Foraging party in trouble, Kai, Varian. Paskutti's voice, his thick slurred speech unhurried, came over the intercom. Aerial attack.
Kai depressed the two-way button on his wrist unit.
Assemble your group, Paskutti Varian and I are coming.
Aerial attack? asked Varian, as both moved quickly to the iris lock of the shuttlecraft. From what?
Is the party still airborne, Paskutti? asked Kai.
No, sir. I have co-ordinates. Shall I call in your teams?
No, they'd be too far out to be useful. To Varian he said, What can they have got into?
On this crazy planet? Who knows? Varian seemed to thrive on the various alarms Ireta produced, for which Kai was glad. On his second expedition, the co-leader had been such a confirmed pessimist that the morale of the entire party had deteriorated, causing needless disastrous incidents.
As usual, the first blast of Ireta's odourous atmosphere took Kai's breath away. He'd forgotten to slip back in the deodorizing plugs he'd removed while in the shuttle. The plugs helped but not when one was forced to breathe orally, as he was while running to join Paskutti's rapidly forming squad.
Though the heavy-worlders under Paskutti's direction had had farther to come, they were the first to arrive at the assembly point as Kai and Varian belted down the slope from the shuttle to the force-screen veil lock. Paskutti shoved belts, masks and stunners at the two leaders, unaware in this moment of urgency that the casual thrust of his heavy hand rocked the lighter framed people back on their heels.
Gaber, the cartographer who was emergency duty officer, came puffing down from his dome. As usual he'd forgotten to wear his force-screen belt though there was a standing order for those belts to be worn at all times. Kai'd tag Gaber for that when they got back.
What's the emergency? I'll never get those maps drawn with all these interruptions.
Forage party's in trouble. don't wander off! said Kai.
Oh never, Kai, never will I do anything so simplewitted, I assure you. I shan't move from the controls one centimetre, though how I'm ever to finish my work . . . Three days behind now and . . .
Gaber!
Yes, Kai. Yes, I understand. I really do. The man seated himself at the veil controls glancing so anxiously from Paskutti to Varian that Kai had to nod at him reassuringly. Paskutti's heavy face was expressionless as were his dark eyes but somehow the heavy-worlder's very silence could indicate disapproval or disgust more acutely than any word he might have growled out.
Paskutti, a man in his middle years, had been in ship's security for most of his five-year tour with EEC. He had volunteered for this assignment when the call had gone through the mother ship for secondaries to assist a xenob team. Heavy-worlders often took semi-skilled tours on other worlds or on the EEC ships as the pay was extremely good; two or three tours would mean that a semi-skilled individual could earn enough credit to live the rest of his or her life in relative comfort on one of the developing worlds. Heavy-worlders were preferred as secondaries, whatever their basic specialty might be, because of their muscular strength. It was said of them that they were the muscles of humanoid FSP, generally a comment made respectfully since the heavy-worlders were not just muscle men but numbered as many high ranking specialists as any other humanoid sub-group
There was, however, no question that their sheer physical presence, the powerful legs, the compact torso, massive shoulders, weather-darkened skin, provided a visual deterrent which prompted many sentient groups to hire them as security forces, whether merely for display or as actual aggressive units. Contributing to the false notion that heavy-worlders were ill-equipped with mental abilities was the unfortunate genetic problem that, while their muscle and bone structures had altered to bear the heavy gravities, their heads had not. At first glance they did look stupid. Away from the harsh gravity and climatic conditions which bred them, heavy-worlders also had to spend a good deal of their time in heavy-grav gyms to maintain their muscular strength and to enable them to make a satisfactory adjustment when they returned to their home worlds. Perversely enough, the heavy-worlders were intensely attached to their natal worlds and most of them, having made their credit balance high enough to retire in comfort, happily returned to the cruel conditions which had developed their sub-grouping.
Paskutti and Tardma had joined the expedition out of sheer boredom with their shipboard security duties. Berru and Bakkun as geologists had been Kai's own choices since it was always good to have a few heavy-worlders on any team for the advance of their physical attributes. Both he and Varian had been pleased when Tanegli, as botanist, and Divisti, as biologist, had answered the request for such specialists.
When they had made planetfall and Varian had seen the unexpectedly big type of animal life which populated Ireta she had blessed the happenstance that there were heavy-worlders on her team. Whatever emergency they were going to meet now was approached with much more confidence in such company.
Paskutti nodded at Gaber as the cartographer's hands twitched above the veil controls. Slowly the veil lifted while Varian, by Kai's side, shuffled with impatience. One couldn't fuss Gaber by reminding him that this was an emergency and speed was essential.
Paskutti ducked under the lifting veil, charging out, the squad at his heels, before Gaber had completed the opening. It was, as usual, raining a thin mist which had been deflected, except for the heavier drops, by the main screen along with the insects small enough to be fried by contact.
They could hear Gaber muttering anxiously under his breath about people never waiting for anything as Paskutti gave the closed fist upward gesture that meant sky-trailing. The rescuers activated their lift-belts and assumed the formation assigned them by Paskutti's original briefing on emergency procedures. Kai and Varian were in the protected positions of the flying V formation.
Aloft, Kai tuned his combutton to home-in on Tanegli's signal. Paskutti gestured westward, towards the swampy lowlands and indicated speed increase as his other hand adjusted his mask.
They flew at tree top level, Kai remembering to keep his eyes horizontal, on Paskutti's back. Oddly enough his tinge of agoraphobia bothered him less in the air, so long as he didn't look directly down at the fast-moving ground. He was cushioned by the air-stream of his passage, an almost tactile support at this speed. The monotonous floor of conifers and gymnosperms which dotted this part of the continent waved briefly at their passage. High, high above, Kai caught a glimpse of circling winged monsters. Varian hadn't had a chance yet to identify or telltale any of the aerial life forms: the creatures warily made themselves scarce when the explorers were abroad in lift belts or sleds.
They increased altitude to manoeuvre the first of the basaltic clines and then glided down the other side, skimming the endless primeval forest, its foliage in ever-varied patterns of blue-green, green and green-purple. They met the first of the thermal down-draughts and had to correct, buffeted by the air currents. Paskutti signalled descent as the best solution. For him it was, with his bulk of heavy-grav-trained muscles, flesh and bone but Kai and Varian had to keep compensating with their lift-belts' auxiliary thrust jets.
As the buzz of the homer intensified Kai began to berate himself. He ought not to have allowed any exploratory groups beyond a reasonable lift-belt radius of the compound. On the other hand, Tanegli was perfectly capable of combating most of the life forms so far seen here and the exuberant nature of the youngsters in his charge. So what aerial trouble could they have fallen into? And so quickly. Tanegli had left in the sled just prior to Kai's scheduled contact with the Theks. They could barely have made their destination before coming afoul of whatever it was. Tanegli would surely have mentioned any casualty. Then Kai wondered if the sled had been damaged. They'd only the one big unit, and the four two-man sleds for his seismic teams. The smaller sleds could, at a pinch, take four passengers, but no equipment.
The land dropped away again and they corrected their flight line. Far in the purple distance the first range of volcanoes could be seen on the edge of the inland sea; a lake that was doomed to be destroyed by the restless tectonic action of this very active world. That was the first area he'd had tested for its seismicity because he'd worried that perhaps their granite shelf might be too close to tectonic activity and turn mobile. But the first print-out of the cores had been reassuring. The lake would subside, probably giving way to small hills pushed up from beneath, clad with sediment and eventually folded under, for this was the near edge of the stable continental shelf on which the encampment had been placed.
The steamy, noxiously scented heat of the swamplands began to rise to meet them: cloying humidity intensified the basic hydro-telluride stench. The homer's buzz grew louder and became continuous.
Kai was not the only member of the party scanning ahead. Far-sighted Paskutti saw the sled first, in a grove of angiosperms, parked on a sizable hummock that jutted into the swamp, away from the firmer mass of the jungle. The great purple-barked, many-rooted branches of the immense trees, well-scarred by herbivorous assaults, were untenanted by avian life, and Kai was beginning to feel the anger of relief overcome concern.
Paskutti's arm gesture caught his attention and he followed the line of the heavy-worlder's sweep towards the swamp. Several tan objects were slowly being dragged under the water by the pointed snouts of the swamp-dwellers. A minor battle began as two long-necked denizens contended for the possession of one corpse. The victor claimed the spoils by the simple expedient of sitting on the body and sinking with it into the muddy waters.
Tardma, the heavy-worlder directly in front of Kai, pointed in the other direction, toward the firmer land, where a winged creature obviously recovering from a stun blast, was swaying upright.
Paskutti fired a warning triplet and then motioned the group to land on the inland side of the grove. They came to a running stop, the heavy-worlders automatically deploying towards the swamp since the likelihood of attack was from that quarter. Kai, Varian and Paskutti jogged towards the sled from behind which the foragers now emerged.
Tanegli stood waiting, his squat solid bulk a bastion around which the smaller members of the party ranged: the three youngsters, Kai was relieved to see, appeared to be all right, as did the zeno-botanist Divisti. Now Kai noticed the small pile of assorted brilliant yellow objects in the storage cage of the sled: more of similar shape and colour were strewn about the clear ground of the small grove.
"We called prematurely," said Tanegli by way of greeting." The swamp creatures proved curious allies." He replaced his stunner in his belt and dusted his thick hands as if dismissing the incident.
What was attacking you? Varian asked, staring about her.
These? asked Paskutti as he dragged a limp, furred and winged creature from behind the trunk of a thick tree.
Watch out! said Tanegli, reaching to his belt before he saw the stunner in Paskutti's. I set the gun on a light charge.
It's one of those gliders. See, no socket for the wing to fold," Varian said, ignoring the protests of the heavy-worlders as she moved the limp wings out and back.
Kai eyed the pointed beak of the creature with apprehension, suppressing an irrational desire to step back.
Carrion eater by the size and shape of that jaw, remarked Paskutti, peering with considerable interest.
Well and truly stunned, Varian said with a final twitch of arrangement to the wings. What was dead enough to attract it here?
That! Tanegli pointed to the edge of the clearing, to a mottled brown bundle, its belly swelling up out of the course vegetation.
And I rescued this! said Bonnard, stepping clear of his friends so that Kai and Varian saw the small replica of the dead animal in his arms. But it didn't bring the gliders. The were already here. It's very young. And its mother is dead now.
We found it over there, hiding in the roots of the tree? said Cleiti, loyally supporting her friend, Bonnard, against adult disapproval.
The sled must have alarmed the gliders, said Tanegli, taking up the story, driven them away from her. Once we had landed and started collecting the fruit, they returned. He shrugged his wide shoulders.
Varian was examining the shivering little creature, peering into its mouth, checking its feet. She gave a little laugh." Anomaly time again. Perissodactyl feet and herbivorous teeth. There's a good fellow. Nice to have something your own size, isn't it, Bonnard?"
Is it all right? It just shivers, Bannard's face was solemn with worry.
I'd shiver too if I got picked up by huge things that didn't smell right.
Then perisso . . . whatever it is, isn't dangerous?
Varian laughed and ruffled Bannard's short cropped hair." No, just a way of classifying it. Perissodactyl means uneven numbered toes. I want a look at its mother." Careful of the nearby sword plants with their deceptively decorative purple leaves, she made her way towards the dead creature. A long low whistle broke from her lips. "I suppose it's possible," she said in a sympathetic tone of voice. "Well, her leg's broken. That's what made her fair game to the scavengers."
A loud noise attracted everyone's attention; an ominous sucking sound. from the swamp a huge head and neck broke the slimy surface and wavered in their direction.
We could be considered fair game too, by such as that? said Kai. Let's get out of here.
Paskutti frowned at the great and evil looking head, fingering his stunner onto the strongest setting. That creature would require every charge we have to stop it.
We came for fruit . . . Divisti said, pointing to the litter in the clearing. They look viable, and fresh food would do us all good, she added with as wistful a tone as Kai had ever heard from a heavy-worlder.
I'd say we had a safety factor of about ten minutes before that swamp creature's brain can make the logical assumption that we're edible, said Tanegli, as unconcerned as ever by physical threat. He began to gather up the scattered thick-skinned fruits and toss them into the storage cage of the six-man sled.