CHAPTER ELEVEN
Although Kai’s wrist chrono showed that only twenty minutes had elapsed from the moment they had reached the pilot’s cabin, it had seemed an age of repeated shocks and jolts until all external noise ceased.
After a moment of silence, Kai opened the iris lock enough to peer out. And saw nothing but mottled coarse furred hide. He stepped back, gesturing for Varian to look out.
“Buried alive in Hadrasaurs,” she said, irrepressible. Her eyes were very bright, her face lined with the strain of maintaining Discipline over the agony of her crushed and broken shoulder. “Open wider. They’re too big to fall in.”
With a wider view, they achieved only the vision of more bodies, darkness beyond. Kai reluctantly decided that they’d have to send Bonnard, who was agile and small enough, to assess the new position of the shuttle. Bonnard was warned to keep a low profile in case the heavy-worlders were about.
“You might remember that it is now full dark,” Lunzie said.” They don’t have good night vision. If they are out there.”
“Where else would they be?” demanded Aulia, hysteria in her shaking voice. “Gloating! Delighted with themselves. I’ve never liked working with heavy-worlders. They always think they’re abused and misused and they’re really not good for anything but heavy muscle work.”
“Oh, do be quiet, Aulia,” said Lunzie. “Go on with you, Bonnard, see if we have a clear passage for the shuttle. I’ll be as glad to put a lot of distance between myself and the heavy-worlders as anyone else in this shuttle.” She handed him a night-mask and gave him a reassuring and approving grin.
“Portegin, would you check the control panel’s circuitry?” asked Kai. “Varian, let Lunzie see to that arm now we’ve a spare moment.”
“If, after that, Lunzie gets a crack at your hand, Leader Kai.”
“No ‘ifs’ about it. I do you first, him next,” said Lunzie, reaching for her belt pouch. “At least they left me something to work with.”
“Why bother patching any of us?” demanded Aulia, sinking to the deck, head in her arms. “We can’t last long on this planet. Paskutti was right about that. And they’ve got everything we need!”
“Not everything. They left us the synthesizer,” said Varian with a snort. “couldn’t take that, built into the shuttle as it is.”
“There’s no power to run it. You heard Tanegli.”
“Bonnard hid the sleds’ packs. They’ll do for the synthesizer.”
“That’s only delaying the inevitable,” cried Aulia. “We’ll all die once the packs are drained. There’s no way to recharge them.”
“Kai got a message out to the Theks,” said Varian, hoping to forestall Aulia’s imminent hysterics.
“The Theks!” Aulia burst out laughing, a shrill, mirthless sound. Portegin came striding out of the pilot’s cabin and slapped her smartly across the face.
“That’s enough of that, you silly girl. You always do give up too easily.”
“She has brought up a few harsh truths,” said Margit in a weary voice. “Once the synthesizer is useless, we’re as good as …”
“We can always sleep it,” said Kai.
“I didn’t realize that this expedition had cryogenics,” said Margit but hope brightened her expression.
“This may be a small expedition, but it has all the basics. Or had,” replied Kai who, finding the proper space between the bulkheads, pressed the release and showed them the hidden recess with the cryogenic supplies.
“But if Portegin could fix the communit, we wouldn’t have to cold sleep,” said Aulia, her face also showing relief, “we could just beam EV?”
“No, and I might as well tell you right now,” said Portegin, his expression grim, “I can’t fix that panel. Not without the spare parts which they’ve removed.”
“I knew it,” said Aulia, beginning to weep in the silence that followed Portegin’s announcement.
“You know nothing,” said Portegin sharply, “so shut up.”
“Sleep is what we all need, right now. Regular sleep,” said Lunzie, sparing Kai significant glance.
Once Discipline had worn off, the four of them would need a full day’s rest before they could recover from the necessary abuse of their systems. With Aulia in such a state, and the others certain to react in one way or another to the shock of their experiences, their escape from the heavy-worlders would be meaningless if Kai and Varian could not maintain control.