"Sure, if you want. Certain you can find your way back?"
"I believe so-if not, you can instruct me. Is there time to swing down and see a little of the plains, the edge of them?"
He looked at his watch. "Well-I"m expecting a call back at One. We"d be cutting it a little fine, and there"d barely be time 51 to reach the plains and return. If you want, though-""
"No. As you said earlier, I can take the car myself, a longer time, when you do not need it." She took them up, looked for landmarks, and turned upslope at an angle. To see farther ahead she went high; after a time, she recognized the plateau and steered toward it.
"What did you think of Vanois?"
"He surprised me. At the end, when he was shaken, he dropped the strange speech patterns he had used previously. Why-?"
"Vanois grew up on a colony planet-pretty rustic, I gather. When UET took him into s.p.a.ce training he was ridiculed and punished for talking like a backwoodser. So since he Escaped he"s made a point of using his childhood argot- and people can like it or not."
"A strange form of pride-and not without its costs."
"What do you mean?"
"It makes his dealings more difficult-if the affectation irritates others as much as it irritated me."
Tregare nodded. "I hadn"t thought of it before because I"ve known him so long it doesn"t bother me any more-but maybe that"s why a smart man like Raoul is on such a tight money string. I mean, annoying people for no good tactical reason."
"Will he be a handicap to your operation?"
"No. He knows better than to play games in a tight spot.""
"Good." They came over the plateau, still high above it because Rissa wanted to see around it in full panorama. Then she dropped the car, fast and swooping from side to side, halting the headlong fall close to the ground. She landed gently; they got out and walked into the cabin.
Rissa was thirsty; she poured cold fruit juice for herself, and at Tregare"s nod, for him also. Standing across the table from her he said, "That was a real blue streak landing you made there."
"Was it not satisfactory? I like to try my skills occasionally."
"No, it was fine. I thought you might cut it too close, but you didn"t. I just wondered why all the flash. Well, keeping in practice is a good enough reason."
"And perhaps I wished to remind myself that I can do some things well."
52."What-" The intercom"s buzz cut him off; he went to answer. From where she sat, Rissa could not make out the words. Then he crossed to the door and opened it. "View- screen call; I"ll take it on the scout-like to see who I"m talking to when I can. I wish I"d thought to bring a portable to use in here." He smiled. "This shouldn"t take long."
The door closed behind him; Rissa poured his juice back into the pitcher and put it away to stay cool. She waited, and finally Tregare called her. "I"m stuck here for longer than I thought. You may as well go ahead and have some lunch; I"ll snack here from ship"s stores. If you want the aircar this afternoon I won"t be needing it after all. All right?"
"Yes. Perhaps I will." She cut the circuit, thinking that the only way to hold this man to her was to make herself more of a part to his great project. And the doing, she decided, would not be as easy as the thinking.
SHE made a light meal. Afterward she took the aircar down-slope, cruising at medium speed, skimming crests and dipping into valleys. An hour later, she crossed the last ridge-at its foot, the plains began. She flew straight out across their begin- nings.
She saw few trees, mostly grouped around occasional ponds. A tall gra.s.slike growth covered the gently rolling ground; now it waved in a light breeze. At first she sighted no animals, but after a few minutes a herd-thirty or forty, she guessed- sprang up from concealment among the gra.s.s-hummocks. About the size of goats, the creatures leaped and scattered, then grouped and ran steadily off to her right.
She swerved and dipped for a closer look-they were tan, like the gra.s.s, and slightly dappled. Some had three horns; the rest had none. Satisfied, she returned to her previous course. She looked back once; the herd had stopped running.
The sight of two half-eaten carca.s.ses told her of carnivores, but she saw none.
Something dark brown, looking like a small rhinoceros but without a horn, waddled seli-importantly across her course and did not deign to look up or hurry as she pa.s.sed. She knew of no birds on Number One-when she thought she saw a flock, a closer look showed her a cloud of large, brightly colored insects.
3.She looked at her watch. It was nearly time to turn back, but she went a little farther- for on the horizon she saw a shimmer. She lifted for better view and kept course for several minutes, until she saw it was a vast lake-or ocean, perhaps? No-above ground level of the far side of the Hills it could not be an ocean. Yet she could see no farther sh.o.r.e.
Still curious-but resigned to remaining so, this day-she turned back, holding alt.i.tude and pushing the car near to top speed. As she neared the Hills she climbed farther, until in the distance she discerned Tregare"s plateau; then she leveled off, as near its height as she could determine. She held steady- course, speed, and alt.i.tude-until she approached Base One. She had guessed a bit low-she had to lift a few feet to clear the edge, then touched ground almost immediately and taxied to a stop near the cabin. The door was a few inches ajar; as she climbed the steps, Tregare opened it. His right hand held the big energy gun.
"What-?"
"The way you came in, Rissa-from below and then straight at me-it could have been anybody, and not wanting to give warning."
"I had not thought-I am sorry, Bran, if I alarmed you."
He grinned. "That"s all right; it does me good to pull the string tight once in a while. I was only explaining why this hand cannon." He put it back in its place and bent to meet her kiss. Then, "Well, did you get a good look at the plains?"
"Not long enough-far enough, I mean-but good, yes." She reported what she had seen.
"That body of water, Bran-do you know what it is?"
"Sure. That"s Big Sink-sort of an inland sea, and mostly a dead one. Think of Great Salt Lake on Earth-only twice as salty and maybe the size of Australia."
She thought back, recalling. "Yes. I would not be able to swim in it, would I? The water so much heavier-I would float too high."
"That"s right. I tried once; you can almost crawl on it." He looked thoughtful. "Those gra.s.srunners-that herd you saw. If we have time we should go out and bag a couple, while they"re in this close. Good eating, the few times I"ve tasted that meat."
"I am not sure whether I have had any. Except for bush- 54.stomper I do not know what animals I have eaten from, on this world."
He paused. "We haven"t had gra.s.srunner-of course I don"t know what all you"ve eaten, other times. But Deverel has a couple in freeze, and-I forgot to mention, we"re invited to eat with Hain and Anse on the scout, a little later. All right?"
"Yes. Of course."
"I"ll call, then-and if the menu"s not already planned ..." "Yes. But, Bran-how much later, do we go there?" "What? Oh-well, enough, I"d say. If I"m reading you right."
"I think you are. I will be back in a few moments." She was, and in the bed felt herself closer to completion than before-but still not enough to strive. To his look of inquiry, she answered, "It will happen, Bran-and this waiting, now, is not unpleasant." "If you say so.
Well, let"s go to dinner."
IF Tregare had not told her, she thought, she could not have guessed the relationship of Deverel and Kenekke. Yet obviously they were a team of long standing; in preparing and serv- ing the meal they worked together without getting in each other"s way, cramped though the s.p.a.ce was, and with hardly a word about the operation. Instead the talk concerned ships and their people-Inconnu, Carcharodon, Lefthand Thread, and others.
"How do you like gra.s.srunner steak?" Tregare asked.
She was chewing a bite and could only nod. Then she swallowed and took a sip of wine. "I like it-it has a gamy tang that bushstomper lacks. I see why it must be cooked well-done; a rare cut, I think, might be rather tough."
"That"s right," said Deverel. "Oh, you can age it, but to my mind it loses something that way."
"At any rate, it"s very good. Thank you for sharing it."
"Any time," said Kenekke. "Lots more where this came from." He poured more wine for the other three; his own gla.s.s held water.
"I wish we"d hear from Gonnelsen," Tregare said. "He * 55.
should be picking up more signals by now if the others are on time-or coming at all."
Deverel spoke. "What do you figure for the minimum?"
"Eight"s best, but I"ll try with six if I have to. Less than that, we"re forced to give it up this time."
"This time?" It was Kenekke. "Look, skipper-when will we be lucky enough to get another advance schedule? And be able to meet the timing?"
Tregare shrugged and drained his gla.s.s. "We could always go back to the first plan- though I admit I like this one a lot better."
Well, he was not going to tell her-there was no point in asking. She stood. "Suddenly I am very tired. Will you excuse me, please? And thank you again, gentlemen." They said their goodnights, and she returned to the cabin.
AN hour later, when Tregare entered, she was soaking in the tub. "Rissa? You feeling all right?"
"Yes, I feel well. Would you hand me a towel, please?" She stood and began drying herself.
"Then why leave so early?"
"I did not like it, Bran-that you talked over my head, of things you all knew and I did not, as though I were a schoolgirl."
"Oh, h.e.l.l-I"m sorry. It"s just that it would have taken too long, there, to fill you in- repeating, as you say, things they do already know."
Wrapping the towel around her, she moved to sit in the kitchen and poured coffee for herself. "And is there time for it now, Bran? For instance, what is this advance schedule, and why is it so important?"
He sat facing her. "All right. You guessed that I plan to take Stronghold. My first idea was simply to scout the place, wait for a time when few ships were in port, and go in by force. But then Bernardez took the Hoover."
"It will be one of your ships?"
"If he makes rendezvous on time, it will. But the big thing -that advance schedule, that Bernardez gave me-it"s for the next batch of ships UET was building, to send to Stronghold.
56.Number, names, equipment-and, timing. Stronghold has that information by now, you see."
He paced back and forth across the kitchen once, then sat again. "There"s eight ships planned; that"s why eight"s my favorite number. Because we get there first- names and insignia painted to match what Stronghold"s expecting-they welcome us with open arms-for just long enough!" He grinned.
"But the men"s names-surely they will not fit?" "How could UET put out a roster, years ahead? Half the crews were runny-nosed kids when they sent that schedule."
Her eyes widened. "Yes, I see it-the long view, again. But what if you have fewer ships? "
He shrugged. "So we say the schedule went sour this time; it"s happened before. If I have fewer ships they"ll run jammed, with all the combat people I can crowd aboard. But I don"t think I could get enough-equipped and supplied-into less than six. And I"m still worried about maybe having to leave a ship here, in case the Shrakken come." "But I thought you did not expect a battle." "I don"t, but it pays to be ready." His face flushed; he thumped a fist against his knee. "That time I was at Strong-. hold-I scouted it, best I could. And it won"t have changed much-they"d done a major expansion, not long before. And Rissa-it"s not as hard a nut to crack as you might think." He paused, so she nodded and said, "Tell me." "The ships in port, the defense and communication centers -those we have to wrap up fast, so no word gets out. The rest we can mop out at leisure, with as little fighting as possible. Offer amnesty, the rank and file aren"t apt to make a fight of it."
"And then?"
"Come on now. Think a moment-you"ll see it." She scowled a moment; then her forehead smoothed. "Of course! You sit-the spider in Stronghold"s web-as more UET ships come and are taken and no word goes back to Earth. Until-"
"Until we have enough to challenge UET on Earth itself!" Now he talked faster.
"The crews we capture-both at first and later-enough will come over to us that we can send ships 57.UET still thinks it owns, anywhere we wish. To Earth, even, and get a toehold on UET"s home grounds. So when we go there in force, maybe UET"s defenses won"t work quite the way they expect, the way they"d work right now. You see?" He paused. "How do you like it?"
She smiled. "I think UET will come to regret training you in the way they did. It is a fine plan! And-I suppose you have already thought of this, for it is a consequence of the long view-your newer recruits will help compensate for any advancements UET has developed during the years you foreshortened in s.p.a.ce."
"An a.n.a.logy from the edge you had in personal combat, here?" She nodded. "But UET"s not that progressive. Except for the weapons they added-and those have stayed pretty standardized-the main differences between the first ships they built and the latest I"ve seen are matters of interior design-convenience. So far, that is-I"ve got my fingers crossed, there."
"And I, Bran. But what is the timing factor you mentioned?"
"We have to reach Stronghold ahead-but not too far ahead-of the UET ships they expect. To be sure of that, my ships have to leave here, armed and supplied, in less than two hundred days. If they"re not ready-at least six-the whole kite comes down, and we have to start over, or forget it."
"I see. No wonder you become impatient, waiting for word."
"Too true, Rissa. And eight ships is my top hope-unless one just happens to come here, that I can persuade to join up or let me buy control. And d.a.m.ned soon, now."
"Eight? I know of three-oh, yes, theHoover!"
"All right-there"sNo Return. Iwas landed-fake insigne -on The Islands, a UET world that"s mostly water. It"s where I bought up that load of women, in fact. Not long after, the Bonaparte landed, and Peralta-he was First Hat-recognized me. We made a deal: he wouldn"t expose me, and I wouldn"t kill him. I"d help him take the ship and-come time to put a fleet together-he"d take my orders. So far, it"s worked out.
"Malloy"s Pig in the Parlor I bought into, same as with Vanois. And Jargy Hoad-he"s the one helped me design this 58.cabin-Jargy was riding Second Hat on Inconnu when we took the Peron in s.p.a.ce and renamed itDeuces Wild."
"So it is your ship, and Hoad your man?"
"Correct. And Use Krueger on Graf Spee-she"s a voluntary ally, like Bernardez. Just plain likes the idea.
"Now, if only enough of them show up on time.. ."
"All have been informed?"
"Should have been. I sent word to enough drops, right after I got the schedule from Bernardez. There"s quite a network, Rissa-for long-haul word between Escaped ships. And figuring those messages by effective time gets pretty tricky."
"I can see, it would be. But otherwise, all is settled? Six or more ships, you will go-fewer, and you will not?"
"That"s right."
"There is one thing more, Bran. Will we go on Inconnu together-or you alone, again unmarried?"
He stared. "Now look, Rissa-I told you- "
"But I have another thought. The-the zoom-wombs are still operable, are they not? And the techniques available, to extract sperm and ova and combine them?"
"I suppose so. But, you mean you want-?"
"I wish to go either with you, or my own way, alone. If you need to ensure an heir, this is how it can be done."
"But you said-how could I leave a child I wouldn"t see for years? So, how can you?"
"Gestation can be delayed-until either we return or it is decided here that we likely will not." He was silent. She said, "Well, Bran? You have no reason now for leaving me behind - except that you do not want me with you."
Slowly his scowl cleared; he nodded. "All right. I"ll figure some job you can do on Inconnu, to make it look good."
"An excuse? No-I think I will excel at weaponry and navigation."
"Weapons, maybe-and turret operators are pretty well protected. But you don"t have time to learn navigation."