Part 17 (2/2)
”Excellent landing,” said Steel-Slicer. ”How much energy do we have left in the acc.u.mulators?”
”Only a quarter of what Cliff-Web had planned,” Otis-Elevator replied. ”But it should be enough to keep s.h.i.+p operations powered for a dozen turns.”
”We will need to have a new power generator up and operating by then,” said Steel-Slicer. ”Call the senior engineering staff up to the control deck. I will want your senior officers there, too. Place four s.p.a.cers at the outer rail as lookouts. We are far from any city, but we did pa.s.s over someone on the way in.” The crew deck on Eagle was compact, so it was not long before the senior staff gathered.
”Now that we are on the crust, we s.p.a.cers are out of a job until you engineers get this gravity catapult reactivated and bring down a s.h.i.+p for us to fly,” said Steel-Sheer. ”With Cliff-Web gone, I am going to a.s.sume the responsibility for management of the engineering contingent. I want Captain Otis-Elevator to a.s.sume responsibility for the s.p.a.cer contingent. Unless one of the s.p.a.cers has a technical ability that the engineers can use, their job is support, security, and interaction with the Egg cheela. It is a long way from flying about in ultrasophisticated s.p.a.cecraft to preparing food and interacting with barbarians, but the sooner the engineers can rebuild technology in this Bright-Afflicted spot, the sooner we can be back into s.p.a.ce.”
”We are all in this together,” Otis-Elevator said. ”My s.p.a.cers will do anything that needs to be done.”
”It would help if we didn't have to use any energy for the food generators,” said Steel-Slicer. ”I noticed that we scattered a herd of animals as we landed. If you can form a food-gathering crew and find a few of those animals to feed us, your crew would not only help our energy crisis but be real heroes to a hungry group of engineers.”
”We will return shortly.” Otis-Elevator lead his senior officers off.
”Our first task will be to get power,” Steel-Slicer told the engineers. ”Who is in charge of the miniature power plant?”
”I am,” answered Engineer Power-Pack. ”My team is loading the parts on the elevator now.”
”I will go down with them,” said Steel-Slicer. ”What else will you need?”
”A ma.s.s separator and a monopole generator,” said Power-Pack. ”We will need hundreds of meters of high-strength pipe to reach the neutron-rich magma below the crust.”
”They will be ready when you need them,” Engineer Delta-Ma.s.s a.s.sured him. ”Guaranteed leakless.”
”I think managing a Web Construction Company project is going to be the easiest job I ever had,”
Steel-Slicer said. ”Let's ripple treads.”
”The elevator seems to be moving very slowly,” said Steel-Slicer. ”Is it because of the weight of the power plant parts?”
”No,” said Power-Pack. ”Cliff-Web programmed the elevator controls for maximum energy extraction rather than maxi- mum safe descent speed. As we offload Eagle, the elevator motors will recharge the energy acc.u.mulators. Cliff-Web always liked to find ways of lowering the cost of projects.”
”In this case, he may have saved our hides,” said Steel-Slicer. ”He certainly was a remarkable engineer.”
”Yes, he was,” Power-Pack agreed. The elevator deck remained silent for the rest of the ride down.
When they reached the crust, Power-Pack slid aside the low gate and moved back. Steel-Slicer paused, then glided off onto the crust of Egg.
”I have returned,” Admiral Steel-Slicer declared softly into the warm, yellow-white crust. He paused as the others flowed off the elevator to surround him on all sides, awed by their return to their homeland.
Then he spoke.
”Call me Admiral Steel-Slicer no longer,” he said. ”I used to be called Star-Glider, but from now on call me Crust-Crawler. For I am tired of s.p.a.ce, and I am tired of rejuvenations. I shall stay here until I flow.”
Letter-Reader was tending one of his remaining food Slinks, which had been acting sick. He pulled in his normal, dark red eyes and allowed only his three pink eyes to scan the creature. The ultra-red glow from one side of the food Slink indicated a problem. Thankful that his speckle-vision had saved another of the herd, he held it down, reached into one of its feeding pouches, and took out a number of small pebbles that the stupid creature had mistaken for ground nuts. Then he set the food Slink back to grazing.
Thereupon he heard the strangers far off in the distance. They were very noisy. Letter-Reader flattened himself down behind a crust-rock, pulled down his eye-stubs, and let his tread do the seeing. He was glad his hide had some speckles; that made him harder to see.
It was too early for the arrival of the dothbute takers from Bright Center. Besides, they rode Swifts, and even off their mounts they never would have made as much unnecessary noise as these cheela.
He listened carefully and could make out a few voices. The accent was clipped, and he didn't understand a lot of the words.
”Eagle really plowed a furrow in the crust when we came down,” Otis-Elevator said as they pushed single file through the disturbed crust dust raised by their pa.s.sage.
”I see something up ahead,” said Lieutenant Star-Counter. ”It has black stripes.”
”It must be one of the herd animals.” M.D. Len-McCoy looked at her scroll. ”I prepared a list of the types of animals and plants that were said to have survived the starquake.” She rolled quickly through the scroll and stopped. ”Here it is. It is a food Slink. The stripes go through to the meat inside. The dark meat has the taste of groundnuts, while the white meat has the flavor of singleberries.”
”My pouches are juicy already,” Star-Counter said. ”Let's capture it and take it back to base.”
”I don't think we'll have too much trouble,” said Otis-Elevator. ”It doesn't seem to be moving. But let's surround it anyway.”
Letter-Reader pushed one eye up. The strangers had found one of the food Slinks that had died when the flying star landed. They moved cautiously, as if they thought the food Slink were still alive. The animal was obviously dead, since there was no pulsing in the crust from the creature's fluid pumps. There must be something wrong with the treads of the strangers if they couldn't feel that.
Len-McCoy approached the motionless black and white striped food Slink, then finally saw the large wound on the topside where a falling piece of crust had struck it on the brain-knot.
”It's dead, Captain.”
”Good. Let's cut it up and haul it back to base.”
Len-McCoy removed her medical bag from her carrying pouch, and soon a surgeon's scalpel was serving as a butcher's slicer.
”I wonder what food the Slinks eat?” Star-Counter pouched a large chunk of food Slink. ”I don't see much except those p.r.i.c.kly-looking shrubs.” His manipulator was dripping juice and he stuck it in an eating pouch to suck it clean. ”Mmmm. Delicious! Tastes like groundnuts.”
”That plant is a groundnut shrub,” Len-McCoy told him. ”These food Slinks have been bred to dig up the crust near these plants and feed on the nuts.”
”We ought to take some of them home, too,” said Otis-Elevator. ”While the doctor is cutting up the meat, the rest of you can be digging for groundnuts. They will make a good dressing when mixed with white meal-mush from the food generators.”
”Anything would be better than plain meal-mush,” said a s.p.a.cer as he started to dig.
Letter-Reader finally felt that he had to do something. After all, it was his job to protect the herd for the clan, and it looked as if the strangers from the flying star were going to take the Slink away and eat it. A lot of hungry younglings back in the clan camp could use that food. He finally unflattened himself and moved to the top of the rise that had kept him hidden. He didn't try to keep his movements silent, but still the strangers didn't sense him. He readied his herder's pike and loosened a bag of tread-p.r.i.c.ks in one of his pouches in case they tried to chase after him.
”Greetings, great strangers,” he said, announcing himself. They didn't hear him.
”GREETINGS,” he said, louder. One of them finally saw him.
”It's a native,” said Otis-Elevator. ”Gather back here and let's talk with him. This is probably his food Slink we're cutting up. How did he sneak up on us? Keep some eyes looking around. There may be others.”
”Greetings, great strangers,” Letter-Reader said. ”If you are from Bright Center you are early for your dothbute. I am sorry for the loss of the animal, but it was damaged by your new mount that moves with the stars.”
Otis-Elevator was relieved that he could understand most of what the youngling was saying. The tread accent was broad and drawling, and he didn't get some of the words. The phrase ”Bright Center” must refer to the central portion of Bright's Heaven, while ”mount” used a root word that implied that someone rode on something; although there were no machines to ride here. He didn't understand the word ”dothbute” at all.
”Greetings. I am Otis-Elevator,” said the captain. ”We are not from Bright Center. We are from the near stars. The ones that do not rotate.”
”I am Letter-Reader,” the youngling replied. ”I have read that there were cheela living on the near stars, but I never believed it until now. If you are not from Bright Center, then you cannot take the Zebu Slink.
The Taker from Bright Center will be angry with you for taking his dothbute.”
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