"I'm honored," Tess replied in an amused tone. "But I have everything I need. And if there are to be any shares, we have to solve the problem of a rough-country shuttle."
"I have an idea about that," Cale said. "Your Admiral Kedron used it in the Rim Rebellion. Remember? He had to move small, armed intrasystem boats through jump, and his warships didn’t have the cargo space."
"Yes!" Tess replied. "Of course! The tractors!"
Dee was looking annoyed. "All right. What are you two so excited about? Who was Admiral Kedron and what did he do?"
Cale grinned. "Only revolutionize space warfare, that's all. He commanded the Rim Worlds Fleet in the Rim Worlds Rebellion, fighting a renegade Empire Admiral."
"Before Kedron, there was this big disagreement about who had the advantage when invading a system. The invader had to wait for his jump engines to spin down before he could light off his normal-space drives and power his weapons and shields. But the defender had no warning. It took his people time to get to their battle stations and activate the shields and weapons systems. Many times, victory went to the side that could start shooting first.
"In the Rim Rebellion, Kedron was short of ships. But his people had designed modifications to turn asteroid mining boats into gunboats. They didn't have jump engines, so they had to be carried to the battle site, but they were very fast and maneuverable."
"The problem was," Tess put in, "that his warships didn't have the cargo space to carry them."
Dee frowned. "I see. So how did he solve it?"
Cale shrugged, but his tone was excited. "Mining boats have huge tractor/pressor generators, for moving asteroids around. They just clamped them to the outside of the warships. The pilots rode out jump inside the warship, but as soon as they emerged from jump, they could man their boats and attack much more quickly than either side's warships."
"Ah!" Dee said, her face flaring into a huge grin. "I see. All we need is to fit a shuttle with a tractor generator, and clamp it onto Tess's hull. I like it!" She turned to Cale. "I don't suppose you have any mining boats in that space junkyard of yours?"
Cale grinned as he shook his head. While escaping his pirate past, he had bought an orbital scrapyard in the Torlon system, almost accidently. But it had proven to be the key to winning Ilocan's war with Santiago. "Not a one," he replied in a cheerful tone. "Those things get used up and scrapped in their home systems. But I’m thinking we'll have a shuttle built. Strengthened hull for rough-field landings and takeoffs, oversized normal-space engines, and a huge tractor generator. We can even arm it." He shrugged. "By the time we finish here, we'll know exactly what we'll need. I'll bet Zant can get it built on Vishnu."
Vishnu had been a shipbuilding center for centuries. But for the last few years, the planet had been undergoing a severe depression, and people were literally starving to death in the streets. Cale and Zant had rescued three dozen skilled shipyard workers and their families during the "Junkyard War" with Santiago, but thousands more were still dying every day.
They began mapping out their survey program. They decided to begin with South continent, and Tess provided a map gridded into squares 2000 kiloms per side.
Cale shook his head. "That means over 21,000 stops, just for this continent. And it's the smaller one!"
Dee agreed. "I'm afraid that won't work, Tess. It would take years to cover South continent alone."
"No," Cale concluded, "we'll just have to take a few samples from each of the different areas: some from the seacoast, others from the mountainous areas, perhaps more from the plains. But they'll have to get their detailed analyses once they get here and choose a few specific sites. And it'll be even worse on North continent. The planet is just too big!"
The next "morning" they suited up and manned the lifeboat, accompanied by one of the spider-robots Tess called her 'hands'. The 'bot would permit instant contact, and allow Tess to be a part of the party.
"Note one," Cale commented. "A bigger airlock." He went through the one-person, suit-shaped lock first, and activated the life support system. Tess's 'bots had already established a breathable atmosphere, but the temperature had fallen to almost fifty degrees below zero, centigrade. The small lifeboat quickly warmed, however, and they unsuited as Cale broke orbit and headed downward toward South Continent.
"Note two," Cale said, as they watched hundreds of animals flee the area as they approached. "projectile weapons! We'll want to be able to run off predators."
Their first stop was on a seacoast. Cale stood guard with a shoulder laser, while Dee and Tess's 'bot gathered samples of soil, seawater, and even grasses. Actually, Cale was hoping to shoot a small animal to be analyzed for edibility, but if any were nearby, they were deep in hiding after the lifeboat's thunderous arrival.
With the help of Tess's speedy eight-legged 'bot, they were able to lift off again in less than half an hour.
They soon established a routine. While Dee and the 'bot labeled and stored the samples, Cale flew them to their next destination. In between, the three decided on their next few stops, and Dee ran the cameras that were recording the trip. As darkness overtook them, they discussed whether to return to Cheetah or to remain on the planet. After much discussion, they decided that they would remain on the planet, with the 'bot perched on top of the lifeboat, ready to chase off animals that came too close with a loud, hooting sound of which it was apparently capable. "It's a distress signal," Tess explained. "If the 'bot gets into a situation it can't handle, it sounds the signal to call for help. It's a backup, actually. Since it's nearly always in ultraradio contact, the signal has never been used."
Time began to drag and the pace of their explorations seemed to become plodding. Finally, though, they visited the last site, took the last samples, and lifted back into space.
"Well," Cale complained, dropping into a chair in Cheetah's luxurious lounge, "That didn't take long to stop being fun!"
"It's certainly going to feel good to sleep in real bed again, after two weeks of 'camping out'." Dee agreed. "Of course, you realize that was the easy part. On North continent we're going to have to deal with people."
"Not immediately, Dee," Tess replied. "Actually, only a small part of North continent is inhabited. Even the nomads cover less than two percent of the land area. There simply aren't enough humans on the planet to populate the entire continent."
Cale groaned theatrically. "Oh, no! more leapfrog stops and more nights in that blasted lifeboat!"
Dee silently rolled her eyes, but Tess commented in a cheery tone. "I'm afraid so, Cale. But consider: Every stop is one stop closer to a nomad trying to kill you."
Cale brightened. "That's true. Let's plot out the stops, and see how soon that will be!"
It was a mind-numbing three weeks before Cale could announce, "Next one! Our next jump will be into nomad territory!"
Dee was less enthusiastic. "Calm down, Cale. We agreed that Tess would use her knowledge of the migration routes to help us avoid the nomads."
Cale frowned. "Yeah, I know. But at least I'll know there are real people out there somewhere; people who would kill me if they caught me. It just adds a certain spice to it, if you know what I mean."
And they were successful in avoiding the 'locals', until their next-to-last scheduled stop.
Dee and the 'bot were gathering samples as usual when Tess's voice broke in on their comm circuit. "Cale! At least a dozen nomads have assembled behind that hill north of you. They must have plotted our course from scout reports and infiltrated here ahead of us. They're mounted and armed."