He shook his head. "Keep looking." They did-at the ship from several views, at the body of a woman whose abdomen lay open and empty, and finally...
"I do not understand. Is this a mask, a costume?"
Liesel shook her head. "Bran Tregare wouldn"t make such fuss over a masquerade. No- somebody"s found more of the aliens, the ones UET stole star travel from."
"Not quite," said Tregare. "They"ve found us."
"Then for peace" sake, drop the dramatics and tell us about it!"
30."I got these from Raoul Vanois on Carcharodon-used to be UET"s General Leamington. What it was, I want him to join me-he"s in low orbit for money, so I offered for a controlling interest, him to stay on as ship"s commander. We didn"t quite meet terms but I think he"ll take it.
"He couldn"t seem to keep his mind on the business so I asked him, "Something you ate?" Then he showed me what I"m showing you. Look down the pile two-three more; you"ll see there"s no question-the two humans are about average size."
It was the third-next picture. The man and woman on each side were unmemorable, but the creature between them ...
"Vanois thinks the colors are a little off, but not badly."
"They are quite close," said Rissa.
Tregare gripped her wrist. "What-?"
Her eyes went wide. "I had forgotten! Pictures-my father kept them hidden, except to show us once. Contraband? But now I remember-the thing so tall beside a man, and much thinner."
She looked more closely. "This one wears a cap, but they are bald. And yes-" She pointed out the all-black eyes, triangles pointing downward, with a pair of spurs or tendrils above each. Ears like half-cups opening forward, no sign of nose or nostrils.
Below the shallow-angled mouth, an inverted V, no line of chin or jaw; the face tapered smoothly to the long neck. "A brighter ocher color than this, I think, and the brown markings that accent the features-almost like clown makeup-are not so discrete. On my father"s pictures the colors shaded more gradually. The hands are hidden, but-"
"In other pictures, they look a lot like ours," said Tregare, "only longer and thinner. Not the feet, though-they"re toe-walkers, like a dog or horse; the heel"s a hock. That"s where most of the extra height comes from."
"All right," Liesel said, "I"m sold on the exhibit. But what"s the story?"
"There"s a fairly new Hidden World called "Charleyhorse" because of the high gravity-hard work really gives you a beating. Vanois- Carcharodon-landed at their main settlement, only a few hundred people, and found the locals running around in circles, half hysterical. These aliens-the * 31.
Shrakken, if he p.r.o.nounced it halfway right-had been there nearly half a year and just left. Vanois missed them by less than a week."
"But, Bran-why were the people so disturbed? After so long, had they not adjusted to the existence of these-Shrakken?"
"It wasn"t that. After the first shock, the folks found the Shrakken friendly enough.
Some of them learned our language; apparently n.o.body could learn theirs. So everyone thought what you might expect-that here"s a whole new culture to trade ideas with. But- " He thumbed through the pictures and held one up. "But then this happened." It was the dead woman.
"The Shrakken did that? But why, Bran?"
"That"s the worst of it, Rissa-Vanois doesn"t know. What he was told-now believe this if you can-is that it was an accident."
"Accident?" Liesel sniffed loudly. "Gutted like a bush-stomper hung up in the market? What kind of accident is that?"
"She was found like this beside a stream, clothes piled neatly on the bank.
Swimming in the raw, I expect. And Charleyhorse has such a nudity taboo, likely the Shrakken had never seen anyone naked. The idea seems to be that they didn"t know her for human."
"But still-" Liesel beat a fist against her other palm. "Why, and how, did they do that?"
"Vanois couldn"t find out. Whether the people there knew or not-he thinks they did-they wouldn"t tell it. What they did say, though-well, thinking they were on friendly terms, they"d been free with directions to other Hidden Worlds. And the best they know, the Shrakken are headed thisway."
Liesel gasped. Rissa took the pictures again. "I do not know whether you noticed," she said, "but this ship is unarmed."
"You mean," said Tregare, "it carries no weapons we recognize."
PLEADINGhunger, Tregare called a recess for breakfast. When he and Rissa had eaten, he said, "All right, let"s tape the rest 32.of what Vanois told me, before I forget it. Raoul"s chief medic got it from a fellow named Storrin-only semiscientist he found in the settlement-so bear in mind you"re getting it thirdhand.
"The Shrakken don"t fit our biological categories. Their arm and leg bones are inside like ours but their bodies are hard-sh.e.l.led-intricate segments held together with cartilage and ligaments-pretty flexible. They"re not warm-blooded or cold-blooded, by our standards.
Body temperature-to the touch-varies a lot, and against the ambient as often as with it.
Voluntary? n.o.body knows.
"They don"t have jaws. Those shark-mouths hold two toothed sphincter muscles-well, something like teeth-that rotate in opposition to each other. Take your arm off in two grinds.
"Storrin guessed we can"t learn their language because part of it"s not in our hearing range. Some ultrasonic, he thought -and something they do with the little horns over the eyes. Those twitch and change color-maybe radiate something, too.
"How they reproduce-if the Charleyhorsers knew, they weren"t telling. Storrin thinks they have two s.e.xes because he saw a couple with what looked like big hard-ons-but seg- mented, telescoping. The others had no such thing, and neither kind had anything resembling b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Maybe they feed their young like birds do, by throwing up." He paused, then shook his head. "No-that"s all I remember, for now."
Liesel turned off her recorder feed. "All right-now what does this mean, to us?"
Rissa spoke. "The Shrakken were on Charleyhorse for some time. We know of one death, but not the reason for it. If they are enemies, why did they not kill the entire settlement and leave us no clue at all?"
Tregare turned and slammed his fist into the pillows. "I don"t know-that"s why I can"t decide what to do. I had my own plans, but if Number One needs Inconnu"s protection . . ." He got out of bed and began dressing. "Well, there"s no deciding for now, so let"s get on with our own doings. Rissa, are you ready to go to the scoutship?" She turned to Liesel. "You will say my temporary good- 33.byes for me? Yes. Then I will be ready, Bran, when you are."
And a few minutes later, outside, they loaded their luggage into the aircar.
AIRBORNE,Tregare turned north, away from One Point One and parallel to the Hills. Rissa said, "I thought your scoutship was on the other side."
"It is. Maybe you don"t realize how high the Big Hills are; these aircars don"t have the alt.i.tude to go over the middle ranges. There"s a pa.s.s, up ahead a way, a winding cut-unless you saw it from topside, as I did, you"d never know it went all the way through. Even so, we"ll need oxygen at the highest parts."
From under his seat he pulled the tube and nosepiece. Hampered by the safety harness she fumbled below, found the equipment, and brought it up. He said, "You know how to use it?"
"Yes."
"All right. Start when I do-or earlier, if you feel the need."
They hit turbulence. The car bucked; Tregare fought it level again. "Getting close," he said. "You can"t see the entrance yet, but it"s always b.u.mpy here, until we get into the cut." They neared the first major rise. Rissa looked, still fascinated by the huge ma.s.ses, wooded in blue-green forest, that persisted in looking like the smaller rolling hills of Earth.
Then she saw the cut; it was as though a giant ax had struck. Now unseen gusts buffeted the car-it rose and fell abruptly, tipped almost sidewise and back again, yawed, and was flung toward one side of the looming pa.s.s. Teeth clenched, Tregare cursed, wrestled the controls and applied full power. The car swooped violently, then steadied and shot straight into the center of the cut. Abruptly they were in smooth air, though Rissa knew they rode a swift current.
Grinning now, Tregare said, "Quite a ride, isn"t it?"
"And dangerous, I would think, if the pilot did not know what to expect."
"Too right-first time I tried it was nearly my last."
She was silent, and he asked, "What are you thinking?"
34."That sometime I would like to do it myself."
He laughed. "Funny how that doesn"t surprise me. Now look-ahead, here, there"s a dogleg turn-an old fault-slippage, probably. It"s on you before you know it, and if you don"t watch closely- there!" She saw a cliff before them-a dead end rushing at her-a splash of white at the right side and a shadow to the left. Tregare threw the controls hard over; bucking in brief turbulence, the car plunged into that shadow, into a narrower pa.s.sage.
"Yes," she said, "that was-"
"Not now! Here comes the rest of it." Here the angle of light was better-in time that she could have done it herself, she saw where he must turn. Then they were in a wider part, climbing as the bottom of the cut rose beneath them. "Time for oxygen," he said, and they adjusted the nosepieces securely.
He turned to her. "You still want to fly this route?"
"Oh, yes. The first turn is hard to see, but directly across from it I saw a marker, a tumble of white boulders. A second time I would not be caught unknowing.""
"You spotted that? Good. To be honest, Rissa, I came through in the afternoon, my first time-the light was on my side, not against me as it was today. And of course I"d seen it from above, too, or I might not have made it."
"I am glad you did." Then; "Look-we are at the summit." The pa.s.s had narrowed again; on either side, sheer cliffs rose high. For a time the aircar pa.s.sed not far above the tree-tops. Then the ground below dropped away rapidly, the cliffs receded, and they flew in open air. Now, ahead, Rissa had a clear view of sunlit hills, miles of them, sloping down to green-yellow plains.
She frowned a moment, then said, "On this side the land is higher, is it not? That is a long way, down there, but I think we climbed much farther."
"That"s right-and we don"t go all the way down. My place is on a sort of shelf-a plateau-a little past halfway."
She craned to see. "Where?"
"Can"t spot it from here. Past that next ridge; look off to your right a little." He pinched his oxygen tube and took a few breaths through his mouth. "We can take these things off now."
35.Unable to see her hands fumbling under the seat, Rissa needed several tries to tuck the equipment into the clips that held it; eventually she managed. "Well! Next time I will look at that stowage first."
They pa.s.sed the ridge. The next two were lower; beyond them, small in the distance, she saw a flat brown patch. A glint of metal shone. "Is that the scoutship?"
"That"s her. We"ll be there soon."
"I am glad. I drank too much coffee."
THEY landed beside another aircar, between the scoutship and a large cabin-roughly cut wood on a high foundation. At the rear of the plateau, among trees that began the up- sloping forest, stood other buildings, of the prefabricated type used for storage. "I"ll unload us," Tregare said. "You go ahead. We"re primitive here-there"s an outhouse behind the cabin."
When she returned he still stood near the aircar, luggage beside him, talking to two men. One, she recognized. "Come on and say h.e.l.lo." She walked to join him. "My wife, gentlemen!"
She thought, He trusts these men, and said, "Rissa Ker-guelen."
The shorter, dark-haired man offered his hand; she shook it. "Hain Deverel, Third Hat." He looked more closely. "Haven"t I seen you somewhere?" He nodded. "Sure-on the ship! But you were different-and the name-"
"Yes, somewhat different. It is good to see you again." His recognition startled her- then she realized she was wearing Tari Obrigo"s hairstyle and speaking in the voice that matched it.
The bigger man"s remaining hair was red. His long face made a grin as he gave a half-salute. "Anse Kenekke. We wouldn"t have seen each other much, I guess. I"m Second Engineer and don"t get up topside a lot."
"It is good to meet you, also."
They nodded. Deverel said, "Glad to have you here. Captain-you want us to take your things inside? And Anse and I move back into the scout, I guess."
"Afraid so, Hain."
"That"s all right; you"re the new-marrieds, not us."
36.Tregare led the way into the cabin; Rissa followed, and behind her, the two others.
Inside, staying out of the two men"s way while they gathered their belongings, she explored the place.
The overall effect was rustic. Inside, the wood was smoothed somewhat, but unpainted. Windows, irregular in size and s.p.a.cing but all set high in the walls, were double sheets of thick plastic. A few, in wooden frames, were hinged to open.
The kitchen seemed adequate-a sink with faucets-storage tank in the attic?-a combustion stove with the pressure tank on one side, and a compact dishcleaner. She found a fair supply of foodstuffs and utensils in the cupboards. And in one corner sat a laundering machine.
The bathroom-she was agreeably surprised-held a folding tub that sat under a shower head, plus a washbasin and covered chamber pot. For cold nights, she thought...
There was no bedroom; returning to the main room she now noted the large bed in a front corner. The two men had gone; Tregare was unpacking his baggage and putting things away in drawers built into one wall.
"How do you like it?"
"Rather well-it is st.u.r.dy and adequate. Did you build it yourself?"
"With some help. I"m not the greatest architect you ever saw, but it"s stood up to the storms of a lot of winters."
"One thing puzzles me. You have running water-some source of supply. What is the need for the outhouse?"
"Because of the source. The water"s near the surface-can"t risk fouling it. The hole under the outhouse is heat-fused; it can"t leak. Sooner or later, if we were here long enough, we"d have to move the operation.""
"I see. But there would seem to be other solutions..."
"There would be, if I"d built near the edge of the plateau. Just as well I didn"t, though. There"ve been a couple of slides out there since I was here last-I"d hate to lose the cabin. But it"d take maybe fifty aircar loads to bring in enough pipe to drain from this site."
"It is not important." She looked around. "Where did the men sleep? There is only one bed."
*37.
"Which suited Main and Anse just fine."
"Oh? Oh, yes-what Deverel said-that we are the new marrieds."
"That"s right." Finished with his task, he closed an empty suitcase and pushed it under the bed. "You hungry? I"ll fix something while you unpack."
"I will do that later. Now I will watch you and see where everything is kept. I shall enjoy seeing Captain Tregare"s skills as cook, but I do not expect you to do it all the time, surely."
He laughed and came to her, and kissed her, but in a moment she said, "We are hungry- remember?"
DABBINGa last bit of gravy with a sc.r.a.p of bread, she decided he was not an unskillful cook at ail-whatever he did, he did well. Perhaps. . .
"Filled up, Rissa?"