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me as much as no mention of a previous coring."
"I quite appreciate that. How old d'you think the cores are?"
"Too scorching old for my liking, Varian. The line end with the stable shield
area!"
Varian drew breath in a whistle. "Kai, that would mean millions of years.
Could even a Thek manufactured device last that long?"
"Who knows?" C'mon, you can have a look at the device yourself. And
I've some tapes to play for you that I think you'll like."
"Those flying things Gaber was raving about?"
"Among others."
"Sure you won't have one more piece of fresh fruit?" She couldn't resist
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teasing him.
Kai gave her a fleetingly irritated look, then grinned. He had an engaging
smile, she thought, and not for the first time. They'd seen a good deal of
each other in the planning stages but far too little now they had to deal with
their separate responsibilities.
"I've had a sufficiency to eat, thank you, Varian."
"And I'm a glutton, huh?" But she snatched up one more slice from the
platter. "What are these avians like? I don't trust Gaber's observations."
"They're golden furred and I'd hazard that they're intelligent.
Curiosity occurs only with intelligence, doesn't it?"
"Generally, yes. Intelligent fliers? Raking ramjets, this'll throw the
Ryxi into loops." Varian crowed with delight." Where'd you encounter them?"
"I went to see those coloured lakes of Berru's, and startled them out of the
cliffs. By the way, the lakes harbour monsters every bit as big and dangerous
as those swamp dwellers we saw this morning."
"This planet goes in for big things . . ."
"Big puzzles, too." They had entered the cartography dome now and Kai picked
up the old core and handed it to her." Here's my latest."
Varian hefted it in the palm of one hand. She saw another core on the table.
"Is this one of yours?"
Kai looked up from the tape cannisters he was sorting through and nodded.
Side by side, she could see the slight differences in circumference, length
and weight.
"Does this previous coring explain why you've had so little luck in finding
any cores?"
"Yes. The shield land has been stripped. My gang was relieved to know
there was a good reason -- this planet ought to be full of pay dirt. Now,
however, we'll have to set up secondary camps in the new fold mountains . .
."
"Secondary camps? Kai, that isn't safe. Even if the worst you'd have to
contend with is fang-face . . ."
"Fang-face?"
"Well, That's what I call whatever chewed a piece off Mabel's flank."
"Mabel?"
"Must you keep repeating me? I find it a lot easier to name 'em than keep
calling "em "herbivore number one" or "predator with teeth A"."
"I didn't know you'd seen the predator?"
"I haven't. I can postulate from his tooth marks . . ."
"Would this be fang-face?" asked Kai as the tapes he and Gaber had made that
afternoon began to appear on the viewing screen. He punched a hold on the one
shot they'd had of the predator's head.
Varian let out a squeak as she got a good look at the toothy, snarling head,
the angry little eyes upturned to the sled as the creature had flashed across
the small clearing.
"Yes, that could be the villain. Six metres in the shoulder, too. You
couldn't set up secondary camps that would keep him out. He could flatten you
even with a couple of force-screen belts on you. No, I wouldn't advise
secondary camps until we find out how far these sweethearts range."
"We could move the shuttle . . ."
"Not until Trizein has completed his current run of experiments. And why
move? Are we low on power for travel?"
"No, but I was considering the commutation time. Cuts down effective time in
the field."
"True. Frankly, Kai, I'd prefer to scout an area before you set up a
secondary camp. Even those herbivores like Mabel, useless as they are, could
be dangerous stampeding from a fang-face. However," she added, seeing he was
adamant, "every animal in creation is afraid of something. I'll figure out
what animals you'd have to contend with in an area and we can set up some
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safe-guards around say, one larger, suitably situated secondary camp and your
field teams would be relatively safe . . ."
"You don't sound certain."
"I'm not certain about anything on this crazy planet, Kai. And your discovery
today only makes my uncertainty more . . ." she grinned, "certain!"
He laughed.
She took one more long appraising look at the predator's rows of needle sharp
teeth and then asked Kai to roll the tape." Sure glad you were aloft when you
met that fellow. Gaber managed to tag him? That'll help estimate his
territorial sway. Oh, I say, aren't they lovely!"
The golden fliers were on the screen, and while it might have been the
juxtaposition to the preceding predator, they seemed so benign and graceful.
"Oh, hold that frame, Kai, please!" Varian gestured for him to go back on the
tape until she had the frame of the creature, suspended in its flight, its
crested head slightly turned towards the camera so that both golden-coloured
eyes were visible.
"Yes, I'd agree that it's intelligent. Is that a pouch under its beak for
storing fish? And it's a glider, I think. Roll it, Kai, I want to see if
that wing can rotate. Yes, see, there! As it veers away. Yes, yes. Much
more advanced than that carrion eater this morning. Why is so much of our
reaction dependant on the eye of a creature?" She looked up at Kai whose grey
eyes widened with surprise.
"Eye?"
"Yes. The eyes of that little mammal today . . . I couldn't have left it
behind, Kai, short of mutiny, once I'd seen the frightened lost confusion in
its eyes. Much less the entreaty in Bannard's and Cleiti's.
Those swamp horrors, they had tiny eyes, in comparison to their skull shape .
. . wicked, beady, hungry eyes." Varian shuddered in recall. "And that new
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