The Mystery of Ireta_ Dinosaur Planet & Dinosaur Planet Survivors - Anne McCaffrey [172]
“Because we now have a sample of fringe to serve into the diagnostic unit, and Mayerd’s a specialist in planetary exotic toxins, and the sooner we get the poison flushed out of your system, the sooner you can get out of that padded suit and operate on normal channels! Do I make myself plain? Besides,” and she tossed her hand up, “Sassinak wants you there this morning at 0900. It won’t take you that much longer to go through a diagnosis again, now will it?”
To that, Kai had to agree.
“Then let’s go. Kai, will you be recorder for me?” Varian asked briskly as she looped the bag containing all the reports over her shoulder. “Then I can make use of the journey time.” A little reminder to Kai that he wasn’t the only one to have his plans altered might help. “If you could get our usual escort on tape,” she said as they settled themselves in the battered two-man sled, “I really must see if the nose can be repaired.”
With cautious and studied movements, Kai got into the sled and strapped himself in. His padded jumpsuit was of a softer than regulation fabric, padded on shin, thigh, calf, elbow and forearm, with skin-gloves to prevent inadvertent injury. Then he pulled the recorder toward him to check its load and sighted for focus and available light. As he completed these preparations, Varian noticed that his eyes were deeply shadowed, a strange contrast to the white flesh about the puncture marks.
“Ready when you are!” he said.
Varian nodded and took the sled out of the cave into the still misty morning. The passage of the sled swirled the yellowish fog about, and she used instruments rather than visual guidance in such a pea soup.
“So much for an outbound record,” she said in disgust. “Nothing will filter that.”
The telltagger sputtered. “Well, life-forms are coming in at seven o’clock,” Kai said with a semblance of a grin. “You’ve got your escort.”
“How do they see through this murk?”
“Why don’t you ask them?”
“Funny fellow! When do I have the opportunity?”
“I know the feeling!”
Whatever tension had existed between them dissipated at this exchange. They traveled on in the murk, Kai silent in deference to the concentration Varian required to fly in such conditions. They had been airborne for over an hour when the mist began to disperse.
“Kai, why wouldn’t Tor be here?”
“That has puzzled me. Especially since Tor took the trouble to rouse the Ryxi and get Godheir down here to help us.”
“Isn’t it unusual for so many Thek to gather?”
“Highly. I’ve never heard of it before. I wonder if Commander Sassinak would give me a little time on the cruiser’s memory banks.”
Varian grinned to herself. “She seems to wish to cooperate in any way she can. Oh, turn that thing off,” Varian added, for they were having to raise their voices to be heard above the telltagger. Kai flicked it off mid-blip.
Just then they emerged from the mist into a brilliantly clear sunlit band, over tree-dotted plains, not too far from their original site. Varian craned her neck and saw the three escort giffs emerge from the fog, the sun gilding their fur.
“Why would Sassinak want us at a meeting?”
“I could think of half a hundred reasons.”
“Maybe she’s had a report about the ARCT-10 that she won’t commit to a broadcast?”
Varian shot her companion a quick look, but his face gave away no internal emotions. The fate of the ARCT-10 would be of primary importance to Kai: his family had been ship-bred for generations. The ARCT-10 was his home far more than any planet had ever been hers.
“Could be,” she replied noncommittally. To dismiss the idea out of hand would be unkind, no matter how she wished to reassure Kai. “Sassinak’s not the sort to sugar-coat a pill—”
“And she’d be aware of the morale factor for most of us.”
“Kai, how long does an update take to reach a cruiser this far from a sector headquarters?”
Kai’s breath hissed as he inhaled, and then he gave her a slightly sheepish grin. “Not