“I thought that they stayed put at that size. Kai, what have you got on this forsaken planet to wrench them out of their comfortable niches? Do Thek inhabit niches? Or mountain tops? Never mind.”
Fordeliton landed the pinnace. He and Kai quickly made their way toward the Zaid-Dayan, where Sassinak and a contingent of her officers were advancing to where the Theks were squatting.
Fordeliton and Kai joined the group. Sassinak noted their arrival with a nod of her head.
Suddenly a sound stopped everyone, and one of the not so Teeny-Tiny Bears moved forward.
“Kaaaaaiiiieeee!” The sound was both command and recognition.
Kai looked inquiringly at Sassinak.
“That does sound like your name, Kai. It’s all yours.” The commander gestured him forward. To his astonishment, she winked as he passed.
“Tor?” he asked, coming to a halt in front of the Thek, for surely it had to be his acquaintance from the ARCT-10. No other Thek could have recognized one human among so many. “Tor?” It was awesome enough to be raced by four Thek, overheard by five more; it would be slightly less daunting if he spoke through a Thek he knew.
“Tor responds.”
Kai breathed a sigh of relief, and then realized that Tor was answering an unasked question. Or rather the question Kai had fruitlessly posed of the Thek removal squad.
With a speed that blurred movement, a Thek pseudo-pod extended a core to Kai. When he reached out to take it, the core was withdrawn beyond his grasp and he thrust his hands behind him, feeling more like a small miscreant than ever in this Thek presence.
“Toooo hotttt. Eggsamine.”
Hands still behind him, Kai leaned forward and peered obediently at the core. It looked like the same type of ancient device which Tor had recovered from their abandoned campsite.
“Is it Thek design?”
Thunder rumbled underfoot. Although the cruiser contingent glanced warily skyward where Ireta’s clouds rolled across a silent sky, Kai reckoned that the thunder was a Thek exchange of conversation and that it emanated from one of the immense Thek whose crowns were just visible over the bulk of the transport.
“Where found?”
Kai was startled by such a mundane question but the coordinates of that find came quickly to mind and he recited them.
Then thunder rumbled again, was answered by a lesser noise which Kai decided was Tor’s rejoinder for the Thek’s upper third rippled slightly, as if courteously turning in the direction of the questioner.
“Kai, ask it if this planet is claimed by the Thek?” Sassinak requested, leaning forward to murmur in Kai’s ear.
130
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors
“Verifying!” To everyone’s astonishment, the Thek answered her, and then compounded the surprise by a second gratuitous command. “Dismiss. Will contact.” Tor’s outline assumed a rigidity which Kai knew meant it would answer no further questions or summons.
He turned around to Sassinak.
“Dismissed, are we?” She was more amused than offended by Thek abruptness. “They’ll get back to us when they’ve had a good old think about all this?”
“I’d say that’s a fair analysis of the exchange,” Kai said, and he was once again put in mind of Fordeliton’s impudent analogy of the old children’s tale and the categories of the Thek. The Thek so rarely generated anything approaching amusement, yet Kai now found it difficult to control his laughter. He glanced quickly at Fordeliton who turned an expression of bland and utter innocence on him.
“Ford, the men can stand down. Secure from red alert. Just the sort of thing that Thek complain about. Lack of proper attention to detail. Shall we adjourn to my quarters, gentlemen? Can you spare us a few moments, Kai?”
He nodded and Sassinak swiftly led the way back into the cruiser and to her quarters. Fordeliton and a tall gaunt man with a lean aesthetic race and exceedingly sharp eyes entered the commander’s cabin along with Kai.
“I don’t believe you’ve met our science officer before, Kai. Governor, this is Captain Anstel.”
“My pleasure, Governor,” Anstel said in an unusually deep bass. I have read your reports.
Fascinating! Completely engrossing. Not only the dinosaurs—and that is indisputably what they are—but also the fringes. I did a complete analysis of their chemistry. Totally new, although there are two points of resemblance between these fringes and the plastic Wahks of Lesser Delibes planet