The Survivors
(Dinosaur Planet II)
by:
Anne McCaffrey

copyright 1984

VERSION 1.1 (Feb 16 00). If you find and correct errors in
the text, please update the version number by 0.1 and
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CHAPTER ONE

        Kai managed to part his eyelids to a narrow slit and saw the rock.
He closed his eyes. There shouldn't be a rock. Especially a rock which
could talk. For a sound, like his name, emanated from it. He seemed to be
in physical control of only the area around his eyes. Otherwise he could
not so much as twitch a finger. He tried to analyze his lack of sensation,
reassured finally that he wouldn't have been able to think if he weren't in
his body. And managed to open his eyes slightly wider.
        'Kkkkk . . . aaaaah . . . eeee!'
        The sounds corresponded to those in his name but he hadn't heard
them uttered in such a fashion in a long time. He struggled to think when.
And became aware that he possessed neck, shoulders, and chest. The
paralysis was ebbing. Yes, he was aware that his chest was moving up and
down normally, but the air that his lungs drew in seemed stale and left a
curious taste in the back of his throat.
        With the return of his olfactory sense, Kai knew that he hadn't
been paralyzed. He'd been asleep.
        "Kkkk . . . aaaa . . . eeee! Wuuuh . . . aaaakkhhhuh!'
        He forced his eyelids wider apart. The damned rock dominated his
vision; it was now canted dangerously over him. As he watched in
unbelieving silence, the rock slowly extruded a rod which split into three
tentacles. With these, the rock grasped his shoulder gently but firmly, and
administered a shaking.
        "Tor?" Kai's tone was startlingly similar to the quality of sound
the rock had issued. He cleared his throat of a thick phlegm before he
repeated the name.
        "Tor? You've come?"
        Tor made a grinding noise which Kai took as affirmative though he
sensed a reprimand that he would comment on the obvious. Kai groaned as
memory returned. He hadn't been just asleep: he'd been in cold sleep. Tor
had arrived in response to Kai's emergency call.
        'Reeee. . . pppoooorrrtt."
        Kai watched as Tor's rod placed on his chest a small gray oblong,
its grill toward his mouth. He took a deep breath because his mind was not
yet clear enough to find the words he'd need to account for disturbing the
Thek at its own investigation of the system's outermost planet. His message
had not been ambiguous: "Mutiny! Urgent! Assistance Imperative!" But it was
possible that the entire sequence had not been transmitted before the
heavyworlders smashed the communications panel.
        "Dee. . . taaa. . . illlll."
        Kai felt the permaplas floor of the space shuttle sway as the rock
that was named Tor settled beside him.
        "Ffffuuuulllll." Tor added just as Kai opened his mouth.
        Closing his mouth abruptly, Kai wished that Tor would give him a
little more time to collect his thoughts. After all, time was on the Thek's
side. But a full report in Thek terms still meant that his remarks must be
succinct and limited but not the terse phrases which, in Kai's state of
mental funk, would have been hard to edit. He could also speak at a normal
speed. Tor would later adjust the replay to Thek convenience.
        "Rumor permeated Exploratory Unit that plantation of group
intended. Heavyworld-personnel reverted to barbaric omnivory. Forcefully
restricted all other members in one building. Drove large terrified
herbivores toward building to effect our sudden deaths. Four Disciples
effected timely release and sheltered in space shuttle which was buried
under large corpses. Made nocturnal escape. Settled in natural cave unknown
to the heavyworlders, pending assistance. After seven days, cold sleep
logical recourse. End report."
        "Reeeeesssstt."
        Kai felt a feather-light touch on his shoulder, hearing a hiss,
then felt the coolness of one sprayshot, an itch from a second. A curious
warmth spread from his upper arm through his body with remarkable speed.
Breathing became easier and, experimentally, he began to rotate his head
and shoulders. His fingers tingled. He moved them with increasing ease
        'Reeee . . . essstt."
        Kai complied but the order was irksome. Granted, he had to assume
that Tor knew more about the cold-sleep routine but he felt clearheaded.
Too clearheaded because he could remember in embarrassing detail everything
that had led up to the necessity of cold sleep.
        How long had that sleep been? He opened his mouth to ask but he
hadn't quite the brashness to inquire of a Thek how much time had elapsed
between the sending of the emergency signal and Tor's response. One rarely
asked Theks a question involving time since the long-lived silicon
life-form counted in sidereal years of their planet of origin, which
generally amounted to centuries of more ephemeral species -- such as Kai's.
        His wrist! Tardma had taken such delight in breaking it when she
and Paskutti burst into the pilot's compartment. Once they'd escaped from
the mutineers, Lunzie had set the bones. Kai wriggled the fingers of his
left hand experimentally. Wrist bones could take about six weeks to heal.
He rotated his wrist. It was stiff but no more so than his right. Six
weeks? Or more?
        However long, it gave him some satisfaction to realize that the
mutineers had not found the space shuttle. He smiled as he thought of the
frustration that the loss would have caused Paskutti! The mutineers would
have searched as long as they had one operative lift belt. The mutineers --
Paskutti, Tardma, Tanegli, Divisti . . . Kai paused before adding Berru and
Bakkun to that infamous roster. He couldn't understand their reason for
participating in a mutiny; particularly one generated on the flimsiest of
pretexts.
        He rolled his head cautiously to the left, toward the row of
sleeping figures: the remnants of his team of geologists and Varian's
xenobiologists. Varian had a lovely profile. Beyond his co-leader was
Lunzie, the medic, and Kai could just make out in the gloom the long sturdy
figure of Triv. The four Disciples had been the last to go into cold sleep.
        A series of curious deep mumbles made Kai turn his head to the
right, toward the small pilot compartment of the space shuttle. Kai had
seen one or two Thek extremities in evidence before, but Tor seemed to have
lengths of itself draped in, under, behind, over, and through places in the
shuttle's structure that Kai could not himself see. He blinked to relax his
eyes. When he looked again, most of Tor was again within the creature.
        That show of quick motion from a member of a species notorious for
its imponderable silences, decades-long contemplation's, and brevity of
speech stunned Kai.
        "Daaammaaggggedddd."
        In that one word the Thek managed to convey to Kai that not only
was the damage extensive but also Tor could not effect repairs, a condition
which annoyed the creature. Kai marveled then that Portegin's contrived
beacon had managed to lead Tor to the shuttle.
        "Exploration Vessel returned?" Kai asked after long consideration.
It was a rather vain hope that the Exploration Vessel which had deposited
the three separate units in-system was on its way to collect them.
        "Nnnnoooo." Tor's response was neutral. Certainly the non
reappearance caused it no concern.
        Kai sighed with resignation and found himself wondering if, out of
all impossibilities, Gaber had been right: their little group had been
planted. Gaber certainly was, since he'd been killed at the outset of
mutiny. But the third group, the avian Ryxi who planned to colonize their
planet, surely they must have wondered at the silence from the Iretan
group? Immediately Kai was reminded that in his last contact with the
Ryxi's temperamental leader, the creature had flown into a rage at Kai's
innocent disclosure that Ireta had an intelligent winged species. But the
Ryxi colony ship would have been piloted by another species, probably
humanoid. Surely . . . 'Ryxi?" asked Kai hopefully.
        A long silence ensued while Tor sent a single tentacle into the
control console. Such a long silence that Kai was nerving himself to repeat
the question, thinking Tor had not heard him.
        "Nnnooo connntaaaact."
        The inference was plain to Kai: the Thek did not care to keep in
touch with the highly excitable, and by Thek standards, irresponsible
winged sentients.
        Kai was relieved. It was embarrassing enough to call the Thek for
aid, but to have to apply to the Ryxi would result in considerably more
humiliation. The Ryxi would thoroughly enjoy spreading such a grand joke
throughout the universe at the expense of all wingless species.
        Kai could move his head and neck easily now, and checked the line
of his sleeping companions. Varian's hand lay where it had fallen from his
in the relaxation of sleep. Tor had placed a dim light somewhere in the
shuttle, probably for Kai's reassurance since the Thek did not require
light to see. Kai touched Varian's hand, still cold and rigid in the thrall
of cryogenic sleep. He watched, holding his own breath, until he saw the
slight rise and fall of her diaphragm in its much reduced life-rhythm. Then
he relaxed, exhaling.
        He turned back to Tor but sensed its complete withdrawal: it had
become a large smooth rock, flattened on the bottom to conform to the deck,
extruding not so much as a lump, bump, or pseudopod. This was the Thek
contemplative state and Kai knew better than to interrupt it.
        He lay there until his nose began to itch. He stifled a sneeze with
a finger under his nose, and then felt foolish. A sneeze couldn't rouse a
Thek. Much less the sleepers. That desire to sneeze was the prelude to a
growing twitchy restlessness in Kai which he recognized as the result of
the stimulants Tor had injected. The Thek had not said that he couldn't
move: it had only said to rest. Surely he had done enough of that.
        Kai began the muscle toning Discipline and, although he worked up a
fine sweat, he soon realized that cold sleep had done him no discernible
harm. Even the healed wrist responded perfectly. The plaskin Lunzie had
used to set the break had long since flaked away. That meant they'd been
asleep at least four or five months.
        He looked at his wrist chronometer, but the device was blank. Even
'long-life' battery tabs wear out. How long ago?
        Exercise produced another effect and Kai, rising carefully, found
his way through the cold-sleep mist that shrouded the shuttle to the
toilet. Returning, he checked each of the sleepers, observing the curious
transformation sleep worked on faces. Bonnard, for instance, in the middle
of his second decade, looked more adult than Dimenon, twice the boy's age.
Portegin looked as if he still worried about the effectiveness of the
beacon he had contrived. Lunzie, the pragmatic medic, was smiling, a rare
sight while she was awake, and her face had assumed a gentleness at odds
with her ascorbic temperament. She'd admitted to having undergone sleep
suspension before: her records had listed her chronological age but there
had always been that detachment about Lunzie that struck Kai as bemused
tolerance: as if she'd already seen most of what the universe had to offer
and wouldn't spare the energy to be excited by anything anymore.
        Triv, the other team member trained in Discipline, had a forbidding
expression in sleep, a surprising strength in mouth, jawline and brow that
had not been so apparent as the man went quietly about his normal duties.
        Since Tor was still motionless, Kai sat down by Varian, feeling
companionship even with her sleeping self. She was beautiful. Then he
noticed that one side of her face slanted down, the other more or less up,
leaving one eyebrow higher than the other, as if the cold sleep had
surprised her. Suddenly he wanted very much to have the cheerfulness of her
conscious company. Who knew how long Tor would remain an uncommunicative
lump? He needed someone he could talk to, before his perspective was warped
by self-accusative reflection in the gloomy silence. Varian was co-leader:
she should have been revived as a matter of course. Kai then realized that
he ought to be relieved that Tor had been able to single him out. If the
Thek had revived, say, Aulia, she would have gone into hysterics just being
close to a Thek -- and then convulsions when she realized that she'd been
put in cryogenic suspension without being consulted! As a geologist, Aulia
was very good, but she failed in areas of personal adjustments.
        Kai looked about the dimly lit area for the revival kit and saw it
in the dust just beyond the clean outline where he had slept. Dust? The
shuttle had not, of course, been sealed completely -- cold sleepers still
need air -- but for dust of any depth to have settled . . .
        The sprays in the box were clearly marked for precedence,
color-coded as well. Calibrations on the cylinders listed dosages according
to body weight. Instructions on the first cylinder advised Kai to wait
until the sleeper had shown definite signs of revival before stimulants
were injected.
        Kai carefully released the appropriate dose into Varian's arm and
waited, trying to remember his own progress from cold sleep to
consciousness. Her sleeping face exhibited no reassuring change. Maybe he
hadn't administered enough. He checked the dose and wondered if he'd been
mistaken about her body weight. He was hesitating over a second small spray
when he saw her eyelids flutter. Only then did he realize that she was
respiring at a normal rate.
        "Varian?" He leaned over, touching her shoulder and smiling at the
effort she made to unglue her eyes. An old tale popped into his head and,
so prompted, he kissed her cool lips gently.
        "Kkkkaaaaaiiiiii?" Her eyes opened fully and then the lids drooped
back but the left corner of her mouth lifted in appreciation.
        "Just relax, Varian. You'll be in working order shortly."
        "Hhhhooooowww?" The word trembled out as an aspirated whisper.
        "Tor came. Don't ask more questions, dear heart. Give the reviver a
chance to penetrate. I'm right here. Everything is unchanged!'
        "Nnughhh!" The groan came from her belly and made Kai laugh at the
disgust vibrant in her protest.
        "Well, a Thek bestirred itself on our behalf. It's got a full
report. I taped it," he explained quickly as he saw Varian's astonishment.
"It is apparently thinking my words over." Kai gestured to the silent rock.
"Don't move yet," he cautioned Varian as he saw her neck tendons strain
against the long immobility. "I guess I can give you the stimulants now,
but don't bounce. Oh, and your shoulder's healed," he added as he gave her
the second set of shots. Paskutti had shattered Varian's left shoulder just
before Tardma had snapped his wrist.
        Varian's fully functional eyebrows registered pleased amazement,
immediately followed by a frown of thoughtful concern.
        "No, I haven't a clue how long we've slept, Varian." Paskutti
damaged the shuttle's chronometer. It's just above the comunit, remember."
        Varian rolled her eyes in frustration and began to clear her
throat.
        "Make haste slowly," he cautioned her, hand on her shoulder. "Or
should I revive Lunzie? . . ."
        Varian shook her head, working her tongue around her mouth as the
tissues began to moisten. "Leaders first . . . and last . . ." Her voice
sounded as disused as his had, and he repressed a smile.
        "If your fingers and toes are beginning to tingle, try the
small-muscle exercises of Discipline. They'll help circulation and toning."
        Varian took a deep breath and closed her eyes to concentrate.
        "I don't know what Tor's contemplating, Varian," Kai went on, "but
it can't repair the comunit. It doesn't indicate whether it received our
message or realized we weren't communicating on schedule. The ARCT-10
hasn't been in touch but Tor doesn't appear concerned. I can't tell whether
that's due to normal Thek indifference or not." Then Kai laughed. "There's
been no contact with the Ryxi."
        Varian's chuckle sounded completely normal and he grinned down at
her. Her eyes were twinkling with laughter.
        "In old tapes," she said, chewing her words out of her mouth
slowly, on my planet, sleeping beauty is wakened by a noble's kiss after a
hundred years. Sweet way to wake up.
        She raised her hand and touched his mouth with her fingers.
        "And I'd give anything to know if it was a hundred years!" Kai
replied, taking her fingers in his hand and kissing them in what he
considered an appropriate fashion. He continued to hold onto her hand as a
thought came to him. "We might have one quick way of finding out. Step out
of this cave and let the golden fliers have a good look at us. If the giffs
react, we can't have slept that long."
        "Don't know the life span of giffs."
        Kai shot a glance at the quiescent Thek. "I experience an earnest
desire to be recognized by something that remembers me," and he prodded his
chest with a fist, 'besides that rock!'
        "Hundred years 'd mean no mutineers on watch."
        "Point well taken. Even the freshest of their power packs wouldn't
last more than two years. I'd also guess they'd stay at that secondary camp
since they'd already stocked it last rest day . . ."
        "Last rest day?" Varian regarded him with an amusement tinged with
disbelief. "How long ago was last rest day?"
        "Subjective? Or objective time elapsed?" he asked in reply and
grinned to take the sting out of the notion.
        "Good question." Varian could enunciate more clearly now. She began
to flex her arms and knees. "Hey, my shoulder knit perfectly!" She rose,
muttering under her breath as her rebelling muscles made the effort
graceless. 'Things seem to be all in working order," she added as she
headed for the toilet.
        While she was gone, Kai stared at Tor. Then he walked around the
Thek, looking for the recorder. Irreverently he wondered if the Thek was
sitting on it, had ingested it, or perhaps created a heat-resistant pouch
in which it could keep bits and pieces of fragile alien manufacture.
        "It's going to stay like that for days," Varian said in disgust as
she joined Kai. "C'mon. I want to see what's been happening outside. And I
want something to drink to take the dust out of my mouth -- and to put some
unprocessed food in my pooor shrunken stomach."
        She gave him a malicious wink, knowing that the ship-bred Kai never
noticed the after taste of processed food as she invariably did.
        They opened the exit iris of the shuttle just enough to squeeze
through without diluting the cold-sleep gas significantly. But the
atmosphere outside the space shuttle was like a hot smack in the face with
a moist stinking cloth.
        Varian let out a surprised grunt, then began to inhale deeply to
adjust to the shocking change of temperature. At first Kai thought they
must have emerged during the planet's night but, as his eyes grew
accustomed to the dimness, he realized that the opening of the cave was
covered with thick green foliage. There was a break where the Thek had
pushed its vehicle through. The cone-shaped carrier was resting a few
meters from the shuttle's entrance.
        "Where are the power units?" Varian called as the two were drawn to
examine the strange craft. "It's the same shape Tor is, only larger." She
gestured with her hands in surprise, then reached out to touch the dull
metal of the rounded stern. She pulled her hand back. "Wow, heat's
radiating from it."
        Kai was at the bow of the Thek vehicle, inspecting the scored heavy
plasshield which was half-open on its pivots. He looked inside, trying to
deduce the purpose of various odd protuberances and cavities on the
metallic rim of the nose section.
        "Only a Thek could pilot the damned thing with a nearly blind
shield!" She turned away, indifferent to the mysteries of Thek navigation.
"Now these," she said, catching a vine and testing its strength by hanging
her weight from it, feet off the floor, "are enough to feed us for weeks if
that's all we want."
        Before Kai could stop her, Varian took a running start and, holding
tightly to the vine, swung out beyond the cave mouth.
        "Wheeeee!'
        "Varian!" Kai rushed forward, catching her on the swing back,
holding tightly to her hips. He'd a moment's horrific vision of the vine's
parting, dropping her into the sea, meters below, to certain death.
        "Sorry, Kai," she said in a tone that wasn't apologetic. "I
couldn't resist the urge. Used to do a lot of vine-swinging as a kid on
Fomalhaut." Then she relented as she realized her exuberance had scared
him. "Irresponsible behavior when I'm not quite fit but -- and she grinned
at him mischievously" -- there's something about contact with a Thek which
makes me behave . . ."
        "Childish?" Kai's panic had subsided and he realized that he, too,
had overreacted.
        "Yes, childish. Say, have you ever seen a Thek child, young, cub,
pup, fledgling . . . or maybe you'd call it a pebble?"
        Varian's laughter was contagious at any time and, despite his
frustrations and worries, Kai laughed too, hugging her to him in wordless
appreciation of her ability to find any amusement in their circumstances.
        "There! That's better, Kai," she said, rubbing her nose against
his. "I equate Thek with gloom and doom." Abruptly she released herself and
grabbed a vine. "You know, there's something odd about such vines growing
on a giff's cliff. You don't suppose our presence here . . ."
        In another abrupt movement, Varian held onto the vine and leaned
out of the cave mouth, peering up at the sky and to her right.
        "No, there're still giffs above us," she said, swinging in again.
She allowed the momentum of the vine to carry her back out, looking to the
left this time. "But this is the only cliff covered in vines. I'm sure it
was barren rock when we wedged the shuttle in here." She made a third
excursion, grinning as she released the vine on its inward sway, and landed
back at his side. "A fruit-bearing vine, too." She reached down to her boot
and whistled in shrill triumph, removing the slim blade lodged there. "Too
frail, like us, to pierce a heavy worlder's hide but, praise Krim, they
left 'em for us. I'm going to cut us juicy, fresh fruit for breakfast. Or
whatever meal it is."
        Before Kai could protest, she had put the knife between her teeth
and was pulling herself up a vine, out of sight. He was testing the
strength of another thick tendril when her cheerful voice advised him to
look up. Instinctively he caught the object launched at him.
        "Here comes another. And it's dead ripe so don't squeeze hard."
        "Varian" His fingers did exert too much pressure on the melon and
the succulent sweet odor made his mouth water.
        "I could eat these all by myself, Kai, so here's another one for
you." Varian dropped to the cave floor.
        "We shouldn't eat too much at first," Kai said. He sank down beside
her as she sliced a segment off and offered it to him on her knife point.
        "Quite likely," she said, slicing a second piece, for herself. She
murmured with delight as she bit the soft green fruit. "Go ahead. Eat!" she
urged, juice dribbling from the corners of her mouth.
        "The things I do for the EEC," Kai said, pretending horror at
having to eat unprocessed food. As the first sweetness dissolved in his dry
mouth, Kai was willing to admit, privately, that natural food was
undeniably juicier than processed.
        They both ate slowly, chewing thoroughly.
        "I suspect root vegetables would have been wiser in terms of
protein content but fruit sugar raises blood levels," Varian remarked
thoughtfully. "Oh, but this is good. What I don't understand," she went on
gesturing with her half-eaten slice, "is how those vines grew here.
Granted," and she raised the slice to forestall Kai, "we don't know how
long we've slept, and growth on Ireta is explosive. But the other cliffs
are still clear. The giffs' main diet is fish and Rift grass. These vines
aren't from the Rift, and this section of cliff looks more like forest than
palisade. The vines grow right down to the water."
        "Strangely selective, I agree. Did you see much of the giffs on
your swings?"
        "Some, circling high. I don't think they saw me if that's what
you're wondering. It's early morningish -- hazy, overcast. Couldn't see
their food place from this angle but I'd guess that the morning fishers are
about their labors."
        "We will wait," said Kai with careful authority, "until they have
fed before we put in an appearance."
        "Ah, you remember my lecture about disturbing feeding animals!'
        "Not that much subjective time has passed, Varian!'
        He grinned as she automatically twisted her wrist to glance at her
unregistering chronometer.
        Varian's eyes flicked toward the dim bulk of the shuttle. "Should
we wake Lunzie or Triv?"
        "I see no reason to until Tor has come to some conclusions."
        "Or favors us with an accurate reading of elapsed time. That's what
I'd like to know!" Varian was almost angry. "Why, if it weren't for the
vines over the cave and the dead batteries we could just have overslept." A
shudder seized her shoulders and shook her slender frame.
        "The notion is leveling, isn't it," Kai said, understanding her
mood perfectly. "The universe has gone by without noticing that we have
faltered."
        Even to himself he sounded as pompous as Gaber and he quickly took
a bit of melon to hide his embarrassment.
        "Yes, that grits at me," she said. "We have such a brief time" --
she gestured to the shuttle, and the brooding Thek inside -- "in which to
make a mark of any sort, to achieve some merit. I know I want to leave some
sign that I tried! Krim erase those misguided, misbegotten, mutineers."
        "I'd hate to think we were the sign of their achievement!'
        Varian jumped to her feet and launched the rind of melon past the
vine screen. They heard a faint plop as it hit the water below. "No, by
Krim! We'll have something of our own to report out of this mess, and I
don't care how long we have to sleep to do it. Some EEC vessel is going to
strip that beacon. And when it does, it'll come streaming into orbit to tap
Ireta's wealth! And I'll be here!"

CHAPTER TWO

        They did not wish to dilute the sleep mist by unnecessary trips
into the shuttle or to disturb the Thek until it was ready to communicate.
So they settled themselves near the entrance to the cave. One of the short
hard showers which dominated Ireta's tropical weather sent the vines
rattling and twisting into the cave.
        "You know something, Kai?" said Varian after a long companionable
silence. "I can smell that wind."
        "Huh?"
        "I mean, I don't smell Ireta any longer. I smell other things, like
rotting fish and decaying fruit and something else that smells worse than
Ireta used to when we first landed."
        Kai inhaled tentatively. "You're right!'
        Neither of them was enthusiastic since the basic odor of Ireta was
hydrotelluride. They had once had nose filters to neutralize the smell.
        "I suppose," Varian said resignedly, "that it's better to get
accustomed to the over riding stench of a place so you can smell other
things, but somehow . . ."
        "I know. Anything but hydrotelluride. On the positive side, Lunzie
did say that one's olfactory sense can be . . ." Kai hunted for the
appropriate word.
        "Reconditioned." Absent mindedly Varian suggested a word but she
was already bent forward, toward the cave opening, sniffing deeply. Then
she turned, sniffed again toward the interior. "Part of the new stink comes
from the Thek's craft. What does it use for power?"
        "My father told me that for short distances the Thek uses its own
energy."
        "Short distances? Like intersystem travel?"
        Kai chuckled. "All things are relative. Thek, so they tell us, are
a form of granite with a nuclear core for energy. That's how they make
pseudopods. They keep a reservoir of liquid silicon which they move
hydraulically to form extremities. Thek can move with extraordinary speed
if they're charged up. The astrophysics officer on the ARCT told me that
he'd heard from a reliable source that Thek like to sit on radioactive
granite -- which we'll probably find on Ireta if we ever get equipment
again -- Thek absorb energy that way."
        "Whatever they use, it leaves a stink in a class all by itself. Way
above Iretan normal." Varian grimaced expressively. "How do you know more
about Thek than I do? I'm the xenobiologist. Come to think of it, we never
do study the Thek, do we?"
        "Wouldn't do, would it?" Kai said with a laugh. "Considering their
position in the Federated Sentient Planets."
        "Hmmm yes. Got us all properly awed and respectful, don't they?
With their long silences and infallibility." She'd got to her feet,
restlessly wandering about the Thek vehicle, carefully rapping the metallic
base with her knuckles. "No one's ever been able to analyze Thek metal,
have they?"
        "No."
        She turned abruptly from the cone-shaped ship and walked briskly to
the vine screen. "Not all the stench comes from the Thek. Some of it's from
up there! It's not only nauseating, it makes me feel . . . it unnerves me."
        "It's inactivity that unnerves you, Varian." Kai was comfortable
enough on the cave floor.
        "How long does it take a Thek to come to a conclusion?" She glared
irritably at the space shuttle.
        "Depends on the conclusion, I suppose. Varian . . ."
        She had launched herself at him in a side assault which nearly
caught him, but he managed to parry her attack. Laughing, she came at him
again and he grappled her wrists. Neither managed to toss the other for
their skill, despite lack of practice, was equal. They stopped feinting
after a few more passes and worked into the series of isometric exercises
that had always been part of Disciples' physical fitness programs.
        Both were sweaty as well as dusty when they had finished. They
stood near the cave entrance for the fresher air that was breeze born.
        "Nice to know that neither our reflexes nor our muscles suffered
much deterioration from the cold sleep." Kai wiped off his brow and face
with his sleeve.
        "You've only smeared the dirt, Kai. I'm hoping it means we've not
been asleep very long." She grabbed a vine and swung herself out into the
lashing rain.
        "And that only cleaned your face."
        "Well, it's better than nothing. What I wouldn't give for a real
wash!" She looked at the vine in her hands. "Hey, we can! C'mon, Kai, we
can climb to the top of the cliff and let the rains wash us clean. It's
coming down hard enough!'
        "Wash in rain?" Kai was appalled. How could anyone get clean in
rainwater? Especially Ireta's rain, which smelled nearly as bad as its air.
        "Yes, wash in rainwater. It's not as antiseptic as those dust
showers you use on the ARCT-10 but it's a lot better than standing around
in dead body cells and dust. Besides, one of us has got to get more fruit.
I'm hungry again from all that physical exercise."
        Kai's back was itching from sweat and there were grits under his
shipsuit. "I am hungry."
        "Hungry enough to eat raw food?" She grinned. "I'll convert you
yet."
        "Necessity is doing that. We'd better make this a proper foraging
trip," he added. "You check out the vines."
        Kai opened the shuttle iris just wide enough to squeeze through,
closing it promptly behind him so that only a puff of the sleep gas
escaped. Tor was still immobile. Kai removed the knives from Dimenon's and
Portegin's boots, unclipped a hammer from Portegin's belt, riffled Lunzie's
supplies for antiseptic splashes and a couple of pain sprays, rolled up two
of the thin thermal blankets to transport any fruit they found, and left
without another glance at Tor.
        Varian had been busy, too, looping long thick vines tightly about
the shuttle's stern docking bars.
        "If we're anchored here, we're not apt to get blown about in that
wind. Wish the rain would let up but it looks about middayish. There're
only two giffs and I can't always make them out in this rain. Any movement
from Tor?" She took the items Kai handed her and disposed of them in her
pockets. She knotted the blanket about her shoulders. "Here's your vine.
Remember, Kai, don t look down!'
        She leaped for her first hand hold, wrapping her legs about the
thick stem of the vine and began to shinny up.
        Kai discovered that he had an almost irresistible need to look
down, especially when his vine started rolling along the upper edge of the
cliff. Despite Varian's efforts to anchor the vines the wind smacked him
against the stone. Nevertheless he reached the top just as Varian did.
Thunder crashed and cracked across the sea behind them.
        Varian pointed to the sheets of rain slanting across the open
water. "We could get swept off if that squall's as heavy as it looks."
        Kai needed no urging and followed her across the cliff top to the
doubtful shelter of the vegetation.
        Suddenly Varian began to strip, throwing her boots, pouch, and
blanket under the thick leathery leaves.
        "Wow! That rain's shower force!" she cried. Shedding her coverall,
face upturned, she stepped into the pelting rain. Discarding his clothing,
Kai ventured more warily into the heavy rain. Then Varian was scrubbing his
back, using her coverall as a towel. She guided the fabric to just that
point between the shoulder blades where sweat made his skin itch.
        "Wow!" she cried again in triumph. "Sand we can use as an abrasive
-- just don't rub too hard," she shouted at him through torrent and
thunder.
        They scrubbed themselves and each other, occasionally half-choked
by the water as it streamed out of the heavens and bathed them. Except for
his lingering feeling that it was ridiculous to be jumping about in a rain
storm on a cliff to get clean, Kai would have thoroughly enjoyed the
improvisation. There was some truth in Varian's accusation that he had been
sheltered in ship life. Before the mutiny, he had not been so exposed to
elemental Ireta. There'd always been the sled or the compound and the
safety of the force screen. Today he was naked before the onslaught of a
violent phenomenon on a primitive planet
        "Unless we've slept through a magnetic field slip," Varian yelled
at him, the sun ought to be out soon. Our overalls will dry in zero
elapsed! I hope before we fry in our bare skins."
        She was giving her suit one last rinsing when the shower passed,
and the sun streamed through the cloud cover. Wringing their suits, they
flapped them out as they splashed back toward the thick forest verge. They
laid the suits out on the vines, just beyond the shade.
        "Oh, I feel much better, Kai, much better," Varian said. She
squeezed water from her hair and stroked it from her body with her hands.
Then she reached up to her hair again. "You know, I think it's longer. If
we only knew the rate of growth of hair during cryogenic sleep," she said,
examining a lock carefully. "Well . . ." She shook her head again, droplets
falling on him as she turned, head back and eyes closed against the
brilliant sunlight.
        "We can't tolerate that sun long, girl," he said as he guided her
into the shade.
        She caught at his hand, her fingers moving to his wrist, prodding
the site of the break.
        "Even that fracture isn't telling any tales. If you'd been an
animal patient, I'd say the break was old enough for the extra calcium to
have been reabsorbed." Suddenly her face looked bleak in the filtered light
of the sun Arretan. "Kai, haven't we got something to gauge time against?"
        He put both arms about her and held her tightly against him,
kissing her cheek and stroking the wet spikes of her hair.
        "We're alive, Varian, and we survived a mutiny. Help, however
uncommunicative, has arrived. Meanwhile . . ."
        He gathered her against him positioning his hips against her pelvic
bones, making his hands gentle in caress. She responded with soft movements
of encouragement. Her kisses were sweet and Kai began to wonder why nothing
was happening to certain reflexes. He wasn't surprised, or offended, when
he felt her shoulders begin to shake with amusement.
        "Bones have healed," Varian said in what was almost a wail against
his cheek, "muscles are great, but why aren't we in complete working order?
We're only ancient objectively, not subjectively!'
        Her utter dismay announced in laughter made Kai hug her more
tightly, half in apology, half to steady himself because he, too, had to
laugh at their situation.
        "If you only knew how often I've wanted you all alone to myself,
young woman . . ."
        "Oh, Kai, I do know. I've felt the same way. It's bloody
frustrating . . . Ooooh, that wind is mean!" She reached hurriedly for her
blanket to wrap around them. The vegetation had sharp edges which the wind
lashed against their bare skins. "And we'd better turn our clothes over. I
think they're done on that side."
        She darted out but instead of just turning the clothing, she gave
each a quick snap and returned with them, handing Kai his.
        "If we don't wear "em, something else 'll crawl inside," she said,
giving a little shudder at the tiny insects she had just shaken out of
their suits.
        As Kai inserted a leg into a damp trouser, he muttered about the
durability of the wrong things.
        "Let's start foraging, Kai. And I'd like to secure our vines to the
cliff top some way. Ah, what do I spy here?"
        "That's not fruit," her co-leader replied, frowning at the cluster
of brownish oval objects growing just above their heads.
        "True, but the hadrosaurs used to make for such clusters, and poor
Dandy loved "em. Ah, and right beyond are fruit trees."
        It didn't take long to collect enough fruit and nuts to fill their
blanket rolls so they secured their burdens across their backs, out of the
way for climbing, and started across the open vine-covered cliff top.
        "Giffs are out for a wing stretch," Varian said, waving her hand.
"I know it's silly to suppose . . . Hey, they see us. They've changed
flight angle." She stopped, admiring the sight. "You know, if they actually
remember us, we can't have slept that long!'
        "Varian . . ." Kai felt his mouth drying as he reached for her hand
and began to pull her backwards toward shelter. "That doesn't look like a
welcoming party!"
        "Kai, don't be afraid. We never did them any harm. They couldn't .
. ." Then she was backing right beside him, no longer able to deny the
menace in the attitude of the golden fliers who dove straight at them,
necks extended, beaks slightly parted.
        Kai and Varian reached the safety of the thick foliage just as the
giffs veered off.
        "They sure can maneuver," Varian exclaimed, though her admiration
was couched in a voice made shaky at the narrowness of their escape. "But
why, Kai? Why? Oh, Krims! What would have made them aggressive at the sight
of humans?" She slumped down against a convenient tree trunk.
        "The answer to that has to be "other humans," doesn't it?" He spoke
gently because he knew how much Varian had admired the beautiful,
inquisitive golden fliers. It was plain that the attack distressed her.
        "So we can take it as printed that Paskutti and his friends
penetrated this far . . . and didn't find us!'
        "And were aggressive enough toward the giffs that the memory hasn't
faded."
        "So it could be recent memory? Okay, but if the mutineers hurt the
giffs, getting this far, why has the cave been hidden? And how long did it
take these to grow?" She thumped the thick vine cable beside her. "After
all, we had to go cryogenic because the impassable chasm at this edge of
the cliff stood between us and the vegetable matter we needed for the
processor." She scrambled to her feet and began following the vine growth
away from the cliff. 'Whoops!'
        Varian had gone no more than a few feet before she struggled to
maintain her balance. Kai reached out to steady her.
        "The chasm hasn't gone anywhere." She knelt down, her hand and arm
disappearing as she sought the gap. "The vines have bridged it. And that
doesn't follow because the giffs have kept their own palisades clear of
vine." She resumed her seat, elbows on her knees, slapping one fist into
the other. "Attack one, protect one. Makes no sense at all."
        "Just how intelligent are the giffs, Varian?"
        "I can't gauge it but the two attitudes are incompatible. Except
that . . . the giffs are protective. Remember the one that got
back-stranded? Instant adult assistance. But . . ." and she held her
forefinger up as she paused dramatically, 'no aggressive move toward us
that day and we were only a few meters from them. Today -- swap!" Abruptly
she sat up and stared at Kai so intently he was startled. "But there were
only two giffs . . ." she pointed her finger at him, 'high up when we
climbed out of the cave. Then it rained. And we were under cover when the
sun came out. So . . . we were not seen leaving the cave. They think we
don't belong there!'
        Kai peered at the cliffs through the screening leaves. The giffs
were settling in to watch.
        "So we wait until dark, when they've all gone to roost or whatever
giffs do at night. Here, have another hadrosaur nut!'
        "My, aren't we brave! Natural food!'
        They had to break the tough shell of the nut between two stones
before they got to an irregular pale brown kernel. Varian looked at it
curiously, sniffed and broke off a fragment. She grimaced at its taste and
chewed it thoughtfully before swallowing.
        "Maybe you have to acquire a taste for "em," she said, inspecting
the remainder of the kernel. Then she slipped it over her shoulder and
smiled reassuringly at Kai's anxious expression. "I'll opt for the melon.
You can taste that."
        They had finished the sweet and juicy melon when they heard a
whistling, bugling commotion. Varian sprang to the break in the vegetation,
Kai just behind her.
        The fishers had returned and all the adult giffs were assisting the
net carriers. Varian remarked that either the community hadn't expanded
much or fishing and carrying were limited to certain giffs. The two humans
watched as the heavy woven grass nets were lowered and emptied on the flat
surface that served the giffs as central food dump. There was a great
coming and going as giffs filled their food pouches and delivered the day's
catch to the cave -- or nest -- bound. The greed of the younger giffs was
supervised by their elders.
        "If only . . ." Varian began through gritted teeth and, sighing
with frustration, she sat back against the tree trunk. Resignedly, Kai
joined her. Despite the confusion of feeding, they could not have returned
to the cave unnoticed. Then she grinned at Kai with a resurgence of her
usual wry humor. "I wonder what they'd make of the Thek if it appeared?"
        As they waited, rain fell in torrents again. The sun shone to make
the jungle a steaming bath which they had to endure. Eventually they dozed.
        It was the silence that roused them, for the wind had briefly
abated at sunset. Disoriented, they struggled to their feet, staring
uncertainly at each other in the fading light.
        "The watchers are still watching!" Varian commented after peering
through the leaves.
        Nine golden fliers perched at various levels of the adjoining
cliffs, all heads turned in one direction.
        "Can they see us here?" Kai asked in a muted voice. "Or smell us?"
        "Not when we're downwind of them. I can't believe they'd be aware
of us." Varian did not sound certain. 'That's not within the capability of
their species. Smell -- that's debatable. I think they rely heavily on
sight. And I don't think that extra sensory gifts are a likely development
on this planet."
        "Comparing them to the Ryxi?"
        "No, to what Trizein said about the primeval Terran life-forms they
resemble." She slapped her hand against her knee. "If only we hadn't kept
that man walled up in his lab, we might have resolved at least one of this
planet's anomalies. How could creatures that lived in Mesozoic Terra come
to be here on Ireta? Every xenobiologist in the FSP knows identical
life-forms cannot spontaneously develop on distant planets -- no matter how
similar the worlds and their primaries!'
        "Does that observation offer any clue as to how we can get back to
our cave and Tor? I don't fancy rappelling down a vine in the darkness.
        "Nor do I." Varian straightened suddenly. "Wait a sec! Before we
slept, Triv and the others were back and forth to the ravine collecting for
the synthesizer. The giffs were only interested: they watched, as I
remember, and were certainly not aggressive. But -- ' and she shook her
forefinger, emphasizing the condition -- ' they are protective of their
young. Extend that and it's just possible that they're protecting the cave
because it's within their territory ."
        "You mean they got protective over us after a single meeting and
few furtive vegetable raids?"
        "It's possible. If only we knew how long we had slept! However,"
and Varian pointed at him, "if the heavyworlders got here and were their
usual aggressive selves while trying to find the space shuttle, the giffs
would resent such an intrusion. Well, let's say they did. So it is the
heavyworlders who changed the giffs' passive curiosity into active
aggression. Only . . . that doesn't really explain the vine screen!
Protectiveness can be conditioned, learned. Giffs are the smartest
creatures we've met on Ireta, but could they be that intelligent. I don't
think they've progressed that far."
        Kai could only shrug as her voice trailed off: he knew little
xenopsychology.
        "Isn't that a mist rising?" Varian asked, straining to see in the
gathering gloom of Ireta's swift twilight. "That might give us cover."
        They watched eagerly as mist swirled up from the sea and over the
cliff edge, but they hadn't taken more than ten paces from cover before
four winged objects hurtled toward them, beaks ajar, wing talons extended.
Varian and Kai reached shelter as giff claws tore strips from the leaves
over their heads.
        "How did they know? They couldn't bloody see!" Kai demanded when he
recovered his breath.
        "Sound!" Varian regarded her boots in disgust. She stamped a boot
contemptuously. "These broadcast our movements. To demonstrate . . ."
        She located a handful of loose chippings and threw them out onto
the cliff. Though they knew they were safe, they both ducked at the whir of
wings as the giffs responded to the sounds.
        "So?" asked Kai.
        "So, while we're waiting . . ."
        "How long is that likely to be now?"
        "Giffs are not nocturnal. Sooner or later, habit is going to be too
strong for them and they'll want to get back to their nests. Particularly,"
she added at his skeptical expression, "if we give them reason to doubt our
continued presence here. Like a small avalanche down the ravine, . ."
        "Ah . . ."
        "Then, with our boots off, we tip toe quietly home . . ."
        "Sounds simple enough."
        "I know." Her tone admitted that simple plans can suddenly develop
serious flaws.
        Nevertheless, they began quietly searching the ravine edge for a
suitable natural slide. They then dammed it with a fallen branch to which
they attached a vine. It was difficult to find enough stones and rubble to
place behind the branch. Once a small shower cascaded into the ravine and
they suspended all movement until the whir of wings disappeared. They
worked quickly for Ireta's night would soon complicate things. As it was,
they finished the last of their arrangements in the dark. Removing their
boots, they secured them to the blanket packs across their shoulders.
        "I have a sudden negative thought," said Varian her lips against
Kai's ears. "I can't remember how far it is to the edge of the cliff. We
won't be able to see until we're there -- or over it."
        Kai contemplated that hazard. "Well, it's not going to make any
difference when we try to cross in the dark, is it? So, if they're diurnal,
they might just fall asleep if we give 'em enough time. Then . . ." he
paused as a sudden notion occurred to him, "why not lengthen this release
vine and go as far as we can, and make our avalanche when and if we need a
diversion?"
        Varian gave his hand a quick squeeze and then turned to cut more
vine. In whispered consultation, they estimated that the edge of the cliff
was about 30 meters away, so Varian knotted sufficient vine to approximate
that length.
        Waiting in darkness punctuated by the noises of night creatures
which nibbled, squeaked, and scrabbled was most tedious. Kai practiced the
Discipline breathing that calmed nerves, and exerted the strength of
patience on an over active imagination. Tiny noises in infinite variety
assumed a menacing quality despite the slightness of sound. He could feel
Varian, beside him, practicing the same exercises and was subtly comforted.
        Varian's sudden disappearance from his side startled him.
        "No mist, and only three sleepy bird watchers," was her quiet
murmur in his ear a moment later.
        "We go?"
        Her answer was a hand on his, then she stepped in front of him,
slowly parting the vegetation as he followed, playing out the release line
as she cleared the way.
        Although the vines lay in thick profusion along the cliff top,
there was sufficient space between tendrils to allow their bare feet a
reassuring contact with the cooling stone. Bent in a semicrouch, Kai
watched Varian's white feet as they moved forward, always angled back in
the direction of the ravine. He kept the line as taut as he dared. Varian,
one hand lightly touching his shoulder, kept her eyes on the curiously
luminous forms of the giffs, whose crested heads were turned toward the
ravine. Their wings were folded. Kai wondered if they kept from falling
over by clutching the rock with their wing joint talons. They were so
motionless, they had to be asleep.
        There are many aspects of time, Kai thought grimly as he and Varian
continued their stealthy, seemingly infinite journey. There is the
objective time lost in cold sleep, which might have been centuries or only
a few years. But the variety of time he was now experiencing was definitely
hard to endure subjectively. His leg muscles began to twitch with the cramp
of controlled motion. His hands were starting to sweat with a fear that an
inadvertent tug would break the vine or that he wouldn't be able to release
the key log to provide the crucial diversion.
        Abruptly Varian stopped, twisted her torso to put her mouth to his
ear.
        "Kai, we've got to find the vines we used this morning. They'll be
to our right. I can't see but I feel we should move that way."
        Kai glanced nervously at the sleeping giffs, now slightly to the
right and behind them. Varian plucked at his sleeve and he followed her
light guidance, sliding his feet carefully over vines to the stone
interstices. He almost fell over Varian when she crouched suddenly, and it
took all his control not to jerk on the release line. He was also startled
by the realization that only two more loops remained in his hand. As he
turned to warn her, they bumped noses. 'I'm almost out of vine.
        "I've found ours. I think." Varian took his left hand and placed it
on the thick stem. She moved beyond his reach, but he could see her nod
that she'd found her vine and he should move on down.
        Kai forced Discipline on himself, willing the tension out of his
blood and tissue. Then there was only a short piece of vine left in his
hand, the final edge tickling as it curled into his palm.
        "Varian!'
        The white blur of face turned to him. He knew she'd seen his
upraised hand, she made a thumbs-up gesture and crouched to run, her hand
along the vine that would take her over the cliff and into sanctuary.
        He pulled as firm and hard as he could, felt something vibrate
along the length of the line. Then he began to run, hands before him on the
rough vine trunk, counting his steps. Wouldn't do to hurtle over the cliff.
        The rumble of the stones cascading into the ravine startled him so
much that he nearly lost count of his strides. The giffs roused with a
squawk. He looked back at them. To his relief, their heads were turned away
and their motion was upward.
        "I'm at the edge, Kai!" Varian's voice was low but intense.
        He found it, too, just as his leading foot slipped into a crevice.
Then he closed his hands about the fat vine and, in blind faith that it was
the right one, began to scramble down it. He scraped his knuckles against
the cliff wall and then swung into free air, as the vine curved inward,
still secured to the shuttle docking brace.
        "Krims! I grabbed the wrong one." Varian suddenly exclaimed.
        "Swing near me, Varian. I'll catch you!'
        "No!'
        He heard that defiant negative above the screams of the giffs. Only
the Discipline that had been instilled in them both, that one leader must
survive, forced him to continue down his vine until he was inside the cave
and knew it was safe to let go. He staggered to his feet, able to
distinguish the cave mouth by the slightly brighter darkness.
        "Varian!'
        "I'm to your right. I got the wrong vine. It's too short. Can you
see me?"
        He couldn't. The curtain of vines hid her. "Can you grab the next
vine? Shake it!'
        Tracing the sound, he found the agitated vine and hauled it back
into the cave, bracing it.
        "Okay, switch and slide!'
        When her feet touched him, he guided her legs to the ground. They
clung together, trembling with a reaction neither bothered to Discipline.
        Then, hand in hand, they moved to the curved bow of the shuttle,
unslung their improvised packs, carefully removing the fruit and nuts. Then
they curled up together in the blankets and were almost instantly asleep.

CHAPTER THREE

        "Kaaaiiii!" The rumble that awakened Kai was a nightmare sound
because the noise not only issued from a source uncomfortably close to his
ear but it also vibrated through the stone under him.
        "Huh? Whaaat?" Varian lifted her head from its pillow on his upper
arm. "Tor? She blinked up at the rock which, from her perspective, towered
above them.
        As she moved, the recorder was firmly placed on Kai's diaphragm,
forcing an exhalation from him.
        "Location old core?" the recorder said in lugubrious tones.
        "The old core?" Varian's voice echoed the astonishment which she
and Kai felt for that totally unexpected query. 'We've nearly been
murdered, stripped of all survival equipment, out of touch with everyone .
. ."
        Kai tightened his arm to silence her. "Typical Thek logic, Varian.
It chose the issue important to it, not us. I wonder if that old core is
what stirred Tor to come."
        "Huh?" Varian struggled to a sitting position, drawing her legs
away from Tor's meter-high triangular lump of granite.
        "Where do you remember last seeing that core?" Kai asked her.
        "Frankly, I'd other things on my mind than ancient geological
artifacts and yet . . ." She frowned as she searched her memory. "It must
have been in Gaber's dome. Paskutti wouldn't have been interested in it.
Would Bakkun have hung on to it for some obscure reason?"
        "Bakkun?" Kai thought of the heavy world geologist with whom he had
often teamed on field trips. "No, he wouldn't value it. He already knew
where the ore sites were." Kai looked up at the Thek. "Original compound!'
        Tor rumbled but Kai was diverted by Varian's urgent tug on his arm.
        "If he's going to the compound, Kai, we could take a power pack and
go with him. The heavyworlders couldn't have used the sleds without power.
They might still be where they were stashed. If we could have some form of
transport . . ."
        "Accompany for search, Tor!" Kai said in loud measured tones,
repeating the request as the Thek's rumbling continued.
        "I wonder where we'd fit," said Varian, thoughtfully staring at the
Thek vehicle.
        The fit, as Kai discovered, was exceedingly close for just one of
them. The spare power pack could be secured neatly to one side of Tor's
pointed top but one full-sized human had to cram his body against the curve
of the shield canopy, arching over the Thek's mass. After taking a long
look at his flight position, Kai turned to Varian.
        "I think you'd better wake Lunzie and Triv. The others can stay in
cold sleep until we need them but I'd rather have the two Disciples awake."
        "You're not expecting trouble, are you? Here?" asked Varian,
incredulously spreading her arms to include the dim vine-bedecked cave.
        "No." Kai grinned. "Not here! But I don't know how long I'll be
with Tor." He shrugged. "You'd be better off with someone to talk to. And
they could be useful, if only for the experience they've gained on other
expeditions."
        Varian nodded agreement and returned Kai's grin, then Tor closed
the canopy about them. The Thek was warmer than Kai had thought, so he
spent most of the mercifully short trip to the original compound site
clutching desperately to the grips which Tor had fashioned for him on the
shield's interior. Kai remembered the trip as a series of incredible
acrobatics on his part and a green blur for the Thek sled was capable of
considerably more speed than the ones designed for humanoids. Finally Tor
braked its forward speed and began an abrupt circling movement.
        "Here?" Tor rumbled. The word reverberated in the enclosed space
like a klaxon.
        Dazedly Kai looked down and wondered how Tor could have recognized
anything at the speed with which it was circling. Kai felt nauseous.
        "Here!" To stop the dizzying motion, Kai would have confirmed any
location, but he had recognized the ledge on which the space shuttle had
once rested. Tor braked the cone in the same spot and Kai groggily
disengaged himself, then waited until the shield had been lifted and he
could step back onto solid ground. It would be a long time before he
volunteered to go anywhere in a Thek vehicle.
        He turned and stared open-mouthed at the compound. All too vivid in
his memory was his last sight of it, littered with what the heavyworlders
had ruthlessly discarded: the little hyracotherium's body, neck snapped in
a totally unnecessary display of brutality; Terilla's lovely botanical
sketches ground into the dust; discs and shards of records. He heard
thunder rolling. His heart skipped as he whirled anxiously toward the slope
where he had first seen the bobbing black line of stampeding hadrosaurs
which the mutineers had unleashed on the compound. But now the thunder was
atmospheric.
        In the midst of the sudden Iretan downpour, Kai now stared at an
amphitheater of sand and stone. The only signs that humans had once
inhabited the site were two broken stumps where the force veil had formed
an opening. How long had it taken the scavengers of Ireta to reduce the
mountains of dead hadrosaurs and scour the site clean? Not so much as a
horn was left. And the lack of vegetation gave him no clue as to the
passage of time. The amphitheater had been only a sandy bowl when they
occupied it.
        Of their own anxious accord, his eyes strayed, to register the
reassuring absence of menaces stampeding from the plain. Kai hadn't
realized how that event had branded itself into his subconscious. He would
have to try Discipline in sleep that night. He couldn't have an inhibiting
incident crop up, possibly to interfere later with situations on different
planets at an awkward moment.
        "Where?" Tor had emerged from the vehicle and trundled beside him.
        Kai pointed to the site of Gaber's dome, bleakly remembering that
they had had to leave Gaber's body. It, too, had been returned to dust. In
space, he had always wondered at that archaic burial phrase. It was
appropriate here.
        "The core was there!'
        Tor slid down the slope, the unevenness of the surface posing no
problem, but Kai noticed that the Thek left a steaming trail. He followed
the stone was still hot enough to penetrate Kai's thick boot sole.
        "Here?" The sound grated out of Tor as the Thek stopped in the
designated site.
        "This was the site of the geology dome, the main shelter was
precisely here," and Kai walked to the position. "The individual
accommodations were across that part of the compound."
        Then he stared at Tor because that was the longest plain speech he
had ever made to a Thek and he wondered if the creature absorbed statements
not couched in the short speech they preferred. He opened his mouth to
structure the explanation properly when a rumble from Tor stopped him.
        Not for the first time, Kai wondered if the silicon life-form might
have hidden telepathic ability. Now that he thought of it, you always knew
what a Thek wanted to find out despite its succinct speech. You could
distinguish a command from a question that required a yes or no answer, yet
there had only been the one or two cue words to elicit a response.
        Tor was on the move again, this time in an obvious search pattern.
An extremity in the shape of a broad flange was poised just above the
surface of the dusty compound floor. The Thek progressed ten meters in one
direction, abruptly turned and examined the adjacent strip.
        Clearly any effort on Kai's part would be redundant, so he strode
down the slight slope to where the veil opening had been. Only the stubs of
the heavy-duty plastic column remained, and gouges proved they had been
subjected to treatment its designer had never envisaged.
        Kai knew that the mutineers had moved the sleds from the original
parking site. They would have had to do it manually since Bonnard had
hidden the power packs. Kai stood, raking the surrounding area with
calculating eyes. There was no telling now how wide a swathe the dead
hadrosaurs had made. He was also certain that the mutineers had grossly
underestimated the scope of the stampede. Still, the mass of animals would
have had to funnel through the narrow rock gorge leading to the compound.
The sleds would have been taken to a place reasonably secure, which
suggested uphill but nearby. The sleds were weighty, even for the muscles
of heavyworlders. And they'd been some what rushed, having hoped to fly the
four craft out of the area.
        Kai struck off to his left where the heavily vegetated land slanted
upward. He looked back toward the compound and saw Tor moving steadily on
its search pattern. He wouldn't be inconveniencing the Thek if he pressed
his own search. He rather supposed that Tor would have a time locating the
core no matter how efficiently it worked. There was always the possibility
that the mutineers had retrieved the object.
        He devoutly hoped that they hadn't also retrieved the sleds. Or
spitefully damaged them beyond use. But Kai reasoned the sleds would have
been too valuable for wanton destruction. The mutineers would have been
positive that they'd catch up with the people they considered inferiors:
whom they'd left without any survival equipment. Nor would Paskutti have
been easily deterred from an exhaustive search for the missing power packs.
Which might well explain the giffs' behavior yesterday.
        Kai almost climbed past the sleds: they were so covered in vine
that they looked like a natural rock formation. He tore at the vegetation,
cursing as fine thorns ripped his hands. He used his knife then, and he
broke a branch from a tree to pry and cut away the obscuring growths.
        If only one sled was intact . . . Units were sealed: Even a
heavy-worlder would have had to grunt to bash the sturdy plasteel frame and
body skin.
        He was the one to grunt and sweat now, contending with Ireta's
heavy morning rain, which penetrated the leafy cover so that mud added to
his problems: mud and the colonies of insects that had taken refuge in the
shelter of vine and sled.
        He felt, rather than saw, that the instrument console was intact,
and disregarding the myriad of tiny life-forms wriggling from beneath his
fingers, found that the sled floor was unbroached and the essential power
connectors undamaged.
        With a sigh of relief, he leaned warily against a tree trunk only
to be brought upright as a spurt of flame angling upward into the misty
rain told him that Tor had taken off.
        Too stunned to react for a moment, Kai stared as the fog roiled and
then covered completely the passage of the Thek vehicle. Half-blind with
sweat and apprehension; Kai started to run back to the compound. With out
that power pack . . .

Varian had had one glimpse of Kai, body arched over Tor's mass, clinging
valiantly to the improvised hand-holds. She didn't envy him the journey.
Then the Thek vehicle slowly turned in the cramped space of the cave,
proving Tor's expertise as a pilot. Of course, Tor ought to be expert,
considering it was intimate with its source of power and the vehicle no
more than a surround. How convenient to be a Thek, she thought, impervious
to all the minor ills that beset frail species like her own: long-lived,
invulnerable to anything short of a nova. Someone had once told her that
Thek created novas to tone up their inner cores. And there'd been that
droll story she'd heard in advanced training, that the various planets
claimed by the Thek as 'homes' were dead worlds covered with immense
pyramidal mountains, in conical ranges. Elder Thek never died, they became
mountains, too vast to move or be moved. And the asteroid belts common to
most Thek systems were actually fragmented Thek who had not with stood the
final journey to their chosen resting place.
        She peered out between the vines to follow their flight and saw the
reaction of the giffs. Those in mid-air seemed to pause, while those who
stood preening themselves on the cliffs erupted into sound, bugling and
whistling in tones that seemed to Varian both joyous and startled. Although
there was no way a golden flier could keep up with a Thek-powered craft
those in the air made a valiant effort and were followed by what must have
been the entire adult population of the colony.
        Varian gasped as a shaft of sunlight penetrated the morning mist
and rain. The golden fur of the airborne giffs seemed a sheet of brilliant
yellow suspended between cloudy sky and misted earth.
        Only then did it occur to Varian that the shape of the Thek's
vehicle with its transparent canopy was vaguely bird-like, with swept-back
wings. A further moment's thought and she glanced at the basically ovoid
shape of the shuttle and came to an inescapable conclusion. The giffs had
been protecting the cave! They had granted immunity to what they thought
was an incubating egg.
        Varian burst out laughing. The poor giffs! How long had the "egg"
been incubating? However long, it must have confused the giffs. And yet . .
. her respect for the creatures grew. Not only were they food-catchers,
grass-weavers and protectors of their young, they could extend those skills
to include another species. Very interesting! This would be one for the
tapes when she got back to the ARCT-10. Or if.
        Varian entered the shuttle, opening the iris just wide enough for
her to squeeze through. The one interior light made for an eerie
atmosphere. Varian was only too glad to revive Lunzie and Triv. She didn't
fancy a prolonged lonely stay in the shuttle or crouched in the cave. She
needed occupation. And reading revival instructions was first on her list.
        She gave Lunzie and Triv their initial shots and sat down to wait.
She couldn't give the next dose until their body temperatures had risen
closer to normal. She worried about Lunzie. Was there a limit to the number
of times one body could undergo cold sleep? Or did it depend on the length
of time asleep?
        She shook her head, and turned her mind to more productive
channels. If Tor had actually bestirred itself to investigate their
situation, even if only for the sake of that ancient core, they could
eventually expect adequate assistance. Nor had they been planted. Had they
been, Tor would not have intervened no matter how eager the Theks were to
acquire the core. She hoped that the object gave the Theks a hard time:
ARCT-10's computer records, which supposedly included much of the stored
knowledge of the incredibly ancient Thek communities, had indicated no
previous exploration of Ireta. Yet once Portegin had assembled and
activated the seismic screen to read the soil and rock analyses of the new
cores laid by the three geological teams, faint signals had shown up along
the entire continental shelf: signals indicating the presence of cores on a
planet reportedly never before explored. Kai and Gaber had unearthed one.
Though its signal was weak, it hadn't differed from the new cores the
geologists were planting. It had felt old to Varian. And it was obviously
of Thek manufacture. The presence of an ancient network on the continental
shelf did explain the absence of mineral deposits; obviously the planet had
already been worked. Once the geologists ventured beyond the shelf to the
tectonically unstable areas, the cores did what they were designed to do:
register massive deposits that the shifting plates of the heaving planet
had thrown up from its very active thermal core.
        At least, Varian consoled herself, Ireta was interesting to the
Theks even if the situation of the humans involved did not appear to
concern them. Still, if the stranded victims of the mutiny could find and
power up the sleds, they could improve their condition until adequate
assistance did arrive.
        Varian checked Lunzie and Triv. Nothing seemed to be wrong and
their respiration's were speeding up. Abruptly she decided that she'd
better get out of the shuttle for a few moments: she was not constituted to
sit still and do nothing.
        She wandered out to the cave entrance. Hanging onto a vine, she let
her body fall beyond the overhang. Giffs were swirling about. She wondered
how far they had pursued the swift Thek. They seemed to be talking the
event over for the crested heads turned from one flying mate to another.
        How beautiful the golden fliers were! Their bodies touched
occasionally, forming brilliant lances of yellow as Ireta's sun made its
morning inspection. She was all admiration for their economy of movement as
they back-winged to settle on the cliff. They were not graceful as they
waddled to form a loose semicircle. She hung out on the vine, fascinated by
what had to be a council of the great giffs. Others emerged from caves to
join the nucleus until the top of the palisade was alive with motion, with
high-held triangles of giff wings, claw-fingers wriggling in agitation. The
noise had become a gabbling bugling sound, curiously harmonious, rather
than dissonant. What were they saying to each other?
        Varian was so entranced by the spectacle that she didn't realize
how precarious her hold was on the vine until she had almost slipped beyond
the reach of the ledge. She got safely back, rubbing hands stiffened by
clutching the cumbersome thick vine, torn between a desire to get closer
and the wisdom of remaining unseen.
        She settled by making herself comfortable at the far left side of
the cave mouth, where she had a good view of the sky and cliffs and could
still hear the chorus even if she couldn't see the conclave.
        She looked out apprehensively when the bugling ceased and saw a
contingent of giffs, nets dangling from their clawed feet, speed off for
the morning's fishing.
        She was utterly astounded then, when three giffs broached the vine
curtain and, neatly disentangling their wings from the trailing greenery,
came to a stop in front of the space shuttle. Their attention was on the
shuttle, so they didn't see her.
        Krims! she thought to herself. Then Varian was torn between
amusement and sympathy for the obvious consternation of the three giffs.
Had they expected to find the space shuttle broken open? A birdlike object
had certainly left the cave. But there it was the "egg", unblemished and
certainly intact.
        Then Varian noticed that the Middle Giff was taller, its wings a
fraction larger, than its two fellows. The smaller ones turned to Middle
Giff, their whole attitude querying. They emitted soft chirps and a sound
more like a feline purr than a bird noise. Middle Giff aimed its beak
tentatively at the shuttle and tapped it lightly. Varian could have sworn
it sighed. It resumed its meditative pose while the other crested heads
turned respectfully to it.
        Varian was seized with an almost uncontrollable desire to stroll
nonchalantly up to them and say, "Well, fellows, it's like this . . ."
        Instead she savored the perplexed tableau and wished that there
were some way in which she could explain to her puzzled hosts and
protectors. They were noble creatures, elements of dignity were visible
even in that moment of acute perplexity. Would they -- could they -- evolve
further? Somehow she couldn't imagine the Ryxi in a protective role toward
another species of avian life. Fortunately, there was no way in which the
Ryxi could jeopardize the giffs' evolution! She smiled to herself, watching
the giffs as they continued to debate the puzzle. Middle Giff turned from
one sidekick to the other, gurgling softly under their more audible
commentaries. Vrl would be furious, Varian thought. Another flying
life-form capable of reasoning. Thank Krim that the Ryxi had refused to
credit even the little Kai had reported of avian life on Ireta. Ryxi could
hold lifelong grudges which, in this instance, suited Varian perfectly, so
long as they stayed away from Ireta.
        The examining committee waddled to the edge of the cave ledge and
dropped off, spreading their wings to catch an updraft. She watched them
from behind her screen as they circled and landed among those left on the
council rocks. More harmonious noise. Could the musicality of a species'
utterances be an indication of their basic temperament? An interesting
notion -- harmony equated with rational thought? Discord with basic
survival reactions?
        She glanced at the sky, squinting as she found the sun. Kai and Tor
had been gone a while. At the rate of speed Tor had left the cliffs, the
trip back to the old compound would have required a fraction of the time
needed to make the journey by sled.
        Time! She scurried back to the shuttle and hastily checked her
patients. She ought not to have been gone so long, yet she'd no way of
measuring time. Lunzie felt warmer and her respiratory rate was quicker.
Triv was all right, too. She couldn't risk leaving them again. She settled
down, drawing the thin thermal sheet about her.
        Even if Kai found a sled in working order, it would take him some
hours to return. To pass time, she carefully peeled and ate another of the
fruits, chewing slowly to get the most of its taste and to draw out the
task of eating. Mentally she rehearsed phrases of a report she'd make to
the Xenobiological Survey on the cooperative tendencies of the golden
fliers.
        A long sigh nearly lifted Varian from the hard shuttle plasfloor.
Lunzie! Yes, the medic's head had turned and her right hand jumped, her
feet twitched. It was time for the restorative. As she prepared Lunzie's,
she looked over at Triv. His head had fallen to one side, his lips parted
and a groan issued from deep inside the man. 'Lunzie, it's Varian. Can you
hear me?"
        Lunzie blinked, trying to focus her eyes. Varian remembered her own
attempts and resisted the impulse to smile. Lunzie wouldn't appreciate
humor at the expense of her personal dignity.
        "Hnnnnn?"
        "It's Varian, Lunzie. You've been in cold sleep. I'm reviving you
and Triv."
        "Ohhhhh."
        Varian gave her the second of the two required shots and then
turned to give Triv his. She could appreciate their sensations as
long-unused nerves and limbs began to respond to mental dictates. Once the
second shots had taken effect, Lunzie and Triv were soon sitting up.
        "I only hope you took it easy at first," Lunzie commented to Varian
in her usual way.
        "Oh yes," Varian assured her blithely, aware that "easy" in
Lunzie's lexicon probably differed from her own interpretation. "I feel
great."
        "So what happened?"
        "That Thek, Tor -- the one Kai knows -- came."
        Lunzie's eyebrows arched in mild surprise. "Not to our rescue,
certainly!'
        Varian grinned at the medic, pleased that someone else shared her
cynicism about Thek. "It wanted the old core!'
        The one Gaber and Kai disinterred."
        "What would it want that for?" Triv asked, his words slurred in his
first attempt at speech.
        Varian shrugged. "A Thekian reason. But Kai went over with Tor to
find it. I hope that wretched thing's buried nineteen meters down. No, I
don't," she contradicted herself quickly, "for that would mean we've been
asleep far too long. At any rate, Kai took along a power pack to unearth a
sled for us."
        "If the heavyworlders didn't wreck "em," Lunzie said sourly.
        "They wouldn't do that," Triv said. "They'd be too sure that they'd
locate us, and the power packs."
        "A sled would be a powerful encouragement." Lunzie looked down at
the darker mounds of sleepers. Then she began to manipulate her arms and
legs in a Discipline limbering exercise.
        "Do I smell fruit?" Triv asked, running his tongue over his lips.
        Varian instantly set to peel fruit for Lunzie and Triv. While they
ate slowly and appreciatively, Varian related the adventures she and Kai
had had, and their conclusion that the heavyworlders had penetrated to the
giffs' territory. With great relish she recounted the visitation of the
Elder giffs after Tor had left the cave. Triv was amused, but Lunzie
interpreted Varian's report differently though she offered no comment.
        "Can we use the main cave safely?" she asked Varian as she rose
stiffly to her feet. "Or are those fliers of yours apt to recon frequently?
No matter, I'd rather be out in Ireta's stink than sit in this morgue." She
gathered up the thermal sheet and stalked to the entrance.
        Triv and Varian followed. Once outside, Lunzie regarded the vines
for a long moment, her expression betraying nothing of her thoughts.
Suddenly she began to sniff, at first tentatively, and then with deeper
breaths. "What . . . the . . ."
        Varian grinned at her consternation. "Yes, I'd noticed, too. We've
got accustomed to Ireta."
        "Don't those vines give you any idea how long we've slept?" Lunzie
demanded.
        "I wish my botanical expertise was not limited to edibility and
toxicity," Varian said, not wishing to add that the expedition's botanist
had mutinied. "Tropical growth has a vitality unlike others. Why don't you
limber up more? You could shower with the next rain . . ."
        "Say, Tanegli broke your shoulder . . ." Lunzie's strong fingers
found the break point in Varian's shoulder. Her expression was inscrutable.
"Reabsorbed! How long ago did Kai leave?" she added in a quick shift of
topic.
        "Early morning. Before the net giffs left for fishing." Varian
swung a vine beyond the lip of the cave and, squinting against the sun
which was burning through the heat haze, decided it must be midafternoon.
"He could be back any time now."
        "We'll hope so. D'you have anything more than fruit? Any protein? I
feel an urgent need for something substantial."
        "Well," Varian began brightly, "we were lucky enough to find
hadrosaur nuts . . ."
        "Were you now?" Lunzie's dry humor had survived cold sleep.
        While Varian tried to sell the two on the merits of the pithy nuts,
she tried to hide her growing apprehension over Kai's delay. Kai might
ascribe some loyalty to Tor but she couldn't. It would be just like the
creature to find the bloody core and bounce off with its treasure, ignoring
Kai's welfare. Still, Kai would have had to disinter the sleds and check
over the console. It could have taken a long time to find the sleds. Her
anxiety sharpened her hearing and the giffs' cries were audible. Without
explanation to Triv and Lunzie, she made a sudden running leap to a vine,
swinging out to see what alarmed them. The haze had thickened but the
muffled whine of a sled was music to her ears.
        "He's back. He's back," she cried as she ran to the vines anchored
to the shuttle and began shinnying up. She was just pulling herself onto
the cliff when the blunt snout of the two-man vehicle emerged from the
obscuring haze and wobbled erratically in her direction.
        Krims! Was the thing damaged. "Lunzie! Triv! Get up here!'
        What was Kai attempting? The sled angled down, not as if he was
attempting to circle and land in the cave. The flight angle was wrong. What
was he doing? Reminding the giffs of the first peaceful visit they'd had
from humans? No, not with the sled swinging like that. Glare kept her from
making out the pilot behind the canopy. The giffs were alarmed, too, taking
to the air in flocks. Some began to circle to investigate. The bow of the
sled dipped again and, as Varian watched from the cliff edge, her heart in
her throat, its forward motion was braked so fast that the vehicle fell
rather than descended, bumping along the vines until she was afraid that
momentum would carry it over the cliff. She even put out her hand in an
unconscious gesture. With a final grind, the nose of the sled caught on the
vines and it slowed to a halt. Then she could see that Kai was slumped over
the console.
        Forgetting any caution for the circling giffs, she clambered over
the edge and reached the sled just as the first of the giffs landed. She
eyed the creature over the stained and scratched canopy. The giff reared
back, its wings half extended, the wing talons spread but, as she caught
her breath and braced herself for an assault, a long warbling note
restrained the giff. The creature's talons closed and its wings relaxed
slightly.
        She had time, then, Varian thought, to get to Kai. She pressed the
canopy release and, once the plasglas had cracked open, she pushed to speed
the retraction.
        "Kai! Kai!"
        "Kaaaiiiii! Kaaaaiiiii!" The giffs mimicked her as more landed and
ranged themselves on either side of the first one.
        At that moment, Kai moaned. Ignoring the giffs, Varian bent into
the sled to tend to his body slumped over the console. A putrid stench now
rose from the opened cockpit. Shuddering in revulsion, she hauled Kai
upright. And shuddered again, mastering the wave of nausea that swept her.
Kai's face was a mass of blood. What was left of his overall was matted
against his bloodied flesh. The whole front of him was a bloody mess.
        "LUNZIE! TRIV! HELP!" She screeched over her shoulder.
        "UNNNNZZZZI IVVVVELLLLL." The giffs picked up the sounds.
        "Shut up! I don't need a chorus!" Varian yelled at them to relieve
the horror that she experienced looking down at her co-leader. He moaned
again.
        Her fingers hunted for the pulse against the carotid artery. Slow,
strong and regular. Strange. No, he'd been exerting Discipline. How else
could he have returned to the cliffs in his condition.
        Had Lunzie heard her? She glanced warily up at the giffs and was
astonished to see that every head was turned away and the bodies seemed to
be withdrawing from the sled. They looked, for all the world, as if they
were avoiding an unpleasant smell. And so they were, for the stench still
rose from the sled, and mostly from Kai. Could she risk leaving him and
going to the cliff edge to hurry help.
        "We're coming!" Triv's shout finally encouraged her.
        She bent to look more closely at Kai's wounds. He appeared to have
been attacked by something or something's that sucked blood for as she
eased a shred of his coverall from his chest, she saw the pattern of pin
point marks on his skin, each with its own jewel like tear drop of blood.
And that awful stink! Worse than anything that Ireta had inflicted on her
before except, she realized now, that she remembered that frightful odor.
It was not easy to forget: oily, marine, and utterly disgusting!
        "Is it safe to approach?" Triv asked, poking his head over the
cliff edge.
        "It hardly matters, does it?" Lunzie replied, heaving herself onto
the vine-covered surface.
        "They're not aggressive now," Varian said in a well-projected
voice, keeping her tone sweet. "I'd just move slowly."
        "My intention, I assure you. How bad is Kai?"
        "He's unconscious now. Must have Disciplined himself to get back.
He seems to have run into a bloodsucker."
        "Faugh!" Lunzie's face wrinkled in distaste and she pinched her
nostrils. "What's that smell?"
        "Kai."
        "Your fliers don't seem to like the smell any more than we do,"
Triv remarked.
        "Let's get him out of the sled while they're snooting the wind,"
Lunzie said. "I really can't see enough through the blood.
        Triv and Varian slipped into the sled to hoist out the unconscious
geologist. Triv grimaced at muscles slow to respond to his commands as they
guided the limp body out to Lunzie.
        "That stink would suffocate a man," Triv remarked, taking deep
gulps of fresher air. "Oh ho, what's wrong here?" He bent back inside the
sled. "Did he drop this thing? Every malfunction light on the control panel
is lit."
        "Krims! I was hoping we could fly him down to the cave in the
sled," Varian said.
        "I wouldn't advise it until I can get behind the control panel."
Triv flicked off the power and closed the canopy.
        Lunzie deftly peeled away the tatters of the coverall to disclose
the hundreds of tiny punctures that had pierced Kai's skin, each one filled
with blood. Varian removed the trouser legs.
        "Even his boots are perforated," she told Lunzie. "I don't remember
tell-tagging anything that could do this."
        "You think he'd smell it coming," was Lunzie's dour comment.
        "Watch it, girls, we've got company. Hey . . ."
        At Triv's warning, Lunzie and Varian looked up and received a
giff-borne shower in the face as a flight of giffs skimmed over them and
each emptied its filled throat pouch on the little group. Most of the
unexpected drenching fell on Kai's exposed body, leaving it clean of blood
momentarily.
        "Well, what d'you make of that?" demanded Triv. "Ah there's more
coming! No, they've got leaves!'
        As deftly as the shower had been delivered, the thick green leaves
dropped about Kai.
        "What are they trying to tell us, Varian?" Lunzie wanted to know.
        "They know that stink, Lunzie. They could know what attacked him.
They must be trying to help us."
        "They'd attack with claw and wing," Triv said thoughtfully, "not
water and leaves."
        "But they did attack you and Kai . . ." Lunzie began.
        "This time they saw us all come from the cave." Varian seized one
of the leaves and held it up to the giffs remaining beyond the sled. "What
do I do with it?"
        Lunzie picked up a leaf, crushing the pulpy tip in her fingers,
sniffing and sneezing at the odor of the sap.
        "One thing sure, it smells a lot better than he does. A
neutralizer?"
        "Varian! That big one . . ." Triv pointed and they looked at the
largest of the giffs, who could have been the Middle Giff of the cave
inspection, crushing a leaf in its talon and smearing it on its chest fur.
        "What might work on giffs, might not work on us, but I've nothing
else . . ." Lunzie muttered and tentatively squeezed sap over the oozing
punctures on Kai's shoulder. "Well, what d'you know? It's a styptic! Quick,
both of you, get to work. Even if the leaves only stop the bleeding, it's
something!" She tasted the sap then. "Oooo. Bitter, bitter. Alum like.
Good. Now if it could also neutralize -- whatever bit Kai is toxic as all .
. . Hell!'
        As if taking due note of Kai's condition, Ireta's unpredictable
rain started to fall in drops big enough to hurt.
        "Wouldn't you just know?" Varian cried in disgust, trying to
shelter Kai's legs with her body as Lunzie and Triv leaned across his
torso.
        In moments Kai's hair was afloat in a puddle and the sap was being
washed from those portions of his body which the concerted efforts of his
friends could not shield.
        "We've got to get him out of this. Are you sure we can't risk the
sled?" Lunzie asked urgently.
        Triv splashed to the vehicle and the women could hear him cursing,
heard him slamming the plasglas canopy shut.
        "Every damned red light is on. Those sleds are supposed to be
impervious . . . We got company again . . ."
        "What we don't need are spectators. C'mon, Varian, Triv. We've got
to get him down to the cave before he drowns."
        "I'll just hoist him . . ." Triv said, grabbing Kai by the arm and
staggering as he attempted to haul the unconscious man to his shoulder.
"What . . ."
        Varian grabbed to support the staggering Triv while Lunzie caught
Kai.
        "You're both just out of cold sleep," Varian said with some
disgust. "Neither of you has regained any useful strength yet."
        In a joint effort they carried Kai to the edge of the cliff.
        "I don't like this," Lunzie muttered to herself as Varian located
an untethered vine and hauled it up. "None of us is up to this sort of
effort." She bent to protect Kai from the rain.
        "Varian," Triv's voice was taut with alarm. "The giffs are
surrounding us. Are they trying to push us off the cliff?" His voice rose
as he planted himself in front of Lunzie and Kai.
        Varian turned, rising from her crouch. With a sense of relief she
thought she recognized Middle Giff as it took a forward step. Then it
inclined its head to her and gestured one wing in as courtly a motion as
any she'd ever seen from the mincing Ryxi. The wing tip pointed over the
edge of the cliff. It moved to indicate Kai. Then both wings were spread,
undulating to suggest flight. The huge raindrops beat against the wing
surface, beading as the oil of the fur kept the water from penetrating.
        "Does the giff mean what I think it means?" Triv asked Varian.
        "If it does, it's a miracle."
        "Now, wait a minute, Varian," Lunzie interposed, "I'm not about to
surrender Kai to them."
        "What choice have we? Dropping him into the sea because we haven't
the strength to lower him into the cave? They've already helped us with the
water and the leaves. They are used to flying burdens with the fish nets,
working as a team. If they're smart enough to see we've got a problem in
getting Kai into shelter, they've also got a solution. The rain's getting
heavier and the wind's making up." Varian had to brace herself. "We've no
other option."
        Lunzie dashed soaking hair from her face, staring up at Varian.
Then a gust of wind buffeted the trio of humans. Lunzie capitulated,
throwing up one hand in acceptance of their desperate situation. "You and
Triv go on down. Part the vines and guide the giffs in."
        With a final fierce look at the xenobiologist, Lunzie surrendered
Kai's limp body to Varian. She took the vine that Triv indicated and slid
out of sight over the cliff edge. Triv followed her. Suddenly the wind
ceased its assault on her body and Varian realized that she was surrounded
by wet giff legs. Giff claws wrapped gently about Kai's ankles and picked
up his limp arms by the wrists. Varian stepped back, heart in her mouth.
        Then Kai was hanging in the air and more giffs found holds on him.
For one horrified moment, Varian wondered if they were going to fly him up
to one of their caves. But they lifted him well above the cliff, then
maneuvered slowly out over the water and slowly began to descend. Could she
be hearing the creak of over loaded bones in the storm winds? She could
certainly see the effort in the straining pinions. Varian shook herself out
of her paralysis and, finding the vine which Lunzie had used, began to
slide down it. She slipped a bit on the rain-slick vine and was forced to
abandon her scrutiny of Kai's descent to insure her own. Then she saw
Lunzie and Triv holding back the thick vines so that the giffs could enter.
Before her feet touched the cave's floor, Kai was safely deposited. Having
delivered their burden, the giffs awkwardly backed away. Lunzie and Triv
busily anointed the myriad punctures on his body, which were once again
oozing droplets of blood.
        "He's all right?" Varian asked Lunzie.
        "Took no harm at all. I don't think they so much as bruised him.
And this sap is definitely styptic."
        Reassured, Varian turned to the giffs. The two species regarded
each other over the injured man. It wasn't as if she could flap her hand at
them, like a flock of ordinary birds, and shoo them away, nor did Varian
wish to treat them so peremptorily for they had saved Kai twice already. In
working with alien species, Varian had discovered that the sincerity of her
intentions could be communicated by voice, even if the words were
unintelligible to the hearer. She spread her arms wide, palms up, and
imitated the wing gesture of Middle Giff.
        "I don't know how to express our thanks and appreciation for your
assistance, golden fliers," she said, deepening her voice and imbuing it
with the very genuine gratitude she felt. We could not have borne him so
safely nor so quickly to shelter. Thank you, too, for the leaves." Varian
pointed to Lunzie and Triv as they smeared Kai's wounds. "Thank you for all
your assistance. We hope to remain on such good terms with you. Thank you."
        "From all of us to all of you," murmured Lunzie. Then she smiled up
at the giffs nearest her, holding up the leaf she was crushing and smiling
more broadly. Varian could almost forgive her her dark humor.
        A hum rose from the giffs and their orange eyes blinked rapidly.
        "While you're in rapport with 'em, ask for more leaves. Unless you
know where we can find 'em."
        A slightly surprised chirp and the agitation of the vine screen
brought their attention to the cave entrance. A group of smaller giffs
entered, their wing talons clutching bundles of the leaves.
        "Ask and you shall receive, oh skeptic," Triv muttered as the
smaller giffs hovered, venturing inside the cave only far enough to drop
their burdens safely to the floor. Then Middle Giff made a peremptory
sound, a call more than a chirp, and all the giffs lurched to the mouth of
the cave. To Varian, they appeared to fall off the edge. Then she saw them,
beating strongly upwards and out of sight.
        "Lunzie . . ." she began, turning to deliver a few choice words to
the medic but Kai moaned, his voice rising to a feverish mumble. He
thrashed about until Triv grabbed him by the arms and held him down.
        "Get that thermal blanket Varian. Whatever Discipline he was
exerting has lapsed. Yes," and Lunzie laid her hand on his forehead and
then his cheeks, "fever's rising. At least fever indicates the body is
fighting the toxemia." She rummaged in her pouch for a moment. "Muhlah! I
don't have so much as an antibiotic. He's going to have to do it the hard
way. Take off the other boot, Triv, will you? And Varian, you pull off
what's left of his clothes while I hold him up. Hmmm . . ." Lunzie paused
to inspect Kai's chest. "The sap is closing the punctures. If only I had
something . . . That Thek didn't say anything about ARCT-10, did it?"
        "Only that the beacon hadn't been stripped yet"
        "I shouldn't have asked. Is there any more of that succulent fruit,
Varian? I'm still dehydrated and, if we could dilute some juice -- with
freshwater, Kai might take it. He's going to need all the liquid we can get
down him to combat the toxin."
        Triv collected rain water by holding a pail outside the vines to
catch the torrential downpour. Varian squeezed juice until she had
exhausted the supply. They all ate the pulp. At regular intervals, the
diluted juice was dripped down Kai's throat. It seemed to ease his
restlessness. Often he would lick his lips and frown during the fever
dreams, as if searching for soothing moisture.
        "Not on uncommon fever pastime," Lunzie assured them. "It's when
they won't swallow, you've got problems."
        By sunset Kai's fever had reached a new high and their supply of
leaves was almost gone. Though most of the punctures had closed, the sap
seemed to ease his feverishness but Lunzie hoped they could get more to
last through the night. So Varian climbed to the cliff top, hoping there
would be a giff she could signal to. She sighed with relief when she found
a large pile of leaves neatly anchored to the vines by a stout twist of
grass. Fruit was windlocked in an intersection of thick vine tendrils.
        "Not so stupid our fine furry friends," she said, elated and
reassured, as she proudly displayed the leaves and fruit to Lunzie and
Triv.
        "I've been on worlds where there were other interpretations to such
overtures," Lunzie replied sardonically.
        "Yes, I appreciate that, Lunzie. Propiation of unknown gods,
fattening for the kill, ceremonial poisonings . . ." Varian dismissed such
considerations with a wave of her hand. "To an experienced hand like you, I
must seem incredibly naive, but then I've generally dealt with animals
which are pretty straight forward in their reactions. I really feel sorry
for you, having to cope with that devious and subtle predator -- man." She
spoke in an even tone but she held Lunzie's gaze in a steady stare. "My
experience tells me to trust the giff, for they've shown us no harm -- "
        "Once we emerged from this cave. Actually, I cannot help comparing
your fliers with the Ryxi."
        "There's no comparison -- "
        "There is if you are trying to suggest the golden fliers remembered
man -- us," and Lunzie dug a thumb into her chest bone, "when you don't
even know their life span, and we don't know how long we were in cold
sleep."
        "The giffs did remember: that intruders from the gap were trouble
and that those in the cave were to be protected. They do protect the young
of their own species. I just count us very lucky indeed that that instinct
mapped onto us."
        "I'd hate to think that this was a tradition handed down from elder
to hatchling," Triv remarked. "What sort of a life span would you project
for the giffs, Varian?"
        As Varian did not wish to argue with Lunzie, she seized on Triv's
calm question gratefully.
        "The Ryxi are the only comparable species of a similar size
exhibiting the same intelligence," she ignored Lunzie's snort of disgust,
"and their life span is tied up with their libido. The males tend to kill
their opponents off in mating duels. Ryxi females live six or seven
decades. Like the giffs they don't seem to have any predators. Of course, I
don't know what parasites they might be susceptible to. Then, there's the
leech thing. If the giffs knew what topical treatment to supply for those
puncture wounds, they must be vulnerable to it. However, let's give the
giffs a life span similar to the Ryxi's . . ."
        "They don't like comparisons -- " Lunzie remarked. "Say, 60 to 70
years Standard."
        "We could have slept sixty to seventy years, or six hundred. You'd
have thought Kai would insist on knowing how long he'd slept."
        "You know that Thek don't reckon time in our measurements. Even if
Kai had asked, would he have received a comprehensible answer."
        Triv regarded Lunzie's sour expression with a bemused smile on his
face. "You do dislike the Thek, don't you?"
        "I would dislike any species that set itself up as an infallible
authority on anything and everything." A sharp gesture of Lunzie's arm
dismissed the noble Thek with no courtesy. "I don't trust "em. And this,"
her hand lowered toward Kai, feverishly twisting his head and trying to
free his arms from the restraint of the sheet, "is one immediate reason
why."
        "We've been taught to respect and revere them," Triv began.
        Lunzie snorted. "Typical xenob training. You can't help it, but you
can learn from mistakes!'
        Kai began to thresh in earnest, loosening the cocoon they had
wrapped about him.
        "Sap time!" Lunzie said, reaching for the leaves. "This medication
is effective for an hour and a half; I wish I knew if there were side
effects to prolonged application. I wish I had something to work with . .
." Lunzie's tone was fierce but her hands were gentle in their
ministrations.
        "What do you need?" Varian asked quietly.
        "The small microscope plus the metal medicine container that
Tanegli made off with!'
        "I know the console was blinking its red head off but none of the
warning lights was steady," Varian said. "I'll take a look tomorrow.
Portegin had enough tools to make that homing beacon, and I'm a fair
mechanic when pushed. A few matrices may just have loosened in that hard
landing. I remember the coordinates of all the camps . . . as if it were
yesterday . . ." Varian caught Lunzie's eyes and laughed. Lunzie's gaze was
cynical. "Well, the last thing the heavyworlders would be expecting is a
raid by one of us."
        "Do the bastards good to get shaken out of their sagging skins,"
the physician said. "If any of the original ones are still alive."
        "A bit daunting to think they might all be safely in their graves,
or whatever they do," said Triv, "and us alive and kicking."
        "You get used to it," Lunzie said sourly.
        "What?" asked Varian. "The kicking or still being alive when
everyone else you know has long since been dead?" With those words Varian
faced that possibility for the first time since she had awakened.
        "Both," was Lunzie's cryptic reply.
        "I'll have a go at fixing the sled first light tomorrow."
        "I'll give you a hand," Triv said.
        "Then you," and Lunzie pointed at Triv, "can take first watch with
Kai tonight." She was wringing out another cloth to place on Kai's
forehead. "I'm tired."
        Varian gave the physician a searching look. Yes, Lunzie was tired,
of many things. Tired, resigned, but not defeated.
        "Wake me for the next watch, Triv." Varian hauled the thermal
blanket over her shoulders and was asleep almost before she could pillow
her head on her arm.
        Varian woke Lunzie at first light when Kai's temperature began to
rise.
        "That's the way of fevers," Lunzie told her, checking her patient.
"Some of the punctures are completely closed. That's good." Lunzie offered
Kai juice which he thirstily gulped. "That's good, too."
        Varian went over to Triv and was about to wake him when Lunzie
intervened.
        "Can you manage without him? He needs more rest than he'll let on "
        "I'll call if I need help, then." Varian equipped herself with
Portegin's few tools and shinnied up the vine to the cliff top.
        First she had to empty the sled of the rainwater that had
accumulated even in the brief time the canopy had been opened. That gave
her a chance to examine the under-carriage. Although there were a few
scratches from Kai's rough landing, there were no fracture lines on the
ceramic. As she righted the sled, she noticed several small feathers. She
picked them up, smoothed them and held them out to the fresh drawn breeze
to dry. They couldn't be from giffs, which were furred, and, once dry
enough to show color, they were a greenish blue. The downy portion fluffed
while the top of the quills remained rigid, too thick with oil to have
suffered damage from their immersion. Carefully putting them in a breast
pocket, Varian turned to the business at hand.
        She switched on the power, and the blinking lights reappeared. The
fault might be just in the console panel, Varian thought, for despite her
confident claim to Lunzie, she wasn't a trained mechanic. If the sled's
malfunction involved circuit or matrix adjustments, she would be unable to
cope. Then they would have to wake Portegin. But the units were built to
withstand a good deal of rough usage as well as long periods of idleness,
stored in the Exploratory Vessel, so they had been designed to survive
under just the circumstances that then prevailed.
        Fortunately the wind was blowing over her right shoulder as she
broke the console seal. She had also lifted the panel upward so her face
was shielded. Otherwise the mold that had penetrated and thrived in the
console interior would have covered her face. Instinctively she had held
her breath and ducked away at her first sight of the purple mass. She
lowered the console cover only far enough to watch the wind blow away the
top layers.
        Using one collar flap as an improvised mask, she tilted the sled
into the wind, letting it dislodge additional layers until, at last, the
outlines of the matrix panels were visible though covered with a soft
purple fuzz. Even the color looked dangerous to her.
        Then she took heart because, if the mold had seeped through the
console seals, it could also cause minute circuit breakage. If she could
remove the remaining stuff . . . Varian laid aside the panel but kept the
collar flap across her mouth and nose as she bent to examine the slotted
matrices. She delicately ran one of Portegin's tools along the edge of the
matrix frame, the fuzz gathering on the shaft of the instrument, leaving
the frame edge clean. She flicked the mess off the blade and cleaned the
next portion. When she had cleared the accessible portions of the panel,
she shook out Portegin's kit to find something that could reach into
crannies and corners. If she left any of that mold inside, it would
undoubtedly proliferate again. She needed a long-handled, fine-bristled
brush which was patently not among Portegin's effects.
        Then she recalled the greenish blue plumage. "Fine feathered
friends as well as furry ones," she cried.
        Nothing could have been more suitable and she set about dusting and
cleaning, always careful not to inhale any of the particles she flicked
away. The quill was in fact superior to a brush, bending to fit into
crevices and corners which would have defeated a stiff-handled tool.
        When Varian could see no more purple fuzz anywhere, she replaced
the console cover and sealed it, for whatever that action was worth.
Switching the power back on, she was delighted to see that all but one of
the malfunction lights were off. She gave the console a solid thump with
her fist and the last one blinked out.
        She finished just as the first of the day's rain squalls thundered
across the inland sea. As she hurriedly closed the canopy, she noticed that
she'd had three spectators. Middle Giff was among them, towering above his
sidekicks. They regarded her with an unwavering orange gaze.
        "And good morning to you." She bowed solemnly. "I've cleaned the
console and the sled appears to be operative again. I'm going down for a
while but I'll be back." Varian held the firm opinion that all species
liked to be noticed, whether or not the language could be understood. From
the way the giffs cocked their heads attentively, they were certainly
hearing the sounds she made. Keeping her tone cheerful, Varian went on.
"I'm sure you couldn't care less, but these blue-green feathers are
superior mold dusters. Friends of yours?" She held up one feather and she
was certain that Middle Giff leaned forward to peer at it. "Couldn't have
fixed the sled without it." She tucked Portegin's tool kit into her belt
and then walked to the edge of the cliff, to slide down the vine. "See you
later."
        "See who later?" demanded Lunzie.
        "The giffs."
        Lunzie eyed her skeptically. "And the sled?"
        "Nothing but a case of purple mold."
        "You didn't inhale any of it?"
        "I've more sense than that. A feather, opportunely deposited in the
sled," and Varian displayed it once again, "cleaned what the wind didn't.
Sled's all systems green. How's Kai?"
        "The same." Lunzie stretched and pulled at stiff shoulder muscles.
"I'll wake Triv when I have to. We got another delivery while you were
out." Lunzie indicated the pile of leaves and fruit. "Apparently they have
decided we need these," and she pushed at the hadrosaurus nuts with a sour
expression on her face.
        "They don't taste like much -- "
        "Like so much bumwad -- "
        "But they are full of protein."
        "I'll put them through the synthesizer. Anything would improve
their taste -- or, should I say, lack of it?"
        "I'll have a look round the secondary campsites. With out sleds, I
don't think the heavyworlders would have had enough mobility to spread out
-- "
        "But then, we don't know how long we've been asleep, or how
inventive and resourceful they were."
        "True." Varian had no great opinion of the abilities of the
heavyworlders to reshape the local environment. "But I just might get an
indication of elapsed time."
        "They might even all be dead!" Hope was evident in Lunzie's voice.
        "See you later."
        "Take care, Varian."
        When Varian emerged on the cliff top, the morning winds had picked
up. The Three had left their perch above the sled, but the sky was well
populated by the graceful creatures, soaring on thermal updrafts or gliding
in to land on their cave ledges during the respite from squall and rain.
Varian was aware that her every action was being observed as she settled in
the pilot's seat. She felt slightly self-conscious as she closed the canopy
and took off directly into the prevailing wind. When she had circled back
over the cliff, she realized that the opening to the cavern was totally
obscured by the vines. Small wonder the heavyworlders had not found them.
        Despite the airing the sled had received, the taint of that
nauseating odor remained. Varian switched the air circulator to high
without much effect. The sled did handle properly, she was relieved to
note, but she kept a close check on the panel lights and the readout,
visually estimating her altitude and her direction against the sun.
        Those concerns kept Varian from noticing her escort until she was
some distance from the cliffs. At first she thought that the three giffs
just happened to be flying in her general direction. Then she couldn't
ignore the fact that they were discreetly pacing the sled; curiosity or
protection? Either way, their action was further evidence of intelligence.
Serve those arrogant Ryxi right, Varian thought, to have another winged
sentient emerge in the same solar system as their new colony.
        When she began to recognize the landmarks close to the landing site
and the scene of the stampede, she wondered if any of the animals they had
originally tagged were still alive. She flipped on the telltagger. Of
course, since she'd not had time to estimate the life expectancy of the
various species she had tagged, this could well be another exercise in
futility, but it was worth a try. Immediately the sensitive instrument
registered movement as well as significant animal warmth but no blurp
indicating tagged life-forms. Just then Varian shot across the end of a
long swath of cleared and trampled ground. She had a fleeting glimpse of
blunt heads poking into tree tops, long-neck herbivores on their ceaseless
quest for forage sufficient to keep life in their ponderous bodies.
        If the telltagger had purred even once to indicate the presence of
the indelible paint that had been used to mark the beasts, she would have
been tempted to turn back and identify the creatures.
        Varian continued toward the original compound. What ever had
attacked Kai might still be in the vicinity, looking for more blood. She
shuddered with revulsion. Although Lunzie's dour assessment of the Thek
motive was disturbing, Varian preferred to believe that the Thek had left
before Kai was attacked. Thek might not have to indulge in defensive
tactics because no intelligent species would dare attack them. To primitive
predators of limited sense, the Thek was just so much rock, with no scent,
and such infrequent motion to make it unlikely as prey. No one could accuse
the Thek of being emotional nor of becoming involved with any non-Thek
individuals though they were devoted to their own Elders. On the other
hand, Varian mused, Tor had known Kai's family for several generations.
Surely some conscience would have prompted the Thek to assist Kai if it had
observed him in difficulties.
        She had to concede that Tor had only awakened Kai because it needed
him to assist in recovering the old core. Even if that were its entire
motive, the secondary benefit had been Kai's awakening, then hers, and the
acquisition of a sled which at least gave the stranded explorers mobility.
Varian wasn't certain how much of an advantage that would prove. When she
arrived near the heavyworlders, she'd have to take precautions to prevent
their seizing the sled. Krims! If she and Kai had only had a little more
warning before that mutiny had erupted, they could have Disciplined against
it.
        Or could they? She grinned to herself. Four Disciples in full
control of their inner resources were still no match for six heavyworlders,
unless they had the advantage of surprise. The heavyworlders had had that.
Nor could the four Disciples have retreated strategically for that would
have given the mutineers hostages of the most vulnerable members of the
expedition.
        Varian circled the old compound and quickly spotted the small
cavity toward the rear of the compound, well away from the site of the old
geological dome which had housed the core. The Thek had had a long search.
The old cylinder of the core had probably been kicked about in the stampede
before being buried beneath layers of dead beasts. Succeeding years would
have seen it planted deeper in dust and sand. How much dust would
accumulate in the amphitheater in a year? How many years? How many years!
        Deliberately Varian censured her thoughts and swung the sled about.
Immediately she saw the broken trees where Kai must have blasted skyward in
the sled. She tightened her circle to land deftly in that opening, all the
time listening to the telltagger for any evidence of life in the area.
Silence. So she opened the canopy. The other vehicles were partially
exposed by the removal of the one she was using and Kai's efforts to clear
the over growth. With any luck, all could be retrieved and made useful
again. With creatures abroad like the one that had attacked Kai, they had
better travel by air whenever feasible. Oh, for the comforting presence of
a stunner in her holster!
        For the life of her, she couldn't imagine which of the life-forms
she'd observed before the mutiny could have mangled Kai in that fashion.
She gave the weed-covered sleds a kick which dislodged any number of
insects and stepped nimbly out of their senseless flight. None of them
looked like a leech.
        She returned to the sled and took off, circling above the compound,
gradually widening the spiral upward while the telltagger chortled. There
seemed no point in remaining there. She turned her sled northeast, noting
that her aerial guardians had resumed their discreet cover.
        Oddly reassured Varian smiled to herself, a smile that faded as she
began to examine her direction. Yet she felt reasonably certain that the
mutineers must have remained at the northeast camp. They had spent their
"rest day" there, and it was also reasonable to assume that they had hidden
the supplies they'd synthesized nearby. Bakkun had initiated the mutiny
from the northeast, not the southwestern camp built for Dimenon and Margit.
Furthermore, the hunting in the northeast was known to be good.
        The camp so briefly occupied by Portegin and Aulia had been located
on one of the sawn-off bluffs that volcanic forces had pushed up in the
area, like immense foot rests or stepping stones. A narrow trail to the
summit prevented attack by all but small agile creatures. Because of the
presence of Tyrannosaurus rex, originally named fang-face by Varian, and
the voracious grazers, the small life-forms which had remained in the vast
plains area were timid or nocturnal. The one would have stayed away from
unknown scents and activities, the other would be warded off by the
simplest of shock gates, even if the main force field had to be turned off
to conserve power. As the force fields had a usable life of three to four
Standard years, the presence or absence of them might give Varian some idea
of time elapsed.
        However, as the bluff stood prominently above grasslands, with no
convenient clumps of vegetation or trees in which to hide either herself or
the precious sled, gaining access to the summit, or flying close enough to
be identified provided her with an additional hazard. Weaponless, she
didn't fancy being on foot for long on the plains unless the heavyworlders
had driven both predator and grazer away.
        If the mutineers were obviously in residence, she was loathe to
announce their reemergence.
        As she neared the location, she switched on the telltagger which
had become an irritant with its constant buzz and its distressing inability
to purr the presence of tagged specimens.
        She saw the dusty cloud, subdued quickly the surge of remembered
fear and reinforced the support of Discipline which would prevent the
distraction of unnecessary emotional responses.
        She also saw, but dispassionately now, the bobbing black line at
the base of the dust which meant stampeding animals. She pulled her sled
upward, gaining altitude to see beyond the dust, and activated the
forward-screen magnification. As they passed over the cloud, the telltagger
spat furiously, vibrating in its brackets. Suddenly it's activity ceased
and Varian could see beyond the obscuring dust. The monumental hulk of the
predator, fang-face, once termed Tyrannosaurus rex, thunder lizard.
Thunderous it was, but not chasing the stupidly fleeing herbivores.
Instead, a small insignificant creature was running before fang-face with a
speed that startled Varian. She increased magnification, and, despite
Discipline, gasped in astonishment.
        A man, a young man with a superb physique, his long, heavily thewed
legs pumping in an incredible stride, was out distancing the awkward but
tenacious fang-face. The man appeared to be heading toward one of the up
thrust bluffs, but he had a long way to go to reach its safety. From the
exertion evident in straining cords of his neck, the sweat pouring from his
face, and the visible laboring of his chest and ribs, he did not have the
distance in him.
        Varian took a second, longer look at fang-face, wondering why the
creature had eschewed the more succulent herbivores for a mere mouthful of
man -- and saw why. A thick lance was lodged under the beast's right eye.
Just short of a fatal thrust, it wobbled up and down, providing the wounded
pursuer with a smarting reminder of revenge. Occasionally, snarling in
pain, it batted at the lance but railed to move it. Varian wondered what
sort of point the hunter had used, and marveled at the strength which must
have been at the back of a thrust that had placed the point so deeply in
the beast's eye socket.
        The runner had to be a descendant of the mutineers: he'd the build,
if not the over developed musculature of someone raised on a heavy gravity
planet. He'd made a very clever throw. Varian might object, as a xenob,
about causing injury to any creature, but clearly she had to rescue the
young hunter. He was quite the most superb young man she had ever seen.
        Unfortunately she had no equipment on the sled to effect an air
rescue. Not even a vine. She could hover just above the surface and coax
him into the craft, but the speed of the thunder lizard was daunting. If he
demurred . . . Why should he? Surely his parents -- grandparents?
great-grandparents? -- must have passed on some version of their origins.
Airborne vehicles would not frighten him out of his wits. On the other
hand, any man who would take on a fang-face single-handed, would not easily
be frightened, even of something of which he had had no previous
experience.
        She wheeled the sled to come up behind him, matching its speed to
his phenomenal running stride.
        "Climb aboard. Quickly!" she shouted as she hit the canopy release.
        His powerful stride faltered and he nearly fell. But, instead of
altering his course to come alongside, he spurted off at a tangent.
        "Do you want to be eaten by that monster?" She didn't know if he
failed to understand her or thought her some new menace. Surely the
language couldn't have mutated in a few generations. Or was it more than a
"few?" She tried again to bridge the distance and again he swerved.
        "Leave me!" he managed to shout, the effort to speak and keep up
his pace visibly slowing him.
        Varian raised the sled above him and reduced speed, trying to
understand his startling reluctance to be rescued.
        The runner appeared mature, surely in his third decade, though the
exertion in his face might just make him appear older. He'll never make it
to the bloody bluff, Varian decided with the detachment of her Disciplined
state. So, let him pursue his goal or, rather, be pursued to his own
purpose. She could make a timely intervention if it was required.
        The fang-face had obviously never seen an air sled, or its brain
could not register more than one nuisance at a time, for as Varian swung in
its direction, it paid her no heed. Passing over it, Varian took note that
the lance near its eye was not its only injury. Blood was pumping from
several wounds in such quantities that Varian wondered how much more it
could lose before collapsing. She circled just as the wounded animal
staggered for the first time, roaring loudly. There was no doubt in her
mind that the creature was weakening. She set the sled above and slightly
behind fang-face, ready to intervene if the man had over estimated his
ability to out last his victim.
        She had time to notice details of the runner on the screen. He wore
little, mainly what appeared to be scraped hide covering his loins. Stout
hide footwear was lashed tightly up to the knee of each leg. He wore a
broad belt that Varian would swear had been part of a lift-belt unit once,
from which several large knives and a pouch hung, flapping against the
runner's legs. A tube was secured across his back, but she couldn't guess
its function. In one hand he clutched a small crossbow, certainly a good
weapon for piercing the hide and bone of most of the monsters that walked
Ireta.
        Varian reminded herself that she was not there to cater to the
foibles of a young man being chased by a well-provoked carnivore. It also
struck her forcibly that if he was reduced to crossbow and lance, she might
be wasting her time in trying to find the mutineers' base. The microscope
and other items which Lunzie needed had probably perished from neglect if
this young man represented the present level of the survivors' life-style.
        Three things happened at the same time: she decided to swoop down
and pick him up willy-nilly; the thunder lizard let out a gasping roar and
fell forward, plowing a furrow with its muzzle and chest, tried to rise and
collapsed limply. The young man looked back over his shoulder and began to
circle, still at considerable speed as he made sure the creature was
lifeless.
        Maintaining Discipline for immediate use, Varian landed the sled at
a discreet distance from the bulk of the dead predator. She was a sprinter
and knew that she could reach her vehicle before the extraordinary young
man could catch her.
        When she reached him, he was tugging at the deeply lodged spear.
Inhaling deeply, Varian casually laid one hand beyond his on the shaft and
exerted her disciplined resource. The spear came away so fast that the
young man, unprepared for the quality of assistance, staggered backward,
leaving Varian with the spear. She examined its tip, Discipline over riding
her natural repugnance for bloody objects. She wiped the point on the
beast's hide, dislodging some of the myriad parasites and examined the
spear head. The metal had been tempered and fashioned with a ring of barbs,
one reason the monster had been unable to dislodge it. Varian was amazed
that she had. Of course, flesh and bone had come away, too. Already swarms
of insects descended on the corpse.
        "Can you understand me if I speak slowly?" Varian asked, turning to
confront the young giant. He was staring from her to the spear she had
removed so effortlessly. He extended his hand to reclaim the spear. "I
assume you do not understand me."
        "Yes, I do. I'd like my spear back " When she relinquished it, he
examined the barbed tip carefully. Satisfied, he turned his attention to
her. Varian found those proud clear eyes very disconcerting and she was
glad of the shield of Discipline. "These take time to forge and you might
have damaged the barbs. You don't look as if you had that much strength in
you."
        Varian shrugged diffidently. So Bakkun and the others had
progressed beyond tree limbs as weapons.
        "I'm not considered particularly strong," she said, knowing that
such a first impression might be valuable. "Are you one of the survivors of
the ARCT-10's exploratory group? Frankly, after a quick pass over this
world, we didn't expect to find anyone alive. Your appearance . . . and
competence . . . are a surprise."
        "So is yours!" There was a faint hint of wry amusement and a
reticence in his voice. "I am called Aygar."
        "And I, Rianav," she said, quickly scrambling her name. "Why didn't
your group remain at the expedition's site of record?"
        His look was definitely quizzical. "Why didn't you home in on our
beacon?"
        "Your beacon? Oh, you've erected one at the northeast camp?" Varian
was both disappointed at this intelligence and surprised, though she kept
her assumed role and pretended mild criticism.
        "Camp?" He was overtly derisive, but his manner turned wary. "You
are from a spaceship?"
        "Of course. We picked up a distress call from the system's
satellite beacon. Naturally we are obliged to answer and investigate. Are
you one of the ARCT-10's original exploratory group?"
        "Hardly. They were abandoned without explanation and with
insufficient supplies to defend themselves." Indignation and rancor
flickered in his eyes. His body tensed.
        So that was the story the mutineers had spread. At least it was
partially based on fact.
        "You seem to have adapted to this planet with commendable success,"
Varian remarked, wondering what else she could get him to reveal, and
perhaps estimate how long they'd slept. Would he be the first generation?
        "You are too kind," he replied.
        "My benevolence has a limit, young man. I am on my way to the
secondary camp mentioned in the final report recorded on the beacon. Are
any of the original expedition still living?"
        Varian was trying to guess whose son he might be. Or grandson, she
added bleakly. She opted for Bakkun and Berru, since they were the only
heavyworlders with light eyes. Aygar's were a clear, bright, shrewd green.
His features were finer than could be expected from either Tardma or
Divisti.
        "One has survived " he said in an insolent drawl.
        "One of the children from the original landing party?" Could she
goad him into revealing more about the mutineers' interpretation of
abandonment.
        "Children?" Aygar was surprised. "There were no children on the
original expedition!'
        "According to the beacon," she replied, sowing what she hoped would
be fertile seeds of doubt, "three children were included; Bonnard was the
boy, and the two girls are named as Terilla and Cleiti, all in their second
decade."
        "There were no children. Only six adults. Abandoned by the
ARCT-10." He spoke with the ring of truth in his voice, a truth which she
knew to be false no matter how keenly he believed it.
        "Discrepancies are not generally committed to satellite beacons.
The message clearly read nineteen in the landing party, not six," she said,
permitting both irritation and surprise to tinge her voice. "What're your
leaders' names?"
        "Now? Or then?" He covered his chagrin with anger.
        "Either."
        "Paskutti and Bakkun who was my grandsire."
        "Paskutti? Bakkun? Those are not the leaders of record. This is all
very strange. You mentioned one survivor of the original group?"
        "Tanegli, but he is failing," and that frailty was anathema to
Aygar's youthful strength, "so his passing will occur in the near future."
        "Tanegli? What of Kai, Varian? The physician, Lunzie, the chemist
Trizein."
        Aygar's face was closed. "I've never heard those names. Six
survived the stampede which over ran the original camp?"
        "Stampede?"
        Aygar gestured irritably toward the far distant herbivores. "They
panic easily, and panicked on the day my grandsire and the other five
nearly died." He grounded his spear and straightened in pride. "Had they
not had the strength of three men, they would not have out run the herd
that day!'
        "Stampede?" Varian looked at the peaceful grazers as if assessing
their potential. "Yes, well, I can imagine that a mass of them in
hysterical flight might short even a large force field. And that certainly
explains why only stubs of the plastic supports remain at the original
site. Where are you now located? At the secondary camp?"
        "No," he said and took the largest of his two knives with which he
proceeded to hack at the softer belly hide of the dead beast. He had to use
both hands and great effort to penetrate the thick tissue. "Once the power
for the force field was exhausted," he continued, spacing his words between
grunts as he made incisions, "the night creatures attacked. We live in
caves, near the iron workings. We live on the flesh of animals that we trap
or kill in chase," he went on with cold vehemence. "We live and we die.
This is our world now. You arrive too late to be any use to us. Go!'
        "Keep a polite tongue in your head, young man, when speaking to
me," Varian said in a colder voice, summoning Discipline to every fiber of
her body.
        He rose, tossing down the bloody hunk of meat he had just carved.
His eyes narrowed at the tone she had used, but she preferred to
precipitate an incident while she was at full Discipline, and when he had
just concluded a wearying run.
        "We no longer recognize the authority of those who abandoned us to
this savage world."
        "This world, Ireta, belongs to the Federated sentient Planets,
young man, and you cannot -- "
        He made his move, goaded, as she had hoped, by her insufferable
attitude. As she had expected, he came for her in a frontal attack, secure
in his advantage of height and strength; swinging one arm wide, hand open,
aimed to connect with the side of her head and knock her senseless. Had she
not had the training of Discipline, she would probably have been crushed
against fang-face, possibly skewered on a finely sharp claw. As it was, she
caught his hand, used his forward momentum against him and threw him
heavily to the ground.
        Skilled in rough-and-tumble fighting he was up in a moment, but it
was clear that his confidence as well as his body had been badly shaken by
that fall. She didn't want to humiliate him for he was an intelligent,
extremely attractive man who believed what he said about abandonment. But,
unless she could prove herself superior to him, she would jeopardize the
scheme she had in mind. And she must remember that her effectiveness now
would protect Kai, Lunzie, and the sleepers in the space shuttle.
        She ignored his feint to the right but she was surprised as he
launched himself into the air in an attempt to tackle her about the legs.
Her reflexes were far quicker than his. She was above him as he dove and
came down on his back, digging her fingers to the necessary nerve point
through almost impenetrably hard muscles while she locked her other arm
under his chin, forcing his head back. He tried to roll with her but she
caught her legs under his, forcing them with Discipline strength so far
apart that a gasp of pain was wrung from him. She heard his ill-used
garment split.
        "In most cultures which settle differences by physical combat," she
said in an even voice that did not indicate the strain under which she
labored, "two falls out of three -- and I assure you there would be a third
for you -- generally result in victory for the quicker opponent. I use the
term "quicker" because that is basically one of the advantages I have over
you: my training in hand-to-hand combat was conducted by masters of the
martial arts. I will of course never mention this incident to anyone. I
also can not allow you to persist in your aggression toward me or any other
member of my mission, which has been sent to discover the where abouts of
the previous expedition and (and/or its. . . ) or its survivors. I can
assure you that the policy of the FSP and EEC allows generous terms to
people in your position. Will you accept release in good faith, or will I
be forced to turn your head just that fraction more which will crack the
first and second vertebrae?"
        She felt him swallow in an agony not purely physical.
        "Do you accept?"
        "You win!" The reluctant admission came through gritted teeth.
        "I don't win anything." She made due note of his phraseology --
"you win not I accept," and respected him. Slowly she released her grip on
his legs, before loosening the neck lock and the nerve pinch. A tiny,
additional squeeze on the nerve as she released her fingers insured her
time to rise and move a suitable distance from him in case combat honor was
no longer a principle in his adaptation.
        He rose slowly, swallowing against a dry and strained throat. He
made no move to massage the nerve pinch although his arm hung limply and
ought to be painful. He also ignored his damaged clothing. She kept her
eyes on his face, now some what obscured by the swarms of blooding insects
whizzing about them and the carcass. He drew in deep breaths, his face
expressionless, and she could easily understand her perturbation. The man
was muscled, not as a heavyworlder against the constant pull of gravity,
but there couldn't be a milligram of unnecessary flesh on him: he was truly
one of the most beautiful men in form and face that she had ever seen. She
regretted having had to best him with the unfair advantage of her
Discipline. Raised by heavyworlder notions, there would be no forgiveness
in him, for her. Nor could she ever explain why she had been able to throw
him.
        "Your physical strength was unexpected, Rianav."
        "I have often found it so, Aygar, although I dislike having to
resort to such exhibitions. I am a reasonable person, for reason tends to
secure a more lasting outcome than a show of physical force."
        "Reason? And honor?" He gave a dry sour laugh. "To have abandoned a
small geological group on a savage world."
        Varian opened her hands in a gesture of regret. "It is a risk of
the Service which we all -- "
        "I did not. I had no option."
        "In justice, you have the right to be bitter. You are the innocent
victim of circumstances beyond ordinary control. The ARCT-10, the vessel
which landed the Iretan expedition, is still missing."
        "Missing? For forty-three years?" His contempt was obvious. "Were
you looking for it when you found this beacon of yours?"
        "Not exactly but our code requires that we responded to your
distress call."
        "Not mine. My grandparents -- "
        "The call was heard and our ship has responded, who ever made the
original signal."
        "I'm supposed to be grateful for that?" He resumed his slicing of
meat from the ribs of the monster, discarding the initial hunk, which was
already crawling with winged vermin. Despite Discipline, Varian found
herself revolted by his activity. "Forty-three years to answer a distress
call? Mighty efficient organization, yours. Well, we've survived and we'll
continue to. We don't need your help -- now."
        "Possibly. How many are you after two generations?" With such a
small gene pool, she wondered if they were already inbred.
        He laughed, as if he sensed her thought. "We have bred carefully,
Rianav, and have made the most of our -- how would you term it, inadvertent
plantation?"
        "Ireta is not on the colonial list. We checked that immediately for
we are under no compunction to aid a colony which can't fend for itself."
Her Discipline must be dropping, Varian thought, from the sharpness with
which she answered him. Gaber's rumor mongering had lasted into the second
generation.
        "To be sure," he said, angry sarcasm masking as courtesy. "So, what
are your plans now, honorable Rianav!"
        She gave him a long look, playing her role as rescuer to the hilt.
"Instructions, rather. I shall return to our base with my reports on your
presence."
        "No need to concern yourself with me."
        "How can you possibly transport all that . . ."
        "We've learned a trick or two," and Varian was certain that his
smile was faintly superior.
        "May I have the coordinates of your present location?"
        His grin was more amused than insolent but the mockery was in his
reply.
        "Run at a good steady pace to your right, through the first hills,
turn right up the ravine, but mind the river snakes. Continue along the
river course to the first falls, take the easiest route up the cliff --
it's pretty well marked by now, and follow the line of limestone -- you do
know limestone from granite, I assume? The valley widens. You'll know when
you've reached us by the cultivated fields." There was pure malice in his
grin now. "Yes, we find that vegetables, fruits, and grains are required to
maintain a balanced diet, even if we can't process our food." He had been
gouging past the ribs of the dead beast and now suddenly, his arms dripping
with blood, he held up a huge dark brownish red lump. "And this, the liver
of the thunder lizard, is the most nutritious meat available."
        "Do you mean to tell me that you slaughtered that creature just for
its liver?" Her xenob training broke through her elected role.
        "We do not kill indiscriminately, Rianav: we kill to survive."
Coldly he turned back to his task, leaning partly inside the ribs to reach
more of the choice liver.
        "The distinction is, of course, valid. However, we have no
knowledge of the dangers of walking about this land of yours. Is the
secondary camp of record far from your present location?"
        "No." He had removed the curious tube from his back. From the tube
he pulled a tight roll of what appeared to Varian to be synthesized fabric,
light, waterproof, and durable enough to have lasted forty-three years. He
spread the fabric with a practiced flip on the ground, piling the choice
chunks of meat and covering them quickly, folding over the edges of the
fabric to prevent insects from attaching themselves to the meat. "I'll meet
you there in three days time."
        "Will it take that long to return to your base?" Varian could not
keep the astonishment from her voice.
        "Not at all," he said, severing more choice morsels. As he added
these to the pack and covered them, he glanced skyward. Varian followed his
gaze and saw that the carrion fliers were massing in their circles. She
also noticed the three giffs to one side of the others and wondered if
Aygar did. "We have to be quick after a kill. Or be mistaken for the corpse
by those. No, I shall be in my home before nightfall but my fellow exiles
must be told of this happy re-establishment of contact with other worlds."
        He had what Varian judged to be fifty or sixty kilos of meat.
Lashing the tube to the base of the meat, he deftly added straps, padded
where they would cross his shoulders, and made a portable package. One eye
on the scavengers, he now rinsed his arms from a water bottle, then covered
them with mud, scooped at a distance from the slaughtering ground. Then he
swung the pack to his back, settling the pads properly. He stared at her so
intently that a faint stirring of alarm prompted her next action.
        From a pouch on her upper arm, she took out the dark plastic box in
which she once carried stimtabs. He could see that she had something in her
hand but not what. She pretended to depress a switch with her thumb,
holding her hand close to her mouth.
        "Unit Three to Base. Unit Three to Base." She made a disapproving
noise. "Recorder's on. They've all left the encampment!" She gave Aygar an
angry glance. "Base, I have made contact with survivors, coordinates 87.58
by 72.33. Returning to Base. Over." She operated a thumb switch again and
then replaced the box in her pocket. "Leaving for base at once. They'll
hear about this. In three days then, Aygar, and good luck!" She swung away
from him walking rapidly toward the sled.
        From the corner of her eye, she saw him set off at a steady jog and
sighed in relief. For a moment, it seemed to her as if he might do
something. A glance at the sky showed her that Aygar's departure might have
been a signal and she a negligible danger, for the scavengers were
backwinging to land. Out of the grasses other creatures slunk toward the
feast. She was relieved to be so close to the sled but only felt completely
safe when she had fastened the canopy overhead.
        She guided into the clouds to head southwest. She caught sight of
him again and marveled that he could run so easily, burdened as he was and
after the exhausting chase. There might be something to say for
implantation after all if the process resulted in such superbly fit people.
        She wished she had a working wrist unit to tell Lunzie about the
survival of the mutineers as well as the slanted account passed down to
their descendants. She wished she could have figured out a way to ask Aygar
if his people had encountered the creature that had attacked Kai, and if
they knew what could be used to cure him. On the other hand, she now knew
that the second camp had been abandoned. She debated the wisdom of
continuing to it since it would be unlikely she'd find anything of value to
her. Certainly none of the equipment Lunzie needed. Of course, if Kai were
not considerably improved, and Varian refused to consider the worst, she
had a good reason for approaching Aygar again today. Surely his people must
have encountered the leech-creatures and might even have developed an
antidote for the toxemia. She could say that another member of her landing
party had been attacked -- which was true enough anyhow. She grimaced at
the comunit on her console and suddenly realized that the device was
operative, even if there was no where to communicate to. But, Varian told
herself cheerfully, there were four other sleds with equally undamaged
comunits. They could wake Portegin, have him utilize what matrix slabs were
necessary from one or two of the sleds and repair the shuttle's smashed
unit, at least for intership communications. That would give them two,
maybe three sleds available for use. It might not be enough to reach a
passing EEC ship outside the stellar system but certainly they'd be able to
reach the Thek again. Or the Ryxi.
        Varian grimaced at the thought of having to appeal for help to the
Ryxi: how they would flaunt that news about! More vital, she didn't want
the Ryxi to know more about the giffs than they already did.
        Kai had to recover. After the mutiny of the six heavyworlders,
their situation had been difficult at best, desperate at the worst. They
had emerged from cold sleep in a very much improved position, despite Kai's
injury. The mutineers had had their own problems on Ireta and Varian felt
that her initial contact with the younger generation had established a
position of undeniable superiority. Or had she? Something about Aygar's
manner toward the end of their encounter bothered her. That's why she had
instinctively invented a "contact" with a "base."
        She could feel the laxness of her muscles as Discipline eased. She
ate the rest of the fruit, inadequate though it was to replenish her
energies. Why hadn't she thought to take a pepper with her, she wondered
peevishly. Probably, she amended her own forgetfulness, because the last
peppers had been used to overcome delayed shock after escaping the stampede
of the herbivores.
        She smiled as she recalled Aygar's legend of that incident. Did he
know how silly it was for six people to be deliberately abandoned to form a
colony? He didn't know the first thing about genetics. Well, yes, he must
if he'd mentioned breeding.
        It was fatigue more than curiosity that made Varian decide to
continue on to the old camp. She'd be safe there and able to snatch an
hour's sleep before the return journey. She was so nearly there anyhow, she
might just as well have a look.

CHAPTER FOUR

        The rain, combined with a dismal heat mist, made the site more
desolate than she remembered it. She'd spotted a stand of fruit trees on
the final leg of her journey and, hovering the sled, had picked the upper
branches free of succulent ripe yellow globes. Consequently she felt less
weary when she glided the sled to land on the square of the old secondary
camp. And it did look ancient.
        The original dome, which would have been comfortable for two
people, was missing but the space it had occupied was an ovoid barren of
all growth in the center of an octagon of long stone buildings. Tiny plants
now grew in cavities where wind blown dirt had accumulated. The buildings
had been so well built that Varian wondered why the mutineers had moved. Of
course, just then the rain kept the insects away, but there would be a
superb panorama of the surrounding plains, not that she supposed the
heavyworlders had indulged themselves that way. Most of the visible buttes
supported crowns of trees, heavily vined, but the area adjacent to the
octagon had been cleared several meters on all sides and covered with a
concrete which, to be sure, was now cracking as the more tenacious vines
reclaimed their customary dominion.
Beyond that apron was lush growth, but the buildings -- she couldn't call
them homes or houses because of their forbidding aspect -- claimed her
attention first.
        As Varian approached the nearest, she saw that the windows had been
glazed yet when she rubbed away grime, she could barely see through the
dense and irregular glass. When her eyes had compensated for the gloom, she
could see the interior had been stripped of everything but the stone
shelving set into the corners of each room. The only door was made of stout
wooden panels, coated with some glossy substance which obviously protected
the wood against the depredations of Ireta's insect life. Set above the
handle of the locked door were four metal tumblers, coded to some pattern,
for the handle would not move at her touch although the tumblers rolled
easily under her thumb. A cursory examination of the other seven buildings
told her they were identical; four rooms, two on either side of an entry
hall. The windows were too narrow for any but a young child to climb in or
out of. With such stoutly built dwellings, why had they moved? There was
plenty of room for expansion on the bluff top.
        She went beyond the octagon and saw out buildings, two with
chimneys well blackened even after decades of scouring rain. One proved to
be a forge and marks on the concrete behind it indicated the complete
removal of another installation, as well as the squat thick form of a kiln.
What power would they have used for the forge? Water? Up here? No, but
there was no shortage of wind! She had become so accustomed to the
buffeting of the almost incessant breezes that blew from moderate to gale
force through the course of every Iretan day, that she'd almost missed the
most obvious and easiest power source.
        Paskutti had not been idly bragging when he'd said that he and his
band could survive nicely on Ireta. If Aygar was to be believed, and the
barbed steel tip of his lance gave fair evidence of metal craftsmanship,
they didn't need the Federated Sentient Planets. Maybe not the FSP, thought
Varian, kicking at the mud, but they'd need a larger gene pool or their
community risked dangerous inbreeding that could wipe out all they had
achieved.
        She should reserve her sympathy for her own problem -- Kai's
restoration -- and she wasn't getting any help on the bleak butte. But she
couldn't resist the urge to peer into the buildings set apart from the
living quarters. They might provide her with a measure of information on
the quality of life the mutineers had established for themselves. With
metal-working, glass manufacture, windpower, pottery, they'd achieved a
commendable basic standard. One long building, down slope and nearer the
luxuriant growth, attracted her interest since it was so obviously set
apart from the industrial sites. The door faced the brush and Varian
paused, puzzled. Despite the wild profusion of lush vegetation, something
about the area struck her as odd. Then she realized that the fruiting trees
were placed at regular intervals, and each row was comprised of different
types. Moving closer, she saw metal stakes holding up another form of vine
from which thick pods hung: a series of thorny bushes bore huge red
berries, then another stand of trees and beyond the trees, against a low
retaining wall were smaller plants, weed vines choking them and, on the
wall, tucked into niches as if by design, a curious feathery purple moss.
        Purple was not her favorite shade after the mold, Varian realized,
even as she had to admit that she was looking at an overgrown garden. She
turned then to the long hut and observed what she had failed to notice at
first -- it had no windows. A storehouse for the garden's produce? Yes, for
now that she was closer, she could see the carved panels in the door.
Vines, trees, and plants were each so carefully delineated on that door
that even someone with little botanical knowledge would be able to identify
the specimens once the carvings had been memorized
        What had Aygar said? They had learned a long time ago to balance
their diet. Varian recognized the carotene-rich grass from the Rift valley
which the giffs as well as Tyrannosaurus rex had needed. Turning constantly
to check against the door's carvings, Varian found each of the plants
growing in rows in the neglected garden. Divisti, the expedition's
botanist, must have been responsible for that catalog of Ireta's edible
flora.
        Varian pushed her way through the overgrowth, gathering fruits
which she recognized, until she reached the vine with pods. One split with
ripe readiness as she touched it, exposing large pale green beans. The bean
had a wholesome smell. She bit, taking the smallest possible morsel to roll
about in her mouth, tensing to spit out an un-welcome flavor. But the
taste was mealy, the flesh of the bean crisp, but so satisfying that she
consumed the contents of the entire pod greedily. She ate as she gathered
the beans, as much as her arms could hold. Then she strode back to the
sled, depositing her harvest. She had wheeled back toward the garden when
she exclaimed in exasperation. Climbing into the sled, she guided it to the
garden.
        As she picked and plucked, she was careful to take samples from
each row of Divisti's garden, including the caves or tufts of the various
wall plants. She wondered if Divisti had ever thought her garden would one
day succor those the Heavyworld botanist had once tried to kill. At the
foot of the garden, held back by thick staves, Varian came at last to a
fine stand of the thick-fuzzy leaves that the giffs had brought her for
Kai's wounds.
        "So, the bloodsucker got to you, too, huh?" Varian was subtly
pleased that one denizen of this planet caused the heavyworlders more pain
than pleasure.
        When the sled was as full as possible, she checked once more that
she had a sample of each variety carved on the door of the storage barn.
Elated by the unexpected dividend, she set a straight course for the giff
palisades, cutting due south and speeded on her way by a smart tail wind.
        She was astonished, then, no more than five minutes in the air, to
see the recognizable figure of Aygar trotting along a twisting ravine.
        Two thoughts occurred to her at once and she diverted the sled to
come up behind him.
        "Aygar, I must speak with you," she said, and sighting a ledge
beyond him, settled the airsled, waiting until he came up to her before she
slid down to his level. "I've been trying to find you. Base reported to me.
One of our party has been attacked by some -- some -- thing . . ."
        "Which sucks blood?" he asked quickly.
        "You know it?"
        "We call them fringes."
        "Fringes?" Varian masked her shock with an understandable
curiosity. Surely those aquatic life-forms that Terilla had named "fringes"
had not been amphibious. She shuddered with revulsion.
        "They come in a variety of sizes," Aygar went on, "are warmth
seekers and fasten onto their prey, preferably lying on it, otherwise
enveloping it between their two halves -- "
        "Their what?'
        "I don't know what your training is, Rianav, but surely you have
seen strange life-forms before Ireta." Aygar knelt, taking one of his
knives to draw a fringe in the dust. "They move by collapsing the
parallelograms of the side: they have two digits here and here, and can use
them to clasp their envelope tightly about the victim, if it is alive. If
not, they settle on it, and eat away!" He shrugged with indifference. "One
can usually smell them coming but, of course, you haven't been here long
enough to know, have you?'
        "Two days," Varian found herself answering far more casually than
she felt because, again, that curious reticence held her: a reticence
evidently not stemming from Discipline. "But, if you know about these
fringe things, you know how to treat them?'
        "The victim's still alive?" This gave Aygar some surprise.
        "Yes, but unconscious and delirious, bleeding profusely from the
worst of the . . . puncture wounds."
        "I thought exploratory teams were equipped with belts to protect
them from -- "
        "I don't know whether his belt was activated or not," said Varian
severely in a tone that implied she intended to find out if any basic
precaution had been neglected.
        "If he doesn't die in the first few hours, then the punctures
reached no vital areas and he'll survive. If you're near the original
campsite, find a squat thick trunked plant with leaves like this: they
appear covered with a soft down or fuzz." He neatly sketched the leaf with
which the giff had supplied them. "Gather the thickest ones, squeeze them
directly over the punctures and keep repeating the treatment until the
wounds seal." 'I'm told he's running a very high fever . . ."
        "Use an antipyretic, of course. When that didn't reduce the fever,
one of the original members of our group used a parasitic purple moss which
usually grows on the north side of the green plum or yellow juice melon
trees. There ought to be some nearby. Boil the moss, let it steep, and get
it down the man's throat. Tastes vile but it will reduce fever."
        Aygar rose, shifted the burden of meat on his shoulders and started
off.
        "End of interview," Varian murmured to herself. She was too
relieved by the information he'd given her to take offense at his curt
departure or his lack of real surprise at seeing her again so soon the same
day.
        She scrambled up the side of the ravine and back into the safety of
the sled as fast as if a fringe had been homing in on her blood warmth.
        Terilla's fringes! The same aquatic life-form that the giffs took
care to avoid when caught in their grass nets. And if the creature was
basically amphibious, no wonder it had lasted a long time after the other
water-breathers had died. But that had been a small creature, like an
almost transparent kerchief. Yet Varian recalled all too vividly the
voracity with which the sea fringes had flung themselves after the
reflection of the sled on the water. She stared at her hand a moment as if
she could imagine what that same fringe could do, folding itself into a
sucking envelope . . .
        She shook her head: she was suffering the depression and enervation
of the post-Discipline state. She reached for more of the pods and munched
slowly at the beans: they were even more satisfying than the sweet fruit.
        Purple moss, huh? That same purple moss that had grown in Divisti's
wall, no doubt. She wondered if she'd taken enough, but at least she knew
what to harvest.
        The trip was exceptionally profitable though one discovery
displeased her a great deal: forty-three years was a long time for ARCT-10
to have remained missing. And not long enough for a small sea creature to
develop into something large enough to attack a man. To be sure, the larger
species might have existed on Ireta when the expedition had first landed;
they'd barely explored the continental basement shield area before the
mutiny.
        Varian shuddered again, reminding herself that one reason for her
revulsion of the fringes must in part stem from her experience with the
blood-sucking Galormis -- by day so friendly, by night deadly.
        The rain cleared and the omnipresent mists dispersed as the setting
sun took a final look at the world it had spawned. The giffs were behind
and above her, their golden selves glorious against the muted haze of the
western twilight. She hadn't noticed them when she was on the compound
bluff, nor when she had intercepted Aygar. Nonetheless she felt they'd made
the entire journey discreetly within sight of her.
        Krims! but she was tired. Now, if she could keep her wits about
her, and the light held long enough to land inside the cave . . . Other
giffs whirled up from their vantage points to escort her the last few
kilometers and she was touched by the courtesy, if that's what it was. Had
the giffs, as well as Lunzie, worried over her long day's absence?
        She made a good landing, considering she was aiming her sled into a
dark hole, faintly illuminated on the left by a small campfire. She let the
sled down at the far right, bumping just once as she misjudged the uneven
stone floor.
        Is Kai improving?" she called as she flipped open the canopy.
        "Yes, but we've run out of leaves again," Lunzie said, rising from
her position beside Kai's bundled form.
        "I've more and food besides. And a helluva lot to tell you."
        "Any equipment?'
        "No, but I have a specific remedy for that fever," Varian took the
purple moss from the piles of food in the sled, offering it to the medic
who accepted it skeptically.
        "This?" Lunzie smelled it. "Why?'
        "Highly recommended by a local resident." Varian grinned wearily at
Lunzie's reaction. "Yes, I ran one down. Oh, it's all right. I made out
that I was one of a relief team. He's Bakkun's grandson." She offered the
information with a huge grin, as if it were the best joke in the galaxy.
        Lunzie fingered the moss for a few more seconds before she searched
Varian's face. "Grandson!'
        "Yes, we cold-slept forty-three years."
        "Well, it's not much longer than I'd estimated," Lunzie said, and
Varian was deflated by the medic's calm acceptance. "What else have you
here?" Lunzie peered at the dark mounds in the sled.
        "Everything's edible, and this sort of pod bean tastes better than
the fruit. Just how is Kai?" she asked, struggling out of the sled and
trying not to stagger too much as she crossed to Kai's supine body. "Has he
recovered consciousness yet?" She all but collapsed beside him.
        "No, but the fever is down a little. Hold still a moment," Lunzie
said. Before Varian realized what the medic was doing, she'd the spray
icily stinging her arm.
        "You shouldn't waste it. I've so much . . ."
        "It's no waste," Lunzie was saying, her voice getting farther away
as consciousness left Varian. "You can't see yourself but you're drained
white. Did you use Discipline all day long?'

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 force-fully, 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 over grazed, 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.

CHAPTER SIX

        After everyone had enjoyed the tasty stew Lunzie had concocted and
as much of the ripe fruit as they could eat, Varian asked Lunzie to air her
theory about the mutineers' plan for Ireta.
        "That's just how the heavyworlders acquired the S-192 system," Triv
said with considerable indignation.
        S-192 was a two-world," Lunzie pointed out.
        "This one has wild animals for them to eat," Varian said grimly.
        "Not to mention transuranic deposits that would make claim holder,
extremely wealthy," said Kai, if they could validate their claim."
        "Which they can't because we're alive." Portegin's voice was angry.
        "Hmm, but they don't know it," Varian reminded him.
        "Keep two points in mind, my friends," Lunzie said. "The mutineers'
descendants have survived and have maintained a good level of technology if
they're forging metal and have constructed a beacon. That qualifies them --
"
        "We've survived, too," and Portegin sat straight up, incensed.
        Lunzie regarded him humorlessly for a moment. "We," and her voice
left the slightest emphasis on the pronoun, "must continue to do so." My
second point is that the descendants of the original mutineers cannot be
prosecuted for the felony of their grandparents."
        "Tanegli's still alive." Varian was surprised at the edge in her
voice.
        "So I suspect that his first suggestion to the commander of the
expected vessel will be to find us," Kai said. "When they didn't find the
space shuttle under the dead beasts after the stampede, they knew that
someone survived and went cryo."
        "Aygar believes that they were deliberately abandoned," Varian
said.
        "Your little lie and what Aygar has been told are all that kept him
from attacking Varian." Lunzie's tone betrayed her anger. "We have to keep
you and them," the medic jabbed her finger at the shuttle, "alive until
ARCT-10 returns."
        Portegin gave a snort of derision. "The ARCT probably blew up in
that cosmic storm."
        "Unlikely," Lunzie said. "I once slept 78 years and still was
collected by my original ship."
        "You think the ARCT-10 will come back for us, Lunzie?" asked
Portegin, amazed.
        "Stranger things have happened. Whatever Aygar believes, Varian,
Tanegli knows different, nor can he ignore the fact that some of us may
have survived. He cannot take the risk that the ARCT-10 will return and
with the information left in our beacon, recover the shuttle. Right now we
must make plans that will safe guard not only us but the sleepers. Equally
important, set ourselves up as scouts totally unrelated to the ARCT-10. If
that ship did blow, its deadman's knell will be recorded and known to every
space commander -- including the mutineers' relief ship -- so we can't pose
as a relief unit from the ARCT-10."
        "From what ship did we originate then, Lunzie?" Kai was slightly
amused, but his husky voice betrayed his physical debility.
        Varian looked at him quickly, wondering if he objected to Lunzie's
dominance. His eyes were glittering, but not with fever. He seemed to be
encouraging the medic's unexpected inventiveness.
        "We can take our pick -- freighter, passenger, another Exploratory
Vessel . . ." Lunzie shrugged, suddenly reverting to her usual passivity.
"Recall what you told Aygar, Varian."
        "That I was part of a team sent in answer to the distress call."
        "Any vessel has to investigate such a signal . . ." Portegin said.
        "Only a Fleet ship could tap our beacon's messages," Triv reminded
them.
        "And he'd know how rich this planet is and send a party down if
only for finders' fees." Portegin capped Triv's remark.
        "That's what I implied," said Varian. "Then Aygar gave me his
version of the facts."
        "That his grandparents had been abandoned . . . ?" Kai asked.
        "Deliberately abandoned," Varian replied with a grimace, "after the
tragic accident that demolished their original site. No mention of either
of us as leaders, remember."
        "Paskutti had that honor?" Kai was amused.
        Varian shrugged. "I didn't ask. I did inquire about the children. I
also said that the ARCT-10 was still missing." Varian hesitated, dubious
now about that admission.
        "Why not?" Kai shrugged. "If the ship had returned within the
Standard year, as planned, none of us would be where we are now. What
puzzles me is the forty-three years. It doesn't take anywhere near that
time for a homing capsule to reach its destination. And I know the
mutineers had ours."
        "They would have had to wait to be sure that the ARCT-10 wasn't
just delayed," Varian suggested.
        "Could they have known that the ARCT-10 never stripped the beacon
of messages?" Lunzie asked.
        "Only Kai and I knew that."
        "Bakkun might have guessed," Kai said slowly.
        "By what we didn't say rather than what we did?" Varian asked. Kai
nodded.
        "We ought," Kai went on, "to have invented a message from the
ARCT."
        Lunzie snorted. "I don't think that would have kept the
heavyworlders satisfied once they'd had their bloody rest day . . . and
tasted animal protein. Brings out the worst in them every time."
        A taut silence ensued, broken as Varian shuddered, then said, "But
Divisti's garden produced sufficient vegetable protein to support twice as
many heavyworlder appetites."
        "I'd say they waited," Lunzie began, picking at her lower lip for a
moment before she continued. "They would have tried to locate the shuttle
and the power packs which young Bonnard so cleverly concealed. They knew
Kai 'd sent out some sort of message, before Paskutti smashed the comunit?
Well, then, they'd have had to wait to see if assistance arrived. They
would have had to assume also that we'd rig some sort of distress beacon to
attract rescue, even if it did take the Thek forty-three years to bother to
investigate."
        Varian broke in excitedly. "You don't suppose that they could have
rigged an alert for a landing?"
        "No way." Portegin shook his head violently. "Not with the
equipment they had. Remember it was replacement parts they took with the
stores, not full units."
        "Yes, but Aygar spoke of iron mines and they've been working a
forge."
        Portegin kept shaking his head. "Bakkun was a good all-round
engineer but even with all the matrices I've got, I couldn't make that sort
of a scan system, not planet wide, and that's what they'd need."
        So," Kai said in summation, "they waited to be sure ARCT wasn't
making the scheduled pick-up. They also waited until they could be
reasonably certain our distress signal was unheard and then too weak. Then
they sent the homing capsule to one of the Heavyworld colonies inviting
settlers and technicians."
        "And if a colony ship, large enough to transport enough people and
supplies is to make the journey profitable, they'd have to build a landing
grid," Triv exclaimed.
        "Which explains why they left the very good settlement they had in
the secondary camp," Varian cried.
        "And why Aygar chooses to meet you there rather than at their new
site," Lunzie finished with a sour grimace. "Such an undertaking also
explains forty-three years."
        "Even for heavyworlders, it would take years to clear this sort of
jungle and hold it back while they got a grid in place," said Portegin with
some awe.
        "Probably with a homing device built into the acknowledging capsule
to confirm arrangements and approximate time of arrival," Triv added.
        The group reflected on this solution with no joy.
        Triv broke the silence. "I'd opt for us to come from a Fleet ship,
a cruiser. They make periodic reports to a Sector HQ and no one in his
right mind messes with a cruiser."
        "Would Aygar know that?" Varian asked facetiously.
        "No, but the captain of the incoming ship would," Triv replied.
"And a search party could have been set down here to check on the distress
call while the cruiser goes on to the Ryxi and the Thek planets."
        "Now that our identity is established," Kai said with an attempt at
heartiness, "I suggest we transfer to the campsite built for Dimenon and
Margit. If it still exists."
        "Don't see why it wouldn't," Triv said. "The heavyworlders wouldn't
have wasted belt power dismantling and transporting it."
        "Wouldn't we go to the original site?" asked Portegin.
        "We did," Varian replied, "but Kai got attacked there didn't he? So
we move to the second auxiliary camp." She rose and stretched. "And we'd
also better fill in the holes of the vine screen. Then the sleepers will be
safe."
        The next morning, Triv took one of the smaller sleds to investigate
the secondary camp which had been sighted for Dimenon and Margit to use as
a base for their explorations of the southwestern part of Ireta's main
continent. Assisted by Varian and Lunzie, Portegin gathered the matrices
removed from the other two small sleds and the undamaged units in the
shuttle. He was optimistic that with these components, he could rig working
comunits in the two small sleds and the four-man sled, plus an ordinary
homing beacon, consonant with their role as a rescue team from a Space
Fleet cruiser.
        Lunzie proved the deftest in making minute welds with the heated
tip of a surgical probe, all the while muttering about the misuse of her
precious medical equipment on inanimate objects.
        Varian's usefulness to the project was short lived. She was unable
to limit herself to controlled dexterity for long, and announced that she
was better suited to shifting vines than matrices. It was hard, sweaty
labor, hampered by Ireta's sudden squalls and then steamy sun heat. The
vines clung with tenacious webs of sticky fibers to the rock, so she hacked
away, pried loose, and tugged at the tendrils to rig a full curtain across
the entrance. At the same time, she rigged fiber ropes to pull the vines
back to allow for the entry and exit of the sleds. She coaxed additional
new vine tendrils across the chasm, setting them to fill in. At the rate
vegetation grew on Ireta, the cave ought to be densely screened in a matter
of weeks.
        Triv returned with the welcome news that the other camp had
survived, although it had become the residence of creatures large and
small. However the fortified posts were functional so that, once cleared of
intruders, the camp would be habitable.
        Lunzie made good use of the vines left over from Varian's
camouflage trimming and created emergency rations from the vegetable matter
and more light blankets from the residual fibers. These were packed into
the two smaller sleds while Kai was made comfortable in the larger. Lunzie
made a last check on the sleepers and set the time release for additional
sleep vapor. As Triv pulled back the vine curtain, using Varian's cords,
the three sleds emerged just as the evening rain began to splash down. They
landed briefly on the cliff, while Triv joined them and took over the
controls of one sled from Lunzie who then joined Varian and Kai in the
larger.
        As Varian lifted, she searched the leaden skies. "No giffs!"
        "They've sense enough to come in out of that rain," Lunzie said,
drying her hands as she looked at the raindrops battering the canopy.
        "They followed me, you know."
        "So you told me. Not superstitious, are you, Varian?" the medic
asked with an ironic chuckle.
        "Enough to prefer their company to their absence."
        "They stood guard a long time," Kai said in his husky voice.
        "You're both allowing them far more intelligence than they
deserve."
        Varian turned her head to give Kai a broad grin which he answered.
Then the rain squall quickened and she had to keep her attention on flying
for the rest of the journey.
        Although Triv and Portegin had arrived in advance of the four-man
sled, Kai was struck by the eeriness of landing in the gloom of Iretan
twilight at a campsite which he knew had been uninhabited for over four
decades. It seemed to have slept, unchanged, as they had.
        Rationally, he knew that part of its lack of change was due to the
rocky site, but the dome which Dimenon and Margit had set up was only
slightly browned by wind and weather. A small fire burned on the hearth
outside. It's light was cheering and it's smoke a partial deterrent to
insects until the force field could be powered up. The pack was quickly
connected and crackled immediately with tiny spurts as insects were
vaporized. Small bits of char drifted down as Kai stiffly made his way from
the sled to the dome. He was heartily disgusted with his weakness and kept
to himself the fact that he still had no feeling at all in the areas where
the fringe had sucked deepest. He couldn't prevent furtive glances for
fringes lurking beyond the veil. He worried briefly if the creatures could
be stopped by the force field. Of course they could -- Force fields had
even held back the stampede of the herbivores . . . for a time.
        He was trembling again, to his disgust. Only a short walk and he
was spent. Lunzie had cautioned him against using Discipline to overcome
the weakness of convalescence but surely a daily routine of basic
Discipline exercise would be beneficial. Might even be essential if
Varian's meeting with Aygar proved unlucky. Kai wasn't easy about that
confrontation, even with all three armed. He'd spent some time trying to
estimate how large the mutineers' group would be after two generations of
breeding. And if a colony ship had arrived, there could be thousands to
back the heavyworlders' claim. Either way his team was at risk.
        Where had the ARCT-10 disappeared to? Why had Tor been so
uncharacteristically keen to find the old core? Why had the Thek then
departed? Kai reminded himself that a mere human did not demand
explanations of a Thek. Out of sight, out of mind, yet Tor had awakened him
to find the core.
        And how had the Ryxi flourished on their new planet? Kai wondered,
though he knew that Vrl, his contact with the volatile avians, probably
wouldn't have worried about the geologist's silence. Certainly the Ryxi
wouldn't have communicated with the Thek. Surely, though, Kai reasoned, the
commander of the Ryxi colony vessel ought to have tried to raise the Iretan
group, if only prompted by courtesy. Probably the silence of the Iretan
expedition was thought to mean that the ARCT-10 had collected the Iretan
team as scheduled.
        Which brought Kai back to the original question: What had happened
to the ARCT-10? The great compound ships were constructed to withstand
tremendous variations of temperature and stress. Short of a full nova, an
EEC: vessel could endure almost anything. Possibly, a black hole would
consume a whole EEC ship, but no EEC ship would approach such a hazard. As
no known species that was inimical to the Federated Sentient Planets was
capable of space travel, nothing short of the Others could have attacked
the ARCT-10. A real mystery. Kai exhaled deeply.
        "Does supper not appeal to you? I'd thought you were resigned to
eating natural foods by now," said Varian, breaking Kai's reverie.
        "I'm hungry enough to eat anything." He grinned at her as he
accepted a bowl.
        Once they had finished eating, Lunzie rinsed out the bowls and
filled them with fruit steeped in its own juices. By then Kai was more
tired than hungry so he put the bowl to one side and slipped down under the
light blanket, closing his eyes. As he drowsed, he heard Portegin yawning
loudly, complaining that he hadn't done much to be so tired.
        "You're not quite recovered from cold sleep yet, you know," Lunzie
remarked. "You'll have a full day tomorrow. Sleep now. There's nothing more
needs doing tonight."
        Kai was aware that the others were seeking their blankets and, as
he lay, waiting for sleep to over take him, he grew envious of their
ability to drop off so quickly. He was all the more surprised then to hear
Lunzie's quiet voice.
        "Portegin, Varian, Triv, you will listen to me. You will hear
nothing but my voice. You will obey only my voice. You will follow my
directions implicitly for you entrust your lives to me. Acknowledge."
        Fascinated, Kai listened to the murmured assent of the three.
        "Portegin, you will feel no pain, no matter what is done to the
flesh of your body. From the first blow, your body will be nerveless,
impervious to pain. You will not bleed. You will command your body to relax
and your flesh to absorb injury without discomfort. You will be unable to
reveal anything except your name, Portegin, your rank as helmsman first
class of the FSP Cruiser, 218-ZD-43. You are part of a rescue mission. You
know no more than that of your present. Your childhood years are open, your
years of service as well, except that all service was with the Space Fleet.
This is your first visit to Ireta. You will feel no pain, no matter what is
done to the flesh of your body and the channels of your mind. You have a
barrier against pain and mental intrusion. Your mind is locked to control.
Your nerves and pain centers are under my control. I will allow nothing to
cause you pain or distress."
        Lunzie asked Portegin to repeat her instructions but the man's
toneless murmur was inaudible to Kai.
        The medic then began to instruct Varian, whom she called Rianav.
Here the parameters were more complex. She drew on Varian's two years in
her birth-planet's martial corps, building a detailed recent memory which
seemed to include facts of personal history unexpectedly known to Lunzie
but not to Kai. The hypnotic briefing would insure that Varian-Rianav acted
and thought as a career Fleet officer. She also erected barriers to protect
Varian-Rianav against any intrusion or pain above and beyond the control
Varian could produce herself with the exercise of Discipline. The cover
personality for Varian was tightly woven out of fact and half-truth and so
logical that Kai wondered if Lunzie was using the life history of an actual
person. Kai was awed for he realized that he was listening to an
accomplished Adept and there had been nothing in Lunzie's service profile
to indicate such competence. Of course, there wouldn't be, beyond a mention
of a term at Seripan, the center where Discipline was taught; a fact only
other Disciples would recognize as significant.
        As Lunzie quietly set barriers in the mind of Triv-Titrivell, Kai
began to wonder if there was any covert reason why ARCT's administrators
had recommended her as medic. He decided that it was only chance: what
else? Most medics were disciples since hypnotic control to inhibit pain was
more effective than anesthesia and the simplest method of curing mental
trauma. The Iretan expedition had been considered a straight forward search
for transuranics which was why, Kai was certain, two relatively young
people were given the co-leadership. He thought grimly of the counts
against himself and Varian: mutiny and a minority group all but established
on what should have been an extraordinarily rich FSP planet. Exploration
and Evaluation Corps wouldn't like that, much less the FSP who preferred to
keep all transuranics under their control, leasing them only to stable
corporations.
        He supposed they should have remained awake and done their utmost
to thwart the heavyworlders, though how they could have accomplished
anything significant without equipment or weapons he was incapable of
imagining. A leader's prime responsibility was to bring back the full
complement of his expedition, preferably having completed his assignment. A
resigned sigh escaped his lips.
        "You were awake, Kai?" Lunzie's voice was soft and Kai realized
that she had moved beside him with a bowl in her outstretched hand.
        "So, you fixed some fruit?" he asked, opening his eyes and looking
at her.
        She nodded. Odd that he had never noticed before what beautiful and
compelling eyes she had.
        Kai lifted the neglected shell in gentle salute and drank the juice
before he began to eat the fruit.
        "I wasn't hungry. But I'm awfully glad you can give them more
protection, Lunzie."
        "Yes, it's always easier to lie if you think you're telling the
truth."
        "I won't worry so much about that meeting tomorrow "
        "I'm sure you won't." The medic's low voice was tinged with
amusement. She took the emptied shell from his hand.
        What ever Lunzie had added to the innocent fruit was potent. He
swam down into darkness, completely aware that in the morning, he would not
remember that Lunzi was an Adept.

CHAPTER SEVEN

        Rianav wished that they had a squad of troopers with them.
Titrivell and Portegin were good men; she'd been in several tricky
situations with them but, if her commander's suspicion should prove valid,
three troops in a four-man sled, equipped with only force belts and
stunners were woefully insufficient.
        Still, until a colony ship did somehow slip through the commander's
surveillance, three veterans could cope. She doubted the survivors had any
sophisticated weapons if that Aygar had been hunting with a crossbow and
lance. Not that such a primitive weapon was ineffective: bolts from a
crossbow could penetrate thick metal and, at close range, probably knock
fragments from the ceramic hull of the sled. The original landing party's
stunners would by now be inoperative. She'd match herself and Titrivell
against any two or three of Aygar's size so she really had no reason to be
apprehensive about the meeting. Except Aygar's insistence that it be held
away from his current living area.
        Once she had set the course for the secondary camp, she gestured to
Portegin to take the controls. She must be fresh for the conference.
Titrivell took the starboard observation post while she settled herself to
port. Not that there was much to see except huge trees festooned with
climbers and swaths of damaged vegetation where large beasts had broken
trails through the dense jungle. She didn't fancy any ground work there.
        "Lieutenant?" Portegin interrupted her and she followed the
direction of his point.
        "The size of the creatures! Recorder going, Portegin? I want the
captain to believe this!'
        "Aye, aye, ma'am."
        Titrivell leaned amidships, to see past Portegin's shoulder. "They
must weigh megatons. Glad we're up here instead of down there."
        "Bet they give the heavyworlders a tussle." Portegin glanced over
his shoulder as they passed the herd of creatures, eating whatever was
within the reach of their long sinuous necks.
        "We'll have no jokes here, Portegin." Rianav's tone was stern. One
couldn't permit even subtle hints about sentient carnivores. Any member of
the Federation that defied the civilized edict forbidding consumption of
living creatures did so at the peril of its FSP membership.
        "Well, Lieutenant," said Portegin in a chastened tone, "I have
heard from reliable sources that, on their own planets, the heavyworlders
don't adhere to Prohibition."
        "All the more reason for our mission, then, stupid as these
creatures appear to be," and she waved at yet another herd of foraging
beasts, "they deserve as much of a chance to evolve as any other species.
And our protection while they do so."
        "Lieutenant, fliers at eleven." Portegin was pointing at an
airborne species.
        There were three of them. Golden of either feather or fur, Rianav
could not be sure at the distance, but their presence in the sky was oddly
reassuring.
        "Shall I take evasive action?" asked Portegin when it became
obvious that the golden-winged creatures had altered their course to take
up a position on the same level, and at the same speed, as the sled.
        "I don't think that's necessary, helmsman. They do not appear
aggressive. Probably curious. We can out distance them at any time should
they turn hostile." Rianav took unusual pleasure in their exceptional
escort, watching the graceful, powerful sweep of the huge pinions.
        "They're watching us, ma'am," Titrivell called. "The heads of all
three are turned in our direction."
        "They're doing us no harm."
        They paused once in their outward journey. Rianav spotted a huge
stand of fruit trees, the top boughs sagging under ripe fruit, a pleasant
change from service rations. It did not occur to any of the three that it
was unlikely for them to know if the fruits were edible.
        When they reached the vast plain dotted with buttes and meandering
herds of grazing animals, Rianav ordered the helmsman to circle gradually
in on the target area. She took the monitor to search for any sign of Aygar
and his people.
        "They're probably hidden in those hutment's," Titrivell remarked.
        "Full Discipline," she said, with a nod to indicate that she
appreciated the possibility. "Helmsman, stand by the sled. If we are over
powered or I should signal you off, you are to report back to the
commander. This sled must not fall into other hands. Keep your comunit open
at all times and be on the lookout for any indication of a large craft
landing in that direction." Rianav pointed toward the northeastern hills
where she suspected the heavyworlders were encamped.
        At the speed with which Portegin was circling, she and Titrivell
would have sufficient time to complete Discipline. But as she initiated the
drill, she felt an unexpected energy, the most powerful surge of adrenaline
she had ever experienced in Discipline. Glancing at Titrivell, she saw that
he must have had a similar jolt. Of course, one expanded one's abilities
with every use of Discipline, but this? Rianav must ask her commander when
she returned to the cruiser.
        Portegin neatly brought the sled to a landing on the bare circular
mark left by a dome which must have occupied that area for a long time.
        Titrivell opened the canopy and Rianav stepped out smartly.
Titrivell followed, closed the canopy, and nodded to Portegin to secure it.
Rianav caught the slight widening of Titrivell's eyes just as she heard a
slight crunch, and turned slowly in the direction of the sound.
        Six figures, three men and three women, ranged themselves in an
almost insolent parody of the parade stance of troops. Each wore a
standard-issue shipsuit. Despite Discipline, the sight gave Rianav a flash
of concern. Then she noticed that the shipsuits were patched and that the
six wore neither forcebelts nor carried stunners. The reinforcements had
not, then, arrived. These were descendants of the original force, mocking
her by appearing in their ancestors' garb.
        Rianav was, however, grateful for the stunner at her side. Each of
the six was taller, broader, heavier than she or Titrivell.
        She hesitated only that brief moment for evaluation and then strode
forward, not quite leisurely but not in formal martial pace. She glanced
from one face to the next, almost as if she expected to recognize someone.
Halting, exactly four meters from Aygar, she saluted.
        "You are prompt, Aygar."
        "And you!" The man curved his lips in a half-smile, as his eyes
flicked toward Titrivell, correctly standing two paces behind his
lieutenant, then toward the pilot at the controls of the closed sled.
        "Did your injured man survive?'
        "Yes, and sends his gratitude for the remedy."
        "Any more trouble with fringes?'
        "No," Rianav said. "But you would certainly be safe from that
menace on this butte? . . ." Her comment trailed into a question.
        "We out grew its limited accommodations," Aygar said. That prompted
some smiles from his five companions.
        "You may be unaware of the provisions made by the Federated
Sentient Planets to reimburse survivors -- "
        "We're not survivors, Lieutenant," said Aygar. "We were born on
this planet. We own it."
        "Really, Aygar," said Rianav in a conciliatory tone, gesturing at
the others, "six people can only own as much as supplies their needs."
        "We are more than six."
        "No matter how much your original number has multiplied, it is
clearly stated in FSP law -- "
        "We are the law here, Rianav! We accuse you of trespass."
        The change of intensity in his voice alerted Rianav with her
Disciplined sensitivity. She had her stun gun out and was firing at Aygar
and the two on his right before they could complete their forward springs.
Titrivell was not a millisecond later in stunning the other three.
        With her gun in hand, for she had set for medium shock and she
wasn't certain how long such superb bodies would be affected, she strode to
the sprawled forms, motionless on the dusty ground. Aygar's eyes glittered
with anger as she leaned down and, grabbing his right arm, hauled him onto
his back. She nodded to Titrivell to perform the same courtesy to the
others.
        "You'll be unable to move for approximately fifty minutes.
Doubtless your grandparents mentioned stunners? You and your companions
will suffer no ill-effects from stunning. We will continue our mission. We
prefer not to use weapons on other humanoids, but three to one are unfair
odds. Nor are we trespassers, Aygar. Our cruiser heard the distress signal
and responded. We are morally obliged to do so. No doubt your isolation is
the reason for your failure to comprehend the common laws of the galaxy. I
will be lenient in your instance and not report your aggressive reaction to
my superiors. You cannot own a world which is still listed as unexplored in
the Federated register. Possession may be considered primary in law, but
you possess," and she stressed the word with a slight pause, "very little
of this jungle world no matter how many offspring were produced by the
original party. But that's not a matter for me to decide. I report fact as
I observe it."
        The tendons in Aygar's neck stood out in his attempt to break
paralysis by sheer will power.
        "You could do yourself injury, Aygar. Relax now and you'll suffer
no harm."
        Punctuating her advice, thunder cracked and lightning spewed
blindingly out of the sky. The thin clouds which had begun to gather during
the fracas had coalesced with a ferocity fitting the aerial display.
        "There! Something to cool you down." Rianav clipped her stunner to
her belt. Gesturing Titrivell to follow, she strode to the sled.
        "Are there many more like that?" Titrivell asked as he settled
himself in the sled.
        "That's what I think we'd better find out." Rianav motioned to
Portegin to slide into the other front seat.
        "Aygar gave me directions by foot. Whether they're accurate or not,
we can but follow and see. "Run at a good steady pace," he told me, "to
your right, through the first hills, turn right up the ravine, but mind the
river snakes. Continue along the river course to the first falls, take the
easiest route up the cliff, follow the line of limestone, until the valley
widens." We'll know their settlement by the cultivated fields." Rianav
snorted derisively.
        She guided the sled along the course she had taken on her first
visit, then intersected the ravine where she had encountered Aygar. She
continued along the ravine and soon came to a fast river, diverted from its
old channel by the debris of a huge rockfall. They followed the river
upstream for some distance to a beautiful curtain of wide falls roughly
forty meters high.
        "Useful, too," Portegin said, pointing to port. "They've set up a
water wheel and what looks like a generator station."
        He glanced at Rianav to see if she intended to investigate, but she
was already angling the sled above the falls keeping one eye starboard for
the well-marked path, so that Titrivell and Portegin saw the second, larger
falls before she did.
        "Have they a power source there, too?'
        "Yes, Lieutenant, another one, larger," Portegin reported, homing
in on the site with the camera eye.
        "And there are the cultivated fields," Titrivell said as the sled
rose above the falls. "And a discontinuity fold!'
        "A what?" Rianav asked, keeping her eyes on the scene before her.
        "Which would explain this raised valley." Titrivell went on. "Old
sea bed probably. Look at the size of it!"
        "And the reason why they abandoned the butte site," Rianav said.
"This plateau is large enough to support the biggest colony ship they
build. Can you see evidence of a grid?'
        Rianav spiraled the sled, then set it to hover as the three took in
the vast area. The foreground was clear despite the beginning of a misty
rainfall. The river and the terraced fields that began at its banks
disappeared into a haze. In the far distance orange red flashes at several
different points suggested that volcanoes added smoke to the heat mists.
Portside of the river was the inevitable lush and tangled jungle growth,
slanting upward to crown the heights and edges of the broad valley.
        "Lieutenant, look!" Titrivell directed Rianav's attention to the
settlement to starboard. "Clever of them to use that stranded beach
formation"
        "The what?"
        "And look, ma'am, if you can spot it in the haze, the rock .. .
it's ore bearing! No mistaking that color." Titrivell whistled, his eyes
wide with excitement. "Just look how that color continues. The whole
"narding" cliff's packed with iron ore."
        "A second reason for switching camps, then," she said in a dry
tone, dampening the rising enthusiasm Titrivell was displaying.
        "See, over there, chimneys!" Titrivell continued, undaunted. Rianav
applied a half-turn. "A foundry, all right, and a big one. And blast it
all, they've got rails . . . leading to . . . Lieutenant, would you --
about thirty degrees and -- "
        "We're looking for a grid, Titrivell!" she said but corrected the
helm.
        "We don't need to look, Lieutenant," replied Titrivell, "if those
rails lead to a mine or . . ."
        She gave the sled a bit for power and they glided along the edge of
plateau wall. Abruptly the vegetation disappeared and a huge pit opened
below them, glistening in the rain.
        "Or an open cast mine like this one!'
        "I didn't know you were so knowledgeable about mining, Titrivell,"
Rianav said with a shaky laugh. She hadn't expected such evidence of
industry from Aygar's barbaric appearance and primitive weaponry.
        "You don't need to know much to miss that sort of operation,
ma'am," Titrivell said. He looked now, beyond the pit, and Rianav,
following his gaze, turned the sled away from the mining area, down toward
the immense natural plateau.
        "They sure didn't have far to haul," Portegin remarked at his post.
"Nor far to go home, either. There's a sizable settlement three degrees
starboard, ma'am."
        "I'm far more interested in whether the grid is finished or not."
Rianav was also aware that she should render as full a report as possible
to her commander and that included the number of inhabitants. She diverted
the sled to fly over the buildings that shortly became a geometrical
arrangement, at the center of which was an expedition dome: its plastic had
been scarred by wind and abrasive sands, darkened by sun, but it was still
usable and, apparently, the focal point of the settlement.
        Despite the rain, people seemed to be pursuing their normal tasks.
The unexpected over flight of the sled was seen and soon people were
pointing at them.
        "There is a grid, ma'am," Portegin said, lifting his head from the
camera scan. "I can't think why else so much of the undergrowth would be
cleared from half the plateau. There's even a road leading to the area."
        Rianav swung the sled about. "I'd like a head count on this pass,
Portegin, Titrivell." She nosed the sled down and slowed its forward speed.
        "I make about forty-nine," Portegin said, "but the children keep
moving about."
        "I count fifty. No, fifty-one. A woman just came out of the dome
and she's assisting someone, a man. That makes fifty-two."
        "The old man must be the one survivor of the original group,"
Rianav said. She increased their speed and headed toward the road Portegin
had mentioned.
        No observer could miss the grid, despite the mud and windblown
debris that covered its lattice design, for the soil was divided into
squares as far as they could see in the rain.
        "Got to give such people credit," Portegin said. "Heavyworld stock
or no, that's quite a feat. Going from nothing to that in four decades."
        She went far enough across the plateau to confirm that the project
was probably finished, then circled widely, heading back toward the
settlement.
        "Are we going to land?" Portegin asked as they approached. They
could see that a crowd waited at the edge of the settlement. "The old man's
waving. He expects us to land." Portegin seemed nervous.
        "It is our mission, after all, Portegin," Rianav remarked dryly.
        "And none of them have stunners or Aygar's group would have had
"em," Titrivell added.
        "Aygar might not have mentioned our encounter to anyone in
authority," Rianav said. "All his welcoming party were young."
        "It's to their advantage, Lieutenant, to remain "unrescued" until
that colony ship arrives," Titrivell added.
        Portegin snorted. "But we're here, aren't we?'
        "It's not as if they won't do very well under the Shipwreck
Contingencies," Titrivell said.
        "Aygar has greater ambitions, as we heard," Rianav noted. "That's
not our problem, fortunately. All we had to do was check out the distress
call."
        She landed the sled a hundred meters from the crowd, passing
control over to Portegin with the same instructions she had given before.
With Titrivell behind her, she proceeded up the slight incline. The old
man, the woman assisting him, hobbled forward as rapidly as he could with a
badly twisted leg.
        They might, Rianav thought, have had the metallurgy requisite to
make a grid but they'd missed out on medical skill. There had been a medic
included in the original expedition, hadn't there?
        "You're from the colony ship?" the old man exclaimed excitedly.
"You're orbiting? No need. See," and he gestured to the plateau behind
Rianav, "we've got the grid laid. You've only to lead the ship in." He
continued to move forward and Rianav realized that he was about to embrace
her.
        She backed off, saluting as a courteous way to avoid contact. "Your
pardon, sir, Lieutenant Rianav of the Cruiser 218 Zaid-Dayan 43. We picked
up your distress signal from the beacon -- "
        "Distress signal?" The old man drew himself up to a pridefully
arrogant stance, his expression contemptuous.
        "We set no distress beacon."
        He'd been a powerful man at one time, Rianav thought objectively,
but under his loose tunic, his muscles sagged, stretching the hide at its
underseams. Pockets of flesh hung from his big bones.
        "We were abandoned, yes. Most of our equipment smashed in a
stampede. We could send no message. We'd lost all our sleds and the space
shuttle. Those misbegotten, "nardy" high and mighty shippers never bothered
their heads to come back. But we managed. We survived. We heavyworlders do
well on this planet. It's ours. And so you forget that distress beacon. We
didn't set it. We don't need your sort of help -- You can't rob us of what
we've made."
        From the corner of her eye, Rianav saw Titrivell draw his stunner.
The woman at the old man's side noticed the movement and restrained him,
murmuring something which cut through his angry renunciation.
        "Huh! That?" He peered near sightedly and then his face took on a
sneering look as he recognized the naked weapon. "That's right. Come among
peaceful folk with a stunner. Blast your way through us! Take all we've
worked for these long decades. I told the others we'd never be allowed to
keep Ireta. You lot always keep the prizes for yourselves, don't you?'
        "Sir, we answered a distress signal as we are required to do by
space law. We will report your condition to Fleet Headquarters. In the
meantime, may we offer you any medical supplies or -- "
        "Do you think we'd take anything from the likes of you?" The old
man was spluttering with indignation. "Nothing is what we want from you!
Leave us alone! We've survived! That's more than the others could have
done! We've survived. This is our world. We've earned it. And when -- "
        The woman beside him covered his mouth with her hand.
        "That's enough, Tanegli. They understand."
        The old man subsided, but as the woman turned to Rianav and
Titrivell, he continued to mumble under his breath, throwing angry glances
at the two spacers.
        "Forgive him, Lieutenant. We bear no malice. And as you see," her
broad gesture took in the well-constructed buildings, the fields, the
obviously healthy people behind her, "we do very nicely here. Thank you for
coming but there is no distress now." She took a half-step forward, her
body shielding the old man as she added. "He has delusions at his age,
about rescuers and about revenge. He is bitter, but we are not. Thank you
for answering the signal."
        If you didn't send it, then who did?" Rianav asked.
        The woman shrugged. "Tardma, one of the originals, used to say that
a message was sent before the stampede. But no one came. She was often
contradicted."
        In her own way, the woman was as eager to be rid of them as Aygar
had been. But it was also obvious to Rianav that Aygar had said nothing, at
least to the woman and the old man, about the earlier encounter.
        "Nothing you need from our stores? Medicine? Matrices? Do you have
an operative comunit? We can request a trader to touch down. They're always
looking for new business and a young settlement . . ." Rianav looked past
Tanegli. The woman must be his daughter, for she bore a resemblance to him.
The others stood back quietly, but obviously were straining to hear every
word. Some of the smaller children were working their way round to get a
good look at the sled.
        "We're self-sufficient, Lieutenant," was the adamant reply.
        "No trouble with the indigenous life-forms? We've seen some huge --
"
        "This plateau is safe from the large herbivores and their
predators."
        "I shall make my report accordingly." Rianav saluted and, with a
smart about face, strode back to the sled with Titrivell.
        She didn't like having her back to the group. She could feel the
tension in Titrivell but Discipline kept her pace controlled and suppressed
her urge to look behind her.
        Tension showed in Portegin's face and he shoved the canopy back
hard enough for it to bounce forward again on its track. Rianav and
Titrivell wasted no time climbing into the sled and were barely seated when
Portegin executed a fast vertical lift and without spoken order, headed
directly back over the falls.
        "Every single one of those adults was bigger than we are by a third
of a meter, Lieutenant," Portegin said. His lips were dry.
        "As soon as we're out of sight behind that ridge, take a direct
course to our camp, helmsman."
        "They might not have had gravity to contend with," Titrivell
remarked, "but that's a mighty fit bunch of people."
        "They'd have to be to survive on this planet and keep their aim in
mind."
        "Their aim, Lieutenant?'
        "Yes, helmsman. They want to own all of this planet, not just that
plateau or whatever other rights they'd possess on a shipwreck claim."
        "But they can't do that! Can they, Lieutenant?" Portegin shifted
uneasily in the pilot's seat, clasping and reclasping the control bar with
anxious, quick fingers.
        "We'll know more after we've made our report to the proper
authorities, helmsman."
        Then it was Rianav's turn to fidget, rubbing her fingers across her
forehead because what she said sounded somehow wrong, and she couldn't
imagine why.
        They were silent all the way back to the base; a silence partly
imposed by the stormy weather, which made conversation in the sled
difficult, partly due to the fatigue of Rianav and Titrivell as they came
down from the height of Discipline.
        Suddenly the sun, as if bored with meteorological displays, melted
through the clouds and they were treated to vast panoramas of jungle, clear
to the distant southern range of volcanoes, and on the east to the thrust
of high jagged peaks, bare of the luxuriant, purple and green vegetation
that seemed indestructible. Glancing around, Rianav caught sight of the
three winged fliers and her anxiety dissipated for a reason she was unable
to fathom.
        The three remained discreetly above and behind the sled until
Portegin descended to the vertical landing point in front of the camp's
veil screen. As Rianav climbed out of the sled, the golden fliers circled
once and then disappeared to the northwest. As she had felt comforted by
their curious escort, now she felt sad at their abrupt departure.
        The veil screen opened and a woman walked out to meet them.
        "Report, Varian."
        Blinking in confusion, Rianav gave her head a sharp shake. She did
not recognize that person as part of her command.
        "I promised you a barrier, Varian," the woman said with a droll
smile. "Did I set it too deep?'
        At that posthypnotic cue, the overlay of Rianav gave way to Varian.
"Krims! Lunzie, how did you manage that sort of change?" Varian turned
around staring at Triv who had so recently been another person entirely,
and Portegin.
        Triv was shaking his head, too, while Portegin, emerging from the
sled, nearly fell in his surprise.
        "Hey, what happened? We're not from any cruiser!" As the
realization of his day's adventure seeped into his true self, Portegin
collapsed against the side of the sled. "You mean, we just went in among
those heavyworlders and . . . How?"
        "Lunzie did it," Varian said laughing with relief and nervousness
as she absorbed the enormity of what they had done.
        "He who thinks he's telling the truth is more convincing Portegin,"
Lunzie remarked.
        "And you made sure our truths matched?" Triv asked.
        "I'm better pleased that they weren't needed. Come on in," Lunzie
said, wagging her hand to indicate tiny insects flying through the veil
opening. "Kai's fretted long enough.
        "He's improving?" Varian asked.
        "Slowly. That fringe toxemia is affecting his sense of touch. He
burned his hand, picking up a hot shell and wasn't aware of heat or pain. I
smelled the seared flesh. We must all watch out for him."
        Varian, entering the domed shelter, found herself viewing it with
Rianav's values: neat, functional on a primitive level, but cramped. Rianav
also looked over the slightly built man -- the effects of the poisoning
were evident in his posture as well as the pallor of his face. Aygar was
more to Rianav's liking. Varian reasserted herself with an angry shake of
her head. She was not Rianav, the lieutenant of a nonexistent cruiser; she
was Varian, veterinary xeno-biologist. It was obvious from the state of
Kai's health, that she must assume the leadership of what remained of the
expedition. Or was she leader? Lunzie had been acting far more decisively
than she and along more constructive lines. Rianav lingered in Varian's
perceptions. Varian wished fervently to be only herself again, without
these disruptive second thoughts.
        "I am glad you got back safely, Varian," Kai said, his face
lighting with a wide smile. Odd blotches marred his face where the fringe
punctures had healed but left bleached circles. Varian wondered if that
flesh was desensitized as well. "Lunzie kept reassuring me you'd be safe
but I don't trust those heavyworlders."
        "They're not heavyworlders any more," Triv said with a derisive
snort. "Not even Tanegli. He's just a crippled flabby old man with
delusions."
        "I'd question the use of "delusions", Varian said, sounding like
her alter ego again.
        "Why don't you start at the beginning?" Lunzie suggested.
        But once they had seated themselves and Varian began speaking, she
was Rianav, reporting dry fact. Triv added his observations while Portegin
listened, occasionally shaking his head as if he could not reconcile his
barriered experience with what he was hearing.
        "Did Tanegli recognize you?" Kai asked.
        "No. But then he hardly expected to see us," Varian said, aware of
a vague sadness for Tanegli's disintegrating body and personality. Or was
that Rianav thinking? "We presented ourselves as a rescue party and while
only a week of subjective time has passed for us, it was forty-three years
for him."
        "Rianav -- I mean . . ." Triv corrected himself with a laugh and
then a sly glance at her, "Varian makes a convincing lieutenant, Kai."
        "Our appearance, even as a rescue team, upset Tanegli," Varian went
on, determined to suppress one set of her reactions. "He expected to see
heavyworlder colonists emerge from that sled, reporting from their mother
ship."
        "Aygar didn't mention his encounter with you?'
        "No -- "
        "And he hand-picked his reception committee at the old compound,"
Triv said with a derisory grin. "Only they weren't fast enough for
Disciplined troops." When Lunzie gave him a sideways glance of amusement,
Triv's expression turned to one of chagrin. "Well, we were Disciplined and
we thought we were troops."
        "So you used the stunners?" Lunzie's question was more statement.
        "They made the difference all right," Varian said. "On medium,
they'd only be immobilized about fifty minutes. It was raining."
        "A thoroughly chastening experience for your friends, I've no
doubt," Lunzie said. "It's also less likely they'll mention their abortive
attempt when they return to the plateau. Not that that matters one way or
another."
        "You mean, our deception will be discovered when the colony ship
lands?" Kai asked.
        Lunzie blinked once as if he had taken her meaning entirely wrong,
but he couldn't think how.
        "First thing they'd do after landing is try to find us," Varian
said, "once they have the equipment and personnel to mount a planet-wide
search."
        "Oh?" Lunzie was amused. "I thought you said you were a convincing
rescue team."
        "Yes, but . . ."
        "That colony ship is not coming in with due authorization from
FSP," said Lunzie, ticking off her points. "You said they had primitive
hydroelectric plants? Then they've enough to send pulsed code signals to
alert the colony ship. Which, because it is not authorized, will not wish
to be challenged by any FSP cruisers in the system. Remember, colony-sized
ships have got to start slowing once they enter a solar system. They'd come
in on a polar entry, more than likely. Did you see a beacon during your
sweep of the settlement?'
        "No, too hazy, but I'd say it was on the far edge of the grid, on
the ridge," Portegin said.
        "Would it have a reciprocal facility?" Lunzie asked.
        "They had all the spare matrices from the shuttle," Portegin said
in a sour tone.
        "Bakkun had the basic technical knowledge to improvise," Kai said,
remembering the man's personnel record.
        "It'll buy us more time if they have augmented their
communications," said Lunzie, pleased.
        "More time for what and how?" Varian asked. She was surprised to
see a twinkle in the medic's eyes as Lunzie turned to her.
        "To establish our own claims on Ireta. Believe me, with as grand a
larceny as this, no colony ship commander is going to land unless he's very
sure there isn't a cruiser lurking behind one of Ireta's moons or -- "
Lunzie turned to Portegin. "Do we have enough matrices to contact the
Ryxi?'
        "The Ryxi?" Varian was startled by the question. She glared at
Lunzie in sudden antagonism. The Ryxi mustn't learn about the giffs.
        "I'd quite forgotten about them," Kai said.
        "I'd rather we didn't," Varian said in a tight voice. "How could
they help us?"
        "Why would they?" Triv wanted to know.
        "Vrl wasn't pleased with Kai's report about the giffs," Varian
began urgently. "You must know what the Ryxi are like, Lunzie?"
        "Oh, I do. As I recall it, Kai, you mentioned that the Ryxi had
sent out a homing capsule directing their colony ship to start. They'd be
well settled in by now -- "
        "Why would they help us?" Kai asked. He was as unhappy about
contacting the Ryxi as Varian but for a less altruistic motive. "They
probably assumed that the ARCT-10 picked us up decades ago."
        "The Ryxi generally employ human crew for their space craft,"
Lunzie said, cutting through Kai's objections. "I'd be vastly surprised if
they didn't have a supply ship calling in at intervals."
        "You mean to ask them to pose as Varian's cruiser? What good would
that do except delay the colony ship a while?"
        "Any delay helps our purpose." Lunzie was unruffled.
        "And what is our purpose?" Varian asked, a little relieved that
perhaps the Ryxi needn't personally be involved.
        "Delay. Especially to delay that colony ship from landing and
consolidating the heavyworlders' gains."
        "Their plans have worked out very well so far," Varian said. "They
have established and maintained a settlement on a brutal, primitive world
-- "
        "Whose side are you on?" Kai asked, startled by her comment.
        "Ours, of course. But you can't deny that the survivors have done a
thundering good job of being stranded -- for whatever reason."
        "They are, however," and Lunzie's cool tone rebuked Varian more
pointedly than Kai's agitation, "about to commit grand theft against the
Federated Sentient Planets."
        "Grand theft?" Triv was torn between laughter and shock.
        "What else do you call stealing a planet?" Lunzie asked, completely
serious. "Which is what they'll achieve if that colony ship lands. Oh, FSP
can still charge Tanegli with mutiny . . ." and Lunzie shrugged at that
useless display of legality. "We, and the sleepers, will get sweet nothing
for a lapse of forty-three years because we didn't produce any significant
results in opening the planet."
        "We were sent on an exploratory mission," Kai began defensively.
        "Which remains incomplete." Lunzie made another eloquent shrug of
her shoulders.
        "What are you driving at, Lunzie.?" Varian asked.
        "If we, too, make a significant contribution, the planet cannot be
ceded entirely to the Heavyworld colonists, even if their ship lands. We do
that by continuing with the original intention of the landing party: a
survey of the geological and xenobiological features. It would be better if
we could prevent the colony ship's landing, any way we can. If we somehow
validate the "rescue" before the colony ship sets down, we could limit the
settlers to that part they have worked."
        "They'd do right well then," Triv said with a long sigh, "for the
plateau is iron-rich. Aulia and I also found significant uranium traces
along the up thrust of that long mountain chain the day they mutinied.
Never did have a chance to tell you that, Kai."
        "One wouldn't wish them to have nothing for their labors," Lunzie
said with deep irony, before she turned to Varian. "There're also your
pets, the giffs, Varian, who need to be permitted to evolve without
interference. I'd go before the Supreme Council to defend their protection
as a patently intelligent species."
        "The whole planet should fall under that protection," Varian
declared.
        "Quite possibly," Lunzie said, "especially if Trizein's notion is
correct about this planet's having some how been populated with species
from Earth's Mesozoic age. That could be the preemptive consideration."
        "Not with a world as rich as transuranics as this." Kai said in a
tone that brooked no contradiction.
        "The two are not mutually exclusive," Lunzie remarked mildly. "But
if the colony ship gets down . . ."
        "And if we should be found?" Triv asked.
        "Which is undoubtedly the first thing Aygar would instruct them to
do," Varian said, remembering the fury in that young man's eyes, promising
retribution.
        "We could use Dimenon and Margit," Kai said thoughtfully into the
silence that followed.
        "And Trizein," Lunzie said.
        "Why him?" Portegin asked. "He's only an analyst and he wouldn't
have any facilities."
        "He's our authority on the Mesozoic zoology," Lunzie said.
        "Portegin, could you rig a jammer for the communications mast at
the plateau?" Kai asked.
        "That'd mean getting close to the settlement again," Portegin was
making no secret of his disinclination.
        "Not very close," Triv remarked blandly.
        "They wouldn't be expecting a 'rescue' party to interfere," Kai
said with a grin.
        "Good point," Varian said, pleased and relieved that her co-leader
was reasserting himself. "And the sooner that is done, the better."
        "Agreed!" Lunzie's single word was unexpectedly emphatic. "But, if
doing that would use matrices required to reach the Ryxi . . ."
        "No, I think enough are available," Portegin said blithely unaware
of the consternation on the faces of both Kai and Varian.
        "Kai," and Lunzie turned almost brusquely from the technician, "how
clearly do you recall the deposits of ore we'd already found?"
        "Very clearly," Kai said in a tone that he hoped Lunzie would
interpret.
        "Excellent. When I go back to the shuttle, I'll run fiber through
the synthesizer for writing material. Trizein never forgets anything he's
analyzed, so he can rewrite his notes."
        "Terilla could repeat those exquisite drawings of hers, "Varian
said.
        "Children do not adapt well to the trauma of elapsed time," said
Lunzie in a cool voice. "It's hard enough on adults to realize that most of
their friends, and probably all their immediate family are aged or dead."
The silence that greeted her remark caused her to glance at each of their
faces. Her expression was kinder as she went on. "It's hard enough for us,
but at least we have a task to which we can devote our energies." She
paused again, looking about her. "I think we'd best get some sleep now.
We've a lot to begin tomorrow."

CHAPTER EIGHT

        About halfway through that restless night, Varian realized that
with the possible exception of Lunzie, no one was finding sleep easy. She
was divided between the desire to talk out the day's puzzles and the
privacy of the night in which to sort out her muddled reactions.
        The revelation that Lunzie had so subtly overlaid her consciousness
with that of Rianav distressed Varian. Not because she minded assuming an
alter ego but because, as Rianav, her reactions to the mutineers'
descendants, and even toward Tanegli, had been sympathetic rather than
vengeful. As Varian, she ought not to have any compassion for the man,
considering that he and his fellows had robbed her of forty-three years of
the companionship of her friends and relatives. Not to mention the minor
fact that the mutiny had probably placed Varian's advancement in the
Service in jeopardy. And the Service now constituted Varian's anchor. Her
parents could be dead. Her brother and two sisters, all her friends, would
be entering their seventh or eighth decades and their thoughts would be
turned to whatever retirement activity they had earned during their
productive years. They would hardly be likely to welcome a youthful Varian.
        How many times had this experience happened to Lunzie? The question
popped unexpectedly into Varian's drowsing mind and shook her out of the
brief spate of self pity. Lunzie had subtly altered since Varian awakened
her. Or perhaps, Varian, immersed in her xenobiology, had simply failed to
take a proper measure of the medic. Lunzie had kept pretty much to herself
and her duties before the mutiny. Lunzie's Service profile had indicated
nothing unusual. Nor was it unusual for a medic to be Disciplined. Lunzie's
posting to their expedition had all the elements of coincidence . . . but
was it? Since she had revealed herself Adept, and showed a great deal of
knowledge about the phenomenology of shipwreck, salvage legalities, and
improper colonial takeovers. Had Lunzie been shipwrecked before?
        Varian sighed, unable to correlate the nagging inconsistencies. She
was deeply sorry for Kai. She'd seen his hands shaking and the occasional
body spasms that everyone pretended not to notice. Would he regain his
sense of touch? And lose those disfiguring white patches from the fringe
punctures? She wanted him whole, his old self, her friend and lover, as
antidote to the attraction she felt for Aygar.
        What were the fringes, for Krims' sake? Aygar said they were warmth
seekers. But she and Triv had unearthed the sleds and not been attacked.
Warmth? The Thek, Tor, would have radiated more warmth than forty humans
while it was plowing back and forth across the old compound in search of
the buried core. Tor, the family friend, had attracted the fringe, and left
Kai to its embrace.
        Varian thought that Lunzie was right not to rouse the children.
Poor kids. And yet, they might still have living parents delighted to see
them alive, even if their childhood friends would all now be in their
middle decades. Wait a moment! Lunzie must be wrong. Children tended to
adapt easily. Was Lunzie protecting the children for her own obscure
reason? Varian could think of none and Terilla would be an asset with her
exquisite drawing. Bonnard had already proved his initiative and
resourcefulness. However, Varian approved that Aulia would remain in cold
sleep. No one had time to deal with hysterical temperament.
        Varian told herself to stop running on in her mind and get some
sleep. She was tired enough, wasn't she? And tomorrow would be stressful in
other ways. Now, how could she make up for forty-three-years gap in her
xenobiological research? Some place in the middle of plotting her attempt,
Varian drifted off to sleep.
        Kai eased himself as quietly as possible into various positions but
he couldn't achieve lasting comfort or sleep. Insomnia was a new sensation;
he seemed to have spent most of his days lately either deeply asleep or
drowsing.
        Kai had not previously thought much of his personal appearance, or
his body, which had been healthy as long as he could remember. But then, on
a compound ship, one under went periodical physicals as preventive
measures. The ARCT-10's medical department had diagnostic data from every
system known to the FSP and could synthesize the rarest medicines and
vaccines; ill health was quickly remedied. Varian might not want contact
with the Ryxi but if Lunzie was correct and the Ryxi had employed human
mercenaries as ship crews, the crew members probably had access to
treatment. Somewhere in the Federated Sentient Planets, a remedy for his
condition could be found. Well, he could do nothing about it just then. He
moved again, slowly, trying to make as little sound as possible though it
occurred to him that sleepers normally move frequently and everyone else
seemed motionless. Were they all awake with troublesome thoughts? And which
thoughts?
        He'd bet anything that Varian was worried about the Ryxi coming to
Ireta and "investigating" her giffs. He could understand that in her. What
he found harder to comprehend was her attitude towards the mutineers'
descendants. Descendants? Survivors? Precolonists? Of course, that could
just be a matter of shaking off the personality Lunzie had created as a
protection for the ruse. But Varian was planet-bred and so she might
sympathize with any successful implantation whereas he, ship-bred, had a
more universal view. Or did he? Was he merely biased in another direction?
        Kai had noticed that Triv, too, seemed ambivalent to the
industrious settlers. Had it not been for the solidarity of the team behind
Lunzie's suggestions to continue the geological and xenobiological surveys,
Kai would have serious doubts about their loyalties.
        Odd, too, that not one of them had mentioned the ARCT-10 or
expressed concern over the fate of its huge complement of sentient beings.
Kai suppressed resentment. The ARCT-10 had been his home but Triv,
Portegin, Lunzie, and Varian were all contract specialists, gleaned from
other star systems. The ship-bred of his detachment had been Gaber, now
dead, Aulia, himself, and the three children, Terilla, Cleiti, and Bonnard.
He was the only one awake who considered the ARCT-10 home, so he ought not
to fault his team mates.
        What had happened to the ARCT-10? To the best of Kai's
recollection, no compound ship of her size had ever been destroyed. Units
had been shattered or pierced, with loss of life, but an entire compound
ship? The size of a small satellite? Kai really didn't care what happened
to the heavyworlders and their bid for Ireta. He would like to see even old
Tanegli tried for mutiny. But other rich worlds lay ready for FSP to
exploit -- so long as his set of survivors profited. But he did want to
know what had delayed the ARCT-10, where she'd been, what she'd done, why
wasn't she here, if only to heal his distressing condition. He drifted off
to sleep finally, trying to rationalize the nonappearance of his ship.
        Triv lulled himself to sleep by repeating the coordinates of the
finds made by the teams until he was sure he had the figures correct. At
first, he had been annoyed to think that he'd be done out of the bonuses
he'd anticipated from the expedition. He was much cheered to realize that
something could be rescued to pay for lost time. Of course, his credit
balances would have appreciated during cold sleep. As long as his where
abouts were uncertain, no credit organization could disperse his holdings.
He amused himself by calculating the current balance at forty-three years'
accumulated and compound interest. Having made few personal ties anywhere,
Triv was not especially bothered by the elapsed decades. So long as his
monies appreciated with interest, and he collected a just percentage of the
wealth that was obviously to be mined on Ireta, he was satisfied.
        He heard a soft scraping noise and turned his head slightly. Kai
again. He experienced a fleeting sympathy for the man that only proved to
Triv how right he was to avoid attachments of any kind. Pretty soon now, if
the Iretan prospects lived up to his expectations and he could live off the
interest of his credit balance, he'd find himself one of the less
frequented planets, a soft leisurely world. He'd link up with some obliging
person to attend his physical needs and then he'd do whatever he fancied,
when he fancied it. Meanwhile, a geologist with his ratings, a Disciple as
well, never lacked assignments.
        Although Portegin was some what relieved that Aulia was not going
to be awakened, it irritated him, too. He knew her faults but they worked
well as a team and they got on even better as a pairing. He was beginning
to miss her now he was fully revived from the cold sleep. Then he
brightened at a second thought: Aulia would be much more likely to contract
with him since they were contemporaries. She'd really have difficulty
forming a new relationship among those her subjective age.
        Portegin was still irked by Lunzie's manipulations. He'd never said
she could tinker with his mind, no matter if she had Kai's and Varian's
consent. He was aware that Adepts never misused their abilities, which was
why so few were allowed to attain that rank, but her interference rankled.
In fact, the only good to come out of the day had been the assurance that
they wouldn't lose out on mineral and ore bonuses. He wondered if Kai and
Varian would go for stretching their subjective time a little, say, back
three or four years; one got only subsistence rate for being asleep on an
assignment, no matter the reason. He wished Kai would get settled, even
though the man was trying to be considerate, moving slowly. Too
considerate, because his slow deliberate attempts to cut down noise made
the process longer. Lunzie hadn't so much as stirred since she lay down.
        Portegin had to admire the medic. Not for a single moment had he
suspected her of being more than just a healer. He drifted into
unconsciousness while calculating possible totals to his bonuses.
        Lunzie didn't move because her mind had commanded her body to relax
while she reviewed the day's achievements: satisfactory on many counts --
though Varian's obvious attraction to the settler, Aygar, might become a
problem. Distract Varian with the giffs, put her on her professional mettle
to protect that species. Lunzie actually shared the girl's reluctance to
have the Ryxi learn over-much about the golden fliers. A most remarkable
species, those giffs. It would be very interesting to discover how they,
and immense herbivores and grotesque predators of Mesozoic Terra, got to
Ireta. All too pat, this planet so perfect for the continuation of a
totally useless series of beings. The planet was rife with anomalies.
Puzzles pleased Lunzie, especially if she solved them in advance of anyone
else. This assignment was generating more riddles than she had ever
encountered before. A routine assignment, huh? She ran through her
probabilities again and decided that she had a better than average chance
of pulling a hat trick. Then she chuckled silently at her unconscious use
of such an anachronism. Space helmet trick? Well, she oughtn't to be
greedy: that led to overconfidence, a state of mind which imperiled more
than it aided. Two successes would mollify the Council of Adepts. However,
if the two most important aspects of the assignment ended satisfactorily,
it was logical to assume that the others would as well. Aware that she
could juggle variations and probabilities all night and not fathom half the
ramifications possible in this set of circumstances -- and that without
allowing for random factors -- Lunzie initiated the hypnotic sequence that
would end in sleep.
        The next morning, after a potent breakfast stew, Lunzie took the
four-men sled back to the giff cave. Varian went off with Portegin in one
of the smaller sleds, combining both xenob and geological scouting. Triv
went prospecting in an area where the radiation counter had begun
chattering at the end of the previous day's swing. Kai couldn't keep his
eagerness to inspect the find out of his voice, but in his weakened
condition, he was more useful as duty officer. And he was kept busier than
anticipated for the reason that they lacked materials on which to keep
notes and mark coordinates. However, as the campsite contained a level area
of packed dirt, Kai used a sharp stick to inscribe the figures as they were
called in, plus whatever additional notes were relayed. On the other side
of the path from his message board, he began working on as detailed a map
of Ireta as he could call to mind. He started with his recollection of the
basement rock area which was unlikely to have changed much in elapsed
forty-three years. As he sketched, Kai grinned to himself. The others could
fault Tor the Thek as much as they wished, but to him, the fact that the
Thek had come to Ireta in search of the long -- lost core of obvious Thek
manufacture was a personal triumph. If the artifact had not been so
significant to the Thek, Kai was certain that Tor would have remained. But
why had it taken forty-three years to rouse the Thek to investigate?
        Kai marked in the immense northeastern plain where the butte
formations had caused them to place the secondary camp. He was tempted to
place pebbles to signify the rocky out croppings. He wasn't sure of the
terrain leading to the settlement but Triv said it was probably a raised
sea bed of geologically recent upheaval. Quite likely, since it would have
been beyond the "safer" basement area, at the edge of one set of the
planet's restless tectonic plates. Volcanic disturbances had been recorded
in the brief time the team had been there.
        Kai had to leave the pole areas as terra incognita. Because of
Ireta's peculiar formation and its very hot thermal core, the poles were
hotter then the equator and considerably more active. Massive changes might
have taken place there even in a brief four decade span.
        Lunzie interrupted his cartographical labors to report her safe
arrival at the cave, adding that she'd been escorted by three giffs. She
had picked up sufficient vegetable fiber en route to supply them with
plenty of pulp paper, and while arousing the sleepers, she intended to make
use of her spare time to experiment with juices that might make an ink. She
favored the hadrosaur nut for the shell left a stain on the fingers.
        Kai could not help but feel chagrined when he returned to his map
but then he took heart -- this map was three dimensional and much larger
than any paper Lunzie could manufacture. He began to make mud mountains and
simulate the giffs' inland sea, then he sighted the three camps with flags
made of twig and triangular purple leaves.
        Varian reported in next about the first pitch blend deposit,
interrupting his construction of the terrain. She was tell-tagging great
herds of beasts, varieties of hadrosaur she had not previously noted, and
was nearly to the Great Rift where the carotene grass grew.
        Kai returned to his work and gouged out the Rift. He was rather
enjoying himself by then and was not too pleased to have his Rift-making
interrupted by another summons to the comunit. It was Varian, highly
excited. She'd flown across the smoking trail of recent lava flow and
observed fringes large and small: some were hunting while others were
folded, their thin envelopes swollen with prey.
        "Some are even attached to the big beasts. Those stupids don't seem
to know they're being eaten alive. And there's nothing I can do."
        "Did you bring a stunner with you, Varian?" Kai asked.
        "Kai, we don't have enough charges to waste . . ."
        "Don't waste, Varian. Just see if the fringes are deterred by a
stun charge."
        "Point's taken," she replied in an odd tone. "I'll use it on some
animal that has a chance." She signed off.
        How much warmth would attract a fringe? Kai wondered as he watered
dirt to make a mountain range beyond the Rift. Apparently Triv and Varian
had not been warm enough to attract the one at the old compound. The
current campsite, erected as temporary quarters for two geologists, was
going to be cramped with seven. Was that over the critical warmth mass? If
it was, would fringes be deterred by a forcescreen? Kai rose from his
map-making and prowled the perimeter. The ground sloped away from the ridge
on which the dome rested. A barren rocky out crop several meters beyond had
defeated even Ireta's vegetation. They'd have visual warning of an attack
by fringes.
        The creatures' emergence as predators was another of Ireta's
puzzles. There hadn't been much talk between himself and Varian. He'd been
ill, of course, and she and Lunzie had done as they both saw to the
advantage of the group. That was only logical. But he couldn't shake the
notion that Varian was more distant. He tried not to relate that to her
encounter with Aygar and the mutineers' descendants. He was wrong to call
them that, perhaps, but the term sprang readily to mind. He must be
imagining things: there was no change in Varian, merely the vestiges of the
barriers that Lunzie had set for her protection.
        The buzz of the comunit was a welcome interruption. Triv reported
that he had detected a high ironstone reading along a vast ridge but his
sled had flushed an unusual number of large creatures from the thick
vegetation covering the ridge.
        "Not that landing for a sample would do us any good, but a sample
of the rock makes a nice display until we have assay materials." The
geologist snorted. "We should have been asking for supplies from Aygar's
folk instead of offering them."
        "They're an iron-age technology, Triv. We want to be in the
transuranics. Forget the metals: watch that counter!"
        Though Kai went back to his map, he had lost all enthusiasm for it.
He had a wayward urge to trample it down into the soil from which he had
raised it. He had in fact lifted one foot to obliterate the mountain when
he caught sight of his bloodied fist. Startled he examined the hand and
then the other, and hastily returned to the dome to wash away the mud and
examine the damage he hadn't felt. Fortunately it was no more than scrapes
and minor cuts. He was still examining his hands when the first of the
sleds returned. He almost resented the intrusion on his solitude.
        No sooner had Triv parked his sled than the second, with Varian and
Portegin, emerged from the evening haze. Varian halted Triv's entrance to
the veil, saying she'd a lot of fruit and bean pods to bring in. No sooner
were the three inside the screen than Triv saw the relief map and would
have dropped his burden had not Varian shouted. Then she and Portegin
stood, arms full, exclaiming over Kai's improvisation.
        "I'd have to check scale," Kai said, disclaiming their fulsome
compliments, "and, of course, we don't know how the polar region or the
southern tip have changed with tectonic action . . ."
        "Are you in there?" A harsh shout at the veil entrance distracted
them.
        "It's Lunzie," Varian cried, looking hastily about her for a spot
to place her burdens.
        "Come on, you three," the medic called, "this bunch isn't too
steady on their feet yet. Kai, operate this damned veil."
        In the excitement of welcoming Trizein, Margit, and Dimenon, Kai
was relieved that Lunzie had no time to notice his hands, which he kept at
his sides. Then Varian called him to help her unload the rest of her
harvest while the newly-awakened were made comfortable in the dome.
        "If you'll just hold your arms out, Kai . . ." Varian stared down
at the hand he obediently held upward for a load. She started to touch his
scored fingers and then stopped, staring at his face. "That does it, Kai.
We contact someone who can remedy this. Even a freighter will have medical
files on its computer."
        "Varian, if the Ryxi -- "
        "I've an override to protect my own species first, Kai." She
exhaled, part in exasperation, part in anger until her eyes, avoiding his,
fell on the map, its mountain mounds and the Rift outlined in the last of
the westerly light. "And that's a contribution, too!"
        She finished loading his extended arms, grinning conspiratorially
at him as she artistically draped bean pod leaves over his hands and then
gave him an affectionate shove back to the dome.
        Trizein provided an almost continuous monologue on the types,
probable evolutionary steps, habit, temperament, and breeding methods of
all the creatures he had seen on his way from the giff cave to theirs.
According to Dimenon's amused aside, the chemist had nearly driven Lunzie
to fury by his insistence that they divert the journey to follow this or
that species until he had had a close enough look. He had also appropriated
some of the pulp sheets Lunzie had extruded for Kai, insisting that his
work would be far more important in the eyes of the FSP than any merely
prodigious amount of transuranic elements. "Why, the discovery of those
beasts would settle for once and all an argument that had exercised
centuries of paleontologists, biologists, and xenobiologists -- the
possibility of convergent biology, of similar life-forms evolving from
cellular stews on different planets. He added, complete with wild gestures,
that its happening with a third-generation sun was utterly improbable,
incredible, and unlikely -- as any zoologist of the lowest rating would
tell you.
        Trizein continued in this vein, occasionally stopping to admire one
of his many sketches, apologizing for its rudeness and correcting a line or
contour, until Lunzie announced that everyone had better eat something,
then shoved Trizein's bowl under his nose.
        The man's enthusiasm was so infectious that even Kai found himself
smiling at the man's joy.
        "We'll go out again, tomorrow, Trizein," Varian said, her voice
bubbling with good humor. "I've the Rift grasses. Lunzie, do you need to
synthesize -- "
        "More paper at the rate Trizein's using it up," the medic said with
a sniff, but she'd a twinkle in her eye as well.
        "Lunzie what did the heavyworlders do for vitamin C if it's so
necessary to our diet?" asked Triv.
        "This is a huge continent. If there is one such area of
carotene-rich grass to supply these ancient beasties of Trizein's,
undoubtedly there's another. Divisti would have known about the need for
vitamin C or they'd all be without hair and teeth -- which I gather they
weren't." Lunzie shot a glance at Varian.
        "Portegin ought to go with you, Lunzie, and dismantle the beacon
mast." Varian had everyone's stunned attention. "I've given the matter
considerable thought and, if, as you suggested, the Ryxi have employed
human mercenary ships and crew, that's who'd be sent to answer any call
from us. I don't feel we can achieve enough without proper equipment. The
heavyworlders got what they wanted, and I refuse to see us deprived of more
than time."
        "More than time?" Dimenon demanded with considerable agitation.
        "That's all so far," Margit said blandly. "The beacon does register
our finds to our credit, doesn't it, Kai?" When Kai nodded, she went on,
"So, our claims are valid -- "
        "Until the colony ship settles," Lunzie said. Her tenacity to that
theme was beginning to puzzle Kai. She turned to Varian then and said, "I
doubt that a Ryxi would answer a call from here. What's his feather -- "
and she wound her hand in the air as a memory aid, looking at Kai.
        "Vrl," he supplied coldly.
        "That Vrl's probably still alive. I doubt he cares."
        "Ryxi have a long life span on low-gravity planets," Varian said,
"but it's a chance we've got to risk. It's worth far more in terms of the
supplies we must have to achieve our original objectives." She turned to
Lunzie. "Tomorrow, Rianav and the helmsman from Cruiser 218-ZD-43 will make
a second run to the plateau," and she inclined her head significantly.
"We'll jam their beacon and then get a message off to the Ryxi."
        "If a freighter is in," Kai added, "give them a course that'll fly
past the mutineers' camp. That'll make them think twice about calling in
their colony ship."
        "Will there be someone to take me out tomorrow?" Trizein asked
plaintively.
        "I will," Triv replied.
        "Then we can get on with surveying?" Margit asked hopefully.
        "You'd better!" Kai said.
        "I could stay in as coordinator, Kai," Lunzie said.
        "Appreciated, Lunzie, but I've got to compose a message for the
Ryxi . . ."
        Varian's unrepentant grin, reminding him of previous occasions when
he'd been left to communicate with the Ryxi, lifted Kai's spirits.
        It was very early in the morning when Rianav roused her helmsman
for an early start on their mission. A hearty stew was simmering in the
hearth pot when the medic awoke. Although Rianav knew that nothing could
have penetrated the force screen that surrounded the dome, it made her
uneasy that no watch had been kept on what was, after all, a hostile
planet. Still, the medic could close the screen after they had left. Which
she did, with a silent wave of good luck as they departed in the two-man
sled.
        The gloom of cloudy night surrounded them and Rianav was glad they
had flown the course before and had some knowledge of the terrain. She kept
the sled at a respectable altitude. The telltagger's infrequent spouting
was the only noise to break the silence as they sped northeast.
        They were an hour into their journey when the telltagger rattled
hysterically.
        "Krims! What was that?" Portegin demanded.
        "Something awful big, Lieutenant!"
        "There's nothing airborne that big on this planet . . ."
        "I hope!"
        "Heat register's too high, anyhow." Rianav hauled the sled to
starboard, her quick action preventing a collision. A massive object
streaked across their previous line of flight. They could follow the bright
yellow-white exhausts as the vessel flashed by on their Portside.
        "What under the seven suns was that?" Portegin asked, craning his
neck to follow its course.
        "A medium-light space vessel to judge by the propulsion
configuration.
        "From the heavies' camp?" Portegin's voice rang with understandable
concern.
        "I doubt it, helmsman. It came from due east, not northeast."
        "Scouts?"
        "Not that large a ship."
        "Unless that colonist transport also carries military craft . . ."
Portegin added.
        "Belay that, helmsman. We don't need to borrow trouble. We have our
orders."
        "So we do, sir." At the skepticism and near impudence in her
subordinate's tone, Rianav grinned to herself. "Ma'am, shouldn't we inform
base camp? And shouldn't we inform our cruiser of this violation of Ireta's
air space?"
        "Not if it also informs that intruder of the whereabouts of our
base camp, helmsman. The cruiser would have observed the entry. I see no
point in breaking comsilence and informing a listener of our presence.
Especially as we are heading toward the plateau."
        "But, if the Heavyworld transport is down, we don't need to jam
that beacon."
        "First we get to the plateau, helmsman." Rianav spoke firmly enough
to repress further suggestions.
        The sullen Iretan dawn lightened the skies just as they reached the
first of the falls below the plateau.
        "Lieutenant, isn't that awfully bright for dawn?" asked Portegin,
pointing slightly to starboard. A luminous bright yellow formed a curious
circle under pendulous Iretan clouds.
        "Damn funny!" Rianav piled on power and took the little sled up at
a steep angle to get maximum height while still in the shelter of the hills
surrounding the plateau.
        Then several things happened at once.
        "This is rescue mission! Is anyone on that beacon?" demanded an
impatient voice. After a moment of silence, the voice spoke to someone in
the background. "No luck on this frequency, sir . . . Roger. All freq. at
max. power."
        The telltagger began to hum. Not chatter or squawk but the hum
which experience told Rianav was a large airborne object slowly approaching
them from a height.
        "A ship? can you see it, Portgin?"
        "No. Shouldn't I answer the rescue hail?"
        "Not if they're homing in on this beacon? We say nothing. Oh Krims!
and bollix!" Rianav swore fiercely and loudly, trying to deny what they
saw.
        "We've had it!" Portegin's resigned words came out in an awed
whisper.
        They had risen above the screening terrain, the hills from which
the iron ore had been mined to cushion the vast bulk of the transport ship
which was settling to earth. The light seen by Rianav and Portegin was
radiating from its underside and from arc lights surrounding the landing
site.
        "That isn't what's making the telltagger talk," protested Portegin
and looked over his shoulder. He opened his mouth to speak when a bolt
spewed from the maw of the transport.
        Rianav slewed the sled in a frantic effort to avoid the beam. That
was all she remembered.

        "Kai? Kai, are you awake?"
        At the panicky tone in Dimenon's voice, Kai sprang awkwardly toward
the comunit.
        "I'm here."
        "Kai, I'll swear it. We got Thek here. Thek all around. Big ones,
little ones, like they were taking turns!"
        "Where are you, Dim?"
        "We're just over the pitch blend strike -- "
        Dimenon's words were cut off abruptly. Kai tried to reestablish
contact. Not that Dimenon or Margit would be in any danger from the Thek,
but he would prefer a little more detailed report. When he failed to raise
the geologists, he switched to Lunzie.
        "Where abouts are you, Lunzie?"
        "Nearly to the cave. Why?"
        "Dimenon just reported there are Thek on the first strike. Then he
went silent."
        "Thek? Kai, I think we'd better raise Varian and abort that
mission. If Thek are here . . ."
        "THIS IS RESCUE MISSION. IS ANYONE ON "THAT BEACON? THIS IS AN ALL
-- FREQUENCIES HAIL. WE ARE A RESCUE MISSION. WE ARE HOMING IN ON YOUR
BEACON!"
        The interruption stunned Kai and Lunzie.
        "You are blasting our eardrums, rescue," Lunzie said. "What is your
origin?"
        "Ryxi."
        "Maintain silence and home in on beacon." Lunzie interrupted in a
tone that inspired compliance. "I'll get back to you, Base." Kai knew to
maintain his silence.
        Which beacon? he wanted to shout. And why were Thek appearing all
over the landscape? Should he not attempt to warn Varian? Well, if the
rescue ship was heading toward the heavyworlders' beacon, Varian would
abort on her own initiative.
        His moment of panic subsided. The appearance of Thek meant that Tor
had informed others. It was as likely that Tor had organized a rescue from
Ryxi, and humans at that by the voice. Then Kai found another reason to be
alarmed, since he seemed determined to be anxious: Tor would not know that
Kai had roused other members of his team. Tor would not know that the
heavyworlders were active on the planet. Surely a Thek could tell the
difference between normal humans and heavyworlders? Dimenon wouldn't panic
when raced with a Thek, even a horde of them. And Dimenon would know to ask
for Tor, Wouldn't he? Two anxious hours Kai waited.
        "Kai, are you there?" Lunzie's voice had a buoyancy which Kai had
never heard in it before.
        "Yes, yes, I'm here! Where else?"
        "At ease," Lunzie's voice had a lilt of laughter for his sarcasm.
"All's well here at the cliff beacon. I'll have to apologize to Varian.
Those giffs of hers are far more intelligent than we suspected."
        "Why?"
        "I'll swear they recognized the difference between my sled and the
one Captain Godheir sent in. When I got here, the giffs were protecting the
cave and our shuttle against any unauthorized intrusion . . ."
        "Who's Godheir?"
        "The captain of the Ryxi supply vessel, the Mazer Star. And I
apologize to you, too. Your Thek, Tor, left orders with the Ryxi planet to
mount a rescue mission for you. But the Ryxi vessel was away on a supply
trip so it took them until now to respond. The vessel's medium-sized and
had to land in the jungle. They sent in a sled and the giffs attacked it.
They're formidable in the air. I arrived as the battle was in full swing.
But Kai, when I approached, the giffs escorted me to the cave. And the
captain will swear to it." Kai wasn't sure why Lunzie should sound so
triumphant over that point. "So I've asked Captain Godheir to send a sled
to collect you, and some men to guard the dome. And if his diagnostic unit
doesn't have an answer, the cruiser's will. Godheir's trying to raise
Dimenon but he's also agreed to send out a search party if you'll give me
the coordinates." Kai quickly gave her the figures. "And Kai, I lodged an
official charge of mutiny with Captain Godheir. You'll be asked to
confirm."
        Kai caught his breath because it was scarcely the function of a
medical officer, even an Adept, to lodge such a complaint if either of the
team's leaders were alive.
        "You'll want it on record, Kai," and Lunzie's voice was not the
least apologetic for her usurpation of right, "because the colony ship's
down and a cruiser is guarding "Varian and Portegin?"
        Lunzie's voice altered again, devoid of emotion. "Their sled
received a bolt from the transport but the cruiser was able to grapple it
in time to break the full force of a crash. They're both alive and being
conveyed to the cruiser. Just hang on there, Kai. We've got more help than
we need."
        "Any news on the ARCT-10?"
        "No, but Godheir wouldn't necessarily know. The cruiser might. I'll
ask when they've secured the transport. Take it easy now, Kai. No fretting.
I'll see you soon."
        Only then did Kai notice the blood running from his hands. He had
been gripping the comunit so hard, he had lacerated his palms. He had no
great hopes that either diagnostic unit could help him, but perhaps there'd
be some skin-gloves and shin pads so he'd stop injuring himself. He thrust
his hands into a basin of water, aware that he couldn't even sense the
temperature. He salved the cuts and bandaged them.
        So the colony ship had landed after all. Whether a cruiser was on
its back or not now mattered little. Time had run out on their attempt to
salvage something of this miscarried expedition. His first opportunity to
prove his leadership ability had ended in disaster. Kai walked morosely
around the relief map. With an air of finality, he picked up the discarded
pods of hadrosaur nuts and placed the smallest one near the giffs' cave,
the next largest on the edge of the heavyworlders' plateau and the largest
right in the midst of the grid. Then he sat, bandaged hands dangling
between his legs while he waited for the rescue sled.

CHAPTER NINE

        Hands pulled urgently at Rianav and she groaned. An ache
encompassed her whole body.
        "Lemmalone."
        "Not when I have no choice but to retrieve you," a familiar voice
said. Hands now reached under her armpits, lifting her strangely
unresisting body out of the pilot's seat. "You're in one piece. Just relax,
Lieutenant."
        "Easy there, now," another voice called, its tone of command
undiminished by distance.
        "You're lighter than I'd thought," the familiar voice murmured.
        Rianav forced her eyes open and gasped. Blood seemed to be dripping
from her face. The arms that lifted her were heavily corded. She started to
struggle.
        "Don't," Aygar ordered impatiently. "I'm under surveillance and
I've no wish to be stunned again. You have nothing to fear from me. Or
mine." His tone was bitter, but as he eased her from the damaged cockpit,
his hands did not abuse his advantage.
        "Cut the chatter," the other voice ordered. The voice came from
below her. She couldn't make out her surroundings. "Just lift her out. Nice
and easy. Medic!"
        "I'll carry her down." Aygar has lost none of his arrogance, she
thought. She relaxed as she felt him descending a steep and uneven way.
        Despite blurred vision, partly due to the blood which streamed down
her nose, Rianav looked about her as Aygar scrambled down a rocky incline.
The sled had crumpled, nose first, into the side of a cliff and wedged in.
Another sturdy young man was extracting Portegin's limp body from his side
of the wrecked vehicle. On a much wider shelf about fifteen meters below
were a pinnace and a cluster of uniformed personnel, some with drawn
stunners, watching the rescue operation. Blinking to clear her eyes, Rianav
looked beyond, to the vast plateau now inhabited by the immense squat bulk
of a colony transport ship and the long sleekly dangerous form of a medium
deep-space cruiser. As Rianav made out the designation, 218-ZD-43 on the
stern fins, she experienced an unreasonable spurt of pure panic and
clutched at Aygar's shoulders.
        "I told you. I won't harm you. That bunch is just wailing for a
chance to blast us out of existence." Aygar's bitterness was intense.
        "Your transport shot us down."
        "You and your phony rescue mission. All the time your cruiser was
tracking the transport!"
        Rianav flinched from his anger, aware of contradictory,
non-sensical and conflicting emotions. But the next moment Aygar had
reached the ledge and she was removed from his arms. She started to protest
as she saw him pushed to one side by armed personnel. Then a medic was busy
checking the pupils of her eyes and someone else applied an antiseptic pack
to her bleeding forehead. She felt a spray go in one arm, a powerful
restorative to judge by the flood of energy that surged through her body.
        "You'll do," the medic muttered and stepped back, signaling his
assistant to help Rianav clean the worst of the blood from her skin. The
Iretan flies were buzzing in a cloud, attracted by the smell of blood.
        "Lieutenant Rianav," and she turned to look at the officer who now
confronted her. His race was totally unfamiliar to her. Even medium-size
cruisers were not so huge that officers could remain unknown to one
another. His expression was compounded of many elements: anticipation,
curiosity, and a tinge of awe. "Commander Sassinak is waiting for your
personal report."
        To gain a moment to collect herself, Rianav looked over to where
Portegin was being examined. "Is he all right?"
        "He'll have a worse headache than you will, Lieutenant," the medic
replied cheerfully then pointed to the long gash across Portegin's
forehead. "Only a flesh wound. Here, you, let's get him out of this
stinking air and away from those blood-sucking insects."
        Aygar and his friend were summarily encouraged to lift Portegin and
bring him into the pinnace.
        "We used those two local lads to reach you," the officer was saying
in an apologetic tone as he escorted Rianav to the pinnace. "They said,"
and he gave a skeptical snort, "they were on their way to rescue you
anyhow." He dropped his voice to a confidential tone as they entered the
little ship. "We haven't had a planetfall in months and we might have
botched the climb. Couldn't let that happen. Sorry you landed so hard. We
saw that transport zap you and the commander only managed to get a tractor
beam on you long enough to cushion the fall -- All secure back there?"
        "Aye, aye, sir."
        Rianav craned her head to see Portegin strapped into a seat, the
medics on either side of him. Aygar and his companion were under the wary
guard of four marines, two with drawn stunners.
        "Why are those men under guard, Lieutenant?" Rianav asked as she
fastened her seat belt.
        "They're mutineers. Your people filed a charge of mutiny, you know.
First thing your commander told mine. "
        There was something wrong with that statement but Rianav could not
fathom what, beyond the obvious error that her commander and his must be
the same.
        The young lieutenant leaned toward her, his voice low. "The other
elements of your group have all reported in, Rianav. Don't worry about
anything." He turned aside to order the helmsman to take the pinnace back
to the ZD-43. Then he grinned complacently at Rianav. "The heavyworlders'
transport never even knew we were on their tails. Sassiness' a canny
commander."
        As the little pinnace took off, Rianav placed trembling fingers
against her temples. That knock on her head had done more than visible
damage for she was being affected with selective amnesia. She knew that
there was to be a colony ship but not that her cruiser was chasing it. She
knew she served on the ZD-43 but she couldn't recognize any of the men on
the pinnace, or conjure up the name of her commanding officer.
        "That transport was being trailed?" She'd been so sure that her
cruiser was in orbit above the planet, had had no intention of landing, and
that she was part of a rescue mission, answering a distress call.
        "Ever since the transport crossed into our patrol sector. Ships the
size of that baby are leeched the moment the keel is laid. Part of the
Federation's long-term plan to stop planet piracy. So the moment the leech
activated our sensors, we checked Registry and knew we'd a live one." The
lieutenant's grin broadened. "The transport was built in Voroshinsky, sold
to Dopli -- the Heavyworld planet in Signi Sector -- and it was heading in
a very suspicious direction, there being very few systems open for
colonization out this side. So we pursued it with the leech keeping it on a
leash for us."
        Rianav felt a gentle bump as the pinnace landed. Briskly the young
lieutenant unfastened his seat belt and rose, ordering the medics to take
Portegin to the sick bay, the marines to remove the prisoners and secure
them in the settlement. He was turning, with more courtesy in his manner,
to Rianav when the comunit on the pinnace console burbled a summons.
        "Guarded message for Lieutenant Rianav, sir," the helmsman
announced, rising from his place and gesturing for Rianav to take his seat.
Then he and the officer discreetly left the pinnace.
        "Lieutenant Rianav here," she said, depressing the screen toggle.
Its tiny picture revealed a face which Rianav did recognize: her medic.
        "Report, Varian."
        As Lunzie's words dissipated the barrier, Varian-Rianav sank
against the back of the contour chair, her mind reeling as one identity
still impinged on the other.
        "Slight miscalculation on our part, Varian. We now have more help
than we can use. Are you okay?"
        "A scratch on the scalp and a distinct feeling that I'd lost my
memory. Portegin's still unconscious but they say he'll be fine. Lunzie,
did you know that this cruiser is the ZD-43?"
        "So I'm told. Nice coincidence, isn't it? Did you pick up that
all-frequencies hail on your way to the plateau?"
        "Who was that?" Rianav-Varian remembered everything now.
        "That was our friendly Ryxi rescue mission. No Ryxi, by the way."
Lunzie chuckled. "Nearly blew Commander Sassiness' little surprise party.
Kai's Tor gave the alert but the Ryxi had to wait for the vessel to return
from a supply run before they could dispatch it to our assistance. And
Dimenon reported to Kai that the Thek have arrived in strength."
        "In strength?"
        "Dotting the landscape, thirty strong by the latest count. That's a
lot of Thek."
        "Any of them Tor?"
        "Don't know. Dimenon filed in the report and then Kai lost the
connection. Captain Godheir has sent a sled out after him and Margit. And
I've got a lot to tell you about your precious giffs when you get back.
After Commander Sassinak has had her chat with you. I didn't know about the
cruiser when I filed a mutiny charge with Captain Godheir. I wanted that on
record as soon as possible. Sassinak will want to have details from you.
I'm reviving the rest of the sleepers now. Their reports are going to be
needed, too. And they might as well wake up. We've got enough help now to
complete the original mission."
        "Lunzie, how's Kai?"
        "In Godheir's sick tank. We can improve his condition. As I said, I
didn't know about the cruiser. Its medical team can help if Godheir's
doesn't come up with an answer." Behind Varian, someone was noisily
clearing his throat.
        I'll join you as soon as I can arrange transport, Lunzie. Just
continue as you think best."
        "Well, that gives me plenty of latitude."
        "You don't need any more," Varian said in an ironic tone. Lunzie
gave her a sardonic grin as she broke the connection. Then Varian rose to
race the lieutenant.
        "My wits have been rattled, Lieutenant, I don't know your name."
        "Borander." He smiled. "Commander Sassinak is waiting for you."
Borander now exuded an air of urgency. "You look a lot better now, you
know. I was a bit worried about you for a while. You didn't seem yourself."
        "You could say I wasn't."
        Borander escorted her from the pinnace which had landed near the
cruiser by one of the open air locks. From her vantage point in the
pinnace's lock, Varian had a good view of the heavy gunsleds in position
around the massive hulk of the Heavyworld transport. Cruisers were scarcely
small but the ZD-43 looked almost puny as it faced the colony ship. Only
one of the transport's huge locks was open, but none of the Heavyworld
contingent was visible. Varian hoped that the cruiser's weaponry was
trained on the transport. It looked so menacing, just sitting there, as if
it meant to stay. She was only slightly reassured by the fact that most
colonists were shipped in cold sleep to their new destinations.
        "These guys built a proper strip, I'll give "em that much,"
Borander said, gesturing to their right.
        Aygar and his friend were squatting on their haunches beside the
pinnace, and the friend scowled at her. Aygar was staring into the
distance, indifferent to his surroundings and the marines' weapons.
        "Borander, why are these men being guarded?"
        "Why, because they're mutineers," Borander replied.
        "These two men are not mutineers, Lieutenant Borander. They were
born here on Ireta and they had nothing to do with the mutiny. There is no
need to keep them under restraint."
        "Now, look, your people registered a mutiny charge first with
Captain Godheir and then with Commander Sassinak -- "
        "Which still has nothing to do with Aygar and anyone in his
generation or even his parents."
        "And I suppose they didn't help build that grid to assist an
illegal landing . . ." Borander switched from surprise to open scorn.
        "I think the judicial will find that Aygar was acting on
misinformation and could be excused from a conscious violation of EEC
regulations."
        Borander held himself stiffly. "That is not for me to decide. Now,
Commander Sassinak is waiting for you."
        "Then Aygar can accompany us and I'll sort the matter out right
now."
        Aygar maintained his air of indifference but his companion was
staring at Varian, his jaw had dropped open and his face bore a surprised
expression that put Varian in mind of Tardma.
        "Why, I can't just walk into the commander's office with these two
-- "
        "I can." Varian put the steel of Discipline into her voice. "I'll
remind you, Lieutenant, that as co-leader of an authorized expedition to
Ireta, I have the rank of planetary governor pro-tem. Who outranks whom,
Lieutenant?"
        Borander swallowed, arching his back to attention. "You do . . .
ma'am. But that doesn't mean the commander's going to like it."
        Varian ignored that remark and turned to the Iretans. "Aygar, if
you and your friend would be good enough to accompany us?" She stared
pointedly from the marines to Borander who signaled them to sheathe their
stunners. Aygar rose from his haunches with graceful ease.
        "You'd be one of Tardma's grandchildren?" she asked the unknown
Iretan.
        "I'm Winral," the man replied in a surly voice, eyeing her with
growing anxiety.
        Borander stepped out quickly toward the cruiser's gang plank. Aygar
fell in beside her while Winral tagged behind. Varian noticed but did not
comment on the fact that Borander signaled the marines to bring up the
rear.
        "Lieutenant, would you know how much damage my sled sustained? I'll
need transport to return to my base camp as soon as I've seen the
commander."
        "Apart from the crumbled nose, I'd say the bolt just drained your
power pack," Borander replied in a formal tone. "I'll order it retrieved
and repowered."
        Varian received the distinct impression that Borander did not think
she'd survive her interview with his commander. They were halfway to their
destination when one of Ireta's sudden down pours caught them. It afforded
Varian some amusement that she, Aygar, and Winral paid no attention to the
rain though even the marines flinched.
        "Let 'em have the place, I say," someone muttered behind Varian in
a voice meant to be overheard. "I've smelled stinks -- "
        Borander whipped around, hoping to identify the speaker. His
annoyance was increased as he noticed Aygar's sublime indifference to the
elements.
        Varian was not attached to any service unit, so the usual boarding
salute to the flag was not required of her. Nevertheless, when she reached
the top of the gangplank, she had to exert a conscious effort not to follow
Borander's example. The duty officer immediately stepped forward objecting
to the presence of Aygar and Winral.
        "As planetary governor pro-tem, I wish to redress a wrong with
Commander Sassinak. These men are here at my express invitation."
        "Commander Sassinak has already interviewed the mutineers."
        "Mutineer," and Varian laid firm stress on the singular. "These
people cannot be held guilty of the transgressions of their grandparents.
Have I made my position clear, Lieutenant?"
        "Yes, ma'am."
        "Now, if you will take me to your commander?" Varian turned to
Borander.
        The manner in which Borander escorted her revealed to Varian just
how much the young man wished to be through with her. It had irritated her,
or perhaps Rianav, to see Aygar held at stun-range. Rianav-Varian both
could believe that Aygar had indeed been on his way to look for the sled's
survivors. What his intention would have been after the rescue, was moot.
But she felt required to seek fair treatment for him.
        As Varian, Aygar, and Winral followed Borander through the maze of
passages into the cruiser's depths, she became aware of the almost palpable
interest in these surroundings which Aygar could not suppress. This would
be his first opportunity to view close-up the products of sophisticated
science and empire. Quite likely he had been reared on tales of such
marvels, as well as the Heavyworld race-saving mendacity's. Winral was
clearly overwhelmed by everything, gawking about him and stumbling over the
bulkheads. Aygar maintained his dignity and composure despite his obvious
excitement and curiosity.
        Then they were being ushered into the commander's office, a
spacious apartment with computer terminals and viewscrcens across the
biggest wall. Seating units and serving counters made an informal grouping
along the opposite wall, facing the screens. The commander was seated in a
contour swivel chair before a console and wide desk. Varian made a rapid
survey of the screens, one positioned on the settlement and the other
eleven trained on various aspects of the bloated transport.
        "Leader Varian, how pleased I am that you were unharmed," the
commander said, rising and extending her hand. Sassinak was a tall woman of
wiry build and the authority of many decades in a command position, though
her short black hair was unsullied by gray and her supple figure gave an
impression of timeless energy. She gave Aygar a careful nod. "We're in a
bit of a muckle here. Your point about the . . . planet-born . . ." and she
gestured courteously toward Aygar and Winral, "is well taken." She cleared
her throat, tapping her lips with her left hand as she did so. Varian saw
the humorous gleam in her eyes. "I assure you, it will be respected in all
future dealings with the . . . ah . . . indigenes. Only one of the original
mutineers is alive, you know. And, I fear, he is in very poor physical
condition and could be termed senile."
        "The charge of mutiny is a formality, Commander, necessary to
protect my associates and to rectify the disposition of Ireta."
        "I understand the situation, Leader Varian. A wise move, I assure
you, since several entities appear to be interested in this planet. You
have heard, have you not, that the Thek are represented by quite a
concentration."
        "Yes."
        "You're as baffled as I, then. Good. I intensely dislike being
uninformed."
        "Commander, do you know where the ARCT-10 is?" Varian asked
urgently.
        Commander Sassinak grinned ruefully. "That's another good question
to which I have no answer. We have already inquired of the local Sector
Command. You will appreciate that we have crossed several sectors in
pursuit of the transport, and such information wouldn't necessarily be
present in our banks. We'll let you know as soon as we have received an
update. I have heard nothing about the loss of an EV ship and certainly
that would have had a broad dissemination. Now that we are out of
communication silence, we'll be able to ask for updates." Sassiness'
attention was divided between Varian and the screens. Now her glance
lingered on the stalwart figure of Aygar, sparing the briefest notice of
Winral. "Now, sir, we must regularize your position. May I have your name?"
She reached over to flip on a recorder.
        "I am Aygar, son of Graila and Tetum, maternal grandson of Berru
and Bakkun, paternal grandson of Paskutti and Divisti." There was pride and
challenge in Aygar's tone.
        "And you?"
        "Winral, son of Aun and Mella, paternal grandson of Tardma and
Paskutti, maternal grandson of Tanegli and Divisti." Winral was sullen.
        "Yes, quite. With a small genetic pool, you would have to be
careful of inbreeding, wouldn't you?" Sassinak tapped a few keys. "Born and
raised on Ireta and your fore fathers did, I suspect, have some sort of
regulatory body. Your settlement seems very well organized." She looked
inquiringly at Aygar.
        "Paskutti was our leader until his death. Then the duty was assumed
by Berru and from him fell to my father, Tetum."
        Sassinak leaned back in her chair, steepling her fingers.
"According to my understanding of planetary regulations, you are a citizen
of Ireta, therefore an Iretan. My knowledge of your planet is limited to
the reports, now forty-three years old, which we stripped from the beacon
on our way in and suggests that there are no other sentient species . . ."
        "There is a developing species," Varian said quickly, noting the
surprise and puzzlement in Aygar's look and the surprise in Sassiness'.
        "There was no mention of any in your beacon messages."
        "Those were sent a long time ago -- "
        "I was informed that you were cryo until ten days ago?"
        "My report mentioned an avian life-form, golden fliers -- "
        "Yes, it did. They're the developing species? Avians? And the Ryxi
settled in the same system? They aren't going to like that."
        "They haven't been told, have they?"
        "Certainly not. I've been too preoccupied with this business to
tend to yours, Leader Varian." Sassiness' voice took on an edge. "I'll deal
with that if it becomes my business. However, Aygar, you are resident here.
You are not, technically speaking, involved in the mutiny charge. Under
Federated rules and regulations, your people of the two generations raised
here, have the right to whatever you have developed during your residence .
. . including the landing grid, when put to authorized use." She signaled
to the yeoman standing unobtrusively nearby. "I'll want it recorded and
announced that the only person under the charge of mutiny is that Tanegli
fellow. You are no longer under restraint, bind, or halt and may continue
whatever employment and pursuits you choose."
        "We have been preparing for a colonial supplement."
        Sassinak chuckled. "I like you, young man. This world breeds sturdy
people. However, they," and she flicked her hand at the screens showing the
Heavyworld transport ship, "are illegal immigrants on a world clearly
designated as exploratory and uncleared for occupation. They can stay where
they are until the tribunal can deal with the offense. It would be in your
best interests," and her gesture included Winral and the settlement, "to
have absolutely nothing to do with them for collusion will definitely
jeopardize your current possessions and your future." She leaned across her
console. "You have made a tremendous start here, Aygar. Consolidate those
beginnings any way you can before the tribunal sits in judgment. Advice I
also extend to you, Varian, although I understand you've already been doing
just that since your awakening." She rose and walked around the console to
stand looking up at Aygar. Sassinak was a tall, well-made woman, but
Aygar's height and bulk dwarfed her. "You'd make a fine marine, young man,
if you decide to quit this world."
        Aygar looked down at her, his face and eyes expressionless
        "This is my world, Commander. All of it -- "
        "No, Aygar, not all of it," and the steel was back in Sassiness'
voice and manner, "only what you and the planet-born have cultivated. Do I
make myself plain?" When he had nodded acknowledgment, she relaxed with a
smile. "I would be greatly obliged if you would permit me to make a tour of
your settlement and its installations. I like to know as much about the
planets I visit as is possible." Sassinak offered her hand to Aygar.
        For one moment, Varian was afraid that Aygar would ignore the
gesture. Then, as his massive hand closed about the commander's slimmer
one, Varian also hoped that he would make a vain show of his inherent
strength. Why it should matter at all to her that Aygar should make a good
impression on Sassinak, Varian didn't understand -- since she was very well
aware that she and Aygar held differing notions about Ireta's future.
Varian might blame Rianav for her championing of Aygar, but it had been as
Varian that she had insisted on the review of his status.
        "There is much to be done now, Commander," Aygar said, releasing
Sassiness' hand.
        "I should imagine so," and Sassinak deftly indicated regret for
being the agency which had occasioned such need.
        "I believe I can speak for the rest of Iretan's citizens when I say
that we would like to show you what we have wrested from a harsh and
dangerous environment."
        Sassinak nodded, smiling as she took up Aygar's meaning. Varian
felt relief that Aygar had opted for a diplomatic approach where force was
clearly inappropriate.
        "Yes, I like your attitude, Aygar. I'll have my adjutant,
Lieutenant Commander Fordeliton, call on you later today. You should listen
to some disks, delineating your rights and privileges under FSP law, at
your earliest convenience. Under a shipwreck statute, you may replace any
items of equipment, bar weapons, which were issued to the original team.
I'm prepared to make quite a lenient interpretation of that clause to help
you consolidate your position." She gestured to the yeoman. "Del, escort
Aygar back to the air lock, will you?"
        Sassinak caught Varian's eye, aware that Varian would have
preferred to leave with him. "We've some matters to discuss yet, Leader
Varian," she said, resuming her seat at the console as Aygar left. "A
rather remarkable specimen, that Aygar. Are there more like him here?" A
ripple of sensuality in the commander's voice made Varian read-just, once
more, her estimate of the woman.
        "I've only encountered a few of his generation -- "
        "Yes, generation." Sassinak sighed. "You're now forty-three years
behind your own. Will you need counseling? For yourself or the others?"
        "I'll know when I get back to them," Varian replied dryly. "The
phenomenon hasn't caught up with me yet. Commander, did you mean what you
said about the ARCT-10?"
        "Of course, I did. I've no orders to dissemble, though by the gods,
this situation becomes more complex with every hour. A displaced
expeditionary force, a mutiny charge, a missing EV, a population of
off-worlders, an indigenous sentient species and Thek popping up in
unexpected strength. Fifty of the blighted things by latest count. Yes?"
she said, turning to acknowledge the discreet reappearance of her yeoman.
        "Leader Varian's sled has been repaired and is available to her."
        "Yes, I expect you're anxious to return to your group. I shall want
a comprehensive report from every member of the survivors -- especially
your youngest members. I shall want them tomorrow. And you'd best update
your mission's accounts. Are the supplies aboard Varian's sled?"
        "Yes, Commander."
        "You've been very generous, Commander."
        "You don't even know what the supplies are, Varian," and Sassiness'
right eyebrow quirked with amusement. "Records, for one thing,
tamper-proof. And your medic sent in some urgent requests. The Ryxi vessel
doesn't have all she requires. Not surprising. As planetary governor
pro-tem," and Sassinak mocked Varian gently, "you have only to requisition
whatever you require from Fordeliton, my executive officer. Your medic's
name is Lunzie, isn't it?" Sassinak leaned toward Varian again, in a
confidential attitude, her eyes sparkling with humor. When Varian nodded,
she grinned. "It was inevitable that one of us encountered her. A
celebration is in order. Will you convey my deepest respects to Lunzie? And
my invitation to a proper dinner at the first opportunity? I expect that
the Zaid-Dayan will be here a while -- at least until the tribunal arrives
-- but one never knows in the service. I cannot miss the chance to meet
Lunzie. It isn't often one gets the chance to entertain one's
great-great-great-grandmother. Del, do escort Leader Varian to her sled?"
        Slightly dazed by Sassiness' totally unexpected parting remark,
Varian was halfway to the air lock before she recalled Portegin. Del was
quite willing to detour by way of the sick bay.
        "We don't get a skull fracture report from the diagnostic scan,
Leader Varian," Mayerd, the chief medical officer, explained, "but he's
clearly disoriented."
        "You mean he has trouble believing this is the ZD-43?" asked
Varian, appreciating Portegin's confusion.
        "How did you know?"
        Then they were in the infirmary, Portegin its only occupant.
        "Krims! but I'm glad to see you, Lieutenant," he said, urgently
beckoning her to approach his bunk. In an anxious whisper he added,
"there's something peculiar going on here, Lieutenant. I don't recognize
anyone. How could they switch crews midtour, unless the heavies -- "
        "Report, Portegin," Varian said, mimicking Lunzie's clipped
accents.
        "Huh? Oh, Krims!" Portegin fell back against the bolster, tension
easing from his face and body as blocked memories flowed back. "I thought
something was wrong with me!"
        Varian squeezed his shoulder in sympathy. "Me, too."
        "Hey, then everything is all right?" Portegin caught her arm with
urgent fingers. "I mean, that Heavyworld transport zapped us and I wake up
on a cruiser. Was that rescue mission from the ARCT-10? How're the others?
How come we thought we were from this cruiser?"
        Varian gave him what answers she had and then called Mayerd over,
indicating Portegin's improvement and asking to have him released. Mayerd
reluctantly agreed, extracting from Varian a promise that Portegin would
undertake no strenuous activities for a day or two.
        "Nothing more strenuous than juggling matrices and wielding a
soldering iron," Portegin assured her, slipping into the new shipsuit he
was given.
        Once aboard their crumple-nosed sled, Varian filled Portegin in on
some of the details while he elatedly sorted through the supplies,
exclaiming over the variety of matrices, tool replacements, and packed food
stuffs.
        "Hey, we got us a bottle of Sverulan brandy -- Ah, fardles! It's
got Lunzie's name on it. Compliments of Commander Sassinak? A friend of
hers?"
        "You might say so," Varian replied, discretion overcoming her wish
to confound. It occurred to her that Lunzie might not wish to claim a
relationship so far removed in time.
        "Fardles! That stuff goes down a treat. Real smooth." Portegin
carefully replaced the brandy and resumed his seat beside Varian. "Hey, we
got our escort back. How did they know it's us with so many other aircraft
zipping around?"
        "I'll remember to inquire. Lunzie says they can tell the difference
between one of our sleds and those of the Mazer Star."
        "No? Well, every motor has a distinctive sound to it, I'm told,
even if they were manufactured in the same place, of identical components,
but the signature usually only shows up on sophisticated monitors."
        "Brains are still the ultimate in sophisticated computers. We got
some on wings, that's all. Say, did you happen to notice if they tracked us
up from the base camp?"
        "It was dark when we left there, Varian, and we were kinda occupied
. . . besides using different brains. I don't know what they think they're
doing for us out there, but I kinda like seeing "em."
        "So do I. And I'll be seeing a lot more of them in the next few
days if I have my way."
        Circumstances combined to thwart Varian's plans. Just as they
reached the cliffs of the golden fliers, a squall broke over them and
Varian had all she could do to wrestle the sled safely inside the cave.
That put the skids on an immediate study of the giffs. Considerable
progress had already been made to improve the amenities in the cave,
including partitioned sleeping quarters at the back, tables, comfortable
loungers and lighting near the hearth which had been augmented by cooking,
cooling and disposal units. Bug-screens kept the insects at bay. Mindful of
Sassiness' requirement, Varian forced a cassette on Portegin before he
disappeared into the shuttle's pilot compartment to restore the console.
When she asked Lunzie the whereabouts of the rest of the team, she received
another check. As soon as Kai had finished his session with the diagnostic
unit on board Captain Godheir's Mazer Star, he had drafted the assistance
of a crew member who professed to be an amateur geologist and went off to
seek Dimenon, Margit, and Tor.
        "In that order," Lunzie said. "If the Thek let them land,
considering their fascination with Iretan mineral deposits. Dimenon says
they're just -- squatting and gorging themselves. He swore six ways to
Sunday that he can see the Thek growing."
        "Then the diagnostic unit has a cure for Kai?"
        "No, but it's much healthier for him to immerse himself in matters
geological than sit about fretting and making mud maps," Lunzie replied
crisply. "He's in a padded suit with skin-gloves. I've threatened Perens,
that's Godheir's navigator, with grievous bodily harm if there's so much as
one new welt on Kai's hide when they return. You ought to be glad that
Kai's got a second wind."
        "I am. I am. Where're Triv and Trizein?" She could snag the
geologists later for their reports.
        "They're off, too, in the four-man sled. Triv did promise Trizein,
to go beast-hunting with him, you know. Now that he's fifty-eight Bonnard
insists he's old enough to be a full team member so he went off with them.
Terilla wanted to be their scribe, so I let her go, too. Don't wish to
stretch Godheir's hospitality with fretful kids."
        "Cleiti?"
        "She's in the Mazer Star, helping Obir construct bunk beds for our
sleeping quarters." Lunzie waved to the back of the cave. "Godheir is
determined to arrange for as many comforts of home as possible. Everyone's
the better for doing some light work to get muscles working again."
        "Aulia?"
        Lunzie's expression altered. "She . . ." and Lunzie wiggled one
hand in a derisive gesture, "is recuperating from the shock of discovering
herself time-stranded. I did point out that, when we got back to the
ARCT-10, she'd look four decades younger than her contemporaries."
        "Did that cheer her?"
        "Not as much as Triv's reminder that all her bonus money has been
collecting interest for forty-three years. She was demanding a transfer to
the sanctuary of the cruiser until I mentioned that they were guarding the
Heavyworld transport. Sure cured that notion. Now, I expect you'll want to
be off stalking your bird friends. I'm going to catalog the local edibles
and Divisti's pharmacopoeia in case they've other useful medical
applications." Lunzie triumphantly hoisted the microscope loaned by the
cruiser's science officer.
        "Not until you've reported your version of our mutiny," and Varian
stayed Lunzie's departure until she had tucked a disk in her chest pocket.
"By the way," and Varian considered it only fair that she had a revelation
to spring on Lunzie, "Commander Sassinak says she's your
great-great-great-granddaughter."
        As the series of emotions crossed the medic's usually well-schooled
face, Varian wished she had a recorder handy. Shock, surprise, denial,
consternation, and finally resignation marched across the woman's face.
Then Lunzie blinked and displayed her usual composure.
        "She could be, I suppose. My family tends to the services, and
wandering."
        "Did you know she was commander of the ZD-43?"
        "No. How could I? She couldn't 've been when we went to sleep
forty-three years ago. The cruiser was only just commissioned. I'd seen the
announcement on the ARCT-10 which is why the designation fell so easily
from my tongue when needed."
        "She's invited us to dinner at the earliest opportunity."
        "What sort of person is she?"
        "Well . . ." and Varian maliciously delayed her assessment, "I
think there's a distinct family resemblance . . . in manner."
        Lunzie gave Varian a long shrewd look. "As Fleet commanders
generally spread a good meal, and I'm getting bored with stews and simple
Iretan fare, I accept."
        "She sent this with her compliments." Varian handed over the square
Sverulan brandy bottle.
        "A discerning relative. I expect good things at her table."
        "Lunzie!" Varian pointed at the tape in the medic's pocket.
        "Yes, yes, I'll do that first. We'll broach the bottle tonight!"
Then Lunzie, juggling microscope bottle and a tray of other supplies, made
her way to the compartment that had been, two weeks ago, Trizein's
laboratory.
        Just as Varian dutifully sat down to speak her own report, she
heard a sled enter the cave. Its single passenger, a short, chesty man with
a round face wreathed in an expression of constant, surprised good humor,
who waved cheerily to her.
        He had come to present his apologies in person.
        "I could have dropped down here any time the last fifteen years if
I'd had any idea of your situation. When we got that Thek summons, I
checked the computer banks right then. Your last contact with Vrl was
logged all right enough but the Ryxi didn't attempt to raise your camp for
another five months. The entry indicated no response, so it was assumed
you'd been recovered by the ARCT-10." "Have you heard anything about the
EV?"
        "No, but that's nothing," Godheir assured her with a smile. "EVs
don't have much cause to tell mercenary captains like me this, that, or
twaddle. But," and he waggled a finger at her, his expression sincere,
"that might be all to the good. I sure would have heard if an EV got itself
lost. Mullah! They're still bitching about the LSTC-8 that tangled with
that gas cloud last century. No news is good news, you know. And that
cruiser'll get an update. Meanwhile, anything me and my crew can do . . .
including a spot of bird-watching. Did their net act this morning -- now
that's a sight to see!"
        "You didn't happen to record it, did you?"
        "I sure did record it! Furthermore," and Godheir grinned broadly,
"we got their attack on us, Lunzie's arrival, and all that to-do on a
high-resolution tape. One of my crew's an amateur naturalist. You should
see his tapes of the Ryxi -- "
        "Captain Godheir, your contract doesn't oblige you to disclose all
activities to the Ryxi, does it?"
        Godheir gave her the broadest possible wink. "We don't exactly
converse with "em at all, which you will understand if you know the Ryxi --
which I suspect you do or you wouldn't worry about "em -- so don't worry
about me or any of my crew babbling. Those Ryxi pay well, or you may be
sure we wouldn't keep renewing the contract." He leaned across the table
and patted Varian's shoulder reassuringly. "Now, you need anything me or my
men can cobble up for you to get settled in? I got a few more items Lunzie
requested. That nice little girl Cleiti's been helping us. Too bad she's so
long separated from her folks."
        "Cleiti's here?" Varian reached for another cassette.
        "She's out in the cave, setting up the bunks."
        Varian went out, followed by Godheir who assured her that Cleiti
was only supervising as Obir was under strict orders to prevent her doing
anything strenuous. And to be sure, Cleiti was perched on a stool of recent
manufacture, listening to the comments of the garrulous "jack of all
trades'. She rose when Varian appeared, with a brave, sad, little smile
more poignant than tears would have been. Varian repressed a self-indulgent
urge to hug Cleiti. Instead she explained the necessity for the report.
        "I can do it while Obir's busy," Cleiti said, holding the cassette
with curious awkwardness. "I'll have no trouble remembering everything
exactly as it happened. After all, for me, it was only the week before
last."
        Varian managed to murmur something appropriate, catching Godheir's
amused wink, as she turned away. Rain still lashed down and the screen of
vine waved with erratic vitality in the squally winds. The vine should be
cut down now, she thought. The screen's purpose had been accomplished. She
wished hers could and Ireta's weather was frustrating. So . . . she'd work
on that blasted report until the rain abated.
        "You've probably got a lot to do, lassie," Godheir said, hearing
her sigh of exasperation. He took a bulbous object from his thigh pocket
and a small pouch from another. "I'll just blow a cloud of my own." Varian
recognized the artifact as a tobacco pipe. "Not that I could smell anything
in this atmosphere. Nor will I be polluting it!" He chuckled as he settled
himself on another stool. "Half the pleasure of smoking a pipe is the smell
of the tobacco."
        "What's the other half?"
        "The pure relaxation of fussing with a pipe."
        Varian watched the process for a moment. "It looks complicated."
Then she thanked him once again for all his courtesies. "Would you give me
a shout when the rain stops, Captain?"
        "My pleasure!"
        It could have been imagination, but Varian did think, as she
returned to the shuttle, that she could smell the aroma which rose from the
captain's pipe.
        As Varian organized her recollections of the events leading up to
the mutiny, she envied Cleiti her innocence of the "week before last'.
Varian made copious notes, additions, and changes until she was sure she
had events in order. She made no comments, such as her initial suspicions
about the heavyworlders' unsavory activities of that fateful rest day, for
the mutiny was an undeniable fact, emphatically substantiated by the time
gap between the two groups. She listened carefully to the replay of her
report, aware that she could not erase now. She added a few brief
explanations to her remarks. Then she strode to the shuttle iris and looked
out toward the cave entrance.
        Cleiti, Godheir, and Obir were seated in a companionable group
about the fire, the captain's pipe still sending gray blue plumes of smoke
to waft about in vagrant puffs of wind. No question of it, Varian thought.
She could smell the tobacco above the usual pungency's. When she saw
Varian, Cleiti brought over her cassette.
        "Captain Godheir seems to know all about the mutiny, Varian," she
said in a low voice, her eyes round with surprise. "Is it all right to talk
about what happened? Or are details classified?"
        "You can talk about it all you want, Cleiti," Varian replied,
hoping discussion might restore the unnaturally subdued child to her former
ebullience. Damn Paskutti and Tardma for the shock they had given the
child: a shock undiminished in Cleiti's memories of the "week before last."
        "Captain Godheir said he's never talked with a person who'd been
mutinied before."
        "It's not something that happens frequently, Cleiti. He's had our
official report, but I think he might be interested in your reactions. But
don't talk about it if you don't want to."
        Cleiti considered pensively. Then, with a slightly less strained
smile, added, "Yes, I think I'd like to tell the Captain and Obir. They
both listen so politely. They say," and the smile betrayed a touch of
Cleiti's old impishness, "that it's because I'm older than they are." She
rejoined the men at the fire.
        Varian was still muttering imprecations against the heavyworlders
when Lunzie appeared with her record cassette.
        "Isn't Cleiti abnormally quiet, Lunzie.?"
        "All elements considered, not too much so. Part of it's due to the
restoration, and part to delayed reaction. That's why I want to keep
everyone as busy as possible. Gives "em less time to worry and think."
        "Aulia?"
        Lunzie snorted with derision. "Oh, she's busy, too. Feeling sorry
for herself. She can make that into a full-time occupation. I expect
Portegin will change her mind -- if he ever surfaces from the shuttle's
control panel. Varian, do you think you could get a specimen of the fringes
from the giffs' eating rock?"
        "D'you mean, would I oblige you or would I be able to? Because the
giffs like me and someone else tried and failed?"
        Lunzie twitched her nose.
        "Well, he might have succeeded if he'd waited until the catch had
been distributed. But they do know you. An analysis of fringe toxins would
be invaluable in healing Kai's condition."
        "I'll have to wait until this squall blows over."
        "I was thinking that the squall would keep the giffs in their caves
and this would be the safest time to collect fringe. Take the stairs to the
surface."
        "Stairs?" Varian stared in surprise.
        "I told you Godheir was making us very comfortable," Lunzie pointed
to the right side of the cave. "It's only a cage pole with foot rests but
you can't get blown out of it and it gets you right to the top. Rather an
improvement on swinging down vines, isn't it?" she added as she followed
Varian to the new access way. "Godheir's drive mechanic, a man named
Kenley, does amateur photography and bird-watching. He's also got a
long-handled gripper, protective gloves, and a container for fringe
samples. Topside!" Lunzie gestured with her thumb and grinned at Varian.
"You are our resident expert on giffology."
        "Never give a sucker an even break, huh?"
        "Never. You need to be kept busy, too. And active."
        "I'm just fine when I'm allowed to do what I came here for." Varian
gave Lunzie a grin and then nimbly climbed the ladder, grateful for the
cage as the wind still had some strength in it.
        Kenley was waiting for her on the cliff top, lounging against his
sled. He was parked not too far from the spot where Varian had first rested
her sled that long-ago rest day. Kenley's force screen blocked most of the
light rain and all the reemerging insects. He was slender, dark-skinned,
dark-haired, and brown-eyed, with even, undistinguished features and a
placid disposition. She shortly discovered in him a staunch advocate of the
golden fliers.
        "Were you the bold one who tried for the fringes the first time?"
she asked, as she took the sample-collecting tools from him.
        "Yep. Forgot the first rule of animal psychology. Never bother one
that's eating. Fortunately I had my life belt and I pelted for the cave
mighty fast. They were most annoyed with me "
        Varian grinned and she noted that he had his belt on, his recording
equipment was slung from a second belt. They had reached a spot just below
the feeding rocks.
        "You don't have to follow me but I'd appreciate it if you could
record any giffs who drop by to investigate."
        Kenley nodded as Varian arrayed the implements so as not to impede
her climbing
        "I'm going to ascend as far to the right of the feeding rock as I
can, away from any edible food. The fringes get flipped to the far edge or
into the chasm."
        Both Varian and Kenley looked toward the giff cave, visible now
that the rain had let up. There wasn't a giff in sight. Varian began to
climb quickly, Kenley just behind her.
        "Krims! Here they come!" Kenley warned her and she heard the whir
of his recorder. "They got some perception. What do they use? Sonar? Radar?
What?"
        "I hope to find out. You're getting all that?" Varian said, keeping
her eyes on the giffs winging through the drizzle.
        They landed on the sea edge of the leading rock just as Varian
reached the top. Several fringe carcasses, dried to brittle outlines, were
inches from her boot. A meter away, two more feebly wavered. One was closed
over, the other open.
        "Hello!" Varian said in her most cheerful tone, holding her hands
out to the giffs as she edged closer to her target. "I ought to have
brought you some Rift grasses, but we haven't been there lately and I
didn't think about it until just this moment. Actually, since what I want,
is something you have no use for, I don't want to get you into the bad
habit of expecting presents every time we meet. Is it all right if I just
take one of these?" She had donned the gloves and opened the container as
she spoke. Very slowly then, without taking her eyes from the giffs, she
extended the long-handled grippers toward one of the semi-moribund fringes.
        "Watch out!" Kenley's cry seemed to lend her impetus.
        With considerable dexterity, she had managed to secure both fringes
in the clasp of the gripper, whirling to hide her actions from the giffs as
she beat a hasty retreat before their charge. "Did you get one? Krims! What
are they doing now? Say, I don't think they were after you . . ."
        Safe on the rocks below the feeding area, Varian paused long enough
to thrust the fringes into the container while holding her breath against
the stench of the things, before she looked to see what was exciting Kenley
so much. Methodically the giffs were flicking every evidence of the fringes
off into the chasm, as if deliberately clearing away a menace which they
were not going to permit their visitors to handle.
        "I got two!"
        "I got it all down," cried Kenley. "They are quick! In the air or
on the ground. Though I think you'd have to say they were semi-airborne
when they came after you. You know, I think they were trying to keep me
away from the fringes this morning -- not away from the edible food."
        Just then Varian and Kenley flinched away from the rock wall for
the two giffs loomed above them, stern and chittering non-harmoniously.
They spread their wings, flapping them as if to emphasize their remarks,
then extended their heads down toward the two humans. The distance was too
great for contact but Varian and Kenley ducked.
        "Like kids to avoid a well deserved slap," Kenley said, grinning at
Varian.
        "Then let's pretend we're suitably punished and get the hell out of
here."
        Once back in the cave, the sample container turned over to Lunzie,
Kenley regaled Varian with the spectacular record he had made of the giff
attack on the Mazer Star's sled and the astonishing withdrawal as Lunzie's
sled made its appearance and was escorted safely past the intruder.
Unfortunately his footage of the feeding was marred by drizzle and haze. He
hadn't thought to change tape or use an appropriate filter.
        "I'll redo that record. Maybe with you, I can get closer."
        "Better yet, we'll both follow the fishers tomorrow on their daily
round. That's a sight to take. Fardles!" Varian snapped her fingers as she
recalled that Sassinak awaited the reports. "Well, with any luck, I'll give
the commander what she needs and be back in time to take you fishing. I
want to show their high level of basic intelligence in that sort of a joint
enterprise." She was recounting to the entranced Kenley the incident with
the Three Giffs and her surmises when Kai returned with Dimenon and Margit.
        Kai had not been able to locate Tor, nor indeed engage any of the
Thek -- large, small, or medium -- in conversation.
        "The silence of the Thek is profound," Kai remarked. He seemed more
like his old self. "Maybe in a year or two, one will remember to forward my
message."
        "Kai would go up to a Thek, rap on the shell and say in a loud
clear voice, "Speak?"' Dimenon was also in good spirits. He dangled both
hands at chest level and then uttered a series of short barks, grinning
with no apology for his whimsical behavior, "Require Tor response."
        The geologists had little time for further conversation because
Triv returned with Trizein, Bonnard, and Terilla. Trizein was so ecstatic
about each and every new species that their expedition had sighted that he
would break off describing one to cite the more fascinating specimen they
had next encountered. Bonnard pretended to be weighted down by the film
clips. Terilla waved a sheaf of drawings while Triv made for the hearth and
some food. Varian waited until the first exuberance's had been expended
before she explained the need for Sassiness' reports.
        "But they're all dead, aren't they?" Terilla's expression mirrored
her sudden fright and her voice held an unsteady quaver. Bonnard stepped to
her side and put an arm about her.
        "Tanegli's alive but he's very old and senile," Varian told Terilla
with a reassuring smile.
        "I wouldn't have thought the mutiny was the major issue now," Triv
said, surprised at the disclaimers. "Well, how can it be? With a colony
ship illegally landing -- "
        "Mutiny is always an issue," Kai said angrily. "Planetary piracy is
more serious."
        "That's because there's been more of that than mutiny," Portegin
said, half joking.
        "Far too much," Lunzie said, not at all amused. "Generally the
Federation doesn't know of a take over unless dissidents among the pirates
inform. Then it's too late."
        "When is "too late" too late to punish criminal activity?" Kai
demanded, obviously referring to the mutiny, not the piracy.
        "The tribunal will decide that, Kai," Lunzie said more kindly. "The
ramifications are far too complex for my understanding of the laws. But,
Kai, wouldn't you say, that senility and the knowledge of the futile out
come of forty-three years hard work constitute a punishment?" When she saw
the obstinate set of Kai's features, she shrugged. "What about consoling
yourself with the knowledge that you've been instrumental in preventing the
illegal occupation?"
        "Say, are there Federation rewards for hindering pirates?" Triv
asked.
        Despite a spate of cheering at this suggestion, no one had an
answer.
        "What sort of reward could buy back the time we've lost," Kai asked
stiffly, "or health?"

CHAPTER TEN

        After a dinner made lavish by the generosity of Commander Sassinak,
Varian received a message from the cruiser, couched in the politest terms
but nevertheless a firm request that Kai and Varian attend an important
meeting on the cruiser at 0900. Kai was already asleep.
        "Sleep he needs," Lunzie said quietly. "He expended a good deal of
energy today which he didn't have, trying to find his Thek." She beckoned
Varian down the corridor to her quarters, away from the partitioned section
where Kai lay sleeping. "C'mon. Let's broach that brandy my discerning
relative sent. This day has been a whozzer! Brandy'd go down a treat."
        Varian was quite willing to indulge and followed Lunzie to her
compartment, which was now quite comfortable. The microscope held the place
of honor on the wide working desk, where neat piles of notes and slides
testified to the good use Lunzie had made of her afternoon. A cot, more
shelves, a recorder, a viewer, and two comfortable chairs completed the
furnishings.
        The brandy uncorked with a satisfactory schewack, and Lunzie
muttered admiringly under her breath as the amber liquid gurgled into the
glasses. She passed one to Varian, inhaling the bouquet from hers and then,
with a rare smile on her face, settled into the other chair. She lifted her
beaker to clink against Varian's.
        "Here's to the gods that grew!"
        "And here's to the soil that fed."
        The brandy went down smoothly until it hit the bottom of her
throat. Then Varian found herself gulping cooler air, her eyes about to pop
her skull. Tears formed and then dispersed as the fine after taste began to
spread through out her mouth and throat. Varian swore she could feel the
nerves at the base of her spine untwist.
        "That's some skull-pop!" Her voice was a respectful whisper.
        "Indeed!" Lunzie seemed not to feel the same effect, sipping again
while Varian regarded her portion with considerable respect. The warmth and
relaxation continued to diffuse. Varian took another small mouthful,
expecting the fiery result. Somehow the brandy was mellower. Or her throat
was numb. "Sverulan as a planet," Lunzie went on, "has very little to
recommend it other than the raw vegetable material that ferments into this
brandy." She gestured toward her notes on the table. "I'm hoping that
Divisti found something equally good. I can't imagine that the
heavyworlders could have existed long on this place without some sort of a
stimulant." She lifted her glass again.
        "Lunzie?"
        "Hmmm?"
        "Do you know something you haven't told us?"
        Lunzie's eyes met Varian's without hesitation or guile. "About
Ireta? No. And certainly nothing about a planned piratical take over. That
was completely fortuitous. If you refer to the opportune appearance of the
ZD-43 . . . Well, just as all elements of the Fleet have standing orders to
pursue a leech when it appears on their sensors, so people like myself, on
routine assignments," and Lunzie accorded Varian a droll grin, "have been
primed to obstruct attempts at planet theft when ever and how ever
possible. Don't know what more we could have done for Ireta than we did but
. . ." Lunzie glanced reassuringly again at Varian, "I was not planted with
this expedition any more than we were planted. And we weren't! I would have
said Ireta was the least likely take over property. The heavyworlders must
have been fairly desperate to stake a claim on a world that stinks as much
as Ireta."
        "The stink of transuranic riches must have smelled better."
        "It's not like you to be cynical, Varian. Restore your faith in
mankind by a close study of your giffs. They're worth the trouble it takes
to preserve them. Remember, if this planet is thrown open, the Ryxi are
just a short hop away -- "
        "Why would the planet be thrown open?" Apprehension over whelmed
Varian as she thought of the pompous, intolerant Ryxi.
        "It's rich, that's why. There is already an established settlement
with an immense grid to facilitate the landing of the heaviest ore
freighters. Those heavyworlders in their transport will be given short
shift and tossed back into space. But the tribunal might throw the rest of
the planet open to competitive explorations, just to keep Aygar's group in
order -- that is, if the Thek are willing to for go their obvious prior
claim to Ireta's wealth, staked with those old cores Kai has dug up. There
is, however, a statute of limitations on how long an unworked claim remains
the property of the original discoverers. That herd of Thek might well be
the vanguard of Thek explorers. However, as xenobiologist, you'd do well to
investigate the fringes. Two emerging species are better than one, even
against a superior claim lodged by the Thek."
        Varian felt a shudder of distaste and revulsion.
        "Don't discount them," Lunzie said. "Predators can display
intelligence, too, you know. Look at us! I grant you that the fringes don't
have the intrinsic appeal of your giffs, but the more weight you can plump
into your investigations, the more chance you have of protecting the giffs.
If only by default." Lunzie took another sip of the brandy. "By the way, I
accepted an invitation to dine with Sassinak tomorrow evening. You and Kai
are included." Lunzie's expression turned serious again. "I'm hoping that
Mayerd's more sophisticated diagnostic unit can analyze that fringe toxin
and come up with a purge to flush the toxin out of Kai's system. And a
nerve regenerator. Oh, the toxin will dissipate in time . . . but he's
needed now, in proper working condition." To that Varian solemnly lifted
her glass and drank. "I figure you'll just about make it to your bed before
that brandy immobilizes you."
        Lunzie proved correct, and the sound night's sleep improved
Varian's out look. Her mind was clear and she felt able to combat -- well,
fang-faces, if necessary. Kai had more color in his face when he and
Portegin joined her for breakfast, discussing priorities for Portegin's
skills: the new core screen or completing repairs to the shuttle's damaged
console.
        "We've communications capability, and I can rig up a remote outside
here," Portegin was saying. "It won't take me that much longer," then he
turned with an apologetic grin to Varian, "though I do need a few more
matrices and more weld-wire, two number-four -- "
        "Put it on a list!" Varian said with a mock resignation.
        "I did," and there was nothing sheepish about the speed with which
Portegin handed over his "few' requirements, "and then we can communicate
directly with the ARCT-10 when, as, and if it makes its long overdue
appearance."
        "Dimenon and I want to know if the Thek really are squatting on the
sites of the old cores. He remembers some of the coordinates but what we
sank were so near to some of the older ones, we can't be sure unless we
have a screen."
        "Why would they go after theirs? It's more logical to go after
ours, isn't it?" Portegin asked with some exasperation.
        "Thek logic remains obscure to us poor mortals," Lunzie said, "but
I'd prefer to be in communication with as many entities as possible . . .
the ones that have the courtesy to answer."
        Kai turned to Lunzie in considerable annoyance. "Can't you see,
Lunzie, how important it might be for me to be here today? What can the
cruiser's diagnostic unit do for me that Godheir's can't discuss with it?"
        "Because we now have a sample of fringe to serve into the
diagnostic unit, and Mayerd's a specialist in planetary exotic toxins, and
the sooner we get the poison flushed out of your system, the sooner you can
get out of that padded suit and operate on normal channels! Do I make
myself plain? Besides," and she tossed her hand up, "Sassinak wants you
there this morning at 0900. It won't take you that much longer to go
through a diagnosis again, now
        To that, Kai had to agree.
        "Then let's go. Kai, will you be recorder for me?" Varian asked
briskly as she looped the bag containing all the reports over her shoulder.
"Then I can make use of the journey time." A little reminder to Kai that he
wasn't the only one to have his plans altered might help. "If you could get
our usual escort on tape," she said as they settled themselves in the
battered two-man sled. "I really must see if the nose can be repaired."
        With cautious and studied movements, Kai got into the sled and
strapped himself in. His padded jumpsuit was of a softer than regulation
fabric, padded on shin, thigh, calf, elbow and forearm, with skin-gloves,
to prevent inadvertent injury. Then he pulled the recorder toward him to
check its load and sighted for focus and available light. As he completed
these preparations, Varian noticed that his eyes were deeply shadowed, a
strange contrast to the white flesh about the puncture marks.
        "Ready when you are!" he said.
        Varian nodded and took the sled out of the cave into the still
misty morning. The passage of the sled swirled the yellowish fog about and
she used instruments rather than visual guidance in such a pea soup.
        "So much for an out bound record," she said in disgust. "Nothing
will filter that."
        The telltagger sputtered. "Well, life-forms are coming in at seven
o'clock," Kai said with a semblance of a grin. "You've got your escort."
        "How do they see through this murk?"
        "Why don't you ask them?"
        "Funny fellow! When do I have the opportunity?"
        "I know the feeling!"
        Whatever tension had existed between them dissipated at this
exchange. They traveled on in the murk, Kai silent in deference to the
concentration Varian required to fly in such conditions. They had been
airborne for over an hour when the mist began to disperse.
        "Kai, why wouldn't Tor be here?"
        "That has puzzled me. Especially since Tor took the trouble to
rouse the Ryxi and get Godheir down here to help us."
        "Isn't it unusual for so many Thek to gather?"
        "Highly. I've never heard of it before. I wonder if Commander
Sassinak would give me a little time on the cruiser's memory banks."
        Varian grinned to herself. "She seems to wish to cooperate in
anyway she can. Oh, turn that thing off," Varian added, for they were
having to raise their voices to be heard above the telltagger. Kai flicked
it off mid blip.
        Just then they emerged from the mist into a brilliantly clear
sunlit band, over tree-dotted plains; not too far from their original site.
Varian craned her neck and saw the three escort giffs emerge from the fog,
the sun gilding their fur.
        "Why would Sassinak want us at a meeting?"
        "I could think of half a hundred reasons."
        "Maybe she's had a report about the ARCT-10 that she won't commit
to a broadcast?"
        Varian shot her companion a quick look but his face gave away no
internal emotions. The fate of the ARCT-10 would be of primary importance
to Kai: his family had been ship-bred for generations. The ARCT-10 was his
home far more than any planet had ever been hers.
        "Could be," she replied noncommittally. To dismiss the idea out of
hand would be unkind, no matter how she wished to reassure Kai. "Sassiness'
not the sort to sugar-coat a pill -- "
        "And she'd be aware of the morale factor for most of us."
        "Kai, how long does an update take to reach a cruiser this far from
a sector headquarters?"
        Kai's breath hissed as he inhaled and then he gave her a slightly
sheepish grin. "Not by this morning if the first asking was yesterday."
        "And as Captain Godheir said, he'd've heard something if the
ARCT-10 was known to be lost."
        "Hmmmm."
        "Scant reassurances I know, but a time when no news can be good
news. Say, I haven't had a chance to tell you, but Sassinak is Lunzie's
great-great-great-granddaughter!"
        "No!"
        "That was Sassiness' parting remark to me yesterday. Took me the
entire flight back to get over the shock. To cushion the shock she sent
Lunzie a bottle of Sverulan brandy." Varian gave Kai a very gentle nudge in
the ribs. "Now, I know you don't appreciate planetary brews, but this stuff
is gorgeous. Get on Lunzie's good side and she might just give you a sip --
if she hasn't already finished the bottle on the sly. No, she couldn't
have, no one could drink that much Sverulan brandy and function the next
day!"
        "I just can't imagine Lunzie as a mother."
        "I can. She mothers us in her fashion. It's the ancestor part that
stuns me. That original child is probably long since dead, and the next
four generations as well, and here is Lunzie, motoring along in fine shape.
And younger than Sassinak.
        "Ship-breds like me don't usually run into this sort of anomaly."
        "Ireta's full of them." All kinds, why not a human paradox! I
wonder if Lunzie will ever tell us how long she's cold-slept. One thing, it
hasn't affected her wits at all."
        The patch of clear sky abruptly gave way to a fast-moving heavy
squall and managing the sled took all Varian's attention. They rode it out
and the weather cleared to lowering clouds scudding across the sky just as
they reached the plateau, so Kai had a good view of the area. Varian came
in above the grid so that Kai got the full effect of the two space
vehicles, the smaller one, lean and dangerous, the other gross and
brooding. From that vantage, Kai could also see the settlement, the
foundry, and the unoccupied length of the grid.
        "They meant to have more than one transport land here, didn't
they?"
        "It would appear so," she replied. "Krims! Aygar took Sassinak at
her word." She pointed to the three sleds parked at the edge of the
settlement and the people busy loading them. "They aren't wasting any time.
I wonder where they're going."
        Kai scowled. "They've been given transport?"
        "They're just as entitled to replacement equipment as we are -- "
        "Mutineers may not profit -- "
        "Only Tanegli qualifies as a mutineer -- "
        "Those people are accessories to a conspiracy against FSP." Kai
pointed agitatedly at the transport vessel.
        "Yes, they are. They are the real criminals, Kai, not Aygar and his
group."
        "I don't understand your reasoning, Varian." Kai's face was
strained. "How can you possibly take their side?"
        "I'm not taking their side, Kai, but I can't help respecting people
who've managed to survive Ireta and achieve that grid!" She banked the sled
to laid it close to the open port of the Zaid-Dayan. "If only the ARCT had
stripped the beacon, or kept its schedule with us."
        "If", Kai said contemptuously.
        "I'd cheerfully settle for a lousy "when", when we get you
operational again. When we find out what the Thek are doing. When we find
out what the tribunal thinks of all this . . ."
        They landed and very cautiously Kai eased himself out of the sled.
Varian made a show of checking the records in her shoulder bag. She
couldn't watch the once agile, active young man reduced to the slow motion
of the invalid. Then she picked up the container with the fringe samples
Lunzie had frozen.
        They were met at the portal by a very dark-skinned officer, lean
and bouncy. This one wore the rank device of a lieutenant commander and the
fourragere of an adjutant. He gave them a white-toothed smile before
gesturing urgently over his shoulder for someone to hurry up.
        "Fordeliton, Leaders Varian, Kai. Very pleased to meet you and at
your service. We saw your sled approaching. And here is Mayerd."
        The chief medic came bustling up, her eyes narrowing as she greeted
Kai. Then she turned to Varian. "How's Portegin?"
        "Constructing a core screen from that wealth of space matrices and
units the commander supplied us with," Varian said. "I've a fringe sample
for you."
        "Just what I need." She took the sample case from Varian. "Kai, you
go on with Fordeliton. I'll collect you when we've analyzed this
information." Mayerd hurried off down the corridor.
        "If you'll come with me," and Fordeliton gestured in the
appropriate direction. "Portside at the next corridor junction, Varian. And
that second door . . ."
        Varian halted at the door which bore Fordeliton's name plate. "I
thought we were to see Commander Sassinak."
        "In a manner of speaking, you will. I don't think we will have
missed anything. They'd only just been escorted in when I went to collect
you," he said cryptically as he thumbed the catch on his door and motioned
for Varian and Kai to precede him.
        For a cruiser his quarters were unusually spacious. One wall
contained terminal, displays, and auxiliary controls. The main view screen
was operational and, to Varian's surprise, tuned to the commander's office
and the meeting that was in progress.
        "No, she's checking their papers. The commander said she would spin
that out indefinitely until I had you here. If you'll be seated -- " and he
leaned over to touch a button. "There, she knows you're here. Yesterday we
arrested them for landing illegally on an unopened planet. They protested
that they had responded to an emergency distress call and merely homed on
the beacon. Sassinak suggested this morning's meeting to discuss the
irregularity. She wanted you both here for obvious reasons."
        Eyes on the screen, Varian felt for the offered chair with fumbling
hands. "She's not in there alone with them, is she?" she asked Fordeliton
in a hushed voice, reacting unconsciously to the menace presented by the
five heavyworlders perched implacably in front of Sassinak.
        "That's a stun-wand the commander is handling so casually,"
Fordeliton wore an amused expression. "And there's a group of Wefts in
marine uniform just beyond our view, plus of course, the usual sort of
escort personnel."
        "Wefts?" Kai was surprised. Wefts were enigmatic shape-changing
morphs of unusual abilities. No humanoid of any variety had ever emerged
victorious from combat against a Weft.
        "Yes, as luck would have it, we've six groups with us this tour!
The others are inside the transport, strategically deployed. In their own
flesh."
        Varian and Kai were both impressed and reassured. Varian released
the arms of her chair and glanced quickly at Kai to see that he had
cautiously splayed his fingers on his thighs, then she devoted her entire
attention to Sassiness' performance on the screen.
        As the commander read through the transport ship's documentation,
she tapped the wand through her fingers repeatedly, mimicking a nervous
habit.
        Just beyond her desk sat the five heavyworlders, three men and two
women with the massive physiques and broad, almost brutish features of
their mutation. They wore soiled ship suits and the wide kidney belts that
were the fashion of their kind. The dips and buckles were empty of the
usual weaponry and tools. Varian tried to tell herself that the facial
expressions were not hostile; it was simply that heavyworlders were not
given to needless gestures or expressions even on planets with considerably
less gravity than their own. Unfortunately, she could more clearly remember
Paskutti and Tardma deliberately and enjoyably injuring her and Kai, and
needlessly terrorizing two young girls. She could not muster impartiality
or neutral detachment.
        "Yes, yes, Captain Cruss," Sassinak was saying, her voice velvety
smooth, and almost unctuous, "your papers do seem to be in order and one
cannot fault your chivalry in diverting to investigate a distress call."
        "It was not a distress call," Cruss said in a heavy, almost hollow
voice. "It was a message sent by homing capsule to the ARCT-10. As I told
you when your ship challenged me yesterday, we found the capsule drifting
in space. It had been damaged beyond repair. We were able to play back the
message. It was sent by Paskutti. The voice pattern matched that of one of
our planetary explorers on contract assignment with the ARCT-10. We
verified that he had not been heard of in over forty-three years. Naturally
it was our duty to investigate."
        "What disaster had overcome this Paskutti?"
        "His base camp had been over run by stampeding herbivores of
unusual size. He and five others had escaped with only their lives. Most of
their equipment had been damaged beyond repair. A homing capsule is sturdy.
It survived. He sent a message. The ARCT-10 did not receive the capsule for
it was damaged just outside this solar system. Where we found it. I have
brought it to show you."
        With that Captain Cruss deposited a battered shell of metal on her
desk with a courtesy that bordered on insolence. The homing capsule had
long since lost its propulsion unit and the power pack so that it looked
truncated as well as bent. The message core remained, scored and dinged.
Sassinak wisely refrained from handling the heavy object.
        "How under the seven suns did they manage to mess up a homing
capsule like that?" Kai demanded under his breath.
        "Heavyworld equipment for Heavyworld purposes," Fordeliton remarked
cheerfully.
        "And the message, of course, has been recorded in your computer
banks," Sassinak stated.
        "Can that be done, Kai?" asked Varian.
        "Not easily," Fordeliton replied. "It would depend on how the
message was recorded. If our suspicion is correct and there is a broad
conspiracy among all the heavyworlders to take whatever opportunities
present themselves, then Paskutti would have constructed the message so
that anyone could extract it. Sssh."
        "You are welcome to extract that message from our computer,
Commander," Cruss replied.
        "Providential that such a capsule was available to this Paskutti.
Possibly the battering it received during the stampede caused its
subsequent malfunction.
        "You have acted properly, as FSP expects a civilian ship to do when
a distress message appears out of the black. However, Captain Cruss, that
act of charity does not detract from the fact that this planet is clearly
cataloged as unexplored in my computer banks and, as such, not released
even for limited colonization. You must understand that I am bound to
adhere to FSP strictures in such an instance by standing orders. I have
sent a direct signal to Sector Headquarters and no doubt I shall receive
orders shortly. Since this is an exceedingly hostile and dangerous world,"
and Sassinak permitted herself a delicate shudder, "I must require you,
your officers, and any passengers not in cryogenic suspension to remain
aboard your vessel -- "
        Captain Cruss rose from his chair. So did his companions. Sassinak
neither flinched nor quivered as the heavyworlders dwarfed her at her desk.
        "Actually," she continued in her conversational tone of voice, "the
shipwrecked personnel seem to have done extremely well in adapting to the
hostile environment, even to the commendable work of engineering a grid for
their eventual rescue by a passing friendly ship. Most ingenious of them.
However, I understand that they would be willing to supply you with fresh
vegetable protein and fruit if you desire a change from long-voyage
rations. In return, of course, for the usual items of barter." She smiled.
"I hope your water supplies are adequate. The local water is foul-tasting
and smells." With a surly growl and a dismissive flick of his vast hand,
Captain Cruss indicated he needed no replenishments. "Very well, then. I'm
positive you will wish to continue on your way as soon as we have received
clearance for you. The indigenes will have all the help we can give them.
You may be sure of that." Sassinak rose then, to signify the end of the
interview. Varian noticed that she held the wand in her right hand, tapping
it carelessly against the palm of the left. When Cruss made a motion to
reclaim the capsule, she lowered the wand to forestall the attempt, not
quite touching his wrist.
        "I think that had better remain. Sector will wish to discover why
it did not reach its intended destination. Can't have our emergency devices
malfunctioning." What Cruss might have done, Varian didn't know but
abruptly Wefts appeared, one by each of the heavyworlders. Varian noted
with pleasure that the usual heavyworlder sneers quickly altered to alarm.
Cruss wheeled and stamped out. The others followed and the escort closed in
behind them.
        As soon as the door had slid shut, Sassinak swiveled her chair and
looked directly at them. Fordeliton made an adjustment on the console and
Sassinak smiled.
        "Did you two catch the entire act?" She raised one hand to massage
her neck muscles.
        "Your timing was as usual superb, commander," Fordeliton said.
        "They had the contingencies covered, all right enough, including
documentation to that heavyworlder colony two systems down. Unless I am
mistaken, and I want you to check it out, Ford, that world has reached its
colonial quota. Varian, were all your records destroyed?"
        "If you mean, do we have the homing capsule serial number on file,
yes, it's probably in the shuttle's memory banks. We can retrieve it once
Portegin has the shuttle's console fully operational. But that capsule was
stolen from our stores before the stampede . . ."
        "Did you mention that fact in the report I hope you have for me?"
        "I did -- " Varian glanced at Kai for his answer.
        "I did, too. Commander?"
        "Yes?"
        "Do you believe that they detoured here to answer a shipwreck
message?"
        "I would have had no reason to doubt it, would I, if you weren't
alive to give a conflicting account. They have, I do believe," and
Sassiness' smile was smugly malicious, "hoisted themselves on their own
petards in this case since you can prove the complicity. They don't know
that you lived -- "
        "Aygar does." Kai's voice was harsh.
        "Do you think we've allowed Aygar and his friends to communicate
with the colonists? Come, come, Leader Kai. I shall permit no intercourse
between the two groups, and the surviving mutineer is in maximum security
on this vessel. Would he recognize you?"
        Varian answered. "When I encountered Tanegli, at first he thought I
was from the colony ship. When I told him that I was part of a rescue team,
he couldn't wait to get rid of me. On the other hand, he wouldn't be
expecting to see Varian. For him a long time has elapsed."
        "Yes, so it has," Sassinak mused, a slight smile on her face. "It
really doesn't do for the heavyworlders to get so arrogant and presumptuous
with us lightweights, does it?" Sassinak leaned forward, her expression
sad. "The irony of these instances is that those who struggled to pave a
way would have found themselves discarded by such as Cruss, cast away
entirely, once their purpose had been served -- I wonder if Tanegli and his
fellow mutineers ever considered that possibility. Of course," and a
complacent smile bowed the commander's mouth, "your survival is as
unexpected as my arrival. Not to mention the interest the Thek are evincing
in Ireta -- can you explain that for me, Kai?"
        "No, Commander. I haven't been able to get any of them to speak to
me. My personal contact, the one called Tor, is not among them. May I have
access to your computer on the subject of Thek? I want to check other
occurrences of such numbers descending on a planet. They seem to be
settling on the points where: we discovered existing cores."
        "Existing cores?" Sassinak was surprised. "According to Fleet
records, this planet has never been explored."
        "That was our understanding, too, Commander." Kai's tone was dry.
"Nevertheless, my geology team found cores of extreme antiquity in place."
        "Fascinating. I can only hope that we shall be enlightened in due
course."
        "Commander Sassinak," Kai began more formally, "does your presence
here constitute the relief of the ARCT-10 expeditionary team?"
        "How could it, my dear Kai?" Sassinak grinned. "I didn't know you
existed. My jurisdiction begins and ends with that transport out there. You
were, and still are, an authorized exploration team to Ireta. As Varian has
reminded me, that makes you both governors pro-tem on Ireta. Since your EV
has not collected you in the time allotted for your explorations, in FSP
law that makes you shipwrecked-stranded, if you prefer. And it is standard
Fleet procedure to give all aid and assistance to stranded personnel. Have
I made my position plain?"
        "Indeed, you have."
        "Will I see you both at dinner this evening?"
        "You will, Commander, and our thanks for the invitation."
        "It isn't often that representatives of two generations four times
removed get a chance to meet, is it? Even in this crazy universe!" Sassinak
was smiling as she broke the connection.
        "Do you need any supplies urgently, Governors?" Fordeliton asked
with a grin. Kai and Varian tendered their lists." Good, then, I can escort
Kai to Mayerd's clutches and take Varian on to the quartermaster. Mayerd's
very good, you know," Fordeliton went on easily as he preceded them through
the confusing maze of corridors. "Loves nothing better than a medical
puzzle. So much space medicine is fairly cut and dried -- if you'll forgive
the puns. She's always writing obscure essays for the Space Medical
Journal. This is our first planetfall in four months. Too bad the planet
stinks so. We could use shore leave."
        "The first forty years are the hardest," Kai remarked.
        Fordeliton paused before the sick-bay entrance and Kai, with a
grimace, waved them a jaunty farewell.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

        Varian and Fordeliton had swung down the corridor toward the
quartermaster section when Aygar and two of the group from the camp meeting
came down another access hall. Aygar gave Varian only a curt nod of
acknowledgment. All three wore the brief Iretan costume adopted by the
native-born, now enhanced by forcebelts, stunners, and clips. Varian
decided the Iretans were really much more attractive as human derivatives
than the Heavyworld adaptations.
        After she had filled her list, with the exception of the nose plugs
which the quartermaster felt would be her most pressing need, Varian was
asking for help to convey her booty to the sled, when Fordeliton's caller
sounded.
        "A moment, Varian, this concerns you, too. Commander Sassiness'
compliments, and can we join her immediately? Crewman, secure those
supplies in Governor Varian's sled."
        Varian was surprised to find Kai, the medic Mayerd, and Florasse,
Tanegli's daughter -- whom she had met when barriered as Rianav. While she
was being introduced, Aygar was admitted.
        Then the commander activated the main screen. "This report has just
arrived from the southwest, from the geologist Dimenon. He thought we
should know about this development."
        "That's the site of Dimenon's last strike," Kai said when he
recognized the terrain.
        "And the current habitat of twenty-three small Thek if my tally is
correct," Sassinak added with wayward amusement. "Now watch the edges of
the picture,"
        Even as she spoke, Kai let out an inadvertent gasp of horror and
revulsion. He held both hands out in front of him as the fringes advanced
in their inimitable close-stretch propulsion, heading directly toward the
sedentary Thek.
        "Those critters are in for a big surprise, Governor," Sassinak
remarked.
        Nonetheless, Kai sucked in his breath and arched his body backward,
as the first fringe spread to envelop a Thek. Varian was not the only one
more interested in Kai's reactions than what was occurring on the screen.
Mayerd was discreetly watching him. The fringe had been attracted by a
lethal entity, for its sides began to melt and, before the creature could
desist, it had been reduced to its crumpled cartilaginous framework. The
other fringes met the same rate. Then, as the fascinated observers watched,
fringes that had not deployed on their intended victims began to slow their
advance, and came to fluttering halts.
        "Varian, have you done much investigation of these -- what did you
call them, Aygar?" Sassinak asked.
        "Fringes." Aygar's single word broke Kai's transfixed gaze from the
screen to the Iretan's presence.
        "Young Terilla named them that," Kai said in a flat cold voice,
turning away from Aygar.
        The big Iretan made no comment, inclining his head briefly.
"Whatever those black pyramids are -- "
        "Thek!" Kai was almost surly.
        "The fringes have met their match, then, in these Thek. Do they
generate much heat?"
        "Yes."
        "What was it you told me, Kai?" Mayerd said into the awkward pause
after Kai's response. "The Thek are gorging themselves on raw Iretan
energy?"
        Kai nodded curtly.
        "Were we told about Thek, Florasse?" Aygar asked.
        The woman shook her head slowly, her eyes never leaving the screen.
"They are not of this world, Aygar, so why would we have needed to know."
Florasse's voice held overtones of betrayed trust and disillusionment,
enough to make Kai regard her with surprise.
        "What interest do the Thek have on my world?" Aygar asked, his
glance sliding from Kai's closed expression to Varian.
        "We would feel easier, Aygar," Sassinak answered him, "if we
ourselves knew. The Thek are a long-lived race who keep their own counsel,
vouch safing to us poor ephemera's only such information as they consider
us worthy to receive."
        "They are your supreme rulers?"
        "By no means! They are, however, a vital force in the Federated
Sentient Planets. One does not -- as you just saw -- meddle with a Thek
with impunity. What is germane to us right now is the question, what do you
native Iretans know about the fringes?"
        "To stay away from them." Aygar's glance flickered to Kai.
        "And?" Sassinak prompted him.
        "They are attracted by body heat and envelop their prey, clasping
the digits midsection to secure it. Then they consume their victim with a
digestive juice. The shipsuit you were wearing saved your life," Aygar
remarked to Kai. "Fringes have trouble digesting synthetic fibers."
        "What weapon do you use to protect yourselves against the
creatures?" Sassinak asked.
        "We run" -- and Varian was certain now that the powerful young man
was possessed by a fine sense of humor -- "as we possess no effective
weapons against the fringes. A few Thek posted about would be ideal
deterrents."
        Fordeliton coughed aloud and even Sassinak looked a trifle
surprised at Aygar's irreverent suggestion.
        "Is fire effective?"
        Aygar shrugged. "I've never seen them melt before, nor have we had
any liquid flame to use. So far they have not penetrated to this plateau."
        Sassinak turned back to the final frame on the screen: the fringes
retreating from the Thek.
        "We observed aquatic fringes before we went cryo," Varian said,
"but no evidence at all of communication between the species. Perhaps the
land fringes are further along in evolution." She shuddered. "I don't like
even to think what they could do in cooperation. The aquatic ones are
considerably smaller. Oh, and the golden fliers keep well away from them,
too."
        "Fringes in the sea?" Aygar swung toward Varian, with a puzzled
frown.
        "Yes, our chemist ran some tests on fringe tissue. They're one of
the many anomalies this planet presented us. A life-form with a cellular
development completely different from that of the dinosaurs -- "
        "Dinosaurs?" Fordeliton erupted in surprise.
        "Yes, it's all in my report," Varian said. "Tyrannosaurus rex -- I
called him fang-face -- hadrosaurs of all varieties, crested, helmeted,
hyracotherium, pteranodons which I call golden fliers, or giffs -- "
        "But that's preposterous," Fordeliton began.
        "That's what Trizein said. He's an amateur Mesozoic naturalist -- "
        "Do you have dinosaurs on this plateau?" Fordeliton eagerly
demanded of Aygar.
        "No. We picked the plateau as our settlement because it is
mercifully devoid of the large life-forms," Aygar said. "We avoid the
dinosaurs as we do the fringes. Especially the golden fliers." He glanced
at Varian.
        "The giffs are harmless," Varian said stoutly.
        Aygar's eyebrows lifted slightly in an expression of doubt, a doubt
which Florasse seconded.
        "There's obviously a great deal of information to be shared,"
Sassinak said, firmly regaining control of the meeting. "And considerable
reason for you all," and her gesture made one group of them, "to
cooperate." I estimate you have a week, two weeks at the outside before I
receive orders, either from my Sector or the tribunal. As I have mentioned
before, any ship of the Fleet encountering shipwrecked survivors is
required to render whatever reasonable assistance is requested. We'll
ignore that -- " and she jerked her thumb in the direction of the
heavyworlder transport, "complication for the nonce. My ship has been on
tour for four months and my crew could use some shore leave, even on a
planet that smells as bad as this one. Many of them have technical
avocations -- geology, botany, metallurgy, agronomy. There are analysts of
all persuasions." She extended one print out sheet to Kai and one to Aygar.
" I'm sure that we can arrange duty rosters for anyone you think would be
helpful, Governor. My people would make up in enthusiasm what they might
lack in expertise." Kai took the sheet from her but Aygar remained stolidly
regarding Sassinak. With a hint of testiness, she rattled the sheet at him.
"You have a perfect right to be suspicious of gratuitous offers of
assistance, young man, but do not be stupid. You have as much to lose or
gain as these people. You may not realize it but my profession is to
protect life in all its myriad and mysterious forms. Not destroy it."
        Florasse stirred restlessly, her hand twitching, but just then
Aygar stepped forward and took the list with another of his stiff nods.
        "For my information, I would very much appreciate a report from you
Iretans on the life-forms you have encountered. Thank you for your
attention." She rose, signifying an end to the meeting, her glance
indicating that Varian and Kai should remain. "Now," she said when the door
had slid shut again, "any luck with your investigations, Mayerd?"
        "Too soon to tell."
        "What? Your pet diagnostic let you down?"
        "My unit has a great deal to chuckle over, but it has confirmed the
interim medication that the Mazer Star recommended. We'll soon have a more
exhaustive report." She sounded confident.
        "Can I get back to my team, then?" Kai's expression was unusually
set.
        "Only if you'll take Fordeliton with you. He's a devoted dinosaur
buff."
        "There must be some mistake," Fordeliton said, his words bursting
forth.
        "Not according to Trizein. Our chemist is also a dinosaur buff,"
Varian replied. "Geologically, this planet is stuck in the Mesozoic."
        "There is no way, my dear Varian, that Ireta could evolve creatures
similar to the monsters that roamed the planet Earth millions of years
ago."
        "We're well aware of that improbability, Commander," Varian assured
him with a rueful grin, "but that's what we've got and Trizein verifies it.
It's all in our reports."
        "I can see that I'm going to have to pay those reports considerable
attention. I was going to have Ford do it for me," Sassiness' face made a
moue of resignation, "but I can't in conscience keep him cooling his heels
here if those beasties really are out there. Don't we have other
naturalists on the list, Ford?"
        "Yes, ma'am -- Maxnil, Crilsoff, and Pendelman. Anstel as well, but
he's on watch."
        "They're not essential crew, are they? No. Would you care for some
passengers back to that eyrie of yours, Governors?" When she received an
eager affirmative from Varian, she nodded to Fordeliton. "See to it, will
you, Ford. You may have transport and you'd best take supplies. Keep in
touch. Now, all, shake a leg out of here." She picked up the first of the
report cassettes and slid it into the replay slot on her console. "I've got
a lot of reading to do." She flicked her hand at them.
        Almost like children released from a tiresome class, they left.
Fordeliton's excitement was palpable.
        "Look, I'll get Maxnil, Crilsoff, and Pendelman, raid the galley
and the recorder stores, and follow. Okay?"
        "Would you have time, and the space, to take one or two of the
geology people?" Kai asked.
        "Sure, sure." Fordeliton craned his neck to see the list in Kai's
hand. "Baker, Bullo, and Macud are good, and they work hard. They're
off-duty right now so they'll be bored and easily persuaded to accompany
me." Fordeliton grinned. "No problem. Don't want to inundate you but you've
no idea what a treat this is."
        By this time, they had reached the air lock. Varian had a clear
view of the sky and saw the departure of three sleds from the Iretans'
settlement, heading southeast. She wondered if they were going to
consolidate their position on the first campsite which they had abandoned.
She looked quickly to see if Kai had noticed the sleds but he was
discussing supplies with Fordeliton.
        "If you have any telltaggers in your stores, you might want to
mount one on your sled," Varian suggested to Fordeliton.
        "We have. I will. I'll follow as soon as I assemble the men."

CHAPTER TWELVE

        Fortunately Fordeliton gave them a few minutes advance warning of
his arrival, which allowed Varian just enough time to become airborne and
prevent the cruiser's sled from being attacked. Fordeliton was tremendously
excited by the variety of creatures he had seen on his way to the giff
cliffs. When Varian guided him into the cave, he was enraptured by the
giffs themselves and his companions -- Maxnil, Crilsoff, and Pendelman --
were equally thrilled.
        "Now that I have you here, I'm not quite sure what to do with you,"
Varian said truthfully. "Trizein is out with young Bonnard and Terilla -- "
        "Could we join them?" Fordeliton was all eagerness.
        "There's not much point in duplicating effort. What sort of speed
and range does your sled have?" Varian asked as she rummaged for a sketch
map of the main continent of Ireta which Kai had made the previous evening.
        "Fleet standard, supersonic."
        "Really? You wouldn't mind working up in the polar region, would
you? We hadn't penetrated that far. Your sled could function in high
temperatures?"
        "Of course!"
        "Well, now," Varian ,pointed to the northern polar area. "I'd
rather like to know if there are variations of these critters that have
adapted to the intense heat."
        "I'll just put this map through the scan, and we'll be off to do a
reconnaissance."
        No sooner had she sent him on his way than a second sled penetrated
giff territory. They had thought to announce their arrival so that Varian
had a chance to witness the giff attack mode. The resultant commotion
brought Lunzie from her lair.
        "You'll have to go up yourself and escort them in," the medic told
Varian.
        "I think we've got too much of a good thing," Varian said under her
breath as she went to the rescue.
        This time it was a second shift from the Zaid-Dayon, the geology
buffs, Baker, Bullo, and Macud. Kai contacted Dimenon and arranged an
unexplored sector for the cruiser's men to assess. They went off in high
spirits.
        "We can't keep alarming the giffs like this," Varian said, "even if
we do need help to accomplish our mission."
        "Why not return to our original site, then?" Lunzie suggested. When
she noticed Kai's stiff posture, she shrugged. "Well, it was just an idea."
        Kai took a deep breath. "Not a bad one, actually, Lunzie. In face,
a very sensible solution. I'd like to see if a forcescreen would keep out
fringes. They couldn't have developed from aquatic to land beasts in just
forty-three years, could they? Well, then," and he swallowed, took a deep
breath, "it was Tor who attracted the fringe to the site. We'll just try to
make sure that we keep our Thek visitors to a minimum. Okay? Then let's
plan to reestablish our original camp. It makes sense in a number of ways,
not just protecting the giffs. It's where ARCT-10 will look for us. And
since the Zaid-Dayan's sleds all have long range capabilities, then we
won't have to establish secondary camps. And you can stay on here, Varian,
and observe the giffs without all this coming and going."
        "I like it, Kai," Lunzie said, thoroughly approving. "But we need a
lot of equipment -- "
        "We'll make up a list. Sassinak did say that she's supposed to
replenish any lost equipment."
        "Isn't replacing a whole base camp asking a bit much?"
        "I'll lean on my relation this evening," Lunzie said. "Blood is
thicker than water and a few odd pieces of standard Fleet issue."
        The giff alarm was heard yet again and, cursing with a fervor and
an inventiveness that made her listeners grin, Varian went out to give
escort. Mayerd arrived just as Varian had maneuvered her slower vehicle
out. Mayerd opened the canopy of her sleek one-man craft as Varian
returned, and gave her a cheery, apologetic wave. She stepped out of the
little ship, turning to gather three large parcels and one small before she
moved toward Kai and Lunzie.
        "My diagnostic unit chuckled to itself for a good two hours after
you left, Kai, but it came up with medication and a few tentative
conclusions. It rarely makes definitive statements. You are Lunzie, aren't
you?" Mayerd asked, juggling her parcels so that she had a free hand to
extend to Lunzie.
        "I am and I surmise that you are Lieutenant Commander Mayerd."
        "Mayerd 'll do." Then she turned again to Kai, grinning. "Not only
did that fringe digestive juice poison you, Kai, but you are allergic to
the poison. My DU not only came up with tablets to help flush the poison
out of your system and counteract the allergy but also a salve to anoint
the punctures and reduce that desensitivity. And DU highly recommended the
new nerve regenerative." She turned expectantly to Lunzie. "The
Crimjenetic: the regenerative we had to use to combat the Persean
paralysis." When Lunzie's expression remained polite but otherwise
unresponsive, Mayerd blinked. "Ah, but you wouldn't have known about that.
It happened twenty years ago . . ."
        "During a nap I took," Lunzie commented.
        Mayerd smiled. "You'll want to read up on this Crimjenetic then. It
has proved remarkably effective on all kinds of bizam nerve poisonings. And
I've some disks on the latest Federated Medical Review I can lend you, as
well, to make up for that nap time. Remind me this evening. Which brings me
to these . . ." she handed out the parcels. "I thought green for you,
Lunzie. Medical research has proved that our profession chooses green as
their favorite color nine to one. I hope you're not the odd one out."
        "I generally am but green is a flattering color, and you were very
thoughtful to fill the need."
        "I got the notion that dress clothes might not have been on your
most needed list and, after I saw the preparations going on in the
officers' mess, I decided I'd better play costumer for you. Blue for you,
Kai, and this garnet red should be most becoming, Varian. Sorry about
arriving unannounced. Those pteranodons of yours are magnificent."
        "So are these," Lunzie said, one blunt-fingered hand stroking the
deep green fabric. "Just how big are the Zaid-Dayan's stores?"
        "Pretty damned all-inclusive," Mayerd said with pride. "We're only
four months into this tour so our supplies are basically untouched. Maybe
not esoteric. Why? What do you need?"
        "A few odd domes, some heavy duty forcescreens . . ."
        "Capable of frying fringes?" Mayerd asked with a sympathetic
chuckle.
        "You got it in one!"
        "Just hand me your list. Clever of you to be related to the
commander, isn't it?"
        "Providential!"
        "We haven't actually written up a list yet," Varian said, "We only
just decided to leave here before the giffs lose their fur in frights."
        "A cavern did seem an odd place to set up as a major campsite,"
Mayerd remarked.
        "It was a good port in a . . ." Varian broke off her sentence
because one of Ireta's sudden boisterous squalls erupted, blowing the vines
inward, rain and debris falling just short of the little group.
        "Not that the heaviest duty forcescreen would keep off that sort of
storm," Mayerd said, establishing herself beyond the storm wrack on a
hearth stool. She took a pad and scripter out of her thigh pocket and
looked about her expectantly. "Now, how many domes? How large a
forcescreen? Furnishings? Supplies? Old lamps for new?"
        By the time Mayerd had left, she had prompted a far more exhaustive
list of requirements from them than they would ever have listed without her
encouragement. When Varian suggested that they might be over doing it,
Mayerd dismissed the notion immediately.
        "Sassinak has given orders that you are to be given any reasonable
quantity of supplies -- "
        "I wouldn't call it exactly reasonable," Varian said indicating the
filled pad.
        Mayerd regarded her with eyebrows raised in polite surprise.
        "When Sassinak sees domes, forcescreens -- "
        "Sassinak," and Mayerd paused briefly to emphasize her commander's
name, "won't see a trivial list like this. She's got one very big problem
in a transport, occupying her waking hours. This," and Mayerd waved the
pad, "goes directly into QM, and I'll see that it's delivered to the site
tomorrow morning." She moved lightly to the little one-man craft, slid back
the canopy, and seated herself. "That is, assuming any of us are capable
tomorrow morning. Let me check the coordinates of that campsite now, while
I'm able." Kai glanced at the notation and confirmed it. "See you later."
        Varian couldn't resist the temptation to swing out on one of the
vines and see what the giffs made of the speed of Mayerd's craft. Some
younger fliers took off in pursuit, but it was immediately obvious that
they could never catch the speedy sled, so they began to make lazy swirls
in the clearing sky, first to the left and then to the right. Almost,
Varian thought as if they made the tip of first one wing and then the other
the pivot of a private circle of sky.
        "I wish you wouldn't take risks like that," Kai said, frowning
anxiously as she reached the safety inside the cave and released the vine.
        "It's exhilarating, for one thing. For another, I had to move fast
or miss the sight and the ladder was too far away. Kai," and Varian held
out one hand, meaning to clasp his arm to transmit understanding. The
gesture was not completed because she remembered his handicap and wasn't
sure just how light a touch might harm. She dropped her hand. "Kai, I just
wanted to say that I think you're perfectly splendid to shift camps to
protect the giffs from unnecessary interference.
        Kai shrugged. "Being here would make your job impossible if you
wanted to catch the giffs going about their regular routine. If they have
one. And anyhow," he grinned ruefully, "I think it would lay a lot of
ghosts to rest to go back there. D'you want to keep the shuttle as your
base?"
        Varian looked about her, at the amenities which Captain Godheir and
Obir had so thoughtfully arranged.
        "I'd be very comfortable here, without the shuttle. And then
there's the matter of the giffs' reaction to the departure of the shuttle.
That'll be interesting to observe." She grinned.
        "D'you think they've wondered if it will sprout wings when it's big
enough? Or hatch.?"
        "They've been that road once, when Tor paid you the visit."
        They grinned, once again in harmony with each other. Then Kai gave
her arm an affectionate squeeze.
        "C'mon. Once again we've got some organizing to do."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

        Kai, Lunzie and Varian arrived at the Zaid-Dayan as the brief
Iretan twilight fell over the edge into night. Lights winked on in the
settlement, a huge spotlight illuminating the large clearing around which
the individual residences were grouped. Red night lights went on around the
looming mass of the heavyworlder transport, making the great ship seem more
ominous than ever. Twinkling here and there, patrol vehicles flitted on
seemingly random courses like fire flies. The patrol carts were little more
than powered platforms for the two men seated on them, but they were
effective mobile sentry units. The gangway was clearly lit and as Varian
landed the sled, she was surprised to see men trotting out to form an honor
guard from the gangway to their sled.
        "Why is it that you never have human escorts when you really need
them?" Lunzie murmured. The usual three giffs had guided them to the
plateau.
        "Have they gone?" Varian asked. Far above them hung a layer of
thick black clouds, under which the visibility was unusually lucid in the
twilight, which was punctuated now and then with lightning.
        "Now that they've delivered us safely to the big eggs." Lunzie was
in good spirits, and Kai wondered if she could continue that way all
evening. It could be a dinner to be remembered for many reasons.
        A sudden shrill whistle greeted them as they emerged from the sled.
        "Muhlah! She's thrown the whole ceremony at us," Kai exclaimed,
forgetting to watch his movements and catching his hand on the canopy
frame. Neither Varian nor Lunzie noticed as their attention was on the
naval honors being accorded them. He glanced quickly down at his gloved
hand but saw no damage. He quickly fell in step behind the women, as
complimented by the courtesies as they.
        "Blessings on Mayerd for her parcels," Varian said quickly to Kai.
        "Well, now look what we have here!" Lunzie cried, holding her arms
wide apart.
        In the companionway Fordeliton stood in the silver, black, and blue
dress uniform of the Fleet, complete with all his honors -- and there were
many -- on his breast. Slightly to one side waited Mayerd, equally
splendid, with the Medical sash crossing her chest. Neither were a patch on
Sassinak, however, who also awaited her guests. The commander wore a
knowing black gown, its full skirts decorated with tiny stars while the
close fitting bodice was goffered with blue. Tiny jeweled formal-dress
honors adorned her left breast while the rank emblems were jeweled shoulder
ornaments. Kai did not remember ever seeing the ARCT's officers in full
dress regalia, but perhaps EVs followed customs different from those of the
Fleet.
        "Lunzie, it is indeed a privilege and a pleasure to meet you!"
Sassinak stood very straight and saluted crisply.
        "It is a unique occasion, certainly," Lunzie replied in a drawl but
there was no diffidence in her firm handshake.
        The two women stood for a long moment, then Sassinak grinned,
cocking her head slightly to one side in a mannerism so like Lunzie that
Kai and Varian exchanged startled looks.
        "You have been exceedingly generous to a stranded relative,
Commander Sassinak. That brandy went down very smoothly."
        "Sassinak, please," and the commander indicated the direction they
should take. "Surely one must mark the chance encounter with an ancestor."
        "This is going to be some evening," Mayerd murmured as she took Kai
by the arm.
        "Stand down the honor guard, Besler," Fordeliton ordered the duty
officer with a salute. "This way, Governor Varian . . ."
        It was indeed an evening long remembered by the participants.
Fordeliton abandoned any pretext of composure after Lunzie's fourth
outrageous pun. Varian had no compunction and howled with laughter. Kai
grinned so broadly he wondered if he was doing his face an injury. Mayerd
had few inhibitions anyway and was respectful but unawed by her commander.
The stewards managed to keep their expressions under reasonable control,
but several times Varian was certain that she had heard bursts of laughter
erupting from the serving alcove. And the food was superb! Varian watched
Kai sample the unfamiliar portions with a tact born of the desire not to
embarrass Lunzie. Varian found the dishes so utterly delicious, unusual,
and much tastier than their recent fare that she felt Kai ought to have
eaten with greater gusto. Each subtle taste was balanced by the next and
none of the portions was too large, each was enough merely to tempt the
palate to the next course. Their glasses were changed with each new course,
and the wines were perfect.
        When they conferred together on the point later, Varian and Kai
were both disappointed not to learn more about Lunzie's early career or her
planet of origin. Not even the name of the child who had produced this
latter-day descendant, Sassinak. That the two were actually blood-kin was
obvious in a dozen small resemblance's, in mannerisms or expressions, a
gesture, a tilt of the head, a quirk of the eyebrow, and a shared humor
that certainly bridged the generation gap.
        All but the tiny cups of cha and elegant after dinner liqueur
glasses had been cleared when Sassinak turned to Kai.
        "I understand that you are shifting back to your original campsite,
Kai. Wasn't that where the fringe attacked you?"
        "Yes, but I feel only because Tor's warmth had attracted it. We
exude a fraction of the body heat of a Thek. Forty years ago we didn't see
any land fringes though we had a full complement in the camp. The campsite
has not lost the advantages which led us to choose it in the first place."
        "I believe I can offer you an even greater security, at least while
we're still in the vicinity. Fordeliton, don't you think we should give the
globes a test run in this unusual situation?"
        "Yes, indeed, I do, Commander. They haven't yet been tested by such
diverse life-forms. Thek, human, dinosaur, the avian golden fliers, and
fringes! This environment will be a very good test of globe capability."
        "Globes are an early warning device that have recently been
released for Fleet use. I can't go into specifics but with a properly
programmed globe hanging over your encampment, Kai, you'll be safe from
such predators as the fringes and the bigger dinosaurs. Now tell me, just
how did you escape from the dome and avoid the stampede?"
        "It's in my report," Kai said, surprised.
        "Your report, and I quote, says, "We exited from the rear of the
dome and reached the safety of the shuttle just as the vanguard of the
stampeding hadrosaurs breached the forcescreen"." Sassinak stared hard at
Kai for a long moment and then turned to Varian. "You were even less forth
coming. "We escaped from the dome and reached the shuttle." Period. So how
exactly did you escape to the shuttle?"
        "Triv and I called on Discipline and parted the dome at the seam."
        "At the seam?" Fordeliton was impressed and glanced at his
commander, who merely nodded
        "The young man, Bonnard, had not been apprehended by the
heavyworlders?"
        "No, Bonnard was at large," Kai said, with a wry grin. "He'd the
great good sense to hide the power packs -- "
        "Rendering the sleds inoperative. Good strategy. I would suggest
that the mutineers made the usual classic mistake -- they underestimated
their opponents. A lesson Naval Tactics always emphasizes, does it not,
Ford?" Sassinak, raised one eyebrow and regarded her aide with a tolerant
smile.
        "Indeed, yes." Fordeliton dabbed at his mouth with his napkin and
looked anywhere but at Sassinak.
        "Leaping ahead in your story, then, Kai and Varian, the golden
fliers must be discriminating indeed if they protect you, and yet are
aggressive to the Iretans, a hostility I infer from Aygar's remark this
morning."
        "The giffs had thresholds for their behavior, one of which was
started -- and this is surmise -- by the mutineers who probably searched
near enough to the giff caves to provoke attack. They would repel anyone
approaching our refuge from the ravine side. They also seem to be able to
distinguish among sled engines."
        "What more have you observed about the giffs?"
        "Not as much as I would like. To date, my observations have mainly
dealt with their reactions to us, not interactions among themselves. That's
what I'd like to explore."
        "Excellent! Excellent! That's just what you should do."
        "What interested me most," Mayerd said, hitching forward in her
chair, "was the fact that those creatures knew a specific remedy for the
fringe poison. And realized that you needed it. I'd say that places their
intelligence level well above primitive norms."
        "What establishes them above primitive norms is . . ." Sassinak
broke off, aware of a shadow, hovering anxiously just out of sight in the
corridor. "Yes, what is it?"
        Borander stepped into view, every inch of him reluctant to
interrupt the gathering.
        "You ordered that you be informed of any attempt at communication
between the transport and the Iretans, Commander."
        "Indeed. Who's trying to get in touch with whom?" Sassinak shed her
party manner in that instant.
        "A transmission from the transport has been monitored, directed at
the Iretan settlement and requesting it to open communications."
        "And?"
        "There has been no reply from the settlement."
        "How could the Iretans reply?" Lunzie asked. "They haven't any
comunits!"
        "They don't?" Now Fordeliton registered amazement.
        "It isn't likely that the original units have survived forty-three
years in this climate," Varian said. "Unless the Iretans were issued
replacements."
        Fordeliton shook his head. "We were surprised, but Aygar said that
he didn't have much need for that sort of equipment. Nor did they request
any power units suitable for a comunit of any current type."
        "On what frequency was Cruss broadcasting?" Kai asked suddenly.
Sassinak raised her eyebrows with approval. When Borander gave the
frequency, Kai smiled with satisfaction. "That was the frequency the
expedition used, Commander."
        "Very interesting, indeed. Now how would our innocent Captain Cruss
have learned that from the "message" in the damaged homing capsule? I've
read and reread the text. The frequencies were not included. He has well
and truly used enough rope."
        Lunzie chuckled. "I wonder why Cruss is trying to contact people
who don't wish contact with him."
        "Could Aygar be playing a deep game?" Sassinak asked.
        "I wouldn't say he was playing any game," Varian said, watching the
frown on Kai's face deepen at her remark. "He has stated his position quite
clearly -- this is his planet and he intends to remain on it."
        "More power to him if he can," Sassinak replied. "Borander, my
compliments to Lieutenant Commander Dupaynil. I think this is a matter for
his skills." As Borander went off on his errand, Sassinak turned to her
guests. "Dupaynil's Naval Intelligence." Varian, do the Iretans have any
particular accent or provincial dialect? . . ." And when Varian reassured
her, she continued, "My friends, too many attempts at planetary piracy have
been successful, too many well-organized expeditions have appeared on
planets which were not scheduled to be colonized for a half century. And --
to be candid -- generally not by groups which are amenable to observing
Federated Charter obligations as regards ecology, minority, and
nonaggression. The unusual circumstances of the spontaneous settlement are
all reasonably explained -- always after the fact, when the Federation is
powerless to disband a by-then established, productive colony. The more we
can discover about the modus operandi, the quicker we can squash the whole
movement."
        "Are the heavyworlders always the pirates?" Kai asked.
        "By no means," Sassinak replied, twirling her liqueur glass gently,
around on the damask table-covering. "But they have been the most
successful at the game, usurping planets that were destined for other
minorities. Ireta is a good case in point. Gravity is normal here."
        "That's about the only thing that is," Lunzie muttered under her
breath.
        "Be that as it may," and Sassinak shot her relative a sympathetic
glance, "Ireta is too rich a plum to be plucked by the fardling
heavyworlders! Let them find high-gravity worlds where their mutation is
useful."
        "It would be quite valuable, then, to discover if a group has been
organizing these piratical ventures?" Lunzie asked.
        "Invaluable, my dear great-great-great-great-grandmother Lunzie,
invaluable. Have you any ideas?"
        "One which I see no point in discussing prematurely. It's just that
something you said is twitching a memory." Lunzie flung up one hand in
disgust at her inability to recall it. "I'd like to assist this
Intelligence man of yours, if I may . . ." and her glance took in Varian
and Kai as well as the commander.
        Varian shrugged and looked to Kai.
        "It would afford me considerable pleasure," he said, "if we could
thwart the planetary pirates."
        A discreet rap on the door was immediately acknowledged by Sassinak
and a slim, swarthy man eased into the wardroom. After one quick glance
around the table, he gave all his attention to his commander.
        "Dupaynil, how would you like to pose as an Iretan, eager to admit
the heavyworlders to this planet?"
        "The very thing to while away my tedium, Commander."
        "I apologize for the abrupt end to this exceedingly pleasant
evening, ladies, gentlemen," Sassinak said as she rose, her-manner brusque,
no longer suited to the elegant gown that swirled about her legs. "Lunzie,
may we avail you of your offer? Ford, see our guests to their transport?"
        "You will keep us informed of developments, Sassinak?" Kai asked,
rising slowly and carefully.
        "Indeed, she will," Lunzie said with a little smile. "I'm a firm
believer in ancestor worship."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

        The next morning Varian and Kai called together all the survivors
to explain their move back to the original campsite. The only one to
protest was Aulia, and she did so at the top of her lungs, hysterically
proclaiming that they were being transferred to their deaths where those
hideous animals were ready to charge at them again, not to mention the
things that had eaten Kai. At that point, even the insensitive Aulia became
aware of the disapproval from all sides. Her monologue subsided into a
rebellious mutter.
        "Commander Sassinak has equipped us with attack-repulse force
screens," Kai said, "and a device which is new to us but infallible in
detecting aggression from any source. I think we can return in good heart.
That site is, after all, where ARCT-10 will search for us."
        "Kai, Arcteen, you can't honestly think we'll ever see them again,
do you?" Aulia's voice was quite shrill.
        The three youngsters tensed and looked intently at Kai, waiting for
his response.
        "Yes, I can honestly believe that the ARCT-10 will return for us.
This is an instance where no news can be construed as good news. Neither
Captain Godheir nor Commander Sassinak found anything in their data banks
about the loss of an EV. And such a loss would have been news galaxy wide.
Commander Sassinak has requested a Sector update with specific references
to a position report on the ARCT-10."
        "In forty-three years the ARCT-10 could be in another galaxy. Maybe
that's why no one has heard of it."
        "By the same token," Lunzie called in a dry taunting voice, "it
could have taken forty-three years to maneuver out of that cosmic storm."
        Eager to continue the attack, Aulia took a deep breath which she
exhaled on a gasp as Portegin pinched her upper arm. Rubbing it, she turned
to Triv. When she saw the set of his jaw and the irritation in his
expression, she subsided into a petulant sulk.
        "Now, we'd best organize the removal. The Zaid-Dayan people will be
meeting us at the campsite at 0900. Let's get cracking."
        Lunzie pointed a very stern forefinger at Kai. "You will be
executive director of the proceedings. Seated here!" Her forefinger then
indicated the stool by the hearth.
        Kai grinned at her and made a show of assuming his command
position.
        It did not, in fact, take much time to secure the sparse
furnishings in the shuttle, nor to pack oddments in the sleds. Varian was
going to retain a two-man sled for her own use and keep a few basic
necessities in the cave, to allow her to continue her observations, if
weather and circumstances ever permitted. Kenley then arrived with other
crew members from the Mazer Star to assist in the removal.
        Triv was to pilot the shuttle, and firmly grasping the unrepentant
Aulia by the elbow, propelled her into the shuttle. Lunzie followed "to
deal with her, if necessary," the medic said in angry aside to Varian.
Portegin brought up the rear, looking as glum as Aulia but for a different
reason. Dimenon was to take Trizein, Terilla, and Cleiti in the four-man
sled, along with Trizein's accouterments. Trizein was full of directions to
the girls on what should be recorded on their outward trip, while Dimenon
would take one of the smaller sleds, giving Bonnard a driving lesson which,
Bonnard allowed vehemently, was long overdue for a man fifty-eight years
old. Margit and Kai were taking the other small sled, packed with whatever
was left over.
        When all were ready to take off, Kenley went up the ladder to the
top of the cliff, determined to film the exodus and giff reaction to it.
Weather permitting, he sourly amended. A black squall line was making its
way across the inland sea. Varian, and another recorder would remain in the
cave. She was rather hoping that the Elder Three Giffs would enter the
cavern, once the 'big egg' had flown away. The shuttle's take-off could
pose quite a cultural shock to the giffs, but its removal couldn't be
helped. The shuttle was an essential unit for the main campsite. Its
departure would certainly give insights to giff intelligence and
perception, parameters which Varian was eager to establish despite the
considerable shock it would occasion the giffs.
        The smaller sleds went first, bulleted a bit by the squall winds
but flying quickly away from the turbulence. The heavier shuttle had to be
turned, a maneuver Triv accomplished deftly, then it moved majestically
from the cave, and rose with great dignity above the cliff. Varian grinned
to herself: there was an element of unexpected theatricality in old Triv.
She thought she heard a muted cry of astonishment from Kenley but the wind
had got up and she couldn't be sure.
        With the sleds and shuttle gone, the cave seemed barren, her small
alcove an intrusion. She settled lightly on the stool, shifting the weight
of the recorder to her shoulder. The vines billowed in, and a splatter of
the morning rain reached her, misting across her face and hands, making the
small hearth fire hiss. She was positive she heard giff cries, shrill and
excited. Why hadn't she thought to equip Kenley with a wrist unit so he
could tell her what was happening. Yes, she did hear what could only be a
whoop, and a completely human emission. Patiently she waited.
        She was rewarded. Suddenly the vines were shoved aside as three
large golden fliers glided in, coming to a halt a respectful distance from
where the shuttle had nested so long. Varian grinned at her use of
terminology as she recorded them. All Three Giffs stared at the empty
space, their wings still half-extended. The end giffs turned their heads
inquiringly toward Middle Giff who gave the equivalent of a shrug and
neatly laid his wings to his back in a gesture that might be rendered as
resignation to an unpleasant truth.
        Then each of the giffs appeared sunk down on its legs, pulling its
wings tighter to the body and retracting the neck slightly. Varian
perceived an aura of sadness and disappointment about the giffs. A small
sound, just at the audible level, came to her ears. It had to be emanating
from the giffs for it was not a squall or wind noise: a sad and sorrowing
note. So sad that Varian felt the short hairs on the back of her neck begin
to rise and decided it was time to make a move.
        She had just shifted the recorder when Kenley unexpectedly slid
down the ladder pole. The giffs extended their wings, hissing and
exclaiming so loudly that Varian was alarmed.
        "Kenley, stand still! Spread out your arms! You're peaceful!"
        "I'll say I am!" Kenley complied with her instructions but backed
against the ladder as the nearest means of escape from the winged creatures
obviously bent on attacking him.
        To give him full credit, Kenley stood his ground while Varian
dashed around the advancing giffs and jumped between them and Kenley.
        "Don't hurt him!" Varian cried, arms spread wide in front of the
giffs to impede their progress. "You know me! You must know me."
        "What if they don't remember you?" Kenley had grabbed the first
rungs of the ladder.
        "I'm friendly! You know me." It took a tremendous effort for Varian
to keep her voice friendly. The giffs were so close to her that she could
smell the aroma of fish and spice that they exuded. Their long pointed
beaks had raised slightly and she was being regarded by very keen, hostile
eyes. The midwing digits were flexing as if to seize her.
        "I'm sorry, I still don't have any of the Rift grasses for you. Now
is really not the time to appear before you empty-handed but I didn't
expect Kenley to come flying down here before I'd had a chance to talk with
you. Not that you could understand more than the tone of voice, but you do
see that I'm trying to be pleasant and friendly. Don't you?"
        Middle Giff was towering over her, digits working, its head cocked
slightly as it kept its right eye fixed on her.
        "Krims, Varian, I don't even have a stunner on my belt! What're you
going to do?"
        "I'm going to keep talking," she said, smiling so broadly she felt
her cheeks might crack. "And you're not going to move a muscle unless they
dive on me. Then you better move it up that ladder." Her tone was lightly
cheerful despite her ominous words and when Kenley groaned, she added,
"Don't do that to me, friend. You be as cheerful as I am. They understand
tone, and that wasn't a good one. Okay?"
        "I gotcha."
        Varian had to grin at the intensity of his rejoinder. Then very
slowly she extended her hand.
        "Now, let's see if we can make the first overtures of what I hope
will be a lasting friendship." She watched Middle Giffs body, flicking her
glance to his wings briefly but it was as curious about her next move as
she was about the giffs reaction to it. Moving with great precision, Varian
touched the wing claw of the giff. It twitched but the giff did not
retreat. Varian let her fingers drift from the claw to the wing surface.
"Hey, you feel almost oily. It's not like fur at all."
        "That thing has fur? I thought birds always had feathers."
        "There's a point in evolution when fur was feathers or the other
way round. Giffs are furred."
        Varian withdrew her hand from Middle Giff who had been regarding
her with unblinking eyes. Now suddenly it blinked several times, for all
the world like a small child which had steeled itself for an unknown
experience and had received a pleasant surprise.
        "There! That wasn't so terrible now, was it?" she said, grinning in
an honest reaction to its manner.
        She turned her body toward the smaller giff and, allowing it time
to withdraw, touched its wing claw lightly. It endured the contact but
immediately took a small backward step.
        "Okay, I get the message." She looked at the other small giff and
as if it sensed her intention, it, too, stepped back. "I receive you loud
and clear." She looked back at Middle Giff. "You're the courageous one, are
you?"
        Something like a croon could be heard from Middle Giff. Its throat
was vibrating.
        "Oh, you agree with me, huh?" Slowly, once again, she extended her
hand for the wing claw, its three digits lying loose. She took one between
her thumb and forefinger and pressed very gently. "An Iretan handshake.
First contact between species."
        "You got guts!" Kenley breathed behind her.
        "Just don't move, Kenley."
        "Not a hair. I'll leave it all up to you."
        She maintained the light grasp, and her wide smile, aware of the
intense scrutiny of Middle Giff. Then, tentatively, the claws lightly
closed about her fingers. It felt warm and dry and she wondered what
impression the giff had of its contact with her flesh. The claw released
her fingers and she drew back her hand.
        "Ordinarily, one says, hello, how are you today?" Varian inclined
her body in a slight bow and gurgled with triumph as the giff rocked
forward slightly toward her.
        "I should have had that recorded, Varian. I really should. That's
what I'm here to do, isn't it?" Kenley sounded aggrieved and Varian had to
contain her ire.
        "If you hadn't clattered down that ladder like the Galormis were
after you." Varian had to keep her voice pleasant but she was annoyed with
Kenley for his entrance.
        "I wouldn't have," he replied with exasperation, "if I'd known you
had this trio here. But I didn't. How did they get here?"
        "They flew."
        "Sorry. I guess I was in a hurry. Hey, I've got to get this
recorded."
        "Just move slowly is all I ask, Kenley." Varian held the gaze of
Middle Giff.
        It had made a slight noise, deep in its chest, and the other two
giffs had begun to back away from Varian. Then, as if this were a much
rehearsed courtesy, the Middle Giff began to back up, an awkward movement
for one of its size. Then, with a second comment, the three giffs waddled
with a certain stately dignity to the mouth of the cave and dropped off.
Kenley raced to the edge, recorder trained on their exit.
        "Wow! I got that recorded!" Kenley ignored the fact that it was his
behavior that had caused him to lose the more impressive scene of the first
contact.
        Varian let out a sigh of intense relief. Sweat was standing out on
her forehead and she wiped it away on her sleeve as reaction weakened her
knees. She moved back to her stool and sat down heavily.
        "Rule number one in recording animals of unknown habits and
custom-approach cautiously from any direction."
        "Hey, Varian, the three who were here have gone to roost but
there's a whole flotilla of "em disappearing southeast, down the sea."
        Nervous reaction forgotten, Varian sprinted to the entrance,
hanging onto a vine to swing out past the lip, craning her head upward. The
earlier squall had departed and in misty sky she could see the golden
fliers on their daily rounds, fish nets trailing from their feet.
        "Hope you have plenty of footage left, Kenley, because we're going
fishing! C'mon!" He joined her in the sled. Thanks be to Krims, but it was
great to be doing what she'd been yearning to do ever since she woke up.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

        When Kai's group reached the campsite, they found four vehicles of
various sizes from the Zaid-Dayan already awaiting them. A work party was
busy tearing out the old forcescreen posts. The replacements, thicker by
half again, lay to one side alongside the control mechanisms.
        As Kai glided in to land by the vehicles, Fordeliton emerged from
the largest and waved to him. Then both men turned to watch Triv bring the
shuttle down in a deft landing on the exact spot it had occupied
forty-three years earlier. Experiencing deja vu, Kai found that he had to
turn away from the spectacle and so engaged Fordeliton in conversation.
        "I think you'll find that everything you ordered through Mayerd is
here," Ford said, waving expansively at the three sleds and the sleek
pinnace. "A few incidentals were added by our commander."
        "A bottle of the Sverulan brandy I've heard so much about?" Kai
asked, with a grin.
        "That would surprise me. She guards the vintage like the destruct
codes. However, she was looking quite pleased with herself and there hasn't
been a hair seen of the hide of that Dupaynil. Lunzie have anything to say
for herself?"
        "I haven't had time to ask her," Kai said, having forgotten all
about that aspect of the previous evening's events. "Lunzie never makes
gratuitous admissions."
        "Takes after her great-great-great then." Fordeliton compressed his
lips in exasperation. "However," and he changed moods, "let us not prod
imponderables. I have here the little device which Commander Sassinak
mentioned. I have coded it with information from our various tapes and
files about this planet. Even fed it that tape from Dimenon about the
fringes. So it only needs to be set in place." He beckoned Kai after him to
the pinnace, where he laid hands on a small black plastic traveling case.
Kneeling, he opened it and lifted out an opaque globe. He rose, displaying
the object to Kai, a big grin on his face. "This is quite a device."
Opening a small compartment, he made a few minute adjustments and closed
it. "Now, we just let it sail."
        "Sail?"
        "Well, we give it a bit of upward impetus," Fordeliton amended,
beckoning Kai to follow him out of the pinnace. He spotted and then walked
quickly to a small cairn of stones. "This was adjudged the exact center of
the area enclosed by the forcescreen. So," and flexing his knees,
Fordeliton gave a leap, heaving the globe upward at the top of his jump.
The globe continued up and then paused, spinning in a leisurely fashion, a
pale light coruscating from it. Fordeliton dusted his hands together. "Now,
nothing small, large, medium, programmed or unrecognizable can approach
this site without you knowing, and the intruder, if on the unwanted list,
being stunned senseless. Feel safer?"
        "If you say so."
        "I do." Fordeliton gripped Kai's shoulder in a firm but
understanding grasp. "Now, what else can we do for you?"
        Just then the forcescreen came on and a cheer went up from the
survivors as well as the volunteers from the Zaid-Dayan.
        "Now we can get back to the business interrupted forty-three years
ago."
        "Once the domes are up," Ford amended. Kai nodded agreement.
        This time, Trizein elected to have a dome instead of quarters in
the shuttle. He also volunteered to supervise the three youngsters so one
of the larger units was erected, providing him with a large working area
and four small sleeping sections. Dimenon and Margit elected to return to
their secondary camp. Portegin, Aulia in tow, settled on a site for their
dome. Triv took a single, as did Kai. Then a place for the largest dome,
meeting room cum mess hall was chosen. As the supply of domes had been
generous, two more were placed, one for Varian and another for such
visitors as might care to stay over. As Kai once again surveyed the natural
amphitheater, its forcescreen spitting as it demolished unwary insects, he
could not fail to notice that none of the newly erected domes had been
sighted where those of the first encampment had been. An understandable
phenomenon.
        Among the volunteers were two stewards from the Zaid-Dayan and they
supplied a midday meal utilizing some of the Iretan fruits and greens.
        "Surprised me, it did," the man said, "considering how this planet
stinks. Wouldn't have thought anything would taste halfway edible: And it
does!"
        "I think we can't taste right, is what I think," the second caterer
said, "with all that smell messing up our tasters and smellers."
        "Just goes to show, doesn't it," Margit allowed, "that neither
looks nor smells is everything. So, Kai, shall Dim and I get back to our
bailiwick?"
        An ear-piercing whistle interrupted any answer Kai would have made.
As he glanced upwards, thinking the globe was alerting them, he saw Ford
depressing a knob on his wrist comunit. A momentary flash of disappointment
crossed the officer's face but was quickly erased. He turned to Kai with a
rueful smile, nodding to his men who had been alerted by the noise.
        "I'm sorry, Kai, that's recall. We've been on yellow alert since we
landed. It's now red." He rose to his feet, making a broad sweeping gesture
with his arm. "All right, now, crew. Recall."
        Disappointed mutters and groans could be heard but the crew members
moved quickly toward the door.
        "Don't like to eat and run. Me mammy said it was bad manners," the
older caterer said, grinning apologetically at the disarray in the catering
area.
        "We'll save 'em for you to come back to," Margit called in a
good-natured taunt as she followed the crew out.
        "If I can, I'll let you know what's up," Fordeliton said as Kai
jogged with him to the pinnace. "I don't think you need worry about
anything with the globe up there."
        "Good luck," was all Kai could think to say.
        Triv opened the veil of the forcescreen to permit the sleds and
pinnace to exit, then closed it and walked purposefully back to Kai.
        "Does their emergency mean we're stuck in here?"
        "Ford didn't mention any restrictions on us."
        "Then shall we indeed pick up where we left off?"
        "Portegin, is the new core screen working?"
        Portegin raised his eyebrows, a knowing expression on his face. "It
is indeed and a very interesting tale to tell us."
        "How so?" Kai asked as they all climbed the rise to the shuttle.
        "You'll see," Portegin replied confidently. His meaning was as
plain as the blips lighting the screen in the shuttle's main cabin. Where
once the duality of core lights had confused the geologists, only single
clear lights formed a network.
        "The Thek have recovered all the old cores?"
        "That's what it looks like. Did they eat "em, d'you think, Kai?"
Portegin asked. "Dimenon thinks they do."
        "I wouldn't put it past them," Triv said.
        "How long have the faint cores been gone from the screen?"
        "There were still fifty or more yesterday when I was setting the
screen up and testing it," Portegin replied. "I didn't have it on today
until we'd finished setting the domes up. I had a look at it just before
they rang the chow gong. There were only a few left," Portegin indicated
the edges of the screen, "and now, not an unblessed one of "em. They must
eat "em. Cores will register through anything."
        "Except a Thek," Margit said.
        Triv smiled. "Cores should register even through the silicon of a
Thek."
        "Then they did eat "em." Portegin would not be dissuaded from that
opinion. "And digested every last morsel."
        Kai looked at the screen for a long moment, not seeing its display.
"We're here. We have equipment again. We still haven't finished our
original mission. It's better to be busy than sit around idly speculating
on what we can't change and better not interfere with. Margit and Dimenon,
you two get back to your camp and continue the survey. At least we don't
have outside interference to upset Portegin's screen. Triv, what's your
option?"
        "I'd like to strike north, past the last point we surveyed. There's
quite a volcanic chain north and east that might be very interesting
geologically."
        "Good. Will you take Bonnard along as your partner?"
        "Be delighted."
        "Lunzie," Kai turned to the medic, "have you plans for the rest of
the day?"
        She shook her head.
        "Would you pilot Trizein?"
        "You'll be base manager? That's perhaps a good idea."
        "I rather thought you'd approve." He grinned at her.
        "Well, you look a shade better, but I wouldn't like to see you over
extend yourself without a damned good reason." She strode out of the
shuttle.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

        With a great deal of good-natured bustle and confusion the teams
departed on their diverse errands.
        "In case you've wondered, Kai," Lunzie found time to tell him
quietly, "Dupaynil and I had a few interesting words with Cruss by com." A
mirthless smile crossed her lips. "Dupaynil has assumed a Paskutti-Tardma
grandson identity and I opted for Bakkun-Berru. Cruss's present objective
is to smuggle a few of his people off the transport and onto this world. He
hints at great connections and substantial rewards for cooperation.
Dupaynil is playing coy and I'm plainly suspicious. I'll keep you
informed."
        The prospect of heavyworlders enjoying even the most tenuous
occupancy on Ireta was unsettling to Kai. He had never been a vindictive
person, being basically fair-minded and tolerant but he found himself
contemplating Cruss's subversive tactics with an emotion bordering on fury.
He wished he had gone with Dupaynil to bait the trap but his anger would
have betrayed him. He also took a profound pleasure in the knowledge that
Cruss was incriminating himself further.
        Kai tried to tell himself that such negative emotions were
undisciplined and he should purge them from his system. Then he realized,
and laughed at the realization, that, however unsociable hatred was, it
stirred the blood as well as the imagination. He was certain that he had
felt his fingertips that morning when he had applied the salve. More likely
the progress was due to the efficacy of the new medication, rather than
regeneration due to indignant wrath. He flexed his fingers inside the
skin-gloves, which he could not yet feel against his skin. In one sense
that was to the good, for he could use his hands in normal fashion.
        As Kai made his way across the amphitheater to the shuttle, he
found the unpopulated campsite eerie. On the other hand, he would have few
distractions while he organized the information on the finds Dimenon and
Margit had made the previous day -- a rich source of metals as well as
transuranics the heavyworlders would have acquired had their takeover not
been challenged!
        No sooner had he reached the shuttle's iris airlock than he heard
the frantic buzz of the comunit. He raced to the pilot's compartment, and
slammed on the transmit toggle so hard he could feel it jar his hand.
        "Zaid-Dayan to EV Base!" the signal flashed. Then the screen
displayed the control deck of the Zaid-Dayan, and Commander Sassinak. "I
was beginning to think that you'd all left the compound. Kai, have you
transport? We have a large Thek convoy approaching and requesting landing
permission. Their message was first directed toward the giff cave beacon."
        "Ah," Kai said, recalling a significant oversight, "we forgot to
dismantle Portegin's beacon from the giff cave."
        "No real harm done." But Sassiness' grin suggested that Varian had
been quite surprised to have had to communicate with laconic Thek.
        "Is Tor among the incoming?"
        "They have not identified themselves."
        "I've no transport here."
        "The pinnace is on its way."
        Kai had recorded messages on the comunit for anyone calling in to
base and checked the perimeter of the encampment for gaps in the screen
before he heard the supersonic bang of the pinnace's arrival. The globe
brightened momentarily, then resumed its normal color. Ford was the pilot.
        "I've brought our stewards back. They really hated to leave the
mess hall in such a state," Ford said. Kai grinned farewell as the first
man reinstalled the forcescreen veil. Then Kai entered the pinnace.
        Ford gestured for him to take a seat and belt up.
        "I've never seen such a concentration of our friendly allies
before. Our science officer has been monitoring the ones on Dimenon's site
and he swears they've enlarged considerably."
        "Dimenon thinks they've been gorging themselves. And they have
apparently consumed every trace of the ancient cores which were ghosting
our core screen."
        Fordeliton swung the pinnace about, almost on its tail fins, and
before Kai had a chance to grab a breath, had jammed on the power. Even
with the advanced design of the pinnace, the g-forces of supersonic speed
were uncomfortable.
        "How many have been sighted?" Kai managed to ask through lips
pressed against his face bones. Abruptly the pressure eased.
        "Nine, three of them nearly as big as the transport. Or so they
appear on our sensors."
        Kai was surprised at the magnitude of the visitors. "Any small
units?" If only Tor was among them . . . "
        "There are three Great-Big Bears, three Medium-Size Bears, and
three Teeny-Tiny Bears," Fordeliton gave Kai a totally unrepentant grin.
"Don't worry. One of Sassiness' specialties is Thek conversation." Then he
grinned with a definite hint of malice. "Though I wonder if the good
commander will be able to cope with such a concentration of our noble
allies."
        The speedy pinnace accomplished the journey in minutes. Ford was
deftly dropping their forward speed when an urgent signal was beamed from
the Zaid-Dayan, giving alternative landing coordinates.
        "They want us down by the settlement," Ford said, glancing at the
area map, and veered in the appropriate direction as he flipped on the
forward screen for a visual check of their arrival. "And I can see why!"
        Leaning forward against the seat belt, unwilling to lose a single
detail of the extraordinary sight before them, Kai gasped in astonishment.
        Fordeliton's whimsical reference to the awesome Thek caused Kai to
grin with a wayward appreciation of that irreverence. His grin broadened as
he watched three Teeny-Tiny Bears, which were likely to be taller than his
nearly two meters, settling down by the main air lock of the Zaid-Dayan,
where sailors were quick-marching into the ceremonial formation. One of the
Medium-Size Bears was slowly descending behind the three. The other two
Medium-Size Bears could be seen positioning themselves to either side of
the massive prow of the heavyworlder transport. In one quick glance Kai
took in that deployment and then turned his incredulous gaze toward the
three immense Great-Big Bears which were sedately lowering themselves onto
the grid beyond the transport.
        "It is extremely lucky, isn't it," Fordeliton remarked, "that the
Iretans made such a big landing grid. Otherwise those big brutes wouldn't
have risked a landing here. Whooops! Spoke too soon."
        Fordeliton was hovering above the appointed landing site,
maintaining the pinnace at an altitude which gave them a superb view of the
event. With great dignity and no visible means of propulsion, the three
Great-Big Bears lowered their bulks onto the grid. And continued their
downward movement while the grid began to smoke, melt, and bubble. Molten
iron began to ooze out around the three Great-Big Theks. Fordeliton roared
with such infectious laughter that Kai joined in. Suddenly the continued
decline of the Theks ceased, the molten metal about their bases went from
red to dull cold metal in an instant, solidifying.
        "That was close, wasn't it?" Fordeliton flung out his arms, giving
Kai a buffet on the chest for which he instantly apologized. "I just hope
someone got it on tape. That's one to save for posterity. What if they had
just kept on melting down, down, down?"
        "No chance of that, I'm afraid. The grid was built here because
there's a rock shelf under that plateau that would stop even the Thek." Kai
grinned at Fordeliton. "But I doubt the heavyworlders meant to accommodate
Thek. Have you ever seen any that big before?"
        "I thought that they stayed put at that size. Kai, what have you
got on this forsaken planet to wrench them out of their comfortable niches?
Do Thek inhabit niches? Or mountain tops? Never mind."
        Fordeliton landed the pinnace. He and Kai quickly made their way
toward the Zaid-Dayan, where Sassinak and a contingent of her officers were
advancing to where the Theks were squatting. Fordeliton and Kai joined the
group. Sassinak noted their arrival with a nod of her head
        Suddenly a sound stopped everyone, and one of the not so Teeny-Tiny
Bears moved forward.
        "Kaaaaaiiiieeee!" The sound was both command and recognition.
        Kai looked inquiringly at Sassinak.
        "That does sound like your name, Kai. It's all yours." The
commander gestured him forward. To his astonishment, she winked as he
passed.
        "Tor?" he asked, coming to a halt in front of the Thek, for surely
it had to be his acquaintance from the ARCT-10. No other Thek could have
recognized one human among so many. "Tor?" It was awesome enough to be
raced by four Thek, over heard by five more; it would be slightly less
daunting if he spoke through a Thek he knew.
        "Tor responds."
        Kai breathed a sigh of relief, and then realized that Tor was
answering an unasked question. Or rather the question Kai had fruitlessly
posed of the Thek removal squad.
        With a speed that blurred movement, a Thek pseudo-pod extended a
core to Kai. When he reached out to take it, the core was withdrawn beyond
his grasp and he thrust his hands behind him, feeling more like a small
miscreant than ever in this Thek presence.
        "Toooo hotttt. Eggsamine."
        Hands still behind him, Kai leaned forward and peered obediently at
the core. It looked like the same type of ancient device which Tor had
recovered from their abandoned campsite.
        "Is it Thek design?"
        Thunder rumbled underfoot. Although the cruiser contingent glanced
warily skyward where Ireta's clouds rolled across a silent sky, Kai
reckoned that the thunder was a Thek exchange of conversation and that it
emanated from one of the immense Thek whose crowns were just visible over
the bulk of the transport.
        "Where found?"
        Kai was startled by such a mundane question but the coordinates of
that find came quickly to mind and he recited them.
        Then thunder rumbled again, was answered by a lesser noise which
Kai decided was Tor's rejoinder for the Thek's upper third rippled
slightly, as if courteously turning in the direction of the questioner.
        "Kai, ask it if this planet is claimed by the Thek?" Sassinak
requested, leaning forward to murmur in Kai's ear.
        "Verifying!" To everyone's astonishment, the Thek answered her, and
then compounded the surprise by a second gratuitous command. "Dismiss. Will
contact." Tor's outline assumed a rigidity which Kai knew meant it would
answer no further questions or summons.
        He turned around to Sassinak.
        "Dismissed, are we?" She was more amused than offended by Thek
abruptness. "They'll get back to us when they've had a good old think about
all this?"
        "I'd say that's a fair analysis of the exchange," Kai said, and he
was once again put in mind of Fordeliton's impudent analogy of the old
children's tale and the categories of the Thek. The Thek so rarely
generated anything approaching amusement, yet Kai now found it difficult to
control his laughter. He glanced quickly at Fordeliton who turned an
expression of bland and utter innocence on him.
        "Ford, the men can stand down. Secure from red alert. Just the sort
of thing that Thek complain about. Lack of proper attention to detail.
Shall we adjourn to my quarters, gentlemen? Can you spare us a few moments,
Kai?"
        He nodded and Sassinak swiftly led the way back into the cruiser
and to her quarters. Fordeliton and a tall gaunt man with a lean aesthetic
race and exceedingly sharp eyes entered the commander's cabin along with
Kai.
        "I don't believe you've met our science officer before, Kai.
Governor, this is Captain Anstel."
        "My pleasure, Governor," Anstel said in an unusually deep bass. I
have read your reports. Fascinating! Completely engrossing. Not only the
dinosaurs -- and that is indisputably what they are -- but also the
fringes. I did a complete analysis of their chemistry. Totally new,
although there are two points of resemblance between these fringes and the
plastic Wahks of Lesser Delibes planet . . . Ah, yes, sorry about that,
Commander." Anstel subsided, his gaunt face losing its animation as he
folded his long body into a chair.
        "If your duties permit, Captain Anstel, I'm sure that Trizein would
enjoy exchanging information with you," Kai said.
        "I should like nothing better. It has always amazed me how much
fascination those prehistoric creatures have for us, who are such
insubstantial creatures in the scale of time."
        Deciding that business must be done, Sassinak took charge of the
conversation. "Kai, what do you make of this latest development?"
        "Can Thek be worried?" Kai asked, glancing around.
        "Is that your interpretation of thunder rumbling under-foot?"
Sassinak grinned. "As is only proper for an ephemeral, I have great respect
and admiration for our silicon allies. But such a -- " she paused to find
the appropriate word, "convocation on an otherwise undistinguished world
must surely be unique. That must suggest interest of a high degree.
Mountainous, I might say."
        "And who is cast as Mohammed?" the irrepressible Fordeliton asked
quietly.
        Kai suppressed another laugh and noticed Sassiness' brief
acknowledgment of her adjutant's wit.
        "I don't really see our pirates cast in such an auspicious role,
Ford. Nor have I yet seen anything that spectacular about this noxious
planet of yours, Kai. Was that the same core which brought Tor to your
rescue, Kai?" When he nodded, she continued, "And all those little Thek
concentrated on gobbling up the remaining old cores -- when they weren't
frying fringes. Kai, it appears to me that your revival, and the
providential arrival of the Zaid-Dayan in pursuit of the heavyworlder
transport are incidental to a vastly more important problem. Therefore,
since the records of both your EV and my Sector Headquarters list Ireta as
unexplored, and yet Thek artifacts have unquestionably been discovered
here, I will venture the perhaps bizarre opinion that there may have been a
missing link in the famous Thek chain of information. And it broke here on
Ireta. Do you agree?"
        A grin might not be the diplomatic response to Sassiness' astute
opinion, but with Fordeliton's irreverent analogy still tingeing his once
dutiful respect, Kai found it possible to entertain the possibility of Thek
fallibility. If the Thek were the Bear entities of the old folk tale, who
was the parallel for . . . ah, yes, Goldilocks? Surely not the pirates who
were finding the planet far too hot for them. Suddenly the analogy lost its
appeal. Kai was not at all certain that he wanted the Thek to lose their
reputation for infallibility.
        "The old core was definitely of Thek manufacture," he finally
admitted. "And unquestionably it has generated Thek interest. But I can't
see why it or this planet should evoke such an unprecedented response."
        "No more than can I," Sassinak admitted, picking up her wand and
playing it through her fingers. "I scanned your initial reports again . .
." She shrugged. "Ireta is rich in transuranics, some of the exotic earth's
and metals, but . . ." Or perhaps, the Thek must establish to their own
satisfaction why this planet is so miscatalogued. And I confess, I'm
probably as curious as they are to know how such a break occurred. None of
us wishes to cast aspersions on the infallibility of the Thek. No one likes
his anchors to come adrift." She smiled at Kai as if she fully appreciated
and shared his ambivalence.
        "When our screen first showed the ghost cores, they went as far as
the area of basement rock. No farther," Kai said tentatively.
        "Which would suggest that the cores were planted -- " Anstel
paused, stunned by the immensity of the elapsed time.
        "Many million years ago," Kai finished for him, "considering the
geological activity of this planet."
        "And the Thek have rendered all of the old cores completely denying
us the chance to date the artifacts," Anstel said, his eyes flashing with
indignation. Then he fixed Kai with a hopeful stare. "You didn't by any
chance? . . .
        "No, we didn't have any dating equipment, since our mission was
supposed to be the first."
        "Eons ago the Thek cored this planet?" Sassinak asked.
        "If not the Thek then some other -- "
        "Not the Others again!" Sassinak humorously negated that
possibility. "I don't wish to lose god and nemesis in the same day."
        "Couldn't have been the Others," Kai said, shaking his head
vigorously. "That old core was of Thek manufacture. Undeniably. We're using
recent cores of the exact same design. Until today I never appreciated just
how good the design was. The screen blips were faint, but they were there!"
        "Are we not forgetting that planets visited by the Others are
invariably lifeless, reduced to barren rock. Stripped. Lifeless!" Anstel
spoke with the distaste of one who values life in all its forms.
        "Then why have we been visited by this Thek delegation?" Sassinak
asked.
        "Someone forgot that this planet had been explored and classified,"
Fordeliton suggested, "and they intend to repair that oversight. Your
friend Tor did say "verifying" in its distinctive fashion."
        "How will they verify that," Anstel asked, "when Thek have disposed
of the evidence of the old cores?"
        "Perhaps," and there was a wicked gleam in Sassiness' sparkling
eyes, "they had to digest them to find out?" She leaned forward and tapped
instructions in to her console. Immediately the screens came to life: the
Great-Big Bears had not moved, nor had the Medium-Size ones. The three
small ones had disappeared. The fourth screen showed the site on which the
Thek had been attacked by the fringes. It was unoccupied. Just then a
buzzer alerted Commander Sassinak. "Yes? Oh, really?" She made another
adjustment and Kai half rose from his seat in astonishment. A myriad of
Thek forms inhabited the plain below the campsite.
        "Muhlah! Every fringe on Ireta will be homing in on us."
        "I doubt it. Nor would they pose you a problem if they did. Between
Thek and the globe, you couldn't be better protected."
        "But what are they doing there? I'm here. Tor knows that. Muhlahl!
Kai's startled reaction was shared by everyone in the room. For the Thek
were spinning off in all directions, nearly thirty small Thek pyramids were
hurtling skyward and disappearing with astounding speed.
        "Now what?"
        "Now what, indeed?" Sassiness' expression sparkled with amusement
and speculation.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

        Sassinak adjourned the discussion to the wardroom where off-duty
officers were enjoying a noon meal. When Sassinak apologized that the lunch
was made of processed foods, Kai, mindful of his praise for the previous
night's dinner, forbore to mention that he was better suited to it. But
after his first mouthful of the protein, he wondered if his eating
preferences had been undermined by circumstance. While the cruiser's mess
was appetizing and well served, Kai for the first time recognized the faint
after taste that Varian had always complained of.
        "I suppose you were too busy with the geological aspects of the
mission," Anstel was saying, his gaunt face animated as he addressed Kai
across the table, "to have much time for the dinosaurs?"
        "Unfortunately, I was," Kai said as he belatedly caught the end of
Anstel's comments and realized that some response was due. "We did have an
orphan hyracotherium for a pet -- " Kai broke off, then finished as if his
pause had been to swallow, "but that was before we went cryo."
        "A hyracotherium?" Anstel's eyes bulged with excitement. "Really?
You're certain? Why, that creature evolved into the equine species an Old
Terra. Did you know that?"
        Feeling unequal to a lecture on the matter, Kai tried a diversion.
"We also have furred avian creatures . . ."
        "Furred?" Anstel was entranced.
        "Actually," Fordeliton began with so bland an expression that those
who knew his ways became alert, "Varian, whom you must concede is a
reliable source, said that most of the dinosaurs she observed suffered from
over-weight, bad nutrition, parasites of remarkable tenacity and variety,
and were not affectionate by nature."
        "One does not expect dinosaurs to be lovable," Anstel said with
quiet dignity. "They fascinate by their size and majesty. In their diverse
species, they dominated the Mesozoic era of Old Terra for several million
years before a shift in the magnetic fields of the planet traumatically
changed their environment.
        "Nonsense! A cosmic cloud obscuring the sun caused the climatic
change," Pendelman corrected firmly.
        "My dear Pendelman, there is absolutely no proof of that theory
whatsoever -- "
        "Oh, indeed there is, Anstel. Indeed there is! Bothemann of the New
Smithsonian of Tyrconia has documentation, both -- "
        "Bothemann's hypothesis is shaky at the very best since the
geological area in Old Terran Italia that allegedly supported the
contention, was engulfed in the mid-European plate shift in the early
twenty-first century -- "
        "Ah, but records from the Central Repository, made by that
Californian group, are -- "
        "As suspect as many other theories from that neck of the woods -- "
        "Gentlemen, how or why Old Terran dinosaurs met their end is not
pertinent," Sassinak declared. "What is germane is that dinosaur like
creatures are alive and in relatively good health on Ireta. Enjoy that
reality for however long you are able to indulge your fascination. Save the
great debates for the long watches of the night!"
        A yeoman caught her attention. She beckoned him over and listened
to his message. Turning to smile at Kai, she murmured a quick answer. The
yeoman speedily retraced his steps.
        "Varian has arrived. She'll join us here."
        "Would she remember where you found the hyracotherium, Kai?" Anstel
asked.
        "Yes, but I must remind you that that would have been forty-three
years ago."
        "Surely, it was not an isolated example of the species?" Clearly
Anstel would not rest until he had seen one.
        "She's concentrating on a study of the golden fliers who could well
be an emerging species," Kai said, to give Varian room to maneuver if she
didn't wish to get involved with Anstel.
        "I must look up my references disks. Hyracotheriums I recall in
perfect clarity, but I'm not certain about . . ."
        "Trizein has identified the golden fliers as the pteranodon."
        "Pteranodon!" Once again Anstel's eyes widened in shock.
        "Yes, my dear fellow, exactly like pteranodons," Pendelman said,
delighted to contribute to Anstel's confusion. "I saw a whole flock of them
rise from the cliffs and soar. Quite a feat, I assure you, on a
storm-tossed planet like Ireta."
        At that point the yeoman returned with Varian who greeted Kai with
undisguised relief.
        "Sorry it took me so long to get here," she said to Sassinak. "I
see the Thek found you?"
        "It was Kai they wished to find and addressed in their inimitably
succinct fashion."
        "So, what has happened? Or . . ." Varian glanced around her,
mindful of discretion. Only a few officers remained, most chatting quietly
at a wall table on the far side of the mess hall.
        A gesture of Sassiness' hand gave Varian immediate reassurance and
the commander's glance gave Kai the office to explain.
        "Tor has returned."
        "With company to ward off our great big beasties?"
        Kai grinned. "Tor has returned. It and the other Thek are in the
process of verifying."
        "Verifying what?"
        "They did not specify." Sassiness' dry tone put Kai and Varian
strongly in mind of Lunzie.
        "Oh."
        "They dismissed us, in a word," Sassinak went on, "and "will
contact"."
        "They do have a way with them, don't they?" Varian turned to Kai.
"Not one of us thought to dismantle that old distress beacon Portegin
rigged. Kenley has it down now. I'd rather not subject the giffs to further
invasions especially ones conducted by the Thek. I didn't know there were
that many of the critters. And thanks be to Krims, they didn't attempt to
land on my cliff, considering what they've done to Aygar's landing grid."
Varian giggled then.
        "It's entirely possible," Fordeliton said into the thoughtful pause
that followed, "that the Thek have made a mistake."
        "Thek? Making mistakes? How refreshing!"
        Kai felt compelled to set the problem out properly in simple
justice to the Thek, who were so very seldom mistaken in their dealings
with other planets and sentient species. "Now, Varian, that old core is of
Thek design. It's got them in a scramble. You know how Thek transmit
knowledge, from generation to generation -- "
        "And there's been a generation gap?" Varian asked, her voice
bubbling with a laughter shared by the others at the table.
        "Evidently. Though the Thek way is supposed to prevent the total
loss of knowledge in any line."
        "Well, Ireta would be the right place for that, wouldn't it?"
Varian quipped, then became thoughtful. "Though, I can't see why that would
call for the presence of so many heavy-duty Thek. I mean, Ireta is
extremely rich in the transuranics but . . . Or have they been monitoring
planet piracy, too?"
        Sassinak cleared her throat. "Not that we know of."
        "Then why are the big Thek squatting about the transport like they
mean business?"
        "The biggest Thek landed beyond the transport because of the grid."
        "Grid didn't do much for 'em, did it?" Varian said with another
malicious grin. "Now what?"
        "My precise words," Sassinak said. She gave a deep sigh. "However,
since the Thek are here and the Fleet enjoins its officers to cooperate
with those entities, I suppose we must be dismissed until such time as we
are recalled to notice. How many years did it take them to answer your
distress call, Kai?"
        "Forty-three."
        "But only three days to answer your query about Tor's whereabouts,"
Sassinak added. "A noticeable improvement."
        "Look what it brought us, though," Ford said, waving his hand aft
toward the Great-Big Bears.
        "Commander I am not on the duty roster and I did request permission
to join a shore-leave party, Anstel began, rising from his chair and
putting it back under the table in the habit of a person inherently tidy.
When Sassinak inclined her head, granting permission, he executed a slight
bow in Varian's direction. "Kai mentioned that you had found a
hyracotherium before you went cryo. Is there any chance that your travels
today will take you near their habitat? I would dearly like to observe
those creatures alive. We dinosaur buffs, I've discovered, all have a
favorite species. The equine types are mine."
        "I don't see why not," Varian said with a wide, encouraging smile.
She rose. "Kenley and I got some superb footage of the giffs fishing. The
aquatic life performed some acrobatics -- scared Kenley out of his wits
when some fringes nearly reached us." She paused. "The aquatic fringes are
a great deal smaller than the land ones. I should get some more records of
them, I suppose."
        "I'd consider it a privilege to help you in any research,
Governor."
        Varian smiled up at him, for the man was considerably taller.
"Well, then, time's a'wasting. And Ireta's giving us a relatively
squall-free day. Grab your gear and I'll meet you at my sled." She turned
to Kai. "Shall I drop you off back at the camp or are you staying on here,
in case" -- her grin became mischievous -- "the Thek come to a quick
decision.
        Kai rose. "No, I'd better get back." He turned to Sassinak to thank
her.
        "If there's no objections, Commander, I'll just retrieve the men I
left guarding the camp. Quicker in the pinnace, anyway." Fordeliton got to
his feet.
        "And I'll follow protocol and inform Sector Headquarters of the
Thek arrival," Sassinak said.
        They left the mess hall, separating in the corridor. Fordeliton
walked with Kai and Varian to the access air lock. Fordeliton peered with
exaggerated caution toward the transport and the triangular tops visible
above the looming carcass.
        "Still there?" Varian asked.
        "In residence!"
        "They're impressive, aren't they? Oh ho, and I wonder what he
thinks about them?" Varian pointed.
        The two men followed her finger and watched as a sled approached
the Medium-Size Thek.
        "That would be one of the Iretans, I think," Fordeliton said. "We
gave them a sled with that registration."
        "Aygar," Varian said. "What have they been doing, d'you know?"
        "I haven't had time to catch up on their activities, so much has
been going on in your camps. I believe they have already smashed one sled.
Takes a while to get used to modern conveniences."
        However, Aygar landed his sled deftly, emerged, and walked around
the Thek. It made rather an interesting contrast, Varian thought, a fine
specimen of a man, wearing little in the way of modern clothes or weapons,
striding arrogantly about one of the oldest living creatures in the galaxy:
each entity very certain of its position in that galaxy, even if Aygar was
willing to limit himself to one planet. Having finished his circuit, Aygar
noticed the observers and paced stolidly toward them.
        "What are those things?"
        "Thek," Varian replied, grinning.
        "What are they doing here?"
        "Verifying."
        Aygar swiveled his upper body to look at the silent and rigid Thek.
"Verifying what?"
        "They didn't say."
        "Do they always mess up landing grids like that? Must make them
unpopular visitors."
        "When you get that big, no one has the nerve to complain."
        "That commander woman said they're allies?" When Varian nodded, he
went on. "Allies of whom? Your lot," and his gesture included the cruiser,
"or them?" And he indicated the transport.
        "Who are you allied with?" Fordeliton asked in a suspiciously bland
tone. "Them or us?"
        Aygar grinned back, the first time Varian had seen genuine
amusement on the young Iretan's face. "You'll know when I have decided. If
I do."
        With that he swung about on one heel and marched back to his sled,
moving with an unexpectedly graceful economy of motion. In a single fluid
movement, he climbed into the sled, closed its canopy, and took off.
        "Varian?" Anstel's call was breathless. "Oh, I was afraid that
you'd taken off. I just needed a few things."
        Varian choked on her laughter. Anstel had festooned himself with a
variety of equipment, some of which she could not identify.
        "Well, I'm ready when you are," Varian said. "Keep me informed,
will you, Ford? Kai? It's as well to let the giffs settle down to normal
this afternoon so, Anstel, this quest of yours is most welcome. Shall we
go?"

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

        The two men left at the campsite were still goggle-eyed about the
appearance of so many Thek.
        "More than I've ever seen, thassa fact," said the older steward,
"and I been around this galaxy, so I have. Seen a lot of them, you know,
only sort of one here and then another there, but so many at once?" He
scrubbed at his stubbly pate, dragging his hand down his face, and then
mimed the wiping off of an expression. "Quite a sight, really! Something to
swap for drinks."
        "Did any address you?"
        The steward's mouth dropped in amazement. "Address me?" he cocked
his thumb and jabbed it against his chest. "Me? I told "em to locate the
cruiser," and he paused to wink broadly, "cause I know they can find
anything anywhere."
        Kai and Fordeliton exchanged amused glances.
        "They found you." He exhaled a hissing breath. "Never seen anything
like it, though, all those Thek," and he planed their angle of arrival with
his left hand, "just flowing in -- if silicon triangles can flow -- just
sort of gliding in and never losing their formation, just all of a sudden
down on the ground."
        "Thek can be impressive," Fordeliton agreed urbanely and then
gestured for the men to board the pinnace.
        "Governor, we left some dinner on the hob like. Had some time to
kill," the older steward said, and the younger one began to grin, well
pleased with himself. "I like messing with real food stuffs. Only this
time, someone else gets the kp."
        Kai nodded, grinning. "That's fair enough. Believe me, your efforts
will be much appreciated by everyone."
        "Least we could do, you guys having had such a rough time and all."
        As the pinnace took off with a high-speed whush, the globe's glow
caught his eye, brightening momentarily before regaining its regular
coloration. Then the silence in the amphitheater was broken only by the
faint hiss of the forcescreen as it disintegrated insects, a comforting
noise. Kai took in a deep breath, inordinately relieved to be alone, to
have a few hours before the others trooped back in. He strolled over to the
mess hall, sniffing at the odor of simmering stew.
        He realized suddenly that he had never had the chance to delve into
the Zaid-Dayan's memory banks, to check whether there had been any similar
mass movements of Thek. Not that his original question held any pertinence
in view of the day's development. Surely the presence of -- and Kai grinned
-- the Great-Big Bears was exceptional. He'd swap a few drinks on that
account himself when he got back to the ARCT-10. Kai inhaled sharply.
"When," he'd said. Another matter he'd forgotten to ascertain, though
surely Sassinak would have mentioned any communication about the ARCT-10!
Better to assimilate the day's startling events than deal with . . . with
unknowns.
        So, the Thek had been here and no living Thek had retained a record
of the event, despite the much praised memory of the species. Kai knew that
when each new Thek was created -- and some wits insisted that propagation
occurred when two Thek bumped into each other with sufficient force to chip
off fragments -- it immediately acquired the race memory as well as the
working memories of every Thek in its direct line. No reliable figures
about the exact numbers of Thek were available. Once again, the humorists'
theories filled a vacuum. They maintained that old Thek never died, they
became planets.
        A sudden thought, more fanciful than Fordeliton's, erupted into
Kai's mind: could Ireta, itself, be a Thek? The notion had a certain
appeal, if no plausible scientific basis. But was it possible that
somewhere in the areas his team had not yet penetrated, there was a Thek
mountain? Kai ran from the mess hall, and then, because his curiosity was
intense, he increased speed, pelting up the slope, mindful though, not to
catch his shoulder on the iris as he entered the shuttle. He did bang his
hip against the narrower door into the pilot's compartment. Then he tapped
out the file designation of the probe survey maps, hoping that time or some
unforeseen wipe had not yanked those records from the shuttle's memory
banks.
        To his relief, his request was implemented and the screen showed
the probe's journey as the vehicle zoomed in on the planet. As usual,
clouds covered most of Ireta's face but the probe's filters very quickly
produced a clear view of the nearing planet. All right, now, what does an
ancient Thek resemble? A pyramidal form might be the most common, but was
it the most enduring, the most effective long-term configuration? Surely a
silicon mountain would be unusual enough for a probe to register? Catching
his underlip on his upper teeth, Kai watched as the probe changed orbit to
over fly a new portion of the planet's main continent. Unless -- Kai tapped
for a magnification of the island chains but the shattered formations were
almost uniformly, and easily identified as, volcanic atolls. Theks had
great patience and never "blew their stacks."
        If there had been a Thek, where was the most logical place for it
to have positioned itself on Ireta? Basement rock! Kai called back the map
of the main continent and peered over the area, sighing as he realized that
the teams had traversed most of the shield rock and had not sighted any
unusual mountains. But then, had they been looking for a Thek mountain? No,
but wouldn't Tor have noticed, or been contacted by such an elderly Thek?
When did a Thek stop emitting conscious thought to its peers? And would it
not have propagated to continue its existence? To perpetuate its memories?
Or had that search been the one conducted near Dimenon's site, when forty
Thek had landed? Were the old cores merely incidental to that vastly more
important search?
        "Verifying," Tor had said. Verifying not that the old cores had
been Thek manufacture or that the planet had been claimed by the Thek, but
verifying the whereabouts of that incredibly ancient Thek which had not
been linked with any current generation of its kind.
        And, if the Thek did claim Ireta for their own, how would that
effect Kai and his team? A long sad sigh escaped his lips. Just when they
thought they had a chance to snatch some profit from the debacle, a prior
claim appears. All they'd end up with after forty-three lost years would be
their base pay and a kindly handshake from the Exploration and Evaluation
Corps. At least, he thought to cheer himself from the depression that now
engulfed him, Varian might be able to rescue something positive.
        He heard the bleep of the globe, a friendly warning of arrivals.
Wearily and with considerable effort, Kai rose from the pilot's seat. He
dismissed the data he had retrieved and went to see who was returning. It
was with a sense of reprieve that he recognized the big sled with Trizein's
group coming in to land in the vehicle park. But he realized that he must
warn his team of his reflections, if only to cushion a subsequent shock.
And if he had put the facts in the wrong configuration, one of the others
might refute his conclusion or suggest an alternative operation so that
they could rescue some gains.
        "Oh, I am glad you're here, Kai," Trizein said, his face suffused
with excitement as he jogged up to the veil opening in the forcescreen.
Behind him Bonnard was laden with record disks, his face wreathed with a
smug smile. Terilla and Cleiti followed, chatting animatedly.
        "We have had the most incredible encounter with the Thek. They are
here in the most incredible numbers."
        "A horde, Kai, a real horde of them!" Bonnard confirmed.
        "What were they doing?" Kai tried to keep his voice even but his
level of depression increased in direct proportion to their enthusiasm.
        "Looking!" Bonnard said triumphantly.
        "No, my dear boy, they must have been surveying."
        "No, they were looking because they were keeping an awfully close
line to what I think is the shield rock area." Bonnard looked to Kai to
support him. "We can use the shuttle's data banks again, can't we? I'll
show you what I mean because I took coordinates of the positions and angles
of flight of the Thek to back up my observations." He gave a decisive nod
of his head in Kai's direction, again seeking reassurance.
        "Let's check then," Kai said with a heartiness he did not feel. He
did manage to keep his voice calm and maintain a composed expression,
despite a sensation bordering nausea for this crushing disappointment. Thus
does Muhlah reward the doubter! he thought as he retraced his steps back to
the shuttle.
        Once Kai had called up the required maps, he had little to do for
Bonnard, cheerfully but firmly arguing with Trizein, proved his
coordinates, and his theory, that the Thek were searching the edge of the
shield rock.
        "And it was a search pattern, Kai," Bonnard said firmly. "I mean,
they were hovering ground level," and Bonnard showed the distance with his
hands, "and scouring, back and forth and back and forth. I thought they'd
been sitting on old cores, or something. What could they be looking for
now?"
        "An ancient Thek," Kai said.
        "An ancient Thek?" Trizein turned to frown at Kai, concern and
surprise on his seamed face. "Our telltagger has never registered that sort
of heat mass, now has it, Bonnard?"
        "Nope," replied the boy cheerfully.
        The globe's cheerful bleep penetrated to the shuttle's interior and
Kai gratefully used it as an excuse to escape Trizein's saurian enthusiasms
and Bonnard's innocent confidence in Thek infallibility.
        "Kai!" Bonnard came after him. "Kai."
        Reluctantly Kai paused, turned, saw the boy removing an antiseptic
wipe from his first-aid pouch. Bonnard extended it to him with a bashful
grin.
        "You've got a trickle of blood on your chin. I don't think it would
do to let Varian or Lunzie see that." Bonnard turned on his heel and ran
back into the shuttle.
        Dabbing at his lower lip, Kai felt a warmth suffuse the tight knot
of despair that had taken up residence in his chest. Then he continued to
the veil.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

        If Varian had come back to the main camp that evening; If Triv,
Aulia, and Portegin had arrived back for the evening meal; If Dimenon and
Margit had, for any reason, visited the camp, Kai might have felt obligated
to air his pessimistic speculations about Thek and Ireta. Instead the
dinosaur buffs from the Zaid-Dayan and the Mazer Star convened an informal
enthusiasm session, matching unusual specimens with Trizein and the three
children. Kai was torn between the social obligations of raising his
spirits to the level of the others and the need to worry privately about
his new anxieties. He was apparently dissembling well enough so that not
even Lunzie noticed. The medic was examining Terilla's detailed sketches,
pinning the more colorful ones on the walls of the dome, "to brighten
things."
        More out of a wish to distract himself, Kai approached Perens, the
Mazer Star's navigator. "Why do dinosaurs fascinate you and these others so
much? They are smelly animals, crawling with vermin, not very intelligent,
and I can't give them any marks for beauty. To me they are nothing but
mammoth walking appetites. If Ireta wasn't also blessed with a vegetation
explosion, they'd 've died out long ago of starvation."
        Perens, a dapper little man with a pencil-thin mustache, which he
stroked lovingly, grinned at Kai. "Didn't you get the capsule history of
Old Terra in your tutorials?" when Kai nodded, Perens continued. "Well, the
only thing I remember about it in any detail was the chapter on prehistory.
The rest was sort of wars and power struggles, no different from what we
have today in the Federated Planets, only more intense because it was
limited to the one small planet and, generally, to one or two continents.
But I remembered the dinosaurs and the Mesozoic age. I remembered because
they had lasted, as a viable life-form, for more millions of years than we
have!" Perens smoothed his mustache absently. "I've always wondered what
kept the dinosaurs going for so long on Old Terra, when Homo Sapiens,
operating in a much shorter time scale, came so close to pulling the plug
on itself " Then he shrugged and grinned ingenuously at Kai. "Dinosaurs are
big, they're ugly, and they're fascinating. Raw power, a force of nature,
majestic!"
        Just then, Lunzie appeared beside them, in her hand a tray filled
with glasses with her special Iretan brew. Nothing could have been more
welcome. "Muhlah! You've been well occupied, Lunzie." He turned to grin
encouragingly at Perens. "Hope you're a drinking man because this stuff may
be a local brew but it's good!"
        Lunzie raised her eyebrows in mock surprise. "But it's
planet-brewed, Kai, not processed."
        "I'm learning chapter and verse like a good Disciple," he said,
toasting her with his glass. He had the touch of the liqueur on his lips
when he stayed his hand. "It won't react with Mayerd's medicine, will it?"
        "If it might, I wouldn't have served you."
        "In that case -- " and Kai knocked back the entire glass, holding
it out for a refill.
        "Hmm. My, how the pure have been corrupted!" But she complied
before she moved on."
        Perens was cautious. He merely wet his lips then judiciously ran
his tongue over them. Then he took a tiny sip, washing the liquid about his
mouth. Kai watched him with a certain respect, for the spirituous beverage
had a bite to it. Finally Perens condescended to drink.
        "Not bad at all. I wonder what she uses. If you'll excuse me," and
Perens slipped away in pursuit of the medic.
        Kai wandered over to Trizein, who was lecturing Maxnil and Crilsoff
on the evolution of the families of hadrosaur, noting that one had traded a
keen sense of smell for improved vision. The two officers were listening
with every outward show of interest, but Kai noticed that they were sipping
the liquor in hefty swallows. Maxnil caught Lunzie's attention, miming the
need for a refill. As Lunzie apparently had few qualms about serving her
beverage to the group, the evening shortly assumed a rosier aspect for Kai,
and by the end of the evening the cruiser contingent had to be issued
bedding for none of them could have been trusted to pilot the others back
to the Zaid-Dayan.
        A variety of klaxons eventually roused them all. Recalls became
shriller summons as the polite first request was ignored by sound sleepers.
The comunit became equally insistent in Kai's dome. With groggy fingers he
opened the toggle and grunted acknowledgment.
        "Governor Kai, Commander Sassiness' compliments and she is sending
the pinnace to collect you for an important meeting here. And, sir," the
polite voice of the communications duty officer added, "would there be any
chance that Lieutenant Pendelman, Chief Petty Officer Maxnil, and . . ."
        "They're in the main dome. I'll kick "em out. For that matter I can
hitch a ride with them."
        "No, sir, their boat isn't fast enough. "Scuse me, Governor, they
just came on line."
        Important meeting? Kai felt conflicting emotions of relief and
fearful anticipation. He really should have spoken to his team last night,
if only to prepare them. Then he berated himself for borrowing trouble
where it might not exist. Any number of things could account for Sassiness'
meeting: the arrival of the tribunal, a report from Sector Headquarters
that she didn't care to broadcast, even a report from Dupaynil.
        Kai was outside his dome now and aware that, by way of a special
blessing, Ireta had produced a glowing sunrise of spectacular brilliance.
Mouth agape, he admired the eastern sky, clear blue in a band above the
distant mountains. Above that, clouds were a blood red, tinged with orange
and yellow, vivid primaries to startle the eye. The vaster bowl of
deeper-gray night clouds began to spread with a deep purple, rolling back
from the clear morning sky. Thunder rumbled in the distance and a cool
sweet-scented breeze wafted gently through a forcescreen which would have
rebuked stiffer winds. Such a spectacular dawn could only be the harbinger
of great things, Kai thought. But he was not prone to believe in
presentiments, and frowned at the whimsy.
        "For once, this blighted planet is pretty," Lunzie said as she
quietly joined him.
        Kai smiled at her, pleased to share the dawn's magnificence with
someone else.
        "What's the commotion? Every signal in the camp's sounding." Lunzie
rubbed her eyes, sleepily.
        "Sassiness' sent for me."
        "My presence has been requested as well. Varian, too?"
        "I'd expect so. And I'm just on my way to rouse the officers."
        "I'll help." Lunzie's smile had a touch of malice for the men of
the Zaid-Dayan had imbibed massive quantities of her brew. Lunzie could
take an unkindly delight in the discomforts caused others by over
indulgence.
        They had roused the deep sleepers when the globe bleeped
cheerfully. As Lunzie and Kai emerged from the dome, dawn light reflected
from the side of the pinnace. Kai was opening the veil when the vessel's
sonic boom cracked.
        "They wasted no time, did they?" Lunzie said.
        Fordeliton was the pilot. "We're to collect Varian as well," he
said, gesturing for them to belt up in their seats. "Sector HQ sent an
update, and Kai," he turned to give the geologist a broad grin, "the
ARCT-10 is okay. In fact their message only just reached Sector."
        "What happened to it? Have you any details?" Kai strained against
his seat belt, leaning toward the pilot in his excitement.
        "If you'll shut up," Fordeliton replied good-naturedly. "That
cosmic storm they went off to investigate was considerably more powerful
than even the wildest estimates. Sector has sent down The Word that that
sort of space hazard is to be "avoided, repeat, avoided" in the future.
Your ship lost one whole drive pod and the main communications frames, with
severe damage to the other three drive units. Some of the living compounds
were riddled by debris but there was no great loss of life. The names of
casualties were not included in the message. At any rate, your EV had to
limp to the nearest system on auxiliary power. Which took forty-three
years. Sector sent them a signal about your safety and well-being. So you
should soon have a status report." Ford grinned over his shoulder at Kai,
delighted to be the bearer of good tidings.
        "That sunrise was a good augury," Lunzie remarked with an air of
pleased surprise.
        Kai squirmed against the restraint of the seat belts, sensible of a
relief so intense that it left an ache at the base of his skull.
        "I never have understood why the EV's consider themselves
invulnerable to the hazards of space," Lunzie said.
        "One reason I opted for your mission when it came up, Kai. I
figured I'd be a lot safer on a planet than tagging a cosmic storm." She
gave him a wry grin. "Of course, I have been safer."
        "What? With mutineers, cold sleep, fringes, and now pirates?"
Fordeliton demanded, astonished.
        "At least my feet were on solid ground and there's plenty of oxygen
in Ireta's air."
        Fordeliton made a deprecating sound and pinched his nostrils. Then
leaned forward over his console as the pinnace began its descent to collect
Varian. She was standing on the cliff top as the pinnace slid to a landing.
        "The ARCT's okay, Varian," Kai cried as soon as she entered. Her
jubilation had to be cut short as Ford ordered her belted up for the run to
the plateau. Kai repeated as much as he knew about the status of the
ARCT-10, reliving his own immense relief in Varian's expressions of joy.
        "But if the ARCT isn't even on its way to us, why this early
morning call from Sassinak?" Varian asked.
        "Thek," Ford replied succinctly.
        "They've verified?" Lunzie-asked.
        "That's Sassiness' assumption, but the word arrived in typical Thek
language. No details."
        "Very interesting," Lunzie said. A note in her voice made both Kai
and Varian stare at her. "Were Thek in evidence?"
        "No change in the Bears," Ford said. "I take that back," he went
on, suddenly alert. "They've moved!"
        He flipped on the main screen in the pinnace and they could all see
the plateau. The cruiser and the transport had not moved, but Medium-Size
Thek was gone from its sentry position near the cruiser's gangway, and the
three Great-Big Thek were no longer just beyond the squat hulk of the
transport. They were at the far end of the landing grid. The comunit
buzzed.
        "Fordeliton here. Yes, Commander. We just noticed the
redisposition. Yes? Aye, aye, ma'am." He made a slight deviation in
approach path. "I'm to deliver you there. Muhlah!" he cried as all the
proximity alarms went off.
        "Don't deviate!" Lunzie's cry was so authoritative Ford did not
correct his flight path. But the pinnace shook as incoming Thek brushed
past, speeding to join the others at the far end of the grid.
        "What was that?" Varian demanded, aware of the near collision.
        "Bonnard's horde of Thek," Kai replied, with considerable
irritation. Even Thek, or especially Thek, should follow ordinary flight
safety procedures.
        "What did they think they were doing just then?" Varian demanded,
expressing a similar outrage.
        "Preparing for a conference," Lunzie replied, and once again her
tone was strained. Abruptly, she divested herself of the seat belts. "Can
you slow down, Ford? Just Kai and Varian are called to this meeting?"
        "No, the commander is, too, and," Ford now pointed to the view
screen, it looks like someone from the settlement and the transport have
received invitations." Captain Cruss was plodding across the grid, and the
two sleds, one from the cruiser and the other from settlement, each with a
single passenger, headed toward the Thek. "Now what are they doing?" Ford
demanded in a perplexed tone.
        He flipped up the magnification on the forward screen for a better
view of the activity. The smaller Thek horde had not landed by the bigger
ones. While some hovered, others began to attach themselves to the
Great-Big Bears, defying gravity by creating an overhang. Suddenly the
three Medium-Size Bears appeared. Two of them hovered as well, turning
tapered ends down to fit themselves into the gaps between the biggest Thek.
        "Yes, I was right," Lunzie said softly. "I've heard of this
configuration, but I never thought to see one. It's a Thek conference!" Awe
and amazement tinged the medic's voice. "Kai, Varian, if you're to remember
more than just what they want you to know, I'd better buffer you."
        "I don't understand," Kai said, glancing from the edifice the Thek
were constructing to Lunzie's stern expression.
        "Do you trust me?"
        "Of course, and I trust the Thek, too. They've never done our
species any harm."
        Lunzie's mouth twitched in a wry smile. "You do know the opinion
they have of us ephemera's, though? They subscribe to the "need to know"
school of information transmission. Frankly, I'd rather know all there is
to know about what has been happening on Ireta that has broken out so many
Thek. Wouldn't you?"
        Kai had to concur with that.
        "Well, then, I know three things about a Thek conference. One, they
don't happen frequently -- maybe once a century. Two, there is no way to
elude complete disclosure during one. I don't even know how Thek delve into
alien minds, but there is absolutely no doubt that they do." Lunzie's stern
expression relaxed to the point of a reassuring nod. "You have nothing to
fear, Kai. Your clear consciences and pure hearts will stand you in good
stead now. The third point is that, considering the time generally spent
within that Thek enclosure, the reports of participants confirm the fact
that they remember relatively little of what actually occurred during the
conference. In fact, only what concerned them in particular. I don't know
if a mind buffer will help, but I think it s worth a try in these
circumstances. Don't you?" She cocked her head, regarding Kai steadily.
        "Lunzie has made three valid points," Ford said with a quiet
earnestness that held a note of urgency. "And I'm going to have to land
soon."
        "I'm game," Varian said, straightening her shoulders and pointedly
not looking at Kai.
        "This conference is something you will want to remember, Kai, in
toto," Lunzie added gently. "Once in a while, we ephemera's need a break.
It's no disloyalty to the Thek, you know."
        With a sharp nod of his head, Kai agreed, despite some lingering
reluctance. He couldn't have said why he resisted what was eminently a
sensible precaution because he most emphatically wanted to know exactly
what had been happening on Ireta. Especially if the ARCT-10 had reported in
and could very well be on its way to retrieve the expedition.
        "Relax," Lunzie said, "clear your mind of thought, breath slowly
and deeply, ready to enter trance."
        Unlike a barrier situation, Lunzie merely reinforced commands
originally implanted during the training Varian and Kai had received as
Disciples, intended to prevent post hypnotic suggestions. She finished the
buffering just as Fordeliton brought the pinnace down, a slight distance
from the towering Thek edifice. A narrow aisle remained between two of the
Great-Big Thek while the Medium-Size Thek hovered. The smallest Thek which
had not fit into the roof of the building had locked themselves against the
sides like flying buttresses. A cathedral! Yes, Kai decided -- that's what
the structure resembles, and a suitable reverence suffused him.
        Sassinak and Aygar descended from their sleds, the young Iretan
looking at the Thek structure with out right suspicion. "Why have they done
that?" he asked Varian, then looked almost accusingly at Kai. "What's going
on? Why was I compelled to come?"
        "The Thek are about to tell you," Sassinak replied.
        "Then why don't they get on with it? Why do they need to build a
"monument"?" He made a derisive gesture toward the edifice.
        "You've been accorded a unique honor, young man," Lunzie said,
aware of Kai's growing antagonism.
        "Lately, I seem to be the recipient of many I could well do
without." Aygar's supercilious glance swept them all, resting finally on
the massive figure of Captain Cruss.
        "What's the matter with him? He shouldn't have trouble walking on
this planet."
        His comment caused the others to turn and look at the heavyworlder
whose gait was, indeed, curious. He seemed to be leaning slightly backward
and his legs moved only from the knee in an oddly constricted gait.
        "I don't think he approves of this meeting any more than you do,
Aygar." Lunzie smiled mirthlessly. "But he's attending it, will he or won't
he."
        Captain Cruss was near enough now for the expression on his face to
be visible: one of furious indignation and resistance. It could also be
seen that he wasn't walking, he was being transported just above ground
level and all the time trying to reach the ground to dig in his heels.
        "A little help from a friendly Thek would have saved us a lot of
trouble, wouldn't it?" Lunzie remarked to Sassinak, her eyes sparkling with
delight at the heavyworlder's predicament. "Will you be able to remember
the proceedings?" she asked the commander.
        "My memory will be clear, I assure you. Come, we are all here now.
It would be impolite to keep our hosts waiting."
        With a grin, Sassinak took Aygar by the arm and strode boldly into
the Thek monument. The unwilling Captain Cruss brought up the rear. The
instant he passed the portal, it closed with a soft thunk.
        "Cathedral" is quite appropriate, Kai thought, appraising his
bizarre surroundings. The illumination of the interior enhanced that
choice.
        "Is Tor here?" Varian asked Kai in a subdued voice.
        "I hope so," Kai murmured, scanning the individual triangles of
Thek making up the ceiling. Thin lines of light defining the various parts
of the whole abruptly closed. Yet there was no appreciable darkening.
        "I think they located their ancient Thek," Sassinak said, also
speaking in a low voice. She pointed to the far side.
        Kai now distinguished the outline of an object lying on the ground.
It seemed to be a collection of porous shards, a dull, dark, charcoal gray
rather than the usual Thek obsidian. "And if that is indeed a very ancient
Thek, we ephemera's will have to revise some favorite theories . . . and
some jokes."
        Kai wasn't sure her levity was appropriate, nevertheless he felt
oddly reassured by her comment.
        "Commander, I demand an explanation of the outrageous treatment to
which I have been subjected," Captain Cruss cried, his heavy voice
reverberating so loudly that the others winced.
        "Don't be stupid, Cruss." Sassinak pivoted on her heel to face the
huge man. "You know perfectly well the Thek are a law unto themselves. And
you are now subject to that law, and about to sample its justice."
        It occurred to Kai that they had inadvertently fallen into a
triangular pattern themselves: Cruss at one apex, Aygar at another, himself
and Varian at the third while Sassinak was at the center. That was the last
observation he had time to make for the Thek began to speak.
        "We have verified." The statement was a shock to Kai, not for its
content for he had assumed that was why this extraordinary meeting had been
convened, but because the statement was a full sentence, and because the
sound which provided the sentence seemed to move about the inner walls in
syllables. "Ireta is for Thek as it has been for hundreds of millions of
years. It will remain Thek. For these reasons . . ."
        A curious note sounded in Kai's mind at that point, but he had
control enough only to notice that Varian was similarly affected and then
conscious thought was impossible as a white sound enveloped them all.

CHAPTER TWENTY

        A groan restored Kai to his surroundings, a groan he echoed for his
skull pounded with an intensity that surpassed any previous affliction. He
was aware of other discomforts, a suffocating heat, of being drenched with
sweat and unable to focus his eyes. These discomforts were understandable
for the sun was directly over their heads. It had rained heavily and
recently to judge by the fetid humidity and the rusty mud surrounding the
depressed triangle of dry ground on which they reeled. Varian was clinging
to Kai, blinking to focus her eyes, and Sassinak was leaning against Aygar.
On the ground crouched Cruss in an attitude of such dejection that Kai felt
a detached pity for the heavyworlder.
        "Commander Sassinak!" Fordeliton's glad cry roused them from their
stupor. "Commander!" He rushed toward them, Lunzie and Florasse right
behind him. "You're all right? You've been in that conference for
four-and-a-half hours!"
        "Conference?" Sassinak frowned.
        "Don't expect sense from them now, Ford!" Lunzie paused to look in
each face before she took Varian and Kai by the arm and gestured Ford
assist his commander. "Let's just get them out of this sun."
        "What did those Thek do?" Florasse demanded. She was looking not at
Aygar but at the pathetically crumbled transporter captain.
        "Exactly what he deserved, I suspect," Lunzie replied.
        "Aygar?" Florasse turned the Iretan by the arm, giving him a little
shake. "He's in shock."
        "Quite likely. Get him in out of the sun. He could probably use a
stimulant, but he'll be himself in an hour or two."
        "But what's happened to them?" Florasse stared with growing anxiety
at the bowed Captain Cruss.
        "They've been in a Thek conference, an unusual experience. Aygar
will tell you what's pertinent when he recovers. Now, get him out of the
sun, woman. C'mon, Ford!" Lunzie led the way to the pinnace.
        In the relief provided by the relatively cool darkness of the
little ship, the three people visibly relaxed.
        "Shouldn't you give them something?" Fordeliton asked anxiously as
he swung the pinnace toward the cruiser.
        "I will when we get back to the ship. Some of that Sverulan brandy
would go down a treat, I'm sure."
        "Did your buffering work?"
        "I don't want to put it to the test just yet."
        Taking her hint, Ford lifted the pinnace for the short flight back
to the cruiser. By the time he had landed, Sassinak thanked him, rose and
calmly walked out of the pinnace and up the gangway to the cruiser. With
equal calm and slight smiles on their faces, Kai and Varian followed her.
Fordeliton hastened after them while Lunzie, able to smile now that her
friends were recovering, brought up the rear. With no hesitation, Sassinak
led the way to her quarters. There she made straight to her desk, taking
her seat and swiveling in a fluid motion to her console.
        "Pendelman? Recall the Wefts from the Heavyworld transport. Secure
all patrols. That ship will be taking off shortly.
        Then Sassinak swung about, blinking uncertainly. With an
exclamation of impatience, Lunzie looked at Fordeliton.
        "Where does she keep her liquor?"
        Fordeliton opened a cabinet near him, brought out a bottle and
glasses. Lunzie poured hefty shots and handed them around. Then she
motioned for Ford to pour drinks for them.
        "We could use a jolt, too, after all this excitement." Then she
lifted her glass. "To the survivors!"
        Responding automatically, Sassinak, Varian, and Kai drank, emptying
their glasses. The stimulant took immediate effect. Color came back into
their faces and their expressions regained their old liveliness.
        "Well, now, my friends, what have you to report?" Lunzie asked,
heavily stressing the last word.
        Sassinak frowned slightly, looking with surprise at the glass in
her hand, at the others seated opposite her. Kai sank deeply into his
chair, almost dropping his brandy glass while Varian, recognizing what she
had in her hand, took a healthy swig, and looked to Fordeliton for a
refill. He quickly passed the bottle about. Then they all began to talk at
once, abruptly recalled their manners, and fell silent until Sassinak
chuckled.
        "Can I assume from your reactions that the buffering worked?"
Lunzie asked.
        "It did, indeed, respected ancestor," Sassinak said. "I did recall
the patrols and the Wefts, didn't I, Ford? Good, that was, I believe, my
first order. Did Cruss survive?"
        "Barely!"
        Sassinak chuckled. "He took quite a beating." Her fingers gingerly
touched her temples. "We all did."
        "Despite our clear consciences and pure hearts," Varian added with
a sly grin at Lunzie.
        Sassinak depressed the comunit button. #Pendelman, request
Lieutenant Commander Dupaynil to join us. And didn't we just get exactly
the information we needed.
        "Cruss spilled his guts. Not that I blame him."
        "Then you know who's behind the piracy?"
        "Oh yes." Sassinak smiled beatifully. "I'll wait until Dupaynil
gets here. Kai and Varian have been covered with glory, too. Which is only
fair."
        "Yes, apparently we rescued Ger in the nick of time." Kai took up
the account, grinning broadly. "Ger was the Thek left here as a guardian --
"
        "This planet's a zoo, Lunzie. A sanctuary for the dinosaurs. The
Thek have been stocking it for millennia -- even before the cataclysm,"
Varian broke in excitedly. "Trizein, and all the other buffs were right,
the critters are from Mesozoic Terra."
        "Ger was caught in a massive earthquake," Kai said, "and buried so
deeply that it was unable to summon help. It had all but exhausted its
substance when the Thek started looking for it."
        "You see," Varian went on, "the Thek surveyed Old Terra eons ago
and were entranced by the dinosaurs. Long before the animals were
threatened with extinction by a climatic cataclysm, they had imported them
to Ireta which they knew would permanently provide the proper environment.
The Thek even brought the Rift grasses for the dinosaurs since Ireta has no
natural vitamin A. Dinosaurs are Thek pets."
        "Suitable combination, I expect," remarked Lunzie. "Both have
insatiable appetites."
        "Dimenon was exactly right when he said the Thek were gorging
themselves. They were!" Varian said with a crow of laughter.
        "Originally Ireta was slated to be a Thek feeding ground," Kai
said, taking up the tale again, "because of all that raw energy being
released after every good earthquake or tectonic shift. That's why those
old cores had been put down. Ger was in the process of digging them up. By
the strangest coincidence, the old core we first uncovered was actually
close to Ger when the quake trapped it. There's a Thek dating device on
those cores, and when the Thek ingested them, that's what they were looking
for. But the searchers were having a free meal at the same time. Young
Thek, especially, have to be closely supervised or they'll strip a planet!"
        "What!" Lunzie half rose from her chair while the three who had
endured the Thek conference favored her with smug expressions. "You can't
possibly imply that . . ."
        "That's my interpretation, Lunzie," Sassinak agreed. "We got
comprehensive, Thekian explanations though what we were supposed to
remember related only to our personal involvement in this adventure. Part
of the explanation was a large wedge of Thek history." She gave Fordelition
a stern look. "Which, if you value your rank and role as a Disciple
Lieutenant Commander, had best remain locked in your head. In their youth
as a species, the Thek were driven into space by their insatiable appetites
to discover planets which would supply their need for raw energy. They find
the transuranics especially succulent. Even then, fortunately, they had a
regard for developing species. Otherwise, a planet with no emerging
life-forms would be reduced to bare rock by Thek hungers."
        "The Thek are the Others," Lunzie gasped.
        "That is the inescapable conclusion," Sassinak agreed. "Thek are
nothing if not logical. It became apparent in a millennium that, if they
couldn't curtail their appetites, they ran the risk of eating themselves
out of the galaxy."
        "No wonder they have an affinity for dinosaurs," Fordeliton
exclaimed with a whoop of laughter.
        "We may all be grateful that the dinosaurs did not evolve into
space travelers," Sassinak replied.
        "And grateful, too, that the Thek have preserved them. But what
will happen now?"
        Varian beamed. "Because we are ephemera's, short-lived and
vulnerable, we would not make the mistake the Thek did, in leaving only one
guardian . . ."
        "You mean, zoo keeper," Kai said.
        "So I have the option to stay on Ireta," and Varian's expression
was tinged with awe, "as a planetary protector. I can study the giffs, all
the dinosaurs, and even the fringes if I feel like it. I may have as much
staff as I require." She turned to Kai expectantly, her eyes twinkling.
"Tell "em your good news, Kai."
        Kai grinned shyly. "Ireta is restricted, of course, as far as the
transuranics go, but I, and my "ilk", as they put it, have the right to
mine anything up to the transuranics for . . . is it as long as we live?
I'm not sure if the limit is just my lifetime."
        "No," said Lunzie. "By ilk, the Thek probably mean the ARCT-10 for
as long as it survives. You deserve it, Kai. You really do."
        "Curiously enough," Sassinak said into the respectful pause that
followed, "the Thek did appreciate the fact that you all have lost
irreplaceable time. In doing so, of course, you set up the circumstances
which retrieved the lost Ger and the forgotten planet. Thek justice is
unusual."
        "What about Aygar and the other Iretans?"
        Varian shot a quick glance at Kai whose expression was of resigned
disapproval. "The Thek lumped all humans in one group as survivors. In a
sense, that's correct. Aygar plans to stay."
        "He made that plain, Thek or not." Kai's tone held grudging
respect.
        "And the Thek will permit a limited support group for us and
however many of Aygar's Iretans plan to remain."
        "I wonder if some of them might consider enlisting in the Fleet,"
Sassinak mused. "Wefts are excellent guards but Ireta produced some superb
physical types. Ford, do see if we can recruit a few."
        "Tanegli?" Lunzie asked.
        "Mutiny cannot be excused, nor the mutineer exonerated," Sassinak
answered, her expression stern. "He is to be taken back to Sector
Headquarters to stand trial. The Thek were as adamant on that score as I
am."
        "And Cruss is being sent back?" asked Ford.
        Sassinak steepled her fingers, a satisfied smile playing at the
corners of her mouth. "Not only sent back but earthed for good. Neither he,
his crew, nor even any of the cryo passengers will ever leave their planet.
Nor will their transport lift again."
        "The Thek do nothing by halves, do they?"
        "They have been exercised -- if you can imagine a Thek agitated,"
Sassinak went on, "about the planetary piracies and patiently waiting for
us to do something constructive about the problem. The intended rape of
Ireta has forced them, with deep regret, to interfere." A polite rap on the
door interrupted her. At her response, Dupaynil opened the door, surveying
the group quickly. "On cue, for I have good news for you, Commander. Names,
only one of which was familiar to me." She beckoned the Intelligence
officer to take: a seat as she leaned forward to type information on the
terminal. "Parchandri is so conveniently placed for this sort of operation
. . ."
        "Inspector General Parchandri?" Fordeliton exclaimed, his
expression shocked.
        "The same."
        Lunzie chuckled cynically. "It makes sense to have a conspirator
placed high in Exploratory, Evaluation, and Colonization. He'd know exactly
which planetary plums were ready to be plucked."
        Kai and Varian regarded her with stunned expressions.
        "Who else, Sassinak?" Lunzie asked.
        The commander looked up from the visual display with a smug smile.
"The Sek of Formalhaut is a Federation Councilor of Internal Affairs. One
now understands just how his private fortune was accrued. Lutpostig appears
to be the Governor of Diplo, a heavyworlder planet. How convenient!
Paraden, it will not surprise you to discover, owns that: company which
supplied the grounded transport ship."
        "Doubtless others in his fleet will meet the same fate," Lunzie
said.
        "We could never have counted on uncovering duplicity at that level,
Commander," was Dupaynil's quiet assessment. He frowned slightly. "It
strikes me as highly unusual for a man at Cruss's level to know such
names."
        "He didn't," Sassinak replied equably. "He was only vaguely aware
that Commissioner Paraden was involved. The Thek extrapolated from what he
could tell them of recruitment procedures, suppliers, and what they
evidently extracted from the transport's data banks."
        "And how can we use the information they obtained?"
        "With great caution, equal duplicity and superior cunning,
Dupaynil, and undoubtedly some long and ardent discussions with the Sector
Intelligence Bureau. fortunately, for my hyper suspicious nature, I've
known Admiral Coromell for years and trust him implicitly. However, knowing
where to look for one's culprits is more than half the battle, even those
so highly placed."
        "You will keep us informed of your progress, won't you?" Lunzie
asked wistfully.
        "By reliable homing capsule," Sassinak replied, but her grin
quickly faded into regret. "I have been given sailing orders, too. So,
Fordeliton, brush up on your eloquence and see whom you can recruit from
among the Iretans. Kai, Varian, Lunzie, if you need any more supplies to
tide you over until the ARCT-10 arrives, it will be my pleasure to oblige.
Just have them loaded into the pinnace. I'll have Borander deliver you back
to your camp. Just one more thing -- "Sassinak swiveled her chair about,
fingering the digital lock on a cabinet behind her. She extracted first
one, then with a shrug of her shoulders, two more of the distinctive square
bottles of Sverulan brandy. "Clean glasses, please, Ford, for I've a toast
to propose."
        Glasses were found, generously filled with brandy. Sassinak rose to
her feet, the others followed suit.
        "To the brave, ingenious, and honored survivors of this planet!