“Yes, then, I do see the urgency. Look here, I’ll try to get some of the local folk on it in the meantime. The point is, machinery just doesn’t do awfully well in some of the conditions we have hereabouts right now. That’s why we use animals. I’ll get back to you. Right. Over.”
“What,” Bunny asked impatiently, “was that about Yana?”
“Well, seems O’Shay radioed for help as soon as he was airborne and the other copter passed him at the halfway point. He was almost to SpaceBase when they radioed back that they were bringing in the rest of the survivors, but that Fiske, Giancarlo, and Corporal Levindoski overpowered Major Maddock and forced her to go with them into the flow area to look for Dr. Fiske. The higher-ups are that frantic to be after them, but the ash would clog any machines they got and it’s not that good for the beasts either.”
“I’ll bet the curlies can do it, if anything can,” Bunny said staunchly. “They were bred for sand and snow back on Earth, and they can close off their nostrils if they need to, and their eyes have a protective lid.”
“Maybe so,” Adak said, taking a slurp of stew. “Hard to figure why anybody’d want to risk a good curly to go after some company bigwig, though.”