A Mind For Trade Part 15

A few moments later the Tath's voice rumbled into the flit-ter's cabin: "We have seen this pattern before. Very common on Gleef homeworld. Here, normally only in winter. Bad change for us."

"But we should go ahead?" Stotz asked.

"Yes. We think. Must get ore. But if barometer change, wind change, we return."

Stotz looked around at the others. Ali saw Dane nod agreement, and he also nodded. Weeks did as well.

"We're with you," Stotz said.

It was completely dark now, the sh.e.l.lboat only a minute pattern of colored lights far below. No stars could penetrate the thick cloud cover, but Ali thought he could detect at least two faint patches of light, one much larger than the other, that indicated the presence of two of Hesprid IV's three moons. He tapped at the little miniconsole in his seat arm, and the screen obligingly delivered a simple graphic of the tidal bulge sweeping toward them. Even if the storm was slow, the tides would chase them away eventually. Ali looked up again, wondering if any of the occluded stars were ones he knew, suns whose light had once bathed him on a planetary surface, secure in gravity's embrace.

Rip would know, of course. Ali contented himself with leaning back in his seat, very aware that this brief hour's respite was the only rest he was going to get for a long time.

"Got the signals straight?" Johan asked abruptly.

Ali said, "Want a repeat?"

And together he, Dane, and Jasper recited the various emergency signals they'd concocted, all in case the winds were so bad that there was interference on the com-or they just couldn't hear voices.

After that Johan and Jasper went on to discuss contingency plans for the boat. Ali felt his attention slipping again, but this time he didn't mind. Jasper, as the lightest man, was to stay on board the boat and man the com there and work the controls.

Ali found the time disappearing faster than he'd thought; suddenly Stotz said, "Here we are. Get your stuff together. Let's make every second count. You know the Tath will."

Ali paid close attention as the flitter settled to the sand. He could see the sh.e.l.lboat approaching through the surf. He watched, fascinated, as the biodevice crawled up the beach- through the outside pickup he could hear the scrunch-slither of the motive-scales on its underside.

When it came to rest, Dane and Stotz hopped out and began to unload the egg scoopers; Ali felt his ears pop as the wind eddied coldly into the flitter in the few seconds the hatch was opened. Their task finished, the two motioned Ali and Weeks to come out.

Ali obediently settled his helmet tightly onto his head, checked to make sure everything was in working order, then pulled his gloves on. Weeks did the same, and they popped the hatch again and sprang out.

. At once the terrible wind did its best to flatten Ali onto his face. Despite his gear, cold leeched in, making his extremities ache. He resolutely ignored it and followed Dane as they began work.

It was probably the worst four hours of his entire life.

He found it hard to concentrate, and wished he'd eaten something. The increasing lightning to the east was no help, tickling his retinas from his peripheral vision and adding to his sense of danger-of something not right.

He fought that off, telling himself it was just his body reacting to the increased static in the air. But the wind smacked at them with cruel force, and distant thunder muttered fairly constantly, reminding him that just being there was dangerous.

After a couple hours of hard labor, many slips, and tiresome climbing, he paused to look up, and became aware of long, silent flares of light overhead, streaking through the clouds like meteors. No one else spoke, though, so he kept silent and turned his attention back to his work.

The only satisfaction he had was that the handgunlike sensors he'd designed for finding the ore eggs functioned properly-but his satisfaction was considerably diminished by the explosive belchlike squeal they emitted when triggered. The ore eggs, like the ore beds, responded to the sonic burst with pulses of light, which a sensitive detector could pick up. Unfortunately, the sound was in a frequency range that made it feel like knives being pushed into Ali's ears.

Before their searches took each of the members of the team out of sight of each other, he noticed that Siere's fur was standing on end along his backbone and cheeks, and his ears were flattened. The ear plugs didn't seem to help any of them except the imperturbable Tath, who gave no sign of discomfort.

But the effort of bracing himself against the repeated sound, of slogging through muck that sucked at his boots and made his feet feel as if they were in triple gee, soon began to exhaust Ali. Worse was when he had to climb the slippery rock, sheeted with runoff from pools of rainwater in the pitted rock dome. Occasionally, exfoliated sheets of stone rocked under his feet. Ali fell down painfully several times.

He was falling more often, now, he noticed hazily as he rose from the last. Was the wind worsening, or was it the physical stress? He went on, moving painfully in isolation, for so bad was the interference from the sunspots that their corns were almost useless, so n.o.body really talked except for terse reports of egg. deposits on the common channel.

He didn't even have the long trip to make, he realized, straightening up and peering as best he could into the darkness. He clicked his helmet light into high intensity, and saw a vague shadow moving about in the distance. The Tath had all taken the outside perimeterand left the inner area to the lighter Terrans.

The problem was, their territory had virtually no more ore eggs.

A shadow loomed on the edge of Ali's vision; he turned his head. His light fell on Johan Stotz, nearly buried in his gear, his gloves blotched from the thick mud.

Ali's com lit, his own frequency, and Stotz's voice came into his head: "Wind's rising."

"It's getting harder and harder to find more eggs, though I'm sure there are more," Ali replied. "The pulses are getting too close to the noise level for direction-finding. We'll have to go out farther-"

Jasper's voice overrode them: "We've got a problem." And then came the signal for everyone to clear their corns. Ali clicked over to the frequency they'd agreed to share with the Tath.

Jasper said: "Barometric pressure dropping, winds veering southerly. On the scope it looks like we've got a bunch of funnels forming about an hour east. Go ahead, Lossin."

They heard Lossin translating for his fellow crewmem-bers. There was a swift exchange, then Lossin said, "How much ore in the hold?"

"We're at about sixty percent of our goal."

More talk-Ali looked around as he listened. There had been faint responses in this area on his first pa.s.s, but he'd ignored such in favor of the stronger pulses. There might still be a few eggs to find. He said so, and Stotz agreed.

"Let's keep working for half an hour, then pull out," the engineer suggested.

Again Lossin translated, then his deep voice came: "Is agreed."

A surge of adrenaline made Ali's mind flicker-as if reaching-but it reached the cotton barrier, and he laughed to himself. Foiled, esperite, he thought, picking his way over a jagged section of broken rock.

Careful triangulation finally yielded a sizable cache of eggs deep in a water-filled crevice. When Stotz arrived with an egg scooper, he helped him manhandle the bot up the slope to the crevice. Even with eight legs, the machines maneuvered with difficulty around those domes that were too broken and steep in approach.

The half hour elapsed in what felt like half a day of throbbing bruises and cloudy mind. Then came the return journey, slowly and carefully, the complex eightfold clicking of the egg scooper's feet on the rock an odd counterpoint to Ali's fierce concentration. He was nearly crawling; he didn't have the time to fall on his face and have to retrieve everything once again. Stotz and he didn't speak, for the wind was so strong now that it was impossible to hear without shouting.

He sighed in relief when he finally saw the ore boat. He reached it at the same time as Stotz. Stotz ran the egg scooper into the hold of the sh.e.l.lboat and put it in reverse mode. As it began unloading ore eggs into the storage bin, Stotz came back down the ramp and said, "There's about two men's worth just down that rise. Did you find anything bigger?"

"No. I got most of it-all that was left were little nuggets. Must have fallen on a rock and broken." Behind them the rapid clank of ore eggs spitting from the proboscis on the egg scooper dwindled and ceased. Stotz retrieved the machine and steered it back away from the boat.

"This way."

They started walking.

"Where's the Viking? I haven't seen him," Ali commented.

"Went out further afield, with the Tath. With the interference, we probably won't hear from him until he comes back into range. But there's some big stuff out there-more than the scoopers could handle."

"We need a dozen more scoopers."

"We need scooj/ers and carriers and an extra ship, and while we're at it, some good weather and sunshine and beautiful women who like nothing better than entertaining a bunch of scruffy Free Traders by lolling around beside a hot mineral bath and feeding us peeled grapes."

Stotz rarely descended to sarcasm; Ali enjoyed it when he did. They moved as quickly as possible-Ali once shooting out his hand to steady the senior engineer when he stumbled. Another time Stotz caught Ali by the back of his coat just after Ali's foot slipped on a rock that had seemed steady, and he nearly pitched into a muddy pool.

They reached the deposit site.

"I'd say we've got at least three loads here," said Stotz. "There's a batch in the crevice over there." He steered the scooper over, and as it began to nuzzle into the crevice, the eggtube stretching alarmingly, AH turned and began to load his shoulder bags with eggs from the pile that had formed in a V-shaped pocket of stone. He filled four pairs of shoulder bags before Stotz returned with the egg scooper, its bag bulging with eggs carefully balanced on top.

Stotz sent out a general call. "Anyone near us? We've got at least two extra loads here."

Ali half listened as he bent to lay down the last pair of shoulder bags. A movement in the corner of his vision made him straighten up.

"Johan, look!" He pointed at the barnacle lights the cache had been marked with. They were flickering: not the flash of response to the eggfinder guns, but a faint stutter of light.

Suddenly the shoulder bags and even the tartan collector bag of the egg scooper glowed as all the ore eggs lit up inside them, but before either of them could react the ground jolted underfoot and a grumbling roar built up as the terrifying accelerated jerking of a violent quake shook the island.

Ali fell heavily, but the flash of red through his head had nothing to do with the pain in his knee. Although the mental flash registered as pain, it didn't hurt, and then the cotton smothered it. He realized then that it wasn't his, and his anger drove out fear even as the rumbling died away. The ground gave one last admonitory jolt, then stilled. Ali glanced up- and was nearly blinded when a vast sheet of lightning ripped across the entire sky.

Ali blinked the afterimage away and cursed, fluently and with as much descriptive invective as he could command, not caring who heard. He stopped only when he fell, and gouged his hip on a rock so sharply it drove the breath from his body. As Stotz bent to help him up he became aware that the com channel was full of questions zinging back and forth in at least three languages.

After a few minutes, Ali realized he'd sorted the voices. Dane and one of the Tath had not been heard from, which meant they must still be out of range. Meanwhile the others had decided to get on with the job of getting the extra ore back to the sh.e.l.lboat while waiting for those last two to report in.

As Lossin clicked off, a huge shape loomed out of the darkness, and into the light of Johan's helmet lamp. "Tazcin here."

She bent to load up, and grabbed twice what Ali could carry. Ali winced silently, wondering if the Tath thought the Terrans no more helpful than children, and when it was his turn he grabbed more than was comfortable.

The next twenty minutes were grim. He placed each foot carefully, walking bent over in a crablike position, knowing if he fell he'd not be able to break that fall-and of course his ore would scatter in four directions. His thig"hs soon ached with an insistence that overrode the drug in his system, while the wind howled over the rocks and battered them, cruelly and sublimely indifferent.

They finally reached the boat, with twelve minutes left of the half hour-not enough time to go out again. Ali, whose legs were trembling, was secretly relieved; he knew he would not last through another journey-not without rest. And even then, he thought, as a sudden vicious blast of wind slammed him into the side of the ore boat. Even with the helmet taking most of the impact, his head rang, and for several seconds he was unable to understand the voices now speaking over the comlink.

But the urgency in the voices penetrated the haze, and Ali realized something was wrong. With a flash of guilt, he realized he'd forgotten about Dane and the other Tath.

Then he saw the light indicating Jasper wanted to talk to him on a private channel. Ali tabbed the accept, and Jasper said: "Did you feel that mental flash, during the quake?"

Ali gritted his teeth. This was breaking the promise- giving in. "What are you talking about?"

Jasper sighed. "Then it was just me? I'm afraid Dane's in trouble. It was pain that I got, the sharpest ever."

Ali looked around, but Thorson's tall form was not among the Tath moving around the loader.

"Didn't you hear? He's not answering."

Ali tabbed Jasper off and keyed Dane's frequency. Nothing. He tried it again. Still nothing. He looked up, scanning slowly in all directions. Lossin and Dane Thorson were missing.

Alarmed, he contacted Jasper again. "He hasn't reported in?"

"No. Vrothin lost sight of him about ten minutes before the quake. His com was damaged, and he couldn't report."

"Do they have a location for him?"

"Didn't send one. I have his location at the time of the contact. Lossin is on the way there now-hang on."

Ali clicked into the common channel and heard Lossin report.

"Lossin report now. I have reached Dane's last position. Nothing there. No answer."

Ali switched back to Jasper's private channel. "What do we do?"

Ali heard Jasper draw a harsh breath, then the jet man said, "Did you-can you-get a location?"

Ali was about to snap that he didn't have any instruments, but he knew what Jasper meant. And the situation was too dangerous to be squawking about promises now. "No," he said. "Can't you?"

"I don't get location," Jasper murmured apologetically. "Emotions only."

/ do, Ali thought. Thorson and I both get location. d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n! He squeezed his eyes shut, for the first time trying to open himself to the connection. Except-how? He tried to imagine where Dane was, and his mind obediently produced various images-Dane falling into a pit, clinging tothe side of a cliff, buried under rock. But Ali knew it was all imagination, sparked by fear.

He tried to empty his mind of all thought and just wait. but all he was aware of was the soft cotton blanket over his mind, muting everything.

"Ali?" It was Jasper. "I apologize-"

"No. It's all right. But I can't get anything."

Jasper clicked off.

Lossin appeared a minute or so later, bent almost double against the shrieking wind.

Tazcin went up to him, spoke. Ali saw Lossin wave back, and they talked animatedly for a time, then Tazcin turned to Stotz and waved a hand. Ali realized he'd keyed off the general com, and quickly tabbed it on again.

". risk search? You must decide."

Johan's voice came, tight and grim: "I don't think I can walk in that wind. Look, can we sweep over his last reported location with the flitters?"

"We shall do that."

"All in," Stotz ordered. "Fast."

They piled into their flitter, mud and wet forgotten. The sh.e.l.lboat began crawling back into the surf as the Stotz activated the flitter controls. The craft's wings were drawn in hard against the hull, presenting a minimal surface to the winds. Even through the muzziness of his mind, Ali could see that in this configuration they had very little fuel to spare. In tense silence the two flitters sped across the island, then circled around. Again they circled, wider, and then a third time- though by now the fuel gauge was flashing red.

Finally Stotz said, "We can't risk all our lives. We'have to return."

No one spoke.

Jasper pulled out of the circle and began the long, dangerous flight back home.

Ali pulled off his helmet and gloves, and dropped his head into his hands.

Chapter Sixteen.

The roar of jets startled Dane.

Get out of the way! Get off the launchpad.