Ireta 02 - [Dinosaur Planet 02] - Dinosaur Planet Survivors (22 page)

“The first forty years are the hardest.” Kai remarked.

Fordeliton paused before the sick-bay entrance, and Kai, with a grimace, waved them a jaunty farewell.

11

V
ARIAN and Fordeliton had swung down the corridor toward the quartermaster section when Aygar and two of the group from the camp meeting came down another access hall. Aygar gave Varian only a brief nod of acknowledgment. All three wore the brief Iretan costume adopted by the native-born, now enhanced by forcebelts, stunners, and clips. Varian decided the Iretans were really much more attractive as human derivatives than the heavyworld adaptations.

After she had filled her list, with the exception of the nose plugs which the quartermaster felt would be her most pressing need, Varian was asking for help to convey her booty to the sled, when Fordeliton’s caller sounded.

“A moment, Varian, this concerns you, too. Commander Sassinak’s compliments, and can we join her immediately? Crewman, secure those supplies in Governor Varian’s sled.”

Varian was surprised to find Kai, the medic Mayerd, and Florasse, Tanegli’s daughter—whom she had met when barriered as Rianav. While she was being introduced, Aygar was admitted.

Then the commander activated the main screen. “This report has just arrived from the southwest, from the geologist Dimenon. He thought we should know about this development.”

“That’s the site of Dimenon’s last strike,” Kai said when he recognized the terrain.

“And the current habitat of twenty-three small Thek if my tally is correct,” Sassinak added with wayward amusement. “Now watch the edges of the picture.”

Even as she spoke, Kai let out an inadvertent gasp of horror and revulsion. He held both hands out in front of him as the fringes advanced in their inimitable close-stretch propulsion, heading directly toward the sedentary Thek.

“Those critters are in for a big surprise, Governor,” Sassinak remarked.

Nonetheless, Kai sucked in his breath and arched his body backward, as the first fringe spread to envelop a Thek. Varian was not the only one more interested in Kai’s reactions than what was occurring on the screen. Mayerd was discreetly watching him. The fringe had been attracted by a lethal entity, for its sides began to melt and, before the creature could desist, it had been reduced to its crumpled cartilaginous framework. The other fringes met the same fate. Then, as the fascinated observers watched, fringes that had not deployed on their intended victims began to slow their advance, and came to fluttering halts.

“Varian, have you done much investigation of these—what did you call them, Aygar?” Sassinak asked.

“Fringes.” Aygar’s single word broke Kai’s transfixed gaze from the screen to the Iretan’s presence.

“Young Terilla named them that,” Kai said in a flat cold voice, turning away from Aygar.

The big Iretan made no comment, inclining his head briefly. “Whatever those black pyramids are—”

“Thek!” Kai was almost surly.

“The fringes have met their match, then, in these Thek. Do they generate much heat?”

“Yes.”

“What was it you told me, Kai?” Mayerd said into the awkward pause after Kai’s response, “The Thek are gorging themselves on raw Iretan energy?”

Kai nodded curtly.

“Were we told about Thek, Florasse?” Aygar asked.

The woman shook her head slowly, her eyes never leaving the screen. “They are not of this world, Aygar, so why would
we
have needed to know?” Florasse’s voice held overtones of betrayed trust and disillusionment, enough to make Kai regard her with surprise.

“What interest do the Thek have on my world?” Aygar asked, his glance sliding from Kai’s closed expression to Varian.

“We would feel easier, Aygar,” Sassinak answered him, “if we ourselves knew. The Thek are a long-lived race who keep their own counsel, vouchsafing to us poor ephemerals only such information as they consider us worthy to receive.”

“They are your supreme rulers?”

“By no means! They are, however, a vital force in the Federated Sentient Planets. One does not—as you just saw—meddle with a Thek with impunity. What is germane to us right now is the question, what do you native Iretans know about the fringes?”

“To stay away from them.” Aygar’s glance flicked to Kai.

“And?” Sassinak prompted him.

“They are attracted by body heat and envelop their prey, clasping the digits midsection to secure it. Then they consume their victim with a digestive juice. The shipsuit you were wearing saved your life,” Aygar remarked to Kai. “Fringes have trouble digesting synthetic fibers.”

“What weapon do you use to protect yourselves against the creatures?” Sassinak asked.

“We run”—and Varian was certain now that the powerful young man was possessed by a fine sense of humor—“as we possess no effective weapons against the fringes. A few Thek posted about would be ideal deterrents.”

Fordeliton coughed aloud and even Sassinak looked a trifle surprised at Aygar’s irreverent suggestion.

“Is fire effective?”

Aygar shrugged. “I’ve never seen them melt before, nor have we had an liquid flame to use. So far they have not penetrated to this plateau.”

Sassinak turned back to the final frame on the screen: the fringes retreating from the Thek.

“We observed aquatic fringes before we went cryo,” Varian said, “but no evidence at all of communication between the species. Perhaps the land fringes are further along in evolution.” She shuddered. “I don’t like even to think what they could do in cooperation. The aquatic ones are considerably smaller. Oh, and the golden fliers keep well away from them, too.”

“Fringes in the sea?” Aygar swung toward Varian, with a puzzled frown.

“Yes, our chemist ran some tests on fringe tissue. They’re one of the many anomalies this planet presented us. A life-form with a cellular development completely different from that of the dinosaurs—”

“Dinosaurs?” Fordeliton erupted in surprise.

“Yes, it’s all in my report,” Varian said. “Tyrannosaurus rex—I called him fang-face—hadrosaurs of all varieties, crested, helmeted, hyracotherium, pteranodons which I call golden fliers, or giffs—”

“But that’s preposterous,” Fordeliton began.

“That’s what Trizein said. He’s an amateur Mesozoic naturalist—”

“Do you have dinosaurs on this plateau?” Fordeliton eagerly demanded of Aygar.

“No. We picked the plateau as our settlement because it is mercifully devoid of the large life-forms,” Aygar said. “We avoid the dinosaurs as we do the fringes. Especially the golden fliers.” He glanced at Varian.

“The giffs are harmless,” Varian said stoutly.

Aygar’s eyebrows lifted slightly in an expression of doubt, a doubt which Florasse seconded.

“There’s obviously a great deal of information to be shared,” Sassinak said, firmly regaining control of the meeting. “And considerable reason for you all,” and her gesture made one group of them, “to cooperate. I estimate you have a week, two weeks at the outside before I receive orders, either from my Sector or the tribunal. As I have mentioned before, any ship of the Fleet encountering shipwrecked survivors is required to render whatever reasonable assistance is requested. We’ll ignore that—” and she jerked her thumb in the direction of the heavyworlder transport, “complication for the nonce. My ship has been on tour for four months and my crew could use some shore leave, even on a planet that smells as bad as this one. Many of them have technical avocations—geology, botany, metallurgy, agronomy. There are analysts of all persuasions.” She extended one printout sheet to Kai and one to Aygar. “I’m sure that we can arrange duty rosters for anyone you think would be helpful, Governor. My people would make up in enthusiasm what they might lack in expertise.” Kai took the sheet from her, but Aygar remained stolidly regarding Sassinak. With a hint of testiness, she rattled the sheet at him. “You have a perfect right to be suspicious of gratuitous offers of assistance, young man, but do not be stupid. You have as much to lose or gain as these people. You may not realize it, but my profession is to protect life in all its myriad and mysterious forms. Not destroy it.”

Florasse stirred restlessly, her hand twitching, but just then Aygar stepped forward and took the list with another of his stiff nods.

“For
my
information, I would very much appreciate a report from you Iretans on the life-forms you have encountered. Thank you for your attention.” She rose, signifying an end to the meeting, her glance indicating that Varian and Kai should remain. “Now,” she said when the door had slid shut again, “any luck with your investigations, Mayerd?”

“Too soon to tell.”

“What? Your pet diagnostic let you down?”

“My
unit
has a great deal to chuckle over, but it has confirmed the interim medication that the
Mazer Star
recommended. We’ll soon have a more exhaustive report.” She sounded confident.

“Can I get back to my team, then?” Kai’s expression was unusually set.

“Only if you’ll take Fordeliton with you. He’s a devoted dinosaur buff.”

“There
must
be some mistake,” Fordeliton said, his words bursting forth.

“Not according to Trizein. Our chemist is also a dinosaur buff,” Varian replied. “Geologically, this planet is stuck in the Mesozoic.”

“There is no way, my dear Varian, that Ireta could evolve creatures similar to the monsters that roamed the planet Earth millions of years ago.”

“We’re well aware of that improbability, Commander,” Varian assured her with a rueful grin, “but that’s what we’ve got and Trizein verifies it. It’s all in our reports.”

“I can see that I’m going to have to pay those reports considerable attention. I was going to have Ford do it for me,” Sassinak’s face made a moue of resignation, “but I can’t in conscience keep him cooling his heels here if those beasties really are out there. Don’t we have other naturalists on the list, Ford?”

“Yes, ma’am—Maxnil, Crilsoff, and Pendelman. Anstel as well, but he’s on watch.”

“They’re not essential crew, are they? No. Would you care for some passengers back to that eyrie of yours, Governors?” When she received an eager affirmative from Varian, she nodded to Fordeliton. “See to it, will you, Ford. You may have transport, and you’d best take supplies. Keep in touch. Now, all, shake a leg out of here.” She picked up the first of the report cassettes and slid it into the replay slot on her console. “
I’ve
got a lot of reading to do.” She flicked her hand at them.

Almost like children released from a tiresome class, they left. Fordeliton’s excitement was palpable.

“Look, I’ll get Maxnil, Crilsoff, and Pendelman, raid the galley and the recorder stores, and follow. Okay?”

“Would you have time and the space to take one or two of the geology people?” Kai asked.

“Sure, sure.” Fordeliton craned his neck to see the list in Kai’s hand. “Baker, Bullo, and Macud are good, and they work hard. They’re off-duty right now so they’ll be bored and easily persuaded to accompany me.” Fordeliton grinned. “No problem. Don’t want to inundate you, but you’ve no idea what a treat this is.”

By this time, they had reached the air lock. Varian had a clear view of the sky and saw the departure of three sleds from the Iretans’ settlement, heading southeast. She wondered if they were going to consolidate their position on the first campsite that they had abandoned. She looked quickly to see if Kai had noticed the sleds, but he was discussing supplies with Fordeliton.

“If you have any telltaggers in your stores, you might want to mount one on your sled,” Varian suggested to Fordeliton.

“We have. I will, I’ll follow as soon as I assemble the men.”

12

F
ORTUNATELY Fordeliton gave them a few minutes advance warning of his arrival, which allowed Varian just enough time to become airborne and prevent the cruiser’s sled from being attacked. Fordeliton was tremendously excited by the variety of creatures he had seen on his way to the giff cliffs. When Varian guided him into the cave, he was enraptured by the giffs themselves and his companions—Maxnil, Crilsoff, and Pendelman—were equally thrilled.

“Now that I have you here, I’m not quite sure what to do with you,” Varian said truthfully. “Trizein is out with young Bonnard and Terilla—”

“Could we join them?” Fordeliton was all eagerness.

“There’s not much point in duplicating effort. What sort of speed and range does your sled have?” Varian asked as she rummaged for a sketch map of the main continent of Ireta which Kai had made the previous evening.

“Fleet standard, supersonic.”

“Really? You wouldn’t mind working up in the polar region, would you? We hadn’t penetrated that far. Your sled could function in high temperatures?”

“Of course!”

“Well, now.” Varian pointed to the northern polar area. “I’d rather like to know if there are variations of these critters that have adapted to the intense heat.”

“I’ll just put this map through the scan, and we’ll be off to do a reconnaissance.”

No sooner had she sent him on his way than a second sled penetrated giff territory. They had not thought to announce their arrival so that Varian had a chance to witness the giff attack mode. The resultant commotion brought Lunzie from her lair.

“You’ll have to go up yourself and escort them in,” the medic told Varian.

“I think we’ve got too much of a good thing,” Varian said under her breath as she went to the rescue.

This time it was a second shift from the
Zaid-Dayan
, the geology buffs, Baker, Bullo, and Macud. Kai contacted Dimenon and arranged an unexplored sector for the cruiser’s men to assess. They went off in high spirits.

“We can’t keep alarming the giffs like this,” Varian said, “even if we
do
need help to accomplish our mission.

“Why not return to our original site, then?” Lunzie suggested. When she noticed Kai’s stiff posture, she shrugged. “Well, it was just an idea.”

Kai took a deep breath. “Not a bad one, actually, Lunzie. In fact, a very sensible solution. I’d like to see if a forcescreen would keep out fringes. They couldn’t have developed from aquatic to land beasts in just forty-three years, could they? Well, then,” and he swallowed, took a deep breath, “it was Tor who attracted the fringe to the site. We’ll just try to make sure that we keep our Thek visitors to a minimum. Okay? Then let’s plan to reestablish our original camp. It makes sense in a number of ways, not just protecting the giffs. It’s where
ARCT-10
will look for us. And since the
Zaid-Dayan
’s sleds all have long-range capabilities, then we won’t have to establish secondary camps. And you can stay on here, Varian, and observe the giffs without all this coming and going.”

“I like it, Kai,” Lunzie said, thoroughly approving. “But we need a lot of equipment—”

“We’ll make up a list. Sassinak did say that she’s supposed to replenish any lost equipment.”

“Isn’t replacing a whole basecamp asking a bit much?”

“I’ll lean on my relation this evening,” Lunzie said. “Blood is thicker than water and a few odd pieces of standard Fleet issue.”

The giff alarm was heard yet again and, cursing with a fervor and an inventiveness that made her listeners grin, Varian went out to give escort. Mayerd arrived just as Varian had maneuvered her slower vehicle out. Mayerd opened the canopy of her sleek one-man craft as Varian returned, and gave her a cheery, apologetic wave. She stepped out of the little ship, turning to gather three large parcels and one small before she moved toward Kai and Lunzie.

“My diagnostic unit chuckled to itself for a good two hours after you left, Kai, but it came up with medication and a few tentative conclusions. It rarely makes definitive statements. You are Lunzie, aren’t you?” Mayerd asked, juggling her parcels so that she had a free hand to extend to Lunzie.

“I am and I surmise that you are Lieutenant Commander Mayerd.”

“Mayerd’ll do.” Then she turned again to Kai, grinning. “Not only did that fringe digestive juice poison you, Kai, but you are allergic to the poison. My DU not only came up with tablets to help flush the poison out of your system and counteract the allergy but also a salve to anoint the punctures and reduce that desensitivity. And DU highly recommended the new nerve regenerative.” She turned expectantly to Lunzie. “The Crimjenetic: the regenerative we had to use to combat the Persean paralysis.” When Lunzie’s expression remained polite but otherwise unresponsive, Mayerd blinked. “Ah, but you wouldn’t have known about that. It happened twenty years ago . . .”

“During a nap I took,” Lunzie commented.

Mayerd smiled. “You’ll want to read up on this Crimjenetic then. It has proved remarkably effective on all kinds of bizarre nerve poisonings. And I’ve some disks on the latest Federated Medical Review I can lend you, as well, to make up for that naptime. Remind me this evening. Which brings me to these . . .” she handed out the parcels. “I thought green for you, Lunzie. Medical research has proved that our profession choses green as their favorite color nine to one. I hope you’re not the odd one out.”

“I generally am, but green is a flattering color, and you were very thoughtful to fill the need.”

“I got the notion that dress clothes might not have been on your most needed list and, after I saw the preparations going on in the officers’ mess, I decided I’d better play costumer for you. Blue for you, Kai, and this garnet red should be most becoming, Varian. Sorry about arriving unannounced. Those pteranodons of yours are magnificent.”

“So are these,” Lunzie said, one blunt-fingered hand stroking the deep green fabric. “Just how big are the
Zaid-Dayan
’s stores?”

“Pretty damned all-inclusive,” Mayerd said with pride. “We’re only four months into this tour so our supplies are basically untouched. Maybe not esoteric. Why? What do you need?”

“A few odd domes, some heavy duty force-screens . . .

“Capable of frying fringes?” Mayerd asked with a sympathetic chuckle.

“You got it in one!”

“Just hand me your list. Clever of you to be related to the commander, isn’t it?”

“Providential!”

“We haven’t actually written up a list yet,” Varian said. “We only just decided to leave here before the giffs lose their fur in fright.”

“A cavern did seem an odd place to set up as a major campsite,” Mayerd remarked.

“It was a good port in a . . .” Varian broke off her sentence because one of Ireta’s sudden boisterous squalls erupted, blowing the vines inward, rain and debris falling just short of the little group.

“Not that the heaviest duty forcescreen would keep off that sort of storm,” Mayerd said, establishing herself beyond the storm wrack on a hearth stool. She took a pad and scripter out of her thigh pocket and looked about her expectantly. “Now, how many domes? How large a forcescreen? Furnishings? Supplies? Old lamps for new?”

By the time Mayerd had left, she had prompted a far more exhaustive list of requirements from them than they would ever have listed without her encouragement. When Varian suggested that they might be overdoing it, Mayerd dismissed the notion immediately.

“Sassinak has given orders that you are to be given any reasonable quantity of supplies—”

“I wouldn’t call
that
exactly reasonable,” Varian said, indicating the filled pad.

Mayerd regarded her with eyebrows raised in polite surprise.

“When Sassinak sees domes, forcescreens—”

“Sassinak,” and Mayerd paused briefly to emphasize her commander’s name, “won’t
see
a trivial list like this. She’s got one very big problem in a transport, occupying her waking hours. This,” and Mayerd waved the pad, “goes directly into QM, and I’ll see that it’s delivered to the site tomorrow morning.” She moved lightly to the little one-man craft, slid back the canopy, and seated herself. “That is, assuming any of us are capable tomorrow morning. Let me check the coordinates of that campsite now, while I’m able.” Kai glanced at the notation and confirmed it. “See you later.”

Varian couldn’t resist the temptation to swing out on one of the vines and see what the giffs made of the speed of Mayerd’s craft. Some younger fliers took off in pursuit, but it was immediately obvious that they could never catch the speedy sled, so they began to make lazy swirls in the clearing sky, first to the left and then to the right. Almost, Varian thought as if they made the tip of first one wing and then the other the pivot of a private circle of sky.

“I wish you wouldn’t take risks like that,” Kai said, frowning anxiously as she reached the safety inside the cave and released the vine.

“It’s exhilarating, for one thing. For another, I had to move fast or miss the sight, and the ladder was too far away. Kai,” and Varian held out one hand, meaning to clasp his arm to transmit understanding. The gesture was not completed because she remembered his handicap and wasn’t sure just how light a touch might harm. She dropped her hand. “Kai, I just wanted to say that I think you’re perfectly splendid to shift camps to protect the giffs from unnecessary interference.”

Kai shrugged. “Being here would make your job impossible if you wanted to catch the giffs going about their regular routine. If they have one. And anyhow,” he grinned ruefully, “I think it would lay a lot of ghosts to rest to go back there. D’you want to keep the shuttle as your base?”

Varian looked about her, at the amenities which Captain Godheir and Obir had so thoughtfully arranged.

“I’d be very comfortable here, without the shuttle. And then there’s the matter of the giffs’ reaction to the departure of the shuttle. That’ll be interesting to observe.” She grinned.

“D’you think they’ve wondered if it will sprout wings when it’s big enough? Or hatch?”

“They’ve been that road once, when Tor paid you the visit.”

They grinned, once again in harmony with each other. Then Kai gave her arm an affectionate squeeze.

“C’mon. Once again we’ve got some organizing to do.”