The cover personality for Varian was tightly woven out of fact and half-truth and so logical that Kai wondered if Lunzie was using the life history of an actual person. Kai was awed for he realized that he was listening to an accomplished Adept and there had been nothing in Lunzie’s service profile to indicate such competence. Of course, there wouldn’t be, beyond a mention of a term at Seripan, the center where Discipline was taught; a fact only other Disciples would recognize as significant.
As Lunzie quietly set barriers in the mind of Triv-Titrivell, Kai began to wonder if there was any covert reason why ARCT’s administrators had recommended her as medic. He decided that it was 63
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors only chance: what else? Most medics were disciples since hypnotic control to inhibit pain was more effective than anesthesia and the simplest method of curing mental trauma. The Iretan expedition had been considered a straight forward search for transuranics which was why, Kai was certain, two relatively young people were given the co-leadership. He thought grimly of the counts against himself and Varian: mutiny and a minority group all but established on what should have been an extraordinarily rich FSP planet. Exploration and Evaluation Corps wouldn’t like that, much less the FSP who preferred to keep all transuranics under their control, leasing them only to stable corporations.
He supposed they should have remained awake and done their utmost to thwart the heavyworlders, though how they could have accomplished anything significant without equipment or weapons he was incapable of imagining. A leader’s prime responsibility was to bring back the full complement of his expedition, preferably having completed his assignment. A resigned sigh escaped his lips.
“You were awake, Kai?” Lunzie’s voice was soft and Kai realized that she had moved beside him with a bowl in her outstretched hand.
“So, you fixed some fruit?” he asked, opening his eyes and looking at her.
She nodded. Odd that he had never noticed before what beautiful and compelling eyes she had.
Kai lifted the neglected shell in gentle salute and drank the juice before he began to eat the fruit.
“I wasn’t hungry. But I’m awfully glad you can give them more protection, Lunzie.”
“Yes, it’s always easier to lie if you think you’re telling the truth.”
“I won’t worry so much about that meeting tomorrow.”
“I’m sure you won’t.” The medic’s low voice was tinged with amusement. She took the emptied shell from his hand.
What ever Lunzie had added to the innocent fruit was potent. He swam down into darkness, completely aware that in the morning, he would not remember that Lunzi was an Adept.
64
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors CHAPTER SEVEN
Rianav wished that they had a squad of troopers with them. Titrivell and Portegin were good men; she’d been in several tricky situations with them but, if her commander’s suspicion should prove valid, three troops in a four-man sled, equipped with only force belts and stunners were woefully insufficient.
Still, until a colony ship did somehow slip through the commander’s surveillance, three veterans could cope. She doubted the survivors had any sophisticated weapons if that Aygar had been hunting with a crossbow and lance. Not that such a primitive weapon was ineffective: bolts from a crossbow could penetrate thick metal and, at close range, probably knock fragments from the ceramic hull of the sled. The original landing party’s stunners would by now be inoperative. She’d match herself and Titrivell against any two or three of Aygar’s size so she really had no reason to be apprehensive about the meeting. Except Aygar’s insistence that it be held away from his current living area.
Once she had set the course for the secondary camp, she gestured to Portegin to take the controls.
She must be fresh for the conference. Titrivell took the starboard observation post while she settled herself to port. Not that there was much to see except huge trees festooned with climbers and swaths of damaged vegetation where large beasts had broken trails through the dense jungle. She didn’t fancy any ground work there.
“Lieutenant?” Portegin interrupted her and she followed the direction of his point.