Putting Up Roots

Chapter Sixteen

The work with the test kit was interesting at first. You picked a likely looking piece of plant, popped it into the top, and waited. After a while, the yellow light came on. That was the trouble. Yellow, yellow, yellow. No matter how much you willed the red or blue light to appear, it never did. And after a while, what had started out interesting became just boring.

The day was warm. It was easy to imagine that half the heat came from the hidden fires of the Avernus Fissure, only a few hundred meters away. The red disk of Grisel crept across the sky with terrible slowness. As the hours wore on, Josh found he had plenty of time to think and plenty to think about.

Where were Topaz and Dawn at the moment, and what were they doing? They were probably miles and miles away. He was sure they wouldn’t have stayed near the fissure, where the other trainees were working and Brewster might find them. They would surely have gone the other way, up to the heights surrounding Avernus. That’s where the shape of the land suggested you might find plants—and animals—more like those in the Barbican Hills.

By now he’d bet that all the other trainees knew what had happened to Topaz and Dawn. He’d as good as told Amethyst, and she wouldn’t have kept it from Ruby. And Sig would know, too, because Saph seemed to tell him everything. And Sig would have been bugged by Hag and Rick, and he had no reason not to tell them whatever he knew.

So they all knew—except for Sol Brewster and Winnie Carlson. It was curious that those two had not grilled everyone harder about Topaz and Dawn’s disappearance. Maybe they had worries and secrets of their own. Josh still hadn’t come up with a plausible explanation for the two dark figures he had seen while he waited in the dark for Topaz.

Brewster was far more focused now that they were at the Avernus Fissure. He had stopped running people off their feet in pointless work, or shipping them off somewhere before they’d even had time to settle in. He was purposeful and organized. And even Winnie Carlson seemed less of a sad sack here, in the scary volcanic region surrounding the fissure.

Were all these things connected? It seemed odd to Josh that they would be testing plants close to the edge of the fissure, and not in the forests where growth was more abundant. That’s where you would expect to find more plant types.

Maybe he ought to talk things over with the others, especially Amethyst—old bulge-brain, Topaz called her (but not when she was there). Maybe Amethyst would be able to put everything together and make sense of it.

Josh took a break from his musings and turned to look at the sun. It was lower in the sky. Night was only an hour or two away, and he had long since eaten everything in his food packs. He had been testing for what felt like forever. Maybe Brewster had forgotten all about them. On the other hand, maybe he hadn’t. Josh didn’t relish the notion of being the first one back at the camp, and alone with Brewster.

He glanced idly at the test kit—and stopped dead. He had been wandering along on autopilot, working without thinking. Suddenly, while he was not looking, the blue light had started to blink.

Blue—anomaly. Only once in ten thousand times, Brewster had said. But there it was, as bright and beautiful as you could ask. There was a temptation to run screaming and shouting up the hill toward the camp. Josh damped that urge. Suppose he had somehow screwed up (though he didn’t see any way that he could have). Then the more he shouted and waved, the bigger idiot he would look when he was proved wrong.

He backtracked to the place where he had taken the last sample, pulled another piece from the same plant, a stem this time rather than a saw-edged leaf, and dropped it into the test kit. The wait seemed endless, though it was probably no longer than usual.

It came at last—blue again, unless he had developed a sudden case of color blindness. As casually as he could manage, Josh strolled back up the hill.

Of course, that raised problems of its own. He had to walk right past Rick Lasker.

At first the fair-haired twin took no notice of Josh. He was squatting close to the ground. In one hand was his test kit. In the other, near the test kit’s opening, Rick held some kind of fat black worm that wriggled to escape.

As soon as he became aware of Josh’s approach, Rick put the worm down and stood up.

“I really wasn’t going to.” He stared at Josh uneasily. “See, I was just wondering. Wondering what it would feel like.”

“That doesn’t look like a talking worm. It won’t tell you. Stick your finger inside the test kit, if you’re that keen on knowing what it feels like.”

Rick looked at Josh doubtfully. “You don’t mean that, do you? You’re joking.”

“No, I’m not. In fact, you can stick any part of you in there that you like, and it would suit me fine.” Josh started to walk past, up the hill toward the camp, but it was no good. As dusk approached, the flashing light became harder to conceal.

“You’ve got one!” Rick came to Josh’s side and bent to peer at the test kit. “Blue light. Didn’t Brewster say that’s the best kind of all?”

Before Josh could respond, Rick shouted loud enough to carry to the camp and a mile past it, “Over here! He’s got one! Josh Kerrigan bagged a blue!”

So much for the idea of a quiet walk back to camp. It had never occurred to Josh that the work was any kind of competition, but apparently Rick and Hag saw it that way. Hag came running over from a spot farther along the fissure. He peered, turned, and shouted, even louder than Rick, “Hey! Josh has one! He found an enorm-ally.”

Other people popped up from nowhere, Saph and Sig and Amethyst and Winnie. Most surprising of all, Brewster emerged from the main building of the camp—and he came running toward Josh and Rick across the uneven, ill-lit ground. Brewster, who never went anywhere faster than a stately walk! For the first time, Josh had the feeling that he might have discovered something truly important.

“Aha!” Brewster grabbed the test kit out of Josh’s hand and held it close to his face. “Yes, yes, yes. So far, so good. Now let’s see just what we have.”

He turned the test kit around, took something like a blunt screwdriver from his jacket, and poked it into half a dozen small marked pits. The kit beeped, and three of the pits glowed white in the dusk.

“Perfect! The best three.” Brewster handed the kit back to Josh and rubbed his hands together. “Show me exactly where you found it. Quickly, before it gets too dark.”

Josh knew that he would be able to find the plant just as well in the morning, and anyway the test kit was supposed to have its own accurate locator. However, he wasn’t about to get into an argument with Sol Brewster, even when the man was in a good mood. With everyone trailing along behind, Josh led the way to a sparsely covered piece of ground. He pointed to the plant that he had used. Brewster broke off a couple of purple leaves, grabbed a different test kit from Sig Lasker, and dropped them in.

Josh held his breath. If the whole thing was just something wrong with his test kit…

After another endless wait, the indicator light on the other unit flashed blue.

“That’s it!” Sol Brewster knelt down and peered at the ground. What he could see in the fading light was beyond Josh, but apparently it satisfied the other man because he took the blunt screwdriver again from his jacket and drove it effortlessly into the hard earth to mark the spot. He leaned back on his haunches.

“Excellent. Your work is over for the day, and a good day it’s been. You can all head back to camp now. I’ll stay here for a few more minutes, I have additional tests to carry out.” And, when everyone hesitated, interested to see what he would do next, “Have you gone deaf? I said move. This isn’t a circus, and I don’t need an audience.”

They headed reluctantly back up the hill. When they had gone about thirty yards, Josh turned for a last quick look. Brewster was still crouched in the same place. Rather than doing anything to the clump of plants, he seemed to be digging in the ground next to them, with another tool that looked from a distance like a curve-bladed trowel.

What was he doing? Josh asked Winnie Carlson, but all she did was shake her head and act vaguely worried. And when Brewster swept back in, half an hour later, no one had the nerve to say anything.

He was in his best mood ever. “I felt sure that something was here,” he said exultantly, “and by God I was right. But I thought that even if things went well, the search might take a long time. Now.” He paused, thinking. “Well, now I think that one more day will be enough. After that, we can wrap it up here.”

“What about Topaz and Dawn?” asked Amethyst. “We can’t leave without them.”

“Of course not.” Brewster was in too good a mood to cut her down as usual. “We’ll have to wait for them. But after tomorrow we can take things easy. In fact, I have a great idea. We’ll work tomorrow during the day, but tomorrow night we’ll have a party. A celebration, with special food and drink. How does that sound?”

It sounded too bizarre for words, at least to Josh. Sol Brewster was the last man in the world you would want at a party—or expect to give one. But it was Amethyst who spoke.

“Topaz is our best cook, sir, and she’s not here. Unless she gets back, no one else is nearly as good.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Brewster was grinning, for the first time since they had arrived. “You’re forgetting me. You won’t find a better cook this side of the Messina Dust Cloud. I’ll do the cooking.”

“And I’ll make a special appetizer,” added Winnie Carlson. Brewster frowned at her. Before he could object she went on, “You’ll love this, sir, I promise. I’ve made it a hundred times, and everyone says that my blini pancakes with synthecaviar and sour onion cream are the best thing they’ve ever tasted.”

Brewster was a greedy eater, and his expression showed that he was tempted. But still he hesitated, and Winnie hurried on, “I won’t need the use of the kitchen, either. You will have that, and I’ll make the blinis and onion cream using portable equipment.”

“We-e-ll.” Brewster stared at his assistant, seeking a reason to say no but not finding one. “Are you sure of that? You won’t interfere with me?”

“Absolutely not, sir. And this won’t interfere with my work day, either, because I’ll do the preparation tonight. Just tell me what time you want it ready”

Brewster finally produced a grudging nod. “Very well. There will be more field work tomorrow, so we should plan to eat at sundown. Understood?”

There were nods all round, but Amethyst said, “Sir? I’m really glad we’ll be having a party, and I’m looking forward to it. But can you tell us just what we found? I have no idea, and I don’t think I’m the only one.”

Brewster frowned again, but at last he shrugged. “I don’t see why not. This information is Foodlines proprietary, but I don’t see how you could give away any secrets on Solferino—particularly since Carlson assures me that our off-planet message capability is still crippled.

“A full analysis will have to be performed later with better equipment, but what was discovered today is a new variety of alkaloid. All alkaloids are crystalline solids, related to pyridine and found in a large number of plants on Earth. Some of them are poisonous, but they are often valuable. What was found on Solferino today is a whole new class of them. It’s the first such discovery ever made on this planet. All right?”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.” But Amethyst didn’t look enlightened—she seemed puzzled.

“Very good. Now I have my own work to do.” Brewster glanced around, nodded to Winnie Carlson, and added, “And I’ll need the use of the kitchen an hour from now, to get ready for tomorrow. Make sure that everyone has eaten by then, and the place is clean.”

He swept out without waiting for her to agree. After a couple of minutes, Winnie followed. As she was leaving she said over her shoulder, almost as an afterthought, “Eat what you like, and be sure to clean up. I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

The group of trainees was left to stare at each other. “I hate him,” Ruby complained. “And I don’t want to be at any party that he gives. What’s happening?”

“The question of the hour,” Sig said. “Would anybody like to answer it?”

“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Amethyst. “Like Alice in Wonderland, only worse. I’m as puzzled as Ruby.”

After another few seconds of uneasy standing, the seven of them settled down on the little chairs that folded out from the wall of the kitchen.

“We’re all confused,” Sig said at last. “But it sounds like it’s over different things. Maybe we can find answers if we put our heads together. Who wants to ask their question first?”

Amethyst raised her hand. “I don’t know about a question, but I’d like to make a statement. Sol Brewster said that alkaloids are crystalline solids—all of them. That’s not true, some of them are liquids, or gums. And he said they are related to pyridine, when only some of them are.”

“So what’s your point, Amy?” asked Sig. “Or are you just showing off?”

“No. I’m telling you that either Brewster is lying to us on purpose, or else he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“You haven’t proposed a question,” Rick objected. “You’ve just made a statement.”

Amethyst turned her nose up at him. “I’ll bet you didn’t understand it. So you give us a question, if you don’t like what I say.”

Rick nodded. “I will. Brewster is interested in plants, he says. So why when we left him was he digging in the ground?”

“And if it’s plants he wants,” Hag added, “why did he pick a place to explore where there’s less plants than bare rock?”

That would have been Josh’s question, too, but he had plenty of others. “I want to know,” he said, “what’s a Unimine ship doing close to Solferino? Why wasn’t it on Cauldron, where it’s supposed to be? I really did see a ship, you know, even though Brewster doesn’t believe me. And Dawn saw one, too.”

“We believe you,” Sig said. “Sapphire? It’s your turn. You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.”

He spoke gently. Sapphire had been unusually silent, letting Amethyst speak on her behalf. Everyone knew that she had a bad case of the shakes. She had struggled to hide it in front of Sol Brewster and Winnie Carlson, but now, in front of friends, she was quietly unraveling. The long day outside must have been hell for her.

“I do have something.” Sapphire spoke slowly, with her head bent forward. She would not meet anyone’s eye. “What I’d like to know, right at this moment, is where Topaz and Dawn are. But I guess that’s not the sort of question you mean. So I’m wondering, why does Brewster move us around so? He took us off to camp, then left us so he could fly back to the compound. Why did he do that? He said he’d had a message from the medical center, but when we returned to the compound the equipment to talk to the medical center wasn’t working.”

“And where is the medical center?” Amethyst added. “None of us ever heard of it in our briefings back on Earth.”

“And we won’t find out,” Josh said, “as long as most of the data banks are out of action.”

“Any more?” asked Sig. He looked around the group. “If not, I’d like to have my turn. I’ll tell you what’s been on my mind more than anything. Do you remember the first night, when we heard from Brewster that Solferino has all these miraculous powers to heal people? Allergies disappear, scars fade, teeth grow back.”

The others nodded, and Sig crooked his forefinger into the left side of his mouth. He pulled sideways, to show a space in the top molars.

“I’m missing a tooth, right here. I got it knocked out when we were on the streets. No sign of that growing back. As for allergies disappearing, go and ask Winnie Carlson. She’s sneezing and sniffling all the time. And scars. Hag, show us your calf.”

Hag, reluctantly at first, bent down and rolled up his left pants leg. A long scar ran up the outside from ankle to knee.

“Street fight, too, months ago,” Sig said. “Do you see any sign of it fading?”

Hag shook his head, and ran his finger lovingly along the white line of the scar. “Not a bit. As beautiful as ever.”

“Yeah. Some people would be proud if they had their brain knocked out.” Sig turned to the others. “So we’re seeing no sign of anything magic on Solferino, to cure anything. I really didn’t believe it when I heard it, so I don’t feel I lost much.”

“But maybe Brewster believes it,” Amethyst said, “even if you don’t.”

“Quite true. Which finally gets me to my own question. Brewster told us, on our first night here, that there might be something on Solferino to let us live forever. Let’s accept that Brewster believes it, exactly as he stated. Then he must be a candidate to live forever, too, because he has spent a lot of time on Solferino. So why isn’t that the most important thing in the world to him?” Sig surveyed the little group, person by person. “So why, after that first night, has he never mentioned it to any of us ever again?”