The Lost Animas (The Ammonite Galaxy Series, Book 5)

Chapter 4

THEY WERE READY to leave Xiantha immediately after sunrise the next morning. Diva and Six were tacking up their canths. Both Diva's seal brown and Six's dapple grey were edgy and nervous, their feet treading the ground incessantly. The canth keeper and his bay mare were standing in readiness to one side.

"I thought we were to go on our own?" said Six.

"You are. I shall not be accompanying you down to the planet in question. But I must be in the cargo bay of the New Independence, since somebody has to be there to take care of the canths in transit. And my canth insists on coming too, as I am to be part of the team."

Arcan arrived with a flurry of dust. "Ready? I will drop you off close to the planet, somewhere where your arrival will go unremarked, and it will be up to you to make your own way after that. But first, we need to get to Coriolis, to attach the heavy-duty shuttle to the trader."

He transported them all smoothly over to the orbital space station above Coriolis, making sure that the canths went directly into the cargo hold of the New Independence.

Six and Diva went to investigate how long it would take to attach the heavy-duty shuttle to the New Independence, leaving the ship almost immediately to find the man in charge and get an estimation of the time it would take.

The head of the Coriolan orbital station stared at them with a certain degree of animosity. "I have been instructed to provide you ... foreigners ... with one of our new freight shuttles," he said, very much as if he was personally not in agreement with the instruction, and with a deadly emphasis on the word 'foreigner'.

Diva's head went high, and she stiffened, but Six put a warning hand on her arm.

"Thank you," he told the man, "we appreciate that. How is it to be joined to the trader?"

"Our teams will undertake the coupling." The man's cold eyes went from one to the other. "It will take all day. I have been asked to tell you that you are not granted authority to visit Coriolis planet. You are to remain on the orbital station."

Six tried to give the man a pleasant smile. "That is most kind. Thank you. We will remain on this space station."

Diva shifted uncomfortably, but Six kept a tight hold on her. He could feel her ire as if it were tangible, but he didn't want anything to delay their departure on the rescue mission. He turned and ushered her away, moving down a long corridor, and then, when he saw more Coriolans from the station approaching, through a half-open door.

"You should have let me speak!" Diva was furious, her eyes snapping. "He knew who I am, and he refused to acknowledge me!"

"I noticed."

"Who does he think he is?"

"Diva ..."

"Don't 'Diva' me! You know perfectly well that he was trying to denigrate me, deny my meritocratic rights!"

"Diva!" Six sighed. "You yourself said that we wouldn't be welcome on your home planet ..."

"But that man was not even a meritocrat! He had no right to speak to me like that! It's unpardonable of him ..." She stopped, for Six was staring around him in wonder. ".—What is it? What is the matter?"

Six turned around. "Look where we are!"

She gave her surroundings a cursory inspection. "In some sort of a holding cell ... Oh!"

"Yes, 'Oh' indeed! Do you recognize it?"

She examined the walls around her, and then the ceiling, and shook her head, not very convincingly. "I don't think so."