none (5 page)

"Let's go," MacAran ordered, without answering. This was a wild planet' but what could he do

about it? He'd said he wanted to take risks, now he was having his chance.

But they went on without incident, halting near mid-day to eat lunch from their packs and allow Camilla Del Rey to check her chronometer and come closer to the exact moment of noon. He drewcloser to her as she was watching a small pole she had set up In the ground:

"What's the story?"

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"The moment when the shadow is shortest is exact noon. So I note the length every two minutes and when it begins to get longer again, noon--the sun exactly on meridian---is is that two-minute period. This is close enough to true local noon for our measurements." She turned to him and asked in a low voice, "Are Heather and Judy really all right?"

28

"Oh, yes. Ewen's been checking them at every stop. We don't know how long it will take for the

color to fade, but they're fine."

"I nearly panicked," she murmured' "Judy Lovat makes me ashamed of myself. She was so calm."

He noticed that imperceptibly the "Lieutenant Del Rey," "Dr. Lovat," "Dr. MacLeod" of theship--where, after all, you saw only your few intimates except formally--were melting into Camilla, Judy, Mac. He approved. They might be here a long time. He said something like that, then abruptly asked, "Do you have any idea how long we will be here for repairs?"

"None," she said' "but Captain Leicester says--six weeks if we can repair it."

"If?"

"Of course we can repair it," she said suddenly and sharply, and turned away. "We'll have to. We

can't stay here."

He wondered if this were fact or optimism, but did not ask. When he spoke next it was to makesome banal re-mark about the quality of the rations they carried and to hope Judy would find some freshfood sources here.

As the sun angled slowly down over the distant ranges, it grew cold again, and a sharp wind sprang

up. Camilla looked apprehensively at the gathering clouds.

"So much for astronomical observations", she mur-mured. "Does it rain
 
every
 
night on this damnable

planet?"

"Seems like it," MacAran said briefly. "Maybe it's a seasonal thing. But every night, so far, at this

season at least hot at noon, cooling down fast, clouds in the after-

noon, rain at evening, snow toward midnight. And fog in the morning."

She said, knitting her brows, "From what I've guessed from the time changes--not that five days cantell us much--it's spring; anyhow the days are getting longer, about three minutes each day. The planetseems to have somewhat more tilt than Earth, which would make for violent weather changes. But maybeafter the snow clears and before the fog rises, the sky will clear a little
 
…
 
" and fell silent, thinking. MacAran did not disturb her, but as a thin fine drizzle began to fall, began to search for a camping site. They had better get under canvas before it turned into a downpour.

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They were on a downslope; below them lay a broad and almost treeless valley, not in their directpath, but pleasant and green, stretching for two or three miles to the south. MacAran looked down at it,calculating the mile or two lost as against the problems of camping under the trees. Evidently thesefoothills were interspersed with such little valleys, and through this one ran something like a narrowstream of water--a river? A brook? Could it be used to replenish their water supplies? He raised thequestion, and MacLeod said, "Test the water, sure. But we'll be safer camping here in the middle of theforest."

"Why?"

For answer MacLeod pointed and MacAran made out something that looked like some herdanimal. Details were hard to make out, but they were about the size of small ponies. "That's why," MacLeod said. "For all we know they may be peaceful--or even domesticated. And if they're grazingthey're not carnivores. But I'd hate to be in their way if they took a notion to stampede in the night. In thetrees we can hear things coming."

Judy came and stood beside them. "They might be good to eat. They might even be domesticable, ifanyone ever colonizes this planet some day--save the trouble of im-porting food animals and beasts ofburden from Earth."

Watching the slow, flowing movement of the herd over the grey-green turf, MacAran thought it wasa tragedy that man could only see animals in terms of his own needs.
 
But hell, I like a good steak aswell as anyone, who am I to preach?
 
And maybe within a few weeks they would be gone, and theherd animals, whatever they were, could remain unmolested forever.

They set up a camp on the slope in the midst of the drizzle, and Zabal set about making a fire. Camilla said, "I've got to get to the hilltop at sunset and try to find a line of sight to the ship. They'reshowing lights to establish sightings."

"You couldn't see anything in this rain," MacAran said sharply. "Visibility's about half a mile now.

Even a strong light wouldn't show, Get inside the dome, you're drenched!"

She whirled on him. "Mister MacAran, need I remind you that I do not take my orders from you? You are in charge of the exploration party--but I'm here on ship's business and I have duties to perform!" She turned away

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from the small plastic dome-shaped tent and started up the slope. MacAran, cursing all stubborn female

officers, started after her.

"Go back," she said sharply, "I've got my instruments, I can manage."

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"You just said I'm in charge of this party. All right, damn it, one of my orders is that no one goes off

alone!
 
No one
 
--and that includes the ship's first officer!"

She turned away without speaking again, forging up the slope, hugging her parka hood around herface against the cold, driving rain. It grew heavier as they climbed, and he heard her slip and stumble inthe underbrush, even with the strong headlight she carried. Catching up with her, he put a strong handunder her elbow. She moved to shake it off, but he said harshly, "Don't be a fool, Lieu-tenant! If youbreak an ankle we'll all have to carry you--or turn back! Two can find a footing, maybe, where one can't. Come on--take my arm." She remained rigid and he snarled, "Damn it, if you were a man I wouldn't
 
ask
you politely to let me help--I'd
 
order
 
it!"

She laughed shortly. "All right," she said, and gripped his elbow, their two headlights playing on theground for a path. He heard her teeth chattering, but she did not speak a word of complaint. The slopegrew steeper, and on the last few yards MacAran had to scramble up ahead of the girl and reachdownward to pull her up. She looked round, searching for the direction; pointed where a very faintglimmer of light showed through the blinding rain.

"Could that be it?", she said uncertainly, "The compass direction seems about right."

"If they're using a laser, yes, I suppose it might show this far, even through the rain." The light blotted out, gleamed briefly, was wiped out again, and MacAran swore. "This rain's turning to sleet--come on, let's get down before we have to
 
slide
 
down-on ice underfoot!"

It was steep and slippery, and once Camilla lost her footing on the icy leafmold and slid, rolled andfloundered to a stop against a great tree trunk; she lay there half--stunned until MacAran, flashing his lightaround and call-ing, caught her in his beam. She was gasping and sobbing with the cold, but when hereached a hand to help her up she shook her head and struggled to her feet. "I can manage. But thankyou," she added, grudgingly.

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She felt exhausted, utterly humiliated. She had been trained that it was her duty to work with men asan equal and in the usual world she knew, a world of but-tons to push and machines to run, physicalstrength was not a factor she had ever had to take into account. She never stopped to reflect that in allher life she had never known any physical effort greater than gymnastics in the exercise room of the ship,or a space station; she felt that she had somehow failed to carry her own weight, she had somehowbetrayed her high position. A ship's officer was supposed to be more competent than any civilian! Shetrudged wearily along down the steep slope, setting her feet down with dogged care, and felt the tears ofexhaustion and weariness freezing on her cold cheeks.

MacAran, following slowly, was unaware of her in-ward struggle, but he felt her weariness throughher sag-ging shoulders. After a moment he put his arm around her waist, and said gently, "Like I saidbefore, if you fall again and get hurt badly we'll have to carry you. Don't do that to us, Camilla." Headded, hesitatingly, "You'd have let Jenny help you, wouldn't you?"

She did not answer, but she let herself lean on him. He guided her stumbling steps toward the small

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glow of light through the tent. Somewhere above them, in the thick trees, the harsh call of a night-bird broke through the noise of the beating sleet, but there was no other sound. Even their steps sounded odd and alien here.

Inside the tent MacAran sagged, gratefully taking the plastic cup of boiling tea MacLeod handedhim, stepping carefully to where his sleeping bag had been spread beside Ewen's. He sipped at theboiling liquid, brushing ice from his eyelids, hearing Heather and Judy making cooing sounds over Camilla's icy face, bustling around in the cramped quarters and bringing her hot tea, a dry blanket, helpingher out of her iced-over parka. Ewen asked, "What's it doing out there--rain? Hail? Sleet?"

"Mixture of all three, I'd guess. We seem to have lucked right into some kind of equinoctial storm,

I'd imagine. It
 
can't
be like this all year round."

"Did you get your reading?" At MacAran's affirmative nod, he said, "One of us should have gone,

the Lieutenant's not really up to that kind of climb in this weather. Won-der what made her try?"

MacAran looked across at Camilla, huddled. under a

32

blanket, with Judy drying her wet, tangled hair as she sipped the boiling tea. He said, surprising himself,

"Noblesse oblige."

Ewer nodded. "I know what you mean. Let me get you some soup. Judy did some great things with

the ration. Good to have a food expert along."

They were all exhausted and talked little of what they had seen; the howling of the wind and sleetoutside made speech difficult in any case. Within half an hour they had downed their food and crawledinto their sleeping bag. Heather snuggled close to Ewen, her head on his shoulder, and MacAran, justbeyond them, looked at their joined bodies with a slow, undefined envy. There seemed a closeness therewhich had little to do with sexuality. It spoke is the way they shifted their weight, almost un-consciously,each to ease and comfort the other. Against his will he thought of the moment when Camilla had lether-self rest against him, and smiled wryly in the dark. Of all the women is the ship she was the leastlikely to be in-terested in him, and probably the one he disliked most. But damn it, he had to admire her!

He lay awake for a time, listening to the noise of wind in the heavy trees, to the sound of a treecracking and crashing down somewhere is the storm--
 
God! It one fell on the tent, we'd all bekilled--to
strange sounds which might be animals crashing through the underbrush. After a while, fitfully,he slept, but with one ear opera, hearing MacLeod gasping in his sleep and moaning, once hearing Camilla cry out, a nightmarish cry, then fall again into exhausted sleep. Toward morning the storm quietedand the rain ceased and he slept like the dead, hearing only through his steep the sounds of strange beastsand birds moving in the righted forest and on the un-known hills.

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Chapter

THREE

Some time before dawn he roused, hearing Camilla stirring, and saw across the dark tent that she

was struggling into her uniform. He slid quietly from his sleeping bag, and asked softly, "What is it?"

"The rain's stopped and the sky's clear; I want some sky-sightings and spectrograph readings before

the fog comes in."

"Right. Need any help?"

"No, Marco can help carry the instruments:"

He started to protest, then shrugged and crawled back into his sleeping bag. It wasn't entirely up to

him. She knew her business and didn't need his careful watchfulness. She'd made that amply clear.

Some undefined apprehension, however, kept him from sleeping again; he lay in an uneasy doze,hearing around him the noises of the waking forest. Birds called from tree to tree, some harsh andraucous, some soft and chirping. There were small croakings and stirrings in the underbrush, andsomewhere a distant sound not unlike the barking of a dog.

And then the silence was shattered by a horrible yell--a shriek of unquestionably human agony, a

harsh scream of anguish, repeated twice and breaking off in a ghastly babbling moan, and silence.