinned. "Rogitel of Spacedep sounded like he wanted to start an argument with me at the banquet on Hrretha, but I pretended to be bogged down in protocol-fardles, I know all the moves better than he does,' Todd said with a snort, his eyes on the screen. Their quarry had reappeared on their side of the planet, and its orbit remained unchanged. "So I got him talking about exploration in the Eighth Sector-safe enough topic."

"I told you it would be useful to know those details,' and Hrriss dropped his lower jaw in the Hrruban grin. "He tried me later. I refused to be insulted when he called me a would-be Hayuman.

If he wishes to create an incident, he will have to try harder." Hrriss's wide pink tongue now licked his upper lip, a further sign of amusement. "Varnorian of Codep asked me if it was true that you were applying to join a Hrruban colony to escape penalties from Earth. As if that would not be a Zreaty violation."

"Glad you batted that rumor out of court. I heard a smitch of it, too, and disavowed it with all the innocence at my command." Then Todd snorted.

"Anyone who knows me knows better than to try something that simple on me." The Albatross had closed to within thousands of kilometers of its goal. It was easy to swing into orbit from planetary north. The scout had been designed to pass through atmosphere as easily as it did through the frozen void of space. It swept low, across the top of the envelope of atmosphere, above the mass of clouds enveloping the small planet, angling toward the signal.

"If you keep a sharp watch portside Hrriss, Todd said, his own eyes on the starboard, "maybe we can catch it first time round and not waste too much time in-syStem." It was Hrriss who first set eyes on the source of the distress signal.

"Zzhere!" he hissed, pointing with one of his extended claws.

Todd marked the trajectory of the floating craft, perched lust on the edge of orbit. It was too far away for the cameras to discern much detail about the ship itself, but one thing was clear: any passengers would soon become cinders. The orbit had decayed so much that in only a short time, their ship would be inexorably caught by the planet's gravitation and fall, burning, into the atmosphere.

"Hey, what if we dip below them and drop a tractor cable?" Todd suggested. "You know, that's awfully small for a ship, even a scout." "And bigger than the average escape pod,' Hrriss said, his tone thoughtful.

The size didn't seem unnatural. Hrruban and Hayuman exploration teams flew variously sized scout vessels. The difference was that the Human teams were larger, or doubled up in specialities.

Hrrubans sent out the minimum crew needed to make a primary judgment on a planet. When they found one that warranted a full-team investigation, they dropped a one-way transportation grid to the surface and then "ported in the appropriate personnel. "It must be Hayumans, then, or they would not still be here calling for help.

Standard procedure for Hrrubans is to drop a temporary grid and "port home safely." The Albatross used the gravity well of the Hrrilnorr IV to brake its speed. The next time it passed within visual range, Todd was able to plot a course to follow their quarry.

"I have initial telemetry readings. No atmosphere leak from the surface of the craft,' Hrriss said with relief, reading from his scopes for traces of gas.

l integrity, it was in grave difficulties.

Rather than describing a smooth orbit, the speeding vessel jerked and stuttered its way around the fourth planet, as if pulled this way and that by divergent gravity fields. It passed over the day side again. Hrriss and Todd were blinded by the glare of planetary sunrise.

"Attention, the ship,' Hiriss spoke urgently into the comunit, using Terran, broadcasting on all frequencies. "We are the scoutcraft Albatross. We are here in answer to your Mayday. Can you read us?" He repeated the hail several times, and then in Hrruban. There was no answer.

He pushed up the gain on the receiver. Nothing came from the speaker but atmospheric noise and the repeated Mayday message.

"They could have lost all communications but the beacon,' he said, plainly worried. "If their life support is already gone . . ." Hrriss trailed off and pointedly did not look at Todd.

Todd blanched at that possibility and bent over his controls, trying to keep his face expressionless.

"We can spring the tractor line on the craft and haul it in.

Passengers could use life suits to access the Albatross's lock." Hrriss nodded approval of the strategy. "Hope it's not too late." As if taking the pilot's words as a challenge, the small dot on the horizon appeared to fall out of orbit, heading like a meteor for the brilliant white layer of clouds below.

"Oh, no, you don't, said Todd, seizing the manual controls.

Todd drove the scout hard after it, hoping the damaged vessel would not pick up too much speed from the gravitational pull until the Albatross could swoop in on it. He toggled the magnetic tractor net into alert status. They were dragging through the top of the atmosphere now as the Albatross pursued its quarry, still kilometers ahead. His hands were a blur on the keyboard. Hrriss kept calling out to the ship in both languages, hoping for a reply from the craft ahead.

With the sun reflecting off its surface, it was impossible to see more than a vague shape.

Hrriss kept requesting on all frequencies for details of the damage the lone ship had suffered.

In the midst of the dense clouds thousands of meters below, Todd at last urged the Albatross ahead of the speeding hulk. There was a powerful jerk that bucked them around in their seats when the net of magnetic lines engaged the metal hull of the other.

"Gotcha,' Hrriss said, his teeth snapping in triumph.

"Great. Now let's juSt tell those guys to drag ass over here." Once Todd headed the Albatross back into space, the two men turned the external camera onto their prize, and irised down the lens to counteract the glare. There was a silence and an air of angry disbelief as they stared at the object the tractors had brought in. It was cylindrical in shape, the length of their own scout, and not unlike the escape shuttle they had mistaken it for. What their efforts had acquired was a full-sized orbital beacon, an unmanned buoy similar to the ones hanging above and below the proscribed system, still screaming out its Mayday message on the Albatross's receiver as they stood staring at it. The needles on the VU meters leaped back and forth in their glass settings.

"So we've been suckered into an interdicted system by a recorded Mayday,' Todd said, unbelievingly. "I'll report this illicit use all the way to. . ." He paused, since the top of Spacedep was Al Landreau and he knew what short shrift that report would get. "We have fallen into deep kimchee, my friend. I should have listened to you."

"No, friend Zodd, you listened to a distress call and acted conscientiously,' Hrriss said with a heavy sigh.

Neither needed to discuss the ramifications of this.

"Let's get this sucker hauled in and see if we can salvage that Mayday beacon. That'll add credibility to this incident."

"Good thinking, Zodd,' and Hrriss programmed the winch for a slow wind while Todd monitored the progress from the external camera.

"Hold it!" Todd held up one hand. "There's something attached to it. Oh-ho! Double trouble.

Did we record the capture? Good. Unless I'm vastly mistaken there's a device riding along a very suspicious-looking thickening of the longitudinal spar. That thing is rigged to blow on contact!' "Rrrreelease,' Hrriss said, almost spitting in disgust at the stratagem. "Can you get a close recording of that section?"

"I have so done." Todd was immensely satisfied by that,much of this episode, but as Hrriss plotted their course out of the area, his elation drained from him. "Someone's been getting awful clever, Hrriss. Our course was known from the time we left Doona, so there was plenty of time to set this up where we'd stumble into the trap on our way back from Hrretha."

"All too trrrue." Hrriss nodded, his expression as bleak as his friend's. Even the markings on his intelligent felinoid face seemed to have faded in his concern.

"I could wish boils on the hide of whoever perpetrated this. We could have been killed!"

"Waz that the object? To kill us? Or to lure us into interdicted space?" The eyes of the two friends met-the yellowgreen and the clear blue.

"I know someone who wouldn't shed a tear at my demise,' Todd said grimly.

"I have similar well-wishers,' Hrriss replied, tapping the console with the tips of his claws in a rhythmic fashion.

"Our deaths wouldn't -mean as much as our broaching interdicted space,' Todd began, rubbing his chin. Stubble was developing, and there were moments, like this, when he wondered what he'd look like with a full beard, or at least sufficient face hair to make him more Hrruban.

"But not only is there prrroof of our samarrritanism, but also I, Hrriss, made all the vocal contacts." Todd dismissed that notion.

"Everyone knows we're together, so I've certainly been wherever you were, legal or not. What I don't understand is exactly why the tactic was planned in this fashion.

Was killing the real end? Or discrediting us?" The two exchanged few words on the rest of the journey back to Doona. Both of them were deep in thought as how best to mitigate their situation.

Violating one of the main stipulations of the very agreement they were hoping to see renewed this year was not good, however inadvertent.

"Have you convinced yourself that the recording is enough, Hrriss?" Todd asked after they had identified themselves to the DoonaiRrala buoy.

"Our people will believe us."

"Let's devoutly hope that's enough.

Too bad that false beacon didn't blow up. We could at least have brought a section of it home as additional proof."

"We do warn everyone that there are bogus Maydays out there!"

"That is obligatory. Bogus or not, we were in the right to investigate,' Hrriss said one more time.

"A cry for help from other space travelers is not ignored with impunity." As soon as they landed the Albatross back on Doona, they contacted the tower. Linc Newry was on duty.

"Can you rustle your stumps, Linc?" Todd asked.

"We got an official report to deliver."

"Official? Huh? Nothing to do with the Hunt, is it?"

"Not really, but it'd be great if we could get through landing procedures and decontam and get the Hunt properly organized,' Todd said with an encouraging grin.

"I'm coming,' Linc said, and obviously switched to a handset for he continued talking. "As you're just back from that Hrrethan shindig, I think it'll be okay if I just seal the lock on the Albie and we can do the decontam and stuff when the Hunt's over." So Todd and Hrriss gratefully disembarked, watched the seal be affixed to prevent entry, and, thanking Linc for his courtesy, hurried off to find Ken Reeve and detail the Mayday incident.

"Genuine or not, you have to answer a Mayday signal,' Ken agreed, though the affair obviously troubled him. He smoothed his hair back with a resigned hand. His thick, dark hair had receded above his temples, and lines were beginning to etch the fair, sun-weathered skin near his eyes. He and Todd were of a height now, but often, when he was confused and worried, as he was now, Todd felt himself still the small boy and Ken the adult.

Maybe he relied too much on his father's wisdom where experience and the study of law didn't provide the answers. Hrriss sat beside him, his yellow-green eyes unwinking as he stared at the floor between his feet. Ken could tell the Hrruban was worried, but he was not as prone to outbursts as his son.

Todd's eyes were fixed hopefully on his father's face. Ken shook his head and sighed. "Wise of you, Hrriss, to handle all the oral transmissions. Let's hope that the pictures of that device and the possibly explosive ribbing show up." He gave his head another little shake. "Such contingencies will have to be written into the new Treaty, allowing for legitimate rescue efforts and specifying penalties for abuses. I shall suggest the modification myself to Sumitral at Alreldep. But I cannot be easy that the incident was there, waiting to trap the unwary.

He paused again, holding up his hand when Todd opened his mouth.

"Were there any other representatives at the Hrrethan ceremonies likely to have taken the same warp jumps you did?" Todd looked abashed.

"Dad, I just wanted to leave. My neck was rubbed raw and it was bad enough those Hrrethans insisted on giving the Albatross a clearance "They insisted?" Ken asked, his expression alert.

"Yes, and we told them that Spacedep had already cleared the Albatross . . . Oh, I see what you mean. The recorder could have been tampered with there. You think we were to be the victims?"

"We were not the only ship likely to pass that system,' Hrriss said in a slow thoughtful tone. "I will inquirrre. It is worrth that much. And discreetly." He dropped his jaw at Ken. "When one is hunted, one generally senses pursuit." "Then I can leave you to mention this to Hrrestan?" Ken asked. Hrriss nodded. "I shall inform Hu Shih. That will satisfy the necessary protocol. Investigations can be initiated "Just don't let that sort of time-wasting stuff interfere with the Snake Hunt, will you, Dad?" Todd was clearly apprehensive. "It's only two weeks away and we've a lot to do." Ken smiled. "The Snake Hunt is too important to the DoonaiRrala economy to have its leaders absent.

I'll handle all the necessary reportings. And inform Sumitral.

He warned me to expect trouble from unlikely areas. Cunning of "our detractors, isn't it, to start a controversy over a samaritan issue!

And it has the flavor of something the segregationalists would try." "The group that thinks Hrruba is only being friendly to get their claws into the best star systems?" Todd asked with patent distaste.

"Or perrrhaps,' and Hrriss let his fangs show, "it is those who sense we are arming ourselves for the conquest of your home planet."

"No one takes that foolishness seriously,' Ken said quickly. "You don't even know where Terra is.

"Nor you Hrruba,' and Hrriss winked.

Ken and Todd both laughed with their friend, whose full-throated chuckle would have sounded to many like an ominous growl. Laughter eased the tension lines from Ken Reeve's face.

"Go on, the pair of you. We'll deal with the matter after the Snake Hunt. Which is going to be brilliant this year, isn't it?" He pinned the two friends with a mock-stern glare.

"Absolutely!" The friends chorused that assurance and left Ken's office.

In only a fortnight's time, Doona would be inundated by foreign dignitaries and guests eager to witness, and participate in, the famed Doonan Snake Hunt. Hundreds of people would converge on the First Villages for the semiannual migration of the giant reptiles, and Todd and Hrriss were in charge of coordinating the Hunt. Which was not so much of a hunt as a controlled traffic along the snakes' traditional path.

While there had been intense arguments both for and against annihilation of this dangerous species.

the conservationists-many of them colonists-had won. The immense snakes were unique to the planet, but their depredations1 which affected only one area of the main continent, could be controlled. The reptiles ranged in size from two- and threeyear1d tiddlers of three to five meters in length to immense females. nicknamed Great Big Mommas, growing to twelve to fifteen meters. They had incredible speed and strength and, although they ate infrequently, they had been known to ingest an adult horse or cow in one mouthful. Their vision was so poor that they could not see a man standing motionless a few feet from their blunt snouts1 but they would strike at any movement: particularly one that gave off an enticing odor.

Their traditional route from the sea to the plains just happened to lie by the river farms of the settlers where quantities of livestock grazed. too numerous to be shut up during the migration. So the settlers had devised a method of herding the snakes, making certain by a variety of means that few escaped to wreak havoc among the herds and flocks.

At first the settlers resorted to crude methods of keeping the snakes in line. destroying far too many for the conservationists' peace of mind. Then hunters from other planets learned about the drives, as they were originally called, and begged to join in for the thrill and excitement of adding such a deadly specimen to their trophies. These men also had some excellent suggestions to give the DoonaiRralans, gained from similar drives of dangerous species to which Ken Reeve, Ben Adjei. the colonists' veterinarian, and Hrrestan listened with interest.

"Make it into a real Hunt,' they were advised.

"Attract the thrillseekers and you'll not only make some money out of it, but you'll have enough help to keep the snakes on the right track,' So the Hunt became an organized sporting feature; one which put considerable credit into the colony's treasury and one which became safe enough to advertise as a spectator sport for those who wanted titillation without danger.

At first, Ken and Hrrestan, with Ben's advice, organized the Hunt, but gradually, as Todd and Hrriss showed genuine aptitudes as Hunters and leaders, the management had been turned over to them. Much had to be arranged to insure that injuries were reduced to a minimum; that visitors were always teamed up with experienced Hunters or in safely prepared blinds; that the horses hired out were steady, well-blooded animals, accustomed to snake-stench and less likely to plunge out of control and drop their riders into the maw of waiting Big Mommas.

There were hundreds of minor details to be overseen by Todd and Hrriss before Hunt Day.

When Todd and Hrriss got to their office, they found that much had already been put in hand by their assistants, based on assignments and duties from the last Hunt. Scouts had been given their pests in the salt marshes from which the migration began. Every homestead within ten klicks of the long-established route had had fences, walls, and buildings reinforced. "Sighters' who would fly above the swarm and monitor its progress had been chosen and their aerial vehicles serviced. "Lures' had volunteered. Mounted on two-wheeled motorized rough country bikes, they were specially trained to lead maverick snakes back to the main swarm and to kill snakes that could not be turned.

Lures usually performed what had become a rite of passage for young DoonalRralans: capturing or killing two snakes on a Hunt, or succeeding in stealing a dozen eggs from the marsh nests. In fact, this rite had become an honor sought after by hunters of every system.

Many now came just to win accolades as proof of courage and to have their names added to this new legend.

Those who did not wish to expose themselves to physical danger were accommodated in snake blinds, built along, but back from, the river trail.

From these, spectators could enjoy this unique sight and excitement. The blinds were sturdily constructed of sealed rla wood, strong enough, though in truth any Great Big Momma Snake could have knocked one into splinters with its powerful snout. However, experiments with various odors had proved that a heavy citrus smell liberally poured on the outside of the blind covered the scent of the juicy morsels within and was a powerful deterrent to the snakes.

Twelve Teams of from twenty to forty. horsemen and women rode in escort of the snake swarm.

Clever riders on the quick, well-trained horses could head off renegades or stragglers, for some of the tiddlers were always breaking off the main group, looking for something to eat. These were considered fair game for Hunters wishing to kill, or capture, in proof of their prowess.

Approved weaponry-for the Treaty did not permit heavy weapons in the colony - were projectile rifles, metal-headed spears, compound bows and arrows, and any sort of club (though bludgeoning a snake to death, even a tiddler, was extremely dangerous.) Crossbows were the most popular for a quarrel and could penetrate right through a snake's eye to its brain. The only problem was to then keep out of the way of the thrashing body in its death throes.

The worst headache for Todd and Hrrestan was still the composition of the Teams, for they had to intersperse novice and experienced Hunters without jeopardizing team effectiveness. There were also some "solo' or small Teams of off-world hunters but they had to produce qualifications to hunt on their own: proof that they were experienced riders and projectile weapon marksmen; preferably letters from other authorized Hunts or Safari Groups.

As Todd scanned the list of those on his Team One, he noted with satisfaction that Kelly Solinari was on it. So, she'd be back from Earth! She'd be a good team second5 even if she had been away from Doona for four years learning how to be a good diplomat at Alreldep.

Another name, scrawled so badly that he couldn't quite decipher it, was new to him but documentation showed that this J. Ladruo had participated in several well-known Safaris. Well, Team One had to take its share of novices.

He put that minor detail from his mind and went on to designate the places where they'd have to place charges that could be detonated to startle the snakes back into line. Usually the Beaters managed that, with drums, cymbals, flails and small arms fire, but he pored over the accounts of the last Hunt, to see where breakthroughs had occurred and how he could prevent them. He almost suspected the snakes of rudimentary interngence the way some evaded Teams and Beaters. He'd begun looking at meteorology reports, too, for a wind from the wrong direction would make a shambles of the most careful plans. Drafting contingency plans for windy conditions was his next task, "The first Hunters have arrived,' Hrriss told him, coming in with their documents.

Todd looked up, startled. "So soon?"

"Zooon?" Hrriss dropped his jaw in a grin.

"You've been working too hard, my Zodd. Only two more days before the deluge!" Todd groaned as he took the papers from Hrriss and checked the names off against the Hunt application list. Then he brightened.

"Two more days and Kelly'll be home." Hrriss's grin deepened.

"You'll be happy to see her?"

"Sure, she's the best second I ever had." He didn't notice the odd look his friend gave him.

Of the many people making their way to Doona for the Hunt, Kelly Solinari was probably the most excited. She couldn't wait to breathe fresh air again on Doona. On Earth, you felt that taking a deep breath was a crime against your fellow Humans and besides, it didn't smell good so why contaminate your lungs with government issue. She knew that Earth's air had improved with stringent reductions of pollutants and the careful control of waste products but her lungs didn't agree.

She was also looking forward to eating "real' food again: the absolute calorie rationing on Earth was nothing short of a sophisticated form of starvation. For a born Doonan such as she, these four years were a prison and she was about to be set free.

There had been a lot of change on Earth since her father and mother had left the stagnant, crowded planet: and they'd been considered radical for wanting to emigrate. Now there was an active desire, especially among the young, to break away from their crowded, depleted home planet and go out to settle among the stars. New opportunities had created an aura of hope, lightening the general gloom of the population. The success of the Doonan experimental colony begged the question of when more planets would be made available.

Without the Hrruban element, of course.

In the back of every mind lingered the warning of Siwanna, the awful memory of the destruction of another race. In Kelly's diplomacy courses, the Siwanna Tragedy was brought up again and again to warn the eager young diplomats-to-be that such an error could be repeated. It had been an unforgettable and tragic shock that the Siwannese had suicided as a race when the colonists from Earth encountered them.

They had been a gentle people, with too fragile a culture to survive contact with another intelligent species. Siwanna was empty now.

Codep had erected a memorialo the race there, and had forbidden anyone to settle on the world whose inhabitants had been accidentally destroyed. And that was the beginning of the Noncohabitation Doctrine.

No Human colony could be initiated on any planet already inhabited by sentient beings.

The Hrrubans' strong culture and identity made them, in the administration's eyes, a statistical rarity. The Doona colony was an exception, where colonization teams from two cultures had met accidentally. The first-contact groups were to regard all new races as fragile and potentially selfdestructive. Depending on which teacher you were talking to, this meant Hrruba was Earth's partner in the great task of opening up the galaxy for exploration and colonization. Or, conversely, Hrruba was an obstruction to Earth's efforts. Kelly, who had been born on Doona, and had more Hrruban than Earth-born friends, was always ready to defend her Hrruban mates, and no one could match a Doonan in an argument.

Younger Terrans and her classmates generally shared her views.

They wanted to see Humans allowed to live and prosper on new worlds.

In the back of their minds was the idea of meeting and making friends with new alien races, though that thought was rarely voiced, not with so many older folk with ingrained habits ready to report them to noise monitors for loud talking. Who could have a decent argument in whispers?

It was so good to be home, even if Doona was crowded this season!

Well, crowded for Doona, but only marginally inhabited compared to Terra. Kelly stared out of the hatch at the swarming mob on the landing field waiting for friends and family. It looked as if every single Human on Doona, all 45,000 of them, must be waiting to greet someone.

There was even a cluster of Hrrubans, who enjoyed the spectacle of homecoming for its own sake.

She searched the crowd eagerly, hoping to see her own loved ones after her long absence. She'd be unlikely to see them, lost as they were in the mob of welcoming committees waiting to greet the important visitors who had traveled with her from Earth for the Snake Hunt. It had meant more ships coming in, a cheaper fare for her in consequence.

And, to judge by the shuttles bearing the markings of other systems, Doona was already awash with those eager to be part of this primitive event.

One of her fellow passengers, Jilamey Landreau, had bored everyone at their table with his simulated-hunting triumphs. He considered that it was essential to his consequence to be at the Doonan Snake Hunt and kill "one of the big ones." Preferably from horseback, to prove his prowess against a living target. Even as they were making their way down the gangplank, he was still blathering on about it to anyone who would listen.

Kelly, who had hunted snakes on horseback herself, had been the patient listener many a time.

She'd recognized his name and decided that it was smarter for her to play it cool in his presence. Her diplomatic training had taught her how to hold her tongue. She was also too kind to make fun of someone who had so far defeated only computersimulated prey.

She turned her back on him gratefully when her mother and father, Anne and Vic Solinari, approached her from the other side of the field, crying out their welcome, gesticulating for her to notice their position.

"Sweetheart!" Anne said, gathering her into her arms. "Oh, Kelly, welcome home!"

"Oh, Mom,' Kelly said, hugging her mother and suddenly feeling like a little girl again. "I missed you. Hi, Daddy."

"You look so grown-up,' Vic said, embracing his daughter in turn. "I wasn't sure we'd recognize you.

You look just fine. How was the trip?"

"Long,' Kelly said, wrinkling her nose.

"Cramped. Very smelly. All they had was canned Earth air." Vic laughed. "It's the second thing that's kept me from taking a trip back to Earth: the first is living in the crowded conditions. I sure don't miss those little granite boxes! Well, come on! Your brothers and sisters are waiting to hear all about what you've been up to. All voice and video this time, not taped transmissions."

"Am I okay for Team One, this year, Dad?" Kelly asked urgently.

Her parents laughed. "Formal notice came last week,' her father said, ruffling her hair. "And Michael's kept that Apple mare of yours exercised and has kept your snake-skin in her stall so she won't disgrace you, us, or Todd." Kelly breathed out a huge sigh of relief.

"I was afraid we wouldn't land in time."

"Afraid Todd wouldn't remember to put you on his team?" her mother said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, mother!" Kelly was glad of the excuse to go search for the luggage the handlers had just dumped on the tarmacadam.

Kelly finally found and threw the bags into the back of the family's power sled. It was exhilarating to be back on Doona. It couldn't just be the weaker gravity or the invigorating pure air that made her feel so light. She was happy.

As they flew toward their ranch, her mother and father pumped her for data about her life over the last four years. She didn't stop talking for one moment all the way home. The weather was gorgeous, and Vic kept the top of the sled down so they could enjoy the sun.

Then he was turning the sled into the gate of the family ranch, some klicks distant from the original First Community buildings. The new town had been built some distance from the original colony site, out of the path of snake migration. Their ranch abutted the Reeve farm on one side and the Hu property on the other. Behind them was the red sandstone back of Saddle Ridge, no-being's-land except for the wild animals native to Doona.

Beyond that and the river was the Hrruban First Village. Every landmark came rushing back to her like the tide coming back up the Bore River from the distant sea.

She knew her mother and father were struggling against laughter as she kept inhaling and exhaling until she was hyperventilating. But she couldn't seem to get her lungs cleared of all that stinking canned air.

And she couldn't keep from swiveling her head about her, wishing it were on a 360-degree socket. The sheer space, just loose and lying around, was a sight for her eyes.

Student housing allotment on Earth was very cramped, even for a junior diplomat trainee in Alreldep. No special treatment was given one who had graduated with honors or taken the advanced degree in only a year. She had had to endure the same tiny quarters as any other beginner in what she liked to call Diplodep. She had missed having room to stretch out, and the view of faraway horizons. She had longed for that almost as much as she had missed her family. And Todd. And today was the Hunt.

They were nearly at the ranch house now, and Kelly felt her heart pounding for pure happiness.

Two of the farm dogs paced the sled, barking their heads off.

Kelly leaned out, calling their names and trying to pet their heads as they ran. Vic coasted the sled to a stop in between the house and the barn. When he turned the ignition off, he gave Kelly one more quick hug.

"Welcome home, sweetie. Hey!" he yelled at the house. "Lookit what I brung home!" Joyfully, Kelly leaped out of the sled and into the arms of her brothers and sisters. The two smallest, Diana and Sean, tried to jump into her arms. The dogs raced around them, barking and jumping and trying to lick her face.

"Hello, coppertop,' she hailed her brother Michael, who waved from the door of the barn and hurried up to meet her. Michael was a year her senior, but they had always pretended to be twins.

Their faces were very much alike, with broad foreheads, wide golden hazel eyes, and strong pointed chins. His hair was as fiery a red as hers and just as thick. Their mother always said they reminded her of two matches in a box. Their father, more kindly, merely called them autumn-colored, to suit their autumn birthdays.

"Hi, hothead,' Michael said with a broad grin on his face, swinging her around in a circle. He was a very junior veterinary resident, working under Ben Adjei at the DoonaiRrala Animal Hospital.

Michael was still clad in his white tunic, but was stripping it off as he steered her toward the house.

"Hurry up and change into your gear. They're going to start Gathering the Hunt at twelve hundred hours. Go scrub the ship stink off your skin, or the horses'll run from you, not the snakes. Unless you're too tired to participate?" he asked teasingly.

"Not a chance!" Kelly said, wriggling free and heading toward the house. "It's what I hurried home for! Oh, how I've missed Calypso."

"That's what Todd said you'd say." Michael nodded, helping her carry her bags. "Still horse crazy after those years of horseless Earth?"

"Thank goodness, he and Hrriss got back from that Hrrethan assignment,' Kelly said, ignoring her brother's jibe. "Wouldn't be a proper Hunt without them leading it." As soon as she had showered in unlimited hot water and dressed in comfortable well-worn clothes, Kelly raced out to saddle her bay mare, Calypso. The mare gladly accepted the present of a couple of carrots and nuzzled her mistress's hand.

Kelly just hoped that she hadn't forgotten too much in her years away. But Calypso would take care of her: she usually did. And there was just time left to get down to the Assembly Hall.

Vaulting into the saddle, Kelly kneed Calypso forward, toward the fields leading to the village common. After living on Earth for a time, it was hard to readjust to so few people per square kilometer.

By law, there could be only as many Humans as Hrrubans. After the Decision came into effect, more Humans had had to be imported to equal Hrrubans, and four more villages' worth of Terran colonists-out of the millions applyinghad come to DoonaiRrala. Even so, the combined population made little impression on a planet whose diameter was three thousand kilometers greater than that of Earth.

Kelly was proud that her mother an6 father were two of the original colonists. Over the quarter century since that historic Treaty, Admiral Sumitral of Alreldep had continued to negotiate with Hrrestan, Hrriss's father and chief of the Hrruban village elders, to make room for more Humans who wanted to leave overcrowded Earth and more Hrrubans with a similar desire. The talks had been successful, and the population of Doona had increased a thousandfold. Men and women who had lived in cramped, crackerbox-sized apartments on Earth had built homes and ranches in the fertile river valleys and settled down with room to stretch out.

No limit had actually been set on how much land each settler could claim, so long as waste, pollution, and senseless destruction of resources were avoided. As well as the native urfa, Vic Solinari, who had come to Doona as the storemaster, had elected to raise sheep and goats, his share of the precious breeding stocks sent from Earth. To keep the grasslands healthy, he rotated their pasturage every season to another part of their land. Typically Doonan, he also had a stable of horses, Kelly's favorite animal as well as cats and dogs.

It had been four years since Kelly had seen a living animal except Humans and Hrringa, the lonely Hrruban minding the transmitter grid in Alreldep block. Elated and exhilarated, she screeched greetings to a flock of goats milling around in a pen, and sighed with happiness as a cluster of young colts galloped in play across a fenced meadow not far from the house. It was wonderful to be home. Kelly legged Calypso into a canter down the hill toward town, revelling in the rhythmic gait and the joy of being back in the saddle again.

CHAPTER 1

DR. BEN ADJEl HADESMAThD ThE DAY this year-and he hadn't been wrong in twenty years-when the great reptiles would migrate from the salt marshes to the low-lying desert fifty kilometers inland to lay their eggs. Only offworlders bet against him, the local population shrewdly inciting them to do so.

A Sighter had landed her small copter behind the Reeve ranch house early in the morning to alert Todd that the egg-heavy female snakes were arriving in the desert and beginning to burrow into the dunes.

Immediately, Todd called a meeting of leaders of the Hunt at the colony Assembly Hall.

They had gathered from all over Doona and had been staying in or around First Village for the last few days, in case Ben Adjei's estimate was off a bit.

For the past fifteen years, Todd and Hrriss had been in the first line of Hunters. Their rapport was instinctive: they seemed to read each other's mind.

They never took unnecessary chances or risked lives, theirs or others. Their impressive tally of kills and captures of the dangerous reptiloids had reached legendary totals. As they grew to an age when their parents would permit it, they came to lead the Hunt and had done so now for ten years.

"You could see them in the underbrush, swarming toward the sands,' Lois Unterberger informed the leaders who had congregated at the Reeve residence, the usual Hunt headquarters. Excitement made her brown eyes wide, showing white all around the irises. Her dark hair was intricately braided and pinned tightly to her scalp. "Hundreds of them, like a river, pouring onto the dunes and disappearing into burrows. I followed the leading edge all the way from the salt marshes. Hrrel is still in his copter over the dunes, watching until I get back."

"This is it,' Todd said excitedly. "Lois, you fly back and keep an eye on the snakes. We've got to know the minute they start to leave. Dar,' he instructed another Sighter, "go and check the snake blinds along the way to make sure everyone knows the snakes are coming and to stay inside. Take two of the Lures with you, and drop them at the vulnerable points we discussed."

"Gotcha! I'm away,' Dar Kendrath said, dashing for his small craft.

"And keep in touch!" Todd called after him. "We need to know the moment the snakes start to move out!" Dar threw him a salute from the seat of his copter as the vehicle took off.

"We're ready,' announced Lou Stapley, who was in charge of the Beaters, who helped to keep the snakes in train by thrashing the undergrowth with flails or beating drums and cymbals.

Wranglers, very experienced riders, were in charge of each horse platoon. Their main concern was spotting the nervous rider who could panic his mount. Or a horse who suddenly decided he had had quite enough snake hunting in his lifetime.

Hrrula, one of the Reeves' oldest friends, was both the leader of Team Two and a Wrangler.

"Everrryone is prrrepared,' he assured them.

"Great,' Todd said, checking them off on his list.

All the preparations were falling together nicely.

"We've got the pass blocked toward the Launch Center,' Jesse Dautrish said, scratching his jaw.

"Let's hope it looks impassable to snake eyes. But it won't take long to clear it after the Hunt's over.

The bridges have thorn barricades as well as mines, just in case the snakes try to cross the easy way." Though the snakes could swim, the banks of the rivers upstream were too sheer and deep for them to get a belly-hold. "I need another shower,' he added, scratching his waist. "Damn dust settles in every pore." Jesse's assistant, Hrrol, brushed at her short, tan fur, sending up clouds of dust. "All the charges are laid near rnsidences and rranchess,' she said.

"Here's your copy back, Hrriss."

"Well done,' Hrriss told the attractive Hrrol, and passed the list to Todd.

"Okay, okay,' Todd said, calling the Hunters to order. "Let's go.

Spread the word, we gather the Hunt at noon, and we'll ride out as soon as we get the word from the Sighters. Robin, see you at the feast later."

"Right, Todd!" called Todd's youngest brother, running for his horse. "Good hunting!" Todd and Hrriss saddled their mounts and rode to the Assembly Hall to wait for the rest of Team One. Horses were still the primary form of individual transportation on the colony world. Doonanbred horses were one of the colony's most important assets and trade goods, especially on Hrrubansettled worlds. Hrrubans were fascinated by the gentle quadrupeds, and were natural riders. The breeding of horses, rescuing the beloved animal from near extinction by careful genetic husbandry, was done on nearly every ranch on the planet, both Human and Hrruban. The Doonan style of saddle and bridle included gems and other valuable pieces easily obtained from the planet's generous storehouse of precious minerals.

The style, which echoed the formal wear of the Hrrubans themselves, seemed unbelievably ostentatious to denizens of Earth, to whom a single one of these gems represented additional comforts not yet purchased. When gems could be picked up in riverbeds and rift bottoms and polished with little effort by the finder, it was difficult for young Doonans to take the awe and greed over such trinkets seriously.

Todd was proud of the way his gray gelding, Gypsy, looked in the new tack he'd made, aglitter with gilding and pretty stones, many of which had no commercial value, but some of which were worth enough alone to buy a change of status on Earth.

The colony folk had also rediscovered handcrafts. DoonaniRralan crafts were so well thought of that goods of that origin commanded a good price off-world: pottery; needlecraft; weaving; stone, metal, and wood sculpture; jewelry; and leatherwork. An object made of the porous rla wood could be dyed in rainbow colors before it was painted with rlba sap to seal and harden it to the consistency of stone without the weight. Todd's saddle frame was made of rla, giving him a sturdy seat that required no effort for his mount to carry.

He needed to travel light, because the Hunt was hours of hard riding.

Gypsy danced beneath him as other Hunters and their horses gathered around them on the common.

The gray gelding had caught some of the excitement Todd was feeling. The hard work of the last two weeks was about to pay off. He and Hrriss exchanged grins of relief.

"Do you know, for a while I was afraid no one else was coming when the shuttles were late arriving?"

"Not coming!" the Hrruban echoed, mocking disbelief lighting his eyes. "Many spend the time between Hunts looking forward to the next one." A slender horsewoman on an Appaloosa mare rode down the hill toward the square, standing in her stirrups and waving. Todd recognized the flame-bright hair on sight and vigorously waved back.

"Hey, Hrriss, Kelly made it back!"

"Good!" Hrriss said, raising his own long arm to return her salute. "One more good backup rrriderr to keep order among the aliens."

"Hey, gal, welcome home,' Todd shouted when she was near enough to hear him over the pounding of Calypso's galloping hooves. "Mike said you were trying to make it in time for the Hunt. And you haven't changed at all!" She plumped back in the saddle, to signal the mare to halt, and eased her between Gypsy and Rrhee, Hrriss's mare. Now, grinning, she snapped her fingers, her expression mock-wistful. "Gee, and I worked so hard to create a new image."

"Don't bother,' Todd replied, grinning back.

"The one you got's not bad enough to put anyone off. Exactly."

"Oh, you! Hrriss, how are you?" and she turned to the Hrruban. "Heard you guys got drafted on that Hrrethan "do."

Todd and Hrriss exchanged quick glances. How had Kelly heard of that? But then, she was an AIreldep trainee.

"Verry well,' Hrriss answered, dropping his jaw.

"The speeches lasted many hours. If it were not for the pleassure of having a functioning transportation grid, the people of Hrretha would most gladly have forgone the honor of having so many eminent speakers.

"Spacedep and Codep both sent representatives,' Todd added. "I was a little surprised to see Varnorian there himself, instead of sending a deputy as Spacedep did."

"A good thing you went to keep them honest,5

Kelly said, making a face. "I've been hearing all about the two of you from my little cubbyhole in Alreldep block! You're considered to be quite a pair of heroes there.

Todd waved her words away embarrassedly.

"You must tell us all about your experiences, as soon as the Hunt is over,' Hrriss said, showing his fangs in the widest Hrruban smile.

"Absolutely!" she promised them.

Kelly's mention of Alreldep brought back to Todd the full memory of his ship's passage into the interdicted zone around Hrrilnorr, and the fact that two weeks had gone by and there hadn't been the least hint that their "rescue' had been recorded, or even mentioned to the Treaty Council.

He would be interested to know if she had heard any rumors: especially one that might suggest the beacon had been planted by factions unsympathetic to the Doona Experiment. This was not the time to bring up such a sensitive topic. Riders needed their wits about them in the Hunt. Plenty of time to take her aside and get her reactions later on.

"That medical kit been renewed lately?" Todd asked her, nodding at the roll neatly strapped to the cantle.

"You bet. Mike made it up special,' and Kelly gave him a wry sideways glance, "in case you fall off again!" Todd snorted. "And when was the last time you saw me fall off?" he demanded in mock outrage.

"You have two to your credit,' Hrriss said, his eyes narrowing slyly. "Did not Ken say it takes thrrree falls to make a rider?" Todd laughed and patted his sides tenderly.

"More like two hundred, friends." The rest of Team One began to close up to the leaders. Two more old friends, Hrrin and Errala, from one of the distant Rralan villages, rode up behind and greeted them happily. The three shook hands with the Hrruban mates. Todd checked them off his list.

Places in the teams were always reserved for friends and friends of friends. The prestigious first six Hunter teams had to open further to admit high powered guests whose inexperience sometimes tested the experience and skill of their hosts. But their presence meant a healthy contribution to the success of the Hunt and thus had to be tolerated.

Hrrubans and Humans in equal numbers joined the ride every year.

Though Hrrubans required slight alterations to the standard saddle to accommodate the difference in their skeletal structure, they were keen on any opportunity to ride their beloved hrrsses. Ocelots, gifts to the Rralans from their Human friends, prowled alongside their masters' mounts, waiting for the signal t9 go. The spotted hunting cats were among the few animals that were fearless in the presence of snakes, and kept down other pests that troubled the settlements. The more skillful, working in teams of four or five, even brought down young snakes and killed them.

Hrrula skillfully guided his horse to join theirs, followed by the rest of Team Two. The sudden crowd caused Hrriss's two pet ocelots, Prem and Mehh, to go on guard. He swung off his mount to soothe them.

Hrriss found that he did not recognize most of the Hrrubans who made up Team Two.

They were undoubtedly visitors, probably from the new colony worlds. Hrrubans who lived on Rrala did not have such a wild, predatory look when discussing the Hunt, and those who still lived on Hrruba were revolted by the thought of slaying fresh meat. Though understandably excited about the pursuit and kill, Rralans were more concerned with staying alive throughout the Hunt. Hrriss calmed Prem, who seemed to have caught his agitation. The fierce little cats had been a gift from Todd and had already proved themselves in battle with the snakes. It seemed they were as eager as he was to confront them again.

Each team leader checked in with Todd as soon as he or she arrived in Assembly Square. Inessa, Todd's younger sister, hailed them from Team Six, waving a throwing stick. Hrriss poked his friend in the elbow and pointed to Inessa. They both waved.

Since their older sister, Ilsa, had married and returned to Earth, Inessa and her two younger brothers, Dan and Robin, took it in turns every year to ride with the Hunt or help guard the family ranch.

Hrriss, the only offspring of his parents, used to envy Todd his many siblings until he found that they regarded him as an extension of Todd.

Suddenly Todd groaned. "Will you look at that?

Spare me!" He tossed his head in the direction of the Assembly Hall, to their left.

Obediently Hrriss and Kelly glanced that way.

From the doorway, a young man swaggered out wearing the very latest in hunting pinks, and boots that had to have cost the equivalent of starfare between Earth and Proxima Centauri. He swung a six-foot length of polished wood between his fingers.

"Don't they ever read the advisories we send out on what kind of protective clothing to wear for rough riding?" Todd said in a low but disgusted tone.

"But, Todd, he's trying. I heard him tell me that he researched both hunting garb and polo accoutrements and decided on this compromise as being appropriate,' Kelly said, her eyes brimming with devilment.

"I heard him every mealtime, in fact."

"And you didn't warn him?" Todd shot her an aggrieved glance.

"What? And ruin our fun?"

"He was on the ssshuttle with you?" Hrriss asked.

"Indeed, and at my table. That, dear hearts,' Kelly said, amused, sitting back in her saddle to watch their expressions, "is Jilamey Landreau, Spacedep's nephew. He's harmless." I'll give you any odds, Kelly dear old thing, that he's going to be trouble for whatever Team he's on,' Todd said, summing up the stranger with a practiced eye, as Jilamey mounted the horse chosen for him with a modicum of expertise, though the quarterstaff proved an immediate encumbrance. "I don't like the stable he comes from."

"It is not the stable he comes from that should concern us, Zodd,' Hrriss assured him, his eyes glinting mischievously, "and his trouble will be in conzrolling his hrrss. He will not be in our way."

"Ah, but he said he's on Team One,' Kelly replied, delighted at the shock on Todd's face.

He fumbled for the Team list in his pocket. "I've got a J.

Ladrulo. . . Oh, no."

"I wondered at him being on Team One,' Kelly said, her face full of mischief. "I thought you knew what you were doing. However, don't worry about him. I'll make him my responsibility. I owe him a couple." Now her eyes took on a gleam similar to Hrriss's, her expression bland. "For aspersions cast like bread upon the surface of our table."

"You're mixing metaphors again,' Todd said, ready for the banter they always enjoyed. "Didn't they teach you anything useful at Alreldep?"

"How to manage little men like Jilamey, sweetheart,' she said, giving him a coy and insincere smirk.

But she sighed as Jilamey urged his animal over to Todd and Hrriss.

He threw them a jaunty salute and banged the quarterstaff painfully against his knee. The horse snorted, flicking an ear at such an unusual appendage. ""Lo, Kelly. Didn't think I'd have the pleasure of your company so soon again, much less with Team One. Jilamey Landreau, at your service.

Nearly missed my chance-shuttle was late. I've heard all about your local menace. Read up on the subject, too. I'm expecting great things of this day.

I want to catch a really big snake. I'm assured that you're the best. My friends'-he threw a sly glance over his shoulder at his ship companions-'could only get on Teams Three and Four." And why he wasn't with them, instead of complicating Team One, Kelly did not know. She'd have a small talk with the village elders later, she assured herself.

Punctiliously, she introduced Todd, Hrriss, Hrrin, and Errala to Jilamey. At least he had enough manners not to gawk at the Hrrubans.

"Landreau, you say?" Todd asked with cool courtesy. "Not any relation to Admiral Landreau, by any chance?"

"The Admiral's my uncle.

That's why I got on your team." Jilamey grinned amiably.

"Isss zat so?" Hrriss said, taking up Todd's lead.

"I find it amazing that he would perrmit one of his kin to take parrt in a Snake Hunt."

"Why not?" Jilamey appeared surprised.

"Supposed to be the best hunting available."

"The Admiral told you that?"

"He didn't need to. Everyone knows that, Jilamey ingenuously assured them.

The three old friends exchanged glances. The boy couldn't possibly be so naive. Or was it simply that no one had ever dared tell him how his uncle was linked with the Doonan snakes? Quite possibly.

The settlers had escaped Landreau's attempt to dispose of witnesses to his humiliation by driving a swarm of snakes down on the barn where he had imprisoned the colonists. He had never returned to Doona, nor would he have been welcome. It was amazing enough that his nephew had been allowed to come. However, now that Landreau was head of Spacedep, in charge of space exploration and defense, he was also not someone to antagonize. If his nephew had inveigled a place on Team One, there might be reasons not yet known to Todd and Hrriss. But it galled Todd to have to protect a Landreau from snakes. Inwardly he also winced at the comments likely being made by other teams about Team One.

"Read up on the Hunt, you say?" Todd asked.

"Everything I could find about the great snakes of Doona,' Jilamey replied, grinning at everyone.

Could the fellow-Todd pegged him at the midtwenties-really be so naive? Or was he disguising a covert assignment for his uncle with this behavior?

"Team One is only one of many, then, you realize. There are dozens of teams,' and Todd gestured broadly to the various groups around the village green, awaiting the reports of Sighters.

"Each team supports each other ." Jilamey nodded his head as Todd made each point. " . . and we may be called upon to break off and go to another team's assistance if they're in trouble."

"But Team One takes the most chances, doesn't it?" And Jilamey looked anxious.

"Always,' Hrriss assured him. "You will have the best of sporrrt with us!" His eyes glistened.

A Sighter's craft suddenly appeared and made an almost impossible swing to land in front of the Assembly Hall in a cloud of dust. The pilot leaned out of a hastily opened window.

"We've spotted the main swarm! They're starting to come out of the hatching ground! Should be due east of here in two, three hours at the most. We've left watchers with handsets in the brush along the way." The announcement charged the atmosphere with eager anticipation.

Only the uninitiated shouted and whirled their horses in glee at the coming test of courage. Todd and Hrriss trotted their horses over to the man, demanding details. The snakes could move along with unbelievable speeds. The best way to minimize the danger to livestock and Human was to intercept the swarms as far to the north of the main settlements as possible.

Don and Jan, a husband and wife from one of the Amalgamated Worlds colonies, galloped across the village green, slowing only when near the sled.

"I was afraid we wouldn't make it,' Jan panted.

"We rode all the way from the Launch Center."

"Your timing's as good as ever,' Todd said. The pair were good friends to Doona. "We're just getting ready to go. You haven't missed a thing." Don and Jan had moved up steadily from the other teams over the years, and were genuine assets to Team One. A slender woman woven out of ~\p~~, Jan was a fine rider who had worked with the rare horses on Earth, and also a skilled hand with lasso. Don had keen vision, and was a dead shot with a rifle. With their arrival, Team One's complement was filled. To Todd's relief, there were no more duffers assigned to them.

Team leaders made their way to preassigned positions, marked out on the maps Hrriss had distributed the night before. Transmitters of featherweight Hrruban design were now being handed out to riders. If anyone became lost or injured, he or she was to call for help immediately. No place could be guaranteed as safe from adolescent snakes.

"I don't want to carry a radio set,' Jilamey complained when he was handed his unit.

"It doesn't weigh much,' Kelly said, snapping hers to a belt hook.

"But I don't wear a belt with this garb. It spoils the sit of the jacket. I'm already wearing this silly safety helmet."

"Mr. Landreau,' Todd said, resisting an impulse to tell the young fool simply to belt up and go home, "the transmitter is not elective wear.

It could mean your life, or the safety of others." Could Landreau have deliberately planted this imbecile in the hopes that he'd be killed and the Admiral could blame Doonans? Todd shook his head. That was too farfetched. He pointed a finger at Jilamey.

"When you asked to hunt, you also signed an agreement, did you not, that you would abide by our rules?" Startled, Jilamey nodded. "If the sit of your jacket means more to you than your life, and others in this team, you don't have to wear the radio." Jilamey brightened. "But you'll have to stay in one of the snake blinds until it's over."

"Not a chance!" Jilamey protested, his eyes opening wide as he finally realized that Todd meant exactly what he said. "Oh, all right. I don't see what all the fuss is, anyway." With ill grace, he slung the transmitter belt bandolero-style across his chest.

The giant reptiles of Doona made their way to spawning grounds on the plains once a year, but for some reason returned from the sea along the river.

They were fearsome to behold one at a time, but when they swarmed, as they did during this season, it was a sight beyond terror. The largest ones, "Great Big Mommy Snakes' in Doonan parlance, were the stuff of campfire stories to terrify small brothers and sisters on moonless nights. The most horrifying thing about the stories was that they were true. The snakes could reach lengths of twenty meters, with maws that could ingest a full-grown horse. Their smooth-muscled bodies were as large as tree trunks and covered by tough protective scales.

Fortunately the snakes were not invincible.

Biologists had arguments over whether or not the snake stench stunned smaller creatures. Or whether, after all, the snakes were smart enough to hunt upwind of their intended prey. The young snakes, the two-year-olds, making their first return trip to the plains, were the most dangerous, because they weren't canny enough to avoid trouble.

The small ones were only small by comparison.

Even in their second year, they measured three meters, usually more. The combination of their youthful energy and inexperience and their pangs of wild hunger made them deadly adversaries. A young snake could bring down one of the fierce mdas all by itself. Weaker animals were snapped up as tidbits.

Doonans and Rralans had the advantage of knowing their terrain, the horses they rode, and of having witnessed many Hunts. But for outworlders who arrived with more bravado than training, the objective could be fatal. The prey was tricky and very dangerous. The contest was even weighted somewhat on the side of the young snakes. After all, none of the Hunters were five meters long and muscled in every inch.

Then some wit decided to add an extra fillip, awarding "coup' points for using the least technology or hardware possible in making the capture.

Every year, a few of the would-be heroes got hurt while trying to capture a young snake that was too big or too wily. Todd didn't remember who had started the newest nonsense, but it had come to be a big headache for him and the other Hunt team leaders. He sympathized belatedly with the original masters, who had been in charge when he passed the adulthood ritual himself years before. He had pulled off a highly pointed coup by using a firehardened lance and a garrote to finish off the snake, and carried home more eggs than anyone else that year.

Every ranch had its own defenders, well prepared with bazookas, rifles, even shouldermounted missiles to discourage reptiloid invasions.

It was preferable to deter entry rather than kill.

Some said that snakes remembered where they'd been deflected and stayed away.

The snake stench was fierce along the river embankment, where the snakes had passed on their way to the spawning ground. The Appaloosa mare rolled her eyes and twitched, but showed none of the other signs of hysteria displayed by the younger mounts. Kelly patted her neck and settled into the comfortable saddle. Kelly favored the style invented by the gauchos of old Earth, which protected rider from horse with layers of soft padding between each and the saddle frame. The fluffy sheepskin which Kelly bestrode on top of all made the contraption look heavy and ridiculous. In reality, it was lighter than most leather saddles, and held her so snugly it was almost impossible for her to fall off. She was grateful for her choice, feeling her tailbones where she had lost her saddle calluses.

If she rode a day on leather now, after four years' absence, she'd be crippled for a week. Chaps, like the ones worn by Todd and most of the other Hunters, protected her legs from trees and scrub.

Fastened by her knees, she had two small crossbows, loaded with the safety catches on, and half a gross of quarrels, some of them explosive.

She also had a spear with a crosspiece for protecting her hand at close quarters, and the traditional paint-capsule gun for marking troublesome snakes she couldn't reach, for the next teams to pick out.

Kelly noticed that Jilamey had an almost daintylooking slug-throwing revolver slung on the horn as well as a number of the approved weapons and that cumbersome quarterstaff. Clicking her tongue at his naivete, Kelly smiled. Wait until he saw one of the Great Big Mommy Snakes. His pistol would do no more harm than flicking sand at a leviathan would.

They passed one of the snake blinds that lay next to the path.

The reek of the citrus perfume, like citronella, was powerful enough to divert Humans as well as snakes. Kelly was glad to see that the newer snake blinds were situated close to thick, climbable trees.

If one of the Hunters got hurt, there was a quick haven available.

Above them, Saddle Ridge was nearly invisible through the trees.

As soon as they reached a landmark rock, they turned inland away from the river path and cut through the forest into hilly grasslands.

Todd was leading them up as close as possible to the dunes without breaking cover. Once the snakes finished laying their eggs, they headed in whatever direction they thought led to food on the way back to their territories. The job of the teams was to cut off their other options, riding alongside the bulk of the snake swarm, guiding it back to the sea without giving it a chance to stop.

"The safest thing,' Todd reminded the guests, "is to expedite the snakes' passage. There's plenty for them to eat in the water. We try not to kill the snakes that are willing to go peacefully. We want the wild young ones that endanger other creatures.

It'll be easy to pick out the rogues and mark them if we run with them. We have to keep our distance from the main group, though, or they'll just gang up on us and eat us all." Kelly could almost have repeated his speech word for word. It was the same one he had been giving for years. She smiled impishly at his back, which he held straight in the saddle, wondering what he would do if she chimed in.

She was fond of Todd, and equally fond of Hrriss. Of course it was nearly impossible to think of one without the other, they were so inseparable. A pity. She couldn't help but think that their united front was what had kept both of them single all these years.

Ahead of them, a streak of brown and gray as quick as a blink broke out of the undergrowth and showed them a patterned back. Jilamey let out a yell, and Errala jumped, making her horse dance back out of the way. The snake, a tiddler at four meters, seemed just as surprised to see them. It doubled in its own length and scooted back into the brush.

"That one is afraid of us,' Hrriss said, holding up a hand to forestall pursuit. "It may already have eaten, or it has learned discretion in the last years."

"I always like a Hunt that begins wjth a well-fed one,' Jan said grimly, calming her mount. The radio crackled into life: Teams Six and Seven were in pursuit of snakes that had left the spawning grounds in the opposite direction, but the majority were coming Team One's way.

More snakes followed the first one, but these attempted to slither past the horses without stopping. The snakes were normally solitary creatures, but at this particular moment of their life cycle, they did seem to understand safety in numbers.

When pressed too closely, they split up and headed in several directions, hoping to elude pursuit. The team formed a wall with spears and flashing lights, heading off snakes and scaring them into the direction they wanted them to go. The Hunters and Beaters stationed along the way would repeat the actions, keep them moving toward the river route.

Suddenly a Mommy Snake, not one of the GBMSs, but still more than respectable in size, appeared between the outcroppings of rock. It was followed by a swarm of smaller snakes that quickly outdistanced it.

Yelling into his radio, Todd wheeled his horse after them and kicked the animal to a canter. "We got some biggies on the road!" The others followed, falling into position behind him. The team formed a cordon along the front edge of the swarm, following it downstream into the trees, keeping it contained with pain and noise.

With the blunt end of spears, flashguns, whips, even brooms, they pushed, prodded, and drove the snakes back into line. The Hunters had to stay spread out, since their quarry ran anywhere between twice a man's height in length and fifteen meters long. A single snake could endanger several riders. Somewhere behind them, as the stream of reptiles advanced forward, Teams Two, Three, and Four were joining the wall of Hunters. The river acted as a natural barrier on the other side, saving manpower. Still more teams were spotted in the forests and meadows, driving stragglers that broke out between the teams where the Beaters' threshers couldn't go.

"Now we ride them into the sea,' Jilamey crowed, brandishing the staff above his head like an Amerind he must have seen in the Archive Pictures.

"It is not that easy,' Kelly yelled back, losing her composure at last. Really, Jilamey was just begging to be killed. Or thrown. His mount really didn't like all that brandishing.

A tiddler, probably returning from its first spawning, catching the scent of the lathered mare, slithered toward her with amazing speed. Calypso saw it coming and swapped ends to buck, lashing her hind feet out at it. Kelly hung on. Calypso might be accustomed to the stink but she retaliated in proper equine fashion to the direct assault.

Landreau, thinking he was being heroic, spurred his mount toward it and slammed the staff down on its nose. Abruptly his horse ran backward as the tiddler reared up, ready to lunge forward, jaws wide and eager to swallow horse and rider in one gulp.

Cursing Landreau and her horse in one breath, Kelly swung Calypso about with the strength of her legs alone and leveled one of her crossbows at the predator. The snake was all bunched to strike when Kelly discharged the bolt. She'd lost none of her marksmanship in her four years away. The quarrel struck right through the creature's forehead. Sheer momentum kept the snake moving toward its prey while Jilamey's terrified mount managed incredible speed backward until it was jarred to a halt by a tree. Then, with a squeal of fear, the horse jumped off its hocks to one side and took off in a panicked run, Jilamey clinging desperately to his saddle.

Then the tiddler fell sideways, a wavy line that quickly disappeared under the mass of snakes. No doubt one of the other reptiles would stop and eat the corpse while it was still twitching.

Team Two or Three would have to deal with it.

Kelly and Calypso resumed their position as they passed one of the pairs of margin Hunters, who waved them a salute with spear and flashgun. They were positioned well, on a small natural upthrust of rock overlooking the well-worn river path. The snakes disappeared from Kelly's view briefly as the Hunters looped around the far side of the ridge and the snakes followed their own old road. It was to th Hunters' advantage that their quarry preferred to slither on smooth dirt and stone rather than over the uneven floor of the jungle. Kelly guided Calypso among the huge, ridged rla trees, keeping her eye on the young snakes. Before and behind her, flashguns popped, distracting the snakes who might break out of line.

Snarling yips and growls erupted behind them, amid the sound of two horses whinnying in fear.

Kelly risked a quick glance over her shoulder. One of the bigger reptiles was coming up behind them, followed by a pair of horses crashing through the undergrowth. Two of the Hrruban visitors from Team Two had earmarked a Mommy Snake and were riding it down, without regard for the organization of the Hunt or their own safety. They wore only their equipment belts and helmets, without a stitch of clothing over their furred limbs and tails to protect against the branches whipping at them.

Their quarry had slipped out of line and was now on the outside of the Hunters' cordon. The experienced riders in Team One knew that the snake was only waiting to get far enough ahead of its pursuers to turn about and strike. Hrrubans had superlatively fast reflexes, but they were slow as falling snowflakes compared with the teeth and coils of a Mommy Snake. Only experience countered speed.

The snake was tiring. The species was made for sprinting and quick striking, not long-distance runs, and it had recently laid its eggs. The Hrrubans had probably surprised it coming directly off the hot sands through the narrow gap. It was in search of a wider place wlerc it could make a stand. Kelly didn't like the situation she could see developing.

Couldn't the Hrrubans see that those meter-wide jaws could engulf one or both of them?

Todd turned his head and exchanged glances with Hrriss. The Hrruban abruptly edged his horse out of the line and slipped between and ahead of the two endangered Hunters. Kelly was sure she hadn't seen either one of the leaders lift his radio.

It was this sort of instantaneous cooperation which gave them their reputation for telepathy. Todd raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired.

He was using an explosive shell. The shot went off against the ground in front of the Mommy Snake. It slid to a rapid halt in a heap of coils to see what had kicked up the dirt just as Hrriss gathered himself in his saddle and sprang.

It was an amazing leap. He landed on the back of the snake's neck. Its head went up to dislodge him, but he had sunk in his claws, the advantage Hrrubans had over Hayumans. Kelly judged the creature to be a good fifteen meters long, and the snapping teeth were as long as her hand. The Hrruban would be just a mouthful if he slipped.

With one strong arm and his prehensile tail wound around the snake to hold on, Hrriss took the knife from his belt. The snake was unable to reach him with its teeth, but it had miles of muscled coils upon which it could call. It bucked and twisted, trying to dislodge him. A length of tail snapped around Hrriss's leg and squeezed. The Hrruban let out a snarl of pain and hung on. Kelly came level with him, then rode past him, looking over her shoulder in horror. She found she was riding next to Todd, who had slowed down.

"I'm going back,' Todd called, wheeling his horse. "Keep the line in order."

"Right! Quick kill, Todd,' Kelly replied. She turned her eyes forward. Behind her, she could hear Todd barking directions to the other two Hrrubans on how to attack the snake without further endangering Hrriss.

Jan and Don had spread out to make up for the shortage in personnel. Don was on the radio to the other teams, keeping track of the stragglers who strayed out of the cordon. He waved encouragement to Kelly, as did the other two members of Team One. Then Jilamey drew level with her, babbling something, his sweaty face red with excitement. Did she think he needed to help Hiriss and Todd? Idiot!

She waved him on, to fill in the line behind Don. She lifted her radio to her ear and picked up field coordination where Todd had left off.

He and Hrriss were already out of sight. They'd handle the Mommy: they were clever Hunters.

Todd galloped his horse back to where the Mommy Snake coiled and writhed, trying to dislodge Hrriss. Hrriss's now-riderless horse, cannoning between the others, had scattered the two strange Hrrubans' mounts in opposite directions, keeping them from reaching the Mommy Snake's open maw, and probably saving their lives, though the ungrateful Hunters would be unlikely to realize it.

Hrriss clung to the nape of the great reptile's neck, even though his leg had to be paining him.

Repeated thrusts of his knife blade were scattering drops of ichor as the snake flung its head from side to side, trying to get rid of the agonizing pest on its back. Hrriss kept on striking powerful blows but the snake almost seemed to anticipate his targets and he hadn't hit anything vital yet. The blade bit again.

The great length of the snake coiled and writhed in fury. The two Hrrubans who were responsible for this disaster controlled their hysterical horses at a distance from the giant reptile, watching Hrriss, clearly not knowing what to do. Todd cursed. The Hunt was against killing any of the wildlife that hadn't gone rogue. Once one had gone berserk, the Doonans had no choice but to kill it to save their own lives. It was just like these senseless strangers to incite one to terminal frenzy and then sit back to watch the fun. No, that was unfair-they really didn't know what one of these snakes was capable of. But that wouldn't help his friend.

By nw, Hrriss's two ocelots had joined the battle, tearing at the snake's sides to help their master. Long gouges were ripped from the skin, oozing ichor that was churning dirt into a hideously viscous mud.

The snake bent its powerful neck to try and bite at the two little pests on the ground, but as it bent for one, the other would rake at it from the other side, turning its attention away.

Recognizing that he was unlikely to get a clear shot at the head of the furiously thrashing snake, Todd put up his rifle and reached for the lasso. He began whirling the rope juSt above Gypsy's head, keeping the noose small enough so as not to tangle in the branches above him.

Despite his care the rope snagged on a bush and he had to start over.

Shouts alerted him that Team Two was closing in on them, following the next flux of snakes very near to the river path. Out of the corner of his eye, Todd could see that one of the riders had his own rope circling above his head, just shy of the canopy of leaves. Hrrula shouted to show he was ready.

Hrriss ducked as low as he could go against the snake's back without flinging himself into its coils.

Teeth gritted, Todd gave the signal, and both of them threw at once. As soon as the other man's noose dropped over the snake's head, he yanked back on his horse's reins, causing the animal to dig in its hooves in the soft mold and pull the rope taut.

Todd pulled back, too, and the snake fought between the two lines, unable to reach either of its mounted tormentors. Struggling wildly, the snake released Hrriss's foot. The Hrruban grabbed hold of one of the ropes with a clawed hand and slashed repeatedly at the reptile's throat with his blade. It flung loops of itself forward to protect its vulnerable undeflaw but not soon enough. Too much damage had been done by Hrriss's blade. Its loops lost strength and its head hung in the nooses, dying.

One of the strange Hrrubans, evidently deciding that the danger was over, rode forward and plunged his spear through one of the snake's eyes into its brain. The writhing of the coils became more frenzied, and gradually died into infinitesimal twitches. Todd let his rope drop slack and started to gather in the lengths, urging his horse forward with his knees.

The Hrruban visitor's triumphant cry echoed through the forest.

"I have killed the great one!" he crowed, flexing his claws over his head.

"The kill is Hrriss's,' Todd said flatly. Hrriss was beginning to climb free. Todd swung off his horse to help him to his feet. Hrriss signalled that he was not seriously hurt, though he was favoring the leg.

"If he had not acted when he did, the results might have been very serious for you." On Hrrula's hissed orders, a Team Two rider went off into the brush to retrieve Hrriss's horse.

He reappeared shortly, leading Hrriss's Rrhee, then rode off to rejoin his own team, now far ahead in the jungle. Hrriss spoke softly to calm the ocelots, mad with bloodlust, who were still tearing at the twitching corpse of the snake.

"But I plunged the spear through its brain! It is dead, by my hand. I claim the kill,' the visitor insisted.

Todd let his eyes meet those of the strange Hrruban. The visitor possessed a very broad back stripe, indicating that he held a position of rank in Hrruban society.

"With the greatest of respect,' Todd said, dropping into full formal Hrruban which forced him to suppress the fury he felt, "there can be no doubt that the creature was already dying when you rode forward." The broad stripe was somewhat taken aback by his host's use of the formal language. Since that was used only during events of the greatest importance, it was ingrained in the Hrruban not to disagree with the speaker without considerable forethought.

Hrrula, an old ally of Todd's, waited silently nearby.

"Perhaps we will discuss the matter later,' Todd said politely, gesturing to the Team Two leader.

"We must complete the Hunt. Time is pressing."

"Quite right, honored guests,' Hrrula said, having slathered the snake slashes and scale pinches with vrrela salve. "With your permission, zOdd Rrev, we must catch up with our team. We are needed." Before the strangers could protest, the Hrruban grabbed the rein of one of the horses and pulled it after him. The animal obediently followed the lead mount.

In a moment, all three of them were out of sight.

Todd mounted up again. He sent a concerned glance toward Hrriss.

"There's a snake blind only a hundred meters ahead, if you need a rest." "I am all right,' Hrriss assured him. "Truly. There is no real damage. The circulation will return to the leg in a short time. It could have been worse.

"Could have been much worse,' Todd said. Then, with a wicked grin, he added, "It could have been your tail!"

"Team Three leaving the spawning grounds,' his radio announced. "They're moving slow this year.

Vic just herded a couple of tiddlers that were trying to leave the grounds from the wrong side. Look out for "em. They're mad."

"Fardles !" Todd put his heels to his horse. Hrriss's episode had taken only a few minutes from start to finish.

The sound of hoofbeats pounding up behind her made Kelly swivel about in concern. One, no, two horses returning. She relaxed and smiled as Todd and Hrriss passed her.

"Hrriss did it in!" Todd called. Hrriss was leaning to the right, obviously favoring his left leg. "Good kill. Mommy Snake! Fifteen and a half meters or I'll eat it. But he'd better not get a big head, or he won't get through the trees!"

"You're lucky to be alive,' Kelly said to Hrriss, at the same time pulling a face at Todd. "That was a magnificent tackle! I hope those two Hrrubans realize you saved their lives."

"Those foolish ones were made to understand that by Zodd,' Hrriss assured her, his tail tip lashing to one side of his saddle.

The others cheered and shouted encouragement to him as he resumed his place in the line. Todd moved ahead and raised his radio on high as a signal to move out. Kelly told the other team leaders that Todd was in charge again and clipped her own box to her belt.

They were moving swiftly up on the most dangerous part of the Hunt. The team was about to leave the jungle and move out on featureless grasslands. Without the trees to restrict them, the snakes often attempted to escape from their shepherds and go in search of landbound food. The task of keeping the swarm together the rest of the way was made more difficult by the local landowner.

Twenty-five years ago, when the Treaty allowed more Humans in, to match the Hrruban population, Codep had added four families to the original eleven in the First Village. The Boncyks were one of those four. In spite of warnings from the established colonists that the snakes used this area as a thoroughfare twice a year, Wayne claimed the fertile plain not far from the marsh for his family's holdings. On top of that disregard for local wisdom, the Boncyks compounded their problems by running herds of cattle and teams of pigs, China and Poland. Naturally the snakes, especially the hungry tiddlers, found the smell of live meat irresistible.

The larger ones, with the larger hungers, would go berserk if the wind shifted to tantalize them with the odor of edibles.

To prevent wholesale slaughter, this was when the teams had to be most alert. The Hunters were already tired. Fortunately the snakes were wearing out, too, but they became more cantankerous and tricksy.

Once the tantalizing Boncyk farmlands were past, the salt marshes were not far, and once the snakes reached them, they would disperse while the teams remained on guard to drive back any who might decide to return to dry land-and fat cows and pigs. When the last of the snakes were back in the salt marshes, hunting the rodents, waddlers, waders, and other such tidbits, the Hunt would be declared over and the triumphant teams would return to the village common, except for the skeleton force that remained on guard until the next morning.

Jilamey had had his eye on a pair of young adolescent snakes almost since he rejoined the run.

With the bare treetops of the marsh wood in sight, he was going to have to move quickly to capture his quarries before they vanished into the fetid waters.

Kelly watched him measuring the distance to the edge of the marsh.

With a now-or-never expression on his face, Landreau spurred his horse toward the pair. He had his quarterstaff well balanced in his right hand, confident that he could knock the snakes on their blunt skulls, stunning them, and secure them alive.

In theory, it was a good idea. However, it failed utterly to take into account the nature of snakes.

As soon as Jilamey thumped one of the fleeing tiddlers in the back of the head with the heavy staff, it turned. As quickly as patterned lightning grounding through a rod, the snake swarmed up the quarterstaff, hissing furiously. It wrapped its wristthick coils around Jilamey's arm and struck at him.

The long, white teeth snapped on nothing as the youth ducked and thrashed at his assailant.

Letting her crossbow dangle, Kelly drew her knife and kicked Calypso to the rescue. The snake struck again, this time penetrating flesh. With a screech that ascended into the soprano register, Jilamey warded off the snake and started clubbing the reptile over the head with the butt of his little gun, which he had grabbed in desperation.

To the surprise of those observing the fracas, the snake dropped limp across the saddlebow. In the berserk frenzy of panic, Jilamey kept battering the twitching body even after the others had called to him to stop.

"Now, don't that beat all!" Don exclaimed, laughing. "That micro-sized popgun did some good, after all!"

"Well, gather him up before he slides off your lap!" Kelly ordered Jilamey, reining in next to him and expertly digging her fingers for a firm hold on the slippery scales. With her free hand, she fumbled for a snake bag and passed it over. "I don't think you remembered one of these. Cram it in and be sure you tie the neck of the sack as tight as possible.

They've been known to wiggle free if they've any space."

"I did it, didn't I? I captured one!" Jilamey's red face was now suffused with incredulous triumph and his voice broke a bit on the "captured."

"If you remember to get it in the bag,' Hrrin called, teeth showing under his feathery brown moustache. Although excitement made his hands shake, Jilamey managed to stuff the limply uncooperative and slithery coils of snake into the bag and securely fastened the tie.

"Congratulations.

You're half-way there!" Hrrin added.

Still holding the bag, Jilamey looked about him, not certain what to do with his prize. Jan took pity on him and helped him secure it to the saddle on rings embedded in the saddle tree for just such a purpose. Eyes shining, Jilamey galloped to rejoin Team One. Jan followed more sedately, an indulgent grin on her face.

Just inside the boundaries of his ranch, Wayne sat on his horse, flanked by his wife, Anne, and their eldest son. Nearby, on a pair of nervously curvetting horses, were Wayne's guests for the Hunt, a couple from the Hrruban home world.

They were all armed with crossbows with explosive quarrels, ready to deal with any reptiles escaping from the cordon. The younger Boncyk hefted a bazooka on his right shoulder while his horse shifted under him, trying to balance itself against the weight. Wayne posed another problem to the teams: he was a notoriously bad shot. He had a tendency to detonate the ground right in front of a Hunter's horse more often than the snake it was pursuing. Todd's horse had been spooked by one of Wayne's bombs the year before, dumping him in the pigpens, so he kept one wary eye on the stockman as they passed him.

Kelly could feel the wind shifting as they came up the hill. That was the worst thing that could happen. Instead of a following breeze that swirled the heady snake musk around them, a new stench filled the air, as potent as snake, blindingly putrid as well as sickly sweet.

"Faugh,' Kelly said, averting her head and wondering if it would do any good to jerk her scarf over her nose.

"Oh, no,' Todd groaned. "Pig air!" Not only pig was in the air but also the delectable aroma of livestock, blown directly from the Boncyk herds and teams into the noses of ravenous snakes.

In a maneuver as planned as a dress parade, the snakes turned, a great river of rippling, leafpatterned hide across the Hunters' cordon, rolling uphill toward the farm buildings. With no river, hill, or wood between the snake thoroughfare and the farm, there were no barriers to deflect the snakes' inexorable approach.

The moment the pig stink came his way, Todd called for the Sighter crafts to pick up Lures and make a drop near the marsh in an attempt to divert the main bulk of the reptiles. Then he called for any available Beaters and Hunters. The teams spread themselves out across the field to try and contain the flow and regain control. Kelly could hear the screaming farm animals, their cries reaching up the scale to pure panic. They seemed to sense their danger despite the shift of the wind.

Boars might have stood and faced the reptiles, but not the gentler China and Poland pigs who were milling about their sturdy pens with no refuge from the approaching menaces. Even if the pressure of the terrified animals broke down the pen bars, they hadn't the speed to outrun snakes. The only hope of saving them was to head the snakes off again, with full firepower if need be, before they reached the pens.

"Stop them!" Boncyk called, galloping up, waving his crossbow.

"My pigs!"

"Damnit, Wayne, you've been told year after year to get those pigs out of here before spawning season!" Don snapped.

"The sows are farrowing this month! I can't move them when they're birthing; they're too set in their ways."

"They're not the only ones,' Don grumbled under his breath, but Kelly heard him and grinned.

The stockman and his retinue galloped after Team One, haranguing Todd all the way. Todd had one object in mind: to stand between the threatened sties and the onrush of snakes, firing to turn them away.

It was unlikely that they could save all the animals, but he meant his team to try.

The wooden enclosures were too far apart and too big for the Hunters to surround. The team hauled their horses to a halt, giving them a breather as they assessed the best vantage points before the swarm arrived.

Todd and Hrriss decided that they'd best guard the narrow path between the two barns that lay between the snakes and their prey.

Bottling them up in that space would make them easier to turn, with some scud bombs to halt them and give the ones behind pause. The older and bigger snakes were smart enough to sense the danger of such tight quarters and turn back to look for easier pickings in the marshes.

Wayne and his family flanked the edges of the buildings, concentrating on the reptiles who would avoid the main route and try to slip around. Still watching the way the wind blew, Kelly realized that the wind carrying the pigs' scent was blowing directly toward the worn pathway, and not back into the main mass of reptiles. If the wind shifted, they'd be surrounded in minutes. And goodbye, Boncyk Bacon.

The defiant screams of the team's horses echoed off the high walls to either side of them. The slower-moving snakes were nearly there.

Kelly had never noticed before what a terrifying sound their bellies made, slithering on the dry grass. Oh, a single snake could be silent when it was sneaking up on its prey, but dozens and hundreds of them made the grass hiss beneath them.

"Don't worry about tiddlers,' Todd cried. "It's the big ones that we need to turn back. They can swallow a sow whole."

"Here! I need help here!" Anne Boncyk shouted from behind the grain barn. She galloped into sight, waving an empty crossbow. "There's a mess of them sneaking around the barn!" Kelly swiveled her head. Two of the infiltrators were lying contentedly in the gravel, engulfing the bodies of their deceased comrades without a care for the crossbow quarrels sticking straight up, but half a dozen others were making straight for the farrowing pens.

With a sharp command, Hrriss sent his ocelots to Anne's rescue.

Gathering their haunches, the spotted cats pounced onto the back of the two largest reptiles, four meters long, and dragged them thrashing like severed air hoses out of the pens.

With a quick bite behind the flat heads, the cats dispatched their prey and went for two more. The respite gave Anne time to reload both her crossbows.

A young reptile, only about three meters long, whipped between the team's horses. Three spears jabbed for it all at once, but all missed their mark.

"Damn!" groaned Don, and shouted over his shoulder, "Anne, a three-meter coming through!"

"No, I'll take it!" Jilamey said. "I gotta get two.

He wheeled his horse about and pursued the young snake.

Rolling his eyes at such bravado, Todd gestured for Kelly to follow Landreau. If the boy had been sent to embarrass Doona by getting killed in the Snake Hunt, Todd was determined the plan would fail. Jilamey had managed the first catch, somehow, but anything could happen here, with snakes all too dose to valuable stock.

At first, the snake was too intent on catching its meal to realize it was being pursued. Jilamey drew his miniature gun and shot at its back. He hit it square, but the low-caliber slug just bounced off the scaly hide. But the snake felt the impact and turned to see what had hit it. Seeing Jilamey bearing down, it slowed a trifle.

Encouraged, Jilamey galloped at it, trusty quarterstaff poised above his head. "Yeee-hah!" he yelled, bringing the long stick down on the snake.

It was a good, solid hit. The snake stopped dead and compressed itself into a hurt knot. Jilamey had learned a lesson during his previous misadventure.

Before the snake could get a coil about the staff, he discarded it and reached for the crossbow.

He never got a chance to use it. The snake sprang around the horse's leg, lashing out with its tail to encircle a hind leg and bring the animal, and rider, down. The horse, instinctively lashing out behind, then reared and stumbled, falling across a young Mommy Snake which had broken through the cordon. The Mommy was stunned and the tiddler got mashed. Todd and Gypsy came round the corner, chasing the Mommy, Todd with his crossbow cocked. If Jilamey fell now, the Mommy would take him in one gulp.

But Jilamey's mount was an old campaigner, and once he felt his legs free, he danced backward as fast as he was able until he was stopped by the rails of the sty, where once again he reared, striking out with his front legs. The Mommy reared up, too, just as Jilamey, roanng commands at the rearing horse, slid off its rump, over the rails and straight into the sty, landing with a splat on his back in the muck.

"Augh!" the youth cried, flailing his arms and legs. "Help me! I can't get up!" Jilamey couldn't see the danger he was still in, with the tiddler rousing from its mauling, and the Mommy equally interested in this convenient quarry. Todd shot a defensive charge under the Mommy's tail: pain and noise alarmed it enough to divert its path so that it swerved into the tiddler. A second explosive burst in front of them, and both shot away, Todd in pursuit.

Trying very hard not to laugh, Kelly swung off Calypso and, keeping a good hold on the reins, reached through the fence rails into the pen. It took an effort, but she got the young man to his unsteady feet and guided him back onto solid ground.

"You're out of the race, Master Landreau,' Kelly said, trying not to take a deep breath. The sour miasma of pig excrement made her gag.

Calypso kept backing away from the stench, pulling Kelly's arm nearly out of the socket. "Unless you can clean up real quick someplace." As Jilamey, disgust and horror contorting his features, tried to scrape muck off his body, Kelly managed to catch his horse and then had trouble getting the horse to approach its erstwhile rider.

"My snake? My second snake? What happened to it?" And to Kelly's surprise, he started to run back to the place of his near demise, darting about, looking for the reptile.

"That one's long gone, Jilamey."

"But what'll I do?" Jilamey looked so pathetic that Kelly nearly laughed aloud.

"What we do is get you to the nearest blind and check you for cuts. You don't want muck-infected wounds, I assure you.

"But I've got to get the second one, Jilamey insisted.

"Like that?" He tried to approach his horse, who kept backing away snorting.

"It's not far to the nearest blind, Jilamey. We'll clean you up and maybe then the horse'll let you on him."

"But they're all going that way!" he said, dazedly looking back at the melee in the Boncyk yard.

More riders were reinforcing Team One by that time, and the pigsties were well cordoned off from the snakes. "I must have my second snake." "You're lucky you got one!" she said, beginning to lose patience. "And we've got to clean you up.

Then at least you can ride back to town." The prospect of walking that far clearly won his attention. So, while Kelly on Calypso led his horse, they made their way to the nearest snake blind, which was not far away, but back in the woods away from the Boncyk farmyard. As she led him, she hoped that his stench would not entice a tiddler or Mommy to investigate his delightfulness. On the way, they met the backup riders who were going out to help Todd.

"He took a fall,' Kelly said, over and over again, as her friends threw her puzzled glances. "Good hunting! Good hunting!" Wish I could finish it with you, she thought. Nerd-sitting is such a nuisance.

Having to sit a Landreau was close to insult in her lexicon.

Once the four spectators inside the tiny building got a whiff of Jilamey, there was no way he would be given room. Not even the heavily scented hunting box could overcome the odor clinging to the young man.

There was, however, a barrel of rainwater just outside and it was the will of the many that Jilamey might have use of all of it. As there was no window on that side of the blind, he went outside and stripped off his sodden clothing.

When he was safely inside the barrel, Kelly took a shovel and scooped up the stinking remains of the once sporty outfit. She left the knee boots because her brother knew how to neutralize the odor on leather. Spare clothes were donated and a sort of a towel, and pretty soon, Jilamey, smelling considerably more like a Human, was allowed back into the blind.

Then Kelly could check for wounds. Once the muck had been scraped off, she found several.

Nothing major, but scrapes, one shallow cut, and many bruises, the worst of which blossomed on his left cheek and ear. If it hadn't been for the regulation helmet, he might have crushed his skull on the fence post.

"I have never had anything like that happen to me in my life,' Jilamey said, over and over, as she dabbed at his injuries with disinfectant and rubbed a styptic to stop the bleeding. "I thought that snake was going to eat me!"

"You were a very handy morsel,' Kelly replied, carefully smearing vrrela from her medical kit on the scrapes.

She reached for one of the flasks at her belt. "But Todd doesn't allow snakes to feed on his team members. Have a drink of this." Jilamey uncorked the mlada and took a tentative sip. He followed that taste with a more enthusiastic tot and sighed happily as the warmth of the liquor hit.

"Not too much,' Kelly warned him, taking the flask away and recorking it. "It's strong."

"Strong is what I need right now,' he pleaded.

"One more?"

"Well . ." Kelly studied him and decided what he'd been through was worth one more drink.

His bruises would probably hurt more as they developed.

"All right,' she said, pouring him another.

"Todd saved my life,' Jilamey remarked thoughtfully. He sat up on the edge of that remark and winced, settling back again in the low chair. "My uncle, the Admiral, has'always held a poor opinion of the Reeve family, though he never says why.

Even when I asked him after I knew I was going on this Hunt. I shall tell him how wrong he is. If he had seen Todd today, he'd be ever, ever so impressed."

"Todd was only doing his duty as team leader, Kelly said carefully. She was amused as Jilamey had regained his affected manner of speech as soon as he was comfortable again. "But he is quite an impressive person."

"I agree!" Jilamey said, both hands clutching the small hammered metal cup. "It was most daring of him to sweep down like that, right in the face of the G-what did you call it?" Kelly smiled to herself. Undoubtedly he would regale his friends endlessly about his Snake Hunt.

He might even tell the truth. It certainly wouldn't hurt Todd's reputation to have the story go around.

"GBMS. It stands for Great Big Mommy Snake.

Nearly all of the big ones that come out for spawning are the females." "And he drove them both off lust before they could reach me.

He saved my life. I admire him ever so. I know better than to believe everything my uncle has been saying about his family. He 5

wrong when he says that Reeve is out of his element here, and should be returned home for his own good. If the father is at all like the son, well, I've never seen anyone better suited to a wild venue." The young man chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Certainly I'm not. I know I'll only play at it the odd weekend or two." He raised his eyebrows entreatingly and extended the cup toward Kelly. She had been listening intently ever since Jilamey had mentioned his uncle.

"Oh, well, one more won't hurt you,' she said, pretending reluctance, but eager to hear more. She poured the cup full. "It's all organic, you know." Any gossip about the great Landreau interested all Doonans personally. Having just returned from Earth, she was more aware than most of the tensions surrounding the upcoming Treaty Renewal, and the disagreement between the factions pro and con. "So what did your uncle think of you coming here for the Snake Hunt, Jilamey?"

CHAPTER 2

The WRIThING, SQUIRMING CARGO WAS hauled back triumphantly to the center of the Human settlement. Hunters who had successfully passed their rite of passage with the capture of two snakes were congratulated and toasted with splashes of mlada, some of them directed internally. With understandable satisfaction, Todd saw the two Hrrubans who had endangered Hrriss ride back into the square, hunched over their saddlebows in pain. They had the telltale swellings or rroamal inflammation under the fur on their arms and legs. At some point on their wild ride they had passed through trees bearing the toxic vines.

Because the inflammation wasn't far advanced, a quick application of vrrela would swiftly cure the agony, but Todd couldn't help but think of their suffering as a measure of justice.

The heavenly smell of cooking greeted them all.

Meat was turning on spits in roasting pits, which were also filled with freshly picked corn on the cob and newly dug potatoes. The combined aromas made the returning Hunters half frantic with hunger.

"Not a bite until you clean up!" Pat Reeve shouted at her dust-covered son. Todd grinned and pointed to the carcasses of the small snakes thrown across the rump of his horse. She returned the grin and held up her joined hands over her head as a gesture of victory. The snakes' meat would be thrown into a savory stew to simmer with root vegetables and fresh herbs. Some of the traditions of Snake Hunt were a lot more delicious than others.

"Where's Mrrva?" Todd called back over the clamor. "Hrriss got his leg squeezed by a Mommy Snake." Pat's eyes widened in concern.

"She's inside,' she said, gathering up the small carcasses and hurryin, toward the door. "I'll warn her. You get him inside.

Hrriss protested that he was all right. "I have been pressed worse between my hrrss's body and the stable wall,' he pleaded.

"Come on." Todd ignored his friend's protests, knowing that the leg had to hurt a lot more than Hrriss was letting on. He helped Hrriss off Rrhee and shepherded him toward the Hall. "If your mother doesn't kill me for neglecting you, mine will.

Once Hrriss was in the capable hands of his mother, Mrrva, Todd checked on the other members of his team.

The hunting parties, still congratulating each other, finally separated to wash and dress for the upcoming celebratory banquet.

Medics took charge of the injured. There were numerous wounds and bruises due to inexperience with the vegetation of DoonaiRrala and a long horseback ride.

Nonparticipants clamored for firsthand stories and adventures from the heroes, and sympathized with the disappointed Hunters who had returned empty-handed. Todd congratulated several young friends who had passed their ritual, and checked on the various small wounds that some of his team members and friends had sustained. There had been no deaths in any team during this Hunt. The unusually hot weather had somewhat slowed the snakes' usual split-second reflexes. Todd felt they'd been extraordinarily lucky, considering how many amateurs had ridden out. He walked Gypsy and Rrhee down to the paddock to unsaddle and turn them loose, enjoying the post-Hunt atmosphere, listening to everyone comparing brags about the size of the ones that got away.

Soon, he was able to work his way to his own quarters and the longawaited and much-needed shower.

There were preparations for the usual all-out blast of a party going on in the Assembly Hall. It was the biggest building on DoonaiRrala, bar the Archives Building on the Treaty Island. It lay on the Human side of the Friendship bridge halfway between the new construction which replaced the first Human village and the first Hrruban village. It took the place of the much smaller mess hall, which had been the chief building of the original settlement. The support beams and wide windows of the Hall were of extruded plastic, but the white walls and roof were formed of the same sealed-rla wood as the bridge. The many ornaments and statuary on and within its walls had been donated by craftspeople from both races and every village on the planet.

It was surrounded by gravel walks and pathways that rambled in a pleasing knotlike pattern among gardens containing rare plants from Earth and Hrruba, proudly maintained by volunteer gardeners. During other times of the year than Snake Hunt, the entire sentient population of the planet could fit within the walls of the Assembly Hall or in its landscaped grounds, for speeches or celebrations. The Hall doubled as the social center whenever visitors came.

The five days following each Snake Hunt were designated by Doonans as New Home Week, recreating an Earth custom of reunion, but as Dot McKee, one of the senior settlers, pointed out, for their new home, instead of their old one. If at all possible, everyone returned home for New Home Week. Unless they were on exploration missions, no great effort was required of the Hrruban settlers, for every Hrruban had access to transportation grids. But the Human Rralans had to make sacrifices of time, effort, and money. Either way, both species came home some way or other. So Kelly hoped to see several of her primary-school chums back from long-term exploration missions for Spacedep and the colonizing arm of the Hrruban government. She hoped that Todd's brother, Dan, would be among them. Right now, she had to find Todd and report what Jilamey had said.

The DoonaiRrala Ad Hoc Band was tuning up in a corner of the Assembly Hall when Kelly entered.

She smiled at Mrs. Lawrence, the leader of the band, and then began to circulate. The Hall had been beautifully decorated for the feast. Floating wicks burned in glass sconces containing scented oil.

The sconces hung on the walls between bright festival decorations.

Long tables draped with white embroidered cloths had been set up perpendicular to the head table on its dais. Kelly wandered about, searching for Todd and Hrriss, and finally saw them sitting together at the opposite end of the Hall.

Hrriss glanced up and caught her eye to wave her over.

"Who'd ever guess you've been chasing snakes!

Give us a twirl!" Todd said. "Very pretty!" he added approvingly, as she executed a neat turn on her heel to show off her dress.

She'd brought it specially for tonight, a confection of shimmering blue and gold with a fluffy kneelength skirt. "Glad you approve, citizen,' Kelly replied pertly, ducking into a graceful curtsy. "I'll have you know that this is the very latest style from Earth in evening informal-to distinguish from casual, which this most definitely is not.

Notice please the wide skirt, to show an insouciant disregard for the tightness of Corridors and Aisles.

The very height of fashion, or should I say width?

Can I sit down or is there something else I'm supposed to do right now?" Todd gave a snort. "We do the Hunt. Others do the food,' he said. "Mother, Mrrva, and Mrs. Hu have that in hand." He reached out and, grabbing her hand, neatly pulled her onto the benchbeside them.

"Hrriss, is your leg all right?" Kelly asked, wondering if that was why the pair were so indolent in the busy Hall. She saw no bandage, though she caught the astringent odor of vrrela.

"Oh, zat!" Hrriss dismissed it with a negligent click of lightly extended claws. "It was nozzing as I told zOdd. I am only bruised.

We are sorry to have missed you on the rest of the ride,' he added regretfully.

"Me, too,' Kelly sighed. Despite the rain barrel, Jilamey had exuded a pong that she was afraid might cling to her and spoil this evening. I dropped my nerd off at the medical center for a full checkover, and took a double-long shower to get the pig smell off. Did I miss anything good?"

"You left just before the best part,' Todd said, grinning broadly at the memory. "We were afraid that once the mass of snakes caught up to us. they'd make short work of all Wayne's stock, but we didn't count on the sows. When the tiddlers started coming through the slats into their pens, they turned as aggressive as you could have wished.

Wayne was delighted."

"Really?" Kelly wondered if Todd was teasing her, but a quick look at Hrriss confirmed that this master dissembler was telling the truth.

"They stomped the snakes flat. Hell hath no fury like a sow whose piglets are in danger,' Todd chortled. "Those sharp hooves chopped lengths off the tiddlers that got through. The others turned around and fled."

"So we concentrated on the Mommy Sssnakess, Hrriss added.

"By the time the Beaters arrived, we were able to get the swarm back into line. The boars were snorting war cries by the time we started zo clear out of there." Kelly applauded, laughing. "Let's have a Pig Brigade next year."

"That's what I suggested to Wayne,' Todd said, grinning with malice. "Since he won't move them out of the way, we might as well get some help from them. They're as good as ocelots for chopping up tiddlers."

"Nearly as good,' Hrriss corrected him mildly.

Todd favored his friend with an openmouthed stare of feigned astonishment.

"Don't compare chickens and brrnas,' Kelly said, playfully putting a hand between them. "I'm glad I got you two alone before everything got started,' she continued in an undertone, turning so her back shielded her words. "I tried to find your father, Todd, but he's out showing some diplomats around the model stock ranches. Young Jilamey got talkative when he got mlada'd up in the snake blind. I don't think he realized what he was implying, in his chummy confidences about Uncle Landreau's opinion of the Reeve family." So she repeated Jilamey's exact words.

"Dad and me out of our element here?" Todd demanded, more indignant than insulted. He let out a harsh bark of laughter. "Earth never was my element!" Kelly grinned, a sparkle in her eyes. "Well, you've won one staunch adherent in Jilamey today.

Jilamey admires you tremendously for saving him from the very jaws of death. And he's going to tell his uncle how quick and clever you were.

Todd snorted. "Much weight that'll carry with Al Landreau.

Candidly I was thinking that maybe the Admiral sent the kid into the Snake Hunt to get him killed and make the Reeves look worse.

"It failed, didn't it?" Hrriss said, but the tips of his claws were showing as he rattled them on his knee.

"As the Mayday failed?" Todd said softly.

"What Mayday?" Kelly asked, wondering if she'd missed something.

Todd's brows drew down over his nose. He stared off across the room, blank-faced. His hands twitched, showing the tension that he wouldn't allow his face to reveal. Kelly knew the signs. Todd was revving up to full anger even if he never let it go public.

"Landreau has absolutely no grounds to pull any of us out of the colony, no matter what his personal opinion-and grievance against us-might be. Hrriss scowled, pulling his eyebrow whiskers together.

"There were ominous undertones at the Hrrethan celebration we attended,' he said. "We are all aware that pressure of some kind would increase now that the Treaty Renewal talks are so close. Two of the Hayuman speakers who were on Hrretha are here now, too, Varnorian and Rogitel.

Rrev has seen them, but I think he has not spoken with them."

"At least you're aware of undercurrents,' Kelly said, deciding that now was the time to reveal her own budget of suspicion and anxieties. "1

caught more than that on Earth,' and to give herself time to organize her thoughts, she filched nuts from one of the appetizer bowls next to her on the long table.

"Jilamey's comments today merely support the innuendos. I was going to talk to Ken and Hrrestan in private, but, with the shuttle's delay, I barely arrived home in time to ride out on Hunt.

"As you two should know. Alreldep is completely pro-Doona, but I wish i could say the same for the other two space services. I feel almost endangered when I have to carry a message to Spacedep offices.

Now that there are plenty of thriving colonies, there is a feeling that Doona is no longer needed.

The experiment was "interesting," that's all. The Treaty may just as well be voided, and we can all go our separate ways.

"Has public sentiment gone that far against us?" Todd asked sadly.

"The public? No!" Kelly hurried to assure him.

"They voted on allowing Doona to be colonized, and from what I can tell, none of them have changed their minds. The government agencies are what we have to worry about. To the average man or woman in, say, Air Recycling or Food Services, Doona is still the shining star, the pastoral world that opened up space travel and revitalized Earth's economy." Kelly plastered. an imaginary banner on the sky with a sweep of her hand. "Even if those people're unsuited to colonizaton, they're making sure that their sons and daughters are taking specialized training so they'll be qualified one day.

n And every child who visits Alreldep on a school tour wants to be the one to find the next Doona.

It's the old flatheads in Spacedep who want us to go back to square one and pretend that a cohabited colony never happened.

Especially not one independent from the government of Earth and on which the Earth language is subordinated in favor of the co-inhabitor's. Having to speak Middle Hrruban when they come here is one of the things that really rankle with them." She smiled and shook her head, taken aback at her own frankness. "Listen to me go on! Do you know how long it's been since I've been able to talk like that?

It's not approved for diplomats to be heard spouting judgmental statements. Unfortunately I've got no proof of opposition except gossip and the unwelcoming mien of Spacedep menials. You'd just have to trust my powers of observation, such as they are.

"How long have we been friends?" Hrriss said, speaking in the Low Hrruban of a familial group.

"We have trusted you since you were able to ride a Hunt."

"Before that,' Todd replied in the same vein.

Two Human women passed them, carrying a huge basket of bread between them. Hrriss looked about cautiously before replying, and glanced at Todd for permission. He and Todd had discussed the matter and decided that Kelly had to be told what had happened. With her connections in Alreldep, she'd have access to offices and ranking officials that they did not.

"Unfortunately we have perhaps precipitated an event which would ssserve Spacedep's purpose well, though we do not yet know who is responsible for engineering it." Kelly's eyes went wide. "What happened?"

"This is confidential, you understand,' Todd said, still in Low Hrruban, which would make what he said unintelligible to many.

Kelly grinned at his tactic and nodded for him to continue. "On the way back from Hrretha, we received a Mayday signal, coming from an uninhabited, interdicted world,' Todd went on, twisting his shoulders at their naivete. "We responded to the call, only to discover that it was coming from a beacon drone. We found no trace of radiation or ion drive to tell where the ship that dropped it came from. Anyone passing that way could have heard the Mayday, but unluckily it was us."

"The fact remains that we crossed into a forbidden zone for no purpose,' Hrriss finished, his purring voice low.

"But you'd have the log record of the Mayday . . ." Kelly began.

"We nearly didn't,' Todd replied sourly. A slight malfunction .

"Corrected by a kick,' Hrriss said, grinning.

"In the holographic recorder,' Todd finished.

"Loose circuit?" Kelly asked, even as she wondered why she was trying to find logical explanations of the malfunction.

"More likely'-Todd managed a fine approximation of an Hrruban growl - "it got overserviced when the Hrrethan space station insisted on being sure the Albatross was in perfect working order.

"Even though we assured them that our own people had serviced it before we started out,' Hrriss added, letting one claw escape its sheath.

"So no idea who put the drone out there?" Kelly asked, knowing the answer even before Hrriss shook his head.

"There were others who would make their second warp jump at those particular coordinates,' Hrriss said, "but everyone knew we were anxious to return speedily to RraIa."

"So it was set up to catch you two." Her remark was more statement than question.

"That's the most logical assumption,' Todd said, "in the present circumstances, but we have a recording of that Mayday, which I don't think we were supposed to have."

"And you let Hrriss do all the talking, didn't you?" Kelly asked briskly, and looked relieved when both nodded. Then her shoulders sagged.

"But it's just the sort of incident Spacedep would contrive, an unnecessary breach of the Treaty and by a Doonan.

"And a Hrruban!" Hrriss reminded her.

She did not like the inferences that even an idiot could draw, let alone an anti-Doona faction. "Who else knows about this?"

"Our fathers,' Hrriss said, "Hrrestan and Rrev. it was decided to defer the matter until after the Hunt."

"Sensible. No one on Doona'd let you escape your Hunt responsibilities,' Kelly said, and then to insert some levity into the conversation, including me. And,' she added more brightly, "since this is Doona, you'll be believed. It's on Earth that I wouldn't give a cracked egg for your chances. If we can only limit the incident to Doona-once the visitors have left and can't get their noses into something as juicy as an interdiction breach."

"In any case, I'm the one at fault,' Todd said in his characteristic forthright manner. "I was piloting the ship, and I insisted that we respond to the Mayday, even if it meant passing an interdiction buoy. It's serious but it oughtn't to damage the Doonan Treaty."

"Hear him. He would have us suffer even before being found guilty,' Hrriss said wryly, nudging Todd in the ribs with the back of his hand. "First it must be proved to the Treaty Council that we acted out of malice. If sanctity of life cannot supersede borders and barriers, then we may not call ourselves civilized."

"Well, let's not borrow trouble from tomorrow, huh?" Kelly said, cocking her head at them. "I'm not without resources, you know. Just let me know when to call in favors, and where, and you know I'll do it." Then, seeing a swarm of guests crowding into the Hall, she reverted to Standard. "It's party time, lads,' she said, rising to her feet, giving her skirts a pracced flirt. "And I intend to party!" Since by tradition and Treaty, there was no hotel, guests were assigned space in the old plastic cabins of the original village. Many visitors found them a diverting change from the usual sterile accommodations. The more prestigious were billeted with Doonan host families, and the overflow used canvas tenting shelters. However, Doonans, Hayuman and Hrruban alike, provided visitors with Friendly Native Guides to keep them company and, more important, to show them the dangerous vegetation and keep them from unexpectedly rousing the ferocious bearlike mda. Such individual contacts with those from other worlds had improved good opinions of Doona over the past twenty-five years.

This year, the Shihs, Phyllis and Hu, leader of the First Human Village, were pleased to have the honor of hosting the Fifth Speaker, the Hrruban Minister for Health and Medicine. The Hrruban's stripe was noticeably broader and his mane was whitening around his face, but he was solemnly kind to all who approached to greet him. He caught Todd's eye and smiled. They had met on Hrretha only a few weeks before. Most likely, the venerable Hrruban was still seeing the small boy dressed in mda fur with a rope tail tied around his waist instead of a grown man in normal Earth-style tunic and trousers. Responding to that memory himself, Todd straightened his tunic and squared his shoulders as the Speaker and Hu neared him.

"A fine Hunt, and, it would seem, a fine party to come,' Hu Shih complimented Todd, reaching up to pat the young man on the shoulder, and nodding amiably to Hrriss. The venerable metropologist's eyes were shining as he took in the decorations and the happy crowd filling the Hall. "No Hunters with more than scrapes and bruises and' - Hu's eyes twinkled-'depressed ambitions. Very well done, indeed."

"Thank you, sir,' Todd said, politely dropping into Middle Hrruban, since the Fifth Speaker was here in a social capacity. "Have you heard about the Boncyk sows?"

"Indeed we have,' Hu Shih replied, his usually composed face becoming wreathed with laughter.

"The tale will return with me to Hrruba,' the Fifth Speaker replied, his deep black eyes sparkling. "It is, of course, the greatest pity that the scene was not recorded, but the various narrators seem to agree on so many details that the truth will not suffer much in the retelling." "We are considering the addition of a Sow Brigade to next year's Hunt,' Todd went on, dropping his jaw in a Hrruban-style grin.

He saw Hu's start of surprise but the Fifth Speaker grumbled his throat chuckle and Hu relaxed. Todd had always been on special terms with Hrruban Speakers and could dare where protocol would have strictly forbidden such banter.

Todd was not surprised when Hu deftly eased the Speaker toward the dais and the special chairs where the elders would observe the proceedings.

"I will expect a full report of their performance next year, Zodd,' the Speaker said, allowing himself to be shepherded away.

The Ad Hoc Band began to play incidental music, loud enough to be heard through the low roar of conversation but not loud enough to drown it.

Todd looked around for All Kiachif, one of the oldest friends of the colony and its most faithful proponent. The swarthy, drink-loving old Codep captain had missed few New Home Weeks since the beginning, attending anytime he could arrange his schedule to be there. He wasn't in the Hall yet, and Todd couldn't remember having heard anyone mention that he'd arrived. Todd was a little disappointed, but he could well understand it if Kiachif wasn't able to make it back to Doona.

Kiachif was a busy man these days. His rounds had grown a hundredfold since the colony's inception, and had earned him a small fleet of ships serving under him, plying the expanding spaceways, carrying cargo and passengers. Doona was still one of his favorite stops. He always claimed it rested his eyes from the sometimes horrific conditions on mining planets, which far outnumbered the agricultural planets, where people lived in miserable conditions in the stale air of domes or in the unremitting toil of prison facilities.

While he never mentioned Doonan grog, everyone knew that it was more to his taste than methylated spirits cooked over a Bunsen burner.

In their festive best, everyone looked cheerfully ready to enjoy themselves to the fullest. The threat of being overrun by the great snakes had once again been averted. In the true spirit of Doona, some of the native Humans wore Hrruban dress, and some of the Hrrubans affected "Trran' trousers, skirts, or dresses. The various diplomats were attired more formally but not repressively so, while their young wards and the other guests were dressed in the latest styles from Earth or Hrruba. Evidently the fashion industries of both cultures had been stimulated by the contact, and styles had merged, mingled, and then evolved to become highly individualistic.

Oddly enough, though most Terrans still spoke in murmurs, their clothes shouted in the most vivid of shades, enhanced by additives that caused iridescence and luminosity, sometimes rather shocking to the eye. Todd felt almost conservative in the green casual trousers and darker green silk shirt sent to him by his sister Ilsa. She had gone back to Earth for higher education and had married a man she met at school. Byron worked as a consultant to Spacedep, so he was occasionally on Doona to visit the Treaty Island, as he was for the Hunt. He was a fair stickman, playing his turn with the band, bobbing his head to the rhythm as he beat the drum skins. He threw a sideways grin toward Todd.

"There's Hrringa, Kelly said, smiling at a tall, almost chestnut-maned Hrruban in crisp formal attire. "I'm glad they sent someone down to spell him at the Hrruban &nter. He'd have hated to miss the fun." Todd nodded to the catman, who was serving a term as the transportation grid operator in the Hrruban consulate on Earth.

Hrringa was a member of Hrriss's clan. Though his friend never made much of it, his family was of a fairly broad Stripe.

"They always do. He was on Team Ten in the Hunt, you know. Did you see much of each other?" Todd asked Kelly.

"Quite a lot. Most people on Earth don't speak the language, so I'm sort of a tie to home. So few people realize that he speaks fluent Terran: and there are always those who try to talk pidgin Hrruban with him." She rolled her eyes at such an insult to her friend. "Then there's the opposite extreme with those silly men in Amalgamated Worlds Administration treating him as some sort of sacred shaman.

Hrriss made a noise like a snort. "What do you expect from them?" Kelly's expression turned sheepish. "I tried to wangle a ride home through the grid instead of flying out,' she admitted. "Hrringa would have obliged me, I know, but they don't like us junior types to use the grid when the senior diplomats can't get access anytime they want to.

They waved me off. It was no use my explaining that Hrringa and I were raised together, or that I had a right to go to Doona." She clicked her tongue regretfully.

"Well, I'd better go be a good hostess. My mother said if I wasn't on the front line shaking hands .

She left the threat unspoken, with a broad grin to show she knew it wasn't serious. "I'll find you later, Todd. Keep your ears open." "You, too." Todd blinked as Kelly was swallowed up immediately by th swirling crowd. He couldn't believe how fast the Hall had filled up.

He looked at Hrriss, who was also looking a bit dazed.

"We were so intent, we were not paying attention,' the Hrruban said. "Meanwhile, the party has created itself."

"Yeah." Todd craned his neck for one last look at the girl. "Kelly looks beautiful, doesn't she?" "Her grace is one with her beauty,' Hrriss said approvingly. "Come, Team Leader, we have other duties even as she does." Young men and women warily carried full trays of drinks and nibble snacks past them into the main room. As the kitchen doors swung to and from, Hrriss and Todd caught sight of Mrrva. Hrriss's mother could be seen standing over a huge simmering pot with a spoon to her lips, tasting the contents for spice. Mrrva held the Hrruban equivalent of five college degrees in physical health science, and was director of the Rralan Health Services, but she also enjoyed the simple tasks of hospitality that entertaining on Doona required. Her eyes widened when she saw her son and Todd enter.

"Go out therrre,' she ordered, pointing with her spoon toward the doorway. "Why are you here? We do not need help from such as you.

The Masters of the Hunt should mingle with guests, not serve like cubs and youths."

"But, Mrrva . . ." Todd began, his voice wheedling as he edged toward some of her famous pastries.

She slapped his hand with her spoon and immediately threw him a cloth to clean off the sticky liquid.

"You will be served in due courssse,' Mrrva said in a tone which brooked no further discussion. She made a sound between a hiss and a growl. "When will we ever put the manners of a man and Master on you, Zodd!" Then she turned on Hrriss. "I know you have been taught. Go now and exercise the teaching.

Abashed, the two returned to the Hall. Leading the Hunt had been a pleasure. Hosting the party was a chore they would gladly have missed. The throng had swelled to hundreds in the great room.

Todd passed among them, shaking hands and returning kisses. While on the one hand he was glad to see the friends that reappeared year after year, on the other, there was never any time to catch up on any details-of their success in the Hunt let alone what they'd been doing the past year-before someone else claimed attention.

He and Hrriss finally made their way to the dais and stood in front of the main table. Before the feast could officially begin, the long-awaited blooding ceremony for the successful Hunters must proceed.

As Master of the Hunt and master of ceremonies, Todd was required to make a short speech of welcome to the sea of guests. He would speak in Terran, with Hrriss repeating it after him in Middle Hrruban. He had a feeling of dej vu. It had been only a few weeks before that he stood and listened to the governor of Hrretha offer similar greetings to his guests. There had been many like events in the last few years.

They were beginning to blur into one another. He began by offering his gratitude to all the people who had aided in organizing and running the Hunt, and went on from there.

"To old friends and family, I welcome you home, and to new friends and first-time visitors, I hope you'll enjoy your stay, and that you'll return to us again in the future,' Todd said, winding up the necessary remarks. "I won't hold up dinner long.

The cooks would throw me into the stew with the snakes!" There was a small murmur of appreciative laughter, and Todd held up a hand.

"However, there are some people I'm happy to call to your attention.

They've earned this moment. As I call your name, will you come up on this dais, please?" The Hunters who had passed their initiation rite that day by capturing a brace of adolescent snakes were called up one by one, to stand shoulder-toshoulder before the audience. Some of them were shy and directed their smiles down at their feet as Todd congratulated them on their successful passage. One among them-a young woman from the mining colony of Ellerell IV-had chosen instead to bring in eggs. She had saved all her extra pay for five years to be able to make it to Doona for Snake Hunt. When first laid, snake eggs were almost too soft to move. By the time they had hardened enough to transport, there was a real danger that they might hatch on the way in.

She had brought in twelve of the soft and leathery head-sized eggs in a specially designed fluff-lined sack brought all the way from Ellerell. Her thoroughness and care impressed even the Doonan judges, who had seen a lot of inventive approaches to the problem over the last two decades. She was invested with the small gold medal from which depended two wiggly streamers. Some of the children squealed when they saw the ribbons, which looked amazingly like.

the tails of miniature snakes. She and the other Hunters wore their awards proudly as they were given a standing ovation.

Jilamey Landreau was called forward with the rest of the almost-successful who had captured a single snake. He shook hands with Todd and Hrriss to the accompaniment of encouraging applause from the audience.

"Thank you, Todd,' the young Landreau said, clutching his medal with the single streamer. "I wish there had been a chance to take the second snake.

I was so close!"

"Next year,' Todd suggested. "Your first was a good capture. We can hold that snake "on credit,' so to speak."

"Hey, you could?" the youth exclaimed, his eyes shining. Todd recognized that the Hunt craze had claimed another adherent. "Can I get the hide to take back with me? I want to use the stripe as a fashion accessory!

That'll really make "em look twice at me!"

"I'll see to it,' Todd said, slightly amused at the young Landreau's naive delight. He clapped Jilamey on the shoulder encouragingly before moving on to congratulate the next participant.

The feast was then officially begun. As the Hunters, both successful and unsuccessful, sat down, Byron played a roll on the snare drum to get everyone's attention. It segued into a compelling, irregular beat on torn-torn. Clad only in their knife belts and ornamental necklaces, several young Hrrubans ran in and began a stomping, swirling dance: obviously a Snake Hunt. Two lithe female dancers, acting in tandem as if they were part of the same body, portrayed the snake. They snapped imaginary coils toward the Hunters or recoiled fearfully from their spears. It was a compelling sight, as the rear half of the snake curled herself on the floor behind the body of the other and switched her tail fitfully as the front half swayed, striking at this dancer or that with her fangs. The Hunters catapulted past the reptile to attack, missing and hitting the floor beyond. With great energy, they rolled upright to their feet like kittens and renewed their attacks on their foe.

The upright dancer was so skillful that she didn't appear to have a solid bone in her body. Her undulations had a hypnotic quality. It was a shock to the watchers when one spearman sprang forward, past the snapping jaws, and plunged the weapon into the snake's breast. The serpent gave one tremendous convulsion and subsided to the floor gracefully to quiver into stillness. When the snake had "died,' a complimentary silence held the audience. Then a burst of thunderous applause awarded the dancers. They sprang up, acknowledging the praise, and then gathered to either side of the doors leading to the kitchen.

The band stayed on its dais long enough to play a fanfare to announce the arrival of a massive cauldron borne aloft on a tray by eight young men and women clad to the ears in heatproof towelling.

The huge kettle of savory snake stew was presented to Todd as the Master of the Hunt. With intricately decorated ladles, Todd and Hrriss served the special guests on the dais, after which the cauldron was brought to the long sideboard. From then on, buffet style was the order and everyone served themselves from the seemingly inexhaustible supply of stew and the other viands brought out from the kitchen. Todd caught sight of Mrrva sitting down at the end of the table near Hrrestan: she had shed her apron to display gorgeous filmy robes spangled with jewels.

As the party began in earnest, toasts were offered to the Hunters and the prey. For many of the guests, the feast was a double reason for celebration. For some this would be the first time they had eaten "real,' unprocessed or nonsynthetic food. For others, this was a high point of gastronomic enjoyment. It was true that every year, more real fruit, vegetables, grain, and meat were being made available to the people of Earth from its farming colonies, but the majority of homeworld meals still came from synthesizers. Hrriss nudged Todd in the ribs and indicated a child at one of the front tables. He was suspiciously and most reluctantly taking a tiny bite of fruit from a spoon. The tot sniffed it first, not in the least willing to trust the curious substance in front of him. With much coaxing and much gesturing to others tucking into their food, the child's mother got him to accept the morsel. After a very tentative chew, the boy grabbed the spoon out of his mother's hand, finished the bowl in front of him, and.

reached for his mother's as well.

When all had eaten sufficiently, the party went on to its next, and inevitable, stage. The Ad Hoc Band resumed its place on the dais and started to play dancing music. A few took advantage of the music, but most sat contentedly, letting the meal settle. Gradually, drinks in hand, diners began to circulate the Hall, pausing to chat with old friends or welcome newcomers, or congratulate the new Hunters.

Todd and Hrriss excused themselves from the dais and began more protocol rounds just as the Ad Hoc Band started to play a perky song, based on an ancient Earth chantey. It was a joke among DoonaiRralans, but it had never been played at a New Home Week before. Todd guessed that Sally Lawrence, who had written the new lyrics, wanted a broader audience. He hoped that the listeners would accept it for the facetious tweak it was, and not take it seriously. Sally's eyes were twinkling as she struck a chord on her guitar and began to sing.

"My mother was a human girl from Doona Village Four She loved a handsome Hrruban boy who lived just next door Their love bore offspring, one, two, three A kitten and a werecat and the third was me.

"Now my brother Hrrn and I, we were raised up quite all right But my sister Mrrna Joan, she was different day and night Smooth-skinned at night, by day her fur grew She was a true Doonan through and through.

"Yo ho ho! A Rralan true Takes the best of both as all should do.

It was a familiar tune to the locals. Some joined in the chorus, roaring a lusty "Yo ho ho!" Nearly everyone else seemed to get the joke, to judge by the shouts of approval and calls for an encore. Todd noticed that some of the Human diplomats looked annoyed, and a few of the Hrruban homeworlders looked positively ill at the thought of Hrrubans and Humans interbreeding. Todd couldn't think how to explain that the thought had never seriously crossed the mind of the songwriter.

"Maybe this is the moment to start the dancing?" Kelly said, coming up behind Todd and poking him in the side with a finger.

"I'm not very good at it,' Todd said apologetically, but he gestured to the handleader, who immediately struck a fast step.

Immediately the floor was full of couples, whirling and jigging about in circles.

"Neither am I!" Kelly seized his hand. "Let's go anyway!" Jaw dropped in amusement, Hrriss leaned toward him. "If she promises not to step on my tail, I get the nexxxt dansss."

"It's a deal,' Kelly called as she dragged Todd into the crowd.

Kelly had told a fib when she said she was a poor dancer. With her hands bunched in the folds of her skirts, she swayed and stepped with grace to the lively melody. Todd knew the steps, but he felt as awkward as a wooden mda trying to keep up with her. He was relieved when that music stopped and a slow dance began. Kelly melted into his arms, stretching up one hand to his neck. That was oddly delightful.

They had grown up together, but he had never realized before that she was so much smaller than he, so delicately built-or, to be more honest, that she was a girl at all. She had just been one of the capable people he depended on, until she went away. Kelly had never balked at fences, and she could wrangle snakes or horses with the best.

He could barely connect the tomboy who had grown up literally next door with the sparkling vision in his arms. Unconsciously he tightened his hold a trifle, and she rubbed her cheek against his chest. The music drifted to a halt, and Kelly turned her face up to give him a brilliant smile, her golden eyes aflame in the festival lamplight.

"Thank you,' she said. "That was lovely." Todd didn't know how to reply suitably. "Urn, thank you. Isn't it Hrriss's turn now?"

"Only if I promise not to step on his tail,' and Kelly's look was enigmatic but she allowed him to lead her from the floor and find Hrriss.

He stood watching for a moment as Hrriss, rather too expertly, Todd thought, spun Kelly out into the dancers, his tail wrapped around one leg, well out of the way. Not that Kelly would put a foot wrong, Todd realized.

"Hey, young Reeve,' called out Captain Buckman, a former Spacedep marine. He had joined the colony on Binar 3B-IV and was now its governor.

"Where can I get some miada?"

"Allow me,' and Todd located the case of mlada bottles stashed under one end of the dais draperies.

As he served Buckman, he thought the man's eyes were already a little red. His breath smelled so strongly of alcohol it might ignite spontaneously.

"You'd better watch your intake, sir. Too much of this stuff results in potent hangovers."

"Hmmph,' said the old man, watching Todd refill his glass. "But you pour generously, boy. So this is how you impress the diplomats, hey? Is yours the last face they see before they pass out? Where's Pollux?"

"Who, sir?"

"Where's Pollux, Castor?" Buckman asked, prodding Todd in the middle. "Your twin, your inseparable pal, your other half, boy."

"Hrriss is on the dance floor,' Todd replied a little stiffly. "Did you want to speak to him?"

"No, no. So the two of you aren't joined at the hip? I'll be danged. Come back and refill this in about, oh, a quarter hour, won't you?" Todd nodded and moved on to the next group, clustered at the farthest end of the room from the band. This was an informal roundtable discussion by the Jacks of All Trades. That much-sought-after designation meant that a colonist had enough flexibility and training in such a variety of skills that he could turn a hand to any task that needed doing or problem that had to be solved. Codep preferred that there be at least one JOAT in any colony group. Both men and women could ship on in that capacity. Ken Reeve's own designation for the Doona colony project had been that of a JOAT. As an unofficial chair and host of the JOATs present, he was directing the discussion among those from several nascent colonies that had recently earned their Amalgamated Worlds status. Many of them had been born or raised on Doona. The billyJOATs and nanny-JOATs, as they liked to call themselves, unofficially, of course, were now gleefully engaged in a loud argument about the best way to set up barrier screens against pests. Todd checked and refilled each guest's glass and picked up empty dessert plates for transport back to the kitchen. Before leaving, he exchanged winks with his father.

The band was taking a much needed break, and near the kitchen doors, Sally Lawrence was having a private discussion with Varnorian of Codep. Todd bowed over her hand as he refilled her glass.

"So why do you object to my song?" Mrs. Lawrence demanded of the Codep chairman. "On artistic principles?"

"Scarcely on that score, my dear lady, said Varnorian, loosing his not inconsiderable charm.

"Your artistry is remarkable." He wasn't the friend to Doona that the late Chaminade had been, but he was at least a graceful guest. He had very pale blue eyes with dark lashes. There was something both attractive and cold about eyes like that. "My objection is purely contextual. I feel that such an idea should not have been voiced, let alone mocked. Totally unsuitable lyrics, if you could by any extension of poesy call them that."

"Mr. Varnorian, Doona's a hard world and we have developed our humor to leaven the hardships.

If I care to make a joke, it's my world, and most of us got the joke." "Forgive me, but the taste of the joke is but a little questionable in terms of the larger aberration, my dear Mrs. Lawrence,' said Varnorian, and he smiled again with that facile charm.

"The real aberration is Doona. The cultures here are too different, too mutually exclusive. East is East, you know, and West is West.

Never the twain shall meet." He lifted his refreshed drink to her, certain he had had the last word.

"Oh, Shakespeare?" asked Mrs. Lawrence, fluttering her eyelashes at him. Todd knew as well as she that it wasn't. Everyone on Doona was more familiar with Kipling, who seemed to "know' so much about their unusual situation. She continued to sip coyly at her glass.

"No,' said Varnorian patronizingly. "Not at all, madam. I believe it might be Strauss. Nineteenth century, not seventeenth."

"Really? How clever you are, Sally said, and linking arms with him, moved him out of Todd's vicinity.

"What is Ssalllee up to now?" Hrriss asked, appearing at Todd's elbow. Todd looked around for Kelly. "Oh, I left her in good hands.

Is that Captain Buckman beckoning for you?"

"He's had too much mlada already,' Todd said, not too pleased with matters.

"That is undoubtedly true,' Hrriss agreed after a moment's consideration. "And here is someone else in even worsse condition.

Jilamey staggered up to them with a determined expression on his face. The mlada he had begged of Kelly in the snake blind was only the start of his libations, though neither Hrriss nor Todd realized that.

But he had consumed considerably more with his meal, which Todd had observed. That he wa still standing spoke highly of his capacity.

The young man was dressed in the most precious ol modern styles.

His tunic had appliqud gem!

arranged in a crisscross pattern at the neck tc simulate lacings, and he wore frivolous boots will knee-high tops turned over to show their ion fringes, which were also jeweled. "I've been lookin for you for hours, Todd, to talk about snakes."

"It's a little early to talk about next year Jilamey,' Todd said diplomatically as he touche the single ribbon on the youth's medallion.

"Next year?" Jilamey blinked at him. "Ah, yeS next year! Of course. I'll be back next year. I'm on snake up. Have a drink on that."

"No mlada, I thank you,' Todd replied, smilin to defuse any insult. "I'll stay with the punch."

"Punch? On a night like this?"

"Frankly, Jilamey, I don't really like it. It leave a taste in my mouth of something long dead. I've got fresh raspberry-apple punch here if you'd like some. Homegrown fruit." Jilamey shuddered. "Thank you ever so, no!

Miada for me. How about you?" The youth turned to Hrriss.

"Neither do I drink,' the Hrruban said, dropping his jaw in a grin. "I have felt what miada can do.

Wait until you feel your head tomorrow morning.

It will seem as though a ripe melon had replaced your cranium, and that every borer worm on Rrala is trying to drill through it."

"That's enough about worms,' Jilamey said, grimacing horribly. "I've seen the big kind too closely today. I almost couldn't eat the meat at supper, but it smelled so good I got over it. That pretty Kelly told me I wasn't gripping tightly enough to the saddle with my knees. I will exercise mightily, and next year, my knees will meet inside the horse before I fall off in front of a snake!"

"That's the spirit,' Todd responded.

Jilamey took a steadying drink and held out his glass to be topped up. "You went through this how many years ago?"

"The first Snake Hunt on Doona-well, more of a snake drive-happened when I was six." Tactfully Todd avoided mentioning how it came about. "We've had to wrangle snakes past our farms every year since then. We had to organize it because we were losing too many head of livestock to the snakes."

"No, no,' and Jilamey waved a forefinger unsteadily. "I mean the coming-of-age ritual. You caught a big one and brought it in.

Pete's beer telling me and my friends all about it." He swayec as he pointed over his shoulder to where Petei Ivanovich, leader of Team Three, lay sprawled in heap of cushions, snoring.

"Right,' Todd said. Something in the youn Landreau's tone alerted Hrriss, who appeared suddenly behind the swaying youth. He caught Todd's eye and looked a question. Todd shook his head very slightly. "The first one was only a tiddler.

Eight meters. You saw a number of those today.

The second one was a real whopper. Twelve meters and a little bit over.

"I was there and saw it,' Hrriss put in. "A huge creature. It provided many days of meat for the settlement, and useful skin-for other purposes." Jilamey's eyes narrowed. "I don't believe it. How did you catch something like that? It's bigger than a house!"

"Careful planning,' Todd said, maneuvering Landreau toward a chair before he fell over. "This is a good time for a yarn. Let me tell you all about it." Jilamey listened carefully through to the end of Todd's narrative, and then sat up very straight. He stared his fellow Human in the eye.

"You've been rehearsing your story with the others. It's a falsehood.

That snake is almost as big as the one that tried to eat me. I've never heard such a load of ballast in my life. It's exactly what Pete recited to me, almost word for word."

"I give you my word of honor that the story is true,' Todd replied, shrugging away Jilamey's disbelief.

"Space slag!" Todd shrugged again. "It's too much trouble to lie.

"Twelve meters! Impossible!" Jilamey exploded.

"Well, it's still on record,' Todd said, not wanting to get into an argument over what was a fact. Then he grinned at Jilamey. "I had to, you see. Hrriss caught a real big Mommy the year before. I couldn't let him get an edge on me, now could I?" Surreptitiously he winked at his friend. "I broke his record but only by a few centimeters.

"If you don't believe him,' Hrriss added silkily, as Jilamey still looked skeptical, "see if you can find anyone who has heard it told differently. There are many still awake who were here when it occurred.

And there is the computer link in the corner! The records are available from the Treaty Archives for anyone to read. The Hunt and its results are documented.

Muttering, Jilamey poured himself another glass from the mlada bottle which Hrriss had managed to water down. Then he took himself off.

"What a head he's going to have tomorrow!" Todd said, shaking his head sympathetically as he watched Jilamey's wavering path toward the Archive room. "He didn't contest your record." Loyally Todd considered that omission a slight on his best friend.

"I expect no one mentioned it to him,' Hrriss said uninterestedly.

"No one tells the story of the second-place Hunt. Listeners want to hear only about the first-place achievement." Sometime later, when Jilamey came back, Todd courteously extended the jug of watered mlada.

"No, no more for me, thank you ever so. I believe I have had sufficient for this evening,' he said, slurring words which were nevertheless courteous.

"I must seek my quarters. How can you possibly look so - - so hearty?" His manner abruptly turned accusing.

"Clean living,' Todd said jokingly. "But I assure you that when I finally see my quarters, I shall not move for two days."

"Yes, well, I checked your record-just to know the facts, you see,' the Terran put in quickly, with a shamed expression. "I apologize. I will never again doubt anything you tell me. Twelve point four three meters! How I wish I'd seen that fight."

"It was a good one,' Todd said with quiet satisfaction.

"It must have been." Jilamey smiled with genuine good humor.

"You're too much to be true, Todd Reeve, but I'd rather you beside me in the Hunt than anyone else I've ever met on any world."

"Thanks,' Todd said, shaking the hand Jilamey held out to him. "It'd be an honor." Landreau shook hands with Hrriss, too, and staggered off toward the guest accommodations.

"I could wish that another of his stripe would reassess our honor,' Hrriss said.

"Let's just hope that one suddenly doesn't appear on any panel of inquiry you and I have to face, Todd replied. "He doesn't think much about Reeve honor and that's all we've got: honor."

CHAPTER 3

A LOUD CLAT'I'ERING AND ThE FEEL OF rough hands woke Todd from a sound sleep.

There were men in blue uniforms leaning over him, shouting in loud voices and shaking his shoulders.

It revived an old nightmare he had had the first time he'd seen those uniforms, twenty-five years before. They were Spacedep marines, the same units that had accompanied Landreau to Doona, to round up the colonists so they could be sent back to Earth. For a moment he was six years old again, the giant snakes were being herded through the village under Landreau's order, and his family was in danger. The Hrrubans, including Hrruna, the greatest, most important of them all, were behind him. He had to hurry to save the other Humans.

He raised his hand to keep the soldier from grabbing him again to hustle him away to the convoy ship. An adult arm interceded, and the marine stepped back. Todd stared at the arm. Was it his father's?

No, it was his own. In a moment, reality reasserted itself, and Todd calmed down. He was grown-up and could protect himself. There was no need to assume immediately that anything was wrong. The marine was waiting a few feet away from the bed. His fellows stood in the doorway.

Todd could see his mother and father just behind them. Pat looked worried, and Ken furious.

"Todd Reeve,' the marine said, reading from the plastic film containing his orders. "You are instructed to accompany us to the presence of the Treaty Councillors."

"Certainly, gentlemen,' Todd said, throwing off the blanket. "Allow me a moment to dress?" Todd had gone to bed only an hour before sunrise. Once the remaining guests went home with their hosts, he and the other volunteers who could still stand had spent several hours cleaning up. The Hunters among them had had no sleep since the niglit before, and they were weary. Hrriss had been reeling with fatigue when he mounted up to head toward the bridge to go home. Todd was glad that he lived so close to the Assembly Hall.

Much farther, and he'd be spending the night curled up where he dropped from exhaustion. He barely managed to strip off his new silk shirt and hang it up before falling into bed. His good trousers hadn't fared so well, hiking to his knees under the blanket when he thrust his legs down. He had been too exhausted to straighten them out before he dropped off to sleep. The guards waited impatiently while he splashed some water on his face and shaved quickly.

It would seem that matters had taken a turn for the worse while he slept. A marine guard meant that the Treaty violation was now being addressed.

He hoped truth would be all the defense he and Hrriss would need before a panel of inquiry.

The sky still wore the pale, moist veil of early morning when Todd reached the pad where the AThatross stood. Hrriss was already there, standing under the chill sky between his father, Hrrestan, and Commander Rogitel, assistant director of Spacedep. Ken Reeve had wanted to accompany his son, but the marine sergeant had denied him.

Todd was relieved to see that at least Hu Shih, as leader of the Human settlers, was present. The old man's clothes were rumpled, as if he had hastily grabbed the nearest to hand. He was talking in a low worried tone with a small woman wearing a long robe tagged with the insignia of a Councillor.

So, Todd thought, one of the Treaty Councillors had been called away from the crucial negotiations to be present when the ship was opened. From her weary expression, she had been waiting a long time.

She was a small, elderly woman with dark skin and dark gray-shot curls which clustered closely around her head. Treaty Island was not so much an island as a minor continent which lay in the southern oceans a third of the way around Doona, which made this hour midday for her.

Todd could have wished it were midday here and he'd been able to get enough sleep to keep his wits about him.

Hrriss looked expressionless, which meant to his old friend that he was deeply concerned. The glance he exchanged with Todd emphasized the fact that the situation was as bad as it could be. It would have been much better for both Todd and Hrriss had they been able to approach the Treaty Council of their own volition-which they had planned to do once the Hunt was over. But, despite his feelings of foreboding at the precipitous manner, he and Hrriss had the truth to support their actions. It was only that Landreau, and others, had been waiting for just such an incident. The presence of marines magnified the incident out of proportion.

The presence of Rogitel, one of Landreau's senior lieutenants on hand, meant that the Council had to convene an inquiry: just as Kelly had warned.

"Councillor Dupuis,' Rogitel said, bowing slightly to her, "the perpetrators are now present."

"It has only just come to our attention,' Councillor Dupuis said in a withering tone, "that this ship has violated the Treaty.

"Hrriss and I reported the incident as soon as we landed, Councillor,' Todd said politely. "Accordingly, the vessel was sealed. "The Treaty, as a condition of the Amalgamated Worlds charter, requires all ships to be inspected after out-systems flights upon landing.

Postflight inspection is a requirement under the law, if for no other reason than fumigation and irradiation, and inspection of the ship's log."

"Madam,' Hrrestan began politely, holding up a hand to stay the marine's action, "if this is merely postflight inspection, why have the soldiers been brought here and why is this gentleman present?" The Hrruban indicated Rogitel.

"We received information that this ship did not undergo a postflight inspection, that it has been sealed for two weeks, and may be involved in a Treaty violation,' the Councillor said. She answered Hrrestan in the formal Hrruban of diplomacy, a courtesy which boded no good at all.

"Naturally Commander Rogitel as Spacedep's representative is present. The violation is alleged to involve an uninhabited satellite of a star system." Todd felt his spirits sink to a new low. Leaving the Albatross sealed was no crime, and indeed, such postflight inspections were not always completed in a timely fashion. As long as the ship had been sealed, the inspectors didn't much mind. Ken and Hu Shih had been informed of the incident; they had told Hrrestan, who was scarcely likely, even under the stringent codes of honor under which Hrrubans operated, to jeopardize his only child. No one else should have had that information. Ken and Hu might have been annoyed that the two friends had told Kelly, but she'd've told no one, knowing how very serious this could be. So who could have leaked that information?

Clearly only those who had set the trap into which Todd and Hrriss had fallen.

"A serrious charrge this is,' Hrrestan said, also in the formal tongue. He sounded calm, but his pupils were slitted to mere lines, a sure sign that the older Hrruban was deeply troubled.

"Serious, indeed,' Councillor Dupuis said. "I require a deposition from the ship's crew before the ship is unsealed."

"I trust,' Commander Rogitel put in so suavely that his manner alarmed Todd, "that there has been no tampering with that seal?"

"Examine it yourself, Commander Rogitel,' Hu Shib said, very much on his dignity at hearing such aspersions cast.

"Hmm, it looks untouched,' Rogitel said, taking a long time peering at the seal, though he didn't touch it.

"Reeve! Hrriss!" The Councillor waved them forward to the sealed hatch. "Do you swear and affirm that you took nothing out of this ship besides articles of clothing and personal effects?" They nodded solemnly, raising their right hands simultaneously. "That the contents listed here on the landing manifest were signed by the landing supervisor at the time of disembarkation?"

"I do,' Todd said with a formal bow.

"I do,' Hrriss echoed with an equally formal bow.

hth a gesture, the Councillor ordered the marine sergeant to break the seal. As he touched the control pad, the hatch slid back, and a whoosh of stale air made those nearest, including the Councillor, recoil. Todd thought that that was one mark on their side as he saw Dupuis recognize what that implied. Lights came up inside the Albatross and the sergeant stepped politely aside as the ramp extruded the few feet to the ground. The port workers swarmed aboard to do the fumigation routine. They were as quick as they were efficient and very shortly left the ship with a nod from the foreman that their task was completed.

The Councillor acknowledged this and then gestured for Todd and Hrriss to follow her into the Albatross. Rogitel followed them, still wearing that blandly smug expression. While he wasn't like his superior, Landreau, who blustered when angry, Rogitel was coolheaded and very quiet, a dangerously misleading trait, which tempted the unwary to talk in his presence under the delusion that he wasn't listening. Rogitel missed little, and he shared Landreau's bitter feelings about Doona.