Part 3 (1/2)

Removing the quarters intact from the s.h.i.+p served two purposes: It gave the colonists comfortable shelter until larger and more luxurious homes could be built, and it opened up vast areas aboard theSpirit of America to be filled with cargo for the return trip to Earth.

An automated well driller had tapped into sweet, pure water at reasonable depths, and there was the little stream that came into the bay on the rocky, northern side in a spectacular little waterfall. These waters were also sweet and pure and could be used for drinking until the wells were drilled and plumbing hookups made. Electricity would come from the s.h.i.+p's fusion-generator plant. ”Look, sir,” Clay said, tapping Rodrick on the shoulder and pointing.

A large, self-propelled drilling rig was pulling away from the landing site and heading toward the rocky highlands inland to the east. ”Good,” Rodrick said. ”They're not wasting any time.” The colony needed oil first and foremost, not as fuel but as building blocks for the plastics to be used in permanent construction and the thousand and one other items that would be needed.

It was all going well. From the productivity of the last few hours, Rodrick felt confident that the colony would be settled before the end of the next day, and then they could all get down to business.

A small trail of dust at a distance of about one mile south of the bay caught Rodrick's attention. He focused the scout's long lenses and saw the sun gleaming off the admiral's white uniform. Gliding next to the admiral, on sets of tracks that had been self-mounted, was the six-foot, eight-inch TR5-A robot called Mopro, Grace's Mobile Overt Protection Robotic Operator.

”Rodrick to the admiral,” Rodrick said into the communicator.

”Admiral reporting, Captain. Over.”

”How does it look?”

The admiral and Mopro, who packed more firepower than a whole company of infantry, had requested permission to make a reconnaissance of the area immediately surrounding the landing site.

”Sir,” the admiral said. ”You have picked a location ideal for defense.”

Rodrick chuckled. Of course he'd picked a location ideal for defense. Rodrick was quite satisfied with his selection of a landing site. So far the only large life indications picked up by the scout's life sensors had been in the subtropical jungles of the twin southern continents of the western hemisphere. Here tall, ice-bound mountains cut off a peninsula from the continental mainland and would be a strong deterrent for anything coming from the east. There was ocean to the south, west, and north, with the great desert beyond the coastal mountains in the northwest.

”All is quiet,” the admiral said. ”We are just completing our circuit of the landing area.”

”What life forms have you seen?” Rodrick asked.

”Aside from those already noted, sir, no animal life,” the admiral said. ”However, we have observed several species of insects. I think that Dr. Kwait will be pleased. The insects seem to perform the function of pollination, just as bees and b.u.t.terflies do on Earth.”

”Keep up the good work, Admiral,” Rodrick said. ”Rodrick off.”

He pushed the scout upward. ”Well, Clay, it's time we took a look at our little Eden, isn't it?”

”I'd like that,” the boy answered.

The land chosen by Rodrick for the first settlement was an almost square, blunt protrusion from the planet's largest continent. North of the landing site, the north-south coastline faded away slightly toward the east. In the distance was a range of coastal mountains with the distinctive peaks of dormant volcanoes. Past the mountains the coast turned eastward, back toward the bulk of the continent. To thesouth the coastline ventured westward to end in a large, rocky cape at the southwest tip of the peninsula.

The southern coastline of the peninsula was low, with saline marshes extending inland in bays. Two major rivers emptied into the sea through the coastal marshes, one river having its source in a large lake about two hundred miles inland from the west coast on a line to the north of the landing area. The other came from the ma.s.sive inland mountains, which very effectively separated the peninsula from the continent proper, with peaks reaching to a height that made the Himalayas and the Andes lesser mountains.

The river that had its headwaters in the large inland lake meandered to within a few miles of the landing site before curving back to the south. Halfway to the lake, the river was joined by a smaller stream, which had impressed Jack Purdy with its fis.h.i.+ng possibilities. It came down from the coastal mountains.

Rodrick piloted theDinahmite to the northeast, following the river to the big lake. A brisk wind was blowing over the lake, and it was large enough to form four-foot waves.

”Quite a body of water,” Rodrick commented.

”It's beautiful,” Clay said. ”I was just thinking, Captain. Remember when Pat and Dinah were in theL'il Darlin , going down to, well, you know, to crash?”

”I remember, son,” Rodrick replied. He knew that Clay had been extremely fond of Pat Renfro and Dinah Purdy.

”Remember Pat said we should name a river or something after them?”

”So we will,” Rodrick said.

”I think Dinah would like to have that lake named after her,” Clay said.

”Well, it has a certain ring. Lake Dinah.”

”And maybe Pat would like those mountains named after him.”

”Pat's Mountains?” Rodrick asked. ”No. Doesn't scan. How about the Renfro Mountains? ”

”I like that.”

”And let's not forget d.i.c.k Stanton,” Rodrick said. ”Of course, we can't just go around naming things arbitrarily. We have a committee that will want to have a say in the decisions. But I'll see to it that our friends are remembered. Let's see. We've got a lake for Dinah, mountains for Pat. How about the bay by the landing site? Stanton Bay?”

”I'd vote for that,” Clay said.

Rodrick kicked theDinahmite upward and guided her at top speed to the east, then slowed the cruise over the rugged, ice-bound peaks of the tall mountains. To say that they were impressive was a definite understatement. Future generations of mountain climbers would have plenty of challenges.

A low flyover of the coastal marshes to the south spooked thousands of multicolored seabirds into flight.

At times their vivid rainbow colors made a solid palette of beauty below the scout s.h.i.+p. It seemed that nature had squandered all her color on the seabirds; to Rodrick's eye, it seemed that there was a wide range of color even in the same species. The rocky cape at the southwest corner of the square peninsula soared up at least five hundred feet from the sea that surrounded it on three sides, and fell off gently inland to the marshes.

TheDinahmite flew a random course as Rodrick headed her home. He made detours to look at individual land features such as the valley of the large western river, then made a right-angle turn westward over the rocky highlands. Clay was very interested in these highlands because he'd heard Stoner McRae talking about making his first expedition among them. Stoner was in charge of a group that would be responsible for locating deposits of useful minerals and metals for mining, and he was eager to get started. But, like all the other members of the expedition, he first had to get the colony settled off the s.h.i.+p.

It was rough country below. The area was arid-patches of sand studded with spa.r.s.e brownish-green growth alternated with ridges and canyons and b.u.t.tes of gray, sharp-angled rock. Even an all-terrain crawler would have to pick a way through the badlands. Clay was examining the ground closely in the starkly beautiful highlands when he thought he saw something with straight lines and sharp outlines. He caught just a glimpse of it, off to the south, and then the s.h.i.+p was past. He hesitated to speak, but he finally said, ”Captain, could you reverse course and take us just about two miles?”

”See something?”

”I don't know,” Clay said uncertainly.Dinahmite turned and went back at a slower speed. Clay saw only the jumble of rough, rocky country, a few stunted trees in dry washes. Rodrick made a couple more sweeps, but he wasn't flying a careful search grid using the s.h.i.+p's instruments.

”I guess it was nothing,” Clay said, but it nagged at him, that glimpse of sharp right angles and lines.

There are few straight lines in nature. He knew enough about navigation and the instruments aboard a scout to make a mental note of the approximate site of the area where he'd seensomething .

The temporary town was being a.s.sembled at the head of Stanton Bay. Rodrick was already thinking of the bay by that name. A grove of wide-spreading trees had been incorporated in the somewhat flexible town plan, and the gleaming, metallic housing modules from theSpirit of America were being placed among them even as the earth-movers cut streets and cleared undergrowth. A few of the quarters climbed the slope of the gra.s.sy knoll from which Clay had watched theSpirit land.

The view from the town site was magnificent. The land sloped gradually down to the sandy beaches of the bay, and rose to the north into the knoll. One could just see, in the far, far distance, the blue haze that was the huge line of inland mountains, the blue topped by a crown of the white snows. The heavily wooded coastal mountains to the north were much nearer, and to the south the land undulated toward the open plains.

The weather was perfect. Anyone who didn't have a definitely a.s.signed duty post aboard the s.h.i.+p was outside, working to position as many temporary dwellings as possible before nightfall. The training back on Earth at Desert Haven was paying off.

Communications Officer Jacqueline Garvey was in charge of laying temporary power lines so those colonists who would spend the night in their new quarters would have ligfcts. Paul Warden was helping to offload one of the huge building machines that would, once petroleum was available, begin to formulate and mold pre-formed plastic walls for building. The plastic would be made by a new process, developed on Earth within the five years prior to their departure. It was a ”smart” plastic, with the property of absorbing heat from cold air and radiating it uniformly to the inside of a building, or reflecting heat when the outside air was warm. Tiny power cables built into the plastic walls would allow residents to light theirhomes with glowing, color-adjustable, soft light.

Mandy Miller's Life Sciences section was the largest single group aboard s.h.i.+p. None of Mandy's staff had drawn work a.s.signments, but they were as busy as anyone, their work aimed at prevention of unpleasant surprises from this alien environment. Within hours after the landing, sample specimens were pouring into theSpirit 's labs. Marine biologists had found life forms in the sands of the beaches and in the surf and were engaged in netting operations from inflatable boats to sample the free-swimming marine life.

Entomologists were roaming the woodlands and gra.s.sy areas near the landing site, armed with nets and capture boxes. Twelve different varieties of soft-winged insects of vivid color had already been identified, and two species of pollinating insects much like bees were being dissected in the labs. The beelike insects had no stingers.

The arrival of a team of scientists hauling a cage on a crawler drew a crowd of curious people who were getting their first look at one of the carnivores that preyed on the silver-horned antelope. The cat-it could not be called anything else-was young, big footed, and wide eyed. It had the long, sharp teeth of the carnivore, but looked like a cross between a kitten and a teddy bear, and the women wanted to cuddle it, until it lifted its lips, gave a very businesslike growl, and shot a paw out to rake long claws against the wire of the cage.

Another team had taken one of the scavenger birds with a stun ray, and the bird, revived in a lab, perched itself unconcernedly in its cage and watched all movement with cold, reptilian eyes. Zoologists quickly but tentatively placed the scavenger bird low on the scale of evolution and compared it to the first flying reptiles on Earth. The reptilian characteristics of the scavenger sent teams in search of other reptiles, and before the day ended three very ugly and quite primitive lizards were aboard s.h.i.+p for examination. One lab was a squawking, fluttering area of noise as a dozen different seabirds in their vivid colors protested their captivity in a cage.