It wasn’t clear what she meant until Josh did what she was doing. The tops of the umbrella plants were pale yellow and paper-thin. All the plants were the same height, and when you stood tall enough to look over them you saw a continuous flat surface that appeared smooth enough to skate on. Only when you were very close could you see that the tops of the leaves were actually full of tiny wrinkles. Crouching down and looking underneath that layer, you entered a new world. A knee-high undergrowth formed a floor of dusky red. The ceiling was the underside of the umbrella leaves. They were not pale yellow and smooth, but dark mauve and rough on the bottom. Between floor and ceiling sat an open layer. That space was clear except for scattered umbrella plant stems, but it faded off as far as you could see in a deepening purple gloom.
Amethyst reached out and touched the underside of the nearest umbrella plant leaf. She pulled her hand back with a startled cry. “Ooh! It’s hairy!”
“You shouldn’t be too surprised at that.” Winnie Carlson had walked over to stand behind them. “A lot of plants on Earth are the same, smooth on top of their leaves and hairy underneath. There’s even a special word for it. Hairy leaves are called tomentose.”
“Tomentose.” Amethyst put out her hand again, and this time rubbed her fingers along the underside of the leaf. “It feels like a hairy felt mat.”
“And the top sides of the leaves are glabrous, which just means they don’t have hair on them. They’re also rugose—which is a fancy botanical word for wrinkled.” Winnie added, as though ashamed at possessing special knowledge, “They made me take all these courses about plants and things, though I don’t see why. I don’t need any of it as a technician. That’s not why I came over here, though. I wanted to tell you that dinner is ready. It’s pretty simple stuff, but Rick is putting on a couple of special flourishes to it. We’re lucky, finding somebody who likes to cook as much as they do.”
“Hey, we ought to have a cookout.” Amethyst lost interest in the leaves. “I don’t mean cooking outside. I mean like a shoot-out. A cooking contest. Rick and Hag take on Topaz, and we see who’s best.”
“Who’ll be the judge?” Josh asked, as they followed Winnie to the new kitchen.
“I will.” Amethyst seemed thrilled at the prospect. She was quite a bit overweight, and Josh was beginning to understand why.
There were foldout seats around the little kitchen, but no one bothered with them. They took plates of food and hunkered down on the ground. The plants were springy and had leaves rough enough to be a bit uncomfortable, but people were too hungry to change their minds and seek somewhere smoother.
It was almost completely dark. The first and unfamiliar stars were out and Solferino’s single satellite was rising. Bothwell Gage had described it as a big moon, but it was easy to disagree with him. To eyes used to Earth’s moon, this one seemed shrunken, no more than a third the usual size. It partly made up for that by shining a brighter silver, like a newly minted coin in the deep purple sky. The evening air was pleasant, and people were beginning to relax when a strange new sound began, high up the valley sides.
“It’s all right,” said Winnie. “No need to be scared. That’s insects—or the nearest thing that Solferino has to them. They’re supposed to be edible, if you’re desperate.”
Before anyone’s disgust at that idea could be expressed, Sol Brewster reappeared from the aircar. For a few minutes they had almost forgotten he was with them. Everyone went quiet.
“Something’s come up.” He walked into the middle of the group. He was so tall, above the level of the lights, that they could not see his eyes. “I’ve had a message from the medical center. It’s not bad news, but it means I have to go back to the settlement. I have to go tonight.”
The seated group all looked at each other. Just when everything was set up, and everyone was adjusting, they would have to uproot and leave. Winnie stood up and started toward the aircar. “I’d better tell the structures to pack themselves away again, and stow them in the cargo hold.”
“No need for that.” Brewster placed himself in her way. “You have plenty of supplies. You can stay here, settle in. I’ll be back tomorrow. Then we’ll carry on with the exploration.”
He turned and entered the aircar, without waiting to hear what anyone might have to say. The door closed and interior lights came on. A few seconds later there was a whine of engines and the vehicle rose into the night sky. They followed its path until it was lost against the stars.
“Suppose he doesn’t come back?” Ruby asked.
“He will.” Sapphire went across to sit by her young sister. “He’ll be back tomorrow. We’ll be fine.”
“But what if he isn’t?” Ruby persisted.
“Then we’ll pack bags and go back ourselves,” Sapphire said cheerfully. “It would be a long walk, but we could do it in two days.”
Josh thought of the view out of the cargo aircar window as they had flown here, and was not so sure. It might be a two-day walk if the land were level and clear. But what about the places where the plants grew chest-high, as they did close to the camp? It would not be easy to walk through them if you had to be crouched over all the time. And what about that wide, meandering river? They would have to cross it, and it might be too deep to wade.
“Would it be easy to walk?” Topaz sounded as though she was having the same thoughts as Josh.
“It might not be easy,” Winnie Carlson said. “We could do it, though. But don’t you think you should wait before you worry about being stranded? We could stay a week here if we had to, waiting for Brewster, and still have plenty of supplies left. And we’re completely safe.”
“What about animals?” Sig asked.
“There are certainly predators on Solferino, animals that prey on other animals, but they’re the size of insects. No animal like Earth’s big carnivores—lions and wolves and polar bears—ever developed here. So there’s nothing on Solferino dangerous to humans.”
As she spoke, a long, mournful wail sounded in the distance. It was answered by another, closer to them. And another. Suddenly the night was filled with strange, sobbing cries.
“It’s just the night life, calling each other to find out what social activities are going on in the neighborhood,” Winnie said. But her tone was not nearly as casual as her words, and she did not object when everyone stood up and moved toward the buildings. The structures were thin-walled and light and offered protection more psychological than real, but everyone wanted to be inside.
Josh lagged a step or two behind the others, his eye on Sig Lasker. Josh had been next to Sig, and he had seen, even if no one else had, the other’s reaction when the night cries began. Sig had stood up, and instinctively reached for the right-hand pocket of his pants.
He must have some kind of weapon there. Josh thought of Topaz, calmly pulling that vicious knife from the sheath under her arm to free the bodger. Did Sig have a hidden knife, too? Or a gun, or something even more destructive?
Sig was a thug, but he seemed to have pretty good survival instincts. Maybe that was what you needed, when you camped out on the “safe” world of Solferino.
Chapter Ten
A day could make a tremendous difference. Yesterday morning Josh would have vowed that he’d be happy if he never saw Solomon Brewster again, and he was sure that Topaz, Sig, and the rest felt the same way. Today, though, everyone was secretly watching the sky to the north. They were keeping an eye—a weary eye—open for Brewster and a cargo aircar that never came.
They had gone to bed early, but the moaning and a mad bubbling laughter had continued for half the night. Sometimes it was far off; sometimes it seemed to be inside the building. The knowledge that it was “just animals” didn’t help. When everyone finally rose, later than usual, nobody felt rested. The morning passed in dull, lethargic waiting. Even Rick and Hag didn’t have their normal wild energy and curiosity.