Vrl, politely slowing his speech to a rate which must have been frustrating to him, said that he wasn't worried; that was for the Slows to fret about. Vrl's first report was the important one for his people: it confirmed the initial probe analysis that this planet contained no indigenous intelligent life form and could adequately support his race. Vrl was forwarding by interplanetary drone a full report for Kai's interest. Vrl ended by saying that all were in good health and full feather. Then he asked what winged life had been observed on Ireta.
Kai told him, speaking as fast as he could get the words past his teeth, that they had observed several aerial life forms from a distance and would investigate further when possible. He refrained from naming one form as the scavengers they were but promised, at Vrl's liquidly trilled request, to forward a full tape when completed. The Ryxi as a species had one gross sin: they hated to think that another aerial life form might one day challenge their unique position in FSP. This prejudice was one reason why Ryxi were not often included in EV complements. The other valid reason was that Ryxi fretted in enclosed spaces to the point of suicide. Very few bothered to qualify for Exploratory Services since they were so psychologically ill-suited to the life. Necessity had forced them into this mission and most of the members had spent the journey time in cryonic suspension. Vrl had been awakened two ship weeks before touchdown to be apprised of the necessary routine of report and contact with the other two sections. While Vrl, like all his ilk, was an interesting creature, vital, flamboyant with his plumage and personality, Kai and Varian were relieved to have the Theks along as balance.
“Did Vrl remember to be there?” asked Varian, entering the control cabin.
“Yes, and all's well with him, though he's mighty curious about winged life here.”
“They always are, those jealous feathers!” Varian made a face. “I remember a deputation from Ryxi at University on Chelida. They wanted to vivisect those winged tree Rylidae from Eridani 5.”
Kai suppressed a sympathetic shudder. He wasn't surprised. The Ryxi were known to be bloody-minded. Look at their courtship dance – males armed with leg spurs and the victor usually killing his opponent. You couldn't quite excuse that on the grounds of survival of the fittest. You didn't have to kill to improve the genotype.
“Is there another pepper going? I've been trying to keep up with my team mates.” She slid into the chair.
Kai snorted at that folly and handed her a container of stimulant, chuckling.
"I know we don't have to keep up with the heavy-worlders Varian said with a groan, "and I know that they know that we can't, but I can't help trying."
“It's frustrating. I know.”
“So do I. Oh, Trizein says the little creature is indeed mammal and will need a lactoprotein, heavy in calcium, glucose, salt and a good dollop of phosphates.”
“Can Divisti and Lunzie whomp something up?”
“Have done. Bonnard is feeding . . . or I should say, attempting to feed Dandy.”
“It's named already?”
“Why not? It certainly isn't programmed to answer a meal call – yet.”
“Intelligent?”
“Of a restricted sort. It's already programmed to a certain number of instinctive responses, being born fairly mature.”
“Is that herbivore of yours mammalian?”
“Nooooo . . .”
“What's the yes in that no for?”
"Granted that viviparous and oviparous types often co-exist on a planet . . . and that you'd get some very odd gene specilization to cope with environment here, but I cannot rationalize that aquatic life cell formation with Dandy or with that big herbivore.
“And speaking of that beast, Trizein says its cell structure is remarkably familiar; he's going to do an in-depth comparison. In the meantime, I've his okay to use a CHCL3 gas on it so we can dress those wounds before they turn septic. Can we rig a force-screen arc over that corral we erected so the wound can be kept free of blood-sucking organisms while it heals?” When Kai nodded, she continued. “And would you also ask your core teams to keep an eye out for any scavengers circling? Whatever wounded the herbivore probably attacks other animals. One, I'd like to know what kind of predator is that savage to its prey; and two, There's always a chance that we can find amenable specimens by saving their lives. They're so much easier to capture when they're too weak to struggle or run.”
“Aren't we all, I'll give the word to my teams. Only don't make this compound a veterinary hospital, will you, Varian, We don't have the space.”
“I know, I know. Those that are large enough to fend for themselves go into the corral anyhow.”
They rose, both revived by the peppers. But their brief respite in the conditioned air of the shuttle made that first step outside a gasper.
“Man is an adaptable creature,” Kai told himself under his breath, “flexible, comprehending his universe, a high survival type. But did we have to get a planet that reeks?”
“Can't win 'em all, Kai,” said Varian with a laugh. “And I find this place fascinating.” She left him standing in the open lock.
The rain had stopped, Kai noticed, at least for the moment. The sun peered through the cloud cover, getting ready to steam bake them for a while. With the cessation of rain, Ireta's insect battalions once more flung themselves against the force-screen that arched above the compound. Blue sparks erupted as the smaller creatures were incinerated, glowing blue where larger organisms were stunned by the charge.
He gazed out over the compound, experiencing a certain sense of accomplishment. Behind him, and above the compound itself, was the tough ceramic-hulled shuttlecraft, twenty-one metres long, with its nose cone blackened by the friction heat of entering Ireta's atmosphere. Its stubby glide wings were retracted now, leaving it slightly ovoid in shape, the central portion being larger than either end. From its top blossomed the communications spire and the homing device that would guide in its children-sleds. Unlike early models of the compound-ship to planet shuttle, most of the vessel was cargo and passenger space since the incredibly efficient, Thek-designed power packs which utilized an established isotope were compact and no longer took up the bulk of the shuttle's interior. An additional benefit of the Thek power pack was that lighter weight ships, which had the specially developed ceramic hulls, could deliver the same payload as the structurally reinforced titanium hulled vessels, needed for the antiquated fission and fusion drives.
The shuttle rested on a shelf of granite which, spreading out and down, formed a shallow amphitheatre, roughly four hundred metres in diameter. Varian had pointed out that the shuttle's first touch-down had been smack in the middle of some animal route, to judge by the well trampled dirt. Kai had not needed any urging to change site. Open vistas might give you a chance to assess visitors but it was a bit much for his ship-trained eyes.
Force-screen posts surrounded the present encampment in which temporary living, sleeping and working domes had been erected. Water, tapped from an underground source, had to be softened and filtered. Even so, those like Varian, who were less used to recycled water which always tasted faintly of chemicals, grumbled about its mineral flavour.
Divisti and Trizein had tested several forms of Iretan vegetation and succulents, finding them safe for human consumption. Divisti and Lunzie had collaborated and produced a pulp from the greenery that might be nutritionally correct but had such a nauseating taste and curious consistency that only the heavy-worlders would eat it. They were known to eat anything. Even, it was rumoured, animal flesh.