None of this crossed her conscious mind but whatever feeling was underneath kept S’Nash quiet.
Hugh was thinking again, and for fully a minute no one spoke. It was he who finally broke the silence.
“All right. This machine’s points are speed and carrying capacity. It will take a small group of people and a good supply of food to the Cold Pole. Most or all of the group will be Habras, because I expect what we seek will be under the snow. It better be all, so we can concentrate on their food — no, I can’t do that. I’ll have to carry Crotonite supplies, too.
“The Crotonites will please study this chart— here, Kesserah — and use it as a guide. It may not be a very good one, but it’s all we have to go on for the great circle route to the place we hope Ennissee and Rekchellet were going. You will follow along that course, looking for signs of the two we hope we’re following. Every five hundred kilometers I’ll leave a cache of food for you, well lit so you can see it from a good distance and with a neutrino communicator so you can tell me when you’ve reached it and what you’ve found. You all have inertial trackers, don’t you?”
“Most of us.”
“And lights.”
“Of course.”
“All right, you can start now from here. Get your group together and tell them what I want, and look carefully. I’m not sure this Ennissee person really cares much what happens to Rekchellet once he’s sure we’re heading the way he wants. Third-Supply Watcher, did Rek have his translator when he left the truck?”
“Yes, definitely.”
“But not when he arrived, you said.”
“No. The other Crotonite apparently had it, and gave it back to him during their argument.”
“We don’t know how he got it away from Rek in the first place, though, so we don’t know he didn’t do it again. Kesserah, I’m more and more worried about Rekchellet all the time. Look carefully, please. I know that sounds silly along a four thousand kilometer search line, but I mean it.”
“We’ll do our best. I suggest you recruit more people — fliers — to help.”
“If I can get them. Everyone not in Safety supposedly has a job schedule which may interfere and which I can’t override, but I’ll do what I can.” The Crotonite gestured understanding and made her way to the air lock.
Once again Hugh’s hands were aching from code transmission, and once again he was wondering whether it might not be better to get out of the diving fluid filling his armor. It seemed likely that he would not be in the Pits for some time, as things were now going.
But such a move would waste time, and there might not be time. Rekchellet had no food or water.
Hugh turned to the Habra. “You heard all I said to Kesserah.”
“Yes.”
“Please have four of your people ready to come with me on this machine. You can all return to Pitville now; those who don’t accompany me had better stay there and resume routine duty. Things could still happen in town, after all. Please tell Ted he’s in charge until Rekchellet or I get back. Tell everyone to stay below one kilometer going back; I’ll be above three, at full speed until I’m near town. What’s your name?”
“I’m Holly.”
“Good. Thanks. If you’ll get outside and start spreading the word, we’ll go for supplies.” The Habra operated the air lock without assistance. Hugh waited until the indicator showed the outer portal safely closed, went to the controls, and lifted off cautiously. He was reasonably sure that none of his safety crew would be directly overhead, but had developed professional habits of his own.
At one kilometer he nosed upward and applied more power; at three, eight seconds later, he leveled and began to tear through protesting air. Even at Habranha’s nightside temperature, the feeble gravity kept air pressure and density from dropping quickly with height. The aircraft’s shell warmed significantly in the few minutes of the trip.
There was, of course, more delay than he had hoped at Pitville. This did not originate with Administration this time; Barrar was extremely cooperative, to the extent of deciding to come along himself, though a little later he reported that Spreadsheet-Thinker had issued a veto on that plan. Hugh, however, had forgotten to assign Pit safety duty to anyone. The only species who had developed the pressure fluid were Erthumoi and Habras, and the latter did not yet have protection against liquid air temperatures. The Naxians could stand the pressures reached so far in the digging. So could Cephallonians, but the only members of this race attached to the Project or, as far as Hugh knew, on Habranha were otherwise occupied and certainly elsewhere on the planet. Two of the Erthumoi in Pitville had expressed willingness to serve a pressure term, but Hugh didn’t consider them well enough trained yet; and after explaining this to them as tactfully as he could, he assigned a pair of Naxians to Pit safety. After all, a majority of the workers in the liquid air were of that species anyway, and would be until a depth of two or three kilometers had been reached. Erthumoi were being recruited for the remaining nearly five hundred kilometers, though it was hoped that adequately insulated armor for Habras could also be developed in time. The natives, at least the many who had worked at mud collection in their submarines, were by far the most experienced performers under high pressure.
But Hugh could not get Rekchellet out of his mind, and worked in a state of frantic irritation while he set matters up to take care of themselves, or be taken care of by Ted, or — reluctantly on his part — by higher administration officials while he was gone. The top office seemed perfectly content to allow Ted to take over the job; Hugh was not sure, down at the emotional level, how he should feel about this. Of course, if Spreadsheet-Thinker decided to make the change permanent, Hugh could always keep himself busy in the Pits.
At least there was no trouble about the food he was taking. Counter-of-Supplies did not, as far as Hugh could tell, even check with Administration; she set her muscular Erthumoi workers loading everything Hugh requested onto the aircraft, including transmitters.
Four Habras, presumably the ones Holly had been commissioned to locate, were orbiting over flier and building as the loading went on. Hugh paid no attention to them until the job was finished. He was learning another administrative skill, to avoid worrying about a task delegated to someone else. Only when the last of the food cartons and water tanks was aboard did he address the natives.
“Ready to go, I think.” They swept to the snow before the open air lock instantly, and the Erthuma gestured them inside.
Chapter Nine
Clear Sight May Not Provide The Clearest View
His four Habras came aboard happily enough. Early metal aircraft brought to the planet by the starfaring races had given them claustrophobia, since the walls had blocked their electrical senses; this machine had been built of nonconducting synthetics with natives in mind. As passengers, they chattered eagerly at the view from heights they could never reach under their own power, and admitted Janice and S’Nash freely into their discussion.
They worked quickly and efficiently at the first stop, setting up the light and transmitter Hugh had promised the Crotonites, stacking cases of food beside them, and flying around to scout the region within a forty or fifty kilometer radius to learn whether they could sense any evidence that Rekchellet and the other had actually come that way.