Star Light

It was Benj who answered, beating his mother by a second.

“I heard you were the first Mesklinite to see the general idea of real science, and that you were the one who did the most to get the College going. What do you mean you wish you had learned more?”

Easy cut in; like Benj, she used Dondragmer’s own language.

“You know far more than I do, Don, and you are in command. If you hadn’t been convinced by what Katini told you, you wouldn’t have given those orders. You’ll have to get used to that feeling you don’t like; you’ve just collided with something new again. It’s like that time fifty years ago, long before I was born, when you suddenly realized that the science we aliens were using was just knowledge carried on past the common-sense level. Now you have bumped into the fact that no one — not even a commander — can know everything, and that you sometimes have to take professional advice. Calm down, Don!”

Easy leaned back and looked at her son, who was the only one in the room to have followed her speech completely. The boy looked startled, and almost awestruck. Whatever impression she had made on Dondragmer — or would when her words got to him — she certainly had got home to Benjamin Ibson Hoffman. It was an intoxicating sensation for a parent; she had to fight the urge to say more. She was assisted by an interruption, in a human voice.

“Hey! What happened to the helicopter?”

All eyes went to Reffel’s screen. There was a full second of silence. Then easy snapped, “Benj, report to Dondragmer while I call Barle

9

The weather had long since cleared at the Settlement, the ammonia fog blown into the unknown central regions of Low Alpha and the wind dropped to a gentle breeze from the northwest. Stars twinkled violently, catching the attention of occasional Mesklinites who were outside or in the corridors, but going u

Barle

Barle

“All this just came in, I take it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And how long has it been since the preceding report from Dondragmer?”

“Not long, sir — less than an hour, I’d say. The log would show; shall I check?”

“It’s not that urgent, as long as you know. The last I heard was that the Kwembly had grounded after washing down a river for a couple of hours, and that was a long time ago. I assumed that everything was all right, since Guz didn’t pass any more on to me about it. I assume now that he either heard interim reports at the usual intervals, or asked the humans about it?”

“I don’t know, sir. I haven’t been on duty the whole time. Shall I check?”

“No. I’ll be there in a little while myself. Tell Guz not to send anything out after me; just hold any calls.” The ru

“Sometimes I wonder wheter we shouldn’t have more electrical communication in this place. I’d like to know how long it’s taken Don to get into this mess, but I want to learn some other things before I walk all the way to Guzmeen’s place.”

Bendivence gestured the equivalent of a shrug. “We can do it if you say the word. There are telephones here in the lab which work fairly well, and we can wire the whole Settlement if you want the metal used that way.”

“I don’t know yet. We’ll keep to the original priorities. Here, read this. The Kwembly has gotten herself stuck in frozen water or something, and both her helicopters have disappeared. One had a communicator to the human beings aboard and in use at the time.”

Deeslenver indicated his emotion with a soft buzz, and reached for the message in turn; Bendivence passed it over silently. The former read it silently — twice, as Barle

“You’d think the humans would have a little more information if they were watching at all carefully. All this says is that Kervenser failed to come back form a flight, and that a flier searching for him with a communicator on board stopped sending — the screen just went blank all of a sudden.”

“I can see one possible reason for that,” remarked Bendivence.

“I thought you would,” returned the command. “The question is not what blanked the screen but why it should have happened there and then. We can assume that Reffel used the shutter on his set — it would have been nice if you’d thought of that trick before the Esket went out; it would have simplified that operation a lot — because something had come into his field of view which wouldn’t have fit in with the Esket story. But what could it have been? The Kwembly is five or six million cables from the Esket. I suppose one of the dirigibles could be down that way, but why should it be?”

“We won’t know until another flight gets back from Destigmet’s place,” replied the scientist practically. “What interests me is why we didn’t hear about Kervenser’s disappearance earlier. Why was there time fro Reffel’s mission to be flown and for him to disappear, too, before we were told about it? Was Dondragmer late in reporting to the human observers?”

“I doubt that very much,” replied Barle

“On the other hand, I’ve been wondering lately whether the people up there have always been relaying information completely and promptly. Once or twice I’ve had the impression that — well things were being saved up and sent in one package. It may be just sloppiness, or it may not really be happening—”

“Or they may be deliberately organizing what we hear,” said Bendivence. “Half our crew could be lost at this point without us knowing it, if the humans chose to play it that way I can see their being afraid we’d quit the job and demand to be taken home, according to contract, if risks proved too high.”

“I suppose that’s possible,” admitted Barle

“Do you really think there’s much likelihood of that?” asked Deeslenver.

“It’s hard to tell. Certainly we’ve been a bit less than completely frank with them, and we have what we consider some very good reasons for it. I’m not really bothered either way. We know some of these people are good at business, and if we can’t keep even with them it’s our fault. All I really would like to be sure of is wheter it’s business or carelessness. I can think of one way to check up, but I’d rather not use it yet; if anyone can suggest an alternative, it will be very welcome.”

“What’s the one yo8u have?” both scientists asked together, Deeslenver perhaps half a syllable ahead.