“Here he is now.” Zeleny the engineer aid. “It’s all your fault for spoiling him. Soon he’ll be old enough to bite. Give him his fruit juice, God love ‘im.”
The next day we rose early, at the break of dawn. Poloskov unpacked and programmed the metal detector while I loaded nets and the survey camera into the all terrain vehicle.
We were so occupied with our own work that we missed the moment the Crockadee bird put in its appearance. All I saw was that some sort of shadow had fallen on me and I heard the beating of wings that sounded more like beaten sails.
“Down!” Poloskov shouted.
I fell onto the grass.
The claws snapped shut right over my head and the Crockadee, having missed me, beat its wings to gain altitude in order to make another run.
It was only then that I managed to get a look at it.
It was an enormous monster about the same size as a small passenger flyer. It had very narrow, long wings, a short tail and powerful, clenched claws, like the claw of a steam shovel. The bird made a narrow circle, and, like a dive bomber, headed back down out of the sky towards me.
I tried to crawl away but realized I would never make it.
I closed my eyes shut and clung tightly to the ATV’s wheel. At that moment a shot rang out.
As it happened the engineer Zeleny was able to run to the airlock, grab a pistol and shoot at the bird when it was all of three meters from me.
The bird beat its wings and rose higher and higher into the air. One of its feathers fell and landed beside me. The feather was about a meter long and so hard that its end was driven into the dry ground to stand upright like a knight’s sword.
I pulled the feather out of the ground and showed it to Alice.
“Listen,” I told her, “the owner of this feather is extremely angry and would really like to have one of us over for dinner. You know what I mean?”
“I understand. But it can’t carry away the ATV, can it?”
“No, it can’t/”
So I’ll go with you in the ATV.”
“No, Alice.” I told her. “I’m going out on a reconnaissance now and I’ll be back around supper time. All of us, other than you, are very busy. No one else even to prepare supper and feed the animals. And don’t forget that the Sewing Spider is going to run out of silk.”
“Oh, all right.” Alice agreed.
“How’s it coming with the metal detector?” I asked Poloskov, who was sitting in the ATV.
“I don’t understand it..” He answered. “For some reason its not working. It’s never misbehaved before, now it’s not working.”
The All Terrain Vehicle drove slowly through the mass of bushes, bouncing through the rough spots and easily rolling down the hills. The bushes vanished in front of the ATV and popped up again behind us after we had passed. I was thinking how fine it would be to catch one of those birds. I had learned they were called Crockadees back in Palaputra. I really wanted to get one of those monsters for the Zoo, but I understood we would hardly be able to transport it back to Earth on the Pegasus. On the other hand, if we could find one of their nests, I could obtain a fledgling. The nests must be somewhere off in the high mountains none of the trees could withstand the weight of that bird!.
I turned toward the distant mountains. My road was crossed by procession of long-legged, yellow reptiles. In front, picking his way slowly, came the tallest; each succeeding reptile was shorter and shorter…. I counted all of twenty three. The last of the reptiles was very tiny. I could have caught him, but did not bother. First we would have to determine just what, exactly, they, and see if it was possible to transport them back to
A crockadee bird fly overhead, far high above us. It had set course for the mountains. Most likely the birds nested there.
I launched an automatic net and caught a blue butterfly with meter long wings with it. While I was using the robot arms to free the butterfly and place it in the ATV’s lockers without damaging its wings the videophone’s screen lit up showing Poloskov, a look of concern on his face.
“Listen,” he said. I just launched the metal detector satellite.”
“Great.” I said. “Give me a moment. I’m trying to disentangle this butterfly..”
“But the link with it has been cut off.”
“With the metal detector?”
“Yes. This has never happened before. I checked everything out myself. There minutes after launch, the metal detector went dead.”
“Which means you’ll have to go up in the cutter, catch the darned thing, and fix it.” I said, carefully placing the butterfly into a container.
“That was what I wanted to tell you. I’m setting off now; you should return to the ship. I really don’t like this planet.”
“You’re wrong, Gena.” I said. “The planet is tremendous. I’m glad we came here.”
“And what if the Second Captain really died here?”
“You believe that?”
“I don’t know. But if such an experienced explorer could be killed here, that means this planet is hiding some truly horrendous danger about which we do not even suspect.”
“And what if his engines just failed. That happens with even the best of ships. Or what if he was killed by one of the local animals. For example, the Crockadee. Did you get a look at the claws on that thing?”
“I most certainly have.”.
Poloskov turned off the screen.
Still another bird flew past overhead, headed for the mountains, and I committed its line of flight to my memory. Most certainly that was where they nested. We would most definitely have to visit there. Sunset came quickly. I headed back to the ship.
I parked the ATV right at the base of the steps and, in darkness and went up the steps to the bridge. The first thing I did was determine where my companions were. Zeleny was in the machine ship performing miracles with his tools. Alice called out from her cabin. She said she was reading. Then I contacted Poloskov.
“How’s it going.” I asked.
“I’’ve finally located where the recognizance satellite is.” Poloskov said. “I’ll catch up with it momentarily. Don’t go off-line.”
I sat down by the port and listened while Poloskov kept muttering things to himself while trying to corner the errant machine. The short night came to an end. I looked outside at the forest, the mountains, and considered what route I would take tomorrow. Along the river for a while, then up into the hills… I would hae to take Alice. Nothing could threaten her in the ATV…
“Caught it!” Poloskov declared victory. “Putting it into the hold and coming back now.”
At that moment I saw Alice and go out onto the field in front of the Pegasus. She was walking carefully, on tiptoe, looking up at the ports, but she did not notice me.
It was cool and humid and Alice had put on her fluffy yellow jumper. It was evident she was planning to go somewhere far off. But more remarkable was the Blabberyap bird pacing back and forth in front of her on the grass. He was tied to a long chain; Alice kept the other end of the chain in her hands. She said something to the Blabberyap bird and the bird bounded into the air. Alice let the chain out as far as she could so as not to interfere with the bird’s flight. He beat his wings slowly, as though he understood that Alice could not fly, and headed toward the forest.
At that point I came to my senses.
I turned on the loud-speaker and shouted to the entire forest:
“Alice, have you gone out of your mind? Come back at once!”
But then I was afraid she could not hear me and I ran down the landing steps to grab her and return her to the ship.
When I made it to the airlocks Alice was already at the edge of the forest.
And cruising overhead was an enormous Crockadee.