by Dale Olausen
The other days she was on base duty aboard the spaceship. She had quickly discovered that there was not much for her to do during base duty - the idea was that there ought to be a couple of people available for immediate action, should some emergency come up.
There had been no urgency in the Captain's voice, nor in the message that had come over the intercom. Sarah did not think, therefore, that either of the planeting crews had run into trouble. Perhaps Cherrie had got herself into some scrape - now, that was a possibility. Sarah quickened her pace. She had already developed a concern for "the ship's kid" equal to that of any of the other members of the crew.
When she reached the Control Room, however, she had a surprise. Dav Castilo was not presiding over any equipment malfunction, nor was he tearing his hair out over the tracer that kept track of the child. Instead, he waved to her from the computer screen, where he appeared to be checking out some information, and gestured to her to make herself comfortable in the coffee corner. Sarah turned to obey - and stopped in her tracks. On one of the chairs in the corner sat Roger Delmen, his bulk spilling over the edges of a seat designed for slim spacers, one formidable hand curled around a delicate coffee mug.
Sarah swallowed her astonishment and unease, and walked over to the corner with a display of nonchalance which she did not feel. During her days of base duty she had made a point of avoiding the Malloran as much as possible. She thought that she had succeeded admirably well, catching only occasional glimpses of him during the mornings before he left to do his field work. But now it was early afternoon, and here he was in the Control Room, and Castilo had summoned her, too. What was going on?
Roger answered her polite greeting with a brief grunt. She, once again, was uncomfortably aware of the Malloran's eyes on her; there was something distinctly unpleasant about the way he had of watching her from between narrowed lids. Possibly he found her attractive, but if that was the case, he was sadly ignorant of even the rudiments of flirtation. Nervously she stepped up to the drink dispenser and obtained a cold drink. Then, placing the glass on the corner of the table she seated herself as far away from the Malloran as she tactfully could.
Would Dav ever come over to explain what this was all about?
He came shortly, of course, apologizing for the delay.
Once he was seated, he dove directly into the matter at hand. "Roger has come to me with a request for help," he said simply, his eyes on Sarah. "Your help."
Sarah raised her eyebrows questioningly and he continued: "Perhaps it would be best if Mr. Delmen himself explained the situation to you." He turned to look at Roger.
"Of course. Certainly." The Malloran shifted his bulk as he spoke, his tone quite civil for once. Apparently, he was capable of showing some manners if he so chose.
"The problem is," he began to explain, addressing Sarah, "that my soil-testing apparatus has been sabotaged."
"Sabotaged?" Sarah could not hide her astonishment.
"Indeed. I made rather a mistake yesterday," Roger continued, and Sarah refrained from rolling her eyes in shock.
Roger admitting to a mistake! What was this?
"I performed a number of tests in a particular spot. When I finished I was in a hurry to get back to the ship before dark. It seems that in my haste, I packed up carelessly and left the soil-testing kit lying under a tree. This afternoon when I went back to finish the tests, I figured that I'd just pick up the forgotten kit and that would be that.
"Only, when I got to the kit, I had a surprise. Somebody - something - had broken into the kit during the night and had taken apart everything that they could.
"The parts seemed to be all there - stacked into neat piles, no less - so it occurred to me that somebody who knows something about machines could maybe put them back together. Otherwise I'm in trouble; soil tests are an important part of my job."
"So you see, Sarah," interjected Castilo with a smile, "it really does look like you are the one who is needed."
Sarah nodded.
"If all the pieces really are there, and nothing essential is broken, I'm sure that I can put the thing back together," she agreed. "Where is it? Can I see it?"
Roger grinned with pleasure, then looked the slightest bit uncomfortable.
"I left the stuff out where I found it," he said. "I was worried that I'd mess things up if I started handling the pieces. Some of those parts are awfully small, and I didn't want to risk losing anything."
"But aren't you worried that the creature, or creatures, or whatever, will come back and maybe carry the whole works away while you're sitting here?" Sarah asked, incredulous.
The Malloran shook his big head firmly.
"Not likely. I haven't seen much animal life out there and certainly nothing that could take apart a soil-sampling kit. Whatever did it must come out only at night. If you come with me right away maybe you can have the thing fixed before dark."
Sarah could not help but be intrigued. A soil-testing kit pulled apart by some dexterous alien beings! This was interesting enough to make her almost forget how unpleasant a character the Government biologist was! But....
"I'm on base duty," she said shortly. "I'm not free to up and go fix your machine."
Castilo chuckled as he watched the play of expressions on her face.
"I think that Cherrie and I can manage without you for a few hours, Sarah," he offered. "If you're willing to go and fix Roger's machine by all means do so. I'll have a tracer on Roger's flyer, and you'll have a communicator, so that if we do suddenly need you we can get hold of you without delay."
"Thanks, Dav." Sarah grinned cheerfully. "I am curious to see what exactly the creatures did. And I'd love to see the creatures themselves!"
"Not much chance of that if they're nocturnal," protested the ship captain. "We're not about to let you out exploring at night-time. And even if we did, well, it's pretty dark out there when the sun's down. We're at the very edge of the galaxy and this planet has no moon. You wouldn't be likely to see much."
"That makes the whole thing all the more interesting," laughed Sarah. "If it's so dark at night how did Roger's creatures see to do what they did?"
"Beats me," growled the Malloran heaving himself out of his seat. "But they did do it. And I need the kit back together. So - can we get moving on it?"
Chapter Eight
Roger's little flyer glided quickly over the scrub that Sarah had explored on her first day on the planet. Soon, they were flying over the round plateau inside the circular mountain range. The Malloran steered across some heavily wooded territory to where a narrow stream interrupted the forest growth. To Sarah's surprise a small glade opened up before her eyes. Roger brought the flyer down, landing it gently on the greenery beside the water.
Sarah climbed out onto the dull green turf and stared about her, enchanted.
"Lovely," she commented, savouring the unspoiled beauty of the spot.
Roger grunted assent.
"The most promising world I've seen so far on this trip," he muttered. "There's something about the soil, though. I don't know, I'm not sure I like it. But I can't pin the problem down since I didn't get all my tests done."
"So where are the pieces of your kit anyway?" Sarah asked, anxious to get down to business. Somewhere deep inside of herself, she recognized a wish that further tests would, indeed, prove that this planet's soil was unfit for colonization. Human settlement would shatter the peace, and ruin the beauty of this world, she thought.
Roger led her across the glade to where a broadleafed tree spread its branches, shading a small portion of the turf from the heat of the orange sun. Here, on the plateau, the warmth of the big sun was more evident than it had been on the windy mountainsides. Sarah was glad to slip into the shade to examine the curious piles of machine components that the Malloran pointed out to her near the trunk of the tree.
"Is this how you found them?" she asked him. It looked to her as if the parts had been meticulously sorted according to size.
&n
bsp; Already Roger was sweating in the afternoon heat. He wiped the perspiration from his forehead and nodded.
"I never touched a thing. And obviously, just as I expected, the little devil that did the deed hasn't been back."
The ground around the base of the tree was bare. Sarah scrutinized it carefully, searching for any stray components. She found none; everything was in the neat piles, including the two halves of the metal case which had housed the kit.
Sarah carefully picked up these halves, shaking her head as she contemplated the thoroughness with which Roger's "little devil" had done its mischief.
A moment later she was laughing out loud. "Can you believe this?" she exclaimed to Roger who was still looking on. "The rascal even took the lock apart!"
She lifted the kit halves up for the Malloran to see.
"Well, I'll be damned," he said with a shake of his head. "But then, I suppose that explains how it got into the kit in the first place. Think you can put it together again?"
Sarah nodded, turning to open the small satchel of tools that she had brought along. Drawing out a couple of tiny screwdrivers she set to work on the lock and hinges of the casing.
"If you can give me a couple of hours," she said.
The Malloran glanced at the sun and nodded. "I'll grab some equipment from the flyer and run a few more tests on the insects around here."
Sarah turned her full attention to the soil-testing kit, or the components thereof. She failed to see the look Roger threw at her before he headed for the flyer. Had she seen it she likely would not have worked as calmly, nor with the absorption that she did. There was something in the biologist's smile to make one think of a cat that has cornered a mouse.
Sarah laboured diligently in the shade of the large tree, stopping only once to discard the gloves of her protecto-suit. In spite of the thinness of their material they interfered with the precise motions needed to put together the minute components of the kit. Fortunately the tester itself had been manufactured from solid state components, which could not be interfered with without the help of complicated tools. The "little devil" had not been able to do anything to them. Everything else had been fair game.
At last the tedious task was done. Sarah looked up and saw that the orange sun was barely touching the peaks of the western mountains as she slid the last piece into its place.
Sighing with relief, she closed the lid of the housing. She did not lock it; obviously, the lock had not been very useful.
Was Jodi's crew preparing to return home for the night, she wondered. Had they, or Jasson's crew, come any closer to finding the elusive entrance into the tunnels that they all believed to crisscross the inside of the mountain? For ten days now the planeting crews had been checking out leads without any success. How long was it going to take before the Witches' Stones were located?
Sarah picked up her gloves and stuffed them into her pocket. Then she gathered up the soil-testing kit and her satchel of tools and stepped out of shade of the big tree.
She was thirsty and the water in the little stream looked clear and inviting; after depositing the kit and the tools in the flyer she walked down to the brook and crouched down to drink from her cupped hands.
"All done?"
The Malloran loomed over her as she teetered in the awkward position. She swallowed the delicious water before answering.
"All done," she replied, turning to look at him as she struggled to rise. How big and ominous Roger suddenly seemed! She shuddered at the vacant expression on his face. What the hell…had he been indulging in dream-leaf while she had been fixing his kit?
"It looks like you finished in plenty of time for us to have ourselves a little fun," he said and laughed at her, ogling her trim body.
"Fun?" Puzzled, she frowned at him, and he laughed a little louder.
Not dream-leaf! This had to be something worse—much worse! What was it that Fiana had spoken of, on RES…?
"Yes, little sweetie, little spacer from Earth, some fun. Don't play coy with me. I know what spacers like."
Sarah stepped backwards, almost stumbling as one foot splashed into the stream. She stared at the Malloran, aghast. Surely he couldn't mean that - ? A spasm of disgust ran through her body.
The big man's face turned ugly at her reaction.
"So you won't have it, will you, you little bitch, you skinny little snit from nowhere! A flat-chested icicle from Earth! You should consider yourself lucky that someone from the centre of the galaxy would want you! You ought to be grateful!"
He reached out to grab her. But, small and slight as she was, she was able to evade his arm and slip out of his reach. His hand clutched at air and his angry bellow rang in her ears. She risked only the quickest glance at his enraged face and broke into a run, heading straight into the forest!
*****
The world beneath the leafy canopy was a realm of shadow. Sarah squeezed her eyes shut to block out the alien environment, but there was no way to blot out the awful memory of the scene she had escaped. How long had she run heedlessly, carelessly, in the unknown forest before a bare root had tripped her progress, sending her to sprawl face down on the damp earth?
She lay there motionless. Slowly she became aware of the hard ground under her body and the sound of her own heart pounding. Her nose, too, was relentless as it registered the rich, living scent of the alien soil. Then, because there was nothing else to be done, she opened her eyes and drew herself into a sitting position. She slid her hand along the belt of her protecto-suit, knowing even as she did so that the searching fingers would not find what they were looking for.
The emergency kit and the stunner that should have been clipped to the belt were not there. She had left them inside Roger's flyer, thinking that they were an unnecessary nuisance in the heat. Now they might just as well have been at the other end of the galaxy for all the use they were to her.
She buried her face in her hands and moaned. No communicator with which to call for help. No emergency rations or medical supplies to help her survive. No stunner with which to protect herself from possible predators! For what seemed like a long time she sat whimpering on the ground, her body quaking with fear. She had run blindly from one horror, just to come face to face with another!
Panic, like all other emotions, is transitory. It was the discomfort of the hard, damp ground underneath her buttocks that at last dragged Sarah out of her stupor. Once normal thought-processes kicked in, her survival instincts came to rescue. It was much too early to give up and die.
"But what can I do to help myself?" she asked out loud. Maybe the sound of her own voice would keep the terror at bay.
"Think clearly," she ordered herself. "Surely there's something I can do if I could just think of it."
She shifted her body into a more comfortable position and eyed the shadows around her thoughtfully. She had better take stock of the situation, bad as it was.
"One." She lifted a finger to count. "I'm on an alien planet, lost in an alien forest.
"Two." Another finger stood up. "I don't have a communicator with which to contact the Beth, I don't have a stunner, nor any other equipment.
"Three. It'll soon be dark. Four. Even if I did know which direction to go, the only person I could possibly reach before dark is the one I ran away from."
Nothing sounded promising. Yet, she couldn't just sit there on the ground and cry. She got up, wiping the dampness from her eyes and looked around at the surrounding shadows. She was desperate for some idea about which way to start walking.
Her eyes roved among the tree trunks and suddenly stopped at one which was considerably thicker than its neighbours. Just a moment! She peered up at the leafy canopy, and her innate optimism returned. There in front of her stood a tree with a trunk so thick that it must stand taller than any of the others! If she could just climb it maybe she could see something of the surrounding country! Then she would be able to make an intelligent guess as to the direction in which she should head!
> It was certainly an idea worth exploring. Since it seemed like the only available option, Sarah was quick to act on it. Fortunately the tree had branches aplenty, the first ones separating from the trunk not too high from the ground. She was easily able to make the leap necessary to grasp the lowest branch. Once she had accomplished that, the rest of the climb was simple. In fact, in spite of the seriousness of her plight she found herself taking a childish pleasure in the task; she recalled that back on Earth, years ago when she and her brother Cam had been very young they had one summer had the opportunity to do a lot of tree-climbing. A tree like this, Cam would have labelled "an excellent climbing tree".
Her calculation that this tree must tower above its neighbours turned out to be correct. Its leafy crown still loomed high above her as she emerged from the canopy into the warm glow of the late afternoon sunlight. She kept right on climbing until her weight sent the tree swaying, perhaps not dangerously but enough to make her uneasy. Then she stopped to take a good look around her, hoping to gain some useful information from the vista before her.
The first thing that she noted, however, was that the big, orange sun was close to setting. She did not have much daylight left to get anywhere. Biting her lip, she fought a swell of panic which threatened to engulf her, and forced herself to make a calm study of the scene. Where was the glade from which she had run? If she could find it, all she would need to do was to hide among the trees around it until Roger left. Surely the glade would be the first stop of any rescue crew that the Beth would send out to look for her. But nowhere could she find the break in the tree cover that would have indicated the glade's location - how far had she run in her terror?
But wait, she could see a winding line in the canopy - why, that had to be the stream! It did not seem to be too far away; with luck she ought to be able to reach it before dark!
The stream ran through the glade. If she could not find the glade at least the stream was a vaguely familiar landmark. While in Roger's flyer, she had noticed that the stream had its source somewhere on the mountain which the Explorers were combing! If she travelled upstream along it she would be moving in the right direction!
