Saturn Rukh (28 page)

“Good job, men,” said Rod with relief. The two women were too tired to object to the choice of words, while the men didn’t even notice Rod’s slip of the tongue. “Let’s get back to the ship and get a well-deserved good night’s rest.” He started the hundred-meter climb up to the safety of the wingtop, the Hoytether tilting slightly as the rukh changed its course. It was now dark and the rukh had started to circle upward into the night sky, the pulsing motions of the dual windpipes along its sides increasing their thrust and tempo as the giant bird climbed. As they rose through the darkness, lit only by the red glow of the reactor below, the speed of the wind over their bodies increased. Fortunately the heavy weight of the reactor at the end of the Hoytether kept it from swinging as badly as it had during their climb down.

They finally reached the wing edge where the Hoytether collapsed from a rope tube into a crude rope ladder at the point where it touched the black canopy of feathers. They continued their climb over the curved leading edge of the wing, brushing the feather tips aside as they clumsily tried to keep their balance on the tether lines. In the darkness, they missed the place where Sandra had tied the climbing line to the Hoytether.

“We’re too horizontal!” complained Sandra as she once again fell through the open mesh of the collapsed Hoytether and had to be hauled back up by Chastity and Dan. “When I climbed the feather tree and hooked our line onto the Hoytether, the tether was nearly at a forty-five-degree slope.”

“You’re right,” agreed Rod. “Back we go. If we keep following this section of Hoytether we’ll fall off the back end of this bird.”

The strong wind over the top of the rukh’s wing was against them now and they had to take turns at the front as “wind-breakers.” They soon found the point where they had climbed up, and one by one slid down the line onto the living floor of the feather forest. Chastity, having had some mountain climbing experience, rappelled down first, then she used a spare length of line to arrange a simple sit-sling “chair” to lower the others down.

“I thought it was dark when I was up there,” said Rod as he landed next to Chastity. “But being in a forest of black feather trees is worse than being underground in a coal-pit on a cloudy, moonless night.” He added his helmet-light beam to Chastity’s and together they guided Sandra as she was lowered down into Rod’s arms.

“There you go, Miss Ruby,” said Rod, putting her gently on the living surface of the feather forest while helping her get her legs out of the sit-sling.

“Wye, thank you, Colonel Montrose,” replied Sandra with a faked accent, seemingly oblivious of the roving hands removing the sling lines from between her thighs. “You’re
such
a gentleman.”

“Gaaack,” muttered Chastity over the radio link as she hoisted the sling up again.

The way back through the forest went quickly, since all they had to do was keep one hand on the guide line they had laid down through the feather forest during their journey out to the front of the rukh’s wing. They cycled through the airlock in two shifts.

“Girls first, then the boys,” said Rod. “We could all fit in the airlock at once, but then we’d all have to wait with our backs turned until the last one was dressed, so it wouldn’t be much faster. Besides, there’s only two toilets.”

“A toilet! That’s what I need first,” said Sandra, quickly climbing up the rungs to the airlock door. “I’m not going to even bother getting dressed in the airlock, I’ll take my clothes with me into the bathroom. No fair peeking down through the grate, Seichi!”

As soon as he could get to his habitat, Dan sent a message to Pamela telling her what had happened. He then spent long hours alternating between catnaps, the coffee dispenser, and long hours in his habitat, alternately explaining and comforting and arguing with Pamela, while simultaneously trying to arrange his financial affairs at long distance so that she and the children would be properly cared for. Pamela was no help.

“I’m really furious at you for putting me in this position!” she yelled at him, tears of fury pouring down her face. “You should have stayed home and taken proper care of me and the children! You’re nothing but a selfish bastard, running off for years to play macho Buck Rogers space games—with a couple of floozies along to boot.”

Dan listened through her tantrum, then tried again in his reply to get the conversation back again on a more reasonable tone. But it was difficult to come up with something to say that was nonconfrontational when she would tearfully say, “Don’t you trust me to spend the money wisely?” when the correct answer to her question was no.

“I
am
taking care of you and the kids. I’ve been sending messages to the bank and the finance office at Space Unlimited to set up an annuity so that the kids will be sent to college and given a substantial stipend to get them off to a good start in their lives, while you’ll be well taken care of for the rest of your life.” He changed his tone. “And Pammy dearest, I want to reassure you that Miss Blaze and Miss Green are just professional colleagues. I love you, and only you. It has been a long and lonely time for us both, but when I get back I will love you like you have never been loved before.”

But Pamela didn’t buy his reassurances. Her face was still furious when her reply came back two-and-a-half hours later.

“I don’t want to be stuck with a miserly annuity for the rest of my life. I want all the money turned over to me now!” The fury on her face turned into a sneer. “And, as for ‘Miss’ Blaze, everybody in Houston knows how randy that ‘preacher’s daughter’ is. Do you really expect me to believe that in the whole year you two have been cooped up together, you haven’t even slept with her
once!?”
Her eyes glared at the camera and her voice took on a menacing tone. “This insistence of yours about setting up an annuity shows that you don’t trust me! Well... I don’t trust
you!
I’m getting a divorce!” She thrust the remote control at the camera and the screen went blank.

For the rest of the day and into the night the tired crewmembers who had worked for hours in their saturnsuits slept, while Seichi, eyes occasionally blinking, kept watch. Nothing eventful happened, for the living platform they were riding on merely continued its slow circling climb to altitude. The flock finally rose above the water clouds into the crisp clear frozen air just as the Sun peeked over the horizon.

“Daylight!” said Rod, struggling out of a deep sleep as his command responsibilities took over control of his body. His head had been resting on a pillow in the viewport end of the habitat tube and the sunlight now fell full on his upturned face.

“Mmmmf,” said Sandra, who had scrunched to the opposite end of the tube to get away from the snoring, her head buried underneath her pillow. Rod climbed out over her, closed her habitat door softly behind him, and went to his own tube to get a change of clothing from the storage area under his mattress. As he made his way down the ladder to the toilets, he saw Dan standing at the galley, drinking coffee. Dan’s eyes were red from lack of sleep, and his face looked so woebegone that Rod almost wished he were a woman so he could take Dan in his arms and comfort him.

“What’s the matter, Dan?” he asked.

“Having some problems with Pamela,” said Dan. “Nothing you can do ... or should do ... I’ll take care of it... you take care of this ship.” He deliberately turned his back and started making another cup of coffee. Rod shrugged; Dan was right. He did have more important things to take care of. He opened the door to the bathroom and went in. A short while later he was up on the control deck.

“Status report, please, Seichi,” said Rod as he activated the pilot console and brought up a copy of Seichi’s scottyboard.

“The rukh has taken us thirty-five kilometers up in altitude, while slowly drifting northward a half-degree,” replied Seichi. “The reactor is now operating at only sixty-three percent of nominal because of the slightly lower air pressure here at altitude.”

“That’s not good,” said Rod with a frown. “Is the bird taking us still higher?” He looked down at the altimeter icon on his screen as he asked the question. The indicator numerals were only slowly varying.

“No,” Seichi replied. “The flock stopped climbing at sunrise and are now just circling.”

“Very good,” said Rod. “Why don’t you take a Saturnday and sleep in. You must have been up for at least twenty-four hours.”

“Twenty-eight, sir,” replied Seichi. “But I will be fresh after a few hours’ sleep and will be back to assist you.”

“Assist me in doing what?” said Rod, annoyed with their predicament. “There is nothing for us to do for the next six months except wait. Wait until our meta tanks are full and we can fly out of here and back home. We might as well have plenty of sleep while we’re waiting.” Rod’s voice turned gruff. “Take a Saturnday, Mr. Takeo. That’s an order.”

“Very well, sir,” replied Seichi with a formal bow, his normally pleasantly smiling face now firm-lipped. He turned to make his way down the ladder, but Rod put a hand to his shoulder and restrained him.

“I’m sorry, Seichi,” said Rod, apologizing. “I guess I let my feelings show. It’s just that I’m supposed to be commander of this mission. But I can give any damn command I want, and this damn bird will do just as it pleases. Fortunately,” he concluded, “it seems to want to be cooperative.” He looked out the holoviewport window through the gaps in the black feather canopy at the wheeling formation of giant birds all about them. “I wonder what they’re going to do next?”

~ * ~

Fortunately, the twice-daily chore of cleaning the topside of Petru didn’t take Petra too long this time. The flock had engaged in no hunting during the night’s climb and the air had not been rich in food. Petra also made short work of cleaning the tailfeathers of Balru, who was ahead of her in the grooming circle. She then flew Petru to the center of the flock, where she could show off Petru’s “things.” Once at the center, she turned over the control of Petru to Petro in preparation for the daily hunting dive. But before the dive, while the others were still busy finishing their cleaning chores, there was plenty of time for socializing. One by one the members of the flock dove down to where both eyes could look at the strange glowing object hanging below Petru on a long multitendril.

“It is extremely dense,” said Galro as he probed the object with Galru’s sonar. “I cannot see inside it.”

“It also seems to be hot,” exclaimed Galra as she extended her neck toward the glowing red object, foreclaws extended.

“Don’t touch it!” warned Petro from above. “It is so hot that it can hurt you. Unlike a hurt from a cut, the kind of hurt it gives you lasts a long time.”

“If it can hurt you, then why do you keep it?” asked Galro. “It’s so dense it must also be heavy. That will slow you down in the hunt. Let it go.”

Petro didn’t want to admit that he couldn’t let it go. If he attempted to cut the tendrils holding the heavy hot thing up, the tiny dense vermin with the six legs would come rapidly up the multitendril waving its hot light maker. Petra saved the situation by suggesting that the flock come see the strange conical creature riding in the middle of Petru’s back. Petra inflated her neck sacs and, using her headwings, flew her head over the back of Petru’s wing to the spot where the dense creature and its four-legged vermin lay. She parted the wingfeather canopy over the cone, tucking the feathers back under other feathers nearby where they would stay out of the way. The conical creature was still there, but its mouth was closed and there was no sign of the vermin. They must be inside the mouth. Petra hoped they had not been eaten—she wanted so much to show the brightly colored tiny creatures to her flockmates. Wouldn’t they be amazed to see one of them “grasp foreclaws” with her! Right now it would be sufficient for her flockmates to see and sound the dense conical creature riding on Petru’s back.

~ * ~

When the canopy parted over
Sexdent
and the giant one-eyed caterpillar once again peered down at him, Rod quickly called Dan and Sandra up from the galley.

“We have visitors!” he explained to Dan and Sandra as they clambered up the ladder onto the control deck, followed quickly by Chastity and Pete. “The upper eye must have invited its friends over to take a look at us.”

“How do you know it’s the upper eye?” asked Dan.

“The third neck segment is inflated,” replied Rod. “When the eyes were helping us get the reactor out of the rukh’s windpipe, I noticed that the third segment of the lower eye didn’t inflate like the other segments. Must have been injured sometime in the past. Anyway, the upper eye must be showing us off to the others, because it’s holding down the feathers around us while keeping its head back so the other rukhs can fly over one at a time and take a look at us. Here comes another one …”

With the feather canopy pulled back out of the way, the humans could get a good view as another member of the flock flew down to fly in close formation over their rukh. For the humans, it was like re-experiencing the opening scenes of the first trilogy set of the
Star Wars
videos. The prow of a large wedge-shaped flying wing appeared over the tops of the feather canopy. Set in the prow of the flying wing were two gigantic eyes. Slowly and ponderously the rest of the flying wing made its way into view, the massive four-kilometer-long wingtips stretching far out of sight from horizon to horizon. Once the giant body was in position, both eyes used the canards on the sides of their heads to fly their long necks in for a closer look. After looking, the eyes withdrew to their perches and the giant visitor would move forward until its massive body blocked out the sky. Then it would lift up and away. Only after it had moved a number of kilometers upward could the humans see the whole creature through the gap in the canopy above them. Sandra made sure that the holoviewports were capturing high-resolution images of the giant birds as they passed overhead.