The Mystery of Ireta (44 page)

Varian thought that Lunzie was right not to rouse the children. Poor kids. And yet, they might still have living parents delighted to see them alive, even if their childhood friends would all now be in their middle decades. Wait a moment! Lunzie must be wrong. Children tended to adapt easily. Was Lunzie protecting the children for her own obscure reason? Varian could think of none, and Terilla would be an asset with her exquisite drawing. Bonnard had already proved his initiative and resourcefulness. However, Varian approved that Aulia would remain in cold sleep. No one had time to deal with hysterical temperament.

Varian told herself to stop running on in her mind and get some sleep. She was tired enough, wasn’t she? And tomorrow would be stressful in other ways. Now, how could she make up for a forty-three-year gap in her xenobiological research? Some place in the middle of plotting her attempt, Varian drifted off to sleep.

Kai eased himself as quietly as possible into various positions but he couldn’t achieve lasting comfort or sleep. Insomnia was a new sensation; he seemed to have spent most of his days lately either deeply asleep or drowsing.

Kai had not previously thought much of his personal appearance, or his body, which had been healthy as long as he could remember. But then, on a compound ship, one underwent periodical physicals as preventive measures. The
ARCT-10
’s medical department had diagnostic data from every system known to the FSP and could synthesize the rarest medicines and vaccines; ill health was quickly remedied. Varian might not want contact with the Ryxi, but if Lunzie was correct and the Ryxi had employed human mercenaries as ship crews, the crewmembers probably had access to treatment. Somewhere in the Federated Sentient Planets, a remedy for his condition could be found. Well, he could do nothing about it just then. He moved again, slowly, trying to make as little sound as possible though it occurred to him that sleepers normally move frequently and everyone else seemed motionless. Were they all awake with troublesome thoughts? And which thoughts?

He’d bet anything that Varian was worried about the Ryxi coming to Ireta and “investigating” her giffs. He could understand that in her. What he found harder to comprehend was her attitude toward the mutineers’ descendants. Descendants? Survivors? Precolonists? Of course, that could just be a matter of shaking off the personality Lunzie had created as a protection for the ruse. But Varian was planet-bred and so she might sympathize with any successful implantation whereas he, ship-bred, had a more universal view. Or did he? Was he merely biased in another direction?

Kai had noticed that Triv, too, seemed ambivalent to the industrious settlers. Had it not been for the solidarity of the team behind Lunzie’s suggestion to continue the geological and xenobiological surveys, Kai would have serious doubts about their loyalties.

Odd, too, that not one of them had mentioned the
ARCT-10
or expressed concern over the fate of its huge complement of sentient beings. Kai suppressed resentment. The
ARCT-10
had been his home but Triv, Portegin, Lunzie, and Varian were all contract specialists, gleaned from other star systems. The ship-bred of his detachment had been Gaber, now dead, Aulia, himself, and the three children, Terilla, Cleiti, and Bonnard. He was the only one awake who considered the
ARCT-10
home, so he ought not to fault his teammates.

What
had
happened to the
ARCT-10
? To the best of Kai’s recollection, no compound ship of her size had ever been destroyed. Units had been shattered or pierced, with loss of life, but an entire compound ship? The size of a small satellite? Kai really didn’t care what happened to the heavy-worlders and their bid for Ireta. He would like to see even old Tanegli tried for mutiny. But other rich worlds lay ready for FSP to exploit—so long as his set of survivors profited. But he did want to know what had delayed the
ARCT-10
, where she’d been, what she’d done, why wasn’t she here, if only to heal his distressing condition. He drifted off to sleep finally, trying to rationalize the nonappearance of his ship.

Triv lulled himself to sleep by repeating the coordinates of the finds made by the teams until he was sure he had the figures correct. At first, he had been annoyed to think that he’d be done out of the bonuses he’d anticipated from the expedition. He was much cheered to realize that something could be rescued to pay for lost time. Of course, his credit balances would have appreciated during cold sleep. As long as his whereabouts were uncertain, no credit organization could disperse his holdings. He amused himself by calculating the current balance at forty-three years’ accumulated and compound interest. Having made few personal ties anywhere, Triv was not especially bothered by the elapsed decades. So long as his monies appreciated with interest, and he collected a just percentage of the wealth that was obviously to be mined on Ireta, he was satisfied.

He heard a soft scraping noise and turned his head slightly. Kai again. He experienced a fleeting sympathy for the man that only proved to Triv how right he was to avoid attachments of any kind. Pretty soon now, if the Iretan prospects lived up to his expectations and he could live off the interest of his credit balance, he’d find himself one of the less frequented planets, a soft leisurely world. He’d link up with some obliging person to attend his physical needs and then he’d do whatever he fancied, when he fancied it. Meanwhile, a geologist with his ratings, a Disciple as well, never lacked assignments.

Although Portegin was somewhat relieved that Aulia was not going to be awakened, it irritated him, too. He knew her faults, but they worked well as a team and they got on even better as a pairing. He was beginning to miss her now he was fully revived from the cold sleep. Then he brightened at a second thought: Aulia would be much more likely to contract with him since they were contemporaries. She’d really have difficulty forming a new relationship among those her subjective age.

Portegin was still irked by Lunzie’s manipulations. He’d never said she could tinker with his mind, no matter if she had Kai’s and Varian’s consent. He was aware that Adepts never misused their abilities, which was why so few were allowed to attain that rank, but her interference rankled. In fact, the only good to come out of the day had been the assurance that they wouldn’t lose out on mineral and ore bonuses. He wondered if Kai and Varian would go for stretching their subjective time a little, say, back three or four years; one got only subsistence rate for being asleep on an assignment, no matter the reason. He wished Kai would get settled, even though the man was trying to be considerate, moving slowly. Too considerate, because his slow deliberate attempts to cut down noise made the process longer. Lunzie hadn’t so much as stirred since she lay down.

Portegin had to admire the medic. Not for a single moment had he suspected her of being more than just a healer. He drifted into unconsciousness while calculating possible totals to his bonuses.

Lunzie didn’t move because her mind had commanded her body to relax while she reviewed the day’s achievements: satisfactory on many counts—though Varian’s obvious attraction to the settler, Aygar, might become a problem. Distract Varian with the giffs, put her on her professional mettle to protect that species. Lunzie actually shared the girl’s reluctance to have the Ryxi learn overmuch about the golden fliers. A most remarkable species, those giffs. It would be very interesting to discover how they, and the immense herbivores and grotesque predators of Mesozoic Terra, got to Ireta. All too pat, this planet so perfect for the continuation of a totally useless series of beings. The planet was rife with anomalies. Puzzles pleased Lunzie, especially if she solved them in advance of anyone else. This assignment was generating more riddles than she had ever encountered before. A routine assignment, huh? She ran through her probabilities again and decided that she had a better than average chance of pulling a hat trick. Then she chuckled silently at her unconscious use of such an anachronism. Space helmet trick? Well, she oughtn’t to be greedy: that led to overconfidence, a state of mind which imperiled more than it aided. Two successes would mollify the Council of Adepts. However, if the two most important aspects of the assignment ended satisfactorily, it was logical to assume that the others would as well. Aware that she could juggle variations and probabilities all night and not fathom half the ramifications possible in this set of circumstances—and that without allowing for random factors—Lunzie initiated the hypnotic sequence that would end in sleep.

The next morning, after a potent breakfast stew, Lunzie took the four-man sled back to the giff cave. Varian went off with Portegin in one of the smaller sleds, combining both xenob and geological scouting. Triv went prospecting in an area where the radiation counter had begun chattering at the end of the previous day’s swing.

Kai couldn’t keep his eagerness to inspect the find out of his voice but in his weakened condition, he was more useful as duty officer. And he was kept busier than anticipated for the reason that they lacked materials on which to keep notes and mark coordinates. However, as the campsite contained a level area of packed dirt, Kai used a sharp stick to inscribe the figures as they were called in, plus whatever additional notes were relayed. On the other side of the path from his message board, he began working on as detailed a map of Ireta as he could call to mind. He started with his recollection of the basement rock area which was unlikely to have changed much in elapsed forty-three years. As he sketched, Kai grinned to himself. The others could fault Tor the Thek as much as they wished, but to him, the fact that the Thek had come to Ireta in search of the long-lost core of obvious Thek manufacture was a personal triumph. If the artifact had not been so significant to the Thek, Kai was certain that Tor would have remained. But why had it taken forty-three years to rouse the Thek to investigate?

Kai marked in the immense northeastern plain where the butte formations had caused them to place the secondary camp. He was tempted to place pebbles to signify the rocky outcroppings. He wasn’t sure of the terrain leading to the settlement, but Triv said it was probably a raised sea bed of geologically recent upheaval. Quite likely, since it would have been beyond the “safer” basement area, at the edge of one set of the planet’s restless tectonic plates. Volcanic disturbances had been recorded in the brief time the team had been there.

Kai had to leave the pole areas as
terra incognita
. Because of Ireta’s peculiar formation and its very hot thermal core, the poles were hotter than the equator and considerably more active. Massive changes might have taken place there even in a brief four decade span.

Lunzie interrupted his cartographical labors to report her safe arrival at the cave, adding that she’d been escorted by three giffs. She had picked up sufficient vegetable fiber on her route to supply them with plenty of pulp paper, and while arousing the sleepers, she intended to make use of her spare time to experiment with juices that might make an ink. She favored the hadrasaur nut, for the shell left a stain on the fingers.

Kai could not help but feel chagrin when he returned to his map, but then he took heart—his map was three dimensional and much larger than any paper Lunzie could manufacture. He began to make mud mountains and simulate the giffs’ inland sea, then he sited the three camps with flags made of twig and triangular purple leaves.

Varian reported in next, about the first pitchblende deposit, interrupting his construction of the terrain. She was telltagging great herds of beasts, varieties of hadrasaur she had not previously noted, and was nearly to the Great Rift where the carotene grass grew.

Kai returned to his work and gouged out the Rift. He was rather enjoying himself by then and was not too pleased to have his Rift-making interrupted by another summons to the comunit. It was Varian, highly excited. She’d flown across the smoking trail of recent lava flow and observed fringes large and small: some were hunting while others were folded, their thin envelopes swollen with prey.

“Some are even attached to the big beasts. Those stupids don’t seem to know they’re being eaten alive. And there’s nothing I can do.”

“Did you bring a stunner with you, Varian?” Kai asked.

“Kai, we don’t have enough charges to waste . . .”

“Don’t waste, Varian. Just see if the fringes are deterred by a stun charge.”

“Point’s taken,” she replied in an odd tone. “I’ll use it on some animal that has a chance.” She signed off.

How much warmth would attract a fringe, Kai wondered as he watered dirt to make a mountain range beyond the Rift. Apparently Triv and Varian had not been warm enough to attract the one at the old compound. The current campsite, erected as temporary quarters for two geologists, was going to be cramped with seven. Was that over the critical warmth mass? If it was, would fringes be deterred by a force-screen? Kai rose from his map-making and prowled the perimeter. The ground sloped away from the ridge on which the dome rested. A barren rocky outcrop several meters beyond had defeated even Ireta’s vegetation. They’d have visual warning of an attack by fringes.

The creatures’ emergence as predators was another of Ireta’s puzzles. There hadn’t been much talk between himself and Varian. He’d been ill, of course, and she and Lunzie had done as they both saw to the advantage of the group. That was only logical. But he couldn’t shake the notion that Varian was more distant. He tried not to relate that to her encounter with Aygar and the mutineers’ descendants. He was wrong to call them that, perhaps, but the term sprang readily to mind. He must be imagining things: there was no change in Varian, merely the vestiges of the barriers that Lunzie had set for her protection.

The buzz of the comunit was a welcome interruption. Triv reported that he had detected a high ironstone reading along a vast ridge, but his sled had flushed an unusual number of large creatures from the thick vegetation covering the ridge.

“Not that landing for a sample would do us any good, but a sample of the rock makes a nice display until we have assay materials.” The geologist snorted. “We should have been asking for supplies from Aygar’s folk instead of offering them.”