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Lisele shook her head. "It's so strange.
I'd never-" She didn't know what to say next, so she stopped.
Trent said, "Then the beast is more dangerous than I thought?"
Rissa shrugged. "If there are more, I suppose we shall find out." Then she
used the holocamera. Trent helped her turn the animal this way and that, to
give the different views Tregare wanted. She cut meat from the flank, and
opened the abdomen. Half-digested material went into one of Lisele's bags.
Rissa turned away to leave. Lisele said, "Jenise wanted some of the leg, or
tongue, whatever it is, too." She took out her pruning knife and knelt beside
the dead thing. Then she paused; she couldn't touch the part she needed,
without burning herself some more. All right; she had one sample bag left.
Sliced down the middle, it made a pair of protective mitts. In a few moments
she had her sample, and wrapped it. Then she stood. "Let's go."
Back in the scout, Tregare exclaimed over the holo-pics and Jenise analyzed
Lisele's specimen. Finally she said, "I'm not sure of all of it, but a main
component is formic acid."
After a moment, Lisele nodded. "Oh, sure. Ant bites."
Next, Jenise opened the bag of stomach contents. Using tongs, she sorted the
material into little piles, leaving several disgusting-looking lumps to one
side. After a while she looked up. "Most of the vegetation is things I've
already cleared as edible. More important, there's nothing here that I've
figured to be unsafe for us.
Some are new to me; maybe Lisele will find samples of them tomorrow. But for
now-"
Lisele said, "You think we can eat meat from this animal?"
Jenise shrugged. "I don't know yet. We don't have the equipment for all the
tests I'd like-to check the aminos, say. I
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can test for metallic poisons, that sort of thing. But first, will someone put
a small piece to boil, with a Sid over it?"
Rissa's eyes narrowed. "Of course. As the volatile components boil out, the
odors will give us clues." Soon she had the setup heating.
"If it smells all right," said Jenise, "I'll sample the broth."
Rorvik's limited chemistry and the "sniff test" gave the meat, tentatively, a
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clean bill of health. But the spoonful of broth she sampled stayed down only
about fifteen minutes. Pale-faced, Jenise insisted on trying a bit of meat,
anyway, and an hour later her digestive system hadn't made any protest.
"Whatever's toxic, then, boils out," said Tregare. "Which means we don't ever
roast or broil or fry the stuff." Rissa suggested boiling the meat in several
successive waters, to get rid of as much poison as possible.
After a second boiling, Tregare insisted on trying a sample, and it gave him
no trouble.
"Where'd you get that idea?" he asked Rissa.
She paused, brow wrinkled; then she nodded. "Browsing in an old book, at
Hulzein Lodge on Number One.
The method was applied to kidneys, which otherwise have a rather ammoniac
smell."
"Sure." Tregare smiled. "I used to hate the things, until you served up
bushstomper kidney at the cabin there, across the Big Hills from the Lodge.
That's how you did it, huh?"
"That is how, yes." Rissa stood. "Now, should we go and harvest more bounty
from Lisele's kill?
Hagen?" The engineer got up, too. Rissa hadn't said that Lisele couldn't come
along, so Lisele did-and helped cut meat from the back and sides, then carried
her share into the scout, where much of it was wrapped and frozen.
At dinner, Stonzai and Sevshen tried portions of the new stuff-vegetables and
meat, both-and showed no ill effects.
Next, with help from Rissa and the two Shrakken, Trent got his new antenna
system up among the trees, oriented, and connected to the scout. Inside,
Tregare had to admit there was no way he could perch to operate the up-ended
comm panel. So Rissa took over.
"Try the
Deux first," he said, settling into one of the relocated seats. "With the
mountains in between, the odds aren't good-even if the ship's still on
Shaarbant. But worth a try."
The
Deux didn't answer. Nor, when Stonzai spoke, did the
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Shrakken bases at Sassden or Shtegel. Nearly an hour, they kept trying.
Finally, crouched over the panel, Rissa turned and said, "I find no coherent
signals whatsoever. But this does not prove that the Tsa have wiped those
bases out."
Tregare nodded. "Curvature of the planet, yeah. Ground-to-ground equipment, we
don't have. The Shrakken have relay satellites that accept our frequencies,
but damned if I know how we'd spot one, from here." He rubbed his chin. "I was
hoping this place had enough ionosphere to give us the chance of a freak skip
condition." Now he grinned. "Maybe somebody did hear us, but the skip just
isn't working in both directions. Well, short of that-
since we can't get upstairs ourselves, our best shot is if somebody flies
over. You want to make a loop-tape, Rissa, and leave it transmitting? And
Stonzai-will you make one, too, for raising your people, just in case? We can
set the receivers to give audible alarm, and to record, if anyone does call
back."
"As you say, I do." And not long after, she and Rissa finished their jobs and
climbed down. Rissa stretched and grimaced, but the Shrakken showed no sign of
being uncomfortable.
"And what, Bran, do we do now?"
"Wait. Well, go ahead with the food-gathering project, and all-except that
from now on, that's a job for two, and with guns. But mostly, just wait."
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It was another week before Tregare, after dinner, said, "We're not going to
get any answer. Folks, it's time we figured out our next move."
XIV.IVAN
Inconnu Deux slowed, and
"stopped," and headed back toward Shaarbant. Over a drink in captain's
quarters, Anders and Alina visiting
Ivan and Dacia, Anders Kobolak asked, "Did everybody get the word, how many
light-years we are, out from Shaarbant?"
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Ivan had guessed, but at the figure Anders gave, he whistled. Translating
distance into travel time, he whistled again. "Something more?" Dacia asked;
he shook his head. But- without the Hoyfarul Drive, the
Deux had real trouble. Its food supply was based on FTL travel times. Some
folks might have to go back into freeze....
Without stirring up alarm, Ivan checked on the matter. After all, if the
captain wanted an inventory, he got one. He was relieved to find that things
weren't urgent yet-but he made a point of getting Peleter's reports as soon as
possible. If he had to hand his people a bombshell, he wanted to pick his own
time for it.
Crowfoot knew Hoyfarul's theories, the math part, and Peleter knew the
hardware. Their expertise didn't quite meet, let alone overlap. But working
together, as the
Deux built speed toward C, they began to understand each other better. Sitting
in as they talked, lounging in captain's quarters, Ivan could tell that they
were nearing a conclusion. He thought he knew what it would be; he hoped he
was wrong.
But nothing stinks as bad as dead hopes. Tregare had said that once, and now
Ivan knew how right his brother-in-law had been. "Our parabolic, acoherent
drive field," said Crowfoot, "is solid as a rock, for sub-
light speeds. But locking it into coherence, closing the field into
ellipsoidal form for FTL-" He clicked his tongue. "The thing's not stable
enough. And given what we have aboard to work with, I don't think it's going
to be."
Accepting, Ivan nodded. "You'll both keep trying, of course?"
"Sure," said Peleter. "But, skipper-don't expect too much."
Ivan's sigh came from tension, not relief; he hoped he kept it quiet. Turning
to Dacia beside him, he said, "We need a meeting. Everybody. Drive and Control
can attend over the intercom."
She asked no questions; she called and set things up, putting Ellalee on the
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