When they returned to the base camp as the evening drenching began, Varian noticed that Tardma and Paskutti were as glad to be released from the close quarters of the sled as she was. She told Paskutti to check the sled over, Tardma to give Gaber the tape files and she went down to check on Mabel. The herbivore had reduced the trees of its enclosure to mere stumps. The full leg seal had held and Mabel did not appear to favour the injured leg. Varian was both eager and reluctant to release her patient but the logistics of supplying Mabel with sufficient fodder made her independence necessary. She decided to let Mabel go in the morning and follow it, at a discreet distance, in the sled. She would like to establish if it had any instinctive direction, if it had any communication with other members of its herd of species. Today the herbivores had responded to the dangerous approach of the predator on an individual basis. Too bad the silly fools couldn’t gang up on their killer. By mass they could over-power it if they’d any courage at all. Or any leadership.
Could she stimulate Mabel’s intelligence in any way, she wondered. And as quickly decided such a programme would be impossible. It would take too long and the chances of success with Mabel’s brain space were unlikely. Mabel needed some physical modifications to achieve any measure of intelligence. There wasn’t room enough in its skull for more than essential locomotion. Unless it had spare brains in its tail! And there’d be more motor control, too. Of course, she had encountered species with auxiliary nerve centres for controlling extremities while their intelligence, or main brain, was centrally located in the most protected part of their form. Man was, Varian reminded herself, not for the first time, rather badly designed. She understood the Theks held that opinion.
She was strolling thoughtfully back to the compound when she heard the whush of a returning sled and her name called. She caught sight of Kai’s face. He looked happy about something. He was gesturing her to hurry up and join him. When she did, his usually composed face was brimming with excitement. Even Bakkun had an air of satisfaction about him.
“We’ve got some tapes you’ve got to see, Varian. We found one of your fang-faces …”
“Don’t talk to me about it!”
“Huh? Had a rough day? Well, this will cheer you. I need your expert opinion.”
“I will take our finding up to Gaber,” said Bakkun, leaving the co-leaders together as he strode towards the cartographer’s dome.
“You had a good day, then?” Varian put aside her negative mood. She had no right to depress Kai, or spoil his achievement.
“Very good. Just wait till you see,” he was guiding her towards the shuttle. “Oh, how was yours? Could you clear that north-east section of foothills for a secondary camp?”
“Let’s see your tapes first,” she said, and hurried him along to the pilot cabin.
“Admittedly, I don’t know that much about animal behaviour,” he said as he slid the tape into the viewer and activated the playback, “but this just doesn’t seem logical. You see, we found the golden fliers a good hundred and sixty kilometres from the sea …”
“What? Doesn’t make sense …”
The tape was playing now and she watched as the fliers came on the screen, the threads of grass visible in their beaks.
“You didn’t think to …”
“I got samples of all the greens, grass and bush …”
“And they are green, instead of half-purple or blue …”
“Now watch …”
“Fardles! What’s that thing doing there?” The predator had entered the valley, a dwarf figure until the close-up lens magnified it to a comparative life-size, “That’s the beast that ate Mabel and …”
“Can’t be the same one …”
“I realize that, but they are double-dangerous. We had one today, took a hunk out of another herbivore until we intervened. Why, scorch the raker, he’s eating grass!” Astonishment silenced Varian. “I wonder what’s so essential in that grass. Damned curious. You’d think they’d have everything they need in their own environment. Now, he might be local. But the fliers couldn’t be …”