Dinosaurus Planet Survivors
- Автор: Маккефри Энн
- Серия: Dinosaur Planet #2
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Dinosaurus Planet Survivors». Краткое содержание книги:
CHAPTER FIVE
Varian came awake by degrees: the first one being her awareness of voices in low earnest conversation, either too far from her for the individual words to be audible or too soft to keep from rousing her. She thought to get up, but it proved difficult to assemble the energy. Could she have been in cold sleep again? No! She was resting, rather comfortably, on a bed of springy boughs, not the flat plasfloor of the space shuttle or the dust of the cave. She felt an occasional breeze waft across her face and exposed hands.
She didn’t feel so much tired as disinterested. Yet, in the back of her mind, a spark started with the observation: she had so much to tell Lunzie. Sneaky of her to knock Varian out like that.
She continued to listen and realized that two men were speaking. Then Kai was better! It was good to hear him. But he wouldn’t be well enough in three days’ time to join her against Aygar. They’d better wake Portegin and get the technician functioning. No way was she meeting Aygar, and whoever accompanied him, in three days time without strong support. And if she was this tired after a day’s use of Discipline, would she recover sufficiently in three to draw on that inner reserve again?
What was it about Aygar’s manner that bothered her? The expression in his eyes had been wary, speculative, evaluating, not at all the reaction she might have expected from a man making first contact with off-world visitors! That was it! He had been expecting someone. Not her. And not someone who could best him in personal combat.
Varian became conscious of a rich, nutty smell. Her stomach began to rumble and her mouth to salivate. She stirred restlessly, keenly aware that she was very hungry.
“I told you that the stew would get to her,” Lunzie said suddenly.
Varian opened her eyes.
Lunzie, Triv, and Kai made a semicircle on one side of the crude hearth, complete now with a spit and crane from which a pail hung.
Varian propped herself up on one elbow. “Whatever it is, I’m starving.”
“Lunzie mixed a bit of everything you brought in and it turned out very tasty indeed,” Triv said, filling a smoke hardened fruit shell with the mixture. He presented this to Varian and, with a flourish, added a rudely carved wooden spoon.
“The amenities of home have improved.” Varian made an appreciative chuckle. “How’s Kai?” she asked in a quieter tone. Although Kai was propped up, he was far too passive for her liking.
“We started to revive Portegin,” Triv said, squatting beside Varian so his body shielded her from those at the fire. “Kai’s still feverish. Says some kind of giant fringe attacked him. He’s not recovering as well as Lunzie would like,” he said in a quick whisper, then raised his voice to a normal level. “Kai thinks that once we have the matrix slabs from the other sleds, we can rig communications, probably patch most of what Paskutti smashed.”
“I was hoping that we could, Triv.” Varian tasted the stew then began to devour it as fast as she could. “This is delicious!” It was natural then for her to get up and join the two at the fire, and natural for her to pause by Kai before refilling her bowl. His color and the lassitude were alarming, and the smile he gave her was strained. “You look much better than when I last saw you.”
Kai gave a derisive snort. “I can’t have looked much worse than I feel now.”
“Why?” Varian went for a light touch. “Didn’t you like the purple moss Divisti grew just to cure your fever?”
Kai grimaced in such disgust that the others laughed.
“It makes a very effective antipyretic.” Lunzie broke off with a wry grin. “I wonder what Divisti’s reaction would be if she knew how much it was going to help us.” Then she turned to Varian, with no humor in her gaze. “You did say, last night, that we’d cold-slept forty-three years?”
“I’d have told the rest of my news if I hadn’t been so rudely interrupted,” she said with a sour glance at Lunzie who only grinned back.
“You did fall asleep at a crucial point,” the medic said. “Are any of the mutineers still alive?”
“Only one. Tanegli.”
“You met him?” Kai asked.
“No. I met a sturdy young man named Aygar. An accomplished young fellow who was busy killing a fang-face with a barbed metal spear.”
Kai made an expression of utter disgust. “Accomplished?”
“His strategy was good,” said Varian, seeing no point in going into needlessly distressing detail.
“Do you know if they’re in the secondary camp?”
“They abandoned that for a more suitable site.”
“Where was Divisti’s garden then?” Kai’s tone was querulous.
“I’ll start from the beginning-”
“When you’ve finished that second bowl,” Lunzie said firmly.
Varian ate with indecorous haste and pleasure, glad of the opportunity to organize her thoughts. Feeling revitalized as she scraped up the last of the tasty stew, she began her account of the previous day’s incidents with the unexpected escort of the giffs.
The listeners, and gradually Portegin became aware enough to listen, too, did not interrupt with questions, letting her narrative flow. Lunzie’s eyes had a malicious sparkle as Varian gave a very brief account of overpowering the young Aygar, adding that he’d just finished a rather exhausting race to out distance an enraged fang-face. Varian noticed that Kai frowned over that show of strength. Well, perhaps she should have restrained her actions there but she sincerely doubted she’d ever catch Aygar unawares again, or best him. All four listeners, commended her for posing as a representative of a new expedition in search of the first. The only hazard to that blatant lie would be a confrontation with Tangelli.
“But he’s reported to be frail and not expected to live much longer,” Varian said.
“Let us devoutly hope he is not included in the party you meet then.” Lunzie brought her brows together. “What I do not understand is why he, one of the oldest of the heavyworlders, has survived when the younger ones, like Bakkun and Berru, are dead.”
“How long would their heavy-gravity advantage last on a light world?” Triv asked.
“Unless they found some way to simulate heavy-gravity conditions and exercise under them-”
“Well, they would have had to man handle all the stone they build with up to the bluff,” Varian said, “and there were eight large buildings plus six or seven smaller ones, with slate for roofs.”
“That would have helped,” but Lunzie’s tone was hesitant with doubt.
“If they all indulged in ‘chase-the-fang-face-till-it-bled-to-death’,” Varian said with considerable acrimony in her voice, “they didn’t dare get fat.”
“Obviously, their descendants have no such problem, and inherited physiques capable of considerable muscular development,” Lunzie continued. “Since this Aygar depended on physical endurance to out run an enraged predator while it was bleeding to death, and then tried to take you on, Varian, the strength factor is still on their side. I think we’d better attend that meeting in force and in Discipline.
“Right, Kai?”
“I’ll be with you, Varian!”
Even as Varian nodded agreement, her eyes flicked to Lunzie’s and registered the denial the medic would not voice.
“We must have communications, though.” Varian glanced toward Portegin, who was looking more alert now.
“I’m sure I can rig something, especially if the sled units are operative. With that many matrices available, I might even fix what Paskutti smashed in the shuttle-at least for planetary use.”
“I wish we had some kind of long-distance defensive tool,” Varian said, scratching her ear. “There was something in Aygar’s manner that worries me, but I can’t figure what!”
“What sort of weapons did he carry?” asked Portegin.