Molly noticed that there was no code break here, either; everyone’s translator had some term for luck. The real question, she thought, was whether it meant quite the same to all of them.
There was another pause, broken this time by Joe.
“Your points are well made, Jenny. The only precaution I can see for setting up the tent is that it not be too close downwind to any of those dunes. It is strong but might not take too large a hill climbing over it even in this gravity. As far as I can see, the ship’s present location should be all right, and Molly and Jenny have already started the coordinate system from here. Any other thoughts?”
“Should we check a few more spots on the planet to see whether this wind is universal?” asked Jenny. “A quieter region might be better and safer for the tent.”
“Could we be sure such a region would remain windless?”
The air breathers, even Jenny, all made emphatic negative gestures.
“Then the time spent looking for such a spot would probably be wasted. I propose we unload and set up here. Were you listening, Charley? Do you agree?”
“I heard. This is perfectly good for the tent, if that’s what you meant about my agreeing. We should get at it quickly, too; of course the boat isn’t going to last.”
Chapter Six
Of Course It Will
Charley refused to elaborate on his remark though he did not seem bothered at having made it.
“Just a hypothesis. Perhaps the of course was a bit excessive, but we’ll see” was all he would say. Since he was still out of sight there was no way to check his expression, even if any of them had felt confident reading Kantrick body language. Joe, perhaps—no. Molly had to remind herself consciously that the resemblance between Charley and Joe was really little greater than that between herself and Carol; she could probably read any of the others, including Charley, just as well as he.
Carol was less restrained. “If that talking thramm—sorry, Joe, I know the shape is irrelevant—has any real reason to believe there’s something wrong with this boat, hypothesis or better, he has no business keeping it to himself. If he’s afraid of looking silly because it turns out to be wrong, he’ll be a lot sillier if he keeps quiet and is right, and we failed to…”
“Sorry, Carol,” the Kantrick assured her, “but it isn’t at that level at all. There is nothing for you or the rest of us to worry about, no matter what I said or think of the boat. I’m sorry I said anything.”
“But if this craft fails, there’s plenty for us to worry about. You’re talking nonsense.”
“No, I’m not,” Charley responded. “You’ll see why, if I’m right, and if I’m not there’s no danger, either. Let’s get the tent out, unless we should rest and eat first.” Carol sputtered into silence. Jenny changed the subject.
“It looks a little as though the wind were going down. Maybe we should set up one of Joe’s machines outside, programmed to keep station and report ram pressure readings to us. If it’s a real decrease, and we can be sure of it before the tent is ready to go out, it might be worth scheduling a rest period before actually setting it up. Wind won’t bother the tent, but it would be a lot easier for us to have quiet air while we’re outside.”
“Good idea.” Charley was clearly eager to discuss something besides his remark. “If Joe or Carol will do the programming, I’m still in armor down here and can put the thing out.”
With six hours of sleep and a good meal, Molly found (hat she didn’t care much whether the storm had ended. She trimmed her mahogany hair, which was getting a little long for air suit and armor, and joined the others, eager to face what Enigma had to offer. By the time anyone went outside again, however, the wind had dropped so far that even the smallest and lightest of them had little trouble walking. The tent was no trouble in any case; it was basically a set of six small but massive field generators that could be travel-programmed like Joe’s robots. Once in position at the corners of a hexagon a dozen meters on an edge, these sprayed out a cloud of highly specialized molecules that were maintained as a film by the fields, rather as a cloud of iron particles might be held in a given pattern by a properly arranged magnetic system. The same field anchored the generators to the ground, and there was no question of blowing away—though, as the group well knew, having the structure buried in an advancing dune might be another matter.
The tent gave much more room for work, and the research equipment was readied well before local sunset, twenty hours after their landing. Jenny had already done a lot more chemistry. The atmosphere’s composition was now firmly established; methane, nitrogen, ammonia, and carbon dioxide accounted for ninety-five percent of it. Most of the rest was carbon monoxide and argon. Molly nodded thoughtfully as the Rimmore dealt off this list of words and numbers. It fitted with her own idea of vaporized comet ices and with the fact that there seemed to be no other planets in the system.
“As I suggested, it’s just an oversized comet, still vaporizing.”
“As you also suggested, a nice prelife mixture,” remarked Joe, “with lots of energy available from the sun. If I could think of a way to do it, I’d have my robots check their areas for prebiotic compounds for you when we get them stationed, Jenny.”
“I can use parts of Molly’s and Charley’s samples. They’re picking up solids from the same sites.”
“Or liquids. In this pressure and temperature range you could have ammonia oceans.”
“My translator didn’t handle that last word. It gave me a new code. Can anyone clarify?”
“How about lake or river?” asked Molly.
“Neither one. Both new,” replied the Rimmore. The Human woman described the behavior of water and ammonia on planets whose temperature and pressure permitted large amounts of either liquid.
“I see. That doesn’t happen on Hrimm. The biological liquid is ammonia, of course, but with a lot of free oxygen in the atmosphere that’s not stable—it exists at all only because life forms are constantly producing it. The same, of course, is true of the oxygen, as it must be on your world, Molly. We have ammonia bogs and swamps—did your translators handle those?—but no lakes or oceans.”
“So there’d be no oxygen here, either,” suggested Carol. “No reason to expect life on a world this young, even with lots of ammonia.”
“How about the clouds?” asked Carol.
“Largely ammonium carbamate, which you’d expect to be produced from ammonia and carbon dioxide. Some water-ice crystals, some carbonates of ammonium and alkali metals. The difference between the clouds aloft and the dust down here seems to be a quibble. In connection with your other point, I found only a trace of oxygen, and with all the hard radiation from this sun, that was probably produced from the carbon dioxide,” replied Jenny.
“Then we know what we’re doing,” Joe summed up. “We’ve picked twenty sites, symmetrically spaced around the planet, starting right here. We drop a drift robot at each and collect samples for analysis, then come back here to the tent, signal the robots to start all at once—not really necessary, but may simplify calculation later—and monitor them and their slaves, doing our analyses from here. By the time Classroom gets back, we should have enough data for all our needs—possibly even some that will support our various favorite hypotheses.”
Molly felt herself blush at the last remark, and wondered what the equivalent reaction was with the others. The Rimmore watcbed with interest as the changing background color briefly hid her Human friend’s freckles. They both rather expected Charley to give some sort of retort, but it was Carol who made her feelings known, and these seemed unconnected with the Nethneen’s gentle gibe.