“Dragons?”
“Well, That’s what the antique cartographer would say when they didn’t know a binary bit about the indigenous life.”
“Any more news on which species is which here?” asked Kai.
She shook her head, handing him several copies of the maps. “That’s not as urgent as your geological work, and you needed some sort of a guide.”
“This map is terrific, Varian. I thought you’d been out with your teams …”
“No, I sent them to get me this information, and fill in some of the nearby gaps in our survey. Terilla and I collaborated on the composite.”
“Terilla did these with you?” Impressed, Kai was poring over the charts.
“Yes, indeed. I know the youngsters were sort of dumped on us at the last moment but I wish someone had thought to give us their records. Terilla’s been a real find and she could have been apprenticed right off to Gaber and kept him from falling so far behind. He even approves of her work.” Varian grinned saucily at Kai. “You’ll be relieved to hear that Bonnard’s interest has been transferred.”
“To Dandy? Or Mabel? In neither case am I flattered.”
“Mabels long gone. No, Bonnard is aiming to get on my expedition to the golden fliers.”
“At least he picks something demonstrably intelligent.”
“I never said he didn’t have good taste.”
“Varian!”
“When’s the contact with the Ryxi?”
“This afernoon at 15.30 hours. If they remember.”
“We do have problems with memory this trip, don’t we? The Ryxi remembering to speak to us, the Theks remembering to think and EV remembering to get in touch with us. Well, back to my hot drawing board …” She started out of the pilot cabin. “Oh, hello, Gaber …”
“Varian, did you take all my chart copies?”
“Except the one Terilla was working on. Why?”
“I didn’t know. I just didn’t know and I was …”
“I did tell you, Gaber, but I guess you were so deep in the tape, you didn’t hear me. Sorry about that. I’ve given Kai copies, and I’m on my way back to your lair with these right now.”
“Oh, very well then. And, if I didn’t hear you, I am sorry.”
To Kai, Gaber did not sound the least bit sorry. Kai went back to studying the patterns of animal. The biggest herbivores, like Mabel and three other large types, could be found all through the rain forests, with their probable passages through the mountain ranges neatly designated by tiny drawings of the beasts. The predators, like fang-face, hunted singly: only one pair had been discovered and they had been involved in a ferocious battle, which had deteriorated, in Paskutti’s words, into a mating. The scope of the charts was hampered by the large uncharted areas, over which a transparency had been laid, indicating the general topographical features as seen by the initial cursory probe.
They had been concentrating on the relatively cooler portion of the shield mass, since the polar region was much hotter than the equatorial due to the hotter thermal core of the planet. They would soon have to penetrate those steaming jungles, a task Kai did not relish. The proliferation and diversity of life forms would be incredible in such warmth, Varian had warned him during their shipboard briefing sessions. The lush tropical jungles nourished life, provided quantities of food, as well as immense competition for any and all edible substances. In cooler climates, though Ireta could not boast a very temperate zone, there tended to be fewer species since the food supply was limited by the more severe conditions of life.
With understandable satisfaction, Kai took his own maps and marked in the two pitchblende finds, and those of the day before when Portegin and Aulia had sited two large copper deposits, and Berru and Triv had marked three mountains of iron ores. Whoever had been here before had denuded the shield areas but plate action in the ensuing milleniums had made the unstable areas doubly rich. This was actually Kai’s first search expedition: his other assignments had been remedial–finding veins which had faulted out, or flooding controls and deep sea manganese dredging: all valuable experience and designed to aid him in a full scale planetary survey like this one.