That only sounded land mass and ocean depth. No definition, no infra-red to penetrate that eternal cloud cover.
I asked for a proper pre-landing remote sensing, Gaber said, the note of petulance back in his voice
So did I, said Kai, and was told there wasn't a suitable satellite in stores. We have to do it the hard way, in person.
That would seem to be the criterion for this expedition? said Gaber, giving Kai a sly glance. Everything's done the hard way.
You've gone soft, Gaber, That's all, said Triv. Not enough time in the grav gym on shipboard. I enjoy the challenge, frankly. I've gone flabby. This trip's good for all of us. We're spoiled with a punch-a-button-dial-a-comfort system. We need to get back to nature, test our sinews, circulate our blood and . . .
Breath deeply of stinking air? asked Gaber when Triv, carried away by his own eloquence, briefly faltered.
What, Gaber? Lost your nose filters again?
Gaber was easy to tease and Triv continued in a bantering way until Kai turned the sled through the gap in the hills to their encampment. Kai had affected not to acknowledge Gaber's glance although, tied in with Gaber's notion of planting, doing everything the hard way could well be a prelude to the abandonment that was euphemistically termed planting. It could account for quite a number of deletions in Kai's original requisition list. Remote sensors were expensive equipment to leave behind with a planted colony. But, if the colony were supposed to be self-sufficient, surely some mining equipment would have been included so that they could refine needed metals for buildings and for replacement of worn-out parts, like sled members. There would have been . . . Do it the hard way rang ominously in Kai's mind. He'd better have a long chat with Varian as soon as he could.
However, if this expedition were genuine the urgent need for the transuranics was a chronic condition in the FPS then someone, if not their own ARTC-10 EV, would strip the message from the beamer satellite, and take the appropriate action of returning to Ireta to extract the all-important ores and minerals and, incidentially, rescue them. The positive thought encouraged Kai, and he employed the rest of the trip by formulating messages; first to the Thek and then for the long distance capsule. No, he'd only the one capsule. Two large deposits did not really constitute dispatching it. So, first he would frame a message for his next contact with the Thek about the old cores, and the uranium deposits. He would hold the ldc until he could justify its trip. He'd no genuine cause for alarm, apart from a vague suspicion of an ageing cartographer.
To his surprise, the heavy-worlders who had left the site considerably before him to return by lift-belt, had not arrived at the compound. The other sleds had all returned safely. The youngsters were cosseting Dandy while Lunzie watched. She used her over-seeing as an excuse not to answer the importunities of Portegin and Aulia for more joy juice. He saw neither Varian nor Trizein and had decided she must be in the xeno-chemist's laboratory in the shuttle when the heavy-worlders, in their neat formation, came swooping in from the north. The north? He started towards the veil lock to ask Paskutti about such a detour when Varian hailed him from the shuttle. She sounded excited so he hurried over, leaving Paskutti till another time.
Kai, Trizein thinks he knows why the fliers must need the grasses, she said when he got near enough. The stuff is full of carotene . . . Vitamin A. They must need it for eyesight and pigmentation.
Odd that they'd have to go such a distance for a basic requirement.
But it substantiates my hunch that the pentadactyls are not indigenous to this world.
Kai was lifting his foot through the iris and stopped, grabbing at the sides to balance himself.
Not indigenous? What in the name of raking . . . what do you mean? They have to be indigenous. They're here.
They didn't originate here, and Varian gestured him to come into the shuttle. Further, those parallelograms I saw today aren't even vaguely arthropods, which would fit in with the vertebrates we've discovered like the herbivores, predators and even the fliers.
You're not making any sense.
I am. This planet isn't. You don't find animals forced to go hundreds of kilometres from their proper environment to acquire a dietary necessity. What is essential to them is generally supplied right where they live!
Now, wait a minute, Varian. Think. If your pentadactyls are not indigenous, they were brought here. Who, why would anyone, want to relocate animals as large as that predator or your Mabel?
She regarded him steadily, as if she expected him to know the answer to his question.
You should know. They've already tipped us off. The Theks, slow-top, she said with some asperity when he remained silent. The inscrutable Theks. They've been here before. They left those seismic devices.
That makes no sense, Varian.
It makes a lot of sense.
What reason could the Theks possibly have for such an action?
They've probably forgotten, Varian said, grinning mischievously. Along with the fact that they'd surveyed this planet before.
They had reached Trizein's lab and he was contemplating the enlarged image of some fibres.
Of course, we'd need to have one of those avians of yours, Varian, to discover if it requires carotene, Trizein was saying as if he didn't realize that Varian had left the lab.
We've Mabel, said Varian, and little Dandy.
You've animals in this compound? Trizein blinked with astonishment.
I told you we had, Trizein. The slides you analyzed yesterday and the day before . . .
Ah, yes, I remember now, but it was obvious to his listeners that he didn't remember any such thing.
Mabel and Dandy aren't fliers, Kai said. They're completely different species.
Indeed they are, but they are also pentadactyl. So is the fang-face and he needed the grasses.
Mabel and Dandy are herbivorous, said Kai, and the predator and the fliers aren't.
Varian considered that qualification. Yes, but generally speaking, carnivores absorb sufficient Vitamin C from the animals they eat who do get it regularly in their diet. She shook her head over the quandary. Then fang-face wouldn't need to go to the valley. He'd get enough from chewing Mabel's flank. I don't make any sense out of it yet. Besides, the fliers may have another reason for gathering grass, as Terilla pointed out today.
You've lost me, said Kai, and then directed Varian's attention to Trizein who had gone back to his microscope viewer and was oblivious to their presence again.
You'll understand when you see the tapes we got today of those fliers, Kai. C'mon, unless you've got something else to do?
Frame messages to the Theks but let me see what you taped first.
By the way, Kai, said Varian following him out of the lab, we didn't encounter any life-forms in the vicinity of the pitchblende saddle that would cause a secondary camp there any trouble. If the camp's set up properly, and preferably on a prominence and the force-screen posted deep, your team should be safe enough.
That's good news. Not that I think yo'd've scared anyone off with tales of herds of fang-faces.
Fang-faces, for the record, are solitary hunters.
They had reached the pilot cabin and Varian inserted the tape for playback, explaining her conclusions and her desire to investigate the golden furred fliers" colony more closely at the earliest opportunity.
How closely, Varian? asked Kai. They're not small and, as I remember, those wings are strong and could be dangerous. I'd hate to get attacked by that beak.
So would I. So I'm not going to be. I'll go slowly, Kai, but if they're as intelligent as the evidence suggests, I may even be able to approach them on a personal basis. When Kai began to protest, she held up her hand. The fliers are not stupid like Mabel, or scared like Dandy, or dangerous like fang-face. But I cannot give up the opportunity to investigate an aerial species that acts in such an organized manner.