“Good,” said Kai and motioned Triv to return to help Bonnard. “We can be gone without a trace left for them to follow or find, bless this ceramic hull.”
Once the resourceful boy and Triv had swung the power packs safely into the shuttle, they dosed the lock. Kai and Varian took Bonnard into the pilot's compartment where he could diagram the shuttle's position and the clearest way up the hill.
Paskutti's fist had wrecked the outside view screens as well as the communication unit so maneuvers would be blind. Not, Varian pointed out, that they could have seen all that much even with night-masks and they couldn't, under the circumstances, use the shuttle's exterior spotbeams. Both Kai and Varian could recall the co-ordinates for the inland sea without the tapes now spread across the compound's littered floor.
Triv and Dimenon synthesized enough padding to cushion the wounded on the bare plastic deck, and had set Margit and Aulia to clear up the worst of the spillage in Trizein's laboratory. He was unconscious again, the strain having been excessive for a man of his years. Lunzie thought he might have suffered a heart seizure as a result of the brutal treatment.
Manoeuvring on the bare minimum of power, Kai and Varian, each with one good hand, eased the shuttle out from under its burden of Hadrasaur corpses, up the hill and onto a course for the inland sea.
During the trip, Lunzie synthesized a hyper-saturated tonic to reduce the effects of delayed shock and made certain every single person took their dose, either as a drink or a spray. With Triv and Dimenon's assistance, Portegin began to raid all unnecessary circuits to see if he could jury rig even an outgoing signal.
When they reached the inland sea, Kai hovered the shuttle while Varian, the lock iris partly open, shouted verbal instructions to the terrace they had happily occupied that rest day, it seemed so long ago. When the lock was half a metre above the terrace, Varian and Triv jumped down. They would have to guide the shuttle into the cave, feeding Kai directions over their wrist communits. Since the heavy-worlders were sure of their deaths in the dome, it was unlikely any of them would be listening in on their own units.
The mouth of the cave was not large enough to accept the central bulge of the shuttle, but, by steadily pressing in against the rock, they forced a way through, ignoring the score marks on the ceramic skin of the shuttle.
Varian, standing in the darkness of the terrace, couldn't understand why the grating noise and vibrations hadn't aroused the entire population of the cliff but no crested head emerged to investigate.
Triv lowered Varian down to the cave by belt line. Then, having secured one end on a rocky spur on the terrace, he joined her. The shuttle was far enough inside the cave not to be immediately visible. But Triv and Varian gathered up masses of dried vegetation and threw them in camouflage over the stern of the shuttle. Dimenon, Margit and Portegin came out to help, spattering the top and sides with moistened cave dung.
It didn't take long but everyone was relieved to be inside the shuttle, with the iris closed behind them. Then the others settled themselves with what comfort they could find.
“You are going to rest, aren't you, Lunzie,” asked Kai, hunkering down by her side as she tended Trizein.
She gave a snort. “I'll have no option as soon as Discipline releases. But Trizein should be all right. It's natural for his system to seek repair in rest. And there won't be anything to disturb him. How're you?” she asked bluntly, glancing at sealed wrist and then more intently at his eyes.
“I'm still under Discipline, but not for much longer.”
She filled her spray gun. “I'll give everyone else slightly more sedation than necessary. That'll give us a chance for enough rest.”
She moved about the cabin then, administering the spray.
Varian tapped Kai on the shoulder.
“We've accommodation forward, Kai.”
He glanced round the recumbent forms and then followed her, gratefully lowering himself on the deck on the padding. Thin but thermal lined sheets had been fashioned and ought, he thought, to suffice. The ship would keep the interior temperature at a comfortable level for sleepers. Lunzie and Triv joined them and settled down, too.
“It could be worse, Kai,” said the physician, as if she read his thoughts as he stared down the bare cabin at the other sleepers. “We only lost Gaber and that fool asked for it with his tardy heroics.”
“Terilla and Cleiti?” asked Varian.
“Were mauled about, but no more. Worse for the psyche and the body. One doesn't wish that sort of treatment for anyone. . .” Lunzie grimaced.
“I'm more concerned about their reaction towards Kai and myself when we seemed not to defend or protect them . . .”
Lunzie smiled. "They understand that! I know Cleiti's parents are Disciples and I suspect Terilla's mother is. What they can't understand is the heavy-worlders" metamorphosis into brutal, cruel temperaments." Lunzie sighed. "All in all, I think we comported ourselves rather well, considering the odds against us and the unexpectedness of that mutiny."
Suddenly her body sagged and she sighed again, with relief.
“I'm off,” she said, fumbling with shaking hands for the sedative gun. “Are you two ready for it?”
“Leave it,” said Kai. “We can do ourselves.”
Triv offered his arm to the physician. “I'm off it, too, Lunzie.” The release of Discipline was obvious in the grey that seeped into his complexion. He was nearly asleep before Lunzie had fully administered the drug. “I'll wake first,” he mumbled, and his head dropped to one side.
Lunzie snorted as she turned the spray on herself. “Not if I beat you to it, my friend. That's the marvel of Discipline, or is it the bane, working even when you don't want it to.” She exhaled raggedly and closed her eyes. “you've done well, leaders! You can rest easy on that score. Never met a . . bet . . . ter . . .”
Varian chuckled. “You might know Lunzie would leave a compliment unspoken.” She kept her voice low though not even a repeat stampede would have wakened the physician or the other sleepers. “Kai? Will Tor respond?”
“He's more likely to than any other Thek.”
“When?”
Discipline must be leaving her, Kai thought, hearing the anxiety in her roughened voice. He took her good hand in his and carried it to his lips. She smiled, despite her worry, at the caress.
“I'd say it will be a week before he could possibly arrive. I think we can hold them together that long, don't you?”
“After today, yes, I think we can. But, Kai, they don't know we've no contact with EV Thek help is grand but pretty poor consolation because it's debatable.”
“I know. It is, however, contact.” He felt Discipline leaving him, felt the massive fatigue, like an intolerable weight, press down on his abused body. Muhlah, but he'd be almighty stiff when he woke.
“Are you released, Kai? You look it.”
He laughed softly, noting the drain of colour from her face. He lifted the spray gun.
"Wait." She raised herself on her good elbow and kissed him on the lips, a gentle kiss but nonetheless an accolade. I don't want to fall asleep kissing you."
“I appreciate that consideration,” he said. And gave her a quick, affectionate kiss, pressing the spray against her arm, and then his own. He arranged his limbs and just had time to curl his fingers about hers before sleep overtook him.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Kai was not the only stiff one when they finally woke. And Lunzie had roused before Triv, which put her in a good mood. Trizein was improving, she told the leaders as she handed them each beakers of a steaming nutritious broth. Her own special recipe, she said, guaranteed to circulate blood through abused muscles and restore tissue to normal.