Crisis On Doona by Anne McCaffrey, Jody Lynn Nye

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 colonization, they’re making sure that their sons and daughters are taking specialized training so they’ll be qualified one day. 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” —