The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall (30 page)

“There’s more here than we need,” Saraidh said, having made some rough calculations. “More than enough. But—” She turned to Shensu, her expression stern. “I could understand your keeping this from Kimmer, but surely this was fuel those shuttles could have used? Or did they?” she added, noticing that some of the closer ranks were thinner where sacks had obviously been removed.

Shensu held up his hand. “My father was an honorable man. And when the need arose, he took what was needed from this cavern and gave it, willingly, to Admiral Benden, doing all within his power to help overcome the menace that dropped from the skies. If he had not been murdered—” Shensu broke off, his jaw muscles tensing, his expression bleak. “I do not know where the three shuttles went, but they could only have lifted from Landing on the fuel my father gave Admiral Benden. Now I give the rest of the fuel to a man also named Benden.” Shensu looked pointedly at the lieutenant.

“Paul Benden was my uncle,” he admitted, finding himself chagrined at this unexpected inheritance. “The
Erica
is also economical with fuel. With a full tank, we can lift you and even make some allowance for personal effects. But why is the, fuel
here
?”

“My father did not steal it,” Shensu said, indignant.

“And I didn’t imply that he had, Shensu,” Benden replied soothingly.

“My father accumulated this fuel during the transfer from the colony ships to the surface of the planet. He was the most accomplished shuttle pilot of them all. And he was the most economical. He took only what his careful flying saved on each flight, and no one took harm from his economy. He told me how much was wasted by the other pilots, carelessly wasted. He was a charterer and had the right to take what was available. He merely insured that fuel was available.”

“But—” Benden began, wishing to reassure Shensu.

“He saved it to fly. He had to fly.” Shensu’s eyes be-came slightly unfocused as his impassioned explanation continued. “It was his life. With space denied him, he designed a little atmosphere plane. I can show it to you. He flew it here, in Honshu, where no one but us could see him. But he took each of us up in that plane.” Shensu’s face softened with those memories. “That was the prize we all worked for. And I could understand his fascination with flight.” He took a deep breath and regarded the two Fleet officers in his usual inscrutable fashion.

“I’m not sure I could live happily stuck landside forever,” Benden said earnestly. “And we’re grateful to be taken into your confidence, Shensu.”

“My father would be pleased that his saving ways permit a Benden to save his kinsmen,” Shensu said with a sly glance at the lieutenant. “But we will wait until late tonight, when there are few to notice our activity. Those marines of yours look strong. But do not bring that ensign. He talks too much. I do not want Kimmer to know of our transaction. It is enough that he will be rescued from Pern.”

“Have you checked these sacks recently, Shensu?” Saraidh asked. When he shook his head, she crouched to enter the low cave and inspect the nearest. “Your father did well, Shensu,” she said over her shoulder, peering at the sack she had tilted upside down. “I was afraid there might be some contamination from the plastic after fifty-odd years, but the fuel all seems to be clear, no sediment, well saved.”

“What gemstones would be worth bringing with us?” Shensu asked casually.

“Industrial technology requires quantities of sapphire, pure quartz, diamonds,” Saraidh told him as she left the cave, arching her back to relieve the strain of crouching. “But the major use of natural gemstones is once again decorative—for pets, high-status women, courtly men.”

“Black diamonds?” Shensu asked, his lips parting in anticipation.

“Black diamonds!” Saraidh was astonished.

“Come, I will show you,” Shensu said with a pleased smile. “First we will close the cave and then descend to our workshops. Then I will show you the rest of the Hold as I said I would.” He grinned back at them.

Benden was not sure whether going down was worse than climbing. Not only did he feel dizzy from the short arc of the stairs, but he had the sensation that at any moment he would fall forward down this interminable spiral. He considered himself competent in free-fall or in space walking, but this was a subtly different activity. He was only marginally relieved that Shensu was in front of him—but if Saraidh fell into him, was Shensu sturdy enough to keep all three from pitching down?

They passed several landings, which Shensu ignored, and seemed to descend a very long way before they emerged into another large room that must be under the main living chamber. It was not as high-ceilinged or as well finished, but it was clearly furnished for a variety of activities. Ross identified a large kiln, a forge hearth, and three looms. Worktables were placed near racks of carefully stored tools. Hand tools—not a power tool among them.

Shensu led them to a plastic cabinet a meter high and as wide, with many small drawers. He pulled out two, evidently at random, and scattered their contents on the nearby table: the facets of cut stones sparkled in the overhead light. Saraidh exclaimed in surprise, scooping up a handful of carelessly thrown stones of all sizes.

Benden picked a large one out of her hand, holding it up to the light. He’d never seen anything like it, dark but glittering with light.

“Black diamond. There’s a whole beach full of them below a dead volcano,” Shensu said, leaning back against the table, arms folded across his chest. His smile was amused. “We have drawers of them, and emeralds, sapphires, rubies. We’re all good lapidaries, though Faith is cleverest in cutting. We don’t bother much with what Kimmer terms semiprecious, though he has some fine turquoise he says is extremely valuable.”

“Probably,” Saraidh murmured, still absorbed in running a shower of the diamonds through her hands. She was absorbed but not, Benden noted, covetous.

“The blacks are why I know you won’t find any survivors in the north,” Shensu went on, his eyes on Benden.

“Oh? Why?”

“Before the sled power packs died, Kimmer made two trips to Bitkim Island where he and Avril Bitra had mined both the black diamonds and emeralds. He brought me and Jiro with him both times to help gather the rough diamonds. I saw him leave our camp late one night and I followed him. He went into a big water cavern before he disappeared from sight. He had the light. I didn’t dare go farther. But, in the cavern lagoon three ships were moored, masts lashed to the decks. They were plastic-hulled, and their decks were badly scored by Thread. It couldn’t pierce plastic, but it could melt grooves on it. I went down into one of the ships and everything was neatly stowed aboard, even in the galley, where there were supplies in tight containers—everything left in readiness for the ships to be sailed out of the cavern again.” Shensu paused dramatically. Shensu had a feeling for the dramatic, Benden realized. But that was not necessarily a fault. “Three years later, we came back for a last load. And no one had been near the ships. There was a thick coat of dust on everything. Nothing had been touched. Except there was a lot more algae on the hulls and windblown debris on the decks. Three years! I say there was no one left to sail them.”

Saraidh had let the diamonds drip through her fingers to the table, and now she sighed. “You said there was a volcanic island? Was it active when you were there? That could account for that heat source we noticed,” she added to Benden.

“Kimmer would stretch the truth every which way,” Shensu said, “to make himself look good. But he desperately wanted to have a larger gene pool—for his own pleasure if not ours.” The last was said with understandable malice. “If only a few more had survived, there’d be that much more future for all of us.”

That gave both Ross Benden and Saraidh ni Morgana a lot to mull over as Shensu showed them around the additional facilities: the animal barns, the well-supplied storage areas. He paused at a locked door to a lower level.

“Kimmer keeps the key to the hangar, so I can’t show you my father’s plane,” Shensu said. Then he gestured for them to ascend the stairs to the upper floors. Benden was relieved that these steps were wide and straight.

When they returned to the main level of Honshu Hold, they found the women busily preparing a feast: certainly a feast for those who had been five years on a mission. Not that the
Amherst
did not cater well, but ship food was nothing to compare with spit-roasted lamb and the variety of Pernese hybrid vegetables and tubers. The two marines assigned to stand watch on the
Erica,
despite the slightly sarcastic assurance from Kimmer that no enemies could be lurking on Honshu Cliff, were brought heaping platters and nonfermented beverages by Faith and Charity. Within the Hold, the evening was merry, and Kimmer, after a glass or two of wine, became expansive as a host. He had recovered his composure after a long rest, and tactfully, no mention was made of his collapse.

As prearranged, Benden, Sergeant Greene, and Vartry, the fourth marine, met Shensu, his two brothers, and the boys, Alun and Pat. Even with nine to tote sacks, it took four trips to top off the
Erica’s
tanks. The boys, who were short enough to walk upright in the low cave, brought the sacks out to those who waited to haul them down. The marines, using slings, carried eight sacks at a time. Ross Benden decided that he had no reason to challenge the marines: four was quite enough. The Fusaiyuki brothers carried six effortlessly. When the tanks were full, there were still sacks in the cavern.

The next morning, hearing Nev’s cheerful morning ablutions, Ross Benden stirred, then abruptly stopped. He was uncomfortably stiff and sore from the night’s exertions.

“Something wrong, sir?”

“Not a thing,” Benden said. “Just finish up and let me have a chance, will you?”

Nev took that in good part and shortly was out of the tiny cabin. Moving with extreme caution and hissing at the pain of abused muscles, Ross Benden managed to get to his feet. Bent-kneed, he hobbled to the handbasin and opened the small cabinet above that contained the medical kit. A thorough search revealed nothing for muscular aches. He fumbled for a pain tablet, knocked it to the back of his mouth, and discovered that his neck was sore, too. He took a drink of water. He made a mental note to drain the cistern and fill it with the excellent water of Pern.

A scratch at the door made Benden straighten up, despite the anguish the movement caused the long tendons in his legs, but he was damned if he’d show weakness.

“It’s I,” Ni Morgana announced as she entered. She took in at a glance his semicrippled state. “I thought this likely. Just one trip up and down those racks of a stair and my legs are sore. Faith gave me this salve—wanted me to test it to see if it was something of medical value. It’s indigenous. No, lie back down, Ross, I’ll slather it on. Supposed to have numbing properties. Hmm, it does,” she added, eying her fingers and the generous dollop she had scooped out of the jar.

Ross was crippled enough to be willing to try anything, noxious or bizarre. He could hardly appear before Kimmer in his present shape.

“Oh, it is numbing. Whee . . . ooh . . . ahh . . . more on the right calf, please,” Benden said, ridiculously relieved by the numbing effect of the salve. The pain seemed to drain out of calves and thighs, leaving them oddly cool but not cold, and certainly free of that damnable soreness.

“I’ve got plenty for later, and Faith says they have buckets of the stuff. Make it fresh every year. Doesn’t smell half-bad either. Pungent and . . . piney.”

When she finished doctoring Benden, she washed her hands thoroughly. “I’d say don’t shower today or you’ll lose the relief.” Then she turned back to him with a puzzled expression. “Ross,” she began, settling against the little handbasin and crossing her arms. “How much would you say Kimmer weighed?”

“Hmm . . .” Benden thought of the man’s build and height. “About seventy-two, seventy-four kilos. Why?”

“I weighed him in at ninety-five kilos. Of course, he was clothed, and the tunic and trousers are rather full and made of sturdy fabric, but I wouldn’t have thought he carried that much flesh.”

“Nor would I.”

“I didn’t judge the women correctly, either. They all weighed in a little under and a little over seventy kilos, and none of them are either tall or heavyset.”

Nev mumbled figures under his breath. “All of ’em, even the kids?”

“No, the three brothers are seventy-three, seventy-two, and seventy-five kilos, which is about what I thought they’d be. But the girl and the boys are also two or three kilos more than I’d have thought them.”

“With a full tank, we can afford a few extra kilos,” Benden said.

“I was also asked how much they could bring with them,” Saraidh went on, “and I said we had to calibrate body weights and other factors before we could give them an exact allowance. I trust that wasn’t out of line.”

“I’ll get Nev to calculate in those weights and let me know how much fuel we’ll have in reserve then,” Benden said. “And what we use as padding and safety harness so no one bounces all over the gig during takeoff.”

Folding out the cabin’s keyboard, Benden ran some rough figures against the lifting power of the full tank. “D’you have a total on their weights?” Ni Morgana gave him the figure. He added them in, plus kilos for padding and harness, and contemplated the result. “I’d hate to be considered mean, but twenty-three-point-five kilos each is about all we can allow.”

“That’s as much as we’re allowed for personal effects on the
Amherst,”
Ni Morgana said. “Is there room for another twenty-three-point-five kilos in medicinals? I gather this stuff is effective.”

“It certainly is,” Benden said, flexing his knees and feeling no discomfort.

“I’ll just get some of this on the marines as well, then,” Ni Morgana said.

“Ha!” was Benden’s scoffing reply.

“I don’t know about that,” Ni Morgana said with a sly grin. “But then, you didn’t catch sight of Sergeant Greene making for the galley. I think—” She paused reflectively. “—that I’m doing some empirical tests of this junk and they just got lucky to be chosen as test subjects. Yes, that should save face admirably. We can’t give Kimmer any reason to be suspicious, now, can we?” Then she left, chuckling.