She'd ask Kai about it when she returned. Maybe she simply hadn't recorded accurately, or the sled had been used here when she'd been busy elsewhere.
She showed Bonnard how to operate the tagger, Cleiti how to read the life-form telltale, and Terilla how to be sure the recorder was functioning as they'd be passing over relatively undetailed terrain. The youngsters were delighted to have some responsibility and listened attentively as Varian explained the quartering pattern she would follow as they surveyed the general vicinity for dangerous life forms. Although Varian was sceptical about the duration of their enthusiasm once the tasks had settled into routine, their exuberance made a nice change from the sober company of the heavy worlders.
The three young people hadn't had that much occasion to see the raw life of a virgin planet, and had had only the one trip since they'd landed on Ireta. They chattered happily as Varian lifted the sled and circled the geological site.
At first there wasn't much to telltale or tag. Most of the animal life was small and kept hidden from sight. Bonnard was jubilant when he tagged some tree-dwellers which Varian thought must be nocturnal since they didn't so much as move from their tree boles when the sled overpassed them. Terilla periodically reported the recorder functioning but the ground cover would make details of the area difficult to read. In the low foothills, as they quartered back towards the pitchblende saddle, the sled's noise flushed a group of fleet little animals which Bonnard gleefully tagged and Terilla triumphantly taped. Slightly put out by the success of the others, Cleiti's turn came when she read telltales of a cave-dwelling life form. They did not show themselves but the readings were low enough on the scale to suggest small creatures, burrowers or timid night beasts that would be unlikely to cause problems for any secondary camp.
In fact, Varian had to conclude that nothing of any potentially dangerous size could be found in the foothills surrounding the pitchblende discovery. Nonetheless, size did not, as she pointed out to the children, relate to the potential danger of a creature. Some of the smallest were the most deadly. The one you could hear coming was the safest: you could take evasive action. Bonnard snorted at the notion of running away." I like plants better than animals," said Terilla.
Plants can be just as dangerous, replied Bonnard in a repressive tone.
Like that sword plant? asked Terilla with such innocence that Varian, who was suppressing her laughter at the girl's apt query, could not consider the child guilty of malice.
Bonnard growled at the reminder of his painful encounter with that particular plant and was patently trying to think of a put-down for Terilla.
Your instruments are transmitting, said Varian, to forestall a quarrel.
The sled was passing over an area of squat trees and thick undergrowth which triggered the telltale at a large enough scale and sufficient concentration to warrant some investigation. The terrain was rocky and steep which suggested the inhabitants were not ruminants. However, after circling without flushing the creatures, Varian decided that the area was far enough from the ore deposit to be a negligible danger. She marked the co-ordinates for later study when a group expedition could be mounted. Despite the general high level of violent life and death on Ireta, one could be too cautious. If Kai sited the secondary camp high enough up in the foothills to avoid the worst predatory life, the force-screen would be sufficient to deter poisonous insects and dangerous smaller animals. It wasn't as if a herd of Mabels was likely to come rampaging up the slopes and stampeding through the force-screen.
She finished her survey, cautioned the youngsters to check the seat belts they had loosened to attend to their instruments, and, tapping in the co-ordinates for the inland sea, gave the sled full power.
Even so it took a good hour and a half to reach their destination. She wished that Divisti had had a chance to run an analysis of the grasses which Kai and Bakkun had collected at the Rift Valley. The report might have given Varian some insight to the habits of the fliers but, perhaps it was wiser to observe these fascinating creatures without preconceived notions.
Varian was pleased with the behaviour of the youngsters on the flight: they asked more intelligent questions than she'd been led to expect from them, sometimes straying in areas of which she had little knowledge. They seemed annoyed that she was not a portable data retrieval unit.
Cleiti was the first to spot the fliers, and preened herself for that feat later on. The creatures were not, as Varian had unconsciously expected, perched on the cliffs and rocks of their natural habitat, nor singly fishing. A large group not a flock for that was a loose collection of a similar species, and the fliers gave the appearance of organization was gathered above the broad end of the inland water, at its deepest part, where the cliffs narrowed to form the narrow isthmus through which the parent sea pushed the tide waters to flush the vast inland basin; a tide which seldom had force enough to crawl more than a few inches up the verge on the farthest shore, fifty kilometres away.
I've never seen birds doing that, Bonnard exclaimed.
When did you ever see free birds in flight? asked Varian, a bit chagrined that her tone emerged sharper than she'd intended.
I have landed, you know, said Bonnard with mild reproach. And there are such things as training tapes. I watch a lot of those. So, those aren't acting like any other species I've ever seen.
Qualifications accepted, Bonnard, I haven't either.
The golden fliers were sweeping low in what had to be considered a planned formation. The sled was a bit too far for unaided vision of the observers to perceive exactly what happened to jerk the line of fliers to half their previous forward speed. Some of the fliers were dragged downward briefly but, as they beat their wings violently to compensate, they recovered their positions in the line and slowly, the whole mass began to lift up, away from the water's surface.
Hey, they've got something in their claws, said Bonnard who had appropriated the screen from Cleiti and had adjusted it to the distance factor. I'd swear it is a net. It is! And they're dragging fish from the water. Scorch it! And look what's happening below!
Varian had had time to adjust her mask's magnification and the girls had crowded over the small viewer plate with Bonnard. They could all see clearly the roiling water, and the frenzied thrusts and jumps of the aquatic life which unsuccessfully tried to penetrate the nets and the captured prey.
Nets! How in the raking rates do fliers achieve nets? Varian's comment was more for herself than the children.
I see claws half down their wings, there, where it goes triangular. Can't see clearly enough but, Varian, if they've an opposing digit, they could make nets.
They could and they must have, because we haven't seen anything else bright enough on Ireta to make 'em for 'em.
Cleiti giggled, smothering the sound in her hand. The Ryxi won't like this.
"Why not?" Bonnard demanded, regarding his friend with a frown. intelligent avian life is very rare, my xenob says."
The Ryxi like being the only smart ones, said Cleiti. You know how Vrl used to be . . . Somehow the child lengthened her neck, hunched her shoulders forward, swept her hands and arms back like folded wings and assumed such a haughty expression by pulling her mouth and chin down that she exactly resembled the arrogant Vrl.
Don't ever let him see that, Varian said, tears of laughter in her eyes. But it's a terrific mime, Cleiti. Terrific.
Cleiti grinned at their success as Bonnard and Terilla regarded her with expressions akin to awe.