Part 10 (2/2)
”Louis was in a hurry,” Wu said, and he went in.
Last night the gatherers' big bags had disgorged a great heap of cut gra.s.s some distance from the longhouse. Guards and the king giant had eaten most of the pile; the gatherers must have been eating as they worked. Now Louis watched as the king giant, loping toward the lander, stopped to finish the pile off.
Herbivores spent too much of their lives eating, Louis mused. How had the humanoids kept their intelligence? Chmeee was right-you didn't need intelligence to sneak up on a blade of gra.s.s. Maybe it took intelligence to avoid being eaten. Or ... it took considerable cunning to sneak up on a sunflower.
Louis felt himself being watched.
He turned. Nothing.
It would be embarra.s.sing at best if the king giant learned he'd been duped. Yet Louis was all alone on the flight deck, if you ignored the Hindmost's spy-eyes. Why this tingling at the back of his neck? He turned again, and who was he kidding? It was the droud. The black plastic case was staring at him from the stepping disc.
A touch of the wire would really make him feel like a G.o.d. It would really louse up his act, too! He remembered that Chmeee had seen him under the wire. ”Like a mindless marine plant ...” He turned away.
The king giant came without armor today. As he and Chmeee entered the rec room the kzin raised his hands to the ceiling, palms together, and intoned, ”Louis.” The giant imitated him.
”Find me one of the repulser plates,” Louis said without preamble. ”Set it out on the floor. Good. Now get some of the superconductor cloth. It's three doors down, the big locker. Good. Wrap the cloth around the repulser plate. Cover it completely, but leave a fold so you can reach the settings. Chmeee, how strong is that cloth?”
”A moment, Louis ... See, it cuts with a knife. I don't think I could rip it.”
”Good. Now get me twenty miles of the superconducting wire. Wrap one end around the repulser plate. Tie it well; use a lot of loops. Be lavish. Good enough. Now coil the rest of the wire so it won't tangle when you let it out. I need the other end. Chmeee, you do that. King of the Gra.s.s Eaters, I need the biggest rock you can carry. You know this territory. Find it and bring it.”
The king giant stared ... and dropped his eyes and went. Chmeee said, ”It sours my stomach to take your orders so meekly.”
”But you thought of it, and besides that, you're dying to find out what I'm planning. But-”
”I could make you tell.”
”I can make you a better offer than that. Come up here, please.”
Chmeee bounded up through the hatch. Louis asked, ”What do you see on the stepping disc?”
Chmeee picked up the droud.
Louis's voice was jagged in his throat. ”Break it.”
The kzin instantly stiff-armed the small instrument into a wall. It didn't dent. He pried at the casing, got it open, and jabbed at the inside with the hullmetal blade of the knife he'd been using. At last he said, ”It's beyond repair.”
”Good.”
”I will wait below.”
”No, I'll come with you. I want to check your work. And I want breakfast.” He was feeling twitchy. He wasn't sure how he felt. Rishathra hadn't quite lived up to his expectations, and the pure joy of the wire was over forever. But ... cheese fondue? Right. And freedom, and pride. In a couple of hours he was going to wipe out a sunflower invasion and shock tanj out of Chmeee. Louis Wu, ex-wirehead, whose brain hopefully had not turned to oatmeal after all.
The king giant came back hugging a boulder and moving very slowly. Chmeee started to take it from him, hesitated an instant as he saw its size, and finished the motion. He turned with it in his arms and, with strain just showing in his voice, said, ”What must I do with it, Louis?”
It was tempting. Oh, there are so many possibilities ... Give me a minute to think it over ... But G.o.ds don't dither, and he couldn't let Chmeee drop it with the giant watching.
”Set it on superconductor cloth and wrap it up. Tie it with superconductor wire. Take a lot of turns around the rock, and be lavish with the knots, too. Okay, now I want some stronger wire that'll stand up to heat.”
”We have Sinclair molecule chain.”
”Less than twenty miles of that. I want it shorter than the superconductor wire.” Louis was glad he'd made the inspection. He had overlooked the chance that the superconductor wire wouldn't be strong enough to hold the cloth-wrapped repulser plate, once the plate reached alt.i.tude. But Sinclair chain was fantastic stuff. It ought to hold.
Chapter 12 -.
Sunflowers Louis flew high and fast to spinward. The veldt showed too much brown: gra.s.s cropped first by green elephants and then by giants was having trouble growing back. Ahead, the white line of sunflowers glared across the sea.
The king giant watched through the transparent airlock doors. ”It may be I should have brought armor,” he said.
Chmeee snorted. ”To fight sunflowers? Metal grows hot.”
”Where,” Louis asked, ”did you get the armor?”
”We made a road for the Machine People. They made us free of the gra.s.slands the road was to go through, and afterward they made armor for the kings of the tribes. We kept moving. We didn't like their air.”
”What's wrong with it?”
”It tastes wrong and smells wrong, Louis. It smells like what they drink sometimes. They pour the same stuff in their machines, but without mixing it with anything.”
Chmeee asked, ”I wondered about the shape of your armor. It is not quite your own shape. I wondered why.”
”The shape is meant to awe and frighten. Did you not find it so?”
”No,” said Chmeee. ”Is it the shape of those who built the Ringworld?”
”Who knows?”
”I do,” Louis said. The giant's eyes flicked nervously upward.
The gra.s.s, grown tall again, abruptly gave way to forest. The sunflowers had grown bright. Louis dropped the lander to a hundred feet and slowed drastically.
The forest ended in a long white beach. Louis slowed further and eased the lander down, down, until he was almost skimming the water. The sunflowers lost interest.
He flew on toward the diminished glare. The sea was calm, rippled by a breeze from astern. The sky was blue and cloudless. Islands went by, small and medium-sized, with beaches and convoluted sh.o.r.es and peaks charred black. Two had been commandeered by sunflowers.
Fifty miles offsh.o.r.e, the sunflowers were taking an interest again. Louis brought the lander to a halt. ”They can't hope to use us for fertilizer,” he said. ”We're too far away and flying too low.”
”Brainless plants.” Chmeee coughed contempt.
The king giant said, ”They are clever. They start brush fires. When only ashen ground is left, the fire plants spread their seed.”
But they were over water! ... Skip it. ”King of the Gra.s.s Giants, this is your hour. Drop the rock overboard. Don't snag the wire.” Louis opened the airlock and lowered the ramp. The king giant went forth into the ominous glare. The boulder fell twenty feet into the water, trailing black and silver wires.
Spotlights seemed to wink at them from the far sh.o.r.e as cl.u.s.ters of the plants tried to burn the lander, then lost interest. They sought motion, but they wouldn't fire on running water, would they? On a waterfall, say? The plants did best on half-arid worlds ... ”Chmeee. Take the repulser plate outside. Set it for, oh, eighteen miles. See that the wires don't foul.”
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