Dinosaurus Planet Survivors

“You know something, Kai?” said Varian after a long companionable silence. “I can smell that wind.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, I don’t smell Ireta any longer. I smell other things, like rotting fish and decaying fruit and something else that smells worse than Ireta used to when we first landed.”

Kai inhaled tentatively. “You’re right!”

Neither of them was enthusiastic since the basic odor of Ireta was hydrotelluride. They had once had nose filters to neutralize the smell.

“I suppose,” Varian said resignedly, “that it’s better to get accustomed to the overriding stench of a place so you can smell other things, but somehow…”

“I know. Anything but hydrotelluride. On the positive side, Lunzie did say that one’s olfactory sense can be…” Kai hunted for the appropriate word.

“Reconditioned.” Absent mindedly Varian suggested a word but she was already bent forward, toward the cave opening, sniffing deeply. Then she turned, sniffed again toward the interior. “Part of the new stink comes from the Thek’s craft. What does it use for power?”

“My father told me that for short distances the Thek uses its own energy.”

“Short distances? Like intersystem travel?”

Kai chuckled. “All things are relative. Thek, so they tell us, are a form of granite with a nuclear core for energy. That’s how they make pseudopods. They keep a reservoir of liquid silicon which they move hydraulically to form extremities. Thek can move with extraordinary speed if they’re charged up. The astrophysics officer on the ARCT told me that he’d heard from a reliable source that Thek like to sit on radioactive granite-which we’ll probably find on Ireta if we ever get equipment again-Thek absorb energy that way.”

“Whatever they use, it leaves a stink in a class all by itself. Way above Iretan normal.” Varian grimaced expressively. “How do you know more about Thek than I do? I’m the xenobiologist. Come to think of it, we never do study the Thek, do we?”

“Wouldn’t do, would it?” Kai said with a laugh. “Considering their position in the Federated Sentient Planets.”

“Hmmm yes. Got us all properly awed and respectful, don’t they? With their long silences and infallibility.” She’d got to her feet, restlessly wandering about the Thek vehicle, carefully rapping the metallic base with her knuckles. “No one’s ever been able to analyze Thek metal, have they?”

“No.”

She turned abruptly from the cone-shaped ship and walked briskly to the vine screen. “Not all the stench comes from the Thek. Some of it’s from up there! It’s not only nauseating, it makes me feel… it unnerves me.”

“It’s inactivity that unnerves you, Varian.” Kai was comfortable enough on the cave floor.

“How long does it take a Thek to come to a conclusion?” She glared irritably at the space shuttle.

“Depends on the conclusion, I suppose. Varian…”

She had launched herself at him in a side assault which nearly caught him, but he managed to parry her attack. Laughing, she came at him again and he grappled her wrists. Neither managed to toss the other for their skill, despite lack of practice, was equal. They stopped feinting after a few more passes and worked into the series of isometric exercises that had always been part of Disciples’ physical fitness programs.

Both were sweaty as well as dusty when they had finished. They stood near the cave entrance for the fresher air that was breeze born.

“Nice to know that neither our reflexes nor our muscles suffered much deterioration from the cold sleep.” Kai wiped off his brow and face with his sleeve.

“You’ve only smeared the dirt, Kai. I’m hoping it means we’ve not been asleep very long.” She grabbed a vine and swung herself out into the lashing rain.

“And that only cleaned your face.”

“Well, it’s better than nothing. What I wouldn’t give for a real wash!” She looked at the vine in her hands. “Hey, we can! C’mon, Kai, we can climb to the top of the cliff and let the rains wash us clean. It’s coming down hard enough!”

“Wash in rain?” Kai was appalled. How could anyone get clean in rainwater? Especially Ireta’s rain, which smelled nearly as bad as its air.

“Yes, wash in rainwater. It’s not as antiseptic as those dust showers you use on the ARCT-10 but it’s a lot better than standing around in dead body cells and dust. Besides, one of us has got to get more fruit. I’m hungry again from all that physical exercise.”

Kai’s back was itching from sweat and there were grits under his shipsuit. “I am hungry.”

“Hungry enough to eat raw food?” She grinned. “I’ll convert you yet.”

“Necessity is doing that. We’d better make this a proper foraging trip,” he added. “You check out the vines.”

Kai opened the shuttle iris just wide enough to squeeze through, closing it promptly behind him so that only a puff of the sleep gas escaped. Tor was still immobile. Kai removed the knives from Dimenon’s and Portegin’s boots, unclipped a hammer from Portegin’s belt, riffled Lunzie’s supplies for antiseptic splashes and a couple of pain sprays, rolled up two of the thin thermal blankets to transport any fruit they found, and left without another glance at Tor.