“Hs-s-s, he descends!” Coppergold exclaimed. She laid her blunt-snouted head on Lissa’s shoulder, an oddly mothering gesture. Glancing about, the human looked into big eyes that were not really onyx, being so warm. “Take heart, honored one. Our waiting time has been less than it seemed; observe your chrono. Surely Orichalc lives and you will find him soon enough.”
Could any human have been quite that sympathetic, in quite that way? “May it be, may it be,” Lissa half prayed. “For your sakes too, and mainly.”
Coppergold withdrew a few centimeters. “His loss would indeed strike a blow deep into us.” The trans failed to convey a gravity at which Lissa could well guess. “He is more than a symbol, the hero who won our new home for us. He has become a leader, in ways that I fear we cannot fully explain to your kind. Yet we, like you, would grieve most over the passing of a friend.”
Side by side, surrounded now by the rest, they gazed back aloft. The teardrop shape had ceased to hover and was bound slowly down. Landing gear made contact. Through the silence that followed, the nearby screech of a leatherwing and the distant roar of a deimosauroid sounded as insolently loud as the wild blossoms were gaudy.
Lissa advanced to meet the pilot. He slid a hatch aside and sprang to the ground. For a moment they stood motionless.
He was big, muscular, coverall open halfway down the front. The head was round, rugged-faced, blue-eyed, the brown hair less thick on it than on the bare chest. Amazement paralyzed her.
He grinned and offered a hand. “Greeting, milady Windholm,” he said. “I’ve waited a spell for this.”
Her tongue unlocked. “You’re ... Torben Hebo,” she whispered.
“Last time I looked, I was.”
“But, but we called Venusberg headquarters—asking for help—do you work for them? I had no idea.”
“Not for them,” he said. “I pretty much am Venusberg. I [181] haven’t publicized it, but I am, as you’d’ve found out if you’d inquired. Me and my old partner Dzesi of Rikha. You remember her, don’t you?”
She could not have foreseen the disappointment, almost dismay that shocked through her. Nor did she quite understand. The hand she had reached toward his dropped to her side. “I can’t believe—If you’re the head of that thing, you’d come yourself?”
“That’s exactly how come I can take off on short notice, or do whatever else I jolly well please.”
“But why? Somebody who knows the search area, has the skills, that, that’s what we need.”
He scowled. She saw him curb the temper she recalled. “Look,” he growled, “Forholt Station is ours, a Venusberg base on this continent, right? I helped start it up, bossing the job in person. I’ve scrambled around in the environs. Also, just reminding you, I’ve kicked about in space for more hundreds of years and in more different places than anybody else you’ve ever met, lady.”
She swallowed. “Well, then, this is—good of you, C-captain Hebo.”
He unbent a little. “Too bad I couldn’t bring Dzesi along. She’s got a real nose for tracking. But she’s at company HQ on the far side of the planet, or rambling somewhere else and out of touch. Nobody knows much about the section we’ve got to ransack, but I can cope there as well as any other human and better than most.”
“It’s ... lucky for us you happened to be when you were.”
Now he laughed. “Not by accident. When I heard you’d come home and were visiting on Freydis—news, in so tiny a population—of course I wanted to look you up. But word also was that you don’t like what Venusberg is doing. So I squatted me down at the station, where they can use some straightening out of their operations anyway, and watched for a chance. This was it.”
Somehow, that jolted her back to—if not hostility, then a certain coldness. “We can’t stand here gabbing,” she snapped. “A [182] life is at stake. I have an outfit ready to go. Let me fetch it and we’ll be on our way. We haven’t too bloody much daylight left.”
An inward fraction of her wished flickeringly that matters were different. He had passed through her thoughts oftener during these years than she wanted to admit. And, yes, his treatment on Earth did seem to have taken at least the edges off the arrogance and crudity.
But he was still headlong and self-centered. He must be, or he’d not have been working toward the ruin of a world, merely to get rich.
If she was going to wish for the unreal, it should be that Freydis’s cloud cover didn’t blind landsats that would soon have found Orichalc on Asborg, or that the forest roof didn’t screen him from aerial search.
Hebo matched his stride to hers. Was he curious about this outpost? “I brought my own stuff, of course,” he said.
“Is it suitable for such an excursion?”
“I’ve spent more than four standard years on this world,” he answered, offended afresh. “What about you?”
She bridled in turn. “More than one fairly extensive and intensive expedition in the past. And I too have experience on several planets—including wilderness on Asborg. Some of it isn’t totally unlike what we’ll find today. We’ll take what I’ve packed. In flight I’ll inspect yours and rearrange it if need be.”
He clenched his fists and bit his lip. That was tactless, Lissa realized. Almost as tactless as he’s sometimes been toward me. But, oh, Orichalc—
Trying for peace, she blurted, “Have you any information about our wounded?”
“No,” said Hebo. “They hadn’t reached Forholt when I left.”
She had expected as much. Her group’s aircraft was capacious but slow, his the exact opposite. “I only know several Susaians and one human are hurt enough to require hospitalization, at least overnight,” he added, perhaps also wanting a truce. “How badly?”
[183] “Uldor Enarsson worst. Not to the point of mortal danger. They gave him first aid in camp, and then I went along when our flyer picked them up and did some more for him on the way back here. But I’m afraid he’ll be out of action for weeks at best, and we may have to retire him from the project, return him to Asborg. Chaos take it!”
“A Windholm client, isn’t he?”
“Yes, though actually he’s been more on Freydis than off it for decades, independently surveying and researching.”
“I know. He did first-chop work before he ... joined you.”
With an effort, she ignored that last. “My worry goes beyond a patron’s obligation. He was, is, a comrade—an equal, as far as I’m concerned. And close to indispensable. Without his information and skills, unless we can find a replacement, our progress will slow to a crawl.”
“Suitable for lizards, hey?” She glared. “Sorry, that was a bad joke, wasn’t it?” He didn’t sound overly apologetic. “But I do kind of resent the notion I’ve begun to hear about, that nobody but pure-hearted ecologists are fit to get the Susaians established. God damn it, that’s the business I’m in!”
“To get as rich as possible as fast as possible, and never mind what happens afterward,” burst from her.
“Do you expect me to work for nothing?”
They clamped silence upon themselves and stalked onward.
XXXV
AS they entered the compound, she saw him surprised. He must have been too little interested, or too busy with his exploitive business, to learn more about this undertaking than the fact of its existence.
A stockade, erected to keep animals out and serve as a windbreak during storms, enclosed a dozen buildings. Some were living quarters, some for storage or utility, one a laboratory. All were cylindrical in shape, built of rocks and hard-dried mud, roofed with sod. Chimneys showed that several contained fireplaces. Doors and fittings were wood, supplemented by sauroid leather; windowframes held glass, unclear, obviously made by amateurs from sand.
“Judas priest!” Hebo exclaimed. “How much labor went into this?”
Lissa didn’t recognize his phrase, doubtless archaic. Yes, he’d have wanted to keep many memories from his first youth. “Quite a lot,” she replied
. “Less will in future. We’re learning as we work.”
“When you could have assembled readymade shelters? We make them, you know.”
“Yes. Just as you’ve made most of the buildings and utilities on New Halla. A main purpose of this expedition to the mainland is to find out what can be done with native resources—and I don’t mean clear-cutting whole forests or poisoning the waters with tailings from mines.”
“Huh? Do you suppose, once your precious Susaians start breeding and expanding in earnest, they won’t need an industrial base?”
[185] “Of course not,” she snapped. “The wise ones, like Orichalc, want to find ways that won’t gut the planet. Besides the direct damage Venusberg is doing, it’s sapping the incentive for such an effort.”
“You mean we provide them with what they need, low-cost and now, instead of standing back and leaving them in poverty for the sake of some future Never-Never Land—” He broke off. “Well, I’m not saying they shouldn’t make inventions of their own. How does this adobe withstand the kind of rain you get?”
They’d gotten off on the wrong foot again, she thought. It hurt worse than she might have expected. But maybe he felt the same, and was trying to change the subject. “The Susaians experimented under Uldor’s direction. They found that the local soil needs only water, a little added gravel, and some hours kept dry, to set like concrete,” she answered almost eagerly. “You noticed the surface of the airstrip, didn’t you?” With relief: “Here we are.”
She led him into the hut that was hers. He peered around, but in the gloom saw little of her personal things before she had taken up her pack. They were few anyway: pictures of her kinfolk and the Windholm estates; a player and numerous cartridges of books, shows, music; a sketch pad and assorted pencils; a flute. The rest was equipment.
Emerging, they found the Susaian had likewise returned. “Not many,” Hebo remarked.
“Most are in the field, investigating,” Lissa told him. “These are busy with lab studies or chores.”
“What were you yourself doing before the, uh, incident?”
“I’ve hardly begun here, I want to help. No lack of opportunities. I was taking a party of canoers along the Harmony River. Teaching them how. This work is still mostly exploratory, research and development, but it’s beginning to assume an instructional function as well.”
He smiled. How attractive he became, all at once. “Then you received the call about an emergency, and the flyer took you off [186] and brought you to that scene. What about your tenderfeet?”
“I left them on an islet in midstream. They’ll be all right for a few days, if air transport is pre-empted that long. I can even hope they’ll learn something by themselves.”
It was as if he couldn’t keep from taunting: “The better to occupy the continents later, and breed lots of young to overrun them, huh?”
Coppergold and Stargleam approached, saving her from making an angry retort. “Are you certain you do not wish any of us to accompany you, honored one?” the botanist asked.
“Thank you, no,” Lissa replied. “My new companion claims expertise. No harm should threaten me, and we can move faster if we’re alone.”
“We are most grateful, benevolent one,” said Stargleam to Hebo.
The man grinned. “Customer relations.” Lissa wasn’t sure the trans could render that. Best if not. The Susaians did look a bit puzzled.
“Come,” she said, and walked away fast. They must be sensing the tension between her and him. It would worry them.
Silent, the humans proceeded back to the flyer, stowed her pack, and settled down side by side at the front. “Do you have the coordinates?” she inquired.
“The autopilot has them. Up in the foothills of the Sawtooth, right? We aren’t all of us tunnel-vision moneygrubbers in Venusberg, whatever you suppose.” His finger stabbed the control board. Power whirred.
And again I’ve blundered, she thought. Not that he’s altogether undeserving of it. “Apologies. No offense meant. I’m anxious, you see, tired, overwrought.”
“Then shouldn’t you have rested before we go, or sent somebody else?” His tone had smoothed. “That would have to be a Susaian, I imagine, but why not?”
She shook her head. “I dare not delay. Orichalc can come to grief at any instant. He was on New Halla till lately and has had [187] time to learn virtually nothing about wilderness survival. Besides, under the circumstances, I think I may be the only person of either species on this planet who could find him.”
If that can be done at all, she thought. The trail is already cold.
They gained altitude and bore east. The ocean, the curving shoreline slipped from view. Below them reached another sea, ruddy-brown, the crowns of trees in their millions, from horizon to horizon and beyond. Wind made great slow billows over it. Here and there gleamed a lake or the meandering thread of a river. A marsh passed beneath vision, nearly hidden by antlike forms, browsing animals that in reality were huge. Often a flock of winged creatures, thousands strong, scudded above the forest. Far ahead, cloud banks towered beneath an opalescent sky. Air conditioning made the cabin blessedly cool.
“Well—” In almost Susaian wise, Lissa felt how Hebo tried to veil skepticism. “This, uh, Orichalc, I gather he’s important?”
“Why, yes. I thought you’d remember. It was a sensation, six years ago. How he led us to those black holes about to collide, at risk of his life, such a scientific prize that my House was glad to award him the island he asked for.”
“Oh, that one? Of course. I’d forgotten the name, that’s all. Asborg may be just a quick flit away, but we on Freydis, we’re preoccupied—isolated—” He drew breath for an explanation he’d have to make sooner or later. “And, to tell the truth, Dzesi and I lie as low as we can. You must’ve heard Venusberg is a joint stock corporation. That’s a front. Forty-nine percent of the shares are held by her Trek back on Rikha, where the nominal president is, and we two have the rest. That’s how come you didn’t know I was even on Freydis. You’d have had to search databases of forgotten news items to discover it.”
“Why the secrecy? Doesn’t seem like you.”
“To keep journalists and other pests off our tails and out from under our feet.”
[188] Insufficient reason, she thought. He’s holding back something. But what, and why?
The Venusberg operations may not be advertised, but they aren’t hidden. I wish I could say outright that what I learned about them when I came home was what brought me here, dismayed, indignant, hoping I can make such a position for myself among the Susaians that I can get something done to curb the destruction.
No. Not now. I can’t afford a quarrel. Yet.
She swallowed. “Well, I’m grateful you came out of hiding to help.”
He gave her a glance. His tone mildened anew. “Orichalc means a lot to you, plain to see. After what you went through together in space.”
“And our correspondence and meetings since then. Any life matters, of course, but his more than most. They revere him on New Halla. His words, his leadership may make all the difference in what happens during the next few centuries. He came to the mainland to learn for himself, in hands-on detail, what’s being accomplished there and now. The whole idea, which the Old Truth itself promotes, is not to destroy the natural environment but to fit into it.”
“As if you could do that without causing an upheaval’s worth of changes.” Hebo sighed. “Hey, I don’t want a fight, But could I ask you to study some history? Pioneers, voortrekkers, yeah, they do your minimalist, economical sort of thing. They haven’t the means to do more. But after them come the farmers, the miners, the cities, the factories—and that’s the end of anything you could call nature.”
“We’ve kept Asborg green.” Mostly.
“Domesticated,” he snorted. “Manicured. What virgin growth and wildlife you’ve got are in carefully managed reserves. Anyway, the case is completely different on Freydis, and you know it.”
/> At the aircraft’s speed, they were already beyond the coastal plain. Ground rose in swells and ridges, still densely overgrown [189] but with lighter-hued foliage and frequent shrubby openings. Rainclouds shrouded the Sawtooths themselves and spilled westward beneath the high permanent overcast.
After a silence too full of the thrum and whine of their passage, Hebo said, “I’ve got to admit the problem today isn’t clear to me. All I was told, in the hurry everybody was in, was that a camp had been attacked by predators, several persons were hurt, including the human leader, and one was missing. Your Susaian friend, it turns out. Doesn’t he have his radio bracelet on?”
“Radio collar,” Lynn corrected. “No, but that wasn’t due to carelessness. The trouble was unforeseen—unforeseeable. The Susaians were familiar only with New Halla, an island, and getting some acquaintance with part of the continental seaboard. Uldor had worked in the highlands, and deemed the time ripe to start exploring and experimenting there. In many respects, he said, they might prove to be the best site for the first mainland colony.”
Hebo nodded. She hurried on: “Orichalc went along to observe. The Susaian leaders need to know how these efforts are conducted. Uldor’s party was conveyed to a suitable spot and left to itself. The first couple of days went to settling in. Then everybody relaxed last night, before commencing their studies. They held a party to celebrate. Perfectly sober, Old Truth believers don’t use recreational drugs of any kind, and Uldor might have a single well-watered shot of whiskey if he’s feeling expansive. They saw no need to post a watch when they went to sleep, but did. In short, they took every precaution.
For Love and Glory Page 17
