“Hundred years’d mean no mutineers on watch.”
“Point well taken. Even the freshest of their power packs wouldn’t last more than two years. I’d also guess they’d stay at that secondary camp since they’d already stocked it last rest day …”
“Last rest day?” Varian regarded him with an amusement tinged with disbelief. “How long ago was last rest day?”
“Subjective? Or objective time elapsed?” he asked in reply and grinned to take the sting out of the notion.
“Good question.” Varian could enunciate more clearly now. She began to flex her arms and knees. “Hey, my shoulder knit perfectly!” She rose, muttering under her breath as her rebelling muscles made the effort graceless. “Things seem to be all in working order,” she added as she headed for the toilet.
While she was gone, Kai stared at Tor. Then he walked around the Thek, looking for the recorder. Irreverently he wondered if the Thek was sitting on it, had ingested it, or perhaps created a heat-resistant pouch in which it could keep bits and pieces of fragile alien manufacture.
“It’s going to stay like that for days,” Varian said in disgust as she joined Kai. “C’mon. I want to see what’s been happening outside. And I want something to drink to take the dust out of my mouth—and to put some unprocessed food in my poor shrunken stomach.”
She gave him a malicious wink, knowing that the ship-bred Kai never noticed the after taste of processed food as she invariably did.
They opened the exit iris of the shuttle just enough to squeeze through without diluting the cold-sleep gas significantly. But the atmosphere outside the space shuttle was like a hot smack in the face with a moist stinking cloth.
7
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors Varian let out a surprised grunt, then began to inhale deeply to adjust to the shocking change of temperature. At first Kai thought they must have emerged during the planet’s night but, as his eyes grew accustomed to the dimness, he realized that the opening of the cave was covered with thick green foliage. There was a break where the Thek had pushed its vehicle through. The cone-shaped carrier was resting a few meters from the shuttle’s entrance.
“Where are the power units?” Varian called as the two were drawn to examine the strange craft.
“It’s the same shape Tor is, only larger.” She gestured with her hands in surprise, then reached out to touch the dull metal of the rounded stern. She pulled her hand back. “Wow, heat’s radiating from it.”
Kai was at the bow of the Thek vehicle, inspecting the scored heavy plasshield which was half-open on its pivots. He looked inside, trying to deduce the purpose of various odd protuberances and cavities on the metallic rim of the nose section.
“Only a Thek could pilot the damned thing with a nearly blind shield!” She turned away, indifferent to the mysteries of Thek navigation. “Now these,” she said, catching a vine and testing its strength by hanging her weight from it, feet off the floor, “are enough to feed us for weeks if that’s all we want.”
Before Kai could stop her, Varian took a running start and, holding tightly to the vine, swung out beyond the cave mouth.
“Wheeeee!”
“Varian!” Kai rushed forward, catching her on the swing back, holding tightly to her hips. He’d a moment’s horrific vision of the vine’s parting, dropping her into the sea, meters below, to certain death.
“Sorry, Kai,” she said in a tone that wasn’t apologetic. “I couldn’t resist the urge. Used to do a lot of vine-swinging as a kid on Fomalhaut.” Then she relented as she realized her exuberance had scared him. “Irresponsible behavior when I’m not quite fit but—and she grinned at him mischievously”—there’s something about contact with a Thek which makes me behave …”
“Childish?” Kai’s panic had subsided and he realized that he, too, had overreacted.
“Yes, childish. Say, have you ever seen a Thek child, young, cub, pup, fledgling … or maybe you’d call it a pebble?”
Varian’s laughter was contagious at any time and, despite his frustrations and worries, Kai laughed too, hugging her to him in wordless appreciation of her ability to find any amusement in their circumstances.