"The same general picture holds for all four oceans. Poor in variety but with large populations of the species that are present. Life of any sort is scarce or entirely absent from smaller bodies of water, north and south."

"Something happened here, right enough," the Captain declared. "Someday, maybe Federation scientists or Canuche's own will discover what it was."

"We keep hoping," Adroo replied.

Rael fixed her eyes on her plate. She did not have to hear more or read a library of doc.u.mentation to be convinced gut level, in her own heart and mind, that Ali Kamil was right. The chill of that realization filled, all but overwhelmed, her. Canuche of Halio had been shattered in the past and maybe more than once, badly enough that most of the rich fauna and flora that should have graced such a planet had been eliminated, leaving the field open on each level of the food chain for the surviving species, plant and animal, to expand into great megapopulations.

She looked up again as the industrialist continued his account of his homeworld's history.

"Our First-Ship ancestors realized they had no natural paradise," he told them, "and decided to turn her peculiarities to their advantage and industrialize on a grand scale here in the north. The south, they devoted to farming. Canucheans knew from the start that we wanted to be self-sufficient and since this was a closed colony, claimed and settled by one group at one time, our ancestors enjoyed the luxury of being able to lay pretty definite and precise plans before ever taking ship for her surface. Canuche provides the resources to meet our basic needs on-world, and the colony's founders made that a prime part of our life charter. - No society can count itself secure, safe from the danger of being overwhelmed by alien influences, or from being annihilated or starved outright, if it has to depend on outsiders for the really essential goods and services. It hasn't always been easy, and there have been periods of strong temptation, but thus far we've managed to appreciate our founders' wisdom and stick with their ideals and instructions."

Macgregory was a native of the capital, and his pride in it was apparent when their conversation turned to Canuche Town itself a few minutes later.

"Canuche Town's actually a misnomer," he told them. "It may not be an inner-system megalopolis, but we have over two million residents and at least half that number again in the suburbs. That qualifies us as a city by anyone's lights.

"Like the other Canuchean towns, this is a community of individual neighborhoods. When our future First Shippers were developing their plans for the organization of our urban centers, it was decided to keep our workers near their jobs, ideally within walking distance or, at worst, a short commute away. Each of the neighborhoods thereby created is regarded and treated as a separate ent.i.ty within the city and has its own schools, hospitals, shopping places, essential support services, and general entertainment and self-improvement facilities, which are often one and the same. Connecting and managing everything are an excellent public transport system and a civic government kept small enough and close enough to its const.i.tuents to remain responsive and effective. - The whole system's efficient, and everything's kept on a decent, human scale.

"You're actually seeing us just about at our worst from up here," Macgregory informed them. "Houses aren't packed in this tightly in most places, but between the plants down in the waterfront region and the docks themselves, there's a huge demand for workers. As I mentioned before, they live as close as possible to their jobs. It's a slum, in point of fact, or the Canuchean version of a slum. We don't have the poverty and the major problems a.s.sociated with that in many other places."

"Why the docks at all?" Van Rycke inquired. "Air transport's efficient, cheap, and fast."

"So are bur boats. Added to that, they don't take half a neighborhood out with them if one goes down. That happened with a big air transport during Canuche's early years. Once was enough. Besides, the boats provide work for a lot more people. As incomprehensible as that may seem to a lot of off-worlders, keeping our population fully employed has just about top priority on Canuche. You don't work, you emigrate."

"What about the s.p.a.ceport, then?" the Medic asked hastily, hearing the defensive irritation in their host's voice. Handling the problem of a population a planet could not wholly support simply by kicking the excess off-world was not a policy favored by the Federation at large. "Granted it provides some good jobs, but starship crashes have been among the worst disasters in Federation history."

"It's not physically within the city," he replied a trifle grimly, "and we do insist that all ships make their approach and depart from the landward side."

"That's about as much as anyone can do," Jellico told him, "and the general procedures at the port're as tight as I've encountered anywhere."

The Captain gazed a moment through the transparent wall. "What are we seeing down there? What, for instance, is that huge white building on the right?"

"That's Caledonia, Inc.'s, contribution to Canuche Town's prosperity." The industrialist scowled momentarily. "If I'd listened to my instincts instead of to my fools of financial advisers, there'd be two more stories on it, but even as it is, it's the biggest single facility in the city, employing some thirty thousand people on-site alone, not counting our cadre of longsh.o.r.emen, the crews manning our ships and transports, and those maintaining our feeder lines."

"Factory?" Van Rycke asked.

He nodded. "Basically. It's what we call a hodgepodge plant. We do some light manufacturing from scratch and a lot of a.s.sembly of parts and products begun elsewhere as well as a great deal of research and development."

"Is that the usual procedure for the big manufacturers here?"

"Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Caledonia deals in construction and mining supplies, including very heavy major equipment, and in chemicals. Much of the preparation of both is done inland, either for safety's sake or on or near the mining sites for economic reasons. Some of the smaller items can go more completely through the manufacturing process here, but almost all the chemicals are piped to us in their component parts and blended or treated or whatever in the plant, then sent to their destinations as quickly as possible. We don't like holding them here. A good many of them have properties that make it undesirable to store them in quant.i.ty in a populous region."

"What do the other factories make?"

"You name it. Every major company on Canuche has some sort of office in the city, and most of them do active work here. Few of us can resist the opportunity offered by the harbor. Anything produced in Canuche Town can be shipped directly from here with almost no intermediate transport costs, and the proximity of the s.p.a.ceport is a plus beyond price for importers and exporters alike."

Van Rycke studied the body of water below, an inlet six miles long and approximately a mile wide, whose dark blue color proclaimed considerable depth. "You could have done worse than that," he remarked. "It's what decided your ancestors to build on this site, of course?"

"Naturally. It's one of the finest on a planet well supplied with good ports. - Just .look at this setup! Twelve miles, six on each bank, of Hat waterfront land perfect for industrial facilities of every sort. The slopes on either side are steep but not cliffs. People can readily live on them. The channel, which we call the Straight and Narrow, is sufficiently broad to permit the ready pa.s.sage of any two vessels ever likely to travel our seas, and it's deep enough that in the old days, it would have been termed almost bottomless.

"We're truly blessed with respect to our defenses against the side effects of Canuche's bad weather, too. Both the current and the prevailing wind run parallel to this part of the coast, and only under the rarest combination of unfortunate circ.u.mstances does a storm pummel it head-on. Even in that event, we usually escape its worst fury. The heights on the seaward side break the force of the gales, and the Straight pushes in at a diagonal. It opens away from the flow of the current, and a lot of the sea's anger simply bypa.s.ses us. The harbor area has had real trouble from storms or the ocean on only four or five occasions since the area was first settled."

"There's still the potential for danger," the woman warned, "if not from nature, then as a result of your own efforts. A few products at least of all those made or shipped here must be inflammable or violently unstable. These slopes are high and steep enough to confine and reflect back a blast or a sudden fire acting like one. The rest of the town would be spared a lot of grief as a result, but this area would pay the pa.s.sage for all."

Macgregory looked at her with new respect. "You've got an eye. Doctor, and a head to go with it. - The city planners are aware of that risk. It was brought home to us by the possibility scenarios we ran during the Crater War. Canuche went heavily into munitions production at the time. Quite literally every port of any size was handling the finished products or their components, and none of those in charge was stupid enough not to realize the enormous potential for disaster inherent in dealing with such materiel. We were determined to hold on to both our profits and our lives.

"Canuche Town responded by keeping the war goods as much as possible away from the city and inner harbor." He turned in his chair so he could gaze back over his shoulder.

"See those red docks on the shoulders framing the mouth of the Straight?"

"Aye."

"They continue some distance beyond along the seaward side, as far as there's level land to hold the piers backing them. All combat materiel was loaded from them. Nothing ever did happen, praise the Lord of Light and Dark, but if a ship or dock had gone up, the worst of the blast would have broken on the heights or bypa.s.sed us, even as natural storms do. We'd have suffered some from the resultant sea surge, but that, too, would mostly have gone by.

"Munitions aren't the same industry now, I'm not sorry to say, and they're handled entirely on the west coast, where there are lower population levels. We use the red docks for fuel shipments, especially concoctions intended for the s.p.a.ceport, the raw ingredients to make them, and other chemicals with chancy natures."

"Aren't those fuel tanks?" Jan inquired, pointing to a cl.u.s.ter of three tall cylinders just beneath their table. He could see approximately fifty similar structures scattered all along the waterfront. They were more heavily concentrated in some spots than others, but no section on either sh.o.r.e appeared to be completely devoid of them.

"Yes, they are that," The industrialist's voice was cold.

"I've made myself an unpopular man trying to have them removed and that d.a.m.ned stuff stored underground where it belongs."

"One good fire'll educate everyone for you," Rael told him glumly.

"No doubt, but the poor people living and working around the thing'll be the ones who foot the tuition bill."

Jellico sighed to himself. They would wind up with a brace of disaster scholars in the party, he thought sourly. If the conversation turned to a detailed comparison of some of history's grimmer episodes, it would be to the decided detriment of a magnificent meal. He, for one, wanted to reap full enjoyment out of the incredibly rich torte the waiter Charles had just set before him.

The Cargo-Master was of the same opinion. "Canuche's citizens appear on the whole to be doing their part to ensure their safety. That and keeping on the alert are about all anyone can do." He was quiet while he ate an experimental forkful of the torte. "This is excellent! - What other cargoes do your ships handle? There's scarcely a dock vacant down there."

The older man smiled. "A graphic description of folks being blown halfway to the next galaxy is no aid to the digestion," he agreed. "To answer your question, almost anything grown or made on Canuche or imported from off-world finds its way to these docks at some point or other.

"Most of the bigger corporations own the port facilities fronting their establishments.-Caledonia has the four adjacent to our plant plus two red docks for the chemicals. - The rest are leased from the city by the smaller companies and the independent freight and pa.s.senger lines.

"The independents tend to group similar products together where practicable. Caledonia has its own longsh.o.r.emen and equipment, but most draw on the city pool, and it's more economical to have any necessary specialists and specific gear more or less permanently nearby and on hand. For example, all sorts of southern-made goods and produce come in to the docks in the Cup area, right there below us where the Straight ends and the two banks meet, and the various products the north makes to meet their needs are sent off to them from there. Three large corporations pull in a big part of their profits on fertilizer alone at this time of year despite the fact that the farmers mainly use animal byproducts. Sil plants respond so well to a feeding of ammonium nitrate that a lightly treated field will produce three crops in a year in subtropical areas, two in temperate regions."

"Ammonium nitrate?" the Medic asked, frowning slightly.

"A common natural salt. Canuche has vast stores of it."

"It sounds familiar," she said, "though I don't recall the Roving Star ever carrying any. One of my brother's other ships or her predecessor may have done so at some time or other."

"I doubt it," Van Rycke told her. "There's no interstellar or even intrasystem Trade in it. The stuffs plentiful throughout the galaxy. Any planets we've found thus far who want it either have enough of their own or the means of readily making it or a reasonable subst.i.tute. As a matter of fact, I can't recall any other planet's making a real industry out of it, though my memory could be failing me on that. Synthetics and animal products have either overshadowed or entirely supplanted it in most places for centuries."

Adroo nodded. "True. It's the fact that we have so much of it so readily available that gives it its strength here, that and because sil plants respond so well to it."

He pointed to the scurrying workers and machines loading medium-sized crates on a squat-looking ship. "That freighter's kind of interesting. She bears the pretentious name of Regina Man's and is an independent that carries just about everything she can cram into her holds or on her decks. That's not the norm on Canuche. Most skippers don't care for a great deal of diversity. They'd rather not have to worry about more than one or two types of cargo at a time. Not this one, though. She took on coring drills and the stems supporting them from one of my compet.i.tors yesterday morning, then picked up an immense cargo of small items from another-screws, nuts, bolts, nails, and spikes of every conceivable description, some fashioned from metal and a lot from sundry synthetics. Pa.s.sable stuff, too," he added grudgingly, "though none of it would win any contests against Caledonia's counterparts."

The industrialist smiled at that display of chauvinism.

"Oh well, it's a sad man who can't or won't take pride in his own."

"What's she loading now?" Jellico asked, peering down at what seemed to be a scene of utter frenzy but which he knew was in-fact a well-ordered operation. "Do you have any idea?"

"Considering where she's berthed, a good guess would be a consignment of rope of various types, including twine and string. A large shipment of it was brought to that dock yesterday evening."

"You know everything that comes and goes on these docks?" the Cargo-Master asked dryly.

Macgregory laughed. "Hardly, Mr. Van Rycke. It's just like I said before. A lot of the docks're either owned or permanently leased by fairly big organizations with well-known products and imports, and similar types of goods tend to move from fixed spots. I don't have a clue about the numerous small, independent lots that go in and out every day, and if someone wants to make a big secret of what he's doing, I wouldn't know what he's hiding." His eyes sparkled momentarily. "Unless I think it's worth the effort of finding out, that is." His guests would know full well that his position gave him the power if not the official authority to do that under most circ.u.mstances if he chose to exercise it. "Like most independents, the Regina Man's has her own band of regular customers. That makes for a similar cargo mix, just about what I described, often along with some ammonium nitrate or benzol thrown in. She'll spend three or four days in port loading up and refueling, make her run, and come back to repeat the cycle. - No mystery at all about her."

Seeing that the four had finished their torte, Charles returned to the table. "Would you like some jakek or coffee?"

"Jakek," Miceal responded quickly. Inwardly, he mourned that local etiquette forbade the requesting of a second helping of the torte to go with it. That had been one of the finest examples of the culinary art he had enjoyed in a stellar age.

"Jakek," Rael said somewhat absently.

Van Rycke eyed his shipmates with disapproval. "Coffee for me, please. Old is best after a fine meal like this."

"I'm old-fashioned as well," agreed Adroo. "That'll be two cups of jakek and two of coffee, Charles."

"Very good, sir." He deftly retrieved the used plates and cutlery and withdrew as un.o.btrusively as he had arrived.

Some minutes later, he returned with a tray bearing the four cups, which he set before their proper recipients.

Jellico sipped his. "As good as any I've tasted even on Hedon," he averred.

"So's the coffee," Jan remarked. "A special blend, Mr. Macgregory?"

He nodded. "Yes. Max's secret. We could easily enough find out the varieties he brings in, but not the proportions he uses."

"That would only spoil the mystery."

"Precisely."

Rael Cofort raised her cup to her lips but held it there while she gazed beyond it seemingly into the depths of s.p.a.ce. Suddenly, she set it down again with enough force that the resulting click against the saucer caused her three companions to turn toward her. "Mr. Macgregory," she asked tensely, "you said ammonium nitrate is frequently loaded in the Cup area?"

"Yes," he answered, surprised. "Just about every week. Nearly daily at this time of year. Why?"

"Then Canuche Town is a death wish awaiting fulfillment."

19.

A frown darkened the Cargo-Master's features, but Jellico silenced him with a sharp shake of his head. A cold dread chilled his own heart. It was not the Medic's words but the deadly, calm certainty with which she had spoken them that drove the spear through him. That tone compelled attention, the more powerfully from those who knew this woman at all.

Adroo Macgregory was not pleased, but he, too, was gripped by his guest's manner. Groundlessly or not, she was afraid for his city. "It's an old, stable compound, Doctor. You can jostle it, drop containers of it, run a transport over it without any effect whatsoever."

"Aye, but give it a sudden, extreme increase in temperature, and you've got an atom bomb on your hands. - I'm not exaggerating, Mr. Macgregory. Ammonium nitrate sounded familiar to me, not because I'd heard of it in connection with Trade but because of my own studies. History tells loud and clear what it can do. That stuff has caused galactic-cla.s.s chaos before now, and given everything else stored and made around here, there's enough of it down there right now to literally annihilate everything and everyone between these slopes if absolutely everything went wrong, and maybe a good part of the city beyond as well."

"You're sure?" the Solar Queen's Captain asked quietly.

"Aye. The incidents I'd studied took place in the far past. As Mr. Van Rycke says, ammonium nitrate hasn't been big business, or real business at all, for a very long time, but it has caused trouble before, and it'll do it again. Canuche Town's primed for it."

"She's right if that blasted stuff's as bad as she claims," the Canuchean cut in sharply. "The Cup's the worst conceivable place for an accident involving a volatile substance. - I'll look into this. Doctor Cofort. If your claims prove out, before you lift with your last charter from me, you'll find ammonium nitrate being handled on the red docks, with shipments so scheduled as not to bring it into contact with too much else that might exacerbate an accident."

"Will you be able to get the dock s.p.a.ce for it?" Jan asked doubtfully. "Everything looks pretty locked up down there."

"Out at the very tip, yes, which is where it belongs anyway by the sound of it. Those piers're too far away from everything to be considered convenient, so there are always a number of them available. We don't ship that much sensitive material at a given moment nowadays to tie them all up. Or we didn't."

"You'll have to delve far back for confirmation," Rael warned, "to the first Martian settlement and pre-s.p.a.ce Terra."

"I have the people to do the digging, Doctor. Don't you worry about that. I also have the means to collect evidence more directly. - I'll have to ask you to excuse me for a few minutes. They have sealed booths here. There are some calls I have to make."

Rael watched him go, then lowered her eyes to the table to avoid those of her companions. "I'm sorry," she said softly.

"He mentioned that two million people live in Canuche Town," Miceal said.

He took a sip out of his cup and scowled. "s.p.a.ce, woman, why couldn't you at least have waited until we'd finished our jakek?"

"The coffee's no less good," Van Rycke told him, although he glanced nervously below even as he spoke. The motion of the restaurant had already begun to put the Cup behind them. The effect would be strictly illusory in the event that the worst happened while they were up here, of course, but it was a definite psychological comfort to see it go.

He frowned again as an old memory stirred. "I think she's right, Miceal. Way back in my first year at the Pool, we had an old cracked-helmet retired Cargo-Master as an instructor. I recall his mentioning that ammonium nitrate used to be on the hazardous cargo list at one time before it was dropped for never being carried. I believe he also mentioned that it was actually used as an explosive in olden times. - d.a.m.n, I should have remembered that as soon-"

"Power down, Van," Jellico said calmly. "Even you're not a computer. - Here comes our host."

Macgregory did not reclaim his chair. "Come on, s.p.a.ce hounds. We're about to witness an experiment."

One of the calls the Canuchean industrialist had made was to order a transport for his party, and a large four-wheel pa.s.senger vehicle was waiting for them at the entrance of the tower building when they emerged from it a few minutes later.

It made no delay in carrying them through the crowded streets and deposited them in short order before the main entrance of the giant Caledonia, Inc., plant.

Adroo nodded to the guard stationed there and led his guests inside. "Our research quarters are this way."

It was through the clerical portion of the huge facility that he conducted them rather than through those sections where Caledonia's numerous products were made or a.s.sembled. Here were no coverall-clad laborers driving their minitrucks, lifters, or manipulators or commanding their banks of robots but, rather, fashionably dressed men and women seated at desks or moving in an office worker's universal hurry along the seemingly endless hallways.

Once again, Rael was struck by the suitability of their Trade uniforms. They attracted no notice, or none beyond the inevitable interest aroused by the company in which they traveled.

She gave a wry smile. That held true only for their dress uniforms, she amended. They would not make such an appealing picture after a few hours shoving cargo around, particularly on some low-mech steam pit like Queex's Tabor or Amazoon of Indra.

"Here's the Research Center," Macgregory told them at last, echoing the sign on the big double swinging doors as he pushed his way through them.

Another maze of corridors awaited them on the other side, in general appearance much the same as those they had left behind save that the people they encountered now were wearing white. Most also had their hair confined in san-nets and their hands covered by the light, supple laboratory gloves that were standard equipment in such installations throughout the Federation.

A technician whom Rael judged to be about Dane Thorson's age approached them. "We're all set, Mr. Macgregory."