A deception, a condition, trouble in Utopia…
Decoman Kearney had made up his mind. He would contact the Assembly Population Office and the guild of discerners. He was no fool. The Refugio trade representative had been to Farm Twenty-Two far too often these past few weeks. Each time he had been in the company of Sarita, and Sarita was a foundling from the Refugio trade city. Then yesterday, that horrible woman, Rita had come back with the Refugio representative. If Decoman remembered rightly, Rita was Sarita’s natural mother. They had met with Sarita, Rhonda, and her lifebond Nathan. Something was up. He had an obligation to notify the authorities.
Simon had never been the strong lord his father had been. He was a teacher and a scholar. He didn’t run things with authority like his father had. He was too trusting and had become close friends with the man from Refugio. He probably could not see these aliens were trying to take Sarita away. She would be a strong power user no matter where her power manifested, and Family Kearney should not lose this wonderful resource.
All she had to do was notice his nephew Fergus and get on with bonding and manifesting. He would not mention that to the guild. Fergus was a fine young man with a great future, if he could just settle down and bond with a likely young woman like Sarita.
Decoman pushed the send key on the message unit. There, it was done. He had thwarted their plans – whatever their plans were – and they could not be to the benefit of Family Kearney.
***
With evening coming on and no message from Amaurot, the messages from the Refugio trade office seemed to indicate that no one had seen Alam in days. Alarmed, Tony contacted Alam’s house and talked to his steward. It seemed Alam in his fear, had drunk himself into a stupor and intended to stay that way. Tony offered his condolences to the harassed man, and then chuckled as he turned to explain to Simon what had happened.
“Alam is so afraid of Francos he has taken refuge in alcohol.”
“Alcohol?”
“Yes. Didn’t you know the only state where one cannot be affected by a sending telepath is when you are drunk?”
“I had never thought about it or had the occasion to wonder about it.” Simon shook his head. “So, you must return to make sure the office is working?”
“Looks that way,” Tony said with a grin. “I think I’ll invite Rita to go home with me. She has little to worry about from Alam now, I think.”
***
Simon closed his eyes and sighed. The message from Ian had arrived just after a message from the Population Office. Someone at Farm Twenty-Two had notified the Guild of Discerners a potentially exceptional power user was about to be taken out of Utopia to Refugio. The Guild had notified the Population Office, and an investigator was on her way. Ian warned Simon there was nothing he could do at this point. Whoever had sent the message had made it impossible for Ian to head off the investigation. Simon sent a placating answer to the Population Office and messaged Tony with the bad news. Then he called Decoman Kearney to his office.
It was obvious who had done it. Decoman’s nephew was crazy about Sarita. She had been kind to the young man but was not interested in him as a lifemate. The disparity in intelligence was obvious to Simon and Marianna, but not to Decoman, or Fergus’s mother Deirdre. As one of the family’s discerners, Decoman knew about Sarita’s potential and was probably the one who sent the first messages to the Guild about her. Simon hated confrontations like this, but as the head of the family, it was his duty to meet them. Fortunately, it didn’t happen often.
After a tense and very unpleasant meeting with Decoman, Simon received a message indicating the investigator would arrive on First Day. Simon was to ensure the resident in question was confined and was not allowed contact with anyone from Refugio.
“Demons take them!”
“Simon, what in the world?” Morianan was startled by his uncharacteristic outburst.
“Decoman sent a message to the Population Office and to the Guild of Discerners about Sarita. He says he was only concerned about Sarita’s welfare, but he finally admitted he was sure I was being influenced by Rita. He gave the office in Amaurot some garbled story of how I was going to allow her to take Sarita to Refugio. He said her mother wanted to find her a husband among her family.”
“More likely, he and Deirdre are still convinced Fergus and Sarita would make excellent life mates.”
“I’m sure that has a lot to do with it.” Simon paced to the window. “However, the Population Office is sending an investigator here next week. In the meantime, I’m to keep ‘the resident in question’ under lock and key. As if I can’t take care of my own people or act justly with them.”
“How can he believe you would do anything to hurt Sarita?” Morianan embraced her lifemate.
“He has done exactly the worst thing short of Alam finding out about Sarita. And if it comes to diplomatic maneuvering, Alam will have to know.”
“What does Tony say?”
“I haven’t heard back from him yet. Seems Alam got drunk after he heard from Refugio and has stayed that way. Did you know a sending telepath can’t contact someone who is drunk?”
“No, I’d never heard that one, but it makes sense. He must be in terror of the Overlord to do that.”
“Who knows? I’ll need to see what Rita and Tony want to do now. We’ll have to get them out of here before the investigator comes.”
“Simon, are you convinced Sarita really wants to do this? The Assembly could bring disciplinary action. Or even remove you as Lord.”
“They have the right to remove me as Lord, but it would set a bad precedent. If they don’t remove someone for killing their dependents and trading with pirates, it would look very bad to remove me for letting Sarita go to Refugio. I might lose my seat on the education committee and be fined, but I think we can live with that. Sarita wants to do this. Even Nathan and Rhonda seem willing to make the trip. It could be a beginning to closer cooperation between our countries, but thanks to Decoman, it may just make it worse.”
***
Rita had quickly gathered her things and gone back to the city with Tony. He warned her not to expect too much. It was a short drive from Farm Twenty-Two to Northwest Trade City. Rita felt a twinge of anger against the Utopians when she compared this lush, verdant country to the harsh, rocky land of Refugio. They managed to grow some of the food they needed but trade with Utopia was essential. In Refugio, the volcanic soil was rich but shallow and the weather harsh. Here in Utopia, the soil was deep, extremely fertile—and while they too got the strong storms, their growing season was much longer. She loved the lushness but with the low population density, wished the founders had been a bit more generous and let the Regals settle in a more auspicious area of the planet. Trade in foodstuffs was growing, but Utopia was still stingy with Refugio.
“My harem is not large anymore,” Tony said to Rita. “It was just too much to keep it up. Leah has her needlework and cares for some of the servants’ children, but it’s not at all as lavish as Casa Pesch. I only have one wife now. Two others went to Farm Twenty-Two when it was clear we could not have children without major defects. They took the children with them.”
“But you do have servants and a bathing pool?”
“Well, sort of, but not so you can swim, and I don’t think we have a body care servant anymore. Leah never liked them, and I never used one, so if you want a massage, we’ll have to call one in from outside.”
“No, we had massage workers in Amaurot. What I miss is having someone take care of my clothing and bring me my meals. I want to wear a long, colorful, silky gown and sleep as long as I want.”
Tony only stopped a few moments at his home to introduce Rita to his steward and to Leah. The women seemed to take to each other immediately. He warned the steward that his sister would be demanding but to let her have what she wanted, if he could get it for her. He would be at his office dealing with Alam’s neglect.
The message from Simon was waiting for him when he got to the office. Tony started to reply but was interrupted by Alam’s deputy. There were dozens of messages from traders to deal with, as well as an inquiry from the Overlord about a missing tariff payment. Tony knew Alam had received the credits, but Tony was not sure where Alam had deposited them. The Overlord wanted a report on all tariff credits. Tony turned that over to one of the clerks. He knew the young man was to be trusted and competent. As he processed the accumulated decisions, Tony began to see a way out of both his and Simon’s problem.
Should you want to read the whole story…
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