In most places, the increased and highly specialized activity of the animals was little more than a curiosity. In some places, no one even noticed what was going on. At McGee’s Pass, Krisuk Connelly and his family, who had been keeping watch on Satok’s old house, noted the odd influx of animals and, between deliveries, sneaked in to see what they could possibly be doing.
The coo-berry plant was one of the planet’s great puzzlement’s. Most things on Petaybee were good for many things: medicine, food, shelter, warmth. Coo-berries had never been much good for anything. They were poisonous if you ate more than a handful, and the ailment that might have been devised by the planet to cure it had yet to be discovered. The thorns were sharp and stingy, the leaves were sticky, and the blossoms were as small, and rare, as the coo-berry itself. Once they got a start on any little dab of dirt, the damned bushes were almost impossible to kill. Worse, they grew so fast you could watch them grow, which was what Krisuk spent two days doing: watching the infestation of coo-berry. While the birds were still ferrying shoots in daily, bushes sprang up from the first plantings and grew waist high overnight, their roots spreading out to cover the field between the town and Satok’s house and climbing up the house’s stone exterior and covering the outbuildings.
When that happened, Krisuk called the whole village to come and see. His mother’s mouth was set in a bitter line and her dry eyes watched the incursion despairingly. “Now,” she said, “now Petaybee is punishing us. For ever listening to Satok. For letting him harm it.”
Matthew Luzon resisted the urge to hold his nose. Really! The things he did for the company in the name of humanity. To say the least, Brother Howling smelled extremely gamy. Even Braddock was tempted to open the helicopter’s door to escape the stench and showed signs of wanting to divest himself of his most recent meal over the ice-speckled sea.
At least the headphones in this helicopter worked properly, and Matthew could occupy himself by listening to the pilot’s transmissions and the messages received from SpaceBase and MoonBase.
As they approached land again at Harrison’s Fjord, a crackling message came in from MoonBase.
“Captain Torkel Fiske requests that all council members get in touch with him immediately. He is currently tracking the activities of the shanachie of McGee’s Pass.”
Matthew needed to hear no more. McGee’s Pass was on the way back to SpaceBase from Harrison’s Fjord, and a break from his present company would be most welcome.
“Take us directly to McGee’s Pass, pilot,” he ordered, and the man gave him a thumbs-up signal and headed up the coast.
As they approached the pass. Matthew saw that the village was built on an incline, gradually scaling the foothills leading up to the pass itself.
“Well, for frag’s sake!” The pilot cursed as he flew beyond the village over a field heavily over grown with vines stretching from the houses all the way to a stone farmstead about half a mile distant. “What the frag have they done to the fragging helipad?”
“Set it down anywhere, man!” Matthew commanded. “The plants’ll cushion the skids.”
The pilot sounded doubtful as he said, “Well, okay. You’re the boss, Dr. Luzon.”
Finally, someone who did as he was told, Matthew thought with relief.
The pilot landed, crushing a good half meter into the surrounding vegetation. When he made no move to leave the aircraft, Matthew impatiently tore open the door and leaped out, and instantly regretted it.
His legs caught fire all the way to his crotch, and thousands of tiny needles stung through his pants, boots, and undergarments to tear at his flesh with each tiny movement.
In fact, he didn’t even have to move. The wind from the copter rotors drove the plants all around him. Involuntarily, he screamed. Braddock jumped down to help him, and he, too, began to scream.
The Shepherd Howling stood in the doorway, one hand uplifted, his mouth moving and his other hand pointing.
“What?” Luzon managed to ask as the chopper engines stopped.