Freedom's Ransom by Anne McCaffrey Page B

Bempechat, Yuri Palit, and Walter Duxie, the mining engineer. Sev Balenquah followed them, and uncharitably Kris hoped no one would include him on this mission since he had so nearly jeopardized them all the last time. But he was a qualified pilot and had flown the KDLs. Some people just brought bad luck with them and he was one of those. Like Pig Pen, you could almost see the aura of dirt and dust surrounding him.
    Zainal escorted Judge Iri Bempechat up the steps and held out the middle chair for him. The ever-courteous judge waited until Chuck had seated Dorothy and Chuck returned to his place by his cousins.
    Immediately the chatter in the mess hall diminished. The new Botany Space Force additions filed in with Peter Easley, who gestured them to seats on the left before he came up to the dais. Kris took her usual end seat, nodding to the judge, who smiled sweetly back at her and took the gavel that he used for such meetings out of his pocketand put it conspicuously in front of him. Conversations went down yet another decibel and there was much scraping of chairs as people settled themselves. The last of the council members, Leon Dane, rushed in late as usual, as did Worrell, Beth Isbell, and Sarah McDouall.
    The judge gave his gavel an authoritative smack on the wooden block and silence prevailed.
    â€œSince all council members are clearly present, I shall ask Chuck Mitford to report on his recent trip to Earth. And a special welcome to the Misses Mitford. Glad to have you here.”
    The sisters twittered, somewhat embarrassed by the official greeting, then both smiled happily up at the judge.
    Chuck took center stage.
    â€œI got good news and I got bad news, folks. The bad is that most of the spare parts we need desperately to get other systems up and running on Earth are stuck as loot at Barevi.
    â€œThe good news is that there is a powerful swing to ‘sharing’ on our home world like nothing we’ve ever seen before. But then, we hadn’t seen,” and he swiveled to nod apologetically to Zainal, “Catteni either. Remember how the Red Cross and the other emergency units would go to disaster areas and sort things out? Well, of course you know we had disaster all over the world but that same sort of helpful, cooperative spirit got invoked.
    â€œIt started out with local communities banding together to help each other and discuss what was needed where. It’s gone on to deciding where to spend effort and material to cause the greatest good for the greatest number of folk. I mean, guys and gals, it ain’t like who should get more, but we all should get according to the need. The greatest help has been the Internet, mobile phones, and, as usual, ham radio folk. The first thing that was done was to reinstate the power supply, and that meant instant communication and also the ability to send drastically needed supplies where they needed to go. And we’re solving as many problems as possible in thedistricts where it’s critical. I’ve never seen anything like it, even with the worst of the earthquakes or hurricanes, or forest fire disasters. It’s like we all turned over a new leaf. All national boundaries are down. I don’t say they’ll stay down, because people take pride in what they are and where they come from, but I’d say there’s been a real forward step that looks good for world relations.
    â€œWhich is why we gotta make sure communications are established in all parts. We got this magnificent opportunity to sink a lot of petty little differences, and I’d say Earth is going to succeed. It’s an ill wind that blows no good.
    â€œSorry to spout off at you like that,” Chuck managed a self-indulgent grin, “but we did something like that here on Botany, and what we learned here we can now translate to old Earth and see it putting the right foot forward.”
    â€œBut you need what the Barevis are sitting on, is that it,