by Dale Olausen
"But let us see what other amazing discoveries I can make," she muttered to herself proceeding to make her way downhill. A growth of bushes awaited her there.
The first bush that she approached turned out to be a less pleasant discovery than the orange blossoms had been. A dry, gnarled plant, its big stiff leaves stuck out at right angles to the trunk. Each leaf was edged with nasty-looking long spikes. Sarah prudently circled the bush with no attempt to examine it further.
Fortunately the "thorn-bush", as she quickly dubbed the species, did not appear to be a very common variety of tree. She saw many more of a type that reminded her of the pines back on Earth except for the large, succulent fruit which these trees bore. And then there were the plants that looked like huge clumps of grass that had turned to wood - these she circled curiously, thinking that they must be some variation on bamboo.
But the slope that she was walking down had more upon it than sod and bushes. Clearly this planet of the big orange sun was not devoid of animal-life. As Sarah walked on, she became aware of the creatures that populated the land on which she was trespassing. Hummingbird-sized, rotund insects with small wings hovered about the fruit of the "pine"-bushes, feeding on the juice through long, thin tubes that they uncurled from beneath their chins to pierce the red skins. Sarah surprised a lizard-like creature sunning itself on a large boulder; as she approached, it turned to stare at her, then scampered off on seven legs while she stifled an amazed cry. Twice, a small furry creature - a mammal? - scurried over her boot, seemingly quite unafraid of the alien intruder.
Here, farther down the slope, the bushes grew closer together. Sarah thought that they were also getting bigger than the ones farther up. Abruptly she found her easy path blocked by a "thorn-bush" and she had to halt her descent.
Thus alerted, she glanced behind to see how far she had come.
"Oh no! I'm way farther than I intended to come," she cried out in dismay. "Good old greenhorn stupidity I'm dealing with, I guess! I forgot that it's lot easier to go downhill than uphill!"
There was nothing to do but start back and move as fast as she could. She hoped that she could make it to the ship before the sun set.
"I'd hate for Dav to have to organize a search party for me the very first evening."
But what was that? Sarah froze before she had so much as taken a single step uphill. Movement - her eye had caught motion, something moving between two bushes uphill and to the left of her. Frightened, she waited, staring at the place where she had detected motion.
Yes, something was there. An animal - this was a large animal. Sarah drew in a ragged breath. She watched, transfixed, as the creature padded out from the shadows to where she could see it clearly.
It was a cat! A huge cat! A huge green cat! Oh yes, Sarah had seen cats this big and even bigger, in a zoo on Earth! But there, a fence had stood between her and the animal; here there was nothing but a few scraggly bushes!
One good leap and she'd be dinner!
The stunner! It was in the pouch strapped to her belt! How long would it take her to get it out? Too long, no doubt - what an idiot of a greenhorn she had proved herself to be! Careless mistake after careless mistake!
But what a beautiful, graceful creature the big cat was! Abruptly Sarah realized that it was standing motionless, not poised to leap. Such a sleek, lean animal, studying her out of its green, intelligent eyes. She gazed into those eyes and sensed that something weird was happening: she was the one being scrutinized by an intelligence far superior to her own!
Her fear dissolved, and she felt her body relaxing. There was no need for the stunner. She would come to no harm. The cat was not going to attack her. It had studied her and had judged her harmless.
Still spellbound, she watched while the creature broke eye contact with her, turned gracefully, and disappeared among the bushes. Only a shaking branch on a "pine"-bush testified that it had ever been there.
*****
Most of the big sun had disappeared behind the jagged horizon by the time Sarah scrambled across the loose gravel to the ledge where the Beth sat. Flyers and their crews crowded the ramp leading into the storage area; the Beth's company had returned home for the night. Sarah sat down on a rock to catch her breath and to loosen the bindings of the protecto-suit - underneath it she was soaked with sweat. Suddenly a small form rushed at her, shouting greetings.
She was drawn into a skinny-armed embrace.
"Oh Sarah!" Cherrie shouted gleefully. "I had a wonderful day! Jodi let me go on the flyer with her crew! I had ever so much fun though I had to sit still the whole time they were working! Where have you been? Did you go for a walk? What did you see? Do you want me to tell you what I saw?"
"Yes, Cherrie," Sarah laughed, disentangling herself. "Let's hear about what you saw today."
Chapter Seven
"A cave! A cave!"
Throughout the morning peace and quiet had reigned within the small space of the flyer but close to the noon hour Rieve's abrupt shout catapulted everything into confusion.
"Where?"
Jodi and Sarah stumbled over one another in their rush to reach Rieve who was crouching over the mapping screen. Kary, at the machine's controls, twisted her upper body around in an attempt to find out what was going on. For a split second she forgot to compensate for the wicked winds buffeting the flyer. The three crewmembers in the back went sprawling as the machine tilted dangerously; Jodi cursed Kary who quickly returned her concentration to the task at hand.
Rieve crawled back to the mapper, a look of grim satisfaction on his face.
He looked up at Jodi. "There," he said, stabbing at a shadow on the screen. Then he turned to peer intently at the mountainside outside the flyer's transparent wall.
"Sarah, do me a favour and fetch my binoculars," he requested. "I think they rolled somewhere towards the back."
Sarah was glad to help. It was the first time that day that she had had the opportunity to feel useful.
"Thanks." Rieve scanned the cliffs with the binoculars. Jodi scanned the screen for a moment, then, she too, grabbed her binoculars.
"Ah, there, I found it." Rieve's voice again. "Kary do you think you can take us a little closer?"
"Closer which way?" Kary demanded testily.
"Oh, I see your cave now, Rieve," Jodi broke in. "Not very promising though - but yes, Kary, we'll need to get closer. To the right and up - I'll give you directions as you go."
"Just don't ask me to hold a hover," snarled Kary, struggling to force the flyer to change course, yet remain upright, as it fought the unstable air currents.
For a few minutes all was quiet except for Jodi's voice giving brief, pointed directions. Kary followed them well, and the machine reacted with remarkable smoothness; yet Sarah could tell by the stiffness of the young woman's back that she was tense.
"Okay, Kary, I won't ask for a hover but if you can possibly make a couple of passes by it, as level as possible, perhaps we can shine a light inside and have a look."
Now they could all see the opening in the mountainside. Even Sarah understood why Jodi had classed it as unpromising; it was low and long, with no visible access other than a narrow ledge directly in front of it. Not a likely entrance into a network of tunnels. She voiced the thought rather hesitantly, and both Jodi and Rieve nodded.
"Nevertheless, we'll have to check it out," Jodi added with a shrug. "There might be an air vent in there. If we find one of those we might be able to blast ourselves an access through it.
"Sarah, can you find the torch, please? And pray that we don't have to climb into that hole. I don't see any place where we could land the flyer, so it could be a long climb.
"Thanks, Sarah. Now, as Kary makes her pass switch it on - full power - and beam it straight in there. That's it – good girl!"
Sarah did her best to illuminate the cave while Kary struggled to fly across its front as steadily as possible. Jodi and Rieve crouched on the flyer floor, eyes glued to their binoculars, tryin
g to follow the beam of light.
"The devils be cursed!" Jodi tossed her binoculars aside angrily after the pass was complete. "We're going to have to go in there, like it or not!"
Rieve nodded.
"It looks like it might be really deep," he explained to Sarah who was looking on questioningly. "There could be an air vent in there."
"Or a family of nasty beasties," Kary added cheerfully. She seemed more relaxed after successfully completing a difficult manoeuvre. "Shall I land this machine somewhere so that we can change into our climbing boots?"
"Yes." Jodi's voice still had an edge to it. "Find a pleasant spot while you're at it. We're going to eat lunch before we do anything else."
Kary did locate a lovely spot to land the flyer. She set it down on a sunlit ledge which had a magnificent view of a narrow valley and the neighbouring mountains. With the flyer's bubble down, the planeting crew members were able to enjoy the warmth of the sun and the play of the mountain breezes as they ate their sandwiches and planned their next move. Only Jodi, ever the responsible leader, seemed oblivious to the surroundings, as she studied the charts of the mountainside surrounding the cave.
"We've got a problem," she sighed at last, tossing the maps aside. "I can't figure out any halfways easy way to get into that cave of ours. Sheer cliffs all around it."
Kary made a grab for the charts. With Rieve looking over her shoulder she studied them thoroughly, then shook her head.
"What do you think, Rieve?" she asked.
"Same thing as you're thinking, I bet," Rieve replied.
"Speak, Kary."
Kary directed her words to Jodi. "It ought to be possible for me to bring the flyer close enough to the ledge in the front of the cave so that somebody can jump onto it. Then that somebody can crawl in and check the place out. Once he's done I'll come back and he'll jump back onto the flyer. We'll have saved hours or, more likely, days and can quickly continue with our work."
"Yeah." Jodi did not sound overly enthusiastic. "Provided that you can actually get close enough to the ledge without the winds smashing the flyer into the cliff so that the somebody can make these jumps safely. If these jumps can be made safely."
"If Kary thinks that she can handle the flyer I'm quite sure that I can do the jumping." Rieve gazed calmly at Jodi.
"I know what you're thinking. We've worked together a long time and I can read you pretty well, Jodi. You're the crew leader and responsible for the safety of the people and the equipment. You don't want to take any foolish chances.
"But this isn't foolish. It'll save us a lot of time. If anybody can handle the flier under difficult circumstances, Kary can."
"And I'm pretty certain that I can pull it off," Kary interrupted, "and if it feels like I can't, well, then I'll just say so, turn the machine around, and we'll just give up on the whole thing."
"And I think I'm quite competent myself," Rieve continued. "I'm not going to do anything stupid like fall down and kill myself."
Jodi picked up an apple from the lunch basket and bit into it thoughtfully, staring at the flier floor. The crew waited expectantly while she chewed and made her decision.
"All right," she said at last, fixing Rieve with a stern eye. "We'll try it. But you'll have to use the X3 protecto suit. And if Kary can manage the added delay - I'm going into that cave too."
So it was decided. Sarah cleared off the remains of the lunch while the others made the necessary preparations for the jump. Jodi and Rieve changed into the more restrictive suits and sturdy boots. They strapped emergency kits and stunners onto their belts. Then they snapped communicators onto their wrists and donned lightweight helmets, each of which had a powerful light attached to its front. They covered their hands with rough gloves designed to help them grip stone. Meanwhile, Kary pored over the information stored in the mapper and fiddled with the flyer's controls.
"Ready, Kary?"
Jodi and Rieve seated themselves in the flyer. Kary nodded grimly.
"I'm going to drop you off during separate passes," she said. "It's going to feel a little nasty when I open the bubble to let you off. Sarah, you will have to give what help you can to the jumpers."
*****
"Okay guys! I'm gonna crack the bubble open!"
The distance between the flyer and the ledge fronting the cave was frighteningly small. Jodi, who had insisted on being the first to make the jump, gripped Sarah's shoulder painfully as both women braced themselves to face the powerful winds outside. As soon as the opening in the plastic was big enough to allow her to pass through, Jodi leaped. As Sarah watched through the now closing bubble Jodi landed on the ledge, teetering awkwardly.
Quickly she steadied herself, grasping at the cliff above the cave entrance. Then, with a wave in the direction of the flyer, she crouched down and crawled into the dark entrance.
"Whew!" Sarah realized that she was sweating. Yet, her role was a picnic compared to Kary's at the flyer's controls. Sarah glanced at that young woman and saw that her face was wet with perspiration as she struggled to make a second pass.
Rieve's jump proved to be more difficult than Jodi's. Because he was a man, his body was larger than Jodi's, and therefore the crack in the bubble had to be bigger in order for him to make his jump. Kary at the controls had more wind resistance to battle so the flyer refused to make the pass across the cave front smoothly. Rieve had to leap from a bobbing vehicle and made a bad landing onto the ledge. Sarah could see him grimacing as he cracked a knee on the rocks.
She chewed on her lip as she watched him crawl into the cave.
"Well, we're both here now and we're more or less okay," Jodi's voice growled via the communicator. "Rieve smashed his knee a bit but it doesn't seem to be serious; we're checking it out right now. Yep - it'll be okay; a bandage and a teeny bit of painkiller will see him through till tonight.
"Kary, go back to the lunch spot and get some rest. We'll be here a while - this cave may be low but it stretches quite a ways by the look of it. I want you in shape to make a couple of passes again when we're finished in here."
"You won't hear any arguments against that from me," replied Kary. "I could sure use a coffee and maybe even a nap - if I can unwind enough for that."
To Sarah's astonishment Kary did, indeed, curl up and go to sleep once she had safely landed the flyer. Sarah herself, however, was much too tense and excited to rest, and she spent the hours of the wait pacing the ledge on which they had parked. Sometimes she stopped to study the alien flora and fauna which presented themselves, although sparsely, on the rock. Occasionally, beetle-like creatures scurried from her path to avoid being crushed under her boots. Once, she frightened what she at first took to be a bird from its perch atop a ragged bush; however when she took a closer look at the animal, as it circled her in its confusion, she realized that it bore a closer resemblance to a lizard, than to any of the birds that she had seen on Earth.
"Amazing," she muttered to herself and turned to walk back to the flyer. There was so much on this planet to astonish her! Well, what with going out every second day with Jodi's crew, to search for "the needle in the haystack", she would certainly have plenty of opportunity to learn more!
She found Kary awake and talking to Jodi via the communicator when she reached the flyer.
"They've finished in there and are begging me to pick them up," Kary said cheerfully when her chat with Jodi was over. "It seems that they found nothing worthwhile - but there were no beasties in there either."
Quickly they readied the flyer for the pickup and took off into air once again.
"I don't think it will be quite so bad this time," Kary shouted to Sarah as they neared the cliff and began to feel the buffeting of the treacherous winds. "I think I'm starting to get the hang of how to ride these air currents!"
It seemed that she had. Thanks to some miracle, or skill, she managed to keep the machine hovering almost motionless in front of the cave for about thirty seconds. This was enough, with the bubble open
wide to allow Rieve and Jodi to jump in - which they did without hesitation and in quick succession.
The impact of the double landing sent the flyer into a crazy spin, but Kary was able to retain enough control to keep it away from the rock wall. By the time she had the bubble closed again and the machine flying smoothly on its way back to the Beth, Jodi and Rieve had collected themselves. Jodi dug into the lunch basket for a drink for herself and for Rieve.
"Thank the Lords that's over!" she exclaimed after swallowing a mouthful of water.
Rieve massaged his sore knee, his face twisted into a grimace.
"I guess I'm going to have to get Jaff to look at it when we get in," he muttered unhappily. "It wasn't so bad in the beginning but we had to crawl most of the time we were in that cursed hole. Crawling doesn't do much for a sore knee."
"Yup, crawling up that blind alley was no fun," added Jodi. "That was just the kind of a false lead one gets to hate. Lots of danger and hard work for nothing. Still, I couldn't have left the cave unchecked. If we hadn't gone in I would always have wondered about it, always thought that maybe it might have hidden a way into the tunnels after all."
*****
"Sarah, please come to the Control Room as soon as you can."
The voice coming over the intercom was Castilo's. Sarah squinted at the solution inside the test-tube that she had been handling, and shrugged. There was no urgency about the tests that she had volunteered to do for Jaff on those days when he was away, and she was on base duty. She carefully emptied the test-tube into a bottle and returned the petri dishes that she had spread on the desk to the refrigerator. Then, after carefully washing her hands under a chemical spray, she left the laboratory.
What did Castilo want, she wondered. Had something in the Control Room - or elsewhere in the ship - malfunctioned? Life aboard the Beth had settled into a routine in the ten or so days that the Explorers had spent searching for the amartos. Every second day Sarah was outdoors with Jodi's crew, combing the mountainside for an entrance into the tunnels which they all believed to exist inside that mountain.