She guided the sled along the course she had taken on her first visit, then intersected the ravine where she had encountered Aygar. She continued along the ravine and soon came to a fast river, diverted from its old channel by the debris of a huge rockfall. They followed the river upstream for some distance to a beautiful curtain of wide falls roughly forty meters high.
67
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors
“Useful, too,” Portegin said, pointing to port. “They’ve set up a water wheel and what looks like a generator station.”
He glanced at Rianav to see if she intended to investigate, but she was already angling the sled above the falls keeping one eye starboard for the well-marked path, so that Titrivell and Portegin saw the second, larger falls before she did.
“Have they a power source there, too?”
“Yes, Lieutenant, another one, larger,” Portegin reported, homing in on the site with the camera eye.
“And there are the cultivated fields,” Titrivell said as the sled rose above the falls. “And a discontinuity fold!”
“A what?” Rianav asked, keeping her eyes on the scene before her.
“Which would explain this raised valley.” Titrivell went on. “Old sea bed probably. Look at the size of it!”
“And the reason why they abandoned the butte site,” Rianav said. “This plateau is large enough to support the biggest colony ship they build. Can you see evidence of a grid?”
Rianav spiraled the sled, then set it to hover as the three took in the vast area. The foreground was clear despite the beginning of a misty rainfall. The river and the terraced fields that began at its banks disappeared into a haze. In the far distance orange red flashes at several different points suggested that volcanoes added smoke to the heat mists. Portside of the river was the inevitable lush and tangled jungle growth, slanting upward to crown the heights and edges of the broad valley.
“Lieutenant, look!” Titrivell directed Rianav’s attention to the settlement to starboard. “Clever of them to use that stranded beach formation.”
“The what?”
“And look, ma’am, if you can spot it in the haze, the rock … it’s ore bearing! No mistaking that color.” Titrivell whistled, his eyes wide with excitement. “Just look how that color continues. The whole ‘narding’ cliff’s packed with iron ore.”
“A second reason for switching camps, then,” she said in a dry tone, dampening the rising enthusiasm Titrivell was displaying.
“See, over there, chimneys!” Titrivell continued, undaunted. Rianav applied a half-turn. “A foundry, all right, and a big one. And blast it all, they’ve got rails … leading to … Lieutenant, would you—about thirty degrees and—”
“We’re looking for a grid, Titrivell!” she said but corrected the helm.
“We don’t need to look, Lieutenant,” replied Titrivell, “if those rails lead to a mine or …”
She gave the sled a bit for power and they glided along the edge of plateau wall. Abruptly the vegetation disappeared and a huge pit opened below them, glistening in the rain.
“Or an open cast mine like this one!”
“I didn’t know you were so knowledgeable about mining, Titrivell,”
Rianav said with a shaky laugh. She hadn’t expected such evidence of industry from Aygar’s barbaric appearance and primitive weaponry.
“You don’t need to know much to miss that sort of operation, ma’am,” Titrivell said. He looked now, beyond the pit, and Rianav, following his gaze, turned the sled away from the mining area, down toward the immense natural plateau.
“They sure didn’t have far to haul,” Portegin remarked at his post. “Nor far to go home, either.
There’s a sizable settlement three degrees starboard, ma’am.”
“I’m far more interested in whether the grid is finished or not.” Rianav was also aware that she should render as full a report as possible to her commander and that included the number of 68
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors inhabitants. She diverted the sled to fly over the buildings that shortly became a geometrical arrangement, at the center of which was an expedition dome: its plastic had been scarred by wind and abrasive sands, darkened by sun, but it was still usable and, apparently, the focal point of the settlement.