Dinosaurus Planet Survivors
- Автор: Маккефри Энн
- Серия: Dinosaur Planet #2
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Dinosaurus Planet Survivors». Краткое содержание книги:
“You’ve probably got a lot to do, lassie,” Godheir said, hearing her sigh of exasperation. He took a bulbous object from his thigh pocket and a small pouch from another. “I’ll just blow a cloud of my own.” Varian recognized the artifact as a tobacco pipe. “Not that I could smell anything in this atmosphere. Nor will I be polluting it!” He chuckled as he settled himself on another stool. “Half the pleasure of smoking a pipe is the smell of the tobacco.”
“What’s the other half?”
“The pure relaxation of fussing with a pipe.”
Varian watched the process for a moment. “It looks complicated.”
Then she thanked him once again for all his courtesies. “Would you give me a shout when the rain stops, Captain?”
“My pleasure!”
It could have been imagination, but Varian did think, as she returned to the shuttle, that she could smell the aroma which rose from the captain’s pipe.
As Varian organized her recollections of the events leading up to the mutiny, she envied Cleiti her innocence of the “week before last”. Varian made copious notes, additions, and changes until she was sure she had events in order. She made no comments, such as her initial suspicions about the heavyworlders’ unsavory activities of that fateful rest day, for the mutiny was an undeniable fact, emphatically substantiated by the time gap between the two groups. She listened carefully to the replay of her report, aware that she could not erase now. She added a few brief explanations to her remarks. Then she strode to the shuttle iris and looked out toward the cave entrance.
Cleiti, Godheir, and Obir were seated in a companionable group about the fire, the captain’s pipe still sending gray blue plumes of smoke to waft about in vagrant puffs of wind. No question of it, Varian thought. She could smell the tobacco above the usual pungency’s. When she saw Varian, Cleiti brought over her cassette.
“Captain Godheir seems to know all about the mutiny, Varian,” she said in a low voice, her eyes round with surprise. “Is it all right to talk about what happened? Or are details classified?”
“You can talk about it all you want, Cleiti,” Varian replied, hoping discussion might restore the unnaturally subdued child to her former ebullience. Damn Paskutti and Tardma for the shock they had given the child: a shock undiminished in Cleiti’s memories of the “week before last.”
“Captain Godheir said he’s never talked with a person who’d been mutinied before.”
“It’s not something that happens frequently, Cleiti. He’s had our official report, but I think he might be interested in your reactions. But don’t talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Cleiti considered pensively. Then, with a slightly less strained smile, added, “Yes, I think I’d like to tell the Captain and Obir. They both listen so politely. They say,” and the smile betrayed a touch of Cleiti’s old impishness, “that it’s because I’m older than they are.” She rejoined the men at the fire.
Varian was still muttering imprecations against the heavyworlders when Lunzie appeared with her record cassette.
“Isn’t Cleiti abnormally quiet, Lunzie?”
“All elements considered, not too much so. Part of it’s due to the restoration, and part to delayed reaction. That’s why I want to keep everyone as busy as possible. Gives ’em less time to worry and think.”
“Aulia?”
Lunzie snorted with derision. “Oh, she’s busy, too. Feeling sorry for herself. She can make that into a full-time occupation. I expect Portegin will change her mind-if he ever surfaces from the shuttle’s control panel. Varian, do you think you could get a specimen of the fringes from the giffs’ eating rock?”
“D’you mean, would I oblige you or would I be able to? Because the giffs like me and someone else tried and failed?”
Lunzie twitched her nose.
“Well, he might have succeeded if he’d waited until the catch had been distributed. But they do know you. An analysis of fringe toxins would be invaluable in healing Kai’s condition.”
“I’ll have to wait until this squall blows over.”
“I was thinking that the squall would keep the giffs in their caves and this would be the safest time to collect fringe. Take the stairs to the surface.”
“Stairs?” Varian stared in surprise.
“I told you Godheir was making us very comfortable,” Lunzie pointed to the right side of the cave. “It’s only a cage pole with foot rests but you can’t get blown out of it and it gets you right to the top. Rather an improvement on swinging down vines, isn’t it?” she added as she followed Varian to the new access way. “Godheir’s drive mechanic, a man named Kenley, does amateur photography and bird-watching. He’s also got a long-handled gripper, protective gloves, and a container for fringe samples. Topside!” Lunzie gestured with her thumb and grinned at Varian. “You are our resident expert on giffology.”
“Never give a sucker an even break, huh?”
“Never. You need to be kept busy, too. And active.”
“I’m just fine when I’m allowed to do what I came here for.” Varian gave Lunzie a grin and then nimbly climbed the ladder, grateful for the cage as the wind still had some strength in it.
Kenley was waiting for her on the cliff top, lounging against his sled. He was parked not too far from the spot where Varian had first rested her sled that long-ago rest day. Kenley’s force screen blocked most of the light rain and all the reemerging insects. He was slender, dark-skinned, dark-haired, and brown-eyed, with even, undistinguished features and a placid disposition. She shortly discovered in him a staunch advocate of the golden fliers.
“Were you the bold one who tried for the fringes the first time?” she asked, as she took the sample-collecting tools from him.
“Yep. Forgot the first rule of animal psychology. Never bother one that’s eating. Fortunately I had my life belt and I pelted for the cave mighty fast. They were most annoyed with me.”
Varian grinned and she noted that he had his belt on, his recording equipment was slung from a second belt. They had reached a spot just below the feeding rocks.
“You don’t have to follow me but I’d appreciate it if you could record any giffs who drop by to investigate.”
Kenley nodded as Varian arrayed the implements so as not to impede her climbing “I’m going to ascend as far to the right of the feeding rock as I can, away from any edible food. The fringes get flipped to the far edge or into the chasm.”
Both Varian and Kenley looked toward the giff cave, visible now that the rain had let up. There wasn’t a giff in sight. Varian began to climb quickly, Kenley just behind her.
“Krims! Here they come!” Kenley warned her and she heard the whir of his recorder. “They got some perception. What do they use? Sonar? Radar? What?”
“I hope to find out. You’re getting all that?” Varian said, keeping her eyes on the giffs winging through the drizzle.
They landed on the sea edge of the leading rock just as Varian reached the top. Several fringe carcasses, dried to brittle outlines, were inches from her boot. A meter away, two more feebly wavered. One was closed over, the other open.
“Hello!” Varian said in her most cheerful tone, holding her hands out to the giffs as she edged closer to her target. “I ought to have brought you some Rift grasses, but we haven’t been there lately and I didn’t think about it until just this moment. Actually, since what I want, is something you have no use for, I don’t want to get you into the bad habit of expecting presents every time we meet. Is it all right if I just take one of these?” She had donned the gloves and opened the container as she spoke. Very slowly then, without taking her eyes from the giffs, she extended the long-handled grippers toward one of the semi-moribund fringes.