I'm looking at the chrono.
Cleiti and Terilla giggled.
Couldn't we land and see the fliers up close? asked Bonnard, now wistful.
Rule number one, never bother animals when feeding. Rule number two, never approach strange animals without first closely observing their habits. Just because the fliers haven't attempted to take bites out of us doesn't mean they aren't as dangerous as those mindless predators.
Aren't we ever going to observe them up close? Bonnard was persistent.
Sure, when I've applied rule number two, but not today. I'm to bring the sled back to the pitchblende site.
Can I come with you when you do come back?
That's possible.
Promise?
No. I just said it was possible, Bonnard, and that's what I mean.
I'm never going to learn anything on this trip if I don't get out and do some field work, away from screens and . . .
If we brought you back to the ship with a part or parts missing, left in the maw of a fringe or a flier, your mother would give up the deep six. So be quiet. Varian used a sharper tone than she normally employed with Bonnard but his insistence, his air that he had only to wheedle enough and his wish would be granted, annoyed her. She was sympathetic to his irritation with constant restrictions. To the ship-born, planets gave illusions of safety because ship-learned dangers were insulated from one by an atmosphere miles deep, whereas in space only thin metal shells prevented disaster and any broaching of that shell was lethal. No shell, no danger in simplistic terms.
Would you run through that tape, Bonnard, and see if we have good takes on the fringies, she asked him after a long pause, mutinous on his part, firm on hers. There's something I want to check out with Trizein when we get back to camp. Fardles, but I wish we had access to the EV's data banks.
After another long pause during which she heard the slight whir of rapidly spun tapes, Bonnard spoke. You know, those fliers remind me of something I've seen before. I can almost see the printed label on the tape sleeve . . .
What about this tape?
Oh, clear pictures, Varian.
They've reminded me of something, too, Bonnard, but I can't drag it out of storage either.
My mother always says that if you're worrying over something, go to sleep thinking about it and you'll remember in the morning, said Terilla.
Good idea, Terilla. I'll do so and so can you, Bonnard. Meanwhile, we're over new territory again. Man the telltale.
They got some good tags on a stumpy-legged ruminant, spotted but couldn't tag more small mammals like Dandy, and surprised several flocks of scavengers at their work. They returned to the mining site just as the gloom thickened, as Terilla put it. Kai was waiting with Dimenon and Margit with the equipment which the sled must transport.
It's a very rich find, Varian, said Dimenon. He looked very tired and immensely satisfied. He started to add more but stopped, turning to Kai.
And the next valley over shows another saddle deposit as large and as rich, said Kai, a grin creasing his sweat and dirt smeared face.
And probably the next one beyond that, said Margit, sighing wearily. Only that can wait until tomorrow.
EV should have given us at least one remote scanner, Kai? said Dimenon, as he helped load the instruments. This sounded to Varian like the continuation of an argument.
I requisitioned one, standard. Supply said they'd no more in stock. If you'll remember, we passed quite a few promising systems in the last standard year.
When I think of the slogging we'd be saved . . .
"I dunno," said Margit, interrupting Dimenon. She placed a coil of wire on the sled deck. "We do so raking much by remote. I know I've done something today." She groaned. I feel it in every bone and in muscles I didn't know I had. We're soft. No wonder the heavy-worlders sneer at us."
Them! A world of scorn was expressed in Dimenon's single word.
Kai and Varian exchanged quick glances.
I know they were bloody hungover or something earlier on, but I was glad enough of Paskutti's muscle this afternoon? Margit went on, pulling herself into the sled and settling down beside Terilla. Get in, Di, I'm dying for a wash, and I bloody hope that Portegin's de-odourizer has fixed the water stink. Hydro-telluride does not enhance the body beautiful. So how did you pass the day, scamp? she asked Terilla.
While the three young people kept a conversation going, Varian wondered, as she set the sled on its baseward course, just what happened to occasion Dimenon's captious attitude. Perhaps it was no more than irritation with the heavy-worlder's behaviour in the morning, and reaction to the excitement of such a rich find. She must ask Kai later. She didn't want her team coming into contention with his, and she would be the first to admit the heavy-worlders had been less than efficient. Or was Dimenon still irked over last night's
alcohol rationing?
There were dangers inherent in mixing planet and ship-bred groups and EV kept it down to a minimum whenever possible. The Iretan expedition had needed the brawn of the heavy-worlders and Varian and Kai would simply have to work out the problems.
Varian was a bit depressed. A computer could give you a probability index on any situation. This mission had had a good one. But a computer couldn't adjust its input with such unexpected details as a stink and constant gloom or drizzle affecting tempers or a cosmic storm cutting off communications with the mother ship: it certainly hadn't printed out the fact that a planet listed as unexplored was now giving immutable evidence of previous survey, not to mention anomalies like . . . But if, Varian thought, there had been the survey, maybe such things as pentadactyl development and aquatic collapsing parallelograms were entirely possible! Yet which was indigenous? Both couldn't be!
Fliers having to find grass so far from their natural habitat? Varian's spirits lifted again with excitement. And if the golden fliers, who were pentadactyl, were not indigenous, then the herbivores and predators they'd so far encountered were not indigenous either! Not anomalies: conundrums. And how? By whom? The Others? No, not the ubiquitous Others. They destroyed all life, if there were any substance to the rumour that such sentient beings existed.
The Theks might know about the previous survey . . . if Kai could generate them into a serious attempt at recall. By Matter! She'd sit through an interchange herself to find out! Wait till she told Kai that!
CHAPTER SIX
Kai had as much to reflect upon as Varian as he sledded back to the encampment. For one thing, he was minus some irreplaceable equipment which Paskutti and Tardma had dropped down a crevice. EV had allowed him only the minimum of seismic spares and the last group he'd expect to be careless with equipment were the heavy-worlders. They moved so deliberately they avoided most accidents. He couldn't restrict the heavy-worlders from drinking the distillation but he'd have to ask Lunzie to dilute any given them from now on. He couldn't afford more losses.
An expeditionary force was permitted so many credits in loss of equipment due to unforeseeable accidents but above that figure, the leaders found their personal accounts docked. The loss of the equipment was bothering Kai more than any possible credit subtraction: it was a loss caused by sheer negligence. That irritated him. And his irritation annoyed him more because this should have been a day of personal and team satisfaction: he had achieved what he had been sent to do. Ruthlessly now he suppressed negative feelings.
Beside him Gaber was chattering away in the best spirits the cartographer had exhibited since landing. Berru and Triv were discussing the next day's work in terms of which of the coloured lakes would be the richest in ore-minerals. Triv was wishing for just one remote sensor, with a decent infra-red eye to pierce the everlasting clouds. A week's filming in a polar orbit and the job would be done.
We do have the probe's tapes. Berru said.