Even to himself he sounded as pompous as Gaber and he quickly took a bit of melon to hide his embarrassment.
“Yes, that grits at me,” she said. “We have such a brief time”—she gestured to the shuttle, and the brooding Thek inside—“in which to make a mark of any sort, to achieve some merit. I know I want to leave some sign that I tried! Krim erase those misguided, misbegotten, mutineers.”
“I’d hate to think we were the sign of their achievement!”
9
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors Varian jumped to her feet and launched the rind of melon past the vine screen. They heard a faint plop as it hit the water below. “No, by Krim! We’ll have something of our own to report out of this mess, and I don’t care how long we have to sleep to do it. Some EEC vessel is going to strip that beacon. And when it does, it’ll come streaming into orbit to tap Ireta’s wealth! And I’ll be here!”
10
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors CHAPTER TWO
They did not wish to dilute the sleep mist by unnecessary trips into the shuttle or to disturb the Thek until it was ready to communicate. So they settled themselves near the entrance to the cave.
One of the short hard showers which dominated Ireta’s tropical weather sent the vines rattling and twisting into the cave.
“You know something, Kai?” said Varian after a long companionable silence. “I can smell that wind.”
“Huh?”
“I mean, I don’t smell Ireta any longer. I smell other things, like rotting fish and decaying fruit and something else that smells worse than Ireta used to when we first landed.”
Kai inhaled tentatively. “You’re right!”
Neither of them was enthusiastic since the basic odor of Ireta was hydrotelluride. They had once had nose filters to neutralize the smell.
“I suppose,” Varian said resignedly, “that it’s better to get accustomed to the overriding stench of a place so you can smell other things, but somehow …”
“I know. Anything but hydrotelluride. On the positive side, Lunzie did say that one’s olfactory sense can be …” Kai hunted for the appropriate word.
“Reconditioned.” Absent mindedly Varian suggested a word but she was already bent forward, toward the cave opening, sniffing deeply. Then she turned, sniffed again toward the interior. “Part of the new stink comes from the Thek’s craft. What does it use for power?”
“My father told me that for short distances the Thek uses its own energy.”
“Short distances? Like intersystem travel?”
Kai chuckled. “All things are relative. Thek, so they tell us, are a form of granite with a nuclear core for energy. That’s how they make pseudopods. They keep a reservoir of liquid silicon which they move hydraulically to form extremities. Thek can move with extraordinary speed if they’re charged up. The astrophysics officer on the ARCT told me that he’d heard from a reliable source that Thek like to sit on radioactive granite—which we’ll probably find on Ireta if we ever get equipment again—Thek absorb energy that way.”
“Whatever they use, it leaves a stink in a class all by itself. Way above Iretan normal.” Varian grimaced expressively. “How do you know more about Thek than I do? I’m the xenobiologist.
Come to think of it, we never do study the Thek, do we?”
“Wouldn’t do, would it?” Kai said with a laugh. “Considering their position in the Federated Sentient Planets.”
“Hmmm yes. Got us all properly awed and respectful, don’t they? With their long silences and infallibility.” She’d got to her feet, restlessly wandering about the Thek vehicle, carefully rapping the metallic base with her knuckles. “No one’s ever been able to analyze Thek metal, have they?”
“No.”
She turned abruptly from the cone-shaped ship and walked briskly to the vine screen. “Not all the stench comes from the Thek. Some of it’s from up there! It’s not only nauseating, it makes me feel
… it unnerves me.”
“It’s inactivity that unnerves you, Varian.” Kai was comfortable enough on the cave floor.
“How long does it take a Thek to come to a conclusion?” She glared irritably at the space shuttle.