The woman was not slow to comply. She eagerly wolfed down the Steward’s offering, both because she was hungry and because it was extremely good. “Treat Mr. Mura kindly,” she advised. “He’s an asset not to be underrated.”
“I doubt any member of the Queen’s crew would be guilty of that particular error, my friend.”
The flier had not left the spaceport and city very far behind before the nature of the country flowing by beneath them changed abruptly and to Rael’s mind much for the worse.
The yellowish ground was hard, compacted to the point that it could be classed as soft rock rather than soil, and dry save where streams and small rivers knifed their way through it. Vegetation was sparse and low even along the watercourses. It did not exist anywhere in sufficient quantity to significantly hold the particles worked loose from the miserly ground by the forces of weathering.
“Much of the interior’s hardpan like this,” Jellico informed her.
“It seems to go on forever,” she replied with distaste.
“This patch runs about twenty miles wide and some three hundred long. Once we get across it, we’ll see some more typical inner coastal land. That’s not particularly pretty, either, but it’s got some variety, at least.”
The transition was sharp when they reached the end of the hardpan. The countryside now beneath them was wetter than the barren place they had left behind. Its soil was real, and a fairly continuous blanket of plants grew upon it, most of them ranging from ankle to knee high. The common color, varied by a number of lighter and darker exceptions, was a fine, deep green, and Miceal informed his companion that among these fronds, stems, and roots dwelled almost the total roster of the north’s terrestrial wildlife, most of which was quite small and very low on the intelligence scale.
The Captain eased their vehicle to the ground. “Let’s see if we can’t rouse some photogenic green lizards. Doctor.”
Taking his tri-dee equipment and a pair of distance lenses, he started moving slowly away from the machine, walking carefully, as if he was trying to become part of the natural world around them. Catching up her share of the equipment, Rael did her best to emulate him.
They traveled several hundred yards, then he raised his hand to signal a halt. “This should be far enough. There ought to be a few around. Whether we’ll be able to get a glimpse of them’s another matter.”
Jellico trained his lenses on a patch of vegetation and began to quarter it visually. It betrayed no sign of the little creatures he was seeking, and he moved on to the next clump.
A quarter of an hour passed before he straightened in satisfaction. “There! I can make out a couple of them. — See. They look like little balls of moss.”
The woman spotted them as well. She could discern the lines where limbs and head were tucked in, but there was no sign that either creature was still alive.
They should be rather pretty little things, she thought, with that green color and equipped with wings. She would like to see them flying around, or even just relaxed enough to let her get a good look at them.
Green lizards must be harmless, peaceful, slow-flying beings if this was their typical response to interest from other life forms. It worked because their skins contained powerful poison glands; nothing biting into them once would repeat the experiment. Unfortunately, humans could not be repelled by that means, and she was glad Canuchean authorities were taking steps to protect the small animals.
Rael recalled herself to her purpose for being with this expedition. She did not rightly know how to begin, but she decided after some reflection to start by thinking kindly thoughts about the lizards. If Miceal was right and they could pick up interest in them, they might also be able to read that.
It was not a major order, at least. She was gently disposed toward them and sympathized with their situation.
It was probably wise to avoid most so-called intelligent beings, but she truly did wish they would make an exception in this case. She and Jellico meant them no hurt at all.
They only wanted to watch a while and capture a few images for later study and enjoyment …
For several minutes, it looked as if the experiment was a failure; then a tiny, sharply pointed snout disengaged itself from the living ball and gazed tentatively about. Seconds later, the entire body uncoiled, followed in a breath’s space by the second lizard.
Each animal climbed the stem nearest it and worked its way outward along the bottom of the lowest frond. When they had traveled so far along the big leaves that they started to bend, the creatures deftly released their front legs, retaining their grip with the rear pair and tails. Two membrane-thin, pale green wings unfurled and began to beat slowly to support the lizards’ upper bodies.
Several times, she saw their heads dart in to touch the bottom of a leaf. Were they feeding, she wondered, picking up insects or spores or maybe some extrudate from the plant? Her lenses were not quite good enough to tell her that, but the Captain’s tri-dees could be developed at very high magnification and should be able to give them the answer, to that question and to a number of others besides.
For over an hour, the two green lizards clambered and fluttered from leaf to leaf. At last, both scrambled to the ground and scurried away from the stand of plants. Within moments, the thick growth had completely screened them from the off-worlders’ sight.
The Medic gave a long, lingering sigh. “They were so wonderful,” she said softly.
Jellico looked at her, as he had more than once during the past hour. She had been completely absorbed in watching the little creatures, more so even than he had been himself, and she had been happy in her absorption. Happy and unguarded. He realized this was the first time he had seen her shields go down for any significant length of time.
Her eyes were bright when they turned to him, but it was no longer possible to read with any certainty what lay behind them.
“How do you think we did?” she asked.
He slid his camera back into its case. “If a small part of these come out, we’ll have exceeded our goal by a stellar margin. — Thank you, Rael Cofort.”
“My pleasure,” she replied, happy in herself and for him, “though I can’t rightly say that I did much. I didn’t feel anything in particular happening.”
“I’d say it’s likely that you helped,” he said dryly, “considering that no one has ever before been able to study those little creatures in action since the day they were first discovered.”
The woman frowned. “Miceal, how’re you going to explain what we did? We don’t really understand it ourselves.”
“I’m not going to attempt an explanation,” he responded rather stiffly. “I’ll probably forget to mention the telepathy theory altogether.”
“You can’t do that!” she told him sharply. “You’re too much a scientist.”
“No,” he agreed slowly. “I couldn’t. I’m only going to touch on it in passing, though, toss it in as a possibility, and suggest we may have succeeded because we were full of hope, not anticipation or excitement that might come across as hunting instinct. I can’t say more since we don’t know what actually happened or if anything did happen at all. — I imagine you’re not eager to wind up as part of an esper research project?”
“Space, no! I’d hitch a ride on Sanford Jones’s glowing comet first.” She shuddered. “Apart from the likelihood of running into trouble about the mystery surrounding my mother’s antecedents, I know too much medically. There isn’t any such thing as esper training and won’t be for another few decades—or centuries if the funding dries up. All they do now is take folks apart for weeks and sometimes years at a stretch, and they don’t always remember to put them back together again.”
“That’s more or less the way I had it figured,” he said. “We can’t publish what we tried. If the wrong people read about it and got interested, I wouldn’t be able to protect you and neither would Teague. Esper research is a government project, and if they really wanted you for it, they’d get you.”
“They won’t hear anything from me,” she promised fervently. Rael gave him a sidelong glance. “You’re an awful worrier, aren’t you?” she remarked. “You can find the gloomy side of anything.”
Jellico laughed softly. “That’s a prerequisite for my job. A starship Captain lacking that trait doesn’t usually last long enough to acquire it. Unfortunately, his ship and everyone else aboard normally go out along with him.”
His fingers drummed on the controls. He glanced at her as determination firmed in him. “Rael, I’d like some answers. None of this will go beyond me, and I know I’m out of my lane, but …”