Making sure that Mafkona was safe, Ama again took up his pole and with its help threw the corpses of the dead animals into the water. Then he, with the same quant, feverishly began to push off from the shore and gradually freed the raft from roots and branches. The vessel, after hitting the plants several more times, finally got rid of them and the travelers felt that the river was carrying them freely again.
Soon a long distance already separated them from the shore. Ama turned to Mafkona and stared at her curiously for a while and then asked what had happened and how she had managed to get her maser back.
“First I dropped it into the water and then I dived down and found it at the bottom,” the girl replied.
Then she undressed completely and wrung out her clothes. Ama, meanwhile, directed the raft toward the middle of the river.
Chapter 87
The colonists gathered again—this time in the refectory and not at the entrance to the former ship, as at dawn. Usually in the morning the wind was almost imperceptible, but today its hot breath continuously shook the branches of the apple trees. Ro sometimes hid in the leaves, and sometimes suddenly peeked out among them, forcing those facing it to either squint or protect their eyes with a palm pressed to their forehead.
“The time is one o’clock. Ama, Mafkona and Omis have not brought the crystal. Bame and Em have not returned. It is time to send rescue teams,” Arfina said loudly, trying to drown out the rustle of the leaves. “We already have a plan according to which one squad will consist of six people, the other of four.”
“Why such numbers, not more or not less?”Fom specified.
He had already become tired of using his hand as a visor. He got up and turned his stool so that he now sat sideways to the luminary.
“It seems the trip to the crystal deposit appeared unfeasible for three people. Therefore, we consider that the group intended for this route should be twice as large. We also took into account that perhaps these three cannot move independently. Because of the last reason, four people will go to the ocean,” the girl explained.
In response, Fom said nothing; he just nodded pensively.
From that moment on, Gimi, one of those who’d helped Arfina draw up the plan, continued to recount its contents. He first combed his short, black hair like bristles with his fingers, then stood up, leaned against the apple tree while extending his arm to the side, and began, “We will send a detachment to the actual crystal deposit. If it does not find our lost comrades, then it must extract the mineral and return to the colony without deviating from the route or dividing during the march. The second group will go to the ocean and if it does not find anyone there or along the way, it will also return back, not dividing anywhere. Who is ready to go on an outing?” he asked at the end.
Everyone wanted to help their comrades, but those who had attuned the HPP were initially excluded from the list of comers. As a result, according to the drawing of lots, four girls comprised the group of crystal seekers: Bef, Caf, Guf, Nef, and two men: Hemu and Lomo.
The second group consisted of two females: Arfina with Hafa, and two males: Kam and Nim.
Eight girls: Daf, Efe, Fof, Ifi, Jef, Kuf, Lif, and seven youths: Cim, Dme, Fom, Im, Gimi, Jum, Memi and Pamo, were supposed to stay home to finish the work needed for the interstellar translation. Those who’d gotten into one of the squads began to prepare for the march.
While assembling the rescue teams, Arfina felt an inexplicable uneasiness. But after they were done with it, her anxiety only increased. In order to finally deal with her feelings, she came up with nothing else but to send a roll call signal to everyone present.
The colonists, looking at her in puzzlement, confirmed its receiving. Frowning, Arfina took a deep breath and sent another request: a signal of general gathering.
“Arfina, is this some kind of experiment?” Gimi asked. “Why are you calling us? We are all here.”
“No. I cannot see Fof. Who can see her? Why is her device not answering the call?”Arfina answered him with tense questions.
Hearing her words, the young people began to examine each other. Fof really was absent. Several people simultaneously launched the space channel. Arfina had forgotten to do this because of the excitement.
Chapter 88
“I wonder how long we slept. How much time have we lost?”Ama asked, when the raft had returned to the middle of the river that was lazily carrying them in a night darkness slightly diluted with starlight.
Splashes of water, apparently caused by the activity of river residents, sometimes disturbed the reigning silence. The sound of Ama’s quiet words freely, without any obstacles, spread over the surface of the current.
After a rather long pause, Ama again broke the stillness, “It is hard to speed up these heavy logs with oars.”
They’d sailed another several minutes when Mafkona asked, “Why do we need logs at all? We chose them for fear of the BRLC-1s. So, since they do not live in the Quiet, nothing would threaten us on our inflatable raft here.”
The young man looked at her for a while and then just nodded several times.
They began preparation for replacing the vessel. Mafkona turned on the maser’s flashlight and pointed it at the backpack. Ama carefully took out of it a piece of folded fabric with the crystal inside of it. Then he returned the mineral back to the bag, which he carefully placed in one of the corners of the raft. Mafkona put the maser in the same place and directed its light to the opposite corner so that it illuminated the entire raft. In such more or less tolerable conditions, they managed to hermetically connect the edges of the fabric and assemble the mattress, which they inflated in turn.
The wayfarers untied their plastic oars from the sticks, and Ama laid them on the mattress. Then he lowered the inflatable raft into the water and held it until Mafkona shifted to there. He handed her the backpack, the ax, and the maser and then moved toward her himself.
Gradually, their impenetrable, heavy ship fell behind and remained in the night. Now they floated on their lightweight air mattress and rowed as fast as they could. In fact, these efforts lasted rather a short time. The exhausted scouts got tired very quickly. They were managing to hold out for about ten minutes and then fell on their backs, unable to move or even to utter a word.
During another rest, Ama said in a hoarse voice, “Ro is rising. I wish we could determine the distance to the colony in daylight.”
“I have a feeling that this expedition will never end,” Mafkona said, panting. “It is as if these two days have lasted longer than my entire previous life.”
“Yes, and besides, now it seems to me that three days ago I was a child,” Ama added.
When the light arriving from the east had accumulated in sufficient quantity, the young people began to examine the coasts with hope. At such distances, however, they saw almost nothing discernible, only that there were forests on the elevated right bank, and that the left one was even.
“Let us move a little closer to our side,” Ama said, and they directed the raft to the right.
The scouts detected nothing familiar even after they’d approached that western shore. It didn’t surprise them; the colonists had never studied the hilly north. On long journeys they went only to the ocean, and having examined its shore they’d stopped visiting it long ago. Now their interest lay only in the west, because the farm could be expanded only in that direction.
“Where is that hill?” For the first time during the entire campaign, the girl lost her composure. “We have done everything. Will such an insignificant thing as a short nap really deprive us of contact with Earth?"
She meant the height on the north side of the clay quarry, which had the appropriate name: the Northern. This landmark would show them that they had almost reached the settlement. Without seeing it, they couldn’t determine their location and the distance to their goal.
After these words, Mafkona suddenly stiffened and stopped rowing. She raised her head, looked up at the sky, and as soon as she sa
w where Ro was, she sighed loudly. The girl had realized that the day star had already moved too far from the horizon, that the time was up.
She asked her companion without turning her head, “Ama, are we late? Do we already have no time to make a lens? Is it all in vain?”
The youth first looked at the girl, puzzled. Then he followed her gaze and looked at the sky for a while. At last he realized what Mafkona was talking about, and said in a cheerless voice, “We will see; let us keep rowing.”
The travelers resumed their efforts. Despite their hunger, a sleepless night, exhaustion and pain, they acted as a mechanism that still works, although its resources had expired long ago.
Another ten minutes passed and the endurance of the travelers reached its natural limit. However, Ama somehow managed to turn his head and look in the direction of their movement, to see if anything familiar was visible. There, in the distance, the banks seemed to merge with the river, and in the haze of the vapors become indistinguishable from it. This view looked as though near the southern horizon the Quiet became even wider.
The frustrated traveler turned his head back and lay down on the raft. But soon he felt as if some kind of splinter, like a pebble stuck in his sandal, was scratching at his mind. It insistently demanded that he look to where they were advancing.
Ama held himself back for a while but at long last he sat up, half turned his body back and looked into the distance. This time, after a rather long scrutiny, he finally saw the cause of his concern—a dark spot far away on the right bank. Because of the haze, it trembled and seemed like it couldn’t be part of the land.
However, the closer they got to this strange object, the clearer Ama saw the familiar eminence and the three tall plants atop it. It couldn’t be anything else. He, like the other colonists, had visited the quarry many times and knew the place perfectly.
“Mafkona, I can see the hill,” Ama said tensely. “It is about one and a half kilometers away… maybe. If we row without stopping, we will reach the colony in about half an hour.”
Chapter 89
Although Fof knew precisely which plant had stirred and now she was looking directly at it, she still couldn’t see anything. At that moment, she felt a vibration on her wrist and glanced at the UD. She found that eight people were calling her simultaneously. In response, the girl pulled out a wireless interface from the device and inserted it into her ear—in this situation nothing should limit her field of vision.
“I am in the clay-pit now. There is something in the bushes and I am trying to see it. I have no weapon.” She informed her comrades in a low voice.
“We will take masers and come to you,” Nim answered her first. “In the meantime you… where are you exactly? How far is this suspicious place from you?”
“I am between the Northern and the Southern, in the middle of the excavation,” Fof answered without raising her voice. “The distance to that bush is about thirty paces, it is directly to the west of me.”
All of them had been to the quarry many times, and therefore perfectly understood what kind of bushes she was talking about.
“Fof, go to the Northern and stay there near those tall plants until our arrival. Do not run, go slowly.” Nim continued to communicate with her.
“Understood,” the girl replied calmly. “I will wait for you near the trees, and in case of danger, I will climb one of them. Now I am switching on the camera and you yourself will see what is happening here.”
With that, she pulled the lens out of her UD and pointed it at the questionable bushes. Then she pressed her wrist against her waist to make her arm more stable.
The familiar shrubbery surrounding the quarry from the west appeared on the monitors of her comrades. In the frame, over time, one plant gradually gave way to another. Seeing this, her viewers realized that Fof was walking really slowly.
Nim and three more colonists, almost without taking their eyes off their UDs, hurried to get their masers. They weren’t even half the distance to their homes when the image on screens changed dramatically. First, the branches of one of the bushes swayed, then it completely disappeared and instead, the southern hill appeared on their displays.
The young people realized that the girl had stopped, turned to this bush and was examining it. Nobody asked questions so as not to distract her.
“Now the trees are about fifty meters away,” she whispered. “Should I run or not? The bush is swinging again.”
“Keep walking smoothly,” Nim said. He felt more confident than the others and therefore only he gave advice to the girl. “Choose the tree that you will climb.”
“I already have,” said the girl, and from the picture on the screens the young people realized that the girl had resumed her march.
Fof took a few steps and then suddenly the picture twitched and simultaneously alarming but distinct words sounded, “Three LC-1s, I am running!”
“Look down, do not stumble, they will not catch up with you!”Nim quickly gave another instruction.
After that, since Fof was waving her arms while running, her comrades couldn’t see anything. They only heard the heavy breathing of the girl who was trying to avoid mortal danger.
The next moment, on their UDs, the colonists transiently saw three running predators. The larger one led its two smaller fellows by about half its body. Apparently Fof had turned around for a moment to see if the animals were catching up to her. From this glimpsing picture they determined that the beasts were seven or eight steps behind her.
“Oh! This branch is much higher than it seemed at first glance, I may not get to it.” Fof’s voice sounded from the UDs, disappointed, but still firm.
“Gather your strength, breathe in before jumping and exhale right at the moment of the push,” Nim was talking clearly and evenly as before, “If you do not manage to grab the branch, run to the river, maybe they will not follow you into the water. We are running.”
The rest of the young men and women just watched their monitors though without seeing anything on them. Predators were running after their unarmed comrade; they knew that but couldn’t help her. The founders of a new civilization were now experiencing another unwelcome feeling: helplessness. Thus, unpleasant feelings were gradually added to their lives, as to the life of any teenager. The fence of Eden around them was irreversibly collapsing.
Meanwhile, the image on the UDs had changed dramatically again. This time it seemed that Fof had stopped, and vice versa, the grate-like leaves of the tree rushed to the camera lens.
The young people understood: having jumped, Fof had stretched her arms out forward to grab the lower branch. Each of them understood the significance of this moment. And as if deliberately driving their excitement to an extreme degree, this moment lasted further and further, refusing to end. The young people waited—would Fof manage to reach her goal or not? Would chaotic pictures recover on their screens, or would they stop when the girl grabbed the plant?
Unfortunately, the hand with the camera fastened to it flew for a very long time, indicating that it couldn’t reach the target. Now the colonists could only guess how much time Fof had spent on this jump. What if after she missed the branch and, instead of landing on her feet, she stumbled and fell and the predators seized her?
The image suddenly stopped. The Neians hadn’t yet even understood what had happened when the picture moved again. They held their breath, but after a moment, they saw that the image had started pivoting around its horizontal axis. It took only a split second for the youngsters to grasp what had happened. They’d seen similar videos more than once and knew for sure that now Fof was performing a gymnastic trick—a somersault around the horizontal branch.
They immediately heard confirmation of this: “I did it!”
Her agitated voice had complemented Fof’s heavy breathing. “I turned around the branch and I am climbing higher; now they definitely cannot reach me.”
After a short pause, her conversation resumed, accompanied by a jumping image a
nd intervals for gasps, “I will ascend a little more and show you.”
“Fof, you have acted accurately and skillfully,” Nim spoke to her again. The settlers who had stayed in the colony heard that the sound of heavy breathing had already admixed with the sound of the young man’s speech.
They gradually relaxed and regained their ability to breathe freely, but yet they didn’t even try to talk to Fof: what if Nim wanted to tell her something important and their chat hindered him?
“Look at this,” the girl said in the meantime, and the three LC-1s appeared on the screens of her comrades.
The beasts lifted their heads up and gazed with their oscillating eyes at their would-be victim. Their leader periodically waved its trunk and thrust its claw into the ground. Fof calmed her breathing a little more and said, “Do you see they have laid siege to this plant? They seem to be ready to wait until I come down from the tree.”
This time Pamo, running together with Nim and also breathing heavily, entered the conversation, “Let them wait. If they get impatient, you can stop them by feigning a descent. They cannot be released. They have come too close to the settlement. We will be there soon.”
“I understand,” Fof already was answering in her usual voice.
Then, making sure the animals were not yet about to leave, she looked around. It turned out that, although she hadn’t chosen the tallest plant, it still stood closest to the water. At that height, Fof could inspect a part of the river she had never seen before.
Chapter 90
Morning Ro covered the huge river with its bright light and made the pale-yellow surface of it look like a field of colored glass. The great waterway flowed idly. It carried not a log, not leaves, not algae and twigs, or anything at all.
Having surveyed this view for some time, Fof looked down to see what her guards were doing. Before that, near her bank she saw a black spot up stream. The girl carefully peered at this distant point, but quickly grasped that with her naked eye she couldn’t discern what it was. Fof wanted to use her UD but changed her mind. Anyway, the thing would float past her tree and she could examine it later, she reasoned.
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