The Mystery of Ireta_ Dinosaur Planet & Dinosaur Planet Survivors - Anne McCaffrey [48]
“To Dandy? Or Mabel? In either case I am flattered.”
“Mabel’s long gone. No, Bonnard is aiming to get on my expedition to the golden fliers.”
“At least he picks something demonstrably intelligent.”
“I never said he didn’t have good taste.”
“Varian!”
“When’s the contact with the Ryxi?”
“This afternoon at 1530 hours. If they remember.”
“We do have problems with memory this trip, don’t we? The Ryxi remembering to speak to us, the Theks remembering to think and EV remembering to get in touch with us. Well, back to my hot drawing board . . .” She started out of the pilot cabin. “Oh, hello, Gaber . . .”
“Varian, did you take all my chart copies?”
“Only the one Terilla was working on. Why?”
“I didn’t know. I just didn’t know and I was . . .”
“I did tell you, Gaber, but I guess you were so deep in the tape you didn’t hear me. Sorry about that. I’ve given Kai copies, and I’m on my way back to your lair with these right now.”
“Oh, very well then. And, if I didn’t hear you, I am sorry.”
To Kai, Gaber did not sound the least bit sorry. Kai went back to studying the patterns of animals. The biggest herbivores, like Mabel and three other large types, could be found all through the rain forests, with their probable passages through the mountain ranges neatly designated by tiny drawings of the beasts. The predators, like fang-face, hunted singly: only one pair had been discovered, and they had been involved in a ferocious battle, which had deteriorated, in Paskutti’s words, into a mating. The scope of the charts was hampered by the large uncharted areas, over which had been laid a transparency, indicating the general topographical features as seen by the initial cursory probe.
They had been concentrating on the relatively cooler portion of the shield mass, since the polar region was much hotter than the equatorial due to the hotter thermal core of the planet. They would soon have to penetrate those steaming jungles, a task Kai did not relish. The proliferation and diversity of life forms would be incredible in such warmth, Varian had warned him during their shipboard briefing sessions. The lush tropical jungles nourished life, provided quantities of food, as well as immense competition for any and all edible substances. In cooler climates, though Ireta could not boast a very temperate zone, there tended to be fewer species, since the food supply was limited by the more severe conditions of life.
With understandable satisfaction, Kai took his own maps, and added the two pitchblende finds to those of the day before when Portegin and Aulia had sited two large copper deposits, and Berru and Triv had marked three mountains of iron ores. Whoever had been here before had denuded the shield areas, but plate action in the ensuing millennia had made the unstable areas doubly rich. This was actually Kai’s first search expedition: his other assignments had been remedial, finding veins which had faulted out, or flooding controls and deep-sea manganese dredging—all valuable experience and designed to aid him in a full-scale planetary survey like this one.
He was so deep in his thoughts that the warning of his chrono jerked him to attention and bewilderment as to why he had had the alarm set.
The Ryxi contact! Belatedly he realized that he should have prepared a message for them. It was easier to read a written message fast than gabble spontaneously at the speed required for the Ryxi. He jotted down some notes as the communication unit warmed to its task. Diplomatically he phrased Varian’s comments about the golden fliers.
Vrl came on as scheduled, asking for confirmation of contact with EV. Kai replied in the negative, but Vrl did not seem too concerned. He said that they had sent their full report by long-distance capsule to their home world. He intimated that