Part 2 (2/2)
Kelly just hoped that she hadn't forgotten too much in her years away. But Calypso would take care of her: she usually did. And there was just time left to get down to the a.s.sembly Hall.
Vaulting into the saddle, Kelly kneed Calypso forward, toward the fields leading to the village common. After living on Earth for a time, it was hard to readjust to so few people per square kilometer.
By law, there could be only as many Humans as Hrrubans. After the Decision came into effect, more Humans had had to be imported to equal Hrrubans, and four more villages' worth of Terran colonists-out of the millions applyinghad come to DoonaiRrala. Even so, the combined population made little impression on a planet whose diameter was three thousand kilometers greater than that of Earth.
Kelly was proud that her mother an6 father were two of the original colonists. Over the quarter century since that historic Treaty, Admiral Sumitral of Alreldep had continued to negotiate with Hrrestan, Hrriss's father and chief of the Hrruban village elders, to make room for more Humans who wanted to leave overcrowded Earth and more Hrrubans with a similar desire. The talks had been successful, and the population of Doona had increased a thousandfold. Men and women who had lived in cramped, crackerbox-sized apartments on Earth had built homes and ranches in the fertile river valleys and settled down with room to stretch out.
No limit had actually been set on how much land each settler could claim, so long as waste, pollution, and senseless destruction of resources were avoided. As well as the native urfa, Vic Solinari, who had come to Doona as the storemaster, had elected to raise sheep and goats, his share of the precious breeding stocks sent from Earth. To keep the gra.s.slands healthy, he rotated their pasturage every season to another part of their land. Typically Doonan, he also had a stable of horses, Kelly's favorite animal as well as cats and dogs.
It had been four years since Kelly had seen a living animal except Humans and Hrringa, the lonely Hrruban minding the transmitter grid in Alreldep block. Elated and exhilarated, she screeched greetings to a flock of goats milling around in a pen, and sighed with happiness as a cl.u.s.ter of young colts galloped in play across a fenced meadow not far from the house. It was wonderful to be home. Kelly legged Calypso into a canter down the hill toward town, revelling in the rhythmic gait and the joy of being back in the saddle again.
CHAPTER 1.
DR. BEN ADJEl HADESMAThD ThE DAY this year-and he hadn't been wrong in twenty years-when the great reptiles would migrate from the salt marshes to the low-lying desert fifty kilometers inland to lay their eggs. Only offworlders bet against him, the local population shrewdly inciting them to do so.
A Sighter had landed her small copter behind the Reeve ranch house early in the morning to alert Todd that the egg-heavy female snakes were arriving in the desert and beginning to burrow into the dunes.
Immediately, Todd called a meeting of leaders of the Hunt at the colony a.s.sembly Hall.
They had gathered from all over Doona and had been staying in or around First Village for the last few days, in case Ben Adjei's estimate was off a bit.
For the past fifteen years, Todd and Hrriss had been in the first line of Hunters. Their rapport was instinctive: they seemed to read each other's mind.
They never took unnecessary chances or risked lives, theirs or others. Their impressive tally of kills and captures of the dangerous reptiloids had reached legendary totals. As they grew to an age when their parents would permit it, they came to lead the Hunt and had done so now for ten years.
”You could see them in the underbrush, swarming toward the sands,' Lois Unterberger informed the leaders who had congregated at the Reeve residence, the usual Hunt headquarters. Excitement made her brown eyes wide, showing white all around the irises. Her dark hair was intricately braided and pinned tightly to her scalp. ”Hundreds of them, like a river, pouring onto the dunes and disappearing into burrows. I followed the leading edge all the way from the salt marshes. Hrrel is still in his copter over the dunes, watching until I get back.”
”This is it,' Todd said excitedly. ”Lois, you fly back and keep an eye on the snakes. We've got to know the minute they start to leave. Dar,' he instructed another Sighter, ”go and check the snake blinds along the way to make sure everyone knows the snakes are coming and to stay inside. Take two of the Lures with you, and drop them at the vulnerable points we discussed.”
”Gotcha! I'm away,' Dar Kendrath said, das.h.i.+ng for his small craft.
”And keep in touch!” Todd called after him. ”We need to know the moment the snakes start to move out!” Dar threw him a salute from the seat of his copter as the vehicle took off.
”We're ready,' announced Lou Stapley, who was in charge of the Beaters, who helped to keep the snakes in train by thras.h.i.+ng the undergrowth with flails or beating drums and cymbals.
Wranglers, very experienced riders, were in charge of each horse platoon. Their main concern was spotting the nervous rider who could panic his mount. Or a horse who suddenly decided he had had quite enough snake hunting in his lifetime.
Hrrula, one of the Reeves' oldest friends, was both the leader of Team Two and a Wrangler.
”Everrryone is prrrepared,' he a.s.sured them.
”Great,' Todd said, checking them off on his list.
All the preparations were falling together nicely.
”We've got the pa.s.s blocked toward the Launch Center,' Jesse Dautrish said, scratching his jaw.
”Let's hope it looks impa.s.sable to snake eyes. But it won't take long to clear it after the Hunt's over.
The bridges have thorn barricades as well as mines, just in case the snakes try to cross the easy way.” Though the snakes could swim, the banks of the rivers upstream were too sheer and deep for them to get a belly-hold. ”I need another shower,' he added, scratching his waist. ”d.a.m.n dust settles in every pore.” Jesse's a.s.sistant, Hrrol, brushed at her short, tan fur, sending up clouds of dust. ”All the charges are laid near rnsidences and rranchess,' she said.
”Here's your copy back, Hrriss.”
”Well done,' Hrriss told the attractive Hrrol, and pa.s.sed the list to Todd.
”Okay, okay,' Todd said, calling the Hunters to order. ”Let's go.
Spread the word, we gather the Hunt at noon, and we'll ride out as soon as we get the word from the Sighters. Robin, see you at the feast later.”
”Right, Todd!” called Todd's youngest brother, running for his horse. ”Good hunting!” Todd and Hrriss saddled their mounts and rode to the a.s.sembly Hall to wait for the rest of Team One. Horses were still the primary form of individual transportation on the colony world. Doonanbred horses were one of the colony's most important a.s.sets and trade goods, especially on Hrrubansettled worlds. Hrrubans were fascinated by the gentle quadrupeds, and were natural riders. The breeding of horses, rescuing the beloved animal from near extinction by careful genetic husbandry, was done on nearly every ranch on the planet, both Human and Hrruban. The Doonan style of saddle and bridle included gems and other valuable pieces easily obtained from the planet's generous storehouse of precious minerals.
The style, which echoed the formal wear of the Hrrubans themselves, seemed unbelievably ostentatious to denizens of Earth, to whom a single one of these gems represented additional comforts not yet purchased. When gems could be picked up in riverbeds and rift bottoms and polished with little effort by the finder, it was difficult for young Doonans to take the awe and greed over such trinkets seriously.
Todd was proud of the way his gray gelding, Gypsy, looked in the new tack he'd made, aglitter with gilding and pretty stones, many of which had no commercial value, but some of which were worth enough alone to buy a change of status on Earth.
The colony folk had also rediscovered handcrafts. DoonaniRralan crafts were so well thought of that goods of that origin commanded a good price off-world: pottery; needlecraft; weaving; stone, metal, and wood sculpture; jewelry; and leatherwork. An object made of the porous rla wood could be dyed in rainbow colors before it was painted with rlba sap to seal and harden it to the consistency of stone without the weight. Todd's saddle frame was made of rla, giving him a st.u.r.dy seat that required no effort for his mount to carry.
He needed to travel light, because the Hunt was hours of hard riding.
Gypsy danced beneath him as other Hunters and their horses gathered around them on the common.
The gray gelding had caught some of the excitement Todd was feeling. The hard work of the last two weeks was about to pay off. He and Hrriss exchanged grins of relief.
”Do you know, for a while I was afraid no one else was coming when the shuttles were late arriving?”
”Not coming!” the Hrruban echoed, mocking disbelief lighting his eyes. ”Many spend the time between Hunts looking forward to the next one.” A slender horsewoman on an Appaloosa mare rode down the hill toward the square, standing in her stirrups and waving. Todd recognized the flame-bright hair on sight and vigorously waved back.
”Hey, Hrriss, Kelly made it back!”
”Good!” Hrriss said, raising his own long arm to return her salute. ”One more good backup rrriderr to keep order among the aliens.”
”Hey, gal, welcome home,' Todd shouted when she was near enough to hear him over the pounding of Calypso's galloping hooves. ”Mike said you were trying to make it in time for the Hunt. And you haven't changed at all!” She plumped back in the saddle, to signal the mare to halt, and eased her between Gypsy and Rrhee, Hrriss's mare. Now, grinning, she snapped her fingers, her expression mock-wistful. ”Gee, and I worked so hard to create a new image.”
”Don't bother,' Todd replied, grinning back.
”The one you got's not bad enough to put anyone off. Exactly.”
”Oh, you! Hrriss, how are you?” and she turned to the Hrruban. ”Heard you guys got drafted on that Hrrethan ”do.”
Todd and Hrriss exchanged quick glances. How had Kelly heard of that? But then, she was an AIreldep trainee.
”Verry well,' Hrriss answered, dropping his jaw.
”The speeches lasted many hours. If it were not for the plea.s.sure of having a functioning transportation grid, the people of Hrretha would most gladly have forgone the honor of having so many eminent speakers.
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