by Pam Uphoff
Ebsa sniffed. "You're just jealous because I'm a better cook than you are."
Ra'd glared. "You are the hardest person to insult I've ever met."
Ebsa raised his clenched fists. "I am the champion!"
Then they got back to mapping. The stampede damage to the flora would no doubt be much analyzed and written up in papers.
At Ebsa's request, Ajha worked them on shields. Bringing them up quickly, away from the body, around other things and people. Grounding them, which actually was, more or less, jamming them into the ground. "With practice you can get them quite deep. Don't practice that in an urban environment. Buried water mains, sewer lines, electric lines, optic cables and tree roots. Things like that."
Ra'd looked interested. "Hmm, sabotage."
Ajha eyed him.
"Nothing personal, or prankish. I was thinking war . . . but it would be useless against Comet Fall."
Ajha shook his head. "Their cities have both water and sewage systems. No electricity, a few steam engines. The utility would be . . . minimal. Earth, on the other hand, agents behind the lines taking out power and communications would be handy. No doubt it is being planned."
Whti snickered. "As if we'd really have trouble with Comet Fall."
Ajha shrugged. "War with Earth would be fairly predictable. We have no idea how Comet Fall would fight a war. I suspect that they would be sabotaging us both in the field and here."
Ufly sniffed. "Right. The statues were a cute touch. But we need to get our prisoners back. And stop this hysteria about 'Wizards with dogs and horses are everywhere' nonsense."
Paer nodded. "Urfa's gone after those rumors, but it's always 'Oh he was here yesterday, but I haven't seen him since,' everywhere he's sent people. And the descriptions aren't anything like Xen."
Professor Ecco shrugged. "Hysterical women, nothing more."
Paer and Fean exchanged head shakes.
And the last day, they took the lab crawler out into the water and collected aquatic specimens. The big prototurtle thing that moved in to take a taste of Ra'd was stunned and netted. The even smaller claudiosaurs were netted then put in a tank. Bryozoans, various aquatic plants, seagrass and algae. Trilobites. And a random trawling for small fish also caught a lizardy thing that the professor said was an early ichthyosaur. Both lab and residential crawler were full of improvised tanks when they drove carefully back to the beacon and, after a few hours wait, drove back to Gate City.
The professor called the University of Paris, while Ajha requested a truck. By the time they'd unloaded the critters and negotiated the corridor—easy—and the cross town traffic in Paris—hideous—the buildings and maintenance staff had assembled three large plexiglass tanks in an empty area intended—eventually—for a new wing of the Biology building.
Both interns and students had come prepared, and stripped down to their swimsuits to wade around in the tanks placing both ordinary rocks and the ones they'd broken off the bryozoan reef—with the live bryozoans still attached, of course—in what Fean insisted was an aesthetically pleasing array. And the seagrass and algae.
As the tanks were filled with water, they got soaked repeatedly, and sunburned.
The claudiosaurs were a hit. The big proto turtle was a hit. The bryozoans, the clams, the trilobites . . . As soon as the other professors saw the trilobites, smaller tanks were procured and the goodies split up among the competing paleo and zoology departments. The marine biologists wanted the fish, no they could not use them for claudiosaur food. "Get ordinary, modern fish for that!" The lizardy thing started a four way argument about what it really was.
They were so busy, Paer couldn't even get across town. The president came to them, to hug his damp daughter, then they were rushing back to Gate City and the Triassic.
Chapter Four
Triassic
World EM9328
Baking hot sun. Dry air. A few plants. Tough looking things like short palm trees that were probably cycads, and conifers, not much changed from the Permian ones they'd seen last week. They did their usual scout around while the instruments talked to the satellite and figured out where they were.
Irgo headed straight for the vegetation. "Beetles should be starting to spread. Grasshoppers are new . . . "
Ra'd called down from the first crawler's crow's nest. "No dinosaurs in sight."
Ufly sniffed. "It's too early for true dinosaurs. The Therapsids are on the way out and the Archosaurs are starting to dominate."
"Coelophysis?" Irgo looked innocent.
Ufly just sniffed again.
Ebsa looked around. "See what?"
"See Low Fie siss. Two meters long, bipedal, long long neck. Carnivore. Hip and ankles are very dinosaurian. Arguably a dinosaur."
Ajha trotted around the lead crawler. "Load up. We've got five hundred kilometers to cover. Paer, come drive the lead. Ra'd, crow's nest. Ebsa, drive the lab."
They split up and scrambled back aboard.
A canyon with near vertical sides stopped them. Ebsa peered over at the mid sized river about fifty meters below. It was flowing fast enough, and looked deep enough to be a challenge to cross, even without the canyon walls. They split up. One crawler north, one south and the bunkhouse crawler disgorging students to collect plant and insect specimens. Ra'd stayed with the students. Paer drove north and Ebsa south.
The canyon walls rose—or rather the river bed below them sank deeper into the rock. Ebsa and Fean stopped at an escarpment, and climbed up on top of the crawler for a good look. The river bounded and foamed over rocks, then hit the plain below and spread out.
"If we can get down there, we can get across." Ebsa eyed the slope of the escarpment. Hard to say what irregularities were hidden beneath the tough brushy conifers. "The slope isn't too steep. But perhaps we need people on foot scouting a route down before the crawlers try it."
Fean nodded. "Yep. Let me talk to the Boss."
Ajha led them, on foot. Four across, Ajha with climbing gear and red flags, Paer with a drill, Ebsa with a huge—heavy!—pry bar, and Ra'd with explosives.
The pry bar was the most used, rolling boulders into holes and producing a track the crawlers could use. Their slice practice came in handy when they needed to remove trees. Ra'd and Paer did get to drill down into the edge of a vertical drop and blow off the lip. Then they had to shift the rubble a bit to smooth what was going to be a really exciting drive down. Which explains why the experienced drivers are up there.
The slope flattened out, and Ajha flagged the last bit before summoning the crawlers.
Hob with the electronics first, then the lab. The bunkhouse crawler came last, with all the academic types.
Does that mean the students are the most important? Or that the food and water are the one thing we can't do without? Or that Dan is the best or worst driver?
Ajha chuckled. "All of the above."
"I didn't say that out loud."
"You need to tighten your shields a bit more, when you're around experienced teams. We listen very well."
Paer poked him. "So what were you thinking?"
"Just, what the order of the vehicles says about priorities. And whether Dan is the best or worst driver."
"He's the most cautious driver, least likely to do something stupid. But sometimes he won't do things he ought to, despite the risk. Right now he's the best man to be driving the basic survival stuff, as well as the civilians we're protecting." Ajha looked at the first crawler as it turned for the last slope. "Hob has almost stopped doing daredevil stunts. But in bad terrain, he's also the best at getting out of trouble." Sigh. "Having so much experience at it."
Paer looked up to where the lab crawler was starting down the first drop. "And Fean?"
"Too urban to have a lot of experience in situations like this. Her judgment of what a vehicle can—and cannot—do is not expert. Yet." Ajha grinned. "You three are doing really well. Relax. You'll get a good grade."
Hob pulled up beside them and opened the side w
indow. "I dunno about that route Boss, I think it needs more work on the potholes."
Ajha just grinned. "You three mount up and find a good path across the river."
Hob moaned. "But it's just flats and shoals. No big deal, anymore."
"Right. So Paer can drive, and you guys can try to not get her into trouble."
Despite their best judgment from up top, Paer did have to do a bit of backing up and changing routes. But she didn't get stuck, and by the time they climbed the final bank to the plains, the other crawlers were halfway across. And no one got stuck.
Then they ground along past sundown, ate a nasty meal inside, and hit the rack. Except Ebsa who got first watch.
A flat board across the crow's nest made a passable bench. It was amazing, sitting on top of the electronics van with the brilliant stars above. Odd cheeps and croaks. He could close his eyes and see the faint glows of live animals. Is it nervous system activity we see? Something plants don't have. And mammals—not that there are any here—are brighter than reptiles, which are brighter than amphibians. And much brighter than insects.
And humans are the brightest, and the One brightest of all. So this "magic," genetically conferred upon us, increases nervous system activity? Or some component of it that we can't separate out? Not IQ, that's for sure. The smart kids at the old school were just as smart as the smart kids at the Oner school when I had to transfer. And some of the Oners were as stupid as the stupid Halfers and Multitude I knew. No matter how much they brag.
Below him, the professor and Ajha glowed in their sleep. Across in the other crawlers, eight solid glows, varying by native strength, and habitual shields, held even while asleep. Ra'd showed up as an absence of anything. During the day, he consciously opens up to show a glow. Bet even Ajha doesn't get anything Ra'd doesn't intend for him to get.
And there's Paer and Fean. Fean's shield is pretty good, too. Paer . . . Bright and beautiful, even with a good shield.
So, here I am, not just one of the top seven percent of this society, but as a Clostuone, I'm above sixty percent of Oners.
Pity the most gorgeous woman in the world is in the top one percent. Probably top zero point one percent. So she'll never look at me and see anything but a friend. One damn it all.
He opened his eyes and settled back to watch the moonrise. And stopped thinking about impossible things.
Paer climbed up to relieve him at midnight.
"It's beautiful up here."
"Yeah, I ought to get out and star watch more often. Funny, how a hundred million years hasn't changed the moon a bit." He sat up and scooted over on the board.
She chuckled. "I'll bet an astronomer would disagree with you."
"Details, details. If I can't see it with my naked eye . . . "
"It didn't happen." She kicked back beside him, feet up on the rails. "What sort of assignments do you think we'll get? Less than a year to graduation, and then we might never see each other again."
Ouch! "Well, we could always comm each other. See who's got the most boring paperwork to file."
Snort. "I'd love to do this sort of thing. I'm going to go all out for explorer, next year. If the counselors will let me."
"Yeah. They sure think they know what we ought to be doing. I worry about Ra'd. Which would probably induce him to beat me up."
"And which is why we call you Nanny, instead of Kitchen."
"Nonsense. Nanny is an insult, Kitchen is a nickname." Ebsa grinned a bit, remembering the idiot he'd been at fifteen years of age. He had so deserved that nickname, and kind of regretted losing it.
"I'm so glad the seniors never picked up on using it. And now they've all graduated, except for the ones that got arrested or disappeared . . . do you think Xen got them?"
"More likely one of ours decided to remove any awkward witnesses. It . . . bothers me, all these ripples of effects."
"Yeah. An angry man falls down some stairs. Then revenge and politics takes over."
"I wonder what the God of Just Deserts said to the One? It's frightening to think that a single Comet Fall God could just walk into Makkah and back out." Ebsa stared out into the night. "Is this how everyone feels about us Oners? A scary edge to all your thoughts, because someone is demonstrably better than you, in a way you can't ever match? A Comet Fall God, just . . . went wherever he pleased."
"I wonder if they even tried to stop him? Surely they could have, if they had wanted to."
"Yeah. But I haven't noticed the War Party calming down at all."
"No." She sighed and stared at the sky.
"So . . . your Dad won one reelection. Do you think us modernists have a future, after that?"
He saw her quick grin in the starlight.
"Oh yes. The first election was just a fluke, but he won reelection by a huge margin, and now, surely, we'll start picking up people, picking up offices down at the lowest levels. Dad says that's absolutely critical. One man alone is powerless. Only by getting people into office, top to bottom will our policies have a chance to really change things."
"The last district election, back home, I think there were only two Modernists on the whole slate. But they both won. Now . . . I don't know if the whole mess with Nighthawk will help or hinder the party."
"Or just shift a few people, and then a few more. None of the parties are monoliths, however strongly the leaders try to keep their people in line."
"Yeah . . . well . . . "
At three in the morning, Ra'd found them still arguing politics.
"You two are going to be driving in four hours."
Ebsa shrugged and climbed down, Paer followed. Outside they paused outside the lab . . . then Ebsa turned away and headed for the bunkhouse crawler. The lab door clicked shut behind her.
"That was just pathetic." Ra'd's voice drifted down. "She was waiting for you to kiss her, and you know it."
"No I don't. She's . . . the highest of the One. I'm a provincial nobody."
"Next time, kiss her anyway."
Easy for you to say, Mr. 215 Withione with a priest gene.
"I heard that."
And I need to work on my shields.
The next day was a long slow slog across the plains. "Flat" from a distant perspective did not translate into a lack of holes, rock outcrops, nor tough vegetation. After driving for four hours, Ebsa gladly turned the controls of the bunkhouse over to Dan. And dropped his bunk to snooze while they drove on.
Ra'd booted him out when they stopped for the night. "There's some undersized Archosaurs that could pass for dinocef cousins. Got your recipes and fresh, authentic ingredients handy?"
Ebsa groaned and looked out the window. Twilight. "No. Remember? There was no time to shop. Go eat fabbed nasty stuff." He paused to finish waking up. "Have you killed something already?"
Snort. "No. But it can be arranged."
"Maybe once we're at the site . . . We are? And no speeding tickets?"
Paer stuck her head in the door. "I heard that. Now come and help get rid of all these bugs."
They circled up and put out the usual deflector spells. Ra'd's glow was bumpy, disturbed.
Ebsa raised an eyebrow.
"The students were being asses. All afternoon. Hard to believe they're all three or four years older than us." Ra'd hunched his shoulders. "I wanted to yell and scream and smash their faces."
Ajha looked around. "The student records they finally got to me said they wanted you in the Action Teams, and you were picking up demerits right and left."
"Yes. Joining with them makes me worse. I will not become one of those dishonorable thugs. They refuse to accept that, even after last year."
Ajha snorted. "Especially after last year. One dead accidentally, two arrested for lying about it. Then those two plus two other students and four older Action Teamers as well. . . well, hard to say exactly what happened to them, but they're suddenly a bit short of thugs."
Ebsa eyed him. "They're very tight with information about what happened to Ape and B
lob. You know, don't you? How did you find out?"
"They hauled me in to ask me if I knew anything about . . . umm . . . I spent five years on Comet Fall with an info team. I've seen what happened to the raiders before, but I haven't a clue what to do about it. It doesn't look like a dimensional effect." He smiled a bit. "Let's just say they look like bronze statues and don't ever mention it, or I'll be the one in trouble."
Ra'd snickered. "It probably is though. Dimensional. The inside of a bag of the prophets is bronze. And apparently they can make them."
Dan gawped at him. "How do you know what they look like inside?"
"I was born in Makkah. They still have about half of the bags there. They get studied a lot. You go inside one with a light, it's bronze."
Unfortunately Ufly caught some of that, and looked over his shoulder, as he laughed. "Did you hear that! He was born in Makkah, so he knows all about the Bags of the Prophets."
Crap. Do not pick a fight with Ra'd, you idiot. Ebsa stalked over to the group. "People are born there. Clan Makkah may be the smallest, but it is not the least. And . . ."
Whti stood up and glared down at him. "And why the hell should I listen to a upcomer. You may qualify as a Clostuone, but your mother's a Halfer cook. A powerless servant."
And here I was trying to defuse any taunting of Ra'd . . . Ebsa grabbed his temper and shoved it away. "Actually Mom's a very well paid professional chef."
Paer was glaring daggers Whti's direction.
And Whti was starting to glow, letting down his shields and projecting for all he was worth.
"Oh, not a glow down. That is so sophomoric." Ebsa shook his head. I haven't had to do this for years.
Whti just grinned and glowed.
Ebsa concentrated on the mental shields he'd spent so much time building up until they were second nature, and lowered them. All the way, outer and inner. Faced Whti and glowed. "These Oner labels are so biased. Even the straight numbers are misleading. Now a good analysis of the individual genes and which ones are the truly effective magic genes, not just cosmetic improvements, would be so useful . . . oh, done already?"