Putting Up Roots

by Charles Sheffield

  She pointed a finger—not down, but up. Gage started to say, "Actually, I meant questions about the planet," but he trailed away on the final word. The lander was entering the atmosphere, and the trainees were beginning to feel weight again as air drag slowed the vehicle. Their ship was on the night side of the planet, where the only thing visible ought to have been stars and Solferino's single moon. But in front of and above the lander, accelerating steadily away from it, was the long plume of a ship's exhaust.

  "My goodness." Gage was leaning forward and frowning. "That is certainly not the Cerberus. And it is not a conventional lander."

  Gage continued—not to the trainees, or to himself, but to the lander's computer. "Tell the Cerberus that we have an unfamiliar ship in sight. I think it is not one of ours. Request a spectral analysis of the exhaust, plus anything else that they can tell us."

  There was a five-second pause, while wild thoughts ran riot through Josh's head. He had seen this often enough on the tube. A star system far from Earth. Approach to a new planet. An unfamiliar and unexpected ship. Aliens!

  Before he could go any farther, the computer's quiet voice was returning a message. "Identification is complete. The ship visible ahead of the lander is a Unimine M-class vessel, the Charles Lyell."

  "Unimine!" Gage snorted in disbelief or disapproval. "Their ships should not be anywhere near Solferino. Don't we have exclusive rights to development here?"

  There was a brief pause—time enough for a lengthy exchange of data between the lander's computer and that on the Cerberus.

  "That is correct," the computer said. "Foodlines has exclusive rights to the development of Solferino for twenty years, unless the company chooses to give them up. However, that does not prohibit the Unimine conglomerate access to the space around the planet, or prohibit travel anywhere within this stellar system. In fact, Unimine has exploration rights for Cauldron, one of the lesser and lifeless worlds of this system. The Charles Lyell is recorded as a prospecting ship, but it is capable of planetary landing."

  "Doesn't our franchise prohibit other landings on Solferino?"

  "It does."

  "Then what's their ship doing here?"

  "We do not know."

  "So ask them!" Bothwell Gage's voice rose to a squeak.

  "We did ask them." A computer could not sound apologetic or puzzled, but its choice of words was significant. "The Charles Lyell is under no obligation to answer our inquiries. Regrettably, it declined to do so. The most logical reason for its presence is that the Unimine ship is employing Solferino in a gravity-assisted swing-by maneuver on its way to the outer system and the planet Cauldron."

  "You think that's it?"

  "It is certainly possible. Unfortunately, our analysis assigns that assumption a probability of only one in ten."

  "So what are you suggesting that we do?" The G forces were affecting everyone on board, and Bothwell Gage's voice was increasingly distorted.

  The computer made a minor adjustment to the lander's angle of attack, and the deceleration forces lessened. "We have already taken the appropriate action," it replied. "The presence of a Unimine vessel close to Solferino has been assigned to the general file of unanswered questions."

  Josh was a newcomer to space, and he knew next to nothing about either Foodlines or Unimine operations, but even he could tell that the computer's answer was hardly one that Bothwell Gage found satisfactory.

  Chapter Six

  THE lander drifted in and came to rest in the middle of a cleared circle about two hundred yards across. The perimeter was surrounded by a seven-foot silver fence of flat posts. Five orange-yellow buildings with small round windows, like the viewing ports on the Cerberus, stood in a cluster well inside the fence.

  "Breathing masks on," Bothwell Gage said. And, when Josh and the others stared at him because he wore no mask himself, "I don't need one. I've been here before, and I'm long since acclimatized. The injections that you had when you left Earth take a few days before they're completely effective. You could probably breathe the air of Solferino right now with your modified lung alveoli, but I'd rather confirm that when we're inside a building and have medical equipment handy. Think yourselves lucky. It's full body suits on Merryman's Woe."

  He opened the door of the lander and led the way outside. Josh, a light mask in place over his nose and mouth, stepped gingerly onto a surface that felt and looked like a dense purple rug. It was plants, or perhaps all one plant, with springy two-inch stems that flattened under his weight and bounced back upright as soon as he lifted his foot.

  He stared around him, noting that the others were all doing the same. The air seemed unnaturally clear. Grisel, the star whose gravity field held Solferino, Cauldron, and the four other planets of the system in orbit, was high in the sky. It was bigger and redder than Sol. Josh had only seen Earth's sun dull and swollen like that at Burnt Willow Farm, when it was down on the horizon and close to setting. In the city he had never seen a sun like that. The high buildings blocked out sunsets.

  Thin fingers of purple and yellow vegetation reached up over the silver fence. Beyond them, far off in the distance, the ground ascended steadily to three rounded peaks. On top of those hills sat clusters of gigantic purple and yellow balloons, looking like markers for some colossal birthday celebration.

  "You'll have plenty of time to examine everything in the next few days," Gage said. Even the Lasker brothers were staring around in fascination. "Right now I want you all inside. I'm very surprised they haven't come out to meet us. I'll just say this about Solferino: This place is the most Earth-like world we know—except, of course, for Earth itself. But that doesn't tell you half the story."

  He began to walk the group toward the buildings at the edge of the clearing.

  "The fact is, Solferino is the most Earth-like extrasolar planet that humans have ever encountered, by every measure that you care to choose. Grisel is a little bigger and cooler than the Sun, but the temperature range over much of Solferino is something you can tolerate. Gravity is only slightly different from Earth, and the day just one hour longer. The planet has one big moon—a very significant fact in shaping the development of life, if the archaeo-biologists are to be believed.

  "Most other planets that humans have visited haven't developed life of any kind. They are of value only for mining and minerals. And if they do have life, it's single-celled organisms. This is the only place we know, other than Earth, where complex, multi-celled life has developed. With minor lung modifications to accommodate differences in oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor, you can breathe the air. This is also the only place where living things exist that we can clearly recognize as plants and animals. My next stop, for example, will be Merryman's Woe. On that planet, all we have found so far are cyanobacteria and things similar to slime molds—very valuable, maybe, but not remotely like multi-cellular plants and animals. But Solferino life is amazingly Earth-like. Many of the animals have internal skeletons and backbones, the same as we do. The plants have discovered the use of cellulose, which makes large organisms possible, like the ones over there." He pointed to the huge balloons on the distant hills. "Those really are plants, though you might not think so when you first see them. So when you walk around on Solferino, don't think about how different it is. Think how like Earth it is, and be amazed."

  "Well, isn't that truly, truly wondrous." That was Sig Lasker on Josh's left, speaking too softly for Bothwell Gage to hear and mimicking the instructor's high-pitched and nasal voice. "Hey, guy, you don't have to do a sales job on me. We wanted to come here—though I'm not sure we'd have been any worse off if we'd stayed in the Pool."

  Josh was inclined to agree. Listening to Uncle Ryan and Aunt Stacy, you'd think that Solferino must be some sort of heaven. The real thing was strange, and definitely scary. What about that tall, silvery fence? It surely hadn't been built to keep anything in. What was it keeping out?

  "Animals with internal skeletons and backbones," he said aloud.
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  Dawn was walking at his side. She didn't look at him, but she added, "Lions and tigers and bears."

  Everyone turned in unison to stare at the silver fence.

  "Not quite," Gage said. "The most advanced—or at least, the most intelligent—animal on Solferino, so far as we know, more resembles another of Earth's larger species, the panda. Solferino life forms need their own classification system, but in our terms the nearest thing would be the Procyonidae family—which includes pandas, and also our friend the raccoon, whom you all know well."

  The whole group, with the exception of Dawn and Bothwell Gage, exchanged looks that said, We've got a real bunghead here. Josh couldn't speak for the others, but he knew that he had never seen a raccoon. He wasn't sure they weren't extinct outside zoos and private collections. Who did Gage think he was dealing with? Rich kids who lived out in the country and took walks on closed game reserves?

  "They term that animal Procyon solferino pseudolotor," Gage continued, unaware of the trainees' reaction. "A bit of a mouthful, so it's more commonly called a 'rupert.' One reason for the fence, apart from holding back the taller vegetation, is to keep animals like the ruperts out. Some of them like to lie in the open, and they get in the way. They used to be flattened by the landers, because they wouldn't move. I suppose that smartness is relative. The rupert is reputed to be quite intelligent, but extremely shy. However, I'm not sure that I believe either of those statements. No Solferino animal has a great need for cunning and wariness, nor is there a logical reason for it to be shy. Maybe they mean that it is nocturnal, and only comes out at night. The larger native beasts are also, so far as we know, all vegetarians."

  So far as we know—there it was again. It was another way of saying, we don't know. Josh, walking along last in line, wondered. What did people actually know about Solferino?

  "And of course, there are some major differences that you might not notice unless you look for them." Gage waved his hand upward. "For example, no Solferino animal has ever mastered the air. You will seek in vain for birds, bats, and flying insects. Plants, however, are another matter."

  They had reached the buildings, which put an end to Gage's well-meaning tutorial and mystifying final remark. He had been striding ahead at an increasing speed that suggested uneasiness on his part. He hurried straight into the central building, and the trainees followed. They found themselves in three connected rooms, two dormitories with a combined kitchen and living area between them. As Josh closed the door—a broad flexible skirt on its edge provided a perfect air seal—he heard a mutter of equipment coming to life in the ceiling. A current of cooler air blew from wall vents.

  Bothwell was emerging from one of the dormitories. He shook his head in bewilderment.

  "Where can they be? There's not a sign of them. Stay here while I check the other buildings. But surely they would have come out when they heard the lander? You can take your masks off now, by the way. You are in a closed environment designed to match Earth's atmosphere in composition."

  "No sign of who?"

  It was the obvious question, but only Sapphire Karpov was bold enough to ask it.

  "The other people." Gage realized that was not enough explanation. "We weren't supposed to find this place deserted. Our arrival was expected. I am supposed to depart at once in the Cerberus for another node transition, and begin my work on Merryman's Woe. There should be Foodlines teachers and scientists waiting for you, as well as someone in charge of the kitchen and general maintenance."

  "You mean we won't be able to eat?" Rick Lasker made it clear where his worries lay.

  "Oh, certainly you will. There are ample supplies." Gage waved at a line of storage cabinets along the kitchen wall. "And the autochefs are good ones, they can handle most things you are likely to ask for. My worries are more general. A failure of organization like this is quite unusual."

  "Why don't you call Foodlines headquarters and ask them?" Amethyst said. "They must know. Or see what the other Foodlines groups here can tell you."

  That produced a strange expression on Bothwell Gage's face. "You don't seem to understand, my dear. We are twenty-seven light-years away from Foodlines headquarters. A radio signal would take that many years to travel there. The only way to get a message to headquarters in a reasonable time is by taking it back through the network nodes we used to come here. That would be hugely expensive, but it suggests another thought. If the others are already here and for some reason beyond the fence, messages may have been left in the camp's communications center. I must check."

  He headed for the door and pulled it open. As he went out he turned and added, "Stay here until I come back. Don't go anywhere."

  The door closed behind him and he was gone, leaving an awkward silence. The group stared at each other.

  "Don't go anywhere." Sapphire Karpov scowled. "Sure. Where we likely to go?"

  Rick Lasker said, "How long's he gonna be away? I'm starving."

  There was a murmur of agreement.

  "If those are standard autochef designs," said Sapphire, "we'll be all right."

  "You know how to program one?" Josh asked.

  "I do. And Topaz can make an autochef stand on its head."

  The group converged on the supply cabinets and began to raid them for food.

  "You know what?" Sig Lasker said. He had not joined the others, and he was standing alone in the middle of the kitchen.

  "Nothing you like here?" Hag had his arms full of bottles and food packets.

  "I'm not thinking about food. I'm still thinking of him." Sig jerked his thumb in the direction of the outside door.

  "What about him?" Amethyst asked.

  "Gage only answered half your question. He said he couldn't reach Foodlines headquarters easily. But he never said why he couldn't talk to other Foodlines groups here on Solferino, to see if they knew what had gone wrong."

  "What do you think that means?" Josh was wondering if he had read Sig wrongly. The biggest Lasker brother looked and sounded like a thug, but he might be a smart thug.

  "I think there are no other groups. This settlement is it. I don't know what you were told when you signed up, but everything turned pretty vague in our briefings when it came to the number of people already on Solferino. I got other ideas, too. I have to think." Sig headed for the longest of the tables and sat down. After a few moments the others drifted over to join him, all except Topaz Karpov and Rick Lasker, who were studying an autochef, and Dawn, who stood in a corner of the room staring at a blank wall.

  The group at the table exchanged speculative glances. Without Bothwell Gage to tell them what to do or how to organize their interactions, they were not sure how to behave. Tomorrow they might fight like their old selves, but the day's experiences had made them drop their guards for a while.

  "Other ideas, like what?" Sapphire Karpov asked after a few seconds.

  "Ideas, like weird." Sig stared down at his closed fists. "Let me ask you a question. Are your parents on their way to Solferino?"

  Amethyst laughed, but Sapphire shook her head. "He's not joking, Amy."

  She turned to Sig. "What you ask only sounds funny if you know my parents. They're a little, well, let's say strange. How many other people d'you know who named their kids after gemstones?"

  Hag grunted, in what might have been a suppressed laugh, but Sig shook his head at him.

  "So they're not here," he said, "and you don't think that they'll be coming?"

  "I'll bet on it. You'd never get them to Solferino as long as there's a bar or a casino open on Earth."

  "So how come you four are here? Never mind, that's none of my business." Sig turned to Josh. "How about you?" He jerked his head to include Dawn, still standing up, but he wasn't addressing the question to her. "Are your parents here on Solferino?"

  "We're not brother and sister." Josh cleared his throat. "She's my cousin."

  He knew that wasn't Sig's real question, and he went on, "My mother won't be coming. She's . . . busy,
back on Earth. But my aunt and uncle—Dawn's father and stepmother—they're supposed to come out in a few months, when they've tied up their other business."

  Supposed to. Except that Josh was suddenly sure that Aunt Stacy didn't want to. She wanted to stay and live in the farmhouse at Burnt Willow, even if Uncle Ryan wouldn't be working the farm himself any more. Josh didn't want to tell any of that to Sig and the others. And what he had said just might be true.

  Sig put his hands palm up on the table and shrugged his big shoulders. "All right. They're coming to join you. That blows my idea. Let's eat."

  Topaz Karpov and Rick Lasker had arrived at the table with loaded plates of food.

  "What was your idea?" asked Sapphire.

  "Nothing that matters. Forget it." Sig turned to Hag. "And you forget the other thing, too, all right."