“We’ll just make a linkup and see how she answers to power. Ensign Nev, take Kimo and Jiro and break out twelve belt packs, and the portable comunit. We’re going to take a little ride.”
An hour later, the old sled drifted under its own power to the narrow lower terrace.
When Benden returned to the Erica for rations and a bedroll, an earnest and anxious Nev accosted him, wanting to join the expedition.
“You don’t know what that old man might try, Lieutenant. And I don’t trust him.”
“Listen up,” Benden said in a low and forceful tone that stopped Nev’s babbling. “I’m not half as worried about my safety as I am about the Erica’s. Kimmer goes with me. I don’t trust him either. I’ll take Jiro along, as well. And Sergeant Greene. Neither of them could get through Greene to me. You’ll only have Kimo to worry about, and he strikes me as too placid to do anything on his own. Shensu is a proven ally. Present my compliments to Lieutenant Ni Morgana when she returns and relay this order: Either you or the lieutenant are to be on the Erica at all times. Also, the marines are to stand proper watches until I return. Have I made that clear?”
“Aye, aye, sir, Lieutenant Benden. Loud and clear, sir.” Nev’s teeth were almost chattering with his assurances, and his eyes were wide.
“I’ll report in at intervals, so break out handunits for yourself and Vartry.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“We’ll be back in two days.” Ross ordered Greene to collect supplies and carry them to the sled.
“If you will pardon me, Lieutenant,” Kimmer said unctuously as he and Jiro entered the craft, “I think we can easily reach Karachi Camp today, stopping at Suweto and Yukon on the way. Karachi is a real possibility because, now that Thread is gone, they’d want to activate the mines.”
Surprising himself, Benden gestured with an open hand to the pilot’s seat. “You have the conn, Mr. Kimmer.” It was as good a way as any to see just how competent the old man had been: if he had actually done what he’d said he’d done. “After all, you’re more familiar with this model sled than I am, and you know where we’re going.” It would also be easier to keep the old man occupied.
So Benden seated himself behind Kimmer while the sergeant, giving his officer only a mildly reproachful look, took the seat next to Jiro on the starboard side.
The old sled purred along as if delighted by its release from long imprisonment. It answered the yoke with the smoothness of a well-maintained vehicle as Kimmer swung it to port. Kimmer wasn’t all bad, Benden thought to himself, and wondered again why the old man had insisted on this search. Was it really to prove to Benden that his folk were the only ones left? Or had Kimmer some ulterior motive? And would Kimmer be surprised if they did find anyone? After overflying the snowy waste of the northern continent and the devastation of the southern lands, Benden could only be surprised that anyone had survived. It was certainly most unlikely that his uncle, who’d be well into his twelfth decade, would still be alive.
They came down from the foothills across the river, obliquely to port of Ni Morgana and her group, and then across a lifeless plain of circles in the dust. There were spots here and there of struggling plant life, and Benden wondered if the wind would scatter the topsoil before vegetation could reestablish itself and prevent further erosion. And that was the pattern for the next few hours: broad uneven-edged ribbons, about fifty klicks across of ravaged land, then broader belts of grassland or forest, even thick vegetation that was neither shrub nor jungle, with the glint of hidden water in rivers and ponds.
The old sled purred along at about 220 klicks per hour. Benden broke out rations and passed them around. Kimmer altered the course and, over the sloping nose of the sled, a large and brilliantly blue lake could be seen. As they neared it and Kimmer obligingly skimmed low, they saw the vegetation-crowned mounds that indicated the ruins of a considerable settlement.
“Drake’s Lake.” Kimmer gave a sour laugh. “Damned arrogant fool,” he muttered to himself “No signs of anyone, but there may be at Andiyar’s mines.”
They overflew more deserted housing and startled a herd of grazing animals, which plunged wildly away from the muted sound of the sled.
“Livestock seems to have survived,” Benden remarked. “Will you turn yours loose?”
“What else?” Kimmer barked a laugh. “Though Chio’s moaning about her pet fire-dragon having to be left behind.”
“Fire-dragon?” Benden asked in surprise.
“Well, that’s what some people thought they looked like,” Kimmer explained diffidently. “They look like reptiles, lizards to me. It’s an indigenous life-form, hatches from eggs, and if you get one then, it attaches itself to you. Useless thing as far as I can see, but Chio’s fond of it.” He glanced over his shoulder at Benden.
“It wouldn’t take up much room,” Jiro said, speaking for the first time. “It’s a bronze male.”
Benden shook his head. “Humans, yes; creatures, no,” he said firmly. The captain was still likely to question his foisting eleven human survivors on her, but she’d blow her tubes if he tried to impose an alien pet.
They reached the mine site and landed near the adits. Within was cocooned equipment—ore carts, picks, shovels, all kinds of hand tools, as well as an array of tough plas props for tunnel supports.
“You really had gone back to the lowest level of useful technology, hadn’t you?” Benden said, hefting one of the picks. “But if you had stonecutters, didn’t you—”
“When that damned Thread started falling, your uncle called in all power packs for use in the sleds. That was Benden’s priority, and we couldn’t fight it.”
The living quarters, unlike those at the lake, had been cocooned. Peering in through the thinner patches over windows, Benden could see that furnishings had been left in place.
“See what I mean, Lieutenant? This place is all ready to be started up again. It’s nearly two years since Thread stopped falling. If they could, they’d be back here.”
They spent the night there at Karachi, setting up a rough camp. While Kimmer started a fire—”to keep the tunnel-snakes away,” he told Benden—the lieutenant made contact with Honshu and spoke to Nev, who said that Ni Morgana was writing up her notes and that nothing of any significance had happened.
Just as Benden was signing off, Jiro came to the sled for a coil of rope and walked off into the forest. He returned not too much later with a fat, squat avian, which he had roped off a branch and strangled. He identified it as a wherry, as he neatly skinned it, then spitted it over the fire. During its roasting, the aroma of the meat was tantalizing, arousing a good appetite. It proved to be very tasty.
“Forest wherries are better than coastal ones,” Kimmer said, slicing himself another portion. “Those have an oily, fishy taste.”
Greene nodded appreciatively as he licked his fingers clean of the juices. Then he excused himself and disappeared into the woods. Just about the time Benden was becoming apprehensive about his long absence, he reappeared.
“Nothing moving anywhere, except things that slither,” he reported in a low voice. “I don’t think we need to set a watch, Lieutenant, but I always sleep light.”
As Benden saw Kimmer already asleep and Jiro settling down on their side of the fire, he decided a watch would be superfluous tonight. The enemies of this deserted world had retreated into space.
“I sleep light, too, Greene.” And he, did, rousing often during the night at slight unaccustomed sounds, Kimmer’s intermittent snores, or when Jiro added more wood to the fire.
In the morning, Benden contacted Honshu and spoke with Ni Morgana, who said that her expedition had been entirely successful from a scientific point of view. She would spend the day with the women, cataloging the medicinal plants and their properties. Benden gave her the day’s flight plan and signed off.
They doubled back east and slightly north of the mining site and Drake’s Lake, then followed a fairly wide river as it flowed down to the di
stant sea. At last they came upon the stout stone houses and barns that had housed the inhabitants of Thessaly and Roma. They observed herds of beasts, cattle, and sheep in nearby fields, but the houses and barns had been cleared of all effects. Dead leaves and other debris littered the spacious rooms where the shutters had fallen from rusted hinges.
“Lieutenant,” Greene said, motioning for him to step a little away from the other two men. “We haven’t seen any of the sleds Kimmer said they used. Nor those three missing shuttles. So, if we find them, wouldn’t we find the people?”
“We would, if we could, Sergeant,” Benden said tiredly. “Kimmer, how long did your sled have power?”
Kimmer’s eyes gleamed as he appreciated what Benden did not ask. “Once I reached Honshu, I didn’t use the sled at all, except as a power source for the comunit, for maybe five-six years. Ito got very sick and I went to Landing to see if I could get a medic out here. They’d all left and taken everything with them. I tried some other stakes, as I told you, but they were deserted, too. Ito died, and I was too busy with the kids and then Chio’s to go off. Then I made one trip to Bitkim, and four years later, as I’d no way to recharge the pack, I made that last trip. But,” he added, holding up a gnarled finger, “like I told you, just before I lost all contact, I heard part of Benden’s message to conserve all power. So they couldn’t have had many operational sleds. I think . . .” Kimmer paused to search his memory. His eyes met the lieutenant’s. “I think they didn’t have enough power left to go after Thread anymore, and they were going to have to wait.” He sighed. “That’d be forty years they’d’ve had to wait for the end of Thread, Lieutenant, and I don’t think they made it.”
“Yes, but where were they?”
Kimmer shrugged. “Hell, Lieutenant, if I knew that I’d’ve hiked across the continent to find them once Thread stopped. If I’d had one whisper, I’d’ve tracked it down.” He swiveled about then, facing west. “They were someplace in the west, from the direction of their signals. Say!” His face lit up suddenly. “Maybe they went to Ierne Island. That would have been easier to protect than one of these open stakes.”
So Benden called in the new destination. “We’ll be back by tomorrow evening . . .”
“You’d better be,” Ni Morgana said dryly. “That window won’t wait for anyone.”
There was no question in Benden’s mind that she would delay taking that window either, but he wasn’t worried about that. He had to be sure—and it looked as if Kimmer’s conscience required him also to be confident that there were no other survivors from Paul Benden’s group.
The run to Ierne Island took most of the rest of that day and was as fruitless as the other. Kimmer suggested one further detour, to the tip of Dorado province, to Seminole and Key Largo Stakes. Amid the wreckage of a storm-damaged building, they found a corn-mast, or sections of it, and evidence of a hurried departure of the inhabitants. In another shed, still partly roofed, the remains of two sleds were discovered, obviously broken up to provide spare parts. The canopies and hulls were well scored and blistered by Thread. Benden appreciated that Kimmer was extraordinarily lucky to have survived at all.
They made their evening camp there, with Jiro providing fresh-caught fish. He did his fishing from the remains of a sturdy jetty, the last ten meters of which had been snapped off by some tremendous storm, or maybe many. It would have taken a lot of force to break off heavy-duty plastic pilings like that.
When Ross Benden checked in with the Erica, he roused a sleepy Nev, forgetting that there was a time difference across the southern continent.
“Everything’s okay,” Nev said around a yawn.
“Though the lieutenant is sure something’s up. She says the women are acting funny.”
“They’re about to leave all they’ve known, as well as a very comfortable life,” Benden replied.
“Isn’t that. Lieutenant’ll tell you when you get back.” Nev didn’t seem much concerned, but Benden trusted Ni Morgana’s instincts and wondered what might be up with the women.
He was wakeful that night, trying to figure out what could have gone wrong. He worried about it all the way back to Honshu, which was a useless activity. But he’d noticed that those who anticipated problems always seemed able to solve them faster.
When they finally reached Honshu, despite the gathering dusk, Kimmer insisted on maneuvering the sled into its garage, proving his piloting skills.
“This sled’s done more than its designers ever expected, Benden,” Kimmer said sardonically as he reversed it in, “so humor an old man in rewarding its service the only way he can.”
Benden and Greene left Kimmer and Jiro to a ritualistic deservicing. Benden ran up the stairs to the main room. Ni Morgana was there, storing small packages in a case. Benden noticed first that some of the wall hangings were missing, and then that the big room appeared to be stripped. Damn it! They could take only 23.5 kilos each.
“Glad to have you back, Ross,” Ni Morgana said, smiling a welcome. “We’re just about packed up and ready to go.” There was nothing in her manner to suggest anxiety. “There you are, Charity. If you’ll stow that in the galley locker, that’s the last.” She consulted her notepad then, reading the last entry as Charity left with the container. “From your less than jubilant manner, Lieutenant, I gather that your time was wasted.”
“You could gather that, Saraidh,” Benden said, trying not to sound truculent. “In some places matériel was neatly stored as if the owners intended to return; in others, everything had been left open to the weather, or showed signs of hurried departure. They turned their animals loose, and those have multiplied—so I’d say that the meek have inherited this planet. You said you’ve had more success?”
She reviewed her notepad a moment longer, then ifipped it shut and placed it in a hip pocket. At a nod of her head, both officers moved toward the door. Benden was relieved to see one of the marines on duty at the ramp of the Erica, having a word with Charity before she entered.
“When I’ve written up my investigations,” Ni Morgana said with considerable satisfaction, “there’re going to be some red faces. Irrefutably, the Oort cloud supports a life-form which I have observed in its normal immensely sluggish metabolic, activated, and defunct states. Fascinating actually, even if it also has managed to devastate a world and ruin it for further human habitation.” She walked Benden to the far side of the Erica, raising her arm as if to point something out to him. “I don’t know what’s going on, but something is, Ross. I don’t believe it’s just sorrow for leaving their home that’s making the women nervous, jumpy, and accounts for a mass insomnia. The children seem fine, and Shensu and Kimo have been most helpful.”
“I thought taking Kimmer and Jiro with me was a sensible precaution.”
“Sensible, but Kimmer’s quite likely to have given those women orders before he left. I think he did. I just don’t know what. We haven’t left the Erica unattended, but each of us who’s stood a watch on her has been plagued with headaches. I’ll admit to you, Ross, that I fell asleep on watch. I can’t have dozed for more than ten or twenty minutes, but I was asleep. I can’t get Cahill Nev or the other marines to admit that they had similar lapses, but Nev had that hangdog expression I’ve come to know well in erring ensigns. Anyway, after my little snooze, Nev and I searched the ship from prow to the propulsion units and couldn’t find anything illegally stowed. Which is what I think’s been happening. Oh, we’ve put aboard everyone’s twenty-three-point-five kilos, which were thoroughly searched and weighed before I’d permit them to stow it. Nothing hidden in anyone’s bundle.
“And the women . . .” Ni Morgana paused, deep in thought, then shook her head slowly. “They’re exhausted, although they swear blind that they’re fine, just that this has all happened so fast. Chio released that little dragony pet of hers, and she bursts into tears if you glance sideways at her.” Then she gave a chuckle. “Nev and I thought to cheer them up, and he’s a mainframe of humorous anecdotes abo
ut life in high tech. He’s from a colonial family, so he’s been marvelous at reassuring them. You should have heard the spiel he gave on how they’ll be living back on a ‘civilized’ planet and all the advantages of same. They cheer up a bit and then fall into the weeps again.”
Then she turned briskly professional. “We’ve got additional safety harness for all, by the way, and pallets with a local vegetable sponge that is lightweight but cushioning. I figure that all the women should be strapped into the marines’ bunks; the kids and the brothers can use the pallets and temporary harness in the wardroom, and the marines will take the extra seats in the cabin with us. Tight squeeze, but there’s only so many places you can put bodies on this gig. Where is Kimmer?” she asked. “I think one of us ought to keep a close eye on his movements this evening.” Then she looked out to the last of the brilliantly red and orange sunset. “Too bad. This is such a beautiful planet.”
That night a lavish feast was spread for everyone—except the man on duty on the Erica. Kimmer urged the officers and the three marines to drink as much of his fine wines as possible, claiming that there was no sense leaving good wine behind for the tunnel-snakes. When he found the Fleet reluctant to overindulge, he nagged the girls and the three men to “eat, drink, and be merry.” Taking his own advice, he passed out before the meal was finished.
“He’ll have to be sober by—” Benden consulted his digital. “—0900 tomorrow or he’ll be nauseous in takeoff, and I don’t want to have to clean that up when we reach free-fall. Good evening and thank you, Chio, for such a magnificent meal,” he added, and after Saraidh had also complimented the women, the Erica’s complement left.
Kimmer looked none the worse for the drink the next morning as he and the others reported on time to board the Erica. Nev strapped them in, but Benden made a final check himself. The women were all red-eyed and Chio patently so nervous that Benden wondered if he should get Ni Morgana to give her a mild sedative.
The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall Page 25