“Be my guest,” the technician said, gesturing. Keene knew his face from seeing him around during the voyage out, but they had never had cause to talk. He was of heavy-set build, swarthy skinned with a ragged mustache, and had dark wavy hair held down by a cap.
“Is this one of the probes I was in?” Keene called to Heeland.
Heeland moved himself back. “Yes, exactly right. This is Owen Erskine, one of the bay crew here. Owen, Dr. Landen Keene. He’s in charge of the power system.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard the name. Homecoming for you too, eh?”
Keene peered more closely but didn’t recognize him as being from among the refugees brought back by the Osiris. “You weren’t one of the refugees, were you, Owen?”
“No. But I’d only just moved to Kronia when it happened. Used to be from Jersey. Did network stuff. How did things look there to you?”
“I don’t think you’d want to renew your lease,” Keene said.
“But we’ll start all over, eh? That’s why we’re here. That’s what it’s all about, eh?” Erskine’s eyes were bright, hopeful almost.
“Is that why you came back?” Keene asked.
“Maybe . . . Part of it anyhow. Couldn’t stand living in those tin cities anymore.”
Keene drifted slowly around the probe, touching a part of it here and there, taking in the details. “More elaborate than I realized,” he commented to Heeland. Its form reminded him of an old cruise missile, but instead of a warhead it carried a nose unit bristling with lenses and sensors. Panels were opened to give access for whatever work Erskine was doing on it. One of the exposed compartments contained boxes that looked like rations packs. There was also a medical kit, a stack of folded fabric items, and various tools. “What’s all this?” Keene asked, gesturing.
Heeland pulled himself closer. “One of those ideas that mission planners come up with,” he replied. “In this case, probably not a bad one.”
Erskine patted the probe’s engine cowling affectionately. “These babies go everywhere, and they can get down just about anywhere,” he explained. “There are going to be people all over that vacation heaven of a planet down there, and some of them are going to get hurt, get lost, or otherwise get into some kind of trouble.”
“Okay, I get it. Mobile survival units,” Keene completed.
“Exactly right,” Heeland said.
“A good idea,” Keene agreed. “I’m actually with the planners for once. So what have we got?” He leaned over the hatch and began poking around. “Food, medical stuff, uh-huh . . . And these here—a clothing store too?”
“Survival tent. A few keep-you-warm, keep-you-dry kinds of things. Some good stretchy boots,” Heeland answered.
“And this looks like a Boy Scout kit.”
“Mend it, fix it—everything but the tool that gets stones out of horses’ hooves. I guess they didn’t reckon on having any horses.”
“An automatic and ammo? Who are we starting a war with now?”
Heeland shrugged. “You never know what you might come up against, I guess.”
“It’s a phone booth too,” Erskine said. “That panel at the back—emergency band link via the airmobile, or direct to satellite.”
“We like to take care of our customers,” Heeland said. Typical Kronian. Appretiare.
The compad in Keene’s tunic pocket beeped. “Excuse me,” he said, drawing it out. The caller was Shayle. She looked excited.
“Lan, we’ve just heard. The African site has been selected. The descent team is clearing the ground, and the backup crew is preparing to go down now. We’ll be following pretty soon!”
“That’s great!” Keene said.
The latest candidate site for a base was located in what had been the area east of the Great African Rift, and was now a four-thousand-mile-long peninsula extending south from the crumpled remains of Iran to a splayed tip formed out of Mozambique and Madagascar, between the reduced Indian Ocean and the new ocean forming to the west. The peninsula had been named Raphta, after a large East African trading center described in Roman times but never positively identified. As far as could be ascertained, the area surveyed for the base lay in what had previously been northern Tanzania. Once tropical parkland, it was now a wilderness of crustal upheaval, flood-scoured tablelands, and swamps, its climate cooling under the influence of the new polar region to the south.