Part 6 (1/2)

But a new voice piped up from behind, causing them all to turn round sharply: ”I know, me!”

It was Tooe. She stood rather limply in the hatchway, her crest half-raised at a hopeful angle.

Dane sprang up and guided his apprentice to one of the padded seats. ”What do you know?” he asked.

”No more sleep for Tooe,” she said, looking around at them with her great yellow eyes. Ali noted that she had some of her brightness back. ”I call up comp, see tape. Kithin people!”

”What?” Mura looked perplexed.

Dane grinned suddenly. ”Of course-that's what they reminded me of. Kithin, one of the people in Tooe's klinti back on Exchange. Go on, Tooe.”

The apprentice looked back and forth at them, reminding Ali forcibly of a bird with new crumbs. ”I know Kithin talk, I talk them.”

”But you can't,” Ali said. ”They won't answer the corn-link.”

Tooe shook her head quickly. ”You do not hear. No, you hear, but you do not understand. Lossin says, Our camp is now your camp, our ore is now your ore. Kithin people live in habitats like Exchange, but not rich. Things scarce. things important. Honor important. Charter is ours, s.h.i.+p is ours, camp is now ours, comlink ours.”

”You mean, they've left their camp? Expecting us to take it over?” Dane asked.

Tooe gave her quick nod, then winced and rubbed at her neck with her thin, webbed fingers.

”By the Eleven h.e.l.ls of Treloar!” Mura exclaimed, slamming his hands down on the table. ”That's it! I've heard Van Ryke talk about them before. These Tath-that's what they call themselves-have been in habitats for generations, habitats made from welding old s.h.i.+ps together. They apparently don't have much in the way of personal property, but what is theirs is guarded fiercely, yet shared when there's need. All kinds of questions of honor bound up there, way beyond the legalities of Trade.”

”But we have to honor Trade Law,” Jasper pointed out.

Dane added wryly, ”Or the Patrol will be on our backs in a big way.”

”Let me get this straight,” Ali said. ”They'll sit out there in that hurricane because of a sense of honor?”

Tooe gave a tiny nod this time, and whistled one of her trills. ”They wait for us to tell them, come back to camp. Use camp, use things. Things ours now. Not theirs; we give things back, then they use. But owe us honor-obligation.”

It was Jasper who now gave a sober nod. ”Their culture probably depends a lot on trust,” he murmured. ”I expect they had little else when they began.”

Ali stared at the pallid little man, feeling his viewpoint skew round. It made him almost dizzy, as if the s.h.i.+p had been picked up and spun by a giant hand. Was Jasper talking about more than these unknown Tath-like maybe Venusian colonists?

Ali clamped his mouth shut, wondering how much Jasper had picked up of his thoughts. He did not show his irritation, but he resolved to himself that when Tau woke up from his sleep-s.h.i.+ft, the medic would find him in the lab, waiting.

”Hate to think of those people out in this weather without any protection,” Dane said with a glance at the blank screen.

”They'd weather it better than we would,” Frank said. ”I don't know too much about the Tath, but I do know that that fur protects them from the foulest weather.”

Dane grinned suddenly.

”Speak up,” All said, feeling almost giddy from the combination of Dane's and Jasper's relief, and his own. ”What's so funny? Seems to me we've had a dearth of jokes of late.”

”When Rip and I met them. There was a. distinctive smell. I just realized what it reminded me of.” His grin widened.

”And. ?” Frank prompted.

Dane laughed. ”Wet dog,” he said.

Chapter Seven.

The storm lashed at the Queen for two days. At the height of the gale the thunder was almost a continuous rumble through the hull, but that wasn't why those who customarily slept on the upper decks bunked down in the tiny pa.s.senger cabins lower in the s.h.i.+p. Rip Shannon said trying to sleep up in his cabin on the control deck made him realize for the first time what seasickness meant.

A portion of those two days Dane spent in helping Stotz run his simulations and then, based on extrapolations of the most likely outcomes, begin matching the tools and basic parts that would likely be necessary for rebuilding the mining-bots into refining machinery.

”We'll likely still need the ultrasonic crus.h.i.+ng equipment,” said Stotz, ”and certainly the catalytic separators, but the rest of these Geepees are probably going to be redundant.”

Tooe came down to help. She didn't lift anything, but her quick fingers were deft at wiring.

”We not move s.h.i.+p?” she asked when the work began. ”Very exposed place.”

Stotz gave his head a shake. ”We can't move the s.h.i.+p, but we can add extra guy cables. We'll shake and s.h.i.+mmy, but we'll be stable enough.”

”When we do unload the Geepees, we'd better clear off the boulders upwind of us,” Kamil drawled. He was also there to help. ”There's a reason there aren't any hills here. I don't like to think of a two-ton rock smas.h.i.+ng into the Queen just when I'm settling down to get my beauty sleep.”

Tooe grinned at the term ”beauty sleep” but she didn't speak. Seeing her smile made Dane smile too. He still hadn't quite figured out her sense of humor. Seemingly random things would suddenly send her into hoots and trills of laughter; and though she seemed quite happy to explain if she was asked, somehow it seemed inappropriate to continually ask someone to explain what she thought funny. He didn't want to imply there was something wrong with her humor.

Stotz just lifted an eyebrow slightly, but went right on with his work. He and Tau had contrived a daunting number of instruments to be placed out for measuring everything from temperature fluctuations to the water and mineral content of wind, rain, and whatever else the weather threw their way. On the first calm night, the scientific arm of the crew would be out planting these things all over, as well as adding the extra guy cables to stablize the s.h.i.+p. Dane knew that he and Rip were scheduled to attempt contact once again with Lossin and the others.

Two days pa.s.sed. Though there was no change in the weather, Dane was glad to find that each day made a tremendous difference in how he felt. Unless he clambered up three flight decks at once, he didn't notice gravity much of the time anymore. The biggest problem was altering habits he'd slowly developed in microgravity.

Not that he had the problems that poor Tooe had. Tau had contrived an aeration device for her, and that enabled her to get nourishment. But twice, as Dane watched, she absently parked her drink in the air, expecting it to stay there, as she reached for something else-and both times before he could open his mouth to warn her it dropped painfully on her foot.

The first time, she stopped and crouched down, intently watching the liquid spread out in a spill, her crest spiking up at an alert angle.

Dane heard a slight noise and looked up, to see Ali trying halfheartedly to repress a laugh.

”Like water better in spheres,” Tooe said finally, looking up. She got the liquid scoop from its place in the tool rack and watched intently as it slurped up the mess and sent it to the re-cycler.

So everyone kept busy on various tasks.

The third day dawned with a pale, watery light filtering below a solid bank of white clouds. For the first time the visibility was relatively good, and he could see gray-blue ocean stretching out endlessly in all directions save the south. The giant trees seemed unharmed, their big, rubbery-looking green leaves s.h.i.+ny in the light. Dane suspected those leaves were tougher than plasweave.

During the course of the day Dane checked the port-screens a number of times, and saw fog banks hovering here and there. Were there Floaters in them? Probably. The cold thrill of evil so near made it impossible not to look for them. Yet there was nothing horrible in the sight. The fog even had a kind of alien, delicate beauty, the way it drifted in dreamy patches over the water, and round the great trees.

Night finally came, without another storm. The measuring instruments were ready, positioned for easy carrying in the outer hatchway lock. Everyone was now awake; they weren't even trying, as yet, to match their sleep cycles with the planetary diurnal rhythm. There was too much work to be done, and everyone seemed to feel like Dane did: mentally restless, but physically strained due to the long time spent away from gravity.

When night had fallen, Ali Kamil came out, carrying a box. ”Here's my contribution,” he said with one of his twisted smiles, and began handing out roundish objects to each person gathered in the mess cabin to discuss last-minute plans.

”Helmets,” Rip said with obvious pleasure. ”With lights attached.”

Ali shrugged. ”Got the idea from the Floaters, actually. These are probably useless against them, but the helmet idea itself seemed good. The lights will run for ten hours. There's an intensifier here”-he demonstrated a control-”but then the power packs will only run five hours max. However, you can carry extra power packs clipped to your belts; I didn't want to add more weight to the helmets.”

”Good thinking,” Mura said feelingly. ”What's here, a comlink?”