[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Kai slipped out and, using lift-
belts, managed to bring the power packs back to the shuttle.
"Bonnard was right. We've got to make a move," Kai told them as the survivors
huddled together, still shaken and shocked by their ordeal. "Come dawn, the
heavyworlders will return to survey their handiwork. They'll assume the
shuttle is still here, buried under the stampede. They won't be in any hurry
to get to it. Where could it go?"
"I know where," Varian said.
"That cave we found, near the golden fliers?" Bonnard asked, his tired face
lighting.
"It's more than big enough to accommodate the shuttle. And dry, with a screen
of falling vines to hide the opening."
"Great idea, Varian," Kai agreed, "because even if they used the infrared
scan, our heat would register the same as adult gifts."
"And that's the best idea I've heard today," Lunzie said briskly, handing
around peppers which had been overlooked by the heavyworlders in the piloting
compartment.
It required a lot of skill to ease the shuttle out from under the mountain of
flesh but Lunzie knew it had to be done now while Kai and Varian held on to
their Disciplined strength. The two managed, with Bonnard assisting in the
directions since he'd been outside.
By dawn they had reached the inland sea and manoeuvred into the enormous cave,
every bit as commodious as Varian and
Bonnard had said. Not one of the golden fliers paid attention to the strange
white craft that had invaded their area.
"The heavyworlders don't even know this place exists," Varian assured them
when they were safely concealed.
Triv and Dimenon used enough of the abundant drooping foliage to synthesise
padding to comfort the wounded on the bare plastic deck. Lunzie sent them out
again to get enough raw materials to synthesize a hypersaturated tonic to
reduce the effects of delayed shock. Then everyone was allowed to sleep.
Lunzie was one of the first awake late the next day. Moving quietly so as not
to disturb the exhausted survivors, she cooked up another nutritious broth in
the synthesiser, loading it with vitamins and minerals.
Page 217
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Guaranteed to circulate blood through your abused muscles and restore tissue
to normal," she said, serving up steaming beakers to
Kai and Triv who had awakened. "We've slept around the chrono and half again."
After checking the binding on Kai's arm, she massaged his shoulders to work
out some of the stiffness before she ministered in the same way to Triv.
Thanks. How long before the others rouse?" asked Triv, gratefully working his
upper arms in eased circles.
"I'd say we have another clear hour or so before the dead arise,"
Lunzie answered, holding a beaker of soup to Varian. "I'll need some more
greenery to fix breakfast for the rest of them."
They filled the synthesiser with vegetation from the hanging vines that
curtained the cave's mouth. Weak sunlight, as bright as Ireta ever saw, shone
in on the shuttle's tail through the tough creepers.
By the time the others awoke, there was food.
"It's not very interesting, but it's nutritious," Lunzie said as she handed
around flat brown cakes. "I'd do more with the synthesiser, but how long can
we depend upon having the power last? And the heavyworlders might detect its
use."
Varian set the children to keep a lockout at the cave opening, warning them
not to hang beyond the vines. Bonnard thought that was wasted effort.
"They're not going to look for people they think they've already killed."
"We underestimated them once, Bonnard," Kai remarked. "Let's not make the same
mistake twice." Duly thoughtful, the boy took a lookout post.
A very long week went by while the survivors recovered from shock and injury.
"How long do we have to wait for the Theks to come and save us?"
Varian asked the three Disciples when all the others had gone to sleep. "They
would have had your message within two hours after you sent it. 'Mutiny' ought
to stir their triangles if 'heavyworlder'
didn't."
Kai upturned his hands, wincing at the stab of pain in his broken wrist. "The
Theks don't rush under any circumstances, I guess. I
had hoped they might just this once."
"So, what do we do?" Triv asked. "We can't stay here forever. Or avoid the
heavyworlders' search once they realise the shuttle's gone. I know Ireta's a
big planet but it's only this part on the equator that's barely habitable.
Even if we stay here, we've got to use energy to produce food. We could get
caught either way.
They've got all the tracers and telltaggers. They have everything, even the
stun-guns. What do we do?"
Every instinct in Lunzie shouted "NO" at the obvious answer but she voiced it
herself. "There is always cold sleep." Even to herself she sounded defeated.
"That's the sensible last resort," Triv agreed. Lunzie wanted to argue the
point but she clamped her lips firmly shut while Kai and
Varian nodded solemnly.
Page 218
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"EV is coming back for us, isn't she?" Triv asked with an expressionless face.
Kai and Varian assured him that the
ARCT-10
would not abandon them. The richness of their surveys was on the message
beacon to be stripped when the
ARCT
had finished following that storm.
The beacon Portegin had rigged outside the cave, camouflaged as a dead branch,
would guide the search and rescue team to them.
"With the sort of ion interference a big storm can produce, it's no wonder
they haven't been able to make contact with us," Varian said staunchly but
none of the others looked as though they quite believed her.
Lunzie kept trying not to think of the word "Jonah."
"Good, then we'll go cold sleep tomorrow once the others have been told," Kai
decided briskly.
"Why tell them?" Lunzie asked. She would rather get the whole process over
with before she lost her courage.
"They're halfway into cold sleep right now." Varian gestured to the sleeping
bodies, startling Kai. "And we'll save ourselves some futile arguments."
"It's a full week now and at the rate carrion eaters work on Ireta, the
heavyworlders may have discovered the shuttle is missing,"
Triv said ominously.
"There's no way the heavyworlders could find a trace of us in cold sleep. And
there's a real danger if we remain awake much longer,"
Varian added.
With the other Disciples in agreement with a course she herself had
recommended, Lunzie rose slowly to her feet. Unwilling as she was, she went to
the cold-sleep locker and tapped in the code that would open it. She really
hated to go into cold sleep again. She had wasted so much of her life living
in that state. It was almost as bad as death. In a sense, it was a death - of
all that was current and pleasant and hopeful in this segment of her life.
But she gathered up the drug and the spraygun, checked dosages and began to
administer the medication to those already asleep.
Triv, Kai and Varian moved among them, checking their descent into cold sleep
as skins cooled and respirations slowed to the imperceptible.
"You know," Varian began in a hushed but startled tone as she was settling
herself, "poor old Gaber was right. We are planted. At least temporarily!"
Lunzie stared at her, then made a grimace. "That's not the comfort
I want to take with me into cold sleep."
"Does one dream in cryogenic sleep, Lunzie?" Varian asked as
Lunzie handed her a cup of the preservative drug.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]