Dinosaurus Planet Survivors
- Автор: Маккефри Энн
- Серия: Dinosaur Planet #2
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Dinosaurus Planet Survivors». Краткое содержание книги:
“I have a sudden negative thought,” said Varian, her lips against Kai’s ears. “I can’t remember how far it is to the edge of the cliff. We won’t be able to see until we’re there-or over it.”
Kai contemplated that hazard. “Well, it’s not going to make any difference when we try to cross in the dark, is it? So, if they’re diurnal, they might just fall asleep if we give ’em enough time. Then…” he paused as a sudden notion occurred to him, “why not lengthen this release vine and go as far as we can, and make our avalanche when and if we need a diversion?”
Varian gave his hand a quick squeeze and then turned to cut more vine. In whispered consultation, they estimated that the edge of the cliff was about 30 meters away, so Varian knotted sufficient vine to approximate that length.
Waiting in darkness punctuated by the noises of night creatures which nibbled, squeaked, and scrabbled was most tedious. Kai practiced the Discipline breathing that calmed nerves, and exerted the strength of patience on an over active imagination. Tiny noises in infinite variety assumed a menacing quality despite the slightness of sound. He could feel Varian, beside him, practicing the same exercises and was subtly comforted.
Varian’s sudden disappearance from his side startled him.
“No mist, and only three sleepy bird watchers,” was her quiet murmur in his ear a moment later.
“We go?”
Her answer was a hand on his, then she stepped in front of him, slowly parting the vegetation as he followed, playing out the release line as she cleared the way.
Although the vines lay in thick profusion along the cliff top, there was sufficient space between tendrils to allow their bare feet a reassuring contact with the cooling stone. Bent in a semicrouch, Kai watched Varian’s white feet as they moved forward, always angled back in the direction of the ravine. He kept the line as taut as he dared. Varian, one hand lightly touching his shoulder, kept her eyes on the curiously luminous forms of the giffs, whose crested heads were turned toward the ravine. Their wings were folded. Kai wondered if they kept from falling over by clutching the rock with their wing joint talons. They were so motionless, they had to be asleep.
There are many aspects of time, Kai thought grimly as he and Varian continued their stealthy, seemingly infinite journey. There is the objective time lost in cold sleep, which might have been centuries or only a few years. But the variety of time he was now experiencing was definitely hard to endure subjectively. His leg muscles began to twitch with the cramp of controlled motion. His hands were starting to sweat with a fear that an inadvertent tug would break the vine or that he wouldn’t be able to release the key log to provide the crucial diversion.
Abruptly Varian stopped, twisted her torso to put her mouth to his ear.
“Kai, we’ve got to find the vines we used this morning. They’ll be to our right. I can’t see but I feel we should move that way.”
Kai glanced nervously at the sleeping giffs, now slightly to the right and behind them. Varian plucked at his sleeve and he followed her light guidance, sliding his feet carefully over vines to the stone interstices. He almost fell over Varian when she crouched suddenly, and it took all his control not to jerk on the release line. He was also startled by the realization that only two more loops remained in his hand. As he turned to warn her, they bumped noses. “I’m almost out of vine.”
“I’ve found ours. I think.” Varian took his left hand and placed it on the thick stem. She moved beyond his reach, but he could see her nod that she’d found her vine and he should move on down.
Kai forced Discipline on himself, willing the tension out of his blood and tissue. Then there was only a short piece of vine left in his hand, the final edge tickling as it curled into his palm.
“Varian!”
The white blur of face turned to him. He knew she’d seen his upraised hand, she made a thumbs-up gesture and crouched to run, her hand along the vine that would take her over the cliff and into sanctuary.
He pulled as firm and hard as he could, felt something vibrate along the length of the line. Then he began to run, hands before him on the rough vine trunk, counting his steps. Wouldn’t do to hurtle over the cliff.
The rumble of the stones cascading into the ravine startled him so much that he nearly lost count of his strides. The giffs roused with a squawk. He looked back at them. To his relief, their heads were turned away and their motion was upward.
“I’m at the edge, Kai!” Varian’s voice was low but intense.
He found it, too, just as his leading foot slipped into a crevice.
Then he closed his hands about the fat vine and, in blind faith that it was the right one, began to scramble down it. He scraped his knuckles against the cliff wall and then swung into free air, as the vine curved inward, still secured to the shuttle docking brace.
“Krims! I grabbed the wrong one.” Varian suddenly exclaimed.
“Swing near me, Varian. I’ll catch you!”
“No!”
He heard that defiant negative above the screams of the giffs. Only the Discipline that had been instilled in them both, that one leader must survive, forced him to continue down his vine until he was inside the cave and knew it was safe to let go. He staggered to his feet, able to distinguish the cave mouth by the slightly brighter darkness.
“Varian!”
“I’m to your right. I got the wrong vine. It’s too short. Can you see me?”
He couldn’t. The curtain of vines hid her. “Can you grab the next vine? Shake it!”
Tracing the sound, he found the agitated vine and hauled it back into the cave, bracing it.
“Okay, switch and slide!”
When her feet touched him, he guided her legs to the ground. They clung together, trembling with a reaction neither bothered to Discipline.
Then, hand in hand, they moved to the curved bow of the shuttle, unslung their improvised packs, carefully removing the fruit and nuts. Then they curled up together in the blankets and were almost instantly asleep.
CHAPTER THREE
“Kaaaiiii!” The rumble that awakened Kai was a nightmare sound because the noise not only issued from a source uncomfortably close to his ear but it also vibrated through the stone under him.
“Huh? Whaaat?” Varian lifted her head from its pillow on his upper arm. “Tor? She blinked up at the rock which, from her perspective, towered above them.
As she moved, the recorder was firmly placed on Kai’s diaphragm, forcing an exhalation from him.
“Location old core?” the recorder said in lugubrious tones.
“The old core?” Varian’s voice echoed the astonishment which she and Kai felt for that totally unexpected query. “We’ve nearly been murdered, stripped of all survival equipment, out of touch with everyone…”
Kai tightened his arm to silence her. “Typical Thek logic, Varian. It chose the issue important to it, not us. I wonder if that old core is what stirred Tor to come.”
“Huh?” Varian struggled to a sitting position, drawing her legs away from Tor’s meter-high triangular lump of granite.
“Where do you remember last seeing that core?” Kai asked her.
“Frankly, I’d other things on my mind than ancient geological artifacts and yet…” She frowned as she searched her memory. “It must have been in Gaber’s dome. Paskutti wouldn’t have been interested in it. Would Bakkun have hung on to it for some obscure reason?”
“Bakkun?” Kai thought of the heavy world geologist with whom he had often teamed on field trips. “No, he wouldn’t value it. He already knew where the ore sites were.” Kai looked up at the Thek. “Original compound!”