“Not if we're well hidden,” said Varian, emphasizing the “well” in a voice that held a ripple of amusement. “No heavy-worlder would think of it. And there'd be a lot of other life-form readings to confuse them.”
Kai regarded Varian, his mind rushing through the possible locations, unable to guess what she had thought of although Varian looked at him as if he ought to know.
“Our rest day was a rehearsal, too, though we couldn't know it at the time.”
“The giffs?”
“Yes, that cave where I found the dead egg. It was enormous inside, and dry. Why it was abandoned, I can't figure. But it should do us.”
Kai wanted to grab her in his arms, kiss and hug her for that suggestion but it was neither the time nor place.
“That's exactly the right place, Varian. We'd even register the same as the adult giffs. And the kids as juveniles! Varian, That's . . . That's . . .”
“The best idea we've heard all day,” said Lunzie, finishing when words failed Kai. There was as much relief in her voice as in Kai's. Varian beamed at the reception of her solution.
“Fine. We'll hole up there . . .” and he ducked as Lunzie swung at him for his pun, “get a good night's sleep and then do some heavy evaluation. I did, and don't forget this, my friends, get that message off to the Theks . . .” He held up his hand as Aulia opened her mouth to renew her arguments to aid from that source, “and as one of them is an old friend of my family's on the ARCT-10, I think I can promise that the message will not be ignored.”
Aulia may not have been convinced but Kai saw that others were willing to rest some confidence in that fact.
“Where has Bonnard got to?” asked Varian, shuddering as Lunzie finished her manipulation on her shoulder. “He ought to have been long back.”
“I'll go,” said Triv and was out of the lock before either leader could protest.
“Now, Leader Kai,” said Lunzie, indicating it was his turn at her hands.
“Margit, would you break out some peppers for us all?” said Kai, surrendering his broken wrist to Lunzie and diverting his thoughts. “I don't think they got what was in the locker in the pilot's compartment.”
"A pepper?" Margit moved with alacrity to the forward compartment, Aulia right behind her. "That's the second best idea I've heard today. Pray Krim they didn't get the peppers! Ah, the locker's untouched! Leave off, Aulia, pass them out to the others, first! " Her voice had turned hard.
“You know, this is the first time I've ever seen Leaders required to use Discipline,” said Dimenon, cracking the seal on the can Aulia had handed him. She was drinking hers as she passed others the restoratives. “I'm aware that a Leader has to have the Training to lead, but I'd never seen it working. I couldn't figure out what had got into you, Varian, when you let them beat admissions out of you.”
“I had to play the coward,” said Varian, taking a long swig at her pepper. “Dead Disciples are no use to anyone. I'd guessed that Bonnard would be smart enough to hide. I do wish he'd get back now, though.”
They all heard the noises at the lock. Kai slipped his half-sealed wrist from Lunzie's grasp and moved quickly to the lock, good hand poised in a clenched fist. Portegin and Dimenon joined him, their bare hands cocked back.
"I found him," Triv said, poking his head through the half-opened iris. "He'd been stacking all the power packs at the edge of . . . the dead beasts. He's gone for the others now." He handed three power packs through the lock to Portegin." He says the heavy-worlders have started a fire on the ridge beyond us. We'll be able to slide the shuttle to our left, up the hill and they shouldn't see us. Dead and dying herbivores are hill high in the compound. It's going to take some time before they realize neither we nor the shuttle are buried here."
“Good,” said Kai and motioned Triv to return to help Bonnard. “We can be gone without a trace left for them to follow or find, bless this ceramic hull.”
Once the resourceful boy and Triv had swung the power packs safely into the shuttle, they dosed the lock. Kai and Varian took Bonnard into the pilot's compartment where he could diagram the shuttle's position and the clearest way up the hill.
Paskutti's fist had wrecked the outside view screens as well as the communication unit so maneuvers would be blind. Not, Varian pointed out, that they could have seen all that much even with night-masks and they couldn't, under the circumstances, use the shuttle's exterior spotbeams. Both Kai and Varian could recall the co-ordinates for the inland sea without the tapes now spread across the compound's littered floor.
Triv and Dimenon synthesized enough padding to cushion the wounded on the bare plastic deck, and had set Margit and Aulia to clear up the worst of the spillage in Trizein's laboratory. He was unconscious again, the strain having been excessive for a man of his years. Lunzie thought he might have suffered a heart seizure as a result of the brutal treatment.
Manoeuvring on the bare minimum of power, Kai and Varian, each with one good hand, eased the shuttle out from under its burden of Hadrasaur corpses, up the hill and onto a course for the inland sea.
During the trip, Lunzie synthesized a hyper-saturated tonic to reduce the effects of delayed shock and made certain every single person took their dose, either as a drink or a spray. With Triv and Dimenon's assistance, Portegin began to raid all unnecessary circuits to see if he could jury rig even an outgoing signal.
When they reached the inland sea, Kai hovered the shuttle while Varian, the lock iris partly open, shouted verbal instructions to the terrace they had happily occupied that rest day, it seemed so long ago. When the lock was half a metre above the terrace, Varian and Triv jumped down. They would have to guide the shuttle into the cave, feeding Kai directions over their wrist communits. Since the heavy-worlders were sure of their deaths in the dome, it was unlikely any of them would be listening in on their own units.
The mouth of the cave was not large enough to accept the central bulge of the shuttle, but, by steadily pressing in against the rock, they forced a way through, ignoring the score marks on the ceramic skin of the shuttle.
Varian, standing in the darkness of the terrace, couldn't understand why the grating noise and vibrations hadn't aroused the entire population of the cliff but no crested head emerged to investigate.
Triv lowered Varian down to the cave by belt line. Then, having secured one end on a rocky spur on the terrace, he joined her. The shuttle was far enough inside the cave not to be immediately visible. But Triv and Varian gathered up masses of dried vegetation and threw them in camouflage over the stern of the shuttle. Dimenon, Margit and Portegin came out to help, spattering the top and sides with moistened cave dung.
It didn't take long but everyone was relieved to be inside the shuttle, with the iris closed behind them. Then the others settled themselves with what comfort they could find.
“You are going to rest, aren't you, Lunzie,” asked Kai, hunkering down by her side as she tended Trizein.
She gave a snort. “I'll have no option as soon as Discipline releases. But Trizein should be all right. It's natural for his system to seek repair in rest. And there won't be anything to disturb him. How're you?” she asked bluntly, glancing at sealed wrist and then more intently at his eyes.
“I'm still under Discipline, but not for much longer.”
She filled her spray gun. “I'll give everyone else slightly more sedation than necessary. That'll give us a chance for enough rest.”
She moved about the cabin then, administering the spray.
Varian tapped Kai on the shoulder.
“We've accommodation forward, Kai.”
He glanced round the recumbent forms and then followed her, gratefully lowering himself on the deck on the padding. Thin but thermal lined sheets had been fashioned and ought, he thought, to suffice. The ship would keep the interior temperature at a comfortable level for sleepers. Lunzie and Triv joined them and settled down, too.
“It could be worse, Kai,” said the physician, as if she read his thoughts a
s he stared down the bare cabin at the other sleepers. “We only lost Gaber and that fool asked for it with his tardy heroics.”
“Terilla and Cleiti?” asked Varian.
“Were mauled about, but no more. Worse for the psyche and the body. One doesn't wish that sort of treatment for anyone. . .” Lunzie grimaced.
“I'm more concerned about their reaction towards Kai and myself when we seemed not to defend or protect them . . .”
Lunzie smiled. "They understand that! I know Cleiti's parents are Disciples and I suspect Terilla's mother is. What they can't understand is the heavy-worlders" metamorphosis into brutal, cruel temperaments." Lunzie sighed. "All in all, I think we comported ourselves rather well, considering the odds against us and the unexpectedness of that mutiny."
Suddenly her body sagged and she sighed again, with relief.
“I'm off,” she said, fumbling with shaking hands for the sedative gun. “Are you two ready for it?”
“Leave it,” said Kai. “We can do ourselves.”
Triv offered his arm to the physician. “I'm off it, too, Lunzie.” The release of Discipline was obvious in the grey that seeped into his complexion. He was nearly asleep before Lunzie had fully administered the drug. “I'll wake first,” he mumbled, and his head dropped to one side.
Lunzie snorted as she turned the spray on herself. “Not if I beat you to it, my friend. That's the marvel of Discipline, or is it the bane, working even when you don't want it to.” She exhaled raggedly and closed her eyes. “you've done well, leaders! You can rest easy on that score. Never met a . . bet . . . ter . . .”
Varian chuckled. “You might know Lunzie would leave a compliment unspoken.” She kept her voice low though not even a repeat stampede would have wakened the physician or the other sleepers. “Kai? Will Tor respond?”
“He's more likely to than any other Thek.”
“When?”
Discipline must be leaving her, Kai thought, hearing the anxiety in her roughened voice. He took her good hand in his and carried it to his lips. She smiled, despite her worry, at the caress.
“I'd say it will be a week before he could possibly arrive. I think we can hold them together that long, don't you?”
“After today, yes, I think we can. But, Kai, they don't know we've no contact with EV Thek help is grand but pretty poor consolation because it's debatable.”
“I know. It is, however, contact.” He felt Discipline leaving him, felt the massive fatigue, like an intolerable weight, press down on his abused body. Muhlah, but he'd be almighty stiff when he woke.
“Are you released, Kai? You look it.”
He laughed softly, noting the drain of colour from her face. He lifted the spray gun.
"Wait." She raised herself on her good elbow and kissed him on the lips, a gentle kiss but nonetheless an accolade. I don't want to fall asleep kissing you."
“I appreciate that consideration,” he said. And gave her a quick, affectionate kiss, pressing the spray against her arm, and then his own. He arranged his limbs and just had time to curl his fingers about hers before sleep overtook him.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Kai was not the only stiff one when they finally woke. And Lunzie had roused before Triv, which put her in a good mood. Trizein was improving, she told the leaders as she handed them each beakers of a steaming nutritious broth. Her own special recipe, she said, guaranteed to circulate blood through abused muscles and restore tissue to normal.
“You'll need to be limber. We've got to have more for the synthesizer to masticate or I won't have enough of my brew to revive the others.”
Kai sipped carefully of the hot liquid. Lunzie had not misrepresented its effectiveness. As the warmth descended to his stomach, he could almost feel the loosening of his stiff muscles. He did have to apply slight Disciplinary controls to reduce the ache in his wrist.
“How long did we sleep?”
"I'd say we made it around the chrono and half again?" Lunzie said, glancing at her wrist bracelet. I know we didn't sleep a mere twelve hours or I've lost my knack at pulling sedatives into a sprayer. Which I haven't."
“How long before the others rouse?” asked Triv, who was now awake.
“I'd say we have another clear hour or so before the dead arise.”
“A little recon?” Triv asked the two leaders.
“Just remember,” said Lunzie at her driest, “you've none of your force-belts anymore. Don't fall.”
From reflex action, Kai found himself reaching for the stun locker door and saw its open, empty shelves.
“Yes, indeed,” said Varian with a wry laugh, “the cupboard is bare.”
“And all we've got is bare hands . . .”
“One a piece,” said Varian with a second laugh,
“Remember, you won't be able to use full Discipline today?” Lunzie cautioned. “I trust the need will not arise.”
“I doubt it. The giffs aren't aggressive,” said Varian, settling her hand comfortably against her body before stepping through the iris. “Another reason why this is a perfect hideaway.”
A scant few minutes later, as they peered past the mouth of their retreat, she revised her statement.
“Well, there are a few drawbacks.” She squinted down at the waves beating against the foot of their twenty metre high cliff. To either side was an expanse of sheer rock. The line Triv had secured from the terrace flapped in the light breeze. Looking up, Varian could see the giffs flying. “At least There's nothing but giffs airborne,” she added with an exaggerated sigh of relief.
“And nothing for the synthesizer either,” said Kai, trying to recall exactly what lay beyond the terrace and the rock-shelf on which the giffs dropped their catch.
Triv had gone to the rear of the cavern and came back now, a sheaf of dried grasses in each hand. “There's lots more of this, dried, but they'll provide some substance for the synthesizer.”
“There's forest beyond the cliffs,” said Varian, thoughtfully, frowning as she concentrated. “Blast but we rely too much on tapes and not enough on our own recall?”
“C'mon, don't fuss yourself, Varian. We'll collect grasses at least. Triv, how are you at climbing up ropes?”
“I'll learn but I suspect it's the sort of thing Bonnard will do extremely well,” he said with a grin, testing the rope and then peering up its length, his expression dubious.
Lunzie was not pleased with the grasses. Fresh they'd have been perfect but there was no telling how long they'd been lying about the cavern. Couldn't they get some fresh green – even tree tops?
Tree tops were about all they could reach, Triv informed the leaders when he and the youngsters had returned from their foraging. There was a tantalizing view of fruiting trees beyond a narrow but impassable canyon which separated the main cliffs from the forest beyond. At least from the terrace level which was, at the moment, all they could reach.
“The giffs watched us,” Bonnard told Varian and Kai, “just like they did that rest day. Just watched.”
“And I watched the skies for anything else,” said Terilla, a curiously bitter note to her soft voice and an unsettling hardness to her face.
“Them?” Bonnard dismissed the heavy-worlders with a fine scorn. “They're still thinking we've all been smashed flat in the dome!”
There was, the two leaders noted with wry approval, a decided smugness about Bonnard to which he was, in fact, entitled. He, alone, had managed to evade and discommode the heavy-worlders, despite their physical superiority.
“Let us devoutly hope that they continue in that delusion for a few more days,” said Kai. “Until Tor has a chance to arrive. Can you manage another trip today?” he asked, eyeing the pile of fresh greens and estimating the finished, synthesized result.
Triv's answer was to turn back to the rope and begin the ascent, the others queuing to follow him.
“Morale's very good,” Kai murmured to Varian.
“Now!” Varian's single bitter word reminded Kai that morale was
fickle.
To bolster his own spirits he sought Portegin, working in Trizein's looted laboratory on a pile of matrix slabs and the damaged console panel which he had removed from the piloting compartment.
“I don't know if I can fix the communit, even if I pirate every matrix circuit we've got and do field links,” the man said, running his fingers through his short hair. “They didn't leave us so much as a sealing unit and these connections are too fine to be done by hand.”
"Could you rig a locator signal on the Thek?", or even the ARCT-10's frequencies?"
“Sure,” and Portegin brightened to be able to give a positive response.
“Do so, then, preferably one the heavy-worlders can't tap.”
They've got to have power first, more power than they've got on their wrist units," said Portegin, grinning with a touch of malice.
Kai moved on, checking futilely in the storage compartments in the hopes that something useful had been dropped by the heavy-worlders. He thanked providence for the ceramic hull of the shuttle which would not show up on the detectors the heavy-worlders possessed. The minor amounts of metal in the ship would easily be misread as ore in the cliffs. He tried again to remember if he and Varian had done much talking about the giffs in the hearing of any of the heavy-worlders. And remembered the tapes! Fighting the frantic pulse of fear, he also remembered the tangled, destroyed tape cannisters strewn about the compound and now buried beneath megatons of dead beasts. Supercilious of the light weights as the mutineers were, doubtless they had chucked tapes registered by either himself or Varian as being intrinsically useless. Kai forced himself to believe that possibility.
Everyone was busy at something, he noted. Triv and the youngsters were on the foraging party, Aulia was sweeping the main cabin with a broom made of short stiff grasses, Dimenon and Margit were hauling water up the cliff in an all too small improvised bucket.
"Try a piece," said Varian, offering him a brownish slab." It's not bad," she added as he broke off a corner and began to chew it.
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