For once Chris had actually been able to see the thing. It was just a tiny speck far to the north and high in the air, but it had to be the source of the sustained roar he had heard twice already. He watched it vanish over a mountain, but he could hear it for nearly a minute after that.
"Valiha," he said, "I'm bearing to the left."
"I'm coming right behind you."
Chris steered close to Gaby and Psaltery. He held the side of the other canoe as he stowed his oar, then jumped easily from one to the other. Gaby frowned at him.
"Don't you think it's about time you told us what that is? You did say you'd teach us things we'd need to know."
"I did, didn't I?" She scowled even more but gave in. "I wasn't trying to keep anything from you, really. It's just that I don't even like to talk about them. I-" She looked up in time to see Robin join them.
"Fine. We call 'em buzz bombs. They're new. Very new. I first saw one no more than six or seven years ago. Gaea must have worked on them for a long time because they're so damn unlikely they shouldn't even be alive. They are the nastiest things I ever saw.
"What they are is living airplanes powered by ramjets. Or pulse-jets, possibly. The one I examined was pretty busted up and burned to a crisp. I ordered an old heat-seeking missile from Earth a few years after the first one appeared and shot one down. It was about thirty meters long and definitely organic, though it had a lot of metal in its body. I don't know how; its chemistry must be fantastic, especially when it's being gestated.
"Anyway, I did wonder how it flew. It had wings, and I knew it didn't fly by flapping them. It works like an airplane that uses warpable wings instead of ailerons. It had two legs that folded up in flight. I doubt it could walk very far on them. And it had two fuel bladders that held something that's probably kerosene. Possibly ethanol or a mixture.
"Right away I wondered how it could eat enough to make that kind of fuel in the amounts it would need to be useful for flight. I mean, it was obviously awkward as hell on the ground. On top of that, if it is a ramjet that makes the damn abomination go, it wouldn't dare land anywhere but the top of a cliff or a very tall tree. That engine won't work until it's in motion. So they'd need a thrust assist or a long fall to reach the speed where they could flame on. I didn't know any of this; I had to look it up.
"What I decided was that they didn't make their own fuel. The food they ate went to a more or less normal animal metabolism, and they must get their fuel from some outside source. Or several sources. Most likely it's another new creature, and it's probably in the highlands. I haven't found out where yet."
"Are they dangerous?" Robin asked.
"Very much so. The best thing about them is there aren't many of them. I thought at first they'd have a hard time sneaking up on anybody, but that turns out to be untrue. They cruise at about five hundred kilometers per hour. Even with the engine running they're on you practically before you know it. But they can also flame out at that speed and skim along the surface, then fire up after they've made a kill and before they drop below critical speed. If you see one, try to get in a ditch. They don't come around for a second pass unless the land is as flat as stale beer. You're safe behind a rock, and your chances are improved if you're just stretched out on the ground. They have barbed noses and what they do is impale you and fly off to eat the carcass somewhere else."
"How delightful."
"Ain't it?"
"What do they eat?" Chris asked.
"Anything they can lift."
"Yes, but what is that? Running into something as big as a human might slow them down below their critical speed."
"It turns out they handle humans quite well, thank you. It's a good point, though, and they do favor prey in the forty- to sixty-kilogram range."
"Hey, thanks," Robin snorted. "That's me."
"Me, too, little one. But just think how good the big fella here must feel." She smiled at Chris, who was not feeling that good about it. "Actually, they will attack a full-grown human buck if given the chance and so far have always pulled it off. Seven humans have been killed by them. They will also take on a Titanide, but that's closer to the wishful-thinking category. I know of a dozen cases where Titanides have been carried off, but I've heard of two where the buzz bomb crashed and burned while trying to do it.
"I wouldn't worry about them too much. I cringe when I hear one going over because I hate the things intensely. I did even before one of them took a friend of mine. If I ever find the fuel station, there's going to be one hell of a jolly fire. They are obscene, terrible beasts. They don't attack blimps, but they seem to get a kick out of flying around and around them until the poor things are almost insane with fear, and they've got good reason to be. One blimp was accidentally ignited by the exhaust, and the others are still whistling about that.
"But statistically there's a lot of things that are more dangerous. They're as unpredictable as sharks. If they get you, you're gone, but the chances are against it."
Chris liked Crius. Coming out of the Rhean night might have had something to do with it, but in some respects it was nicer than Hyperion. Crius had the Nemesis Mountains in the west to provide a backdrop, and the forbidding frozen sea of Oceanus could no longer be seen.
After Ophion resumed its eastward course far in the south of Crius, it flowed briskly through the grandfather of all jungles. Gaby told him it actually was not as dense as parts of the western Hyperion forest, but it was good enough for him. Earthlike species of trees jostled with alien spikes, feathers, crystals, strings of pearls, films, spheres, and lace veils. They leaned over the water in their intense competition for light and space. Though the river was wide, at some points they met in the middle.
They made one camp in the jungle, and everyone stayed alert. There were creatures in it that could and would attack humans and Titanides. Robin was startled into shooting a creature the size of a bull when it came nosing around her tent, then learned it was harmless. They ate part of it for breakfast. Five minutes after they threw the carcass into the river it was swarming with eels that tore at the dead flesh. Scavengers, Cirocco said, maintaining that the waters here were not dangerous. Chris still skipped his bath.
It had been Robin's first use of her weapon. Cirocco asked to see it, professing surprise that such a small woman could handle a .45-caliber automatic. Robin explained she was using rocket bullets instead of explosive. Most of the thrust was developed outside the barrel. It was especially helpful in Gaea's low gravity, where the kick of a Colt .45 could topple even a heavy person. She had two types of ammunition loaded into the standard seven-round clips: lead slugs and impact fused explosives.
It was 120 kilometers from the last ramparts of the Nemesis Range to the end of the jungle. The river no longer gave them much help, but by rowing hard, they came out onto the plains in one more shift and camped a few kilometers beyond the forest verge.
While Chris slept, they were visited by a delegation of Crian Titanides, who were overjoyed to hear that the Wizard was among the travelers and began to plead for a Carnival. Chris later learned they had a good case for one; while the larger Hyperion chords got a Carnival every myriarev, the chords in other regions had to wait for the Wizard's erratic journeys to bring her to them. Crius was overdue.
When Chris awoke, the Crians were accepting the hospitality of the Hyperionite breakfast table. Chris joined them, and the difference between the Titanides of Crius and of Hyperion was immediately obvious. While Valiha was based on the frame of a Percheron, the Crians were more like Shetland ponies. He could actually see eye to eye with the tallest of them. They presented the same riot of color as their Hyperion cousins, however. One had a pelt that was a passable tartan.