Deluge by Anne McCaffrey Read Free Book Online

but two—Chesney Janko and Lan Huy—were familiar from her time at Marmie’s school.
    Lan Huy wept in a shockingly loud and heartbroken way that set the younger ones off. Between sobs, she made Murel understand that she had seen her father, one of Marmie’s chief engineers, stunned and dragged away before the soldiers grabbed her as well. Murel remembered that Lan Huy had grown up on V
ersailles Station.
It was the only home she knew.
    Chesney Janko was younger than either Murel or Lan Huy, but she tried to comfort the older girl, making soothing shushing sounds and patting her quivering shoulder.
    Murel could scarcely hear herself think over the wailing of the younger girls, but she called to her brother anyway.
Ro?
    I’m here, sis. Me and about ten other guys.
    She looked around the little room.
Where are we? I don’t recognize this part of the station.
While the two lived on
Versailles Station,
they had had an opportunity to explore most of it.
    We’re not on the station, sis. What with you settin’ such a fine example, I decided one of us with a sore head would be enough. So I whined instead and begged them, whatever they did to us, not to send us to Gwinnet Incarceration Colony. They enjoyed telling me that was exactly where we’re going. Everyone from the station. At least if we’re there, we can find out what’s happening to Marmie.
    Even if we’re not in a position to do anything about it,
Murel said.
What about Sky?
    I don’t know. I didn’t realize otters could play possum so well, but he had that eedjit of a soldier fooled and got away. There’s plenty of places for him to hide till they leave.
    Hah!
came an otterly thought.
Sky otters are fierce fighters. I used my strong claws and big sharp teeth to get away, then followed the otter-eating men who took river seals. Otters are good hiders, and there are hundreds of places for otters to hide here.
    Oh, Sky, I’m glad you’re okay, but you should have escaped when you could. They might hurt you,
Murel said.
    You will not let them,
Sky said with perfect confidence.
You do not let wolves eat otters, or sharks or even other seals. River seals help their otter friends. Otters help river seals too.
    I hope none of us will regret that decision later, but I must say, right now I feel better knowing you’re near,
Murel said.
    Me too,
Ronan agreed.
But don’t let them catch you again, no matter what.
    Otters are very cunning,
Sky assured them.
And we have big sharp teeth.
    To their surprise and relief, their captors did not question anyone during the journey, or even speak to them. They didn’t seem to care who anybody was, just so they were off the space station. The kids were fed Corps rations, the kind the soldiers ate in the field—all nutrition and no taste—and given water. Their cells had flush toilets with blue chemical stuff in them and they plugged up easily. The temperature was controlled, but the number of bodies in each room made it way too warm most of the time.
    The girls had exhausted themselves crying, and gradually the noise simmered to a generalized whine of anxiety, discomfort, and boredom.
    Nobody was mistreating them, but neither were they exerting any effort to make things easier for the young ones.
    Needing some distraction herself, Murel decided to use the kind of tactics employed by Petaybean child minders and teachers of restless classes. “If my snow leopard friend was here,” she said, “she would eat all of those bad people and set us free.”
    Huy’s lips curled into a small smile, Chesney laughed, and the little girls who had heard her looked mildly interested.
    “Also,” Murel added, “she’d bring us all ice cream.”
    “What’s that?” asked the smallest girl, the one the others called Daf.
    “It’s sweet and smooth and cold and really yummy,” Murel told her. “It comes in lots of flavors. Where I live, we make it out of snow mixed with milk from our horses.”
    By the time she explained what a horse