In fact, the only good to come out of the day had been the assurance that they wouldn’t lose out on mineral and ore bonuses. He wondered if Kai and Varian would go for stretching their subjective time a little, say, back three or four years; one got only subsistence rate for being asleep on an assignment, no matter the reason. He wished Kai would get settled, even though the man was trying to be considerate, moving slowly. Too considerate, because his slow deliberate attempts to cut down noise made the process longer. Lunzie hadn’t so much as stirred since she lay down.
Portegin had to admire the medic. Not for a single moment had he suspected her of being more than just a healer. He drifted into unconsciousness while calculating possible totals to his bonuses.
Lunzie didn’t move because her mind had commanded her body to relax while she reviewed the day’s achievements: satisfactory on many counts—though Varian’s obvious attraction to the settler, Aygar, might become a problem. Distract Varian with the giffs, put her on her professional mettle to protect that species. Lunzie actually shared the girl’s reluctance to have the Ryxi learn over-much about the golden fliers. A most remarkable species, those giffs. It would be very interesting to discover how they, and immense herbivores and grotesque predators of Mesozoic Terra, got to Ireta. All too pat, this planet so perfect for the continuation of a totally useless series of beings. The planet was rife with anomalies. Puzzles pleased Lunzie, especially if she solved them in advance of anyone else. This assignment was generating more riddles than she had ever encountered before. A routine assignment, huh? She ran through her probabilities again and decided that she had a better than average chance of pulling a hat trick. Then she chuckled silently at her unconscious use of such an anachronism. Space helmet trick? Well, she oughtn’t to be greedy: that led to overconfidence, a state of mind which imperiled more than it aided. Two successes would mollify the Council of Adepts. However, if the two most important aspects of the assignment ended satisfactorily, it was logical to assume that the others would as well. Aware that she could juggle variations and probabilities all night and not fathom half the ramifications possible in this set of circumstances—and that without allowing for random factors—Lunzie initiated the hypnotic sequence that would end in sleep.
The next morning, after a potent breakfast stew, Lunzie took the four-men sled back to the giff cave. Varian went off with Portegin in one of the smaller sleds, combining both xenob and geological scouting. Triv went prospecting in an area where the radiation counter had begun chattering at the end of the previous day’s swing. Kai couldn’t keep his eagerness to inspect the 78
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors find out of his voice, but in his weakened condition, he was more useful as duty officer. And he was kept busier than anticipated for the reason that they lacked materials on which to keep notes and mark coordinates. However, as the campsite contained a level area of packed dirt, Kai used a sharp stick to inscribe the figures as they were called in, plus whatever additional notes were relayed. On the other side of the path from his message board, he began working on as detailed a map of Ireta as he could call to mind. He started with his recollection of the basement rock area which was unlikely to have changed much in elapsed forty-three years. As he sketched, Kai grinned to himself. The others could fault Tor the Thek as much as they wished, but to him, the fact that the Thek had come to Ireta in search of the long-lost core of obvious Thek manufacture was a personal triumph. If the artifact had not been so significant to the Thek, Kai was certain that Tor would have remained. But why had it taken forty-three years to rouse the Thek to investigate?
Kai marked in the immense northeastern plain where the butte formations had caused them to place the secondary camp. He was tempted to place pebbles to signify the rocky outcroppings. He wasn’t sure of the terrain leading to the settlement but Triv said it was probably a raised sea bed of geologically recent upheaval. Quite likely, since it would have been beyond the “safer” basement area, at the edge of one set of the planet’s restless tectonic plates. Volcanic disturbances had been recorded in the brief time the team had been there.