Assimilated
"Yes, Mal. I am a boor and a hog not to have thought of your needs. We shall, we shall. Oh, I love you."
Mal was not mischievous, but she knew a prize when it passed by. Seizing the brass ring, she murmured, "Well, it'll probably be better on a sea trip, won't it? We're due for a leave, it's been over a year."
Carl grinned back. "O K, love. I'll ask the Director. Today!"
He smiled as his strength returned. He could think of little better than a leave with Mal in their present mood. Regrettably, the Director refused instant leave, as a crisis in Kostanz "politics" made it necessary for the team to stay sequestered in Dozzu. One member of the support group disappeared during this period, adding to their worries.
The political crisis, or the desultory war with neighboring Alatno either ceased to worry the locals, or ended, Mal could not be sure which. Mal's real opportunity came soon thereafter with Carl's unexpected breakdown when the expedition had been sixteen months on Urmi. Despite his promise, Carl had been working far too hard on extremely difficult interpretation of what some of the Urmi nations called "law." First of all, the Urmi ( or Kosti) word "nations" was not akin to what the term meant on Sulpane, the local polities were essentially alliances of city-states. Each polity had its own definition of "law," even as a city-state, and the "moro" (alliance? - not even that translated well) had its own laws, which were not imposed in those city-states that did not enforce them. Certain things a person could do in Eskalar, he could not do in Gosyodi, yet "alliance law" said he was free to do so, for instance. Most of the laws were religious in origin, these days religious laws were honored widely in their breach, but some customs had the force of law - sometimes, in certain places, at certain times!
As a consequence, Carl fainted in the middle of a presentation to the entire team, and the medical staff examined and tested him, then prescribed absolute rest "at a distance from the team's work."
Mal seized upon the opportunity like a lioness clamping her teeth on a gazelle's neck. "Carl, we need the trip I've been asking you to make for the past three months. Let's take a sea-voyage. I know a captain who'll take Earth-people - I understand from the 'eye' team that Marney and his crew are far from xenophobic, like some on this place."
She had long stopped calling Urmi a "planet." She, like some of the other Sulpani, had been shocked to find that all Urmi did not welcome the investigative team, and had adjusted her attitude correspondingly. To her great surprise, Carl agreed, although somewhat listlessly. His "spell" while presenting had truly shaken him. His personality had changed from the take-charge to the dependent, and Mal managed to play on that to what she considered her great benefit. Despite his apparent listlessness, she had managed to reawaken his interest in her and their matings since his "illness" had been much more pleasurable, save for the earliest, which had been fantastic.
"Sfkipa" MarnP (not "Marney," as Mal supposed.) welcomed them aboard effusively. Mal had paid him with tiny bars of silver, an extremely precious metal on the planet, perhaps overpaying him, although she had not at first realised this. Nevertheless, Mal did not feel that she had been cheated, she having of course made the arrangements.
Their ship was what Carl called a "bastard rig," but what the captain called a "provenka." Carl answered Mal's questions about the safety of their vessel with the first signs of interest in anything beside herself she had seen since his breakdown.
He had been an avid sailor in his more youthful years on Earth and knew his boats and small ships well. "This ship looks sound, but, of course, Mal, I know nothing of the sailors and the skipper..."
"Eh? Carl, the word in Kosti is almost the same, then! Hm-m. Could Kosti - this island's dialect anyway - have an Earth origin?"
"How could it? Oh. 'Sfkipa'...skipper! Well, I'll be damned! Why haven't your team seen that. I wonder..."
Mal was just happy that she had Carl interested in something once again.
;;;;;;
The Falkone, for which there was no etymology known to the couple, nor to Captain MarnP when Mal asked, was a small ship with a lateen foresail - "like a dhow" Carl said. Each of the three masts held a different rig, the middle one square rigged like an old fashioned clipper, thought Mal, who had seen pictures of two thousand year old ships once used to transport everything. They were beautiful in Mal's estimation, more beautiful than their successors, the hulking, smelly, dirty steam vessels, which in turn had eventually been succeeded by nuclear powered vessels as well as by air and space craft. Now, here on what had been a detested planet, she fell in love with a sailing vessel once again.
They had reached the Neik'ir on their cruise, which Mal now knew meant Neik Strait. Carl was apprehensive as to their course, for this was reputed to be a hunting ground for pirates, Kasmati, their name in Kosti. Both captain and crew appeared slightly nervous, a lookout constantly watching through a televa (telescope). Carl asked,
"What causes you this anger?" He knew that was the wrong word, but she was not as yet anywhere as fluent in Kosti as was Mal, who had gained considerable ability in the local dialect. Carl pointed up the mast, where the poor lookout was clinging.
"Oh sar, Kasmati have many ships, laucat here." Carl was a little surprised by his using other terms for what he thought was called Urmi.
MarnP spoke a poor but intelligible Galactic, to Carl and Mal's great surprise. Where he had learned that they did not enquire, for there had been rumors that several of the transcribers of the expedition had managed to acquire Kostanzi "admirers." In a way, Mal had once envied those girls, for she and Carl had until the time immediately before his breakdown not been together sexually very often, save that memorable time, since their arrival on Urmi. Just the way that MarnP looked at her stirred something within her that had been suppressed for too long.
"You think these pirati...," that's what she had heard them called by the crew - another analogue of a Galactic word, "...would take us?" Mal did not understand why they were speaking Galactic instead of Kosti.
"If they will they catch sight, yess."
"Of the ship?"
"Yess, and...you and man, duëno!"
"Oh? Why would we have any attraction?"
"What word? You good looks, duën, and you man handsome, too. You worth much. Good slaves for Mata, you. Better than Kostai."
"Hm-m. I'll tell Carl, then."
"I think he know."
Mal left it at that, but it gave her a great deal to think about as the large brig - Carl named it, pointing at the guns "run out" along the sides - swiftly approached. the provenka. The crew of the provenka remained oddly unafraid, while she and Carl were upset by this meeting.
"That ship, sfkipa, what moro?" called Mal.
"Kasmat. See cloth at masthead?"
Carl, with his arm around Mal, looked hard to see the cryptic symbol in an oblong on a green flag flying at the mizzen of the rapidly closing ship. As part of his investigations, he had acquired a working knowledge of the internal sea (Krony'arr), the types of ships which sailed it, as well as the flags of the various entities. Those ensigns were displayed seldom save on ships at sea. (Probably because it was too early in Kostanz maritime history for such subterfuges, no instance of false colors had been recorded.) A shudder ran down his body, and Mal felt it.
"What will they do to us, Carl?"
"I've heard . . . no, we have a different make-up...no, we don't, actually...but they cannot do that to us . . .I think."
"What, Carl? What is it that has you so...afraid...when these sailors aren't?"
"They...the people of 'Ermat'...I can't pronounce their real name...'Er'mati?'...are reputed...to enslave other people with drugs."
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LADIES IN NUDE
Russian Brides
LADIES IN NUDE
Russian Brides
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