Although his inspection satisfied him that nothing was demonstrably wrong, his uneasiness remained until, after returning to his dome, he became immersed in the restricted file in the ship’s data bank. By the time the rest of the expedition was stirring, he had rid himself of the backlog of detail. The inadvertently early rising had been rewarding.
Dimenon, looking untouched by the previous evening’s carousal, arrived in the main dome with Margit, both suited up and ready to return to their base. They ate quickly, wanting to make an early start back, but as they were leaving, Dimenon asked Kai when he expected to contact the Theks again. He did not seem disturbed when Kai gave a time three days later.
“Well, let us know how EV appreciates our labours on this stinking planet. Although–“ Dimenon frowned and felt his nostrils, “Rake it! I forgot to put ’em in again!”
“Smell anything?” asked Kai, amused.
Dimenon’s eyes began to widen and his mouth dropped in exaggerated reaction.
“I’ve got used to the stench!” He roared the statement, full of aggrieved incredulity. “Kai, please, when you’ve got through to EV, have them pick us up before schedule? Please, I’ve got used to the stench of hydro-telluride.” He clutched at his throat now, contorting his face as though in terminal agony, “I can’t stand it. I can’t stand it.”
Lunzie, who was literal minded, came rushing up, frowning with anxiety while Kai tried to gesture reassurance. Others were grinning at Dimenon’s histrionics but the heavy-worlders, after uninterested glances at the geologist, turned back to their own quiet-toned discussions. Lunzie still hadn’t realized that Dimenon was acting. He grabbed at her shoulders now.
“Tell me, Lunzie, tell me I’m not a goner. My sense of smell’ll come back, won’t it. Once I’m in decent air? Oh, don’t tell me I’ll never be able to smell nothing in the air again …”
“If the acclimitization should be permanent, you could always get an Iretan air-conditioning for your shipboard quarters,” Lunzie replied, apparently in earnest.
Dimenon looked horrified and, for a moment, didn’t catch the brand of the physician’s humour.
“C’mon, partner, you’ve been bested,” said Margit, taking him by the arm. “Better to smell the sweet air of another find …”
“Could you get so used to Iretan stink you’d never smell normal again?” Bonnard asked Lunzie, a little worried as he watched the two geologists leave.
“No,” said Lunzie with a dry chuckle. “The smell is powerful but I doubt There’s any permanent desensitization. The temporary effect is somewhat of a blessing. Do you have it?”
Bonnard nodded uncertainly. “But I didn’t know I couldn’t smell it anymore until Dimenon mentioned it.” This worried him.
“Since you are now used to the overbearing smell, see if you can now distinguish other, previously unsensed odours, while you’re out and about today.”
“Worse ones?” Bonnard regarded Lunzie, appalled.
“I can smell a difference in the blossoms I’ve been cataloguing,”
said Terilla. “And some of the leaves have an odour if you crush ’em. Not too bad a smell, really,” she added helpfully.
That morning Kai checked with Lunzie about stores. She was not the sort of person to give spot replies and together they went to the store hold.
“I’m not missing any of the fruit distillation, if that’s what you’re worried about, Kai,” she said in her direct fashion. “We’ve not made too many inroads in the subsistence supplies, either. I’ve been gradually phasing them out entirely, in favour of local protein.”
“You have?” Kai was surprised.
“You hadn’t noticed?” There was a slight emphasis on the pronoun.
Lunzie smiled briefly with pleasure at the success of her programme. “We are losing hard goods, though, at a rate which worries me.”
“Hard goods?”
“Knives, film and sheet extruders, spare charges for life-belts …”
“What did the secondary camps take?”
“Not enough to account for some of these items. Unless, of course, they haven’t reported the losses and have merely helped themselves when I was busy elsewhere.” That solution sounded plausible. “If I may, I’ll appoint Cleiti as requisitions officer and have her on hand when anyone needs to Visit the supply hold. We can keep a check that way without giving offence …”