design and produce these superbly crafted gargoyles.
Flandry gave up wondering.
The time came when he and Djana halted within an hour of the mountaintop
that was their goal. They found a cave, screened by tall pinnacles,
wherein they erected the sealtent. “It’s not going any further,” the man
said. “Among other reasons, you know how long it takes to raise and to
knock down again; and we can’t stand many more losses of unrecovered
oxygen each time we break camp. So if we don’t succeed in getting help,
and in particular if we provoke a hunt for us, the burden won’t be worth
carrying. This is a nice, hard-to-find, defensible spot to sit in.”
“When do we call?” the girl asked.
“When we’ve corked off for about twelve hours,” Flandry said. “I want to
be well rested.”
She herself was tired enough that she dropped straight into sleep.
In the “morning” his spirits were somewhat restored. He whistled as he
led the way upward, and when he stood on the peak he declaimed. “I name
thee Mt. Maidens.” All the while, though, his attention ranged ahead.
Behind and on either side was the familiar jumble of rock, ice, and inky
shadows. Above gloomed the sky, its scattered stars and clouds, Mimir’s
searing brilliance now very near the dim, bright-edged shield of Regin.
The wind whimpered around. He was glad to be inside his warm if smelly
armor.
Ahead, as his topographical maps had revealed, the mountain dropped with
a steepness that would have been impossible under higher gravity. The
horizon was flat, betokening the edge of the plain where the centrum
lay, and the squares he had seen, and he knew not what else. Through
binoculars he made out the cruciform tops of four radio transceiver
masts. Those had risen since man abandoned Wayland; others were
scattered about in the wilds; from orbit, he had identified a few as
being under construction by robots of recognizable worker form. He had
considered making for one of those sites instead of here, but decided
against it. That kind of robot was too specialized, also in its “brain,”
to understand his problem. Besides, the nearest was dangerously far from
Jake’s resting place.
He unfolded a light tripod-based directional transmitter. He plugged in
the ancillary apparatus, including a jack to his own helmet radio.
Squatting, he directed the assembly in its rotation until it had locked
onto one of the masts. Djana waited. Her face showed still more gaunt
and grimy than his, her eyes hollow and fever-bright.
“Here goes,” Flandry said.
“O God, have mercy, help us,” breathed in his earplugs. He wondered
briefly, pityingly, if religion was what had kept her going, ever since
her nightmare childhood. But he had to tell her to keep silence.
He called on the standard band. “Two humans, shipwrecked, in need of
assistance. Respond.” And again. And again. Nothing answered but the
fire-crackle of cosmic energies.
He tried on the robots’ band. The digital code chattered with no
alteration that he could detect.
He tried other frequencies.
After an hour or more, he unplugged and rose. His muscles ached, his
mouth was parched, his voice came hoarse out of a roughened throat. “No
go, I’m afraid.”
Djana had been seated on the sanitary unit from her pack, which doubled
as a stool protecting against the elemental cold beneath. He had watched
her shrink further and further into herself. “So we’re finished,” she
mumbled.
He sighed. “The circumstances could be more promising. The big computer
should’ve replied instantly to a distress call.” He paused. The wind
blew, the stars jeered. He straightened. “I’m going for a first-hand
look.”
“Out in the open?” She scrambled erect. Her gauntlets closed spastically
around his. “You’ll be swarmed and killed!”
“Not necessarily. We saw from the boat, things do appear to be different
yonder from elsewhere. For instance, none of the accumulated wreckage
you’d expect if fighting went on. Anyhow, it’s our last resort.” Flandry
patted her in a fatherly way, which he might as well under present
conditions. “You’ll stay in the tent, of course, and wait for me.”
She moistened her lips. “No, I’ll come along,” she said.
“Whoa! You could get scragged.”