The Mystery of Ireta (37 page)

She continued to listen and realized that two men were speaking. Then Kai was better! It was good to hear him. But he wouldn’t be well enough in three days’ time to join her against Aygar. They’d better wake Portegin and get the technician functioning. No way was she meeting Aygar, and whoever accompanied him, in three days’ time without strong support. And if she was this tired after a day’s use of Discipline, would she recover sufficiently in three to draw on that inner reserve again?

What was it about Aygar’s manner that bothered her? The expression in his eyes had been wary, speculative, evaluating, not at all the reaction she might have expected from a man making first contact with off-world visitors! That was it! He had been expecting someone. Not her. And not someone who could best him in personal combat.

Varian became conscious of a rich, nutty smell. Her stomach began to rumble and her mouth to salivate. She stirred restlessly, keenly aware that she was very hungry.

“I told you that the stew would get to her,” Lunzie said suddenly. Varian opened her eyes.

Lunzie, Triv, and Kai made a semicircle on one side of the crude hearth, complete now with a spit and crane from which a pail hung.

Varian propped herself up on one elbow. “Whatever it is, I’m starving.”

“Lunzie mixed a bit of everything you brought in, and it turned out very tasty indeed,” Triv said, filling a smoke-hardened fruit shell with the mixture. He presented this to Varian and, with a flourish, added a rudely carved wooden spoon.

“The amenities of home have improved.” Varian made an appreciative chuckle. “How’s Kai?” she asked in a quieter tone. Although Kai was propped up, he was far too passive for her liking.

“We started to revive Portegin,” Triv said, squatting beside Varian so his body shielded her from those at the fire. “Kai’s still feverish. Says some kind of giant fringe attacked him. He’s not recovering as well as Lunzie would like,” he said in a quick whisper, then raised his voice to a normal level. “Kai thinks that once we have the matrix slabs from the other sleds, we can rig communications, probably patch most of what Paskutti smashed.”

“I was hoping that we could, Triv.” Varian tasted the stew and then began to devour it as fast as she could. “This is delicious!” It was natural then for her to get up and join the two at the fire, and natural for her to pause by Kai before refilling her bowl. His color and the lassitude were alarming, and the smile he gave her was strained. “You look much better than when I last saw you.”

Kai gave a derisive snort. “I can’t have looked much worse than I feel now.”

“Why?” Varian went for a light touch. “Didn’t you like the purple moss Divisti grew just to cure your fever?”

Kai grimaced in such disgust that the others laughed.

“It makes a very effective antipyretic.” Lunzie broke off with a wry grin. “I wonder what Divisti’s reaction would be if she knew how much it was going to help
us
.” Then she turned to Varian, with no humor in her gaze. “You did say, last night, that we’d cold-slept forty-three years?”

“I’d have told the rest of my news if I hadn’t been so rudely interrupted,” she said with a sour glance at Lunzie who only grinned back.

“You did fall asleep at a crucial point,” the medic said. “
Are
any of the mutineers still alive?”

“Only one. Tanegli.”

“You met him?” Kai asked.

“No. I met a sturdy young man named Aygar. An accomplished young fellow who was busy killing a fang-face with a barbed metal spear.”

Kai made an expression of utter disgust. “Accomplished?”

“His strategy was good,” said Varian, seeing no point in going into needlessly distressing detail.

“Do you know if they’re in the secondary camp?”

“They abandoned that for a more suitable site.”

“Where was Divisti’s garden then?” Kai’s tone was querulous.

“I’ll start from the beginning—”

“When you’ve finished that second bowl,” Lunzie said firmly.

Varian ate with indecorous haste and pleasure, glad of the opportunity to organize her thoughts. Feeling revitalized as she scraped up the last of the tasty stew, she began her account of the previous day’s incidents with the unexpected escort of the giffs.

The listeners, and gradually Portegin became aware enough to listen, too, did not interrupt with questions, letting her narrative flow. Lunzie’s eyes had a malicious sparkle as Varian gave a very brief account of overpowering the young Aygar, adding that he’d just finished a rather exhausting race to outdistance an enraged fang-face. Varian noticed that Kai frowned over that show of strength. Well, perhaps she should have restrained her actions there but she sincerely doubted she’d ever catch Aygar unawares again, or best him. All four listeners commended her for posing as a representative of a new expedition in search of the first. The only hazard to that blatant lie would be a confrontation with Tanegli.

“But he’s reported to be frail and not expected to live much longer,” Varian said.

“Let us devoutly hope he is not included in the party you meet then.” Lunzie brought her brows together. “What I do not understand is why he, one of the oldest of the heavyworlders, has survived when the younger ones, like Bakkun and Berru, are dead.”

“How long would their heavy-gravity advantage last on a light world?” Triv asked.

“Unless they found some way to simulate heavy-gravity conditions and exercise under them—”

“Well, they would have had to manhandle all the stone they built with up to the bluff,” Varian said, “and there were eight large buildings plus six or seven smaller ones, with slate for roofs.”

“That would have helped,” but Lunzie’s tone was hesitant with doubt.

“If they all indulged in ‘chase-the-fang-face-till-it-bled-to-death,’ ” Varian said with considerable acrimony in her voice, “they didn’t dare get fat.”

“Obviously, their descendants have no such problem, and inherited physiques capable of considerable muscular development,” Lunzie continued. “Since this Aygar depended on physical endurance to outrun an enraged predator while it was bleeding to death, and then tried to take you on, Varian, the strength factor is still on their side. I think we’d better attend that meeting in force and in Discipline. Right, Kai?”

“I’ll be with you, Varian!”

Even as Varian nodded agreement, her eyes flicked to Lunzie’s and registered the denial the medic would not voice.

“We must have communications, though.” Varian glanced toward Portegin, who was looking more alert now.

“I’m sure I can rig something, especially if the sled units are operative. With that many matrices available, I might even fix what Paskutti smashed in the shuttle—at least for planetary use.”

“I wish we had some kind of long-distance defensive tool,” Varian said, scratching her ear. “There was something in Aygar’s manner that worries me, but I can’t figure what!”

“What sort of weapons did he carry?” asked Portegin.

Varian described the crossbow and Portegin laughed. “We can do better than that if Lunzie has any anesthetic left?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Lunzie said, a trifle surprised. “Not much,” she cautioned, holding up her hand, “but enough to provide for a few medicated bolts.”

“Good, then all I need is some hardwood and I can contrive a dart gun that would immobilize your crossbow user before he could cock it.”

“So long as we get to shoot first,” Varian said.

“You’d better!” Lunzie’s expression was as uncompromising as her tone.

“I don’t
want
to shoot anyone,” Varian said. “Cold sleep didn’t change my moral values.”

“No, just drastically changed our circumstances. We’re five . . .” and Lunzie’s finger did an arc including them all, “against I haven’t figured out how many progeny in two generations from six parents. We had few advantages over the heavy-worlders to begin with, and have fewer now that they’re completely ensconced in terrain we haven’t seen. They’re very well adapted to the environment.” She nodded at Kai. “You gained an advantage yesterday, Varian. We’ve got to maintain it, such as it is, no matter what we have to do to keep it. We can’t keep in constant Discipline. Above all, we have to protect the sleepers!” Her arm swung back toward the shuttle.

“I’m consoled by the fact that the giffs take that on themselves,” Kai said.

“A point, but only when none of us can assume that responsibility.” Lunzie turned back to Varian. “Aygar gave you no indication how many people are in the new settlement, or why they left the old?”

“He was as wary of me as I was of him . . . once we agreed not to fight anymore. But there were eight buildings in the camp they had abandoned, and the dome had evidently gone with them, for there was a circle where it had stood in the center of the octagon the other buildings formed. Each house had four rooms. And except for built-in stone shelving, they were empty.”

“Four times eight gives thirty-two which tells us nothing, really,” said Lunzie. “Tardma might have been able to produce two, maybe three children; she was the oldest. Berru and Divisti could have born a child a year easily for twenty or so, if they were forced to. I hazard they alternated paternity and kept track of whose was whose, to have as wide a gene pool as possible—”

“They’d still be in trouble by the third or fourth generation when recessive—”

“As I recall their medical records,” Lunzie gently interrupted Kai, “Bakkun, Berru, and Divisti came from different genetic stock than the other three, who were from Modrem in the Cluster. There’s also a freak genetic twist that prevents recessives from surviving on heavy-world planets. The babies are either shipped offworld or . . .” Lunzie sighed, continuing briskly. “So that six are, were, the finest physical specimens, with nary a blurred chromosome for three or four generations back of adjustment to heavy-gravity worlds. Prime breeders.”

“Aygar resembles Berru,” Varian said for no reason at all except the long thoughtful pause had to be broken.

“Then I’d be more careful than ever with that young man. Neither Berru or Bakkun was short of brains.”

“Which is why I never figured they’d join Paskutti,” Triv remarked. “How could they have fallen for Gaber’s rumor that we were planted.”

“But we have been,” Varian said, unable to contain laughter that bubbled up in spite of her realization of the incredible odds against them. “At least until
ARCT-10
remembers they left us here. Kai, did Tor say anything to you on your way to the compound?”

“I was far too busy hanging on to talk. And when we got to the compound, Tor began to search for the core so I went looking for the sleds. I’d just found them when I heard Tor blasting off.” He shook his head as he remembered his unworthy thoughts at that moment. “When I got back to the compound, I saw it’d left the power pack with a lifter, and the cavity where it’d found the core.”

“It never even waited to see if the sleds were operable?” Portegin asked.

“Well, those sleds are built to withstand tremendous pressures and adverse conditions,” Kai replied, temporizing.

Lunzie snorted.

“Then Tor may be back?” asked Portegin.

“I wouldn’t count on it, Portegin,” Lunzie said. She had been busy at the hearth and now brought a filled shell to Kai. “I know it tastes vile but it brought your temperature down. Drink up.”

“It smells vile, too,” Kai said, regarding the purple liquid with distaste.

“Which means it does you more good,” said Varian with a laugh.

Kai drank it all in one gulp. His violent shudder was no affectation and to take the taste away, he quickly sucked at the slice of fruit Lunzie handed him.

Varian covered her smile. Kai was becoming dependent on natural foods despite his aversion to them. She was a bit startled to realize that Lunzie was advancing on her with a stern air. The medic’s fingers closed on the younger woman’s wrist, timing pulse rate.

“I’d prefer it, Varian, if you could take a full day’s rest after your exertions—”

“We both know I can’t, Lunzie. Triv and I have got to retrieve the other sleds.”

“I could go along and dismantle what we need,” Portegin suggested.

“You’re not ready for that sort of exertion yet, my friend,” Lunzie said.

“I’d rest easier if we got all the sleds here.”

“Don’t see any problem in that, Kai.” Triv rose to his feet and extending a hand pulled Varian to hers. “That four-man sled will easily take the other two, lashed into the cargo bed. All Varian’ll have to do is watch out for the fringes.”

“You can
smell
them coming,” Kai said.

“That’s why Varian has to come along,” Triv said. “I can’t smell anything but Ireta yet.”

“From which direction did it attack you, Kai?” Varian asked.

“Behind.” Kai grimaced. “I’d just locked the power pack into position and turned when it rushed me. I thought it was just a larger dose of Ireta’s usual stink.”

“Wait a minute,” Lunzie called as Triv and Varian moved toward the sled. She rummaged under the stores and then held both hands high. From one hung a thick coil of rope, from the other what could only be a force-field unit and, more miraculous still, a wrist comunit.

“Where did you find those?” Varian leaped over the fire in her eagerness to examine the prizes.

Lunzie permitted herself a grin at the effect of her treasure trove.

“Bonnard had the unit and the forcebelt on. Remember the mutineers never caught him so he had all his gear. You wear the forcebelt, Varian. I doubt the fringe would suck electrical impulses for long. The rope,” which she tossed to Triv, “I synthesized out of our very plentiful vine.”

Varian buckled the forcebelt on and felt reassured by its weight about her waist. Lunzie strapped on the wrist unit.

“Now, you can keep me informed. Time’s a’wasting.” Lunzie gave Varian an encouraging grin.

“Just don’t forget the odor, Varian,” was Kai’s parting advice.

Varian and Triv hauled the sled to the lip of the cave on the far left so the air cushion would not throw dust on the fire and the convalescents. Just as they dropped over the edge, a treacherous draught caught the sled and Varian had all she could do to correct the downward plunge of the craft. Immediately they were surrounded by giffs, heads anxiously pointing seaward, although what the creatures thought they could do to save the sled, Varian didn’t know.