Dinosaurus Planet Survivors
- Автор: Маккефри Энн
- Серия: Dinosaur Planet #2
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Dinosaurus Planet Survivors». Краткое содержание книги:
“You’ll be unable to move for approximately fifty minutes. Doubtless your grandparents mentioned stunners? You and your companions will suffer no ill-effects from stunning. We will continue our mission. We prefer not to use weapons on other humanoids, but three to one are unfair odds. Nor are we trespassers, Aygar. Our cruiser heard the distress signal and responded. We are morally obliged to do so. No doubt your isolation is the reason for your failure to comprehend the common laws of the galaxy. I will be lenient in your instance and not report your aggressive reaction to my superiors. You cannot own a world which is still listed as unexplored in the Federated register. Possession may be considered primary in law, but you possess,” and she stressed the word with a slight pause, “very little of this jungle world no matter how many offspring were produced by the original party. But that’s not a matter for me to decide. I report fact as I observe it.”
The tendons in Aygar’s neck stood out in his attempt to break paralysis by sheer will power.
“You could do yourself injury, Aygar. Relax now and you’ll suffer no harm.”
Punctuating her advice, thunder cracked and lightning spewed blindingly out of the sky. The thin clouds which had begun to gather during the fracas had coalesced with a ferocity fitting the aerial display.
“There! Something to cool you down.” Rianav clipped her stunner to her belt. Gesturing Titrivell to follow, she strode to the sled.
“Are there many more like that?” Titrivell asked as he settled himself in the sled.
“That’s what I think we’d better find out.” Rianav motioned to Portegin to slide into the other front seat.
“Aygar gave me directions by foot. Whether they’re accurate or not, we can but follow and see. “Run at a good steady pace,” he told me, “to your right, through the first hills, turn right up the ravine, but mind the river snakes. Continue along the river course to the first falls, take the easiest route up the cliff, follow the line of limestone, until the valley widens.” We’ll know their settlement by the cultivated fields.” Rianav snorted derisively.
She guided the sled along the course she had taken on her first visit, then intersected the ravine where she had encountered Aygar. She continued along the ravine and soon came to a fast river, diverted from its old channel by the debris of a huge rockfall. They followed the river upstream for some distance to a beautiful curtain of wide falls roughly forty meters high.
“Useful, too,” Portegin said, pointing to port. “They’ve set up a water wheel and what looks like a generator station.”
He glanced at Rianav to see if she intended to investigate, but she was already angling the sled above the falls keeping one eye starboard for the well-marked path, so that Titrivell and Portegin saw the second, larger falls before she did.
“Have they a power source there, too?”
“Yes, Lieutenant, another one, larger,” Portegin reported, homing in on the site with the camera eye.
“And there are the cultivated fields,” Titrivell said as the sled rose above the falls. “And a discontinuity fold!”
“A what?” Rianav asked, keeping her eyes on the scene before her.
“Which would explain this raised valley.” Titrivell went on. “Old sea bed probably. Look at the size of it!”
“And the reason why they abandoned the butte site,” Rianav said. “This plateau is large enough to support the biggest colony ship they build. Can you see evidence of a grid?”
Rianav spiraled the sled, then set it to hover as the three took in the vast area. The foreground was clear despite the beginning of a misty rainfall. The river and the terraced fields that began at its banks disappeared into a haze. In the far distance orange red flashes at several different points suggested that volcanoes added smoke to the heat mists. Portside of the river was the inevitable lush and tangled jungle growth, slanting upward to crown the heights and edges of the broad valley.
“Lieutenant, look!” Titrivell directed Rianav’s attention to the settlement to starboard. “Clever of them to use that stranded beach formation.”
“The what?”
“And look, ma’am, if you can spot it in the haze, the rock… it’s ore bearing! No mistaking that color.” Titrivell whistled, his eyes wide with excitement. “Just look how that color continues. The whole ‘narding’ cliff’s packed with iron ore.”
“A second reason for switching camps, then,” she said in a dry tone, dampening the rising enthusiasm Titrivell was displaying.
“See, over there, chimneys!” Titrivell continued, undaunted. Rianav applied a half-turn. “A foundry, all right, and a big one. And blast it all, they’ve got rails… leading to… Lieutenant, would you-about thirty degrees and-”
“We’re looking for a grid, Titrivell!” she said but corrected the helm.
“We don’t need to look, Lieutenant,” replied Titrivell, “if those rails lead to a mine or…”
She gave the sled a bit for power and they glided along the edge of plateau wall. Abruptly the vegetation disappeared and a huge pit opened below them, glistening in the rain.
“Or an open cast mine like this one!”
“I didn’t know you were so knowledgeable about mining, Titrivell,”
Rianav said with a shaky laugh. She hadn’t expected such evidence of industry from Aygar’s barbaric appearance and primitive weaponry.
“You don’t need to know much to miss that sort of operation, ma’am,” Titrivell said. He looked now, beyond the pit, and Rianav, following his gaze, turned the sled away from the mining area, down toward the immense natural plateau.
“They sure didn’t have far to haul,” Portegin remarked at his post. “Nor far to go home, either. There’s a sizable settlement three degrees starboard, ma’am.”
“I’m far more interested in whether the grid is finished or not.” Rianav was also aware that she should render as full a report as possible to her commander and that included the number of inhabitants. She diverted the sled to fly over the buildings that shortly became a geometrical arrangement, at the center of which was an expedition dome: its plastic had been scarred by wind and abrasive sands, darkened by sun, but it was still usable and, apparently, the focal point of the settlement.
Despite the rain, people seemed to be pursuing their normal tasks. The unexpected overflight of the sled was seen and soon people were pointing at them.
“There is a grid, ma’am,” Portegin said, lifting his head from the camera scan. “I can’t think why else so much of the undergrowth would be cleared from half the plateau. There’s even a road leading to the area.”
Rianav swung the sled about. “I’d like a head count on this pass, Portegin, Titrivell.” She nosed the sled down and slowed its forward speed.
“I make about forty-nine,” Portegin said, “but the children keep moving about.”
“I count fifty. No, fifty-one. A woman just came out of the dome and she’s assisting someone, a man. That makes fifty-two.”
“The old man must be the one survivor of the original group,” Rianav said. She increased their speed and headed toward the road Portegin had mentioned.
No observer could miss the grid, despite the mud and windblown debris that covered its lattice design, for the soil was divided into squares as far as they could see in the rain.
“Got to give such people credit,” Portegin said. “Heavyworld stock or no, that’s quite a feat. Going from nothing to that in four decades.”
She went far enough across the plateau to confirm that the project was probably finished, then circled widely, heading back toward the settlement.
“Are we going to land?” Portegin asked as they approached. They could see that a crowd waited at the edge of the settlement. “The old man’s waving. He expects us to land.” Portegin seemed nervous.