claim. Either way his team was at risk.
Where had the ARCT-10 disappeared to? Why had Tor been so uncharacteristically keen to find the old core? Why had the Thek then departed? Kai reminded himself that a mere human did not demand explanations of a Thek. Out of sight, out of mind, yet Tor had awakened him to find the core.
And how had the Ryxi flourished on their new planet? Kai wondered, though he knew that Vrl, his contact with the volatile avians, probably wouldn’t have worried about the geologist’s silence.
Certainly the Ryxi wouldn’t have communicated with the Thek. Surely, though, Kai reasoned, the commander of the Ryxi colony vessel ought to have tried to raise the Iretan group, if only prompted by courtesy. Probably the silence of the Iretan expedition was thought to mean that the ARCT-10
had collected the Iretan team as scheduled.
Which brought Kai back to the original question: What had happened to the ARCT-10? The great compound ships were constructed to withstand tremendous variations of temperature and stress.
62
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors Short of a full nova, an EEC vessel could endure almost anything. Possibly, a black hole would consume a whole EEC ship, but no EEC ship would approach such a hazard. As no known species that was inimical to the Federated Sentient Planets was capable of space travel, nothing short of the Others could have attacked the ARCT-10. A real mystery. Kai exhaled deeply.
“Does supper not appeal to you? I’d thought you were resigned to eating natural foods by now,”
said Varian, breaking Kai’s reverie.
“I’m hungry enough to eat anything.” He grinned at her as he accepted a bowl.
Once they had finished eating, Lunzie rinsed out the bowls and filled them with fruit steeped in its own juices. By then Kai was more tired than hungry so he put the bowl to one side and slipped down under the light blanket, closing his eyes. As he drowsed, he heard Portegin yawning loudly, complaining that he hadn’t done much to be so tired.
“You’re not quite recovered from cold sleep yet, you know,” Lunzie remarked. “You’ll have a full day tomorrow. Sleep now. There’s nothing more needs doing tonight.”
Kai was aware that the others were seeking their blankets and, as he lay, waiting for sleep to overtake him, he grew envious of their ability to drop off so quickly. He was all the more surprised then to hear Lunzie’s quiet voice.
“Portegin, Varian, Triv, you will listen to me. You will hear nothing but my voice. You will obey only my voice. You will follow my directions implicitly for you entrust your lives to me.
Acknowledge.”
Fascinated, Kai listened to the murmured assent of the three.
“Portegin, you will feel no pain, no matter what is done to the flesh of your body. From the first blow, your body will be nerveless, impervious to pain. You will not bleed. You will command your body to relax and your flesh to absorb injury without discomfort. You will be unable to reveal anything except your name, Portegin, your rank as helmsman first class of the FSP Cruiser, 218-ZD-43. You are part of a rescue mission. You know no more than that of your present. Your childhood years are open, your years of service as well, except that all service was with the Space Fleet. This is your first visit to Ireta. You will feel no pain, no matter what is done to the flesh of your body and the channels of your mind. You have a barrier against pain and mental intrusion.
Your mind is locked to control. Your nerves and pain centers are under my control. I will allow nothing to cause you pain or distress.”
Lunzie asked Portegin to repeat her instructions but the man’s toneless murmur was inaudible to Kai.
The medic then began to instruct Varian, whom she called Rianav. Here the parameters were more complex. She drew on Varian’s two years in her birth-planet’s martial corps, building a detailed recent memory which seemed to include facts of personal history unexpectedly known to Lunzie but not to Kai. The hypnotic briefing would insure that Varian-Rianav acted and thought as a career Fleet officer. She also erected barriers to protect Varian-Rianav against any intrusion or pain above and beyond the control Varian could produce herself with the exercise of Discipline.