Dinosaurus Planet Survivors

CHAPTER FIVE

Varian came awake by degrees: the first one being her awareness of voices in low earnest conversation, either too far from her for the individual words to be audible or too soft to keep from rousing her. She thought to get up, but it proved difficult to assemble the energy. Could she have been in cold sleep again? No! She was resting, rather comfortably, on a bed of springy boughs, not the flat plasfloor of the space shuttle or the dust of the cave. She felt an occasional breeze waft across her face and exposed hands.

She didn’t feel so much tired as disinterested. Yet, in the back of her mind, a spark started with the observation: she had so much to tell Lunzie. Sneaky of her to knock Varian out like that.

She continued to listen and realized that two men were speaking. Then Kai was better! It was good to hear him. But he wouldn’t be well enough in three days’ time to join her against Aygar. They’d better wake Portegin and get the technician functioning. No way was she meeting Aygar, and whoever accompanied him, in three days time without strong support. And if she was this tired after a day’s use of Discipline, would she recover sufficiently in three to draw on that inner reserve again?

What was it about Aygar’s manner that bothered her? The expression in his eyes had been wary, speculative, evaluating, not at all the reaction she might have expected from a man making first contact with off-world visitors! That was it! He had been expecting someone. Not her. And not someone who could best him in personal combat.

Varian became conscious of a rich, nutty smell. Her stomach began to rumble and her mouth to salivate. She stirred restlessly, keenly aware that she was very hungry.

“I told you that the stew would get to her,” Lunzie said suddenly.

Varian opened her eyes.

Lunzie, Triv, and Kai made a semicircle on one side of the crude hearth, complete now with a spit and crane from which a pail hung.

Varian propped herself up on one elbow. “Whatever it is, I’m starving.”

“Lunzie mixed a bit of everything you brought in and it turned out very tasty indeed,” Triv said, filling a smoke hardened fruit shell with the mixture. He presented this to Varian and, with a flourish, added a rudely carved wooden spoon.

“The amenities of home have improved.” Varian made an appreciative chuckle. “How’s Kai?” she asked in a quieter tone. Although Kai was propped up, he was far too passive for her liking.

“We started to revive Portegin,” Triv said, squatting beside Varian so his body shielded her from those at the fire. “Kai’s still feverish. Says some kind of giant fringe attacked him. He’s not recovering as well as Lunzie would like,” he said in a quick whisper, then raised his voice to a normal level. “Kai thinks that once we have the matrix slabs from the other sleds, we can rig communications, probably patch most of what Paskutti smashed.”

“I was hoping that we could, Triv.” Varian tasted the stew then began to devour it as fast as she could. “This is delicious!” It was natural then for her to get up and join the two at the fire, and natural for her to pause by Kai before refilling her bowl. His color and the lassitude were alarming, and the smile he gave her was strained. “You look much better than when I last saw you.”

Kai gave a derisive snort. “I can’t have looked much worse than I feel now.”

“Why?” Varian went for a light touch. “Didn’t you like the purple moss Divisti grew just to cure your fever?”

Kai grimaced in such disgust that the others laughed.

“It makes a very effective antipyretic.” Lunzie broke off with a wry grin. “I wonder what Divisti’s reaction would be if she knew how much it was going to help us.” Then she turned to Varian, with no humor in her gaze. “You did say, last night, that we’d cold-slept forty-three years?”

“I’d have told the rest of my news if I hadn’t been so rudely interrupted,” she said with a sour glance at Lunzie who only grinned back.

“You did fall asleep at a crucial point,” the medic said. “Are any of the mutineers still alive?”

“Only one. Tanegli.”

“You met him?” Kai asked.

“No. I met a sturdy young man named Aygar. An accomplished young fellow who was busy killing a fang-face with a barbed metal spear.”

Kai made an expression of utter disgust. “Accomplished?”

“His strategy was good,” said Varian, seeing no point in going into needlessly distressing detail.

“Do you know if they’re in the secondary camp?”

“They abandoned that for a more suitable site.”

“Where was Divisti’s garden then?” Kai’s tone was querulous.

“I’ll start from the beginning-”

“When you’ve finished that second bowl,” Lunzie said firmly.

Varian ate with indecorous haste and pleasure, glad of the opportunity to organize her thoughts. Feeling revitalized as she scraped up the last of the tasty stew, she began her account of the previous day’s incidents with the unexpected escort of the giffs.

The listeners, and gradually Portegin became aware enough to listen, too, did not interrupt with questions, letting her narrative flow. Lunzie’s eyes had a malicious sparkle as Varian gave a very brief account of overpowering the young Aygar, adding that he’d just finished a rather exhausting race to out distance an enraged fang-face. Varian noticed that Kai frowned over that show of strength. Well, perhaps she should have restrained her actions there but she sincerely doubted she’d ever catch Aygar unawares again, or best him. All four listeners, commended her for posing as a representative of a new expedition in search of the first. The only hazard to that blatant lie would be a confrontation with Tangelli.

“But he’s reported to be frail and not expected to live much longer,” Varian said.

“Let us devoutly hope he is not included in the party you meet then.” Lunzie brought her brows together. “What I do not understand is why he, one of the oldest of the heavyworlders, has survived when the younger ones, like Bakkun and Berru, are dead.”

“How long would their heavy-gravity advantage last on a light world?” Triv asked.

“Unless they found some way to simulate heavy-gravity conditions and exercise under them-”

“Well, they would have had to man handle all the stone they build with up to the bluff,” Varian said, “and there were eight large buildings plus six or seven smaller ones, with slate for roofs.”

“That would have helped,” but Lunzie’s tone was hesitant with doubt.

“If they all indulged in ‘chase-the-fang-face-till-it-bled-to-death’,” Varian said with considerable acrimony in her voice, “they didn’t dare get fat.”

“Obviously, their descendants have no such problem, and inherited physiques capable of considerable muscular development,” Lunzie continued. “Since this Aygar depended on physical endurance to out run an enraged predator while it was bleeding to death, and then tried to take you on, Varian, the strength factor is still on their side. I think we’d better attend that meeting in force and in Discipline.

“Right, Kai?”

“I’ll be with you, Varian!”

Even as Varian nodded agreement, her eyes flicked to Lunzie’s and registered the denial the medic would not voice.

“We must have communications, though.” Varian glanced toward Portegin, who was looking more alert now.

“I’m sure I can rig something, especially if the sled units are operative. With that many matrices available, I might even fix what Paskutti smashed in the shuttle-at least for planetary use.”

“I wish we had some kind of long-distance defensive tool,” Varian said, scratching her ear. “There was something in Aygar’s manner that worries me, but I can’t figure what!”

“What sort of weapons did he carry?” asked Portegin.

Varian described the crossbow and Portegin laughed. “We can do better than that if Lunzie has any anesthetic left?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Lunzie said, a trifle surprised. “Not much,” she cautioned, holding up her hand, “but enough to provide for a few medicated bolts.”

“Good, then all I need is some hardwood and I can contrive a dart gun that would immobilize your crossbow user before he could cock it.”

“So long as we get to shoot first,” Varian said.

“You’d better!” Lunzie’s expression was as uncompromising as her tone.

“I don’t want to shoot anyone,” Varian said. “Cold sleep didn’t change my moral values.”

“No, just drastically changed our circumstances. We’re five…” and Lunzie’s finger did an arc including them all, “against I haven’t figured out how many progeny in two generations from six parents. We had few advantages over the heavyworlders to begin with, and have fewer now that they’re completely ensconced in terrain we haven’t seen. They’re very well adapted to the environment.” She nodded at Kai. “You gained an advantage yesterday, Varian. We’ve got to maintain it, such as it is, no matter what we have to do to keep it. We can’t keep in constant Discipline. Above all, we have to protect the sleepers!” Her arm swung back toward the shuttle.

“I’m consoled by the fact that the giffs take that on themselves,” Kai said.

“A point, but only when none of us can assume that responsibility.” Lunzie turned back to Varian. “Aygar gave you no indication how many people are in the new settlement, or why they left the old?”

“He was as wary of me as I was of him… once we agreed not to fight anymore. But there were eight buildings in the camp they had abandoned, and the dome had evidently gone with them, for there was a circle where it had stood in the center of the octagon the other buildings formed. Each house had four rooms. And except for built-in stone shelving, they were empty.”

“Four times eight gives 32 which tells us nothing, really, said Lunzie. Tardma might have been able to produce two, maybe three children; she was the oldest. Berru and Divisti could have born a child a year easily for twenty or so, if they were forced to. I hazard they alternated paternity and kept track of whose was whose, to have as wide a gene pool as possible-”

“They’d still be in trouble by the third or fourth generation when recessive-”

“As I recall their medical records,” Lunzie gently interrupted Kai, “Bakkun, Berru, and Divisti came from different genetic stock than the other three, who were from Modrem in the Cluster. There’s also a freak genetic twist that prevents recessives from surviving on Heavyworld planets. The babies are either shipped off world or…” Lunzie sighed, continuing briskly. “So that six are, were, the finest physical specimens, with nary a blurred chromosome for three or four generations back of adjustment to heavy-gravity worlds. Prime breeders.”

“Aygar resembles Berru,” Varian said for no reason at all except the long thoughtful pause had to be broken.

“Then I’d be more careful than ever with that young man. Neither Berru or Bakkun was short on brains.”

“Which is why I never figured they’d join Paskutti,” Triv remarked.

“How could they have fallen for Gaber’s rumor that we were planted.”

“But we have been,” Varian said, unable to contain laughter that bubbled up in spite of her realization of the incredible odds against them. “At least until ARCT-10 remembers they left us here. Kai, did Tor say anything to you on your way to the compound?”

“I was far too busy hanging on to talk. And when we got to the compound, Tor began to search for the core so I went looking for the sleds. I’d just found them when I heard Tor blasting off.” He shook his head as he remembered his unworthy thoughts at that moment. “When I got back to the compound, I saw it’d left the power pack with a lifter, and the cavity where it’d found the core.”

“It never even waited to see if the sleds were operable?” Portegin asked.

“Well, those sleds are built to withstand tremendous pressures and adverse conditions,” Kai replied, temporizing.

Lunzie snorted.

“Then Tor may be back?” asked Portegin.

“I wouldn’t count on it, Portegin,” Lunzie said. She had been busy at the hearth and now brought a filled shell to Kai. “I know it tastes vile but it brought your temperature down. Drink up.”

“It smells vile, too,” Kai said, regarding the purple liquid with distaste.

“Which means it does you more good,” said Varian with a laugh.

Kai drank it all in one gulp. His violent shudder was no affectation and to take the taste away he quickly sucked at the slice of fruit Lunzie handed him.

Varian covered her smile. Kai was becoming dependent on natural foods despite his aversion to them. She was a bit startled to realize that Lunzie was advancing on her with a stern air. The medic’s fingers closed on the younger woman’s wrist, timing pulse rate.

“I’d prefer it, Varian, if you could take a full day’s rest after your exertions-”

“We both know I can’t, Lunzie. Triv and I have got to retrieve the other sleds.”

“I could go along and dismantle what we need,” Portegin suggested.

“You’re not ready for that sort of exertion yet, my friend,” Lunzie said.

“I’d rest easier if we got all the sleds here.”

“Don’t see any problem in that, Kai.” Triv rose to his feet and extending a hand pulled Varian to hers. “That four-man sled will easily take the other two, lashed into the cargo bed. All Varian’ll have to do is watch out for the fringes.”

“You can smell them coming,” Kai said.

“That’s why Varian has to come along,” Triv said. “I can’t smell anything but Ireta yet.”

“From which direction did it attack you, Kai?” Varian asked.

“Behind.” Kai grimaced. “I’d just locked the power pack into position and turned when it rushed me. I thought it was just a larger dose of Ireta’s usual stink.”

“Wait a minute,” Lunzie called as Triv and Varian moved toward the sled. She rummaged under the stores and then held both hands high. From one hung a thick coil of rope, from the other what could only be a force-field unit and, more miraculous still, a wrist comunit.

“Where did you find those?” Varian leaped over the fire in her eagerness to examine the prizes.

Lunzie permitted herself a grin at the effect of her treasure trove.

“Bonnard had the unit and the forcebelt on. Remember the mutineers never caught him so he had all his gear. You wear the forcebelt, Varian. I doubt the fringe would suck electrical impulses for long. The rope,” which she tossed to Portegin, “I synthesized out of our very plentiful vine.”

Varian buckled the forcebelt on and felt reassured by its weight about her waist. Lunzie strapped on the wrist unit.

“Now, you can keep me informed. Time’s a wasting.”

Lunzie gave Varian an encouraging grin.

“Just don’t forget the odor, Varian,” was Kai’s parting advice.

Varian and Triv hauled the sled to the lip of the cave on the far left so the air cushion would not throw dust on the fire and the convalescents. Just as they dropped over the edge, a treacherous draught caught the sled and Varian had all she could do to correct the downward plunge of the craft. Immediately they were surrounded by giffs, heads anxiously pointing seaward, although what the creatures thought they could do to save the sled, Varian didn’t know.

“How could they spot that we’re in trouble?” Triv cried, straining backward in his seat, his eyes glued on the water rushing to meet them.

Out of the corner of her eye, Varian caught a flash of thick, suckered tentacle, felt it bang against the sled’s rear flange. Then the giffs attacked the appendage, their sharp beaks slicing into the flesh until it fell away.

“By the first Disciple, that was too ruddy close,” Triv exclaimed as Varian fought for an upward air passage. They had skimmed the surface of the sea itself.

Circling up and back toward the cliff at a safer height, they looked down. The tentacled monster, propelling itself after the vague shadow cast by the sled, writhed as the giffs continued to dive until it was forced to submerge.

“I think I better rig some sort of wind indicator at the mouth of the cave,” Triv said, more to himself than to her. “If it hadn’t been for those giffs…”

Varian, aware that she was trembling from reaction, heartily endorsed Triv’s idea of a wind indicator. Then they were above the cliffs and suddenly drenched by the torrential rains that had accompanied the treacherous wind squall.

The rains had passed by the time they had reached the first compound. The sun was having its noon time look. Steam rose from drying foliage, which encouraged the myriad biting, sucking, buzzing insects to swarm about the sled as Varian made her landing. Triv was silent beside her, but it wasn’t until they were down, that she realized why.

“It seems only yesterday…” he said in a low voice, staring about the deserted natural amphitheater. His gaze went from the spot where the main dome had been, to Gaber’s cartography unit, to where the mutineers’ accommodation had been. Then his lips thinned and his eyes hardened.

“The here-and-now is more important, Triv,” Varian said.

Because she had the belt, Varian insisted that Triv stay in the safety of the canopied sled while she attacked the vegetation that covered the remaining sleds. She found the stick Kai must have used, its point dug deep into the soft loam. She flailed away at colonies of slugs, worms, and multilegged insects which had made burrows between the sleds: a mini-ecology that at another time she would have enjoyed examining. When she had the worst of the vegetation cleared, Triv emerged. It took their combined efforts and much sweaty heaving to lift the sleds free of a dirt that had a consistency of hardened adhesive. But then the sleds had been settled deeply on their edges for over four decades.

“I can’t see any breaks in the substructure,” Triv said, running knowledgeable hands along the side panels.

“This model sled’s come out operational from worse battering, not to mention the slime sand on Tenebris V,” Varian said, settling herself at the control console of the four-man sled. “Now, for the tricky part.” Turning off the forcebelt, she wet her finger to test the prevailing wind. “You stand well to my right and move when the wind shifts. The purple mold’ll bubble up like Divisti’s moss tea.” She retrieved another feather from her breast pocket and saluted Triv with it before she reactivated her forcebelt. “Don’t let this stuff touch you, even if it gets me,” she added as she used Portegin’s seal breaker along the line. She strained her body away from the console as the mold boiled from its prison. Varian kept the panel in front of her face as the light winds dispersed the frothy fungi. She prodded with her feather at clumps momentarily caught on the lip of the unit. When she was sure that the worst had been blown away, she began to clear the delicate matrix panels, tickling the corners where fungi might hide, and slipping the tip of her feather in and under, back and forth into every part of the console. Then she dusted the control panel.

When she had refitted and scaled the unit, she motioned to Triv to install the power pack.

“I won’t take time to dust the other panels now, Triv. Let’s strap ’em in the cargo bed and get out of here.” Varian felt uneasy. She could smell nothing unusual, even when she turned off the forcebelt to be sure it was not filtering the nauseating sea odor that would herald the arrival of a man-enveloping fringe.

The two sleds fitted easily across the cargo section and Triv secured them deftly with stout twists and knots. After two hours of intensive labor, they had accomplished their task. How oddly comforting to know what time had passed again, Varian thought. She frequently consulted the console chrono during their labors. She asked Triv to take the four-man sled, since he was stronger and more rested than she. She maintained a position to his port so that she could see both his hand signals and watch the lashed sleds in case they should shift in adverse winds.

She caught Triv’s first signal the moment they were fully airborne but she saw no shift in the sleds. Then she saw him pointing upward and noticed the three giffs veering in to take up their escort positions. She’d had such a fright with the marine beast that she hadn’t even noticed their out-going escort. She chuckled to herself, wondering if these were the same three, or if they flew escort in rotation. Had their discreet surveillance somehow prevented a fringe attack? She must remember to ask Kai if the giffs had accompanied Tor’s craft, though she doubted it, at the rate of speed Tor could travel.

Their return journey was without incident. Varian took the small sled in first, reversing at the hover and getting as close to the space shuttle as possible to give Triv sufficient room to maneuver. He parked the four-man sled neatly against the left-hand side of the cave. Lunzie and Portegin, moving with some residual stiffness from his long sleep, helped to unload.

Portegin was for starting his project immediately but Varian cautioned him about the purple fungus. So they positioned a sled with its nose well over the cave edge, secured by rope to the heavier craft so that the wind, now sweeping down over the cliffs, would blow the fungus away from their living quarters.

“I see how to do it, Varian,” Portegin told her a bit impatiently.

“Let him do it,” Lunzie said, unbuckling Varian’s forcebelt even as she protested.

“I feel fine.”

“That’s because you haven’t seen yourself,” Lunzie replied with a disparaging sniff. “You need as much restorative as I can pump into you.”

“I’m tougher than I look,” Varian said. She whirled around when she heard Kai laugh.

“If I have to listen to Lunzie, so do you, co-leader. Now sit down here, take your medicine, and suffer with me.” Kai motioned her to sit beside him.

Varian did so, thinking it was the first time she’d had a chance to look at him since his injury. He seemed better but red blotches still marred his forehead and hands. Lunzie handed them each a shell bowl.

“More moss?” Varian asked seeing the color of Kai’s.

“I’ve fixed the taste,” Lunzie said.

Varian sniffed at hers, expecting the rich smell of the morning’s stew. “Krims! What’d you put in this?”

“What’s good for you! Drink it.” And she turned away to ladle portions for everyone else.

“She has fixed the taste,” said Kai after a sip and pulled himself to a sitting position. “But only after I made her sample it.” Kai grinned. “Whatever she added makes me hungrier than ever. I’d eat anything handed to me and ask for more.” He drained his bowl and picked a small red fruit from the pile beside him.

“Kai! You’re eating fruit! Fresh fruit!”

“I told you I was hungry enough to eat anything! Even this-this natural stuff!”

By the time the two sleds had been cleared of fungi, with Triv’s assistance, Portegin had began to reassemble the available communications matrices. While Triv and Varian had been away, Portegin dismantled the damaged shuttle comunit. The slabs were laid out under more of Lunzie’s plasfilm to protect them from the dust and debris that the wind blew about the cavern. Portegin shortly began muttering about doing delicate work with a hammer and tongs. He crouched like a troglodyte while Triv suggested that he transfer his operation into the big sled and the protection of the transparent canopy. Lunzie grudgingly surrendered one of her few medical probes to be heated to seal the connections.

“The joints won’t last as long as they would if I had the proper equipment but they ought to hold well enough,” Portegin announced after thanking Lunzie for her sacrifice.

Triv offered to assist Portegin as the man’s small-muscle control showed the effects of long disuse. They rearranged the seats in the larger sled and came across unexpected riches. Tucked between the seat back and the curve of the hull were two stunguns, three force belts, and a lift unit for power packs, rolled tightly up in a spare coverall.

“Bonnard, that clever scamp. He must have hidden them, while the mutineers were mauling us in the shuttle,” Varian cried, dancing about with the belts and guns held high in jubilation.

“D’you suppose he hid anything else in the other sleds?” Kai asked.

They searched thoroughly, but the food packs which Bonnard had secreted had been penetrated by insect or fungi and were empty.

“Disinfected, these tubes’ll make good containers,” Lunzie said.

Portegin was to make the last find, the most important one, and that only by chance, for the curve of the blunt sled had concealed it well. His hands found the real treasures: eight matrices, still in a film coating which even the purple fungus had been unable to penetrate, five tiny separators, several dozen stun-capsules, and another wrist unit. The items had been glued to the surface by some gummy substance that had long since hardened. Over the decades it had become brittle so that Portegin’s touch had loosened the riches from their unlikely hidey-hole. The five surveyed their wealth in a silence broken when Varian laid tentative fingers on the stun gun.

“In forty-three years, they would have exhausted all their supplies. No matter how clever they are, they couldn’t achieve the technology to produce more.”

“Not if they hunt that thunder lizard of Trizein’s with a crossbow and lance.” Lunzie said. “Nice to have an advantage again.”

Varian hated weapons but was exceedingly grateful to see them. The discovery also lifted from her mind the depression that had plagued her. She was far more tired than she cared to admit and not even Lunzie’s nutrient soup had reduced that weariness. In her present state, she’d never be able to use Discipline effectively for any long period, and any encounters with Aygar and his peers presumed full Discipline on her part. To have such accouterments when she kept that appointment gave her the psychological advantage she needed.

“If they’re metal-working and smart,” Triv noted as he hefted a stunner in his hand, “they’ll have found the ingredients for primitive explosive weapons. This stunner doesn’t have the effective range of a projectile weapon, even of that crossbow.”

“Strategy can make up for shortcomings-or short ranges,” Varian noted in a light tone.

“Even if you have to crash and destroy them, those sleds aren’t to fail into the mutineers’ hands,” Kai said forcefully, swearing again as his voice cracked.

“We don’t necessarily have to bring the sleds into sight,” said Varian, “not when we have lift belts.”

“Let’s not talk of destroying the sleds,” Portegin urged holding up both hands in dismay at the notion. “I can bypass the start switch so that only we’d know how to start one.”

“Can you patch a line from wrist unit to the shuttle or the sled?”

“You’re not taking the four-man sled are you, Varian?” Kai asked.

“Krims! No, but you’ll want to hear what’s going on, won’t you?”

“If I only had some sort of a magnifier…” Portegin was muttering under his breath. “Lunzie, you must have something?…”

She handed him a loupe but warned Portegin of the dire consequences of chipping or breaking one of her precious few medical aids.

When Kai volunteered to help Triv and Portegin, Lunzie would have none of it. She forced him to alternate bathing his injured hands in the sap with wringing out cloths for his face wounds. Then she made Varian lie down for an hour’s rest before having her go on a provisions hunt. With all the ravenous appetites she had to satisfy, Lunzie needed more raw vegetable matter for the synthesizer, and she also wanted to locate more of the edible fruits, pods, and herbs nearby.

Varian thought she’d be unable to sleep with Triv’s and Portegin’s murmuring and swearing, the sound and rustle of the wind through the vine screen, and the odd sounds made by Kai and Lunzie, but it seemed she’d only closed her eyes when Lunzie was shaking her awake again.

Since Triv seemed to have little to do while he watched Portegin assembling a matrix comb, Varian was a bit grumpy when Lunzie hustled her to the sled. Varian’s temper was not much improved by the drizzling rain that made visibility poor, but Lunzie pointed curtly to the brighter skies to the southwest and told Varian to make for a spot where they could see what they picked without getting drenched in the process.

Immediately three giffs curved away from those few idly circling the caves. It was well past the return of the fishers, and most adult fliers were already inside their caves, sleeping off their meal, or what ever they did.

“Do they do any more than follow?” Lunzie asked after observing them for a time.

“Not when I’m airborne…”

“When they consider you safe?” Lunzie asked with a wry grin.

“Come to think of it, when the scavengers began to circle in on that dead beast, the giffs were picking up speed.”

“That could be useful.”

Something in her idle tone, that of a woman not much given to chit chat, warned Varian that Lunzie had several purposes in the flight.

“How seriously ill is Kai, Lunzie?”

“Hard to say with no way of testing. Feeling is returning to his hands and the skin of his face isn’t as numb, or so he tells me. There’s no question that he’s suffered some motor impairment in his hands. I’m hoping that will pass once the last of the toxic fluid is flushed out of his system. I want to get more of that moss if we can find it, and I want a store of those succulent leaves around at all times.” Lunzie showed Varian a long red weal on her hand. “The sap is analgesic. I’m not used to dealing with raw fire.”

“How long, then, before Kai is well?”

“He’s not going to be physically fit for several weeks. I’d prefer to keep him from any exertion at all for four or five days, then a slow convalescence.” Varian digested that in silence.

“Triv can accompany you and Portegin if he’s finished patching. But I must watch Kai.”

“Yes, he’s likely to try something stupid because he feels responsible for us all.”

“What is it about this meeting that worries you, Varian?”

“I wish I could answer that. There was something about Aygar’s attitude…”

Lunzie chuckled in high amusement. “I’ll bet there was.”

“Lunzie! You said yourself, I’m not at my best-”

“At your very worst, you’d be a joy to a man deprived of a woman.

And one hell of an acquisition to their gene pool.

Varian didn’t dismiss that notion but it was not, she was certain, the entire answer to the enigma of Aygar’s cryptic expression.

“Sexuality could have been part of it, Lunzie, but it’s more as if… as if he had a surprise for me. And he did mention their beacon. Yes, the beacon had something to do with it and something that would, in his mind, neutralize my ability to throw him.”

“Why do they have a beacon?” Lunzie asked. She thoughtfully pursed her lips as Varian shook her head. Abruptly the medic pointed ahead and to starboard.

“Isn’t that moss down there?”

Varian banked sharply, noticing the small animals scurrying from the sound of the sled. She threw on the telltagger but it only made noises appropriate to the small life-forms rapidly leaving the area. When they had landed, Varian kept one eye on the giffs. As long as they circled lazily, she felt safe.

“Not the right moss,” Lunzie said disgustedly. She held a sample under Varian’s nose.

“It stinks!”

“It’s cryptogamous!”

“Really?”

“Propagates by spores. What we want is bryophitic. You didn’t happen to notice how much of the stuff in Divisti’s garden is also bryophitic?”

“If it’s fungoid, I’m automatically prejudiced,” Varian gave a small shudder. “But I didn’t notice fungi in the garden. And the purple moss was the only one of its sort.”

“Don’t disparage fungi. Some of the oddest and most repellent are delicious and highly nutritious.”

“And smelly?”

“You planet-bred types do worry about smell, don’t you?” Lunzie grinned at Varian, and began to scrub her hands with dirt to remove the moss.

“I’d think smell would bother you shippers a lot more.”

“Is it safe to explore a little here?” Lunzie asked, glancing around the small copse.

“I don’t see why not,” Varian replied, after a glance at the giffs.

“I’ll just turn up the volume on the telltagger.”

They ventured farther among the huge, high-branching trees, noting the nail grooves where the long-neck herbivores had steadied themselves to reach the upper leaves and branches. Similar stands of trees were scattered about the vast plain. Distant hadrosaurs, distinguishable by their crests, were bending saplings down to reach the edible twigs.

After concluding that the area had been overgrazed, the two women took to the air again, moving southeast until the land fell away in a huge old fault of several hundred meters’ height. The vegetation in the lower portion differed drastically from that of the plain. There were also more clearings in which to land the sled but the telltagger buzzed so continually that Varian declined to take an unnecessary risk.

“We can try the swamps where we found the hyracotherium tomorrow,” Varian suggested and Lunzie agreed that this might be a more profitable site for the purple moss.

They were turning back when Varian sighted pod-bearing trees, at the northern end of the fault. Although there was room enough to land a space cruiser, the land was occupied by large tusked animals which were either fighting or bashing headlong into slender trunked trees to dislodge pods for noisy consumption. The air-sled frightened the creatures off but Varian preferred to hover well above the tuskers while Lunzie picked, happily muttering about high protein content.

“Make a note of these coordinates, will you, Varian? We’ll want more of these. They’re what give my special stew its flavor.”

Taking another tangent back to the sea cliffs of the golden fliers, they made one more stop, in fruiting trees which Varian also noted for future reference.

The fragrance of the ripe fruit, picked from boughs grazing animals couldn’t reach, filled the enclosed air sled with tantalizing sweetness.

“No more stops no matter what you see, Lunzie. It’s getting dark, and I don’t fancy night landings in that cave.”

“I might just wake Bonnard,” Lunzie said after they’d ridden on in silent appreciation of the sunset display of distant lightning that brightened clouds in the far west. “He can run this boat, can’t he? He’s smart, quick, and he thinks. Besides-”

“Look, if you’re worried, Portegin can stay with you.”

“My concern is for you, Co-leader, not myself. Not that any of you are safe if it’s new blood they’re after.”

“What exactly is bothering you, Lunzie? Tell me now. I’ve had enough surprises.”

“It may just be my suspicious nature, Varian, but your Aygar did mention a beacon. It is forty-three years since the mutiny…”

“So?”

“What do you know of unrest among planetary minorities.”

“Huh?” It took Varian a moment to grapple with the sudden switch.

“I’d heard rumors that choice planets usually end up managed by one of the FSP majors. Financing was the usual rationale. Krims!-You don’t mean…” Varian shot a horrified glance at Lunzie, “you don’t mean that the ARCT-10 might have been taken over by another set of mutineers, do you?”

“A compound ship does not lend itself to mutiny.” Lunzie gave Varian a tight grin. “Too many minorities involved, too many different atmospheres, too bloody strict a surveillance against a possible take over. Command can, you know, close off, gas or eject any section of a compound ship without affecting overall stability, life support, drive or control elements. And the ARCT-10 had a large Thek group. No minority goes against Thek. What I had in mind were the rumors of expeditions on worlds such as this, where sizable teams simply disappeared. Not planted, but no sign of natural disasters or deaths accidental or otherwise. Just the rumor and no official acknowledgment of the problem. No official announcement about finding the lost units, either. Of course, the change-state problems of this immense Federation could account for the lack of news or official confirmation. Very little gets done quickly, especially when Thek are concerned. Forty-three years since our distress call?” Lunzie’s expression was grimly thoughtful. “That, my dear co-leader, is long enough for a homing capsule to arrive at its destination and to permit an expedition to reach the distressed party. In my opinion, that’s why your Aygar was not much bothered by the gene balance in his settlement. And the reason he was surprised you hadn’t homed in on his beacon.”

Varian inhaled a long whistle. “That does put a frame around his attitude. But three days? Could he be that certain of a touch down when they don’t have any communications?” Varian frowned again, mulling over Lunzie’s theory. “When I crossed his line of march, he did get rid of me as fast as he could.”

“Which might mean the newcomers have arrived or are expected soon.”

“He certainly expects to own Ireta!”

“Your space law’s worse than your botany, Varian. If my theory has any substance, you were possessed with sheer genius when you posed as a new FSP expedition.”

“I was? Why?”

“One,” and Lunzie ticked off her points on fingers, “the heavyworlders don’t suspect you are from the original team; they can still assume that we died of our own incompetence after the stampede or went into cold sleep. But if,” and another finger emphasized that point, “an FSP relief party arrives before their reinforcements, summoned by that homing capsule, they will not have clear title of the planet.”

“How could they think they’d have a clear title anyhow?” Varian demanded.

“There’s a considerable code of space law dealing with ship wrecked survivors who reach habitable planets and/or stranded expeditionary members who manage to achieve a certain level of civilization.”

“What does that code of space law say about mutineers?”

“That’s why it’s safer for us to be a relief party.”

“If at first you don’t succeed, have another go?” Varian asked drolly.

“Precisely.”

“But, Lunzie, when the reinforcements arrive, they’d know there aren’t any other ships orbiting the planet.”

“The reinforcements, my dear Varian, are probably illegal and would be most anxious not to be hailed by another vessel. They’ll probably enter the atmosphere under radio silence and as quickly as possible to avoid detection. Since the obvious orbit of a rescue ship is synchronous with the site of original landing, even a large ship can escape detection if the captain has any intelligence.

“And then set about raping this rich world and indulging in their anachronistic behavior. It’s easy now to understand why specialists of the caliber of Bakkun and Berru went along with that asinine rumor about our being planted. They had a world to gain.”

Varian’s expression was grim. “Too bad they didn’t live to enjoy it. But, Lunzie, they did mutiny and they mustn’t be allowed to profit by it.”

“They haven’t yet,” Lunzie replied wryly. “And though their descendants cannot be held liable for the sins of their predecessors. We have to stay alive to prove that a mutiny did occur.”

“Then how-” Varian began indignantly.

“The descendants would only get partial claims,” Lunzie explained hurriedly. “Don’t worry about that now. Consider this instead: once their relief ship arrives, it will at most certainly contain sleds and instrumentation. They’ll be able to mount a full-scale search for our shuttle.”

“That doesn’t mean they’ll find it.

“I suppose we won’t have to produce a shuttle,” Lunzie said.

“It’s away mapping the continent,” Varian announced airily.

“Regulations don’t specify how large a search party has to be, so five of us are all our ship could send. And Tor knows-” Varian let out a whoop of laughter that caused Lunzie to wince as the sound reverberated in the confines of the sled’s canopy. “Those heavyworlders have outsmarted themselves, Bakkun and Berru included. This planet’s been Thek-claimed for millions of years, if that core Tor was so nardling eager to disinter was Thek-manufactured. And it has to be.”

“Whether it is or isn’t, Varian, may not be germane, considering the span of time since its implantation. You can be certain that Bakkun included precise details of the rich transuranic potential of Ireta when that homing capsule was launched. An expedition will arrive equipped to strip this planet as thoroughly as the Others. And argue about who had the right to do so later.”

A shudder ran through Varian’s body. “Are there really any Others, Lunzie?”

“No one knows. I’ve stood on one of those barren worlds that must once have been as lush and lovely-and as rich-as this one.”

“The mutineers mustn’t rape this one.”

“You’ve my complete support.”

“The old ARCT-10 may even reappear…”

“We’d best consider what resources we can muster,” said Lunzie. She raised her hand when Varian began to protest. “I never count on luck. Tomorrow you, Triv, and Portegin will have lift belts and stunners when you meet Aygar. You and Triv will have the advantage of full Discipline.” The medic paused before she added solemnly, “And I’d better give you all barriers.”

“Barriers?” Varian cast a startled look at the medic. That aspect of Discipline was entrusted to only a highly select few.

“Barriers are the only real protection you and our sleepers would have if heavyworlders have landed.” Lunzie spoke quietly. Almost, Varian thought, as if she regretted the necessity of revealing this unexpected strength, rather than the need which dictated its use.

They flew on in silence until the looming white cliffs emerged from the shroud of evening mists and the black, beribboned opening that was their refuge yawned before them.