"No." He had removed the curious tube from his back. From the tube he pulled a tight roll of what appeared to Varian to be synthesized fabric, light, waterproof, and durable enough to have lasted forty-three years. He spread the fabric with a practiced flip on the ground, piling the choice chunks of meat and covering them quickly, folding over the edges of the fabric to prevent insects from attaching themselves to the meat. "I'll meet you there in three days time."

"Will it take that long to return to your base?" Varian could not keep the astonishment from her voice.

"Not at all," he said, severing more choice morsels. As he added these to the pack and covered them, he glanced skyward. Varian followed his gaze and saw that the carrion fliers were massing in their circles. She also noticed the three giffs to one side of the others and wondered if Aygar did. "We have to be quick after a kill. Or be mistaken for the corpse by those. No, I shall be in my home before nightfall but my fellow exiles must be told of this happy re-establishment of contact with other worlds."

He had what Varian judged to be fifty or sixty kilos of meat. Lashing the tube to the base of the meat, he deftly added straps, padded where they would cross his shoulders, and made a portable package. One eye on the scavengers, he now rinsed his arms from a water bottle, then covered them with mud, scooped at a distance from the slaughtering ground. Then he swung the pack to his back, settling the pads properly. He stared at her so intently that a faint stirring of alarm prompted her next action.

From a pouch on her upper arm, she took out the dark plastic box in which she once carried stimtabs. He could see that she had something in her hand but not what. She pretended to depress a switch with her thumb, holding her hand close to her mouth.

"Unit Three to Base. Unit Three to Base." She made a disapproving noise. "Recorder's on. They've all left the encampment!" She gave Aygar an angry glance. "Base, I have made contact with survivors, coordinates 87.58 by 72.33. Returning to Base. Over." She operated a thumb switch again and then replaced the box in her pocket. "Leaving for base at once. They'll hear about this. In three days then, Aygar, and good luck!" She swung away from him walking rapidly toward the sled.

From the corner of her eye, she saw him set off at a steady jog and sighed in relief. For a moment, it seemed to her as if he might do something. A glance at the sky showed her that Aygar's departure might have been a signal and she a negligible danger, for the scavengers were backwinging to land. Out of the grasses other creatures slunk toward the feast. She was relieved to be so close to the sled but only felt completely safe when she had fastened the canopy overhead.

She guided into the clouds to head southwest. She caught sight of him again and marveled that he could run so easily, burdened as he was and after the exhausting chase. There might be something to say for implantation after all if the process resulted in such superbly fit people.

She wished she had a working wrist unit to tell Lunzie about the survival of the mutineers as well as the slanted account passed down to their descendants. She wished she could have figured out a way to ask Aygar if his people had encountered the creature that had attacked Kai, and if they knew what could be used to cure him. On the other hand, she now knew that the second camp had been abandoned. She debated the wisdom of continuing to it since it would be unlikely she'd find anything of value to her. Certainly none of the equipment Lunzie needed. Of course, if Kai were not considerably improved, and Varian refused to consider the worst, she had a good reason for approaching Aygar again today. Surely his people must have encountered the leech-creatures and might even have developed an antidote for the toxemia. She could say that another member of her landing party had been attacked — which was true enough anyhow. She grimaced at the comunit on her console and suddenly realized that the device was operative, even if there was no where to communicate to. But, Varian told herself cheerfully, there were four other sleds with equally undamaged comunits. They could wake Portegin, have him utilize what matrix slabs were necessary from one or two of the sleds and repair the shuttle's smashed unit, at least for intership communications. That would give them two, maybe three sleds available for use. It might not be enough to reach a passing EEC ship outside the stellar system but certainly they'd be able to reach the Thek again. Or the Ryxi.

Varian grimaced at the thought of having to appeal for help to the Ryxi: how they would flaunt that news about! More vital, she didn't want the Ryxi to know more about the giffs than they already did.

Kai had to recover. After the mutiny of the six heavyworlders, their situation had been difficult at best, desperate at the worst. They had emerged from cold sleep in a very much improved position, despite Kai's injury. The mutineers had had their own problems on Ireta and Varian felt that her initial contact with the younger generation had established a position of undeniable superiority. Or had she? Something about Aygar's manner toward the end of their encounter bothered her. That's why she had instinctively invented a "contact" with a "base."

She could feel the laxness of her muscles as Discipline eased. She ate the rest of the fruit, inadequate though it was to replenish her energies. Why hadn't she thought to take a pepper with her, she wondered peevishly. Probably, she amended her own forgetfulness, because the last peppers had been used to overcome delayed shock after escaping the stampede of the herbivores.

She smiled as she recalled Aygar's legend of that incident. Did he know how silly it was for six people to be deliberately abandoned to form a colony? He didn't know the first thing about genetics. Well, yes, he must if he'd mentioned breeding.

It was fatigue more than curiosity that made Varian decide to continue on to the old camp. She'd be safe there and able to snatch an hour's sleep before the return journey. She was so nearly there anyhow, she might just as well have a look.

Chapter FOUR

The rain, combined with a dismal heat mist, made the site more desolate than she remembered it. She'd spotted a stand of fruit trees on the final leg of her journey and, hovering the sled, had picked the upper branches free of succulent ripe yellow globes. Consequently she felt less weary when she glided the sled to land on the square of the old secondary camp. And it did look ancient.

The original dome, which would have been comfortable for two people, was missing but the space it had occupied was an ovoid barren of all growth in the center of an octagon of long stone buildings. Tiny plants now grew in cavities where wind blown dirt had accumulated. The buildings had been so well built that Varian wondered why the mutineers had moved. Of course, just then the rain kept the insects away, but there would be a superb panorama of the surrounding plains, not that she supposed the heavyworlders had indulged themselves that way. Most of the visible buttes supported crowns of trees, heavily vined, but the area adjacent to the octagon had been cleared several meters on all sides and covered with a concrete which, to be sure, was now cracking as the more tenacious vines reclaimed their customary dominion. Beyond that apron was lush growth, but the buildings — she couldn't call them homes or houses because of their forbidding aspect — claimed her attention first.

As Varian approached the nearest, she saw that the windows had been glazed yet when she rubbed away grime, she could barely see through the dense and irregular glass. When her eyes had compensated for the gloom, she could see the interior had been stripped of everything but the stone shelving set into the corners of each room. The only door was made of stout wooden panels, coated with some glossy substance which obviously protected the wood against the depredations of Ireta's insect life. Set above the handle of the locked door were four metal tumblers, coded to some pattern, for the handle would not move at her touch although the tumblers rolled easily under her thumb. A cursory examination of the other seven buildings told her they were identical; four rooms, two on either side of an entry hall. The windows were too narrow for any but a young child to climb in or out of. With such stoutly built dwellings, why had they moved? There was plenty of room for expansion on the bluff top.

She went beyond the octagon and saw out buildings, two with chimneys well blackened even after decades of scouring rain. One proved to be a forge and marks on the concrete behind it indicated the complete removal of another installation, as well as the squat thick form of a kiln. What power would they have used for the forge? Water? Up here? No, but there was no shortage of wind! She had become so accustomed to the buffeting of the almost incessant breezes that blew from moderate to gale force through the course of every Iretan day, that she'd almost missed the most obvious and easiest power source.

Paskutti had not been idly bragging when he'd said that he and his band could survive nicely on Ireta. If Aygar was to be believed, and the barbed steel tip of his lance gave fair evidence of metal craftsmanship, they didn't need the Federated Sentient Planets. Maybe not the FSP, thought Varian, kicking at the mud, but they'd need a larger gene pool or their community risked dangerous inbreeding that could wipe out all they had achieved.

She should reserve her sympathy for her own problem — Kai's restoration — and she wasn't getting any help on the bleak butte. But she couldn't resist the urge to peer into the buildings set apart from the living quarters. They might provide her with a measure of information on the quality of life the mutineers had established for themselves. With metal-working, glass manufacture, windpower, pottery, they'd achieved a commendable basic standard. One long building, down slope and nearer the luxuriant growth, attracted her interest since it was so obviously set apart from the industrial sites. The door faced the brush and Varian paused, puzzled. Despite the wild profusion of lush vegetation, something about the area struck her as odd. Then she realized that the fruiting trees were placed at regular intervals, and each row was comprised of different types. Moving closer, she saw metal stakes holding up another form of vine from which thick pods hung: a series of thorny bushes bore huge red berries, then another stand of trees and beyond the trees, against a low retaining wall were smaller plants, weed vines choking them and, on the wall, tucked into niches as if by design, a curious feathery purple moss.

Purple was not her favorite shade after the mold, Varian realized, even as she had to admit that she was looking at an overgrown garden. She turned then to the long hut and observed what she had failed to notice at first — it had no windows. A storehouse for the garden's produce? Yes, for now that she was closer, she could see the carved panels in the door. Vines, trees, and plants were each so carefully delineated on that door that even someone with little botanical knowledge would be able to identify the specimens once the carvings had been memorized

What had Aygar said? They had learned a long time ago to balance their diet. Varian recognized the carotene-rich grass from the Rift valley which the giffs as well as Tyrannosaurus rex had needed. Turning constantly to check against the door's carvings, Varian found each of the plants growing in rows in the neglected garden. Divisti, the expedition's botanist, must have been responsible for that catalog of Ireta's edible flora.

Varian pushed her way through the overgrowth, gathering fruits which she recognized, until she reached the vine with pods. One split with ripe readiness as she touched it, exposing large pale green beans. The bean had a wholesome smell. She bit, taking the smallest possible morsel to roll about in her mouth, tensing to spit out an.un-welcome flavor. But the taste was mealy, the flesh of the bean crisp, but so satisfying that she consumed the contents of the entire pod greedily. She ate as she gathered the beans, as much as her arms could hold. Then she strode back to the sled, depositing her harvest. She had wheeled back toward the garden when she exclaimed in exasperation. Climbing into the sled, she guided it to the garden.

As she picked and plucked, she was careful to take samples from each row of Divisti's garden, including the caves or tufts of the various wall plants. She wondered if Divisti had ever thought her garden would one day succor those the Heavyworld botanist had once tried to kill. At the foot of the garden, held back by thick staves, Varian came at last to a fine stand of the thick-fuzzy leaves that the giffs had brought her for Kai's wounds.

"So, the bloodsucker got to you, too, huh?" Varian was subtly pleased that one denizen of this planet caused the heavyworlders more pain than pleasure.

When the sled was as full as possible, she checked once more that she had a sample of each variety carved on the door of the storage barn. Elated by the unexpected dividend, she set a straight course for the giff palisades, cutting due south and speeded on her way by a smart tail wind.

She was astonished, then, no more than five minutes in the air, to see the recognizable figure of Aygar trotting along a twisting ravine.

Two thoughts occurred to her at once and she diverted the sled to come up behind him.

"Aygar, I must speak with you," she said, and sighting a ledge beyond him, settled the airsled, waiting until he came up to her before she slid down to his level. "I've been trying to find you. Base reported to me. One of our party has been attacked by some — some — thing..."

"Which sucks blood?" he asked quickly.

"You know it?"

"We call them fringes."

"Fringes?" Varian masked her shock with an understandable curiosity. Surely those aquatic life-forms that Terilla had named "fringes" had not been amphibious. She shuddered with revulsion.

"They come in a variety of sizes," Aygar went on, "are warmth seekers and fasten onto their prey, preferably lying on it, otherwise enveloping it between their two halves — "

"Their what?'

"I don't know what your training is, Rianav, but surely you have seen strange life-forms before Ireta." Aygar knelt, taking one of his knives to draw a fringe in the dust. "They move by collapsing the parallelograms of the side: they have two digits here and here, and can use them to clasp their envelope tightly about the victim, if it is alive. If not, they settle on it, and eat away!" He shrugged with indifference. "One can usually smell them coming but, of course, you haven't been here long enough to know, have you?'

"Two days," Varian found herself answering far more casually than she felt because, again, that curious reticence held her: a reticence evidently not stemming from Discipline. "But, if you know about these fringe things, you know how to treat them?'

"The victim's still alive?" This gave Aygar some surprise.

"Yes, but unconscious and delirious, bleeding profusely from the worst of the... puncture wounds."

"I thought exploratory teams were equipped with belts to protect them from — "

"I don't know whether his belt was activated or not," said Varian severely in a tone that implied she intended to find out if any basic precaution had been neglected.

"If he doesn't die in the first few hours, then the punctures reached no vital areas and he'll survive. If you're near the original campsite, find a squat thick trunked plant with leaves like this: they appear covered with a soft down or fuzz." He neatly sketched the leaf with which the giff had supplied them. "Gather the thickest ones, squeeze them directly over the punctures and keep repeating the treatment until the wounds seal." 'I'm told he's running a very high fever..."

"Use an antipyretic, of course. When that didn't reduce the fever, one of the original members of our group used a parasitic purple moss which usually grows on the north side of the green plum or yellow juice melon trees. There ought to be some nearby. Boil the moss, let it steep, and get it down the man's throat. Tastes vile but it will reduce fever."

Aygar rose, shifted the burden of meat on his shoulders and started off.

"End of interview," Varian murmured to herself. She was too relieved by the information he'd given her to take offense at his curt departure or his lack of real surprise at seeing her again so soon the same day.

She scrambled up the side of the ravine and back into the safety of the sled as fast as if a fringe had been homing in on her blood warmth.

Terilla's fringes! The same aquatic life-form that the giffs took care to avoid when caught in their grass nets. And if the creature was basically amphibious, no wonder it had lasted a long time after the other water-breathers had died. But that had been a small creature, like an almost transparent kerchief. Yet Varian recalled all too vividly the voracity with which the sea fringes had flung themselves after the reflection of the sled on the water. She stared at her hand a moment as if she could imagine what that same fringe could do, folding itself into a sucking envelope...

She shook her head: she was suffering the depression and enervation of the post-Discipline state. She reached for more of the pods and munched slowly at the beans: they were even more satisfying than the sweet fruit.

Purple moss, huh? That same purple moss that had grown in Divisti's wall, no doubt. She wondered if she'd taken enough, but at least she knew what to harvest.

The trip was exceptionally profitable though one discovery displeased her a great deal: forty-three years was a long time for ARCT-10 to have remained missing. And not long enough for a small sea creature to develop into something large enough to attack a man. To be sure, the larger species might have existed on Ireta when the expedition had first landed; they'd barely explored the continental basement shield area before the mutiny.

Varian shuddered again, reminding herself that one reason for her revulsion of the fringes must in part stem from her experience with the blood-sucking Galormis — by day so friendly, by night deadly.

The rain cleared and the omnipresent mists dispersed as the setting sun took a final look at the world it had spawned. The giffs were behind and above her, their golden selves glorious against the muted haze of the western twilight. She hadn't noticed them when she was on the compound bluff, nor when she had intercepted Aygar. Nonetheless she felt they'd made the entire journey discreetly within sight of her.

Krims! but she was tired. Now, if she could keep her wits about her, and the light held long enough to land inside the cave... Other giffs whirled up from their vantage points to escort her the last few kilometers and she was touched by the courtesy, if that's what it was. Had the giffs, as well as Lunzie, worried over her long day's absence?

She made a good landing, considering she was aiming her sled into a dark hole, faintly illuminated on the left by a small campfire. She let the sled down at the far right, bumping just once as she misjudged the uneven stone floor.

Is Kai improving?" she called as she flipped open the canopy.

"Yes, but we've run out of leaves again," Lunzie said, rising from her position beside Kai's bundled form.

"I've more and food besides. And a helluva lot to tell you."

"Any equipment?'

"No, but I have a specific remedy for that fever," Varian took the purple moss from the piles of food in the sled, offering it to the medic who accepted it skeptically.

"This?" Lunzie smelled it. "Why?'

"Highly recommended by a local resident." Varian grinned wearily at Lunzie's reaction. "Yes, I ran one down. Oh, it's all right. I made out that I was one of a relief team. He's Bakkun's grandson." She offered the information with a huge grin, as if it were the best joke in the galaxy.

Lunzie fingered the moss for a few more seconds before she searched Varian's face. "Grandson!'

"Yes, we cold-slept forty-three years."

"Well, it's not much longer than I'd estimated," Lunzie said, and Varian was deflated by the medic's calm acceptance. "What else have you here?" Lunzie peered at the dark mounds in the sled.

"Everything's edible, and this sort of pod bean tastes better than the fruit. Just how is Kai?" she asked, struggling out of the sled and trying not to stagger too much as she crossed to Kai's supine body. "Has he recovered consciousness yet?" She all but collapsed beside him.

"No, but the fever is down a little. Hold still a moment," Lunzie said. Before Varian realized what the medic was doing, she'd the spray icily stinging her arm.

"You shouldn't waste it. I've so much..."

"It's no waste," Lunzie was saying, her voice getting farther away as consciousness left Varian. "You can't see yourself but you're drained white. Did you use Discipline all day long?'

Chapter FIVE

Varian came awake by degrees: the first one being her awareness of voices in low earnest conversation, either too far from her for the individual words to be audible or too soft to keep from rousing her. She thought to get up, but it proved difficult to assemble the energy. Could she have been in cold sleep again? No! She was resting, rather comfortably, on a bed of springy boughs, not the flat plasfloor of the space shuttle or the dust of the cave. She felt an occasional breeze waft across her face and exposed hands.

She didn't feel so much tired as disinterested. Yet, in the back of her mind, a spark started with the observation: she had so much to tell Lunzie. Sneaky of her to knock Varian out like that.

She continued to listen and realized that two men were speaking. Then Kai was better! It was good to hear him. But he wouldn't be well enough in three days' time to join her against Aygar. They'd better wake Portegin and get the technician functioning. No way was she meeting Aygar, and whoever accompanied him, in three days time without strong support. And if she was this tired after a day's use of Discipline, would she recover sufficiently in three to draw on that inner reserve again?

What was it about Aygar's manner that bothered her? The expression in his eyes had been wary, speculative, evaluating, not at all the reaction she might have expected from a man making first contact with off-world visitors! That was it! He had been expecting someone. Not her. And not someone who could best him in personal combat.

Varian became conscious of a rich, nutty smell. Her stomach began to rumble and her mouth to salivate. She stirred restlessly, keenly aware that she was very hungry.

"I told you that the stew would get to her," Lunzie said suddenly. Varian opened her eyes.

Lunzie, Triv, and Kai made a semicircle on one side of the crude hearth, complete now with a spit and crane from which a pail hung.

Varian propped herself up on one elbow. "Whatever it is, I'm starving."

"Lunzie mixed a bit of everything you brought in and it turned out very tasty indeed," Triv said, filling a smoke hardened fruit shell with the mixture. He presented this to Varian and, with a flourish, added a rudely carved wooden spoon.

"The amenities of home have improved." Varian made an appreciative chuckle. "How's Kai?" she asked in a quieter tone. Although Kai was propped up, he was far too passive for her liking.

"We started to revive Portegin," Triv said, squatting beside Varian so his body shielded her from those at the fire. "Kai's still feverish. Says some kind of giant fringe attacked him. He's not recovering as well as Lunzie would like," he said in a quick whisper, then raised his voice to a normal level. "Kai thinks that once we have the matrix slabs from the other sleds, we can rig communications, probably patch most of what Paskutti smashed."

"I was hoping that we could, Triv." Varian tasted the stew then began to devour it as fast as she could. "This is delicious!" It was natural then for her to get up and join the two at the fire, and natural for her to pause by Kai before refilling her bowl. His color and the lassitude were alarming, and the smile he gave her was strained. "You look much better than when I last saw you."

Kai gave a derisive snort. "I can't have looked much worse than I feel now."

"Why?" Varian went for a light touch. "Didn't you like the purple moss Divisti grew just to cure your fever?'

Kai grimaced in such disgust that the others laughed.

"It makes a very effective antipyretic." Lunzie broke off with a wry grin. "I wonder what Divisti's reaction would be if she knew how much it was going to help us." Then she turned to Varian, with no humor in her gaze. "You did say, last night, that we'd cold-slept forty-three years?'

"I'd have told the rest of my news if I hadn't been so rudely interrupted," she said with a sour glance at Lunzie who only grinned back.

"You did fall asleep at a crucial point," the medic said. "Are any of the mutineers still alive?"

"Only one. Tanegli."

"You met him?" Kai asked.

"No. I met a sturdy young man named Aygar. An accomplished young fellow who was busy killing a fang-face with a barbed metal spear."

Kai made an expression of utter disgust. "Accomplished?'

"His strategy was good," said Varian, seeing no point in going into needlessly distressing detail.

"Do you know if they're in the secondary camp?'

"They abandoned that for a more suitable site."

"Where was Divisti's garden then?" Kai's tone was querulous.

"I'll start from the beginning — "

"When you've finished that second bowl," Lunzie said firmly.

Varian ate with indecorous haste and pleasure, glad of the opportunity to organize her thoughts. Feeling revitalized as she scraped up the last of the tasty stew, she began her account of the previous day's incidents with the unexpected escort of the giffs.

The listeners, and gradually Portegin became aware enough to listen, too, did not interrupt with questions, letting her narrative flow. Lunzie's eyes had a malicious sparkle as Varian gave a very brief account of overpowering the young Aygar, adding that he'd just finished a rather exhausting race to out distance an enraged fang-face. Varian noticed that Kai frowned over that show of strength. Well, perhaps she should have restrained her actions there but she sincerely doubted she'd ever catch Aygar unawares again, or best him. All four listeners, commended her for posing as a representative of a new expedition in search of the first. The only hazard to that blatant lie would be a confrontation with Tangelli.

"But he's reported to be frail and not expected to live much longer," Varian said.

"Let us devoutly hope he is not included in the party you meet then." Lunzie brought her brows together. "What I do not understand is why he, one of the oldest of the heavyworlders, has survived when the younger ones, like Bakkun and Berru, are dead."

"How long would their heavy-gravity advantage last on a light world?" Triv asked.

"Unless they found some way to simulate heavy-gravity conditions and exercise under them — "

"Well, they would have had to man handle all the stone they build with up to the bluff," Varian said, "and there were eight large buildings plus six or seven smaller ones, with slate for roofs."

"That would have helped," but Lunzie's tone was hesitant with doubt.

"If they all indulged in 'chase-the-fang-face-till-it-bled-to-death'," Varian said with considerable acrimony in her voice, "they didn't dare get fat."

"Obviously, their descendants have no such problem, and inherited physiques capable of considerable muscular development," Lunzie continued. "Since this Aygar depended on physical endurance to out run an enraged predator while it was bleeding to death, and then tried to take you on, Varian, the strength factor is still on their side. I think we'd better attend that meeting in force and in Discipline.

"Right, Kai?"

"I'll be with you, Varian!"

Even as Varian nodded agreement, her eyes flicked to Lunzie's and registered the denial the medic would not voice.

"We must have communications, though." Varian glanced toward Portegin, who was looking more alert now.

"I'm sure I can rig something, especially if the sled units are operative. With that many matrices available, I might even fix what Paskutti smashed in the shuttle — at least for planetary use."

"I wish we had some kind of long-distance defensive tool," Varian said, scratching her ear. "There was something in Aygar's manner that worries me, but I can't figure what!'

"What sort of weapons did he carry?" asked Portegin.

Varian described the crossbow and Portegin laughed. "We can do better than that if Lunzie has any anesthetic left?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Lunzie said, a trifle surprised. "Not much," she cautioned, holding up her hand, "but enough to provide for a few medicated bolts."

"Good, then all I need is some hardwood and I can contrive a dart gun that would immobilize your crossbow user before he could cock it."

"So long as we get to shoot first," Varian said.

"You'd better!" Lunzie's expression was as uncompromising as her tone.

"I don't want to shoot anyone," Varian said. "Cold sleep didn't change my moral values."

"No, just drastically changed our circumstances. We're five..." and Lunzie's finger did an arc including them all, "against I haven't figured out how many progeny in two generations from six parents. We had few advantages over the heavyworlders to begin with, and have fewer now that they're completely ensconced in terrain we haven't seen. They're very well adapted to the environment." She nodded at Kai. "You gained an advantage yesterday, Varian. We've got to maintain it, such as it is, no matter what we have to do to keep it. We can't keep in constant Discipline. Above all, we have to protect the sleepers!" Her arm swung back toward the shuttle.

"I'm consoled by the fact that the giffs take that on themselves," Kai said.

"A point, but only when none of us can assume that responsibility." Lunzie turned back to Varian. "Aygar gave you no indication how many people are in the new settlement, or why they left the old?'

"He was as wary of me as I was of him... once we agreed not to fight anymore. But there were eight buildings in the camp they had abandoned, and the dome had evidently gone with them, for there was a circle where it had stood in the center of the octagon the other buildings formed. Each house had four rooms. And except for built-in stone shelving, they were empty."

"Four times eight gives 32 which tells us nothing, really, said Lunzie. Tardma might have been able to produce two, maybe three children; she was the oldest. Berru and Divisti could have born a child a year easily for twenty or so, if they were forced to. I hazard they alternated paternity and kept track of whose was whose, to have as wide a gene pool as possible — "

"They'd still be in trouble by the third or fourth generation when recessive — "

"As I recall their medical records," Lunzie gently interrupted Kai, "Bakkun, Berru, and Divisti came from different genetic stock than the other three, who were from Modrem in the Cluster. There's also a freak genetic twist that prevents recessives from surviving on Heavyworld planets. The babies are either shipped off world or..." Lunzie sighed, continuing briskly. "So that six are, were, the finest physical specimens, with nary a blurred chromosome for three or four generations back of adjustment to heavy-gravity worlds. Prime breeders."

"Aygar resembles Berru," Varian said for no reason at all except the long thoughtful pause had to be broken.

"Then I'd be more careful than ever with that young man. Neither Berru or Bakkun was short on brains."

"Which is why I never figured they'd join Paskutti," Triv remarked. "How could they have fallen for Gaber's rumor that we were planted."

"But we have been," Varian said, unable to contain laughter that bubbled up in spite of her realization of the incredible odds against them. "At least until ARCT-10 remembers they left us here. Kai, did Tor say anything to you on your way to the compound?'

"I was far too busy hanging on to talk. And when we got to the compound, Tor began to search for the core so I went looking for the sleds. I'd just found them when I heard Tor blasting off." He shook his head as he remembered his unworthy thoughts at that moment. "When I got back to the compound, I saw it'd left the power pack with a lifter, and the cavity where it'd found the core."

"It never even waited to see if the sleds were operable?" Portegin asked.

"Well, those sleds are built to withstand tremendous pressures and adverse conditions," Kai replied, temporizing.

Lunzie snorted.

"Then Tor may be back?" asked Portegin.

"I wouldn't count on it, Portegin," Lunzie said. She had been busy at the hearth and now brought a filled shell to Kai. "I know it tastes vile but it brought your temperature down. Drink up."

"It smells vile, too," Kai said, regarding the purple liquid with distaste.

"Which means it does you more good," said Varian with a laugh.

Kai drank it all in one gulp. His violent shudder was no affectation and to take the taste away he quickly sucked at the slice of fruit Lunzie handed him.

Varian covered her smile. Kai was becoming dependent on natural foods despite his aversion to them. She was a bit startled to realize that Lunzie was advancing on her with a stern air. The medic's fingers closed on the younger woman's wrist, timing pulse rate.

"I'd prefer it, Varian, if you could take a full day's rest after your exertions — "

"We both know I can't, Lunzie. Triv and I have got to retrieve the other sleds."

"I could go along and dismantle what we need," Portegin suggested.

"You're not ready for that sort of exertion yet, my friend," Lunzie said.

"I'd rest easier if we got all the sleds here."

"Don't see any problem in that, Kai." Triv rose to his feet and extending a hand pulled Varian to hers. "That four-man sled will easily take the other two, lashed into the cargo bed. All Varian 'll have to do is watch out for the fringes."

"You can smell them coming," Kai said.

"That's why Varian has to come along," Triv said. "I can't smell anything but Ireta yet."

"From which direction did it attack you, Kai?" Varian asked.

"Behind." Kai grimaced. "I'd just locked the power pack into position and turned when it rushed me. I thought it was just a larger dose of Ireta's usual stink."

"Wait a minute," Lunzie called as Triv and Varian moved toward the sled. She rummaged under the stores and then held both hands high. From one hung a thick coil of rope, from the other what could only be a force-field unit and, more miraculous still, a wrist comunit.

"Where did you find those?" Varian leaped over the fire in her eagerness to examine the prizes.

Lunzie permitted herself a grin at the effect of her treasure trove.

"Bonnard had the unit and the forcebelt on. Remember the mutineers never caught him so he had all his gear. You wear the forcebelt, Varian. I doubt the fringe would suck electrical impulses for long. The rope," which she tossed to Portegin, "I synthesized out of our very plentiful vine."

Varian buckled the forcebelt on and felt reassured by its weight about her waist. Lunzie strapped on the wrist unit.

"Now, you can keep me informed. Time's a wasting." Lunzie gave Varian an encouraging grin.

"Just don't forget the odor, Varian," was Kai's parting advice.

Varian and Triv hauled the sled to the lip of the cave on the far left so the air cushion would not throw dust on the fire and the convalescents. Just as they dropped over the edge, a treacherous draught caught the sled and Varian had all she could do to correct the downward plunge of the craft. Immediately they were surrounded by giffs, heads anxiously pointing seaward, although what the creatures thought they could do to save the sled, Varian didn't know.

"How could they spot that we're in trouble?" Triv cried, straining backward in his seat, his eyes glued on the water rushing to meet them.

Out of the corner of her eye, Varian caught a flash of thick, suckered tentacle, felt it bang against the sled's rear flange. Then the giffs attacked the appendage, their sharp beaks slicing into the flesh until it fell away.

"By the first Disciple, that was too ruddy close," Triv exclaimed as Varian fought for an upward air passage. They had skimmed the surface of the sea itself.

Circling up and back toward the cliff at a safer height, they looked down. The tentacled monster, propelling itself after the vague shadow cast by the sled, writhed as the giffs continued to dive until it was forced to submerge.

"I think I better rig some sort of wind indicator at the mouth of the cave," Triv said, more to himself than to her. "If it hadn't been for those giffs..."

Varian, aware that she was trembling from reaction, heartily endorsed Triv's idea of a wind indicator. Then they were above the cliffs and suddenly drenched by the torrential rains that had accompanied the treacherous wind squall.

The rains had passed by the time they had reached the first compound. The sun was having its noon time look. Steam rose from drying foliage, which encouraged the myriad biting, sucking, buzzing insects to swarm about the sled as Varian made her landing. Triv was silent beside her, but it wasn't until they were down, that she realized why.

"It seems only yesterday..." he said in a low voice, staring about the deserted natural amphitheater. His gaze went from the spot where the main dome had been, to Gaber's cartography unit, to where the mutineers' accommodation had been. Then his lips thinned and his eyes hardened.

"The here-and-now is more important, Triv," Varian said.

Because she had the belt, Varian insisted that Triv stay in the safety of the canopied sled while she attacked the vegetation that covered the remaining sleds. She found the stick Kai must have used, its point dug deep into the soft loam. She flailed away at colonies of slugs, worms, and multilegged insects which had made burrows between the sleds: a mini-ecology that at another time she would have enjoyed examining. When she had the worst of the vegetation cleared, Triv emerged. It took their combined efforts and much sweaty heaving to lift the sleds free of a dirt that had a consistency of hardened adhesive. But then the sleds had been settled deeply on their edges for over four decades.

"I can't see any breaks in the substructure," Triv said, running knowledgeable hands along the side panels.

"This model sled's come out operational from worse battering, not to mention the slime sand on Tenebris V," Varian said, settling herself at the control console of the four-man sled. "Now, for the tricky part." Turning off the forcebelt, she wet her finger to test the prevailing wind. "You stand well to my right and move when the wind shifts. The purple mold 'll bubble up like Divisti's moss tea." She retrieved another feather from her breast pocket and saluted Triv with it before she reactivated her forcebelt. "Don't let this stuff touch you, even if it gets me," she added as she used Portegin's seal breaker along the line. She strained her body away from the console as the mold boiled from its prison. Varian kept the panel in front of her face as the light winds dispersed the frothy fungi. She prodded with her feather at clumps momentarily caught on the lip of the unit. When she was sure that the worst had been blown away, she began to clear the delicate matrix panels, tickling the corners where fungi might hide, and slipping the tip of her feather in and under, back and forth into every part of the console. Then she dusted the control panel.

When she had refitted and scaled the unit, she motioned to Triv to install the power pack.

"I won't take time to dust the other panels now, Triv. Let's strap 'em in the cargo bed and get out of here." Varian felt uneasy. She could smell nothing unusual, even when she turned off the forcebelt to be sure it was not filtering the nauseating sea odor that would herald the arrival of a man-enveloping fringe.

The two sleds fitted easily across the cargo section and Triv secured them deftly with stout twists and knots. After two hours of intensive labor, they had accomplished their task. How oddly comforting to know what time had passed again, Varian thought. She frequently consulted the console chrono during their labors. She asked Triv to take the four-man sled, since he was stronger and more rested than she. She maintained a position to his port so that she could see both his hand signals and watch the lashed sleds in case they should shift in adverse winds.

She caught Triv's first signal the moment they were fully airborne but she saw no shift in the sleds. Then she saw him pointing upward and noticed the three giffs veering in to take up their escort positions. She'd had such a fright with the marine beast that she hadn't even noticed their out-going escort. She chuckled to herself, wondering if these were the same three, or if they flew escort in rotation. Had their discreet surveillance somehow prevented a fringe attack? She must remember to ask Kai if the giffs had accompanied Tor's craft, though she doubted it, at the rate of speed Tor could travel.

Their return journey was without incident. Varian took the small sled in first, reversing at the hover and getting as close to the space shuttle as possible to give Triv sufficient room to maneuver. He parked the four-man sled neatly against the left-hand side of the cave. Lunzie and Portegin, moving with some residual stiffness from his long sleep, helped to unload.

Portegin was for starting his project immediately but Varian cautioned him about the purple fungus. So they positioned a sled with its nose well over the cave edge, secured by rope to the heavier craft so that the wind, now sweeping down over the cliffs, would blow the fungus away from their living quarters.

"I see how to do it, Varian," Portegin told her a bit impatiently.

"Let him do it," Lunzie said, unbuckling Varian's forcebelt even as she protested.

"I feel fine."

"That's because you haven't seen yourself," Lunzie replied with a disparaging sniff. "You need as much restorative as I can pump into you."

"I'm tougher than I look," Varian said. She whirled around when she heard Kai laugh.

"If I have to listen to Lunzie, so do you, co-leader. Now sit down here, take your medicine, and suffer with me." Kai motioned her to sit beside him.

Varian did so, thinking it was the first time she'd had a chance to look at him since his injury. He seemed better but red blotches still marred his forehead and hands. Lunzie handed them each a shell bowl.

"More moss?" Varian asked seeing the color of Kai's.

"I've fixed the taste," Lunzie said.

Varian sniffed at hers, expecting the rich smell of the morning's stew. "Krims! What'd you put in this?'

"What's good for you! Drink it." And she turned away to ladle portions for everyone else.

"She has fixed the taste," said Kai after a sip and pulled himself to a sitting position. "But only after I made her sample it." Kai grinned. "Whatever she added makes me hungrier than ever. I'd eat anything handed to me and ask for more." He drained his bowl and picked a small red fruit from the pile beside him.

"Kai! You're eating fruit! Fresh fruit!"

"I told you I was hungry enough to eat anything! Even this — this natural stuff!"

By the time the two sleds had been cleared of fungi, with Triv's assistance, Portegin had began to reassemble the available communications matrices. While Triv and Varian had been away, Portegin dismantled the damaged shuttle comunit. The slabs were laid out under more of Lunzie's plasfilm to protect them from the dust and debris that the wind blew about the cavern. Portegin shortly began muttering about doing delicate work with a hammer and tongs. He crouched like a troglodyte while Triv suggested that he transfer his operation into the big sled and the protection of the transparent canopy. Lunzie grudgingly surrendered one of her few medical probes to be heated to seal the connections.

"The joints won't last as long as they would if I had the proper equipment but they ought to hold well enough," Portegin announced after thanking Lunzie for her sacrifice.

Triv offered to assist Portegin as the man's small-muscle control showed the effects of long disuse. They rearranged the seats in the larger sled and came across unexpected riches. Tucked between the seat back and the curve of the hull were two stunguns, three force belts, and a lift unit for power packs, rolled tightly up in a spare coverall.

"Bonnard, that clever scamp. He must have hidden them, while the mutineers were mauling us in the shuttle," Varian cried, dancing about with the belts and guns held high in jubilation.

"D'you suppose he hid anything else in the other sleds?" Kai asked.

They searched thoroughly, but the food packs which Bonnard had secreted had been penetrated by insect or fungi and were empty.

"Disinfected, these tubes'll make good containers," Lunzie said.

Portegin was to make the last find, the most important one, and that only by chance, for the curve of the blunt sled had concealed it well. His hands found the real treasures: eight matrices, still in a film coating which even the purple fungus had been unable to penetrate, five tiny separators, several dozen stun-capsules, and another wrist unit. The items had been glued to the surface by some gummy substance that had long since hardened. Over the decades it had become brittle so that Portegin's touch had loosened the riches from their unlikely hidey-hole. The five surveyed their wealth in a silence broken when Varian laid tentative fingers on the stun gun.

"In forty-three years, they would have exhausted all their supplies. No matter how clever they are, they couldn't achieve the technology to produce more."

"Not if they hunt that thunder lizard of Trizein's with a crossbow and lance." Lunzie said. "Nice to have an advantage again."

Varian hated weapons but was exceedingly grateful to see them. The discovery also lifted from her mind the depression that had plagued her. She was far more tired than she cared to admit and not even Lunzie's nutrient soup had reduced that weariness. In her present state, she'd never be able to use Discipline effectively for any long period, and any encounters with Aygar and his peers presumed full Discipline on her part. To have such accouterments when she kept that appointment gave her the psychological advantage she needed.

"If they're metal-working and smart," Triv noted as he hefted a stunner in his hand, "they'll have found the ingredients for primitive explosive weapons. This stunner doesn't have the effective range of a projectile weapon, even of that crossbow."

"Strategy can make up for shortcomings — or short ranges," Varian noted in a light tone.

"Even if you have to crash and destroy them, those sleds aren't to fail into the mutineers' hands," Kai said force-fully, swearing again as his voice cracked.

"We don't necessarily have to bring the sleds into sight," said Varian, "not when we have lift belts."

"Let's not talk of destroying the sleds," Portegin urged holding up both hands in dismay at the notion. "I can bypass the start switch so that only we'd know how to start one."

"Can you patch a line from wrist unit to the shuttle or the sled?'

"You're not taking the four-man sled are you, Varian?" Kai asked.

"Krims! no, but you'll want to hear what's going on, won't you?'

"If I only had some sort of a magnifier..." Portegin was muttering under his breath. "Lunzie, you must have something?..."

She handed him a loupe but warned Portegin of the dire consequences of chipping or breaking one of her precious few medical aids.

When Kai volunteered to help Triv and Portegin, Lunzie would have none of it. She forced him to alternate bathing his injured hands in the sap with wringing out cloths for his face wounds. Then she made Varian lie down for an hour's rest before having her go on a provisions hunt. With all the ravenous appetites she had to satisfy, Lunzie needed more raw vegetable matter for the synthesizer, and she also wanted to locate more of the edible fruits, pods, and herbs nearby.

Varian thought she'd be unable to sleep with Triv's and Portegin's murmuring and swearing, the sound and rustle of the wind through the vine screen, and the odd sounds made by Kai and Lunzie, but it seemed she'd only closed her eyes when Lunzie was shaking her awake again.

Since Triv seemed to have little to do while he watched Portegin assembling a matrix comb, Varian was a bit grumpy when Lunzie hustled her to the sled. Varian's temper was not much improved by the drizzling rain that made visibility poor, but Lunzie pointed curtly to the brighter skies to the southwest and told Varian to make for a spot where they could see what they picked without getting drenched in the process.

Immediately three giffs curved away from those few idly circling the caves. It was well past the return of the fishers, and most adult fliers were already inside their caves, sleeping off their meal, or what ever they did.

"Do they do any more than follow?" Lunzie asked after observing them for a time.

"Not when I'm airborne..."

"When they consider you safe?" Lunzie asked with a wry grin.

"Come to think of it, when the scavengers began to circle in on that dead beast, the giffs were picking up speed."

"That could be useful."

Something in her idle tone, that of a woman not much given to chit chat, warned Varian that Lunzie had several purposes in the flight.

"How seriously ill is Kai, Lunzie?'

"Hard to say with no way of testing. Feeling is returning to his hands and the skin of his face isn't as numb, or so he tells me. There's no question that he's suffered some motor impairment in his hands. I'm hoping that will pass once the last of the toxic fluid is flushed out of his system. I want to get more of that moss if we can find it, and I want a store of those succulent leaves around at all times." Lunzie showed Varian a long red weal on her hand. "The sap is analgesic. I'm not used to dealing with raw fire."

"How long, then, before Kai is well?"

"He's not going to be physically fit for several weeks. I'd prefer to keep him from any exertion at all for four or five days, then a slow convalescence." Varian digested that in silence.

"Triv can accompany you and Portegin if he's finished patching. But I must watch Kai."

"Yes, he's likely to try something stupid because he feels responsible for us all."

"What is it about this meeting that worries you, Varian?'

"I wish I could answer that. There was something about Aygar's attitude..."

Lunzie chuckled in high amusement. "I'll bet there was."

"Lunzie! You said yourself, I'm not at my best — "

"At your very worst, you'd be a joy to a man deprived of a woman. And one hell of an acquisition to their gene pool.

Varian didn't dismiss that notion but it was not, she was certain, the entire answer to the enigma of Aygar's cryptic expression.

"Sexuality could have been part of it, Lunzie, but it's more as if... as if he had a surprise for me. And he did mention their beacon. Yes, the beacon had something to do with it and something that would, in his mind, neutralize my ability to throw him."

"Why do they have a beacon?" Lunzie asked. She thoughtfully pursed her lips as Varian shook her head. Abruptly the medic pointed ahead and to starboard.

"Isn't that moss down there?"

Varian banked sharply, noticing the small animals scurrying from the sound of the sled. She threw on the telltagger but it only made noises appropriate to the small life-forms rapidly leaving the area. When they had landed, Varian kept one eye on the giffs. As long as they circled lazily, she felt safe.

"Not the right moss," Lunzie said disgustedly. She held a sample under Varian's nose.

"It stinks!"

"It's cryptogamous!"

"Really?"

"Propagates by spores. What we want is bryophitic. You didn't happen to notice how much of the stuff in Divisti's garden is also bryophitic?"

"If it's fungoid, I'm automatically prejudiced," Varian gave a small shudder. "But I didn't notice fungi in the garden. And the purple moss was the only one of its sort."

"Don't disparage fungi. Some of the oddest and most repellent are delicious and highly nutritious."

"And smelly?"

"You planet-bred types do worry about smell, don't you?" Lunzie grinned at Varian, and began to scrub her hands with dirt to remove the moss.

"I'd think smell would bother you shippers a lot more."

"Is it safe to explore a little here?" Lunzie asked, glancing around the small copse.

"I don't see why not," Varian replied, after a glance at the giffs. "I'll just turn up the volume on the telltagger."

They ventured farther among the huge, high-branching trees, noting the nail grooves where the long-neck herbivores had steadied themselves to reach the upper leaves and branches. Similar stands of trees were scattered about the vast plain. Distant hadrosaurs, distinguishable by their crests, were bending saplings down to reach the edible twigs.

After concluding that the area had been over grazed, the two women took to the air again, moving southeast until the land fell away in a huge old fault of several hundred meters' height. The vegetation in the lower portion differed drastically from that of the plain. There were also more clearings in which to land the sled but the telltagger buzzed so continually that Varian declined to take an unnecessary risk.

"We can try the swamps where we found the hyracotherium tomorrow," Varian suggested and Lunzie agreed that this might be a more profitable site for the purple moss.

They were turning back when Varian sighted pod-bearing trees, at the northern end of the fault. Although there was room enough to land a space cruiser, the land was occupied by large tusked animals which were either fighting or bashing headlong into slender trunked trees to dislodge pods for noisy consumption. The air-sled frightened the creatures off but Varian preferred to hover well above the tuskers while Lunzie picked, happily muttering about high protein content.

"Make a note of these coordinates, will you, Varian? We'll want more of these. They're what give my special stew its flavor."

Taking another tangent back to the sea cliffs of the golden fliers, they made one more stop, in fruiting trees which Varian also noted for future reference.

The fragrance of the ripe fruit, picked from boughs grazing animals couldn't reach, filled the enclosed air sled with tantalizing sweetness.

"No more stops no matter what you see, Lunzie. It's getting dark, and I don't fancy night landings in that cave."

"I might just wake Bonnard," Lunzie said after they'd ridden on in silent appreciation of the sunset display of distant lightning that brightened clouds in the far west. "He can run this boat, can't he? He's smart, quick, and he thinks. Besides — "

"Look, if you're worried, Portegin can stay with you."

"My concern is for you, Co-leader, not myself. Not that any of you are safe if it's new blood they're after."

"What exactly is bothering you, Lunzie? Tell me now. I've had enough surprises."

"It may just be my suspicious nature, Varian, but your Aygar did mention a beacon. It is forty-three years since the mutiny..."

"So?"

"What do you know of unrest among planetary minorities."

"Huh? It took; Varian a moment to grapple with the sudden switch. "I'd heard rumors that choice planets usually end up managed by one of the FSP majors. Financing was the usual rationale. Krims! — You don't mean..." Varian shot a horrified glance at Lunzie, "you don't mean that the ARCT-10 might have been taken over by another set of mutineers, do you?"

"A compound ship does not lend itself to mutiny." Lunzie gave Varian a tight grin. "Too many minorities involved, too many different atmospheres, too bloody strict a surveillance against a possible take over. Command can, you know, close off, gas or eject any section of a compound ship without affecting overall stability, life support, drive or control elements. And the ARCT-10 had a large Thek group. No minority goes against Thek. What I had in mind were the rumors of expeditions on worlds such as this, where sizable teams simply disappeared. Not planted, but no sign of natural disasters or deaths accidental or otherwise. Just the rumor and no official acknowledgment of the problem. No official announcement about finding the lost units, either. Of course, the change-state problems of this immense Federation could account for the lack of news or official confirmation. Very little gets done quickly, especially when Thek are concerned. Forty-three years since our distress call?" Lunzie's expression was grimly thoughtful. "That, my dear co-leader, is long enough for a homing capsule to arrive at its destination and to permit an expedition to reach the distressed party. In my opinion, that's why your Aygar was not much bothered by the gene balance in his settlement. And the reason he was surprised you hadn't homed in on his beacon."

Varian inhaled a long whistle. "That does put a frame around his attitude. But three days? Could he be that certain of a touch down when they don't have any communications?" Varian frowned again, mulling over Lunzie's theory. "When I crossed his line of march, he did get rid of me as fast as he could."

"Which might mean the newcomers have arrived or are expected soon."

"He certainly expects to own Ireta!"

"Your space law's worse than your botany, Varian. If my theory has any substance, you were possessed with sheer genius when you posed as a new FSP expedition."

"I was? Why?"

"One," and Lunzie ticked off her points on fingers, "the heavyworlders don't suspect you are from the original team; they can still assume that we died of our own incompetence after the stampede or went into cold sleep. But if," and another finger emphasized that point, "an FSP relief party arrives before their reinforcements, summoned by that homing capsule, they will not have clear title of the planet"

"How could they think they'd have a clear title anyhow?" Varian demanded.

"There's a considerable code of space law dealing with ship wrecked survivors who reach habitable planets and/or stranded expeditionary members who manage to achieve a certain level of civilization."

"What does that code of space law say about mutineers?"

"That's why it's safer for us to be a relief party."

"If at first you don't succeed, have another go?" Varian asked drolly.

"Precisely."

"But, Lunzie, when the reinforcements arrive, they'd know there aren't any other ships orbiting the planet."

"The reinforcements, my dear Varian, are probably illegal and would be most anxious not to be hailed by another vessel. They'll probably enter the atmosphere under radio silence and as quickly as possible to avoid detection. Since the obvious orbit of a rescue ship is synchronous with the site of original landing, even a large ship can escape detection if the captain has any intelligence.

"And then set about raping this rich world and indulging in their anachronistic behavior. It's easy now to understand why specialists of the caliber of Bakkun and Berru went along with that asinine rumor about our being planted. They had a world to gain."

Varian's expression was grim. "Too bad they didn't live to enjoy it. But, Lunzie, they did mutiny and they mustn't be allowed to profit by it."

"They haven't yet," Lunzie replied wryly. "And though their descendants cannot be held liable for the sins of their predecessors. We have to stay alive to prove that a mutiny did occur."

"Then how — " Varian began indignantly.

"The descendants would only get partial claims," Lunzie explained hurriedly. "Don't worry about that now. Consider this instead: once their relief ship arrives, it will at most certainly contain sleds and instrumentation. They'll be able to mount a full-scale search for our shuttle."

"That doesn't mean they'll find it.

"I suppose we won't have to produce a shuttle," Lunzie said.

"It's away mapping the continent," Varian announced airily. "Regulations don't specify how large a search party has to be, so five of us are all our ship could send. And Tor knows — " Varian let out a whoop of laughter that caused Lunzie to wince as the sound reverberated in the confines of the sled's canopy. "Those heavyworlders have outsmarted themselves, Bakkun and Berru included. This planet's been Thek-claimed for millions of years, if that core Tor was so nardling eager to disinter was Thek-manufactured. And it has to be."

"Whether it is or isn't, Varian, may not be germane, considering the span of time since its implantation. You can be certain that Bakkun included precise details of the rich transuranic potential of Ireta when that homing capsule was launched. An expedition will arrive equipped to strip this planet as thoroughly as the Others. And argue about who had the right to do so later."

A shudder ran through Varian's body. "Are there really any Others, Lunzie?"

"No one knows. I've stood on one of those barren worlds that must once have been as lush and lovely — and as rich — as this one."

"The mutineers mustn't rape this one."

"You've my complete support."

"The old ARCT-10 may even reappear..."

"We'd best consider what resources we can muster," said Lunzie. She raised her hand when Varian began to protest. "I never count on luck. Tomorrow you, Triv, and Portegin will have lift belts and stunners when you meet Aygar. You and Triv will have the advantage of full Discipline." The medic paused before she added solemnly, "And I'd better give you all barriers."

"Barriers?" Varian cast a startled look at the medic. That aspect of Discipline was entrusted to only a highly select few.

"Barriers are the only real protection you and our sleepers would have if heavyworlders have landed." Lunzie spoke quietly. Almost, Varian thought, as if she regretted the necessity of revealing this unexpected strength, rather than the need which dictated its use.

They flew on in silence until the looming white cliffs emerged from the shroud of evening mists and the black, beribboned opening that was their refuge yawned before them.

Chapter SIX

After everyone had enjoyed the tasty stew Lunzie had concocted and as much of the ripe fruit as they could eat, Varian asked Lunzie to air her theory about the mutineers' plan for Ireta.

"That's just how the heavyworlders acquired the S-192 system," Triv said with considerable indignation.

S-192 was a two-world," Lunzie pointed out.

"This one has wild animals for them to eat," Varian said grimly.

"Not to mention transuranic deposits that would make claim holder, extremely wealthy," said Kai, if they could validate their claim."

"Which they can't because we're alive." Portegin's voice was angry.

"Hmm, but they don't know it," Varian reminded him.

"Keep two points in mind, my friends," Lunzie said. "The mutineers' descendants have survived and have maintained a good level of technology if they're forging metal and have constructed a beacon. That qualifies them — "

"We've survived, too," and Portegin sat straight up, incensed.

Lunzie regarded him humorlessly for a moment. "We," and her voice left the slightest emphasis on the pronoun, "must continue to do so." My second point is that the descendants of the original mutineers cannot be prosecuted for the felony of their grandparents."

"Tanegli's still alive." Varian was surprised at the edge in her voice.

"So I suspect that his first suggestion to the commander of the expected vessel will be to find us," Kai said. "When they didn't find the space shuttle under the dead beasts after the stampede, they knew that someone survived and went cryo."

"Aygar believes that they were deliberately abandoned," Varian said.

"Your little lie and what Aygar has been told are all that kept him from attacking Varian." Lunzie's tone betrayed her anger. "We have to keep you and them," the medic jabbed her finger at the shuttle, "alive until ARCT-10 returns."

Portegin gave a snort of derision. "The ARCT probably blew up in that cosmic storm."

"Unlikely," Lunzie said. "I once slept 78 years and still was collected by my original ship."

"You think the ARCT-10 will come back for us, Lunzie?" asked Portegin, amazed.

"Stranger things have happened. Whatever Aygar believes, Varian, Tanegli knows different, nor can he ignore the fact that some of us may have survived. He cannot take the risk that the ARCT-10 will return and with the information left in our beacon, recover the shuttle. Right now we must make plans that will safe guard not only us but the sleepers. Equally important, set ourselves up as scouts totally unrelated to the ARCT-10. If that ship did blow, its deadman's knell will be recorded and known to every space commander — including the mutineers' relief ship — so we can't pose as a relief unit from the ARCT-10."

"From what ship did we originate then, Lunzie?" Kai was slightly amused, but his husky voice betrayed his physical debility.

Varian looked at him quickly, wondering if he objected to Lunzie's dominance. His eyes were glittering, but not with fever. He seemed to be encouraging the medic's unexpected inventiveness.

"We can take our pick — freighter, passenger, another Exploratory Vessel..." Lunzie shrugged, suddenly reverting to her usual passivity. "Recall what you told Aygar, Varian."

"That I was part of a team sent in answer to the distress call."

"Any vessel has to investigate such a signal..." Portegin said.

"Only a Fleet ship could tap our beacon's messages," Triv reminded them.

"And he'd know how rich this planet is and send a party down if only for finders' fees." Portegin capped Triv's remark.

"That's what I implied," said Varian. "Then Aygar gave me his version of the facts."

"That his grandparents had been abandoned... ?" Kai asked.

"Deliberately abandoned," Varian replied with a grimace, "after the tragic accident that demolished their original site. No mention of either of us as leaders, remember."

"Paskutti had that honor?" Kai was amused.

Varian shrugged. "I didn't ask. I did inquire about the children. I also said that the ARCT-10 was still missing." Varian hesitated, dubious now about that admission.

"Why not?" Kai shrugged. "If the ship had returned within the Standard year, as planned, none of us would be where we are now. What puzzles me is the forty-three years. It doesn't take anywhere near that time for a homing capsule to reach its destination. And I know the mutineers had ours."

"They would have had to wait to be sure that the ARCT-10 wasn't just delayed," Varian suggested.

"Could they have known that the ARCT-10 never stripped the beacon of messages?" Lunzie asked.

"Only Kai and I knew that."

"Bakkun might have guessed," Kai said slowly.

"By what we didn't say rather than what we did?" Varian asked. Kai nodded.

"We ought," Kai went on, "to have invented a message from the ARCT."

Lunzie snorted. "I don't think that would have kept the heavyworlders satisfied once they'd had their bloody rest day... and tasted animal protein. Brings out the worst in them every time."

A taut silence ensued, broken as Varian shuddered, then said, "But Divisti's garden produced sufficient vegetable protein to support twice as many heavyworlder appetites."

"I'd say they waited," Lunzie began, picking at her lower lip for a moment before she continued. "They would have tried to locate the shuttle and the power packs which young Bonnard so cleverly concealed. They knew Kai 'd sent out some sort of message, before Paskutti smashed the comunit? Well, then, they'd have had to wait to see if assistance arrived. They would have had to assume also that we'd rig some sort of distress beacon to attract rescue, even if it did take the Thek forty-three years to bother to investigate."

Varian broke in excitedly. "You don't suppose that they could have rigged an alert for a landing?"

"No way." Portegin shook his head violently. "Not with the equipment they had. Remember it was replacement parts they took with the stores, not full units."

"Yes, but Aygar spoke of iron mines and they've been working a forge."

Portegin kept shaking his head. "Bakkun was a good all-round engineer but even with all the matrices I've got, I couldn't make that sort of a scan system, not planet wide, and that's what they'd need."

So," Kai said in summation, "they waited to be sure ARCT wasn't making the scheduled pick-up. They also waited until they could be reasonably certain our distress signal was unheard and then too weak. Then they sent the homing capsule to one of the Heavyworld colonies inviting settlers and technicians."

"And if a colony ship, large enough to transport enough people and supplies is to make the journey profitable, they'd have to build a landing grid," Triv exclaimed.

"Which explains why they left the very good settlement they had in the secondary camp," Varian cried.

"And why Aygar chooses to meet you there rather than at their new site," Lunzie finished with a sour grimace. "Such an undertaking also explains forty-three years."

"Even for heavyworlders, it would take years to clear this sort of jungle and hold it back while they got a grid in place," said Portegin with some awe.

"Probably with a homing device built into the acknowledging capsule to confirm arrangements and approximate time of arrival," Triv added.

The group reflected on this solution with no joy.

Triv broke the silence. "I'd opt for us to come from a Fleet ship, a cruiser. They make periodic reports to a Sector HQ and no one in his right mind messes with a cruiser."

"Would Aygar know that?" Varian asked facetiously.

"No, but the captain of the incoming ship would," Triv replied. "And a search party could have been set down here to check on the distress call while the cruiser goes on to the Ryxi and the Thek planets."

"Now that our identity is established," Kai said with an attempt at heartiness, "I suggest we transfer to the campsite built for Dimenon and Margit. If it still exists."

"Don't see why it wouldn't," Triv said. "The heavyworlders wouldn't have wasted belt power dismantling and transporting it."

"Wouldn't we go to the original site?" asked Portegin.

"We did," Varian replied, "but Kai got attacked there didn't he? So we move to the second auxiliary camp." She rose and stretched. "And we'd also better fill in the holes of the vine screen. Then the sleepers will be safe."

The next morning, Triv took one of the smaller sleds to investigate the secondary camp which had been sighted for Dimenon and Margit to use as a base for their explorations of the southwestern part of Ireta's main continent. Assisted by Varian and Lunzie, Portegin gathered the matrices removed from the other two small sleds and the undamaged units in the shuttle. He was optimistic that with these components, he could rig working comunits in the two small sleds and the four-man sled, plus an ordinary homing beacon, consonant with their role as a rescue team from a Space Fleet cruiser.

Lunzie proved the deftest in making minute welds with the heated tip of a surgical probe, all the while muttering about the misuse of her precious medical equipment on inanimate objects.

Varian's usefulness to the project was short lived. She was unable to limit herself to controlled dexterity for long, and announced that she was better suited to shifting vines than matrices. It was hard, sweaty labor, hampered by Ireta's sudden squalls and then steamy sun heat. The vines clung with tenacious webs of sticky fibers to the rock, so she hacked away, pried loose, and tugged at the tendrils to rig a full curtain across the entrance. At the same time, she rigged fiber ropes to pull the vines back to allow for the entry and exit of the sleds. She coaxed additional new vine tendrils across the chasm, setting them to fill in. At the rate vegetation grew on Ireta, the cave ought to be densely screened in a matter of weeks.

Triv returned with the welcome news that the other camp had survived, although it had become the residence of creatures large and small. However the fortified posts were functional so that, once cleared of intruders, the camp would be habitable.

Lunzie made good use of the vines left over from Varian's camouflage trimming and created emergency rations from the vegetable matter and more light blankets from the residual fibers. These were packed into the two smaller sleds while Kai was made comfortable in the larger. Lunzie made a last check on the sleepers and set the time release for additional sleep vapor. As Triv pulled back the vine curtain, using Varian's cords, the three sleds emerged just as the evening rain began to splash down. They landed briefly on the cliff, while Triv joined them and took over the controls of one sled from Lunzie who then joined Varian and Kai in the larger.

As Varian lifted, she searched the leaden skies. "No giffs!"

"They've sense enough to come in out of that rain," Lunzie said, drying her hands as she looked at the raindrops battering the canopy.

"They followed me, you know."

"So you told me. Not superstitious, are you, Varian?" the medic asked with an ironic chuckle.

"Enough to prefer their company to their absence."

"They stood guard a long time," Kai said in his husky voice.

"You're both allowing them far more intelligence than they deserve."

Varian turned her head to give Kai a broad grin which he answered. Then the rain squall quickened and she had to keep her attention on flying for the rest of the journey.

Although Triv and Portegin had arrived in advance of the four-man sled, Kai was struck by the eeriness of landing in the gloom of Iretan twilight at a campsite which he knew had been uninhabited for over four decades. It seemed to have slept, unchanged, as they had.

Rationally, he knew that part of its lack of change was due to the rocky site, but the dome which Dimenon and Margit had set up was only slightly browned by wind and weather. A small fire burned on the hearth outside. It's light was cheering and it's smoke a partial deterrent to insects until the force field could be powered up. The pack was quickly connected and crackled immediately with tiny spurts as insects were vaporized. Small bits of char drifted down as Kai stiffly made his way from the sled to the dome. He was heartily disgusted with his weakness and kept to himself the fact that he still had no feeling at all in the areas where the fringe had sucked deepest. He couldn't prevent furtive glances for fringes lurking beyond the veil. He worried briefly if the creatures could be stopped by the force field. Of course they could — Force fields had even held back the stampede of the herbivores... for a time.

He was trembling again, to his disgust. Only a short walk and he was spent. Lunzie had cautioned him against using Discipline to overcome the weakness of convalescence but surely a daily routine of basic Discipline exercise would be beneficial. Might even be essential if Varian's meeting with Aygar proved unlucky. Kai wasn't easy about that confrontation, even with all three armed. He'd spent some time trying to estimate how large the mutineers' group would be after two generations of breeding. And if a colony ship had arrived, there could be thousands to back the heavyworlders' claim. Either way his team was at risk.

Where had the ARCT-10 disappeared to? Why had Tor been so uncharacteristically keen to find the old core? Why had the Thek then departed? Kai reminded himself that a mere human did not demand explanations of a Thek. Out of sight, out of mind, yet Tor had awakened him to find the core.

And how had the Ryxi flourished on their new planet? Kai wondered, though he knew that Vrl, his contact with the volatile avians, probably wouldn't have worried about the geologist's silence. Certainly the Ryxi wouldn't have communicated with the Thek. Surely, though, Kai reasoned, the commander of the Ryxi colony vessel ought to have tried to raise the Iretan group, if only prompted by courtesy. Probably the silence of the Iretan expedition was thought to mean that the ARCT-10 had collected the Iretan team as scheduled.

Which brought Kai back to the original question: What had happened to the ARCT-10? The great compound ships were constructed to withstand tremendous variations of temperature and stress. Short of a full nova, an EEC: vessel could endure almost anything. Possibly, a black hole would consume a whole EEC ship, but no EEC ship would approach such a hazard. As no known species that was inimical to the Federated Sentient Planets was capable of space travel, nothing short of the Others could have attacked the ARCT-10. A real mystery. Kai exhaled deeply.

"Does supper not appeal to you? I'd thought you were resigned to eating natural foods by now," said Varian, breaking Kai's reverie.

"I'm hungry enough to eat anything." He grinned at her as he accepted a bowl.

Once they had finished eating, Lunzie rinsed out the bowls and filled them with fruit steeped in its own juices. By then Kai was more tired than hungry so he put the bowl to one side and slipped down under the light blanket, closing his eyes. As he drowsed, he heard Portegin yawning loudly, complaining that he hadn't done much to be so tired.

"You're not quite recovered from cold sleep yet, you know," Lunzie remarked. "You'll have a full day tomorrow. Sleep now. There's nothing more needs doing tonight."

Kai was aware that the others were seeking their blankets and, as he lay, waiting for sleep to over take him, he grew envious of their ability to drop off so quickly. He was all the more surprised then to hear Lunzie's quiet voice.

"Portegin, Varian, Triv, you will listen to me. You will hear nothing but my voice. You will obey only my voice. You will follow my directions implicitly for you entrust your lives to me. Acknowledge."

Fascinated, Kai listened to the murmured assent of the three.

"Portegin, you will feel no pain, no matter what is done to the flesh of your body. From the first blow, your body will be nerveless, impervious to pain. You will not bleed. You will command your body to relax and your flesh to absorb injury without discomfort. You will be unable to reveal anything except your name, Portegin, your rank as helmsman first class of the FSP Cruiser, 218-ZD-43. You are part of a rescue mission. You know no more than that of your present. Your childhood years are open, your years of service as well, except that all service was with the Space Fleet. This is your first visit to Ireta. You will feel no pain, no matter what is done to the flesh of your body and the channels of your mind. You have a barrier against pain and mental intrusion. Your mind is locked to control. Your nerves and pain centers are under my control. I will allow nothing to cause you pain or distress."

Lunzie asked Portegin to repeat her instructions but the man's toneless murmur was inaudible to Kai.

The medic then began to instruct Varian, whom she called Rianav. Here the parameters were more complex. She drew on Varian's two years in her birth-planet's martial corps, building a detailed recent memory which seemed to include facts of personal history unexpectedly known to Lunzie but not to Kai. The hypnotic briefing would insure that Varian-Rianav acted and thought as a career Fleet officer. She also erected barriers to protect Varian-Rianav against any intrusion or pain above and beyond the control Varian could produce herself with the exercise of Discipline. The cover personality for Varian was tightly woven out of fact and half-truth and so logical that Kai wondered if Lunzie was using the life history of an actual person. Kai was awed for he realized that he was listening to an accomplished Adept and there had been nothing in Lunzie's service profile to indicate such competence. Of course, there wouldn't be, beyond a mention of a term at Seripan, the center where Discipline was taught; a fact only other Disciples would recognize as significant.

As Lunzie quietly set barriers in the mind of Triv-Titrivell, Kai began to wonder if there was any covert reason why ARCT's administrators had recommended her as medic. He decided that it was only chance: what else? Most medics were disciples since hypnotic control to inhibit pain was more effective than anesthesia and the simplest method of curing mental trauma. The Iretan expedition had been considered a straight forward search for transuranics which was why, Kai was certain, two relatively young people were given the co-leadership. He thought grimly of the counts against himself and Varian: mutiny and a minority group all but established on what should have been an extraordinarily rich FSP planet. Exploration and Evaluation Corps wouldn't like that, much less the FSP who preferred to keep all transuranics under their control, leasing them only to stable corporations.

He supposed they should have remained awake and done their utmost to thwart the heavyworlders, though how they could have accomplished anything significant without equipment or weapons he was incapable of imagining. A leader's prime responsibility was to bring back the full complement of his expedition, preferably having completed his assignment. A resigned sigh escaped his lips.

"You were awake, Kai?" Lunzie's voice was soft and Kai realized that she had moved beside him with a bowl in her outstretched hand.

"So, you fixed some fruit?" he asked, opening his eyes and looking at her.

She nodded. Odd that he had never noticed before what beautiful and compelling eyes she had.

Kai lifted the neglected shell in gentle salute and drank the juice before he began to eat the fruit.

"I wasn't hungry. But I'm awfully glad you can give them more protection, Lunzie."

"Yes, it's always easier to lie if you think you're telling the truth."

"I won't worry so much about that meeting tomorrow "

"I'm sure you won't." The medic's low voice was tinged with amusement. She took the emptied shell from his hand.

What ever Lunzie had added to the innocent fruit was potent. He swam down into darkness, completely aware that in the morning, he would not remember that Lunzi was an Adept.

Chapter SEVEN

Rianav wished that they had a squad of troopers with them. Titrivell and Portegin were good men; she'd been in several tricky situations with them but, if her commander's suspicion should prove valid, three troops in a four-man sled, equipped with only force belts and stunners were woefully insufficient.

Still, until a colony ship did somehow slip through the commander's surveillance, three veterans could cope. She doubted the survivors had any sophisticated weapons if that Aygar had been hunting with a crossbow and lance. Not that such a primitive weapon was ineffective: bolts from a crossbow could penetrate thick metal and, at close range, probably knock fragments from the ceramic hull of the sled. The original landing party's stunners would by now be inoperative. She'd match herself and Titrivell against any two or three of Aygar's size so she really had no reason to be apprehensive about the meeting. Except Aygar's insistence that it be held away from his current living area.

Once she had set the course for the secondary camp, she gestured to Portegin to take the controls. She must be fresh for the conference. Titrivell took the starboard observation post while she settled herself to port. Not that there was much to see except huge trees festooned with climbers and swaths of damaged vegetation where large beasts had broken trails through the dense jungle. She didn't fancy any ground work there.

"Lieutenant?" Portegin interrupted her and she followed the direction of his point.

"The size of the creatures! Recorder going, Portegin? I want the captain to believe this!'

"Aye, aye, ma'am."

Titrivell leaned amidships, to see past Portegin's shoulder. "They must weigh megatons. Glad we're up here instead of down there."

"Bet they give the heavyworlders a tussle." Portegin glanced over his shoulder as they passed the herd of creatures, eating whatever was within the reach of their long sinuous necks.

"We'll have no jokes here, Portegin." Rianav's tone was stern. One couldn't permit even subtle hints about sentient carnivores. Any member of the Federation that defied the civilized edict forbidding consumption of living creatures did so at the peril of its FSP membership.

"Well, Lieutenant," said Portegin in a chastened tone, "I have heard from reliable sources that, on their own planets, the heavyworlders don't adhere to Prohibition."

"All the more reason for our mission, then, stupid as these creatures appear to be," and she waved at yet another herd of foraging beasts, "they deserve as much of a chance to evolve as any other species. And our protection while they do so."

"Lieutenant, fliers at eleven." Portegin was pointing at an airborne species.

There were three of them. Golden of either feather or fur, Rianav could not be sure at the distance, but their presence in the sky was oddly reassuring.

"Shall I take evasive action?" asked Portegin when it became obvious that the golden-winged creatures had altered their course to take up a position on the same level, and at the same speed, as the sled.

"I don't think that's necessary, helmsman. They do not appear aggressive. Probably curious. We can out distance them at any time should they turn hostile." Rianav took unusual pleasure in their exceptional escort, watching the graceful, powerful sweep of the huge pinions.

"They're watching us, ma'am," Titrivell called. "The heads of all three are turned in our direction."

"They're doing us no harm."

They paused once in their outward journey. Rianav spotted a huge stand of fruit trees, the top boughs sagging under ripe fruit, a pleasant change from service rations. It did not occur to any of the three that it was unlikely for them to know if the fruits were edible.

When they reached the vast plain dotted with buttes and meandering herds of grazing animals, Rianav ordered the helmsman to circle gradually in on the target area. She took the monitor to search for any sign of Aygar and his people.

"They're probably hidden in those hutment's," Titrivell remarked.

"Full Discipline," she said, with a nod to indicate that she appreciated the possibility. "Helmsman, stand by the sled. If we are over powered or I should signal you off, you are to report back to the commander. This sled must not fall into other hands. Keep your comunit open at all times and be on the lookout for any indication of a large craft landing in that direction." Rianav pointed toward the northeastern hills where she suspected the heavyworlders were encamped.

At the speed with which Portegin was circling, she and Titrivell would have sufficient time to complete Discipline. But as she initiated the drill, she felt an unexpected energy, the most powerful surge of adrenaline she had ever experienced in Discipline. Glancing at Titrivell, she saw that he must have had a similar jolt. Of course, one expanded one's abilities with every use of Discipline, but this? Rianav must ask her commander when she returned to the cruiser.

Portegin neatly brought the sled to a landing on the bare circular mark left by a dome which must have occupied that area for a long time.

Titrivell opened the canopy and Rianav stepped out smartly. Titrivell followed, closed the canopy, and nodded to Portegin to secure it. Rianav caught the slight widening of Titrivell's eyes just as she heard a slight crunch, and turned slowly in the direction of the sound.

Six figures, three men and three women, ranged themselves in an almost insolent parody of the parade stance of troops. Each wore a standard-issue shipsuit. Despite Discipline, the sight gave Rianav a flash of concern. Then she noticed that the shipsuits were patched and that the six wore neither forcebelts nor carried stunners. The reinforcements had not, then, arrived. These were descendants of the original force, mocking her by appearing in their ancestors' garb.

Rianav was, however, grateful for the stunner at her side. Each of the six was taller, broader, heavier than she or Titrivell.

She hesitated only that brief moment for evaluation and then strode forward, not quite leisurely but not in formal martial pace. She glanced from one face to the next, almost as if she expected to recognize someone. Halting, exactly four meters from Aygar, she saluted.

"You are prompt, Aygar."

"And you!" The man curved his lips in a half-smile, as his eyes flicked toward Titrivell, correctly standing two paces behind his lieutenant, then toward the pilot at the controls of the closed sled.

"Did your injured man survive?'

"Yes, and sends his gratitude for the remedy."

"Any more trouble with fringes?'

"No," Rianav said. "But you would certainly be safe from that menace on this butte?..." Her comment trailed into a question.

"We out grew its limited accommodations," Aygar said. That prompted some smiles from his five companions.

"You may be unaware of the provisions made by the Federated Sentient Planets to reimburse survivors — "

"We're not survivors, Lieutenant," said Aygar. "We were born on this planet. We own it."

"Really, Aygar," said Rianav in a conciliatory tone, gesturing at the others, "six people can only own as much as supplies their needs."

"We are more than six."

"No matter how much your original number has multiplied, it is clearly stated in FSP law — "

"We are the law here, Rianav! We accuse you of trespass."

The change of intensity in his voice alerted Rianav with her Disciplined sensitivity. She had her stun gun out and was firing at Aygar and the two on his right before they could complete their forward springs. Titrivell was not a millisecond later in stunning the other three.

With her gun in hand, for she had set for medium shock and she wasn't certain how long such superb bodies would be affected, she strode to the sprawled forms, motionless on the dusty ground. Aygar's eyes glittered with anger as she leaned down and, grabbing his right arm, hauled him onto his back. She nodded to Titrivell to perform the same courtesy to the others.

"You'll be unable to move for approximately fifty minutes. Doubtless your grandparents mentioned stunners? You and your companions will suffer no ill-effects from stunning. We will continue our mission. We prefer not to use weapons on other humanoids, but three to one are unfair odds. Nor are we trespassers, Aygar. Our cruiser heard the distress signal and responded. We are morally obliged to do so. No doubt your isolation is the reason for your failure to comprehend the common laws of the galaxy. I will be lenient in your instance and not report your aggressive reaction to my superiors. You cannot own a world which is still listed as unexplored in the Federated register. Possession may be considered primary in law, but you possess," and she stressed the word with a slight pause, "very little of this jungle world no matter how many offspring were produced by the original party. But that's not a matter for me to decide. I report fact as I observe it."

The tendons in Aygar's neck stood out in his attempt to break paralysis by sheer will power.

"You could do yourself injury, Aygar. Relax now and you'll suffer no harm."

Punctuating her advice, thunder cracked and lightning spewed blindingly out of the sky. The thin clouds which had begun to gather during the fracas had coalesced with a ferocity fitting the aerial display.

"There! Something to cool you down." Rianav clipped her stunner to her belt. Gesturing Titrivell to follow, she strode to the sled.

"Are there many more like that?" Titrivell asked as he settled himself in the sled.

"That's what I think we'd better find out." Rianav motioned to Portegin to slide into the other front seat.

"Aygar gave me directions by foot. Whether they're accurate or not, we can but follow and see. "Run at a good steady pace," he told me, "to your right, through the first hills, turn right up the ravine, but mind the river snakes. Continue along the river course to the first falls, take the easiest route up the cliff, follow the line of limestone, until the valley widens." We'll know their settlement by the cultivated fields." Rianav snorted derisively.

She guided the sled along the course she had taken on her first visit, then intersected the ravine where she had encountered Aygar. She continued along the ravine and soon came to a fast river, diverted from its old channel by the debris of a huge rockfall. They followed the river upstream for some distance to a beautiful curtain of wide falls roughly forty meters high.

"Useful, too," Portegin said, pointing to port. "They've set up a water wheel and what looks like a generator station."

He glanced at Rianav to see if she intended to investigate, but she was already angling the sled above the falls keeping one eye starboard for the well-marked path, so that Titrivell and Portegin saw the second, larger falls before she did.

"Have they a power source there, too?'

"Yes, Lieutenant, another one, larger," Portegin reported, homing in on the site with the camera eye.

"And there are the cultivated fields," Titrivell said as the sled rose above the falls. "And a discontinuity fold!'

"A what?" Rianav asked, keeping her eyes on the scene before her.

"Which would explain this raised valley." Titrivell went on. "Old sea bed probably. Look at the size of it!"

"And the reason why they abandoned the butte site," Rianav said. "This plateau is large enough to support the biggest colony ship they build. Can you see evidence of a grid?'

Rianav spiraled the sled, then set it to hover as the three took in the vast area. The foreground was clear despite the beginning of a misty rainfall. The river and the terraced fields that began at its banks disappeared into a haze. In the far distance orange red flashes at several different points suggested that volcanoes added smoke to the heat mists. Portside of the river was the inevitable lush and tangled jungle growth, slanting upward to crown the heights and edges of the broad valley.

"Lieutenant, look!" Titrivell directed Rianav's attention to the settlement to starboard. "Clever of them to use that stranded beach formation"

"The what?"

"And look, ma'am, if you can spot it in the haze, the rock... it's ore bearing! No mistaking that color." Titrivell whistled, his eyes wide with excitement. "Just look how that color continues. The whole "narding" cliff's packed with iron ore."

"A second reason for switching camps, then," she said in a dry tone, dampening the rising enthusiasm Titrivell was displaying.

"See, over there, chimneys!" Titrivell continued, undaunted. Rianav applied a half-turn. "A foundry, all right, and a big one. And blast it all, they've got rails... leading to... Lieutenant, would you — about thirty degrees and — "

"We're looking for a grid, Titrivell!" she said but corrected the helm.

"We don't need to look, Lieutenant," replied Titrivell, "if those rails lead to a mine or..."

She gave the sled a bit for power and they glided along the edge of plateau wall. Abruptly the vegetation disappeared and a huge pit opened below them, glistening in the rain.

"Or an open cast mine like this one!'

"I didn't know you were so knowledgeable about mining, Titrivell," Rianav said with a shaky laugh. She hadn't expected such evidence of industry from Aygar's barbaric appearance and primitive weaponry.

"You don't need to know much to miss that sort of operation, ma'am," Titrivell said. He looked now, beyond the pit, and Rianav, following his gaze, turned the sled away from the mining area, down toward the immense natural plateau.

"They sure didn't have far to haul," Portegin remarked at his post. "Nor far to go home, either. There's a sizable settlement three degrees starboard, ma'am."

"I'm far more interested in whether the grid is finished or not." Rianav was also aware that she should render as full a report as possible to her commander and that included the number of inhabitants. She diverted the sled to fly over the buildings that shortly became a geometrical arrangement, at the center of which was an expedition dome: its plastic had been scarred by wind and abrasive sands, darkened by sun, but it was still usable and, apparently, the focal point of the settlement.

Despite the rain, people seemed to be pursuing their normal tasks. The unexpected over flight of the sled was seen and soon people were pointing at them.

"There is a grid, ma'am," Portegin said, lifting his head from the camera scan. "I can't think why else so much of the undergrowth would be cleared from half the plateau. There's even a road leading to the area."

Rianav swung the sled about. "I'd like a head count on this pass, Portegin, Titrivell." She nosed the sled down and slowed its forward speed.

"I make about forty-nine," Portegin said, "but the children keep moving about."

"I count fifty. No, fifty-one. A woman just came out of the dome and she's assisting someone, a man. That makes fifty-two."

"The old man must be the one survivor of the original group," Rianav said. She increased their speed and headed toward the road Portegin had mentioned.

No observer could miss the grid, despite the mud and windblown debris that covered its lattice design, for the soil was divided into squares as far as they could see in the rain.

"Got to give such people credit," Portegin said. "Heavyworld stock or no, that's quite a feat. Going from nothing to that in four decades."

She went far enough across the plateau to confirm that the project was probably finished, then circled widely, heading back toward the settlement.

"Are we going to land?" Portegin asked as they approached. They could see that a crowd waited at the edge of the settlement. "The old man's waving. He expects us to land." Portegin seemed nervous.

"It is our mission, after all, Portegin," Rianav remarked dryly.

"And none of them have stunners or Aygar's group would have had "em," Titrivell added.

"Aygar might not have mentioned our encounter to anyone in authority," Rianav said. "All his welcoming party were young."

"It's to their advantage, Lieutenant, to remain "unrescued" until that colony ship arrives," Titrivell added.

Portegin snorted. "But we're here, aren't we?'

"It's not as if they won't do very well under the Shipwreck Contingencies," Titrivell said.

"Aygar has greater ambitions, as we heard," Rianav noted. "That's not our problem, fortunately. All we had to do was check out the distress call."

She landed the sled a hundred meters from the crowd, passing control over to Portegin with the same instructions she had given before. With Titrivell behind her, she proceeded up the slight incline. The old man, the woman assisting him, hobbled forward as rapidly as he could with a badly twisted leg.

They might, Rianav thought, have had the metallurgy requisite to make a grid but they'd missed out on medical skill. There had been a medic included in the original expedition, hadn't there?

"You're from the colony ship?" the old man exclaimed excitedly. "You're orbiting? No need. See," and he gestured to the plateau behind Rianav, "we've got the grid laid. You've only to lead the ship in." He continued to move forward and Rianav realized that he was about to embrace her.

She backed off, saluting as a courteous way to avoid contact. "Your pardon, sir, Lieutenant Rianav of the Cruiser 218 Zaid-Dayan 43. We picked up your distress signal from the beacon — "

"Distress signal?" The old man drew himself up to a pridefully arrogant stance, his expression contemptuous.

"We set no distress beacon."

He'd been a powerful man at one time, Rianav thought objectively, but under his loose tunic, his muscles sagged, stretching the hide at its underseams. Pockets of flesh hung from his big bones.

"We were abandoned, yes. Most of our equipment smashed in a stampede. We could send no message. We'd lost all our sleds and the space shuttle. Those misbegotten, "nardy" high and mighty shippers never bothered their heads to come back. But we managed. We survived. We heavyworlders do well on this planet. It's ours. And so you forget that distress beacon. We didn't set it. We don't need your sort of help — You can't rob us of what we've made."

From the corner of her eye, Rianav saw Titrivell draw his stunner. The woman at the old man's side noticed the movement and restrained him, murmuring something which cut through his angry renunciation.

"Huh! That?" He peered near sightedly and then his face took on a sneering look as he recognized the naked weapon. "That's right. Come among peaceful folk with a stunner. Blast your way through us! Take all we've worked for these long decades. I told the others we'd never be allowed to keep Ireta. You lot always keep the prizes for yourselves, don't you?'

"Sir, we answered a distress signal as we are required to do by space law. We will report your condition to Fleet Headquarters. In the meantime, may we offer you any medical supplies or — "

"Do you think we'd take anything from the likes of you?" The old man was spluttering with indignation. "Nothing is what we want from you! Leave us alone! We've survived! That's more than the others could have done! We've survived. This is our world. We've earned it. And when — "

The woman beside him covered his mouth with her hand.

"That's enough, Tanegli. They understand."

The old man subsided, but as the woman turned to Rianav and Titrivell, he continued to mumble under his breath, throwing angry glances at the two spacers.

"Forgive him, Lieutenant. We bear no malice. And as you see," her broad gesture took in the well-constructed buildings, the fields, the obviously healthy people behind her, "we do very nicely here. Thank you for coming but there is no distress now." She took a half-step forward, her body shielding the old man as she added. "He has delusions at his age, about rescuers and about revenge. He is bitter, but we are not. Thank you for answering the signal."

If you didn't send it, then who did?" Rianav asked.

The woman shrugged. "Tardma, one of the originals, used to say that a message was sent before the stampede. But no one came. She was often contradicted."

In her own way, the woman was as eager to be rid of them as Aygar had been. But it was also obvious to Rianav that Aygar had said nothing, at least to the woman and the old man, about the earlier encounter.

"Nothing you need from our stores? Medicine? Matrices? Do you have an operative comunit? We can request a trader to touch down. They're always looking for new business and a young settlement..." Rianav looked past Tanegli. The woman must be his daughter, for she bore a resemblance to him. The others stood back quietly, but obviously were straining to hear every word. Some of the smaller children were working their way round to get a good look at the sled.

"We're self-sufficient, Lieutenant," was the adamant reply.

"No trouble with the indigenous life-forms? We've seen some huge — "

"This plateau is safe from the large herbivores and their predators."

"I shall make my report accordingly." Rianav saluted and, with a smart about face, strode back to the sled with Titrivell.

She didn't like having her back to the group. She could feel the tension in Titrivell but Discipline kept her pace controlled and suppressed her urge to look behind her.

Tension showed in Portegin's face and he shoved the canopy back hard enough for it to bounce forward again on its track. Rianav and Titrivell wasted no time climbing into the sled and were barely seated when Portegin executed a fast vertical lift and without spoken order, headed directly back over the falls.

"Every single one of those adults was bigger than we are by a third of a meter, Lieutenant," Portegin said. His lips were dry.

"As soon as we're out of sight behind that ridge, take a direct course to our camp, helmsman."

"They might not have had gravity to contend with," Titrivell remarked, "but that's a mighty fit bunch of people."

"They'd have to be to survive on this planet and keep their aim in mind."

"Their aim, Lieutenant?'

"Yes, helmsman. They want to own all of this planet, not just that plateau or whatever other rights they'd possess on a shipwreck claim."

"But they can't do that! Can they, Lieutenant?" Portegin shifted uneasily in the pilot's seat, clasping and reclasping the control bar with anxious, quick fingers.

"We'll know more after we've made our report to the proper authorities, helmsman."

Then it was Rianav's turn to fidget, rubbing her fingers across her forehead because what she said sounded somehow wrong, and she couldn't imagine why.

They were silent all the way back to the base; a silence partly imposed by the stormy weather, which made conversation in the sled difficult, partly due to the fatigue of Rianav and Titrivell as they came down from the height of Discipline.

Suddenly the sun, as if bored with meteorological displays, melted through the clouds and they were treated to vast panoramas of jungle, clear to the distant southern range of volcanoes, and on the east to the thrust of high jagged peaks, bare of the luxuriant, purple and green vegetation that seemed indestructible. Glancing around, Rianav caught sight of the three winged fliers and her anxiety dissipated for a reason she was unable to fathom.

The three remained discreetly above and behind the sled until Portegin descended to the vertical landing point in front of the camp's veil screen. As Rianav climbed out of the sled, the golden fliers circled once and then disappeared to the northwest. As she had felt comforted by their curious escort, now she felt sad at their abrupt departure.

The veil screen opened and a woman walked out to meet them.

"Report, Varian."

Blinking in confusion, Rianav gave her head a sharp shake. She did not recognize that person as part of her command.

"I promised you a barrier, Varian," the woman said with a droll smile. "Did I set it too deep?'

At that posthypnotic cue, the overlay of Rianav gave way to Varian. "Krims! Lunzie, how did you manage that sort of change?" Varian turned around staring at Triv who had so recently been another person entirely, and Portegin.

Triv was shaking his head, too, while Portegin, emerging from the sled, nearly fell in his surprise.

"Hey, what happened? We're not from any cruiser!" As the realization of his day's adventure seeped into his true self, Portegin collapsed against the side of the sled. "You mean, we just went in among those heavyworlders and... How?"

"Lunzie did it," Varian said laughing with relief and nervousness as she absorbed the enormity of what they had done.

"He who thinks he's telling the truth is more convincing Portegin," Lunzie remarked.

"And you made sure our truths matched?" Triv asked.

"I'm better pleased that they weren't needed. Come on in," Lunzie said, wagging her hand to indicate tiny insects flying through the veil opening. "Kai's fretted long enough.

"He's improving?" Varian asked.

"Slowly. That fringe toxemia is affecting his sense of touch. He burned his hand, picking up a hot shell and wasn't aware of heat or pain. I smelled the seared flesh. We must all watch out for him."

Varian, entering the domed shelter, found herself viewing it with Rianav's values: neat, functional on a primitive level, but cramped. Rianav also looked over the slightly built man — the effects of the poisoning were evident in his posture as well as the pallor of his face. Aygar was more to Rianav's liking. Varian reasserted herself with an angry shake of her head. She was not Rianav, the lieutenant of a nonexistent cruiser; she was Varian, veterinary xeno-biologist. It was obvious from the state of Kai's health, that she must assume the leadership of what remained of the expedition. Or was she leader? Lunzie had been acting far more decisively than she and along more constructive lines. Rianav lingered in Varian's perceptions. Varian wished fervently to be only herself again, without these disruptive second thoughts.

"I am glad you got back safely, Varian," Kai said, his face lighting with a wide smile. Odd blotches marred his face where the fringe punctures had healed but left bleached circles. Varian wondered if that flesh was desensitized as well. "Lunzie kept reassuring me you'd be safe but I don't trust those heavyworlders."

"They're not heavyworlders any more," Triv said with a derisive snort. "Not even Tanegli. He's just a crippled flabby old man with delusions."

"I'd question the use of "delusions", Varian said, sounding like her alter ego again.

"Why don't you start at the beginning?" Lunzie suggested.

But once they had seated themselves and Varian began speaking, she was Rianav, reporting dry fact. Triv added his observations while Portegin listened, occasionally shaking his head as if he could not reconcile his barriered experience with what he was hearing.

"Did Tanegli recognize you?" Kai asked.

"No. But then he hardly expected to see us," Varian said, aware of a vague sadness for Tanegli's disintegrating body and personality. Or was that Rianav thinking? "We presented ourselves as a rescue party and while only a week of subjective time has passed for us, it was forty-three years for him."

"Rianav — I mean..." Triv corrected himself with a laugh and then a sly glance at her, "Varian makes a convincing lieutenant, Kai."

"Our appearance, even as a rescue team, upset Tanegli," Varian went on, determined to suppress one set of her reactions. "He expected to see heavyworlder colonists emerge from that sled, reporting from their mother ship."

"Aygar didn't mention his encounter with you?'

"No — "

"And he hand-picked his reception committee at the old compound," Triv said with a derisory grin. "Only they weren't fast enough for Disciplined troops." When Lunzie gave him a sideways glance of amusement, Triv's expression turned to one of chagrin. "Well, we were Disciplined and we thought we were troops."

"So you used the stunners?" Lunzie's question was more statement.

"They made the difference all right," Varian said. "On medium, they'd only be immobilized about fifty minutes. It was raining."

"A thoroughly chastening experience for your friends, I've no doubt," Lunzie said. "It's also less likely they'll mention their abortive attempt when they return to the plateau. Not that that matters one way or another."

"You mean, our deception will be discovered when the colony ship lands?" Kai asked.

Lunzie blinked once as if he had taken her meaning entirely wrong, but he couldn't think how.

"First thing they'd do after landing is try to find us," Varian said, "once they have the equipment and personnel to mount a planet-wide search."

"Oh?" Lunzie was amused. "I thought you said you were a convincing rescue team."

"Yes, but..."

"That colony ship is not coming in with due authorization from FSP," said Lunzie, ticking off her points. "You said they had primitive hydroelectric plants? Then they've enough to send pulsed code signals to alert the colony ship. Which, because it is not authorized, will not wish to be challenged by any FSP cruisers in the system. Remember, colony-sized ships have got to start slowing once they enter a solar system. They'd come in on a polar entry, more than likely. Did you see a beacon during your sweep of the settlement?'

"No, too hazy, but I'd say it was on the far edge of the grid, on the ridge," Portegin said.

"Would it have a reciprocal facility?" Lunzie asked.

"They had all the spare matrices from the shuttle," Portegin said in a sour tone.

"Bakkun had the basic technical knowledge to improvise," Kai said, remembering the man's personnel record.

"It'll buy us more time if they have augmented their communications," said Lunzie, pleased.

"More time for what and how?" Varian asked. She was surprised to see a twinkle in the medic's eyes as Lunzie turned to her.

"To establish our own claims on Ireta. Believe me, with as grand a larceny as this, no colony ship commander is going to land unless he's very sure there isn't a cruiser lurking behind one of Ireta's moons or — " Lunzie turned to Portegin. "Do we have enough matrices to contact the Ryxi?'

"The Ryxi?" Varian was startled by the question. She glared at Lunzie in sudden antagonism. The Ryxi mustn't learn about the giffs.

"I'd quite forgotten about them," Kai said.

"I'd rather we didn't," Varian said in a tight voice. "How could they help us?"

"Why would they?" Triv wanted to know.

"Vrl wasn't pleased with Kai's report about the giffs," Varian began urgently. "You must know what the Ryxi are like, Lunzie?"

"Oh, I do. As I recall it, Kai, you mentioned that the Ryxi had sent out a homing capsule directing their colony ship to start. They'd be well settled in by now — "

"Why would they help us?" Kai asked. He was as unhappy about contacting the Ryxi as Varian but for a less altruistic motive. "They probably assumed that the ARCT-10 picked us up decades ago."

"The Ryxi generally employ human crew for their space craft," Lunzie said, cutting through Kai's objections. "I'd be vastly surprised if they didn't have a supply ship calling in at intervals."

"You mean to ask them to pose as Varian's cruiser? What good would that do except delay the colony ship a while?"

"Any delay helps our purpose." Lunzie was unruffled.

"And what is our purpose?" Varian asked, a little relieved that perhaps the Ryxi needn't personally be involved.

"Delay. Especially to delay that colony ship from landing and consolidating the heavyworlders' gains."

"Their plans have worked out very well so far," Varian said. "They have established and maintained a settlement on a brutal, primitive world — "

"Whose side are you on?" Kai asked, startled by her comment.

"Ours, of course. But you can't deny that the survivors have done a thundering good job of being stranded — for whatever reason."

"They are, however," and Lunzie's cool tone rebuked Varian more pointedly than Kai's agitation, "about to commit grand theft against the Federated Sentient Planets."

"Grand theft?" Triv was torn between laughter and shock.

"What else do you call stealing a planet?" Lunzie asked, completely serious. "Which is what they'll achieve if that colony ship lands. Oh, FSP can still charge Tanegli with mutiny..." and Lunzie shrugged at that useless display of legality. "We, and the sleepers, will get sweet nothing for a lapse of forty-three years because we didn't produce any significant results in opening the planet."

"We were sent on an exploratory mission," Kai began defensively.

"Which remains incomplete." Lunzie made another eloquent shrug of her shoulders.

"What are you driving at, Lunzie.?" Varian asked.

"If we, too, make a significant contribution, the planet cannot be ceded entirely to the Heavyworld colonists, even if their ship lands. We do that by continuing with the original intention of the landing party: a survey of the geological and xenobiological features. It would be better if we could prevent the colony ship's landing, any way we can. If we somehow validate the "rescue" before the colony ship sets down, we could limit the settlers to that part they have worked."

"They'd do right well then," Triv said with a long sigh, "for the plateau is iron-rich. Aulia and I also found significant uranium traces along the up thrust of that long mountain chain the day they mutinied. Never did have a chance to tell you that, Kai."

"One wouldn't wish them to have nothing for their labors," Lunzie said with deep irony, before she turned to Varian. "There're also your pets, the giffs, Varian, who need to be permitted to evolve without interference. I'd go before the Supreme Council to defend their protection as a patently intelligent species."

"The whole planet should fall under that protection," Varian declared.

"Quite possibly," Lunzie said, "especially if Trizein's notion is correct about this planet's having some how been populated with species from Earth's Mesozoic age. That could be the preemptive consideration."

"Not with a world as rich as transuranics as this." Kai said in a tone that brooked no contradiction.

"The two are not mutually exclusive," Lunzie remarked mildly. "But if the colony ship gets down..."

"And if we should be found?" Triv asked.

"Which is undoubtedly the first thing Aygar would instruct them to do," Varian said, remembering the fury in that young man's eyes, promising retribution.

"We could use Dimenon and Margit," Kai said thoughtfully into the silence that followed.

"And Trizein," Lunzie said.

"Why him?" Portegin asked. "He's only an analyst and he wouldn't have any facilities."

"He's our authority on the Mesozoic zoology," Lunzie said.

"Portegin, could you rig a jammer for the communications mast at the plateau?" Kai asked.

"That'd mean getting close to the settlement again," Portegin was making no secret of his disinclination.

"Not very close," Triv remarked blandly.

"They wouldn't be expecting a 'rescue' party to interfere," Kai said with a grin.

"Good point," Varian said, pleased and relieved that her co-leader was reasserting himself. "And the sooner that is done, the better."

"Agreed!" Lunzie's single word was unexpectedly emphatic. "But, if doing that would use matrices required to reach the Ryxi..."