The golden fliers were on the screen, and while it might have been the juxtaposition to the preceding predator, they seemed so benign and graceful.
“Oh, hold that frame, Kai, please!” Varian gestured for him to go back on the tape until she had the frame of the creature, suspended in its flight, its crested head slightly turned towards the camera so that both golden-coloured eyes were visible.
“Yes, I’d agree that it’s intelligent. Is that a pouch under its beak for storing fish? And it’s a glider, I think. Roll it, Kai, I want to see if that wing can rotate. Yes, see, there! As it veers away. Yes, yes. Much more advanced than that carrion eater this morning. Why is so much of our reaction dependant on the eye of a creature?” She looked up at Kai whose grey eyes widened with surprise.
“Eye?”
“Yes. The eyes of that little mammal today … I couldn’t have left it behind, Kai, short of mutiny, once I’d seen the frightened lost confusion in its eyes. Much less the entreaty in Bannard’s and Cleiti’s. Those swamp horrors, they had tiny eyes, in comparison to their skull shape … wicked, beady, hungry eyes.” Varian shuddered in recall. “And that new predator’s eyes … fang-face has a wicked appetite. Of course, it isn’t a hard and fast rule–the Galormis were a hideous example of camouflaged intent …”
“You were on that expedition?”
Varian made a face. “Yes, I was a very junior member on the team at Aldebaran 4 when they were encountered. My first assignment out of xeno-veterinary college. They had soft eyes, mind you,” which occasionally still haunted her sleep, “mild-looking creatures too, softish, perfectly amenable until full dark–then–whammie!”
“Nocturnal feeders?”
“Bleeders! Sucked the blood and then chewed the flesh … like what’s been feeding on Mabel … No, it couldn’t be Galormis. Teeth are too big.”
“Why on earth call it Mabel?”
“Knew someone like her once, a walking appetite, hating the world around her, suspicious and constantly confused. Not much intelligence.”
“What would you name the avian?”
“I don’t know,” she said after regarding the furry face. “It isn’t easy until you’ve actually met the creature. But this species has intelligence and personality. I want to see more of them!”
“Thought you would. Although we couldn’t tag them. They moved too fast. Kept up with the sled at cruising speed.”
“Very good.” A yawn caught her unawares. “All this fresh air, chasing wounded animals to doctor them what don’t wish to be helped.” She stroked his cheek and gave him a regretful smile of apology. “I’m going to bed. And you ought to, too, co-leader. Sleep on our puzzles. Maybe sleep’ll solve ’em.”
Kai could have wished it had, but he woke the next morning feeling refreshed and the teams, when assembled, were in such good spirits that his rose, too.
“I’ve discussed secondary camps with Varian. Until she has catalogued the habits of the predators, she can’t guarantee our safety,” said Kai, “but she’s going to set and search areas into which we can move, if we adhere to the safeguards she devises. Okay? Sorry, but you’ll understand better if you’ve seen the marks on the herbivore’s flank.” He noticed by the grim expressions that everyone had looked at the creature.
“Boss, what about the gaps in the old cores, here, here and here?” asked Triv, pointing out the areas south-west and due south.
“Faults,” said Gaber, slipping a scale transparency over the seismic map. “I read a massive overthrust here. Good area to search now but any seismimic would have been crushed. Or subsided too far below the surface to transmit.”
“Triv, you and Margit explore that overthrust today. Aulia and Dimenon, your sector is here,” and he gave them the coordinates in the south-west, and to Berru and Portegin, explaining that he and Bakkun would try to explore the Rift Valley since there were old cores leading up to it. He stressed that they maintain safety procedures, tag or telltale animals when possible, and note and report any scavengers circling over what could be injured livestock specimens for Varian.
As Kai and Bakkun lifted in their sled, Kai saw Varian on her way down to the corral. He saw the herbivore, Mabel, busily eating her way through what trees remained in the enclosure.