Rissa and Tregare (5 page)

Rissa turned back again. "Since you scorn apologies, Liesel, I wil make no more. But I had no wish to anger you. And-no, that is al, I think."

Liesel's face slowly regained normal color. "Al right." She nodded. "I pushed too hard; I do that sometimes. These games-maybe I take them too seriously."

"Perhaps," said Rissa. "But that is your judgment, not mine."

"For a minute there it looked like a power play, and you in the middle of it. Sol-"

"I am only in the middle-not by my choice-of
your
game. And I regret that there must be sides to it, for I wish the best to each of you. Do you see?"

After a moment, Liesel nodded. "Yes-and I'll bet you don't know
why
I believe you." She waited, but Rissa did not answer.

"Well, when you got up to flounce out of here, you didn't say a word about al the proxies and such you signed to-day-to revoke them, or anything-so I knew that with you at least, power was no part of it."

Laughter seemed incongruous, but Rissa could not suppress it. "Liesel! I am glad I do not have to explain, for I am not sure I could have done so. And now wil you release me from your game?"

"Oh, sit the hel down and finish your dinner before it gets cold, wil you?"

"It has already cooled-but still I have appetite." She sat again, ate, and drank. Slowly and hesitantly the talk resumed, but now more straightforward, devoid of hints and traps.

When Rissa had enough of food and drink, she said, "Do we wish to play at cards? If not, I will go and pack for tomorrow after all, as Bran Tregare suggested."

Sparline said, "Cards? Too artifical a game for me tonight."

"Then a goodnight to all of you," and Rissa left the group. Upstairs she packed all but what she would need to use in the morning, before departure.

She supposed there would be no luxurious hot tub on the scoutship; certainly there had been none on
Inconnu.
So she ran her bath full and for a long time lay in it, relaxed. After-ward she brushed her wet hair back and down, inspected it in a mirror, and decided it did not need trimming so soon again. Then she dried it and went to bed. She was nearly asleep when Tregare entered; the lights came on and she sat up, blinking. He moved slowly and carefully as he came and bent to kiss her; on his breath she smelled raw .spirits.

"I'm all waste and half-jettisoned, Rissa." He put a brown envelope on a dresser near the bed. "Been drinking with an old acquaintance, off a ship just in today." He began to un-dress. "News-not sure what it means, yet-lots to think about." He visited the bathroom, returned and got into bed. "Lots to talk about, too-but tomorrow, if I don't sleep clear through the day." He kissed her again and lay back, breathing deeply.

"I will wake you-you can get up or go back to sleep." She smoothed his hair. "At any rate, I am glad you are here." With the bedside switch she darkened the room, and lay wondering what had happened. When Tregare's breathing took on the pattern of sleep, she shook her head and cleared her thoughts. After a time, she slept also. waking, Rissa washed, dressed, and ordered up a pot of coffee and a pitcher of juice. When the tray arrived, she woke Bran.

"Do you wish to get up or to sleep longer?"

"Neither." He stretched, and gathered the pillows behind him to prop up against. Rissa placed the tray handy to him and brought a chair for herself. He poured for them. "I'm not hungry yet, "he said, "so this is just right."

"Do you suffer from last night's drink?"

"Me? No, we stuck to good booze al the way. I wasn't al that far off course, anyway-mostly just tired. Or I wouldn't have tried to bring the aircar home at night." He scratched at the bandage on his cheek. "You got my cal, did you?"

"Yes. I tried to return it, but you left no relay code."

"Couldn't-wasn't sure where I was going to be."

"My luggage is packed, as you said. When do we depart?"

"I want to make a family report first, and see what every-body thinks. Maybe right here, if nobody objects." He got out of bed. "You want to cal Liesel while I see to the plumbing?" He went into the bathroom.

Rissa reached Liesel in her office and relayed Tregare's sug-gestion. "It's al right with me," Liesel said. "Now?"

"If that is convenient for you."

"It's fine. I'll be right up."

Tregare returned and got into bed again, shifting the pilows to sit more upright. LiesePs knock came soon; Rissa admitted her and arranged another chair.

"Hawkman's in the city and Sparline's meeting with the section chiefs this morning, so let me pipe the intercom to my office recorder." That done and coffee at hand, she said, "Al right, Bran-let's have it."

"The brown envelope on the dresser." Rissa reached to hand it to him. "No-you two look. They're a little fuzzycopies of copies, at best, but-" The women looked at the first color print. Rissa said, "This ship, Bran-what kind of insigne is that? And the mark-ings-" He shook his head. "Keep looking." They did-at the ship from several views, at the body of a woman whose abdomen lay open and empty, and finally...

"I do not understand. Is this a mask, a costume?"

Liesel shook her head. "Bran Tregare wouldn't make such fuss over a masquerade. No-somebody's found more of the aliens, the ones UET

stole star travel from."

"Not quite," said Tregare. "They've found
us."

"Then for peace' sake, drop the dramatics and tel us about it!"

"I got these from Raoul Vanois on
Carcharodon-used
to be UET's
General Leamington.
What it was, I want him to join me-he's in low orbit for money, so I offered for a con-trolling interest, him to stay on as ship's commander. We didn't quite meet terms but I think he'll take it.

"He couldn't seem to keep his mind on the business so I asked him, 'Something you ate?' Then he showed me what I'm showing you. Look down the pile two-three more; you'll see there's no question-the two humans are about average size."

It was the third-next picture. The man and woman on each side were unmemorable, but the creature between them ...

"Vanois thinks the colors are a little off, but not badly."

"They are quite close," said Rissa.

Tregare gripped her wrist. "What-?"

Her eyes went wide. "I had forgotten! Pictures-my father kept them hidden, except to show us once. Contraband?

But now I remember-the thing so tall beside a man, and much thinner."

She looked more closely. "This one wears a cap, but they are bald. And yes-" She pointed out the all-black eyes, triangles pointing downward, with a pair of spurs or tendrils above each. Ears like half-cups opening forward, no sign of nose or nostrils. Below the shallow-angled mouth, an inverted V, no line of chin or jaw; the face tapered smoothly to the long neck. "A brighter ocher color than this, I think, and the brown markings that accent the features-almost like clown makeup-are not so discrete. On my father's pictures the colors shaded more gradually. The hands are hidden, but-"

"In other pictures, they look a lot like ours," said Tregare, "only longer and thinner. Not the feet, though-they're toe-walkers, like a dog or horse; the heel's a hock. That's where most of the extra height comes from."

"All right," Liesel said, "I'm sold on the exhibit. But what's the story?"

"There's a fairly new Hidden World called 'Charleyhorse' because of the high gravity-hard work really gives you a beating. Vanois-
Carcharodon-
landed at their main settle-ment, only a few hundred people, and found the locals run-ning around in circles, half hysterical. These aliens-the Shrakken, if he pronounced it halfway right-had been there nearly half a year and just left. Vanois missed them by less than a week."

"But, Bran-why were the people so disturbed? After so long, had they not adjusted to the existence of these-Shrak-ken?"

"It wasn't that. After the first shock, the folks found the Shrakken friendly enough. Some of them learned our lan-guage; apparently nobody could learn theirs. So everyone thought what you might expect-that here's a whole new culture to trade ideas with. But-" He thumbed through the pictures and held one up. "But then this happened." It was the dead woman.

"The Shrakken did that? But why, Bran?"

"That's the worst of it, Rissa-Vanois doesn't know. What he was told-now believe
this
if you can-is that it was an ac-cident."

"Accident?" Liesel sniffed loudly. "Gutted like a bush-stomper hung up in the market? What kind of accident is that?"

"She was found like this beside a stream, clothes piled neatly on the bank. Swimming in the raw, I expect. And Charleyhorse has such a nudity taboo, likely the Shrakken had never seen anyone naked. The idea seems to be that they didn't know her for human."

"But still-" Liesel beat a fist against her other palm. "Why, and how, did they do
that?"

"Vanois couldn't find out. Whether the people there knew or not-he thinks they did-they wouldn't tel it. What they did say, though-well, thinking they were on friendly terms, they'd been free with directions to other Hidden Worlds. And the best they know, the Shrakken are headed
this
way."

Liesel gasped. Rissa took the pictures again. "I do not know whether you noticed," she said, "but this ship is unarmed."

"You mean," said Tregare, "it carries no weapons
we
recognize." pleading hunger, Tregare called a recess for breakfast. When he and Rissa had eaten, he said, "All right, let's tape the rest of what Vanois told me, before I forget it. Raoul's chief medic got it from a fellow named Storrin-only semiscientist he found in the settlement-so bear in mind you're getting it thirdhand.

"The Shrakken don't fit our biological categories. Their arm and leg bones are inside like ours but their bodies are hard-shelled-intricate segments held together with cartilage and ligaments-pretty flexible. They're not warm-blooded
or
cold-blooded, by our standards. Body temperature-to the touch-varies a lot, and against the ambient as often as with it. Voluntary? Nobody knows.

"They don't have jaws. Those shark-mouths hold two toothed sphincter muscles-well,
something
like teeth-that rotate in opposition to each other. Take your arm off in two grinds.

"Storrin guessed we can't learn their language because part of it's not in our hearing range. Some ultrasonic, he thought -and something they do with the litle horns over the eyes. Those twitch and change color-maybe radiate something, too.

"How they reproduce-if the Charleyhorsers knew, they weren't telling. Storrin thinks they have two sexes because he saw a couple with what looked like big hard-ons-but seg-mented, telescoping. The others had no such thing, and neither kind had anything resembling breasts. Maybe they feed their young like birds do, by throwing up." He paused, then shook his head.

"No-that's al I remember, for now."

Liesel turned off her recorder feed. "Al right-now what does this mean, to us?" Rissa spoke. "The Shrakken were on Charleyhorse for some time. We know of one death, but not the reason for it. If they are enemies, why did they not kill the entire settlement and leave us no clue at al?"

Tregare turned and slammed his fist into the pillows. "I don't
know-
that's why I can't decide what to do. I had my own plans, but if Number One needs
Inconnu's
protec-tion . . ." He got out of bed and began dressing. "Well, there's no deciding for now, so let's get on with our own doings. Rissa, are you ready to go to the scoutship?" She turned to Liesel.

"You will say my temporary good byes for me? Yes. Then I will be ready, Bran, when you are."

And a few minutes later, outside, they loaded their luggage into the aircar.

airborne, Tregare turned north, away from One Point One and paralel to the Hils. Rissa said, "I thought your scoutship was on the other side."

"It is. Maybe you don't realize how high the Big Hills are; these aircars don't have the altitude to go over the middle ranges. There's a pass, up ahead a way, a winding cut-unless you saw it from topside, as I did, you'd never know it went al the way through. Even so, we'll need oxygen at the highest parts."

From under his seat he pulled the tube and nosepiece. Hampered by the safety harness she fumbled below, found the equipment, and brought it up. He said, "You know how to use it?"

"Yes."

"All right. Start when I do-or earlier, if you feel the need."

They hit turbulence. The car bucked; Tregare fought it level again. "Getting close," he said. "You can't see the entrance yet, but it's always bumpy here, until we get into the cut." They neared the first major rise. Rissa looked, stil fascinated by the huge masses, wooded in blue-green forest, that per-sisted in looking like the smaler roling hils of Earth. Then she saw the cut; it was as though a giant ax had struck. Now unseen gusts buffeted the car-it rose and fel abruptly, tipped almost sidewise and back again, yawed, and was flung toward one side of the looming pass. Teeth clenched, Tregare cursed, wrestled the controls and applied ful power. The car swooped violently, then steadied and shot straight into the center of the cut. Abruptly they were in smooth air, though Rissa knew they rode a swift current.

Grinning now, Tregare said, "Quite a ride, isn't it?"

"And dangerous, I would think, if the pilot did not know what to expect."

"Too right-first time I tried it was nearly my last."

She was silent, and he asked, "What are you thinking?"

"That sometime I would like to do it myself."

He laughed. "Funny how that doesn't surprise me. Now look-ahead, here, there's a dogleg turn-an old fault-slip-page, probably. It's on you before you know it, and if you don't watch closely-
there!"
She saw a cliff before them-a dead end rushing at her-a splash of white at the right side and a shadow to the left. Tregare threw the controls hard over; bucking in brief turbulence, the car plunged into that shadow, into a narrower passage.

"Yes," she said, "that was-"

"Not now! Here comes the rest of it." Here the angle of light was better-in time that she could have done it herself, she saw where he must turn. Then they were in a wider part, climbing as the bottom of the cut rose beneath them.