Rissa and Tregare (6 page)

"Time for oxygen," he said, and they adjusted the nosepieces se-curely.

He turned to her. "You still want to fly this route?"

"Oh, yes. The first turn is hard to see, but directly across from it I saw a marker, a tumble of white boulders. A second time I would not be caught unknowing.''

"You spotted that? Good. To be honest, Rissa, I came through in the afternoon, my first time-the light was on
my
side, not against me as it was today. And of course I'd seen it from above, too, or I might not have made it."

"I am glad you did." Then; "Look-we are at the sum-mit." The pass had narrowed again; on either side, sheer cliffs rose high. For a time the aircar passed not far above the tree-tops. Then the ground below dropped away rapidly, the cliffs receded, and they flew in open air. Now, ahead, Rissa had a clear view of sunlit hills, miles of them, sloping down to green-yellow plains.

She frowned a moment, then said, "On this side the land is higher, is it not? That is a long way, down there, but I think we climbed much farther."

"That's right-and we don't go all the way down. My place is on a sort of shelf-a plateau-a little past halfway." She craned to see. "Where?"

"Can't spot it from here. Past that next ridge; look off to your right a little." He pinched his oxygen tube and took a few breaths through his mouth. "We can take these things off now."

Unable to see her hands fumbling under the seat, Rissa needed several tries to tuck the equipment into the clips that held it; eventually she managed. "Well! Next time I will look at that stowage first." They passed the ridge. The next two were lower; beyond them, small in the distance, she saw a flat brown patch. A glint of metal shone. "Is that the scoutship?"

"That's her. We'll be there soon."

"I am glad. I drank too much coffee."

they landed beside another aircar, between the scoutship and a large cabin-roughly cut wood on a high foundation. At the rear of the plateau, among trees that began the up-sloping forest, stood other buildings, of the prefabricated type used for storage. "I'll unload us," Tregare said. "You go ahead. We're primitive here-there's an outhouse behind the cabin." When she returned he still stood near the aircar, luggage beside him, talking to two men. One, she recognized.

"Come on and say hello." She walked to join him. "My wife, gentle-men!" She thought,
He trusts these men,
and said, "Rissa Ker-guelen."

The shorter, dark-haired man offered his hand; she shook it. "Hain Deverel, Third Hat." He looked more closely.

"Haven't I seen you somewhere?" He nodded. "Sure-on the ship! But you were different-and the name-"

"Yes, somewhat different. It is good to see you again." His recognition startled her-then she realized she was wearing Tari Obrigo's hairstyle and speaking in the voice that matched it.

The bigger man's remaining hair was red. His long face made a grin as he gave a half-salute. "Anse Kenekke. We wouldn't have seen each other much, I guess. I'm Second Engineer and don't get up topside a lot."

"It is good to meet you, also."

They nodded. Deverel said, "Glad to have you here. Cap-tain-you want us to take your things inside? And Anse and I move back into the scout, I guess."

"Afraid so, Hain."

"That's all right; you're the new-marrieds, not us."

Tregare led the way into the cabin; Rissa followed, and behind her, the two others. Inside, staying out of the two men's way while they gathered their belongings, she explored the place.

The overall effect was rustic. Inside, the wood was smoothed somewhat, but unpainted. Windows, irregular in size and spacing but all set high in the walls, were double sheets of thick plastic. A few, in wooden frames, were hinged to open.

The kitchen seemed adequate-a sink with faucets-storage tank in the attic?-a combustion stove with the pressure tank on one side, and a compact dishcleaner. She found a fair sup-ply of foodstuffs and utensils in the cupboards. And in one corner sat a laundering machine.

The bathroom-she was agreeably surprised-held a fold-ing tub that sat under a shower head, plus a washbasin and covered chamber pot. For cold nights, she thought...

There was no bedroom; returning to the main room she now noted the large bed in a front corner. The two men had gone; Tregare was unpacking his baggage and putting things away in drawers built into one wall.

"How do you like it?"

"Rather well-it is sturdy and adequate. Did you build it yourself?"

"With some help. I'm not the greatest architect you ever saw, but it's stood up to the storms of a lot of winters."

"One thing puzzles me. You have running water-some source of supply. What is the need for the outhouse?"

"Because
of the source. The water's near the surface-can't risk fouling it. The hole under the outhouse is heat-fused; it can't leak. Sooner or later, if we were here long enough, we'd have to move the operation.''

"I see. But there would seem to be other solutions..."

"There would be, if I'd built near the edge of the plateau. Just as well I didn't, though. There've been a couple of slides out there since I was here last-I'd hate to lose the cabin. But it'd take maybe fifty aircar loads to bring in enough pipe to drain from this site."

"It is not important." She looked around. "Where did the men sleep? There is only one bed."

"Which suited Main and Anse just fine."

"Oh? Oh, yes-what Deverel said-that we are the
new
marrieds."

"That's right." Finished with his task, he closed an empty suitcase and pushed it under the bed. "You hungry? I'll fix something while you unpack."

"I will do that later. Now I will watch you and see where everything is kept. I shall enjoy seeing Captain Tregare's skils as cook, but I do not expect you to do it al the time, surely."

He laughed and came to her, and kissed her, but in a mo-ment she said, "We are hungry-remember?" dabbing a last bit of gravy with a scrap of bread, she decided he was not an unskilful cook at ail-whatever he did, he did well. Perhaps...

"Filled up, Rissa?"

"Yes. It was good, Bran." She stood. "Now I will un-pack."

"Al right. I'm going over to the scout for a while-make a few calls and check on whatever's come in since I was here last." He left; leisurely, more intent on thought than on ac-tion, she stowed her things away.

Finished, she found the stuffy air oppressive and tried to open a window. The latch-dusty, obviously long-unused-was too stiff for her fingers. She shrugged and went to open the door instead. The feel of it surprised her; it swung smoothly, but was much more massive than she expected. Now she saw its thickness, and that the wal was considerably thicker than normal. Puzzled, she stepped outside and walked around the cabin. At no window could she look in-their placement and the foundation put the lowest a foot beyond her reach, let alone seeing inside. Back to the
door-only one?-that does not fit the rest of it-
she climbed the steps, paused in the doorway and considered what she saw.

Placed two feet from the right corner of the cabin, the door opened inward and to her left. She pulled it nearly shut, then slowly opened it. Straight ahead was the kitchen entrance; on the right the end of the table could be seen-but not the seating, nor the sink and cupboards to the left.

To see the bed-in the left front corner, its head against the far wall-she had to come al the way inside. The left rear of the cabin was bathroom, and its door also opened inward and left.

She nodded. No one could come through the door without giving an alert occupant both warning and time to take cover. Now she prowled the place. Only one kitchen window faced the hill behind. She moved around, looking out; the part of that slope that commanded a view into the kitchen was sheer stone cliff. Again she nodded and went back into the main room. There had to be more-she was going to find it for herself.

The two men had changed the bed-a fair job but not ex-cessively neat. She stood at the foot of it. Which side? Oh, yes-away from the wall, toward the bathroom. Tregare would want to move quickly. So ...

Yes-barely hidden inside the bed frame, near the head, she found the holder-and the gun, butt turned toward the foot for right-handed convenience. She pulled it out-a projectile weapon such as Ernol had carried, with an oversized magazine and a tiny bore in the thick barrel. She put it back.

At lunch Tregare had sat facing the cabin's front. She was not surprised to find, in a holder under that side of the table, the first gun's twin. Consistently, the butt pointed to the right. She went again to the door; now she knew what to look for. The three large embossed leather ornaments hung in a pattern slanting down from the door's upper right corner. The lowest was near her right hand as she took the doorknob in her left; she reached behind it and brought out the weapon.

No needle-spitter, this; it was an energy gun, and heavy. Rissa knew her strength, but she could not hold this piece steady, one-handed. Automatically, before replacing it, she checked the charge indicator and found it near maximum. There might be more weapons and there might not-but one thing there
had
to be. She scanned the floor carefully, lifting and replacing the small rugs here and there-in the main room, then kitchen, and finaly bathroom. She paused to con-firm another needle-gun beside the tub, hidden by a hanging towel, then stood, baffled. Finally she laughed and pulled sidewise at the tub. It pivoted around the mounting that held its plastic water-connections. And there she found what she sought. There was no pull-ring to the trapdoor; only a button in the floor near one end. She pressed it; the spring-loaded seg-ment swung upright with a crash, vibrating for a moment. She looked down; the hole dropped at least twice her height; on one of its glazed sides were metal rungs for climbing. At the bottom she could make out the shadow of a tunnel mouth. This, she thought, explained the need for an outhouse much better than Tregare had done. She closed the trapdoor and would have replaced the tub, but it swung back automatically.
Yes-of course-that would be necessary,
She had no reason to doubt Tregare's thoroughness, but she checked anyway. Outside and around to the back, looking at the outhouse, she considered its position-largely sheltered in front by the cabin, and from behind by one of the stor-age buildings. Entering it, this time she observed the heavy construction. She was not at all surprised to find, hidden in convenient reach of a right-handed sitter, the now-familiar needle-gun.

the hills brought sunset early. Expecting Tregare's return, Rissa looked through the assortment of kitchen supplies and chose foods for the evening meal. When she heard him at the door, she had an improvised stew simmering. She went to meet him and they embraced.

"Well.' Keep yourself busy this afternoon, Rissa? Or maybe take a nap?"

"I found much of interest. Your defenses here are . . . im-pressive. At first, when we arrived, I noticed nothing-but when I began to be curious..."

He grinned. "What all did you find?
Now I'm
curious."

In proper order, she told him what she had found, and how. "I did not go into the tunnel-nor, since I had no idea where to look, search outside for the other end. It is simpler to ask."

"Yes. Well, the tunnel-it's about a hundred meters-brings you back up behind a storage building, in a gully that gives cover if you have to run for it. About halfway-a litle less-is a side shaft up to a camouflaged pillbox-looks like just any other hummock, but its guns cover the front ap-proach to the cabin."

"Most thorough. And now-what did I miss?"

Tregare laughed. "Less than I expected-even if I'd set you looking."

"There is more, though?"

"Nothing much-except maybe the real reason this cabin is exactly where it is. From the ridge up there, we're at the precise minimum angle so that if anyone wants to swoop in and drop a bomb and not overshoot-he has to slow down enough to be vulnerable himself, to some little fleabite mis-siles I've got planted down a little farther out. From the front or sides of course, they'd have no chance-over the ridge was the tricky part." Rissa nodded. "I am
most
impressed. But, Bran-are we then in such danger, that your precautions must be so thorough?"

He gripped both her shoulders. "Rissa, I take a
lot
of pre-cautions I may not need to-if you mean, do I expect to have to use them. I learned that at UET-give them credit for a few good ideas-and maybe improved on the principle a little. When I built this place-had it built-helped build it-I was playing in local politics just a bit, and the situation was con-siderably stickier than it is now. But I don't regret any of the work, wasted effort or not." He released her. "For one thing, word got out-and prob-ably improved in the telling-about what I was doing. It's always good to give the opposition the worries."

"Opposition? Is it anyone I should know about?"

"Not now. One got wiped out as an oligarch, and the rest are running hard as they can to stay in the same place." He sniffed the air. "You started dinner? Good-I wouldn't mind fixing it, but I'm hungry enough that I'm glad I don't have to wait while I do it."

"Yes. So am I. Hungry, I mean. Shall we?"

From a cupboard Rissa had not yet inspected, Tregare brought a bottle of wine. "Let's be a little festive; all right?" Over the meal, he told her of his own afternoon. "It's the delay that makes it rough," he said. "From
Inconnu's
orbit
 
the message lag is about eight hours. Doesn't sound too bad, right? But the only times either of us can send is when the sender's pointing the right way when the
receiver
wil be, eight hours later."

Her brows came together, then she nodded. "Yes-I see it."

"Gonnelsen-my First Hat, remember?-he tried to get a better sync on his orbit, out of the computer. But with the length of Number One's day, it didn't fit-he'd be inside the planet he's orbiting!"

"So your communications are irregular."

"Damn near nonexistent. It'll improve, oddly enough, as that planet gets
farther
away." He pushed his empty plate to one side.