species–but I imagine he had woes enough pushing his project through a
reluctant government, without bucking attitudes so ingrained that the
typical Merseian isn’t even conscious of them.
Given a radio link to the base, the expedition leader didn’t bother with
a vocalizer. He spoke Eriau directly to the computer back there. It
rendered his phrases into the dialect spoken here at Ktha-g-klek, to the
limited extent that the latter was “known” to its memory bank. Grunting,
clicking noises emerged from the minisets of whatever beings listened in
the village. The reverse process operated, via relay by the bus. An
artificial Merseian voice said: “Be welcome. We are in a torrent of
toil, but can happen a sharing of self is possible.”
“The more if we can help you with your transportation,” the leader
offered.
The Dom hesitated. A primitive’s conservatism, Flandry recognized. He
can’t be sure airlifts aren’t unlucky, or whatever. Finally: “Come to
us.”
That was not quickly done. First everybody aboard must get into his heat
suit. One had been modified for Flandry. It amounted to a white coverall
bedecked with pockets and sheaths; boots; gauntlets–everything
insulated around a web of thermoconductor strands. A fish-bowl helmet
was equipped with chowlock, mechanical wipers, two-way sonic
amplification, and short-range radio. A heat pump, hooked to the
thermoconductors and run off accumulators, was carried on a backpack
frame. Though heavy, the rig was less awkward than might have been
expected. Its weight was well distributed; the gloves were thick and
stiff, but apparatus was designed with that in mind, and plectrum-like
extensions could be slipped over the fingers for the finer work. Anyway,
Flandry thought, consider the alternative.
It’s not that man or Merseian can’t survive awhile in this sauna. I
expect we could, if the while be fairly short. It’s that we wouldn’t
particularly want to survive.
Checked out, the party set down its vehicle and stepped forth. At this
altitude, relay to base continued automatically.
Flandry’s first awareness was of weight, enclosure, chuttering pump,
cooled dried air blown at his nostrils. Being otherwise unprocessed, the
atmosphere bore odors–growth, decay, flower and animal exudations,
volcanic fumes–that stirred obscure memories at the back of his brain.
He dismissed them and concentrated on his surroundings.
The river boomed past a broad meadow, casting spray and steam over its
banks. Above and on every side loomed the jungle. Trees grew high, brush
grew wide, leaf crowding serrated blue leaf until the eye soon lost
itself in dripping murk. But the stems looked frail, pulpy, and the
leaves were drying out; they rattled against each other, the fallen ones
scrittled before a breeze, the short life of summer’s forest drew near
to an end.
Sturdier on open ground was that vegetable family the Merseians called
wair: as widespread, variegated, and ecologically fundamental as grass
on Terra. In spring it grew from a tough-hulled seed, rapidly building a
cluster of foliage and a root that resembled a tuber without being one.
The leaves of the dominant local species were ankle height and lacy.
They too were withering, the wair was going dormant; but soon, in fall,
it would consume its root and sprout seeds, and when frost cracked their
pods, the seeds would fall to earth.
Darkling over treetops could be glimpsed Mt. Thunderbelow. A slight
shudder went through Flandry’s shins, he heard a rumble, the volcano had
cleared its throat. Smoke puffed forth.
But the Domrath were coming. He focused on them.
Life on Talwin had followed the same general course as on most
terrestroid planets. Differences existed. It would have been surprising
were there none. Thus, while tissues were principally built of L-amino
proteins in water solution like Flandry’s or Cnif’s, here they normally
metabolized levo sugars. A man could live on native food, if he avoided
the poisonous varieties; but he must take the dietary capsules the
Merseians had prepared.
Still, the standard division into photosynthetic vegetable and
oxygen-breathing animal had occurred, and the larger animals were
structurally familiar with their interior skeletons, four limbs, paired
eyes and ears. Set beside many sophonts, the Domrath would have looked
homelike.
They were bipeds with four-fingered hands, their outline roughly
anthropoid except for the proportionately longer legs and huge, clawed,