“An ancient Thek,” Kai said.
“An ancient Thek?” Trizein turned to frown at Kai, concern and surprise on his seamed face.
“Our telltagger has never registered that sort of heat mass, now has it, Bonnard?”
“Nope,” replied the boy cheerfully.
The globe’s cheerful bleep penetrated to the shuttle’s interior and Kai gratefully used it as an excuse to escape Trizein’s saurian enthusiasms and Bonnard’s innocent confidence in Thek infallibility.
“Kai!” Bonnard came after him. “Kai.”
Reluctantly Kai paused, turned, saw the boy removing an antiseptic wipe from his first-aid pouch. Bonnard extended it to him with a bashful grin.
“You’ve got a trickle of blood on your chin. I don’t think it would do to let Varian or Lunzie see that.” Bonnard turned on his heel and ran back into the shuttle.
Dabbing at his lower lip, Kai felt a warmth suffuse the tight knot of despair that had taken up residence in his chest. Then he continued to the veil.
140
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors CHAPTER NINETEEN
If Varian had come back to the main camp that evening; If Triv, Aulia, and Portegin had arrived back for the evening meal; If Dimenon and Margit had, for any reason, visited the camp, Kai might have felt obligated to air his pessimistic speculations about Thek and Ireta. Instead the dinosaur buffs from the Zaid-Dayan and the Mazer Star convened an informal enthusiasm session, matching unusual specimens with Trizein and the three children. Kai was torn between the social obligations of raising his spirits to the level of the others and the need to worry privately about his new anxieties. He was apparently dissembling well enough so that not even Lunzie noticed. The medic was examining Terilla’s detailed sketches, pinning the more colorful ones on the walls of the dome,
“to brighten things.”
More out of a wish to distract himself, Kai approached Perens, the Mazer Star’s navigator. “Why do dinosaurs fascinate you and these others so much? They are smelly animals, crawling with vermin, not very intelligent, and I can’t give them any marks for beauty. To me they are nothing but mammoth walking appetites. If Ireta wasn’t also blessed with a vegetation explosion, they’d’ve died out long ago of starvation.”
Perens, a dapper little man with a pencil-thin mustache, which he stroked lovingly, grinned at Kai. “Didn’t you get the capsule history of Old Terra in your tutorials?” when Kai nodded, Perens continued. “Well, the only thing I remember about it in any detail was the chapter on prehistory.
The rest was sort of wars and power struggles, no different from what we have today in the Federated Planets, only more intense because it was limited to the one small planet and, generally, to one or two continents. But I remembered the dinosaurs and the Mesozoic age. I remembered because they had lasted, as a viable life-form, for more millions of years than we have!” Perens smoothed his mustache absently. “I’ve always wondered what kept the dinosaurs going for so long on Old Terra, when Homo Sapiens, operating in a much shorter time scale, came so close to pulling the plug on itself.” Then he shrugged and grinned ingenuously at Kai. “Dinosaurs are big, they’re ugly, and they’re fascinating. Raw power, a force of nature, majestic!”
Just then, Lunzie appeared beside them, in her hand a tray filled with glasses with her special Iretan brew. Nothing could have been more welcome. “Muhlah! You’ve been well occupied, Lunzie.” He turned to grin encouragingly at Perens. “Hope you’re a drinking man because this stuff may be a local brew but it’s good!”
Lunzie raised her eyebrows in mock surprise. “But it’s planet-brewed, Kai, not processed.”
“I’m learning chapter and verse like a good Disciple,” he said, toasting her with his glass. He had the touch of the liqueur on his lips when he stayed his hand. “It won’t react with Mayerd’s medicine, will it?”
“If it might, I wouldn’t have served you.”
“In that case—” and Kai knocked back the entire glass, holding it out for a refill.
“Hmm. My, how the pure have been corrupted!” But she complied before she moved on.”
Perens was cautious. He merely wet his lips then judiciously ran his tongue over them. Then he took a tiny sip, washing the liquid about his mouth. Kai watched him with a certain respect, for the spirituous beverage had a bite to it. Finally Perens condescended to drink.