Freedom's Challenge by Anne McCaffrey Page B

Mack’s eyes. Riz had mentioned that someone might have trouble and sent along eyewash, with the recommendation to keep the contacts in for short periods, lengthening the time each day to allow the eyeball to adjust. By the time they were orbiting Catten, he could keep them in most of the day.
    Seen from outer space, Catten was a lovely planet! Almost as beautiful as the pictures of Earth sent back from space by Russian and American astronauts. There were larger landmasses but inland lakes the size of seas and several enormous rivers to judge by the width of them. It was also remarkably green, which caused a good deal of surprise.
    Zainal grinned. And said in Catten: “They have destroyed enough planets so that they are careful about this one. All manufacturing work is done on other worlds.”
    â€œYou should see Earth,” Ninety said proudly.
    â€œNot all of it is as pleasant as…” Mark paused becausethere was no Catteni word for Ireland, “where you live.”
    â€œMore unpleasant since Catteni come,” added Gino grimly with an apologetic glance at Zainal who merely nodded. “KDM and…yaya…” which was all Gino could think of as a Catteni description of “Baby,” “will not like what is there now.”
    Everyone paused in reflection on that unhappy observation. Then Gino pointed to a good-sized satellite. “How many moons?”
    â€œFour,” Zainal replied, then added as an immense space station spun leisurely into view in its geo-synchronous orbit above Catten, “we do not want to dock there.”
    Everyone gawked at the sight of the monstrous edifice, with gantries and netted supplies far larger than the KDL floating on tethers about it. Ships of all sizes made their way in and out of docking slips. One entire quadrant seemed to be a shipyard, taking advantage of the lack of gravity to push large structural members into position for assembly.
    Suddenly the com unit blurted out a harsh barking which was either muffled or distorted so much that only Zainal understood; the others caught maybe one word clearly.
    â€œâ€¦chouma.”
    Zainal rattled off his assumed name, the fact that his ship was damaged and requested landing at an isolated emergency site on planet.
    By listening with intense concentration to the Catteni language, the crew got most of the next exchange, demanding details of the damage. Zainal responded that he could not maneuver into the moon base with currently faulty equipment. Immediately he was bluntly told to sheer off his present course while a landing site could be warned of his imminent arrival. Zainal twitched fingersbehind his back to indicate to the others how well their scheme was going. Considering the size and complexity of the space station, the Terrans could well appreciate the need for caution, and why ships had to be in maneuverable condition. They were probably as fastidious about unstable cargoes.
    The interrogation went on. What was the trouble? Where had the KCX been? Was it contaminated? What cargo did it have on board?
    Zainal signaled to Gino to go into his well-rehearsed reply, the pilot scrambling to get his notes out of his pocket in case he needed to refer to them.
    â€œEngineer Tobako speaking,” he said. He’d had fun choosing an alias. “Gyro unit, two-three-eight…” and he spoke the Catten letters appended to the part, “malfunctioned in meteor swarm, flash-back damaging many boards in control panel and causing helm problems. Maneuvering affected. Suffered hull and interior damages. Landed on largest meteor to repair damage. Gyro part badly made,” and Gino infused a lot of contempt in his voice for that failing. “Imperfect metal. Had to reduce cargo to lift from meteor. Only one cargo deck remains. Three crew died.”
    â€œOnly one part cargo?” The contempt and dismay was clearly audible and nothing at all was said about the loss of lives.