"Nothing much there, really. Plenty of water, a big island continent — and not much else."
"Nothing else is detectable," Stane added, ticking off the graphs one by one. "No detectable radiation, no large masses of metal either above or below ground, no stored energy. No reason for us to be here."
"But we are," Arnild growled testily. "So let's touch down and find out more firsthand. Here's a good spot!" He tapped a photograph, then pushed it into the enlarger.
"Could be a primitive hut city, people walking around, smoke."
"Those could be sheep in the fields," Dall broke in eagerly. "And boats pulled up on the shore. We'll find out something here."
"I'm sure we will," Commander Stane said. "Strap in for landing."
Lightly and soundlessly the ship fell out of the sky, curving in a gentle arc that terminated at the edge of a grove of tall trees, on a hill above the city. The motors whined to a stop and the ship was silent.
"Report positive on the atmosphere," Dall said, checking off the analyzer dials.
"Stay at the guns, Arnild," Commander Stane said. "Keep us covered, but don't shoot unless I tell you to."
"Or unless you're dead," Arnild said with complete lack of emotion.
"Or unless I'm dead," Stane answered him, in the same toneless voice. "In which case you will assume command."
He and Dall buckled on planet kits, cycled through the lock, and sealed it behind them. The air was dry and pleasantly warm, filled with the freshness of growing plants.
"Really smells good after that canned stuff," Dall said.
"You have a great capacity for stating the obvious." Ar-nild's voice rasped even more than usual when heard through the bone conductor phones. "Can you see what's going on in the village?"
Dall fumbled his binoculars out. Commander Stane had been using his since they left the ship. "Nothing moving," Stane said. "Send an Eye down there."
The Eye whooshed away from the ship and they could follow its slow swing through the village below. There were about a hundred huts, simple pole-and-thatch affairs, and the Eye carefully investigated every one.
"No one there," Arnild said, as he watched the monitor screen. "The animals are gone too, the ones from the aerial pic."
"The people can't have vanished," Dall said. "There are empty fields in every direction, completely without cover. And I can see smoke from their fires."
"The smoke's there, the people aren't," Arnild said testily. "Walk down and look for yourself."
The Eye lifted up from the village and drifted back toward the ship. It swung around the trees and came to a sudden stop in midair.
"Hold it!" Arnild's voice snapped in their ears. "The huts are empty. But there's someone in the tree you're standing next to. About ten meters over your heads!"
Both men controlled a natural reaction to look up. They moved out a bit, where they would be safe from anything dropped from above.
"Far enough," Arnild said. "I'm shifting the Eye for a better look." They could hear the faint drone of the Eye's motors as it changed position.
"It's a girl. Wearing some kind of fur outfit. No weapons that I can see, but some kind of a pouch hanging from her waist. She's just clutching onto the tree with her eyes closed. Looks like she's afraid of falling."
The men on the ground could see her dimly now, a huddled shape against the straight trunk.
"Don't bring the Eye any closer," Commander Stane said. "But turn the speaker on. Hook my phone into the circuit."
"You're plugged in."
"We are friends…. Come down…. We will not hurt you." The words boomed down from the floating speaker above their heads.
"She heard it, but maybe she can't understand Esperanto," Arnild said. "She just hugged the tree harder while you were talking."
Commander Stane had had a good command of Slaver during the war; he groped in his memory for the words, doing a quick translation. He repeated the same phrase, only this time in the tongue of their defeated enemies.
"That did something, Commander," Arnild reported. "She jumped so hard she almost fell off. Then scooted up a couple of branches higher before she grabbed on again."
"Let me get her down, sir," Dall asked. "I'll take some rope and climb up after her. It's the only way. Like getting a cat out of a tree."
Stane pushed the thought around. "It looks like the best answer." he finally said. "Get the lightweight two-hundred-meter line and the climbing irons out of the ship. Don't take too long. It'll be getting dark soon."
The irons chunked into the wood and Dall climbed carefully up to the lower limbs. Above him the girl stirred and he had a quick glimpse of the white patch of her face as she looked down at him. He started climbing again until Arnild's voice snapped at him.
"Hold it! She's climbing higher. Staying above you."
"What'll I do, Commander?" Dall asked, settling himself in the fork of one of the big branches. He felt exhilarated by the climb, his skin tingling slightly with sweat. He snapped open his collar and breathed deeply.
"Keep going. She can't climb any higher than the top of the tree."
The climbing was easier now, the branches smaller and closer together. He went slowly so as not to frighten the girl into a misstep. The ground was out of sight, far below. They were alone in their own world of leaves and swaying boughs. The silver tube of the hovering Eye the only reminder of the watchers from the ship. Dall stopped to tie a loop in the end of the rope, doing it carefully so the knot would hold. For the first time since they had started on this mission he felt as if he was doing a full part. The two old warhorses weren't bad shipmates, but they oppressed him with the years of their experience. But this was something he could do best and whistled softly through his teeth with the thought.
It would have been possible for the girl to have climbed higher; the branches could have held her weight. But for some reason she had retreated out along a branch. There was another close to it, with good handholds, and he shuffled slowly after her.
"No reason to be afraid," he said cheerfully, and smiled. "Just want to get you down safely and back to your friends. Why don't you grab onto this rope?"
The girl just shuddered and backed away. She was young and good to look at, dressed only in a short fur kilt. Her hair was long, but had been combed and caught at the back of her head with a thong. The only thing that appeared alien about her was her fear. As he came closer he could see she was drenched with it. Her legs and hands shook with a steady vibration. Her teeth were clamped into her whitened lips and a thin trickle of blood reached to her chin. He hadn't thought it possible that human eyes could have stared so widely, have been so filled with desperation.
"You don't have to be afraid," he repeated, stopping just out of reach. The branch was thin and springy. If he tried to grab her they might both be bounced off it. He didn't want any accidents to happen now. Slowly pulling the rope from the coil, Dall tied it about his waist, then made a loop around the next branch. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the girl stir and look around wildly.
"Friends!" he said, trying to calm her. He translated into Slaver; she had seemed to understand that before.
"Noi'r venn!"
Her mouth opened wide and her legs contracted. The scream was terrible and more like a tortured animal's than a human voice. It confused him and he made a desperate grab. It was too late.
She didn't fall. With all her strength she hurled herself from the limb, jumping toward the certain death she preferred to his touch. For a heartbeat she seemed to hang, contorted and fear-crazed, at the apex of her leap, before gravity clutched hold and pulled her crashing down through the leaves. Then Dall was falling too, grabbing for nonexistent handholds.