And Limbo, though partly burned off in some galactic war—traces of which Terran explorers had come across again and again during their travels—had also held a secret that had been as potent in the present day as when its long-vanished makers had first put it into action. There had been a force, operated from a headquarters deep under the planet surface, that had reached into the deeps of space to draw to it any ship venturing within range, so that its half-devastated surface was packed with the wrecks of vessels for centuries of time.
Though modern pirates had found it, made it more predictable, it had been operating on its own for a long time before their coming. Of those who had set it as a defense or assault weapon, no real trace had been left. They had never found a tomb, a space-frozen derelict with bodies on board, any trace of the Forerunners to learn what they had been like. Humanoid or wholly alien—it was any man’s guess. However, if the brachs had come to the animal state but had once been intelligent, could they now have on board one answer to the Forerunner riddle?
If that were true—Dane’s thoughts leaped—then all the damage done to the embryos was unimportant. The brachs were priceless treasures and ones that the scientists would give much to have. But he could not believe the brachs had been the targets of the man who had planted the box on the Queen. He might have meant to destroy the lathsmers, but the opposite effect on the brachs came from the accidental placing of their cage on just the right spot and could not have been foreseen.
5.TEMPORARY TRUCE
They had come out of hyper and were in a breaking orbit around Trewsworld before the last of the preparations was completed. Dane went through a course of instructions as to care of the brachs. The embryo containers had been unlocked from the stacking and packed into the lifeboat. Tau made a spot check on them, only to discover all he tested had been affected by radiation. The box that had caused all the trouble had been inserted in what Stotz believed to be a leak-proof casing and put as far from the cargo and crew of the LB as possible. Ali was under orders to see that it was safely buried in a marked spot as soon after their landing as he could do so.
There was this much in their favor; the LB had built-in safe-guards for its passengers, since it had been devised to protect even injured who managed to reach it, so it had radiation controls as well. And its automatic landing device would bring them in at the best spot its detectors could locate. Now they lay in the hammocks ready for takeoff, the padded brach cage wedged in the narrow aisle, waiting to be ejected from the Queen.
The brachs themselves could not be seen. Tau had filled the cage next to the top with any cushioning material he could find, leaving only air holes. As he made the creatures comfortable, he had admitted surprise that the kits, not following the regular pattern of their species, were developing at a rate far faster than normal.
Their parents crouched together, the male’s forelegs about his mate as if to shield her from harm, the kits curled at the other end of the box.
Dane had been so rushed with all which must be done that he had not had time to think beyond the task at hand until he was bedded down on the LB. Then he wondered again at Jellico’s move in putting the cargo off the Queen. Why had the captain been so reluctant to land, report what had happened, and leave the muddle to the authorities? It was almost as if he had foresight and sensed difficulties not apparent to the rest of the crew. But a belief in Jellico was part of the tradition of the Queen. If Van Ryke were only here! Dane would have given much to know his superior’s reaction.
In general configuration Trewsworld was the opposite of Xecho. Where the aquatic planet with its great seas gave land room only to islands, this was a world of crowding land masses and seas, which were
narrow bands hardly wider than rivers, separating one from the other. In climate, too, it differed from the steamy heat of the Queen’s other port, being much cooler, with short summers and lengthy winters, during which the ice and snow masses of the poles advanced with grim regularity to threaten the holdings, the small toeholds off-world settlers had established.
When the LB set down, its small crew were sure of one thing only: that Wilcox’s course, fed into an improvised guide on the craft, had brought them to the same continent as the one on which the Queen planeted. How far they were from the port, however, they had no idea.
They unstrapped from the hammocks and zipped into thermo jackets, for though it was midday out, it was still well below the temperature they would find pleasant. Shannon triggered the hatch, and they went through the shallow opening into the light.
Xecho had been vivid color—yellow, red, brilliant shades of both those primaries. Here, too, was color, but it was in a different range.
They had earthed on a plateau where there was only a growth of tough grass, now gray and sere, mounded at the nose of the LB where that craft had scored up the lighter layer of soil to cushion its landing. Below was a lake, the water so green that it might have been a Terran emerald of the finest hue dropped into a gray rock setting. On the opposite side from where they now stood was a great wall of glacier overhanging the water. Even as they watched, a huge chunk of ice broke free with a sharp crack and fell into the lake.
Just as the lake was green, a solid opaque green, so was the ice of that creeping wall blue—very, very blue. Yet its rough surface rose here and there in peaks that were frost-white, as if the mass had traveled in waves that had solidified.
The color burst on them and then the quiet. Even when in hyper, there had been vibration in the fabric of the ship, a low purr to which they had long been accustomed and which, in its way, was reassuring to spacemen. Here, save for the noise of that breaking ice, was no sound at all. No wind blew, and Dane, looking to the ice across the water, was glad they did not have to face any blast carried across its frigid surface.
Their landing on top of the plateau was far too open. With any rise of wind they could well freeze unless they stayed in the LB, and that craft was far too noticeable from the air. While Jellico had given them no explicit orders to keep under cover, the fact that he had landed them so was a warning to use common sense and draw no attention to themselves.
They walked back from the lakeside to see what might lie to the south. There was an abrupt drop and then a more gradual slope, covered with dead grass tangles, before the rise of dark brush gave way to trees. Unlike the grass, which had died in the cold, the brush and trees were both thickly leaved, but that vegetation was very dark. Dane could not, from this distance, name it blue, green, gray, or a mixture of all three.
“Can we take her down?” he asked.
Rip looked back at the LB and then to the cliff edge where they stood.
“She’s no flitter. But there is some raise power, meant to move her from a dangerous landing. I think it might be enough. What about it, Ali?”
Kamil shrugged. “You can try anything—once,” was his unenthusiastic reply. “But the more you lighten her, the better. You lift; we’ll see about finding a landing down there.”
The cliff face was rough enough to provide them with hand and toe holds. Once he had swung over to join Ali in that descent, Dane discovered that it was far less cold. Perhaps the bulk of the plateau kept some of the icy emanation of the glacier from this side—which was another small point in their favor, since he was sure that the brachs could not survive long in the cold, coming as they did from the much warmer Xecho.
They reached the foot of the cliff and continued on toward the brush, seeking for an opening in the growth into which Rip might be able, with a great deal of luck besides his skill, to maneuver the LB. Dane thought the brush impenetrable directly ahead. He was close enough now to see that the leaves were a very dark blue-green, the colors mottled with sometimes one, sometimes the other, predominant. They were a thick, fleshy growth, marked by patches of gray hair, which also fringed their edges.