Part 44 (2/2)
The next day they were surly and clumsy, more of a distraction to the survey teams than a functioning part. There was physical evidence that the alcohol had stimulated a mating frenzy. Some of the males sported bruises, Tardma cradled one arm and Divisti walked in a measured way that suggested to Lunzie that she was covering a limp.
Lunzie spent hours over comparative chemical a.n.a.lysis and called the heavyworlders in one at a time that evening for physical examinations, trying to determine if their mutation was adversely affected by the native quickal. To be on the safe side, she added one more filter to the still. Nothing else which could be construed as harmful was left in the mixture. She took a taste of the new distillate and made a face. It was potent, but not potent enough to account for the heavyworlder behaviour.
Lunzie lay in bed late that night staring up at the top of the dome and listening to the bubbling of the still. If, she mused, aware that the quickal had loosened a few inhibitions, Gaber should be correct, I might be planted but I haven't lost anything. I've nothing left of my past except that hologram of Fiona in the bottom of my bag. I started my travels with that: it is proper for it to be with me now.
I wonder how Fiona is, on that remote colony of hers. What would she say if she could see me now, in an equally remote location, escaping yet another life-threatening situation, complete with fanged predators? Lunzie sighed. Why would Fiona care? She knew that when she had escaped from Ireta back to the ARCT-10 ARCT-10, she'd join Zebara's team, stop running away, and have an interesting life. No big nasty pervert has dumped nineteen people on a substandard planet just to dispose of one time-lagged ex-Jonah medic.
Which brought her right back to the underlying motivation. The planet pirates. They were to blame for everything that had happened to her since her first cold sleep. They had unsettled her life time and again: first by robbing her of her daughter, trying to kill her and making her live in fear of her life. Somehow, even if it meant turning down a place on Zebara's team, she was going to turn matters around, and start interfering with the pirates, instead of them messing up her life all the time. She'd managed to do a little along those lines already: she just had to improve her efficiency. She grinned to herself. That could be fun now that she had learned to be vigilant. The Ireta mission had a few more weeks to run.
With a sigh, she started the Discipline for putting herself to sleep. In the morning, she kept her mind busy with inventorying the supply dome. As she checked through, small discrepancies began to show up in a variety of items, including some she had had occasion to draw from only the day before. She turned over piles of dome covers, and restacked boxes, but there was no doubt about it. Force-belts, chargers, portable disk reader/writers were missing. Stock had also been moved around, partly to conceal withdrawals. Quickly, she went over the foodstuffs. None of the all-important protein stores were gone, but quant.i.ties of the mineral supplements had vanished as well as a lot of vegetable carbohydrates.
The missing items could be quite legitimate, with secondary camps being established for the geology teams. There was no reason they couldn't just help themselves. She would ask one of the leaders later on.
From the hatch of the dome, Lunzie saw Kai coming down the hill from the shuttle and met him at the veil lock. ”You look tired.”
”Thek contact,” Kai said, feigning total exhaustion. ”I wish Varian would do some of the contacts but she just hasn't the patience to talk to Theks.”
”Gaber likes talking with Theks.”
”Gaber wouldn't stick to the subject under discussion.”
”Such as the ancient cores?”
”Right.”
”What did they say?”
Kai shrugged. ”I asked my questions. Now they will consider them. Eventually I'll get answers.”
Varian joined them as they walked to the dome. ”What word from the Theks?”
”I expect a definite yes or no my next contact. But what in the raking h.e.l.ls could they tell me after all this time? Even Theks don't live as long as those cores have been buried.”
”Kai, I've been talking to Gaber.” Lunzie took the co-leaders aside. ”He's heard a rumour about planting. He swears he has kept his notion to himself, but if he has reached that conclusion on his own, you may a.s.sume that others have, too.”
”You're smarter than that,” Kai snapped. ”We haven't been planted.”
”You know how Gaber complains, Lunzie,” Varian added. ”It's more of his usual.”
”Then there's nothing wrong in the lack of messages from the ARCT-10 ARCT-10, is there?” Lunzie asked bluntly. ”There's really been no more news from our wandering s.h.i.+p in several weeks. The kids especially miss word from their parents.”
Kai and Varian exchanged worried glances. ”There's been nothing on the beacon since they closed with the storm.”
”That long?” Lunzie asked, taken aback. ”They couldn't have gotten that far out of range since we were dropped off. Had the Theks heard?”
”No, but that doesn't worry me. What does is that our messages haven't been stripped from the beacon since the first week. Look, Lunzie,” Kai said when she whistled at that news, ”morale will deteriorate if people learn that. It would give credence to that ridiculous notion that we've been planted. I give you my word that the ARCT ARCT means to come back for us. The Ryxi intend to stay on Arrutan-5 but the Theks don't want to remain on the seventh planet forever.” means to come back for us. The Ryxi intend to stay on Arrutan-5 but the Theks don't want to remain on the seventh planet forever.”
”And even though the Theks wouldn't care if they were left through the next geologic age,” Varian said firmly, ”this is not the place I intend to spend the rest of my life.”
”Nor I,” was Lunzie's fervent second.
”Oh, there can't be anything really wrong,” Varian went on blithely. ”Perhaps the raking storm bollixed up the big receivers or something equally frustrating. Or,” and now her eyes twinkled with pure mischief, ”maybe the Others got them.”
”Not on my first a.s.signment as a leader,” Kai said, making a valiant attempt to respond.
”By the way,” Lunzie began, ”since I've got the two of you at once, did you authorise some fairly hefty withdrawals from stores?”
”No,” Varian and Kai chorused. ”What's missing?” Kai asked.
”I did an inventory today and we're missing tools, mineral supplements, some light equipment, and a lot of oddments that were there yesterday.”
”I'll ask my teams,” Kai said and looked at Varian.
She was reviewing the problem. ”You know, there have been a few funny things happening with supplies. The power pack in my sled was run down and I recharged it only yesterday morning. I know I haven't used up twelve hours' worth of power already.”
”Well, I'll just inst.i.tute a job for the girls,” Lunzie said. ”They can do their studies at the stores dome and check supplies and equipment in and out. All part of their education in planetary management.”
”Nice thought,” Varian said, grinning.
Dimenon and his crew returned from their explorations with evidence of another notable strike. Gold nuggets glittering in a streambed had led them to a rich vein of ore. The heavy hunks were pa.s.sed from hand to hand that evening at another celebration. Morale lifted as Ireta once again proved to be a virgin source of mineral wealth.
A lot of the evening was spent in good-natured speculation as to the disposition of yet another hefty bonus. Lunzie dispensed copious draughts of fruit ale, keeping a careful eye on the heavyworlders although she was careful not to stint their portions.
In the morning, everyone seemed normal. In contrast to the drunken incompetence they had displayed the last time, the heavyworlders were in excellent spirits.
A different kind of emergency faced Lunzie as she emerged from her dome.
”I can't take it! I can't take it!” Dimenon cried, clutching first his head and then falling on his knees in front of her.
”What's the matter?” she demanded, alarmed by the distortion of his features. What on Earth sort of disease had he contracted? She fumbled for her bod bird.
”That won't help,” Kai said, shaking his head sadly.
”Why not?” she said, her hand closing on the bod bird.
”Nothing can cure him.”
”Tell me I'm not a goner, Lunzie, Tell me.” He waved his hands so wildly that she couldn't get the bod bird into position.
”He doesn't smell Ireta any more,” Kai said, still shaking his head but smiling wryly at his friend's histrionics.
”He what?” Lunzie stopped trying to scope Dimenon and then realised that she hadn't had time to put in her own nose filters. And she didn't smell Ireta either. ”Krims!” She closed her eyes and gave a long sigh. ”It has to come to this, huh?”
Dimenon wrapped his arms about her knees. ”Oh, Lunzie, I'm so sorry for both of us. Please, my smeller will come back, won't it? Once I'm back in real air again. Oh, don't tell me I'll never be able to smell nothing in the air again ...”
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