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The Archkerri said, "From your reactions I'd say that lacking a sense of smell has advantages in certain situations. But then anything that has its advantages also has its disadvantages."
Some of the white stuff had failed to collect in the hollows and was ru
The group beached the boat and advanced through thousands of screaming, cawing, shrieking birds.
These hopped or ran out of their way but immediately closed behind them. Carcasses lay around by the hundreds, many of them covered with birds tearing at their flesh. Now and then one of the feeders staggered around in circles, then fell, its wings flopping, its eyes glazing.
The stench of decaying flesh was horrible, but it wasn't as bad as the viri perfume. Feathers swirled and fell on or in front of the group. Now and then dung spattered on their hair or skin. Deyv and Vana were in terror that these droppings might infect them.
Sloosh, however, said, "As far as I know, the viri can't attack humans. Of course, I could be wrong."
"Thanks for your reassurance," Deyv said.
At last they got to the hills. Here they roamed around looking for the hollows. They saw some young tharakorm being formed in the pools, a fascinating sight. Apparently, first the keel was shaped by the uncountable number of viri. Then the hull was formed as the things lined up row upon row, each virus attached to its neighbors.
"I think the viri go into a sort of suspended animation when they're in place," Sloosh said. "It's a wonderful thing, this organization of mindless nerveless half-alive units. I believe that something that might be called a mind even forms deep in the hull. And lines of them form analogs of nerves. Of course, the brain, if it can be called such, is unconscious. But by the time the thardkorm, the shipcreature, is complete, it is ready to take on its symbionts, the khratikl."
Deyv looked around nervously. "Where are they?"
"Don't worry. Not yet anyway."
A number of the pools contained only the unformed sticky-looking liquid, in which lay many birds, dead and alive. Some pools had half-laid.—half-formed, rather —keels. Others held almost complete tharakorm, which now did not emit the stink. Not until they had gotten to the foot of the mountain, where the odor choked the two humans and brought tears to their eyes, did they find what they sought.
It stood at the bottom of a deep wide hollow supported by buttresses of the hard stuff. These, Sloosh said, would separate from the hull when it was time for flight. The creature had a long and rather wide hull. Its front was shaped like a ship's, but the back part was flared out to make a nearly square stem.
"So it'll give the wind plenty of area to push against," Sloosh said.
Deyv estimated that it was about one hundred and twenty feet long, thirty feet high, not counting the masts, and forty feet across, not counting the flared stern. It had three mastlike projections about ten feet high. On each side, at right angles, thin arms extended for about fifty feet The sails, so thin that light shone through them, were furled on the bottom arm. Threads ran down the arms to the sails. The whole ship was composed of very thin material, which was semiopaque.
Going closer to look, because the birds swarming over it were obstructing his view, Deyv saw knoblike swellings on the masts and arms. These, Sloosh said, were mechanisms for hoisting or lowering the sails. They also allowed the arms to swing out to a limited degree.
"It can sail against the wind if if s not more than a gentle breeze."
"How can it do that?" Deyv said. "It doesn't have the resistance against the hull that a water boat does."
"It creates a magnetic field which operates with or against the currents of the Earth. But that requires some power, so I suppose the tharakorm seldom does anything but go where the wind pushes it. It does, however, have sensors which detect both the strength of the wind and the alignment of earth currents. In former times, I believe, it could tack against stronger winds. But now that the Earth has a more feeble magnetic field, it lacks the power."
There were also round openings on the sides. Deyv couldn't see those on the bottom, but he knew they would be there.
From the top of the hill, he could see that there were three larger openings on the deck.
"Observe," Sloosh said. "The birds are disappearing into the hull. They're being tempted by a perfume even stronger, hence, more enticing, than that emitted by the liquid."
It was true. The avians were fighting to get through the openings.
"They'll be trapped and eaten belowdecks. The tharakorm then uses their bodies to generate the gas."
They waited until sleep-time. Sloosh told them they must appoint watches.
"Notice that more birds are settling on it. But a time will come when the birds will suddenly avoid it.
You'll smell another type of perfume then. This will drive the birds away. When this happens, the watch must wake everybody up. I can't smell that perfume, of course, but if I'm on watch then, I'll see that the birds are staying away from it."
Deyv didn't ask why this happened. He had figured out that the thing was repulsing the birds so that it could lift up. If it was covered by hundreds of them, it would never be able to get off the ground.
When all were awake, they saw that the time had not yet come for levitation. They sat under the bright hot sky or took short walks. The fruit and berries they'd brought in baskets were eaten. Jum and Aejip devoured some of the newly dead birds. When they wanted water, they went down to the shore and looked for relatively unpolluted water.
"What'll we do for food and water when we're aboard?" Deyv asked.
"We'll suffer until we can endure it no longer," the Archkerri said complacently. "Then we'll punch a hole in the gas containers of the tharakorm. It'll sink, and we'll get off when it grounds. That, I imagine, is what the Yawti will do."
Another sleep-time came. The humans and the Archkerri were getting hungry. But they went to bed, such as it was, with Vana standing watch. It seemed to Deyv he had just shut his eyes when he was awakened. Vana was shaking his shoulder. A very fragrant odor hung in the air.
"It must be time. The birds are gone."
He got up. The others were all awake. At least, he supposed the Archkerri was. He slept standing up.
"Now's the time," Sloosh said.
They went down the hillside and onto the sticky white-streaked mud at the bottom of the hollow. Deyv felt repulsion and some fear. Despite what the Archkerri said, or maybe because of it, he wasn't sure that the stuff wasn't fatal to humans.
Approaching the tharakorm, Deyv looked up one of the supports. Then he climbed up its curve, gripping with his hands and walking on his feet like a monkey. While Vana was ascending, he lowered his rope.
Sloosh tied the end around Jum, and Deyv hauled the dog up. He repeated the feat with Aejip, whose claws couldn't grip the smooth hard stuff.
Sloosh then tied the rope around the junction of his lower and upper torsos. He bent the latter until it was parallel to the ground, and he began inching up the support. His four thighs gripped the arch of the tharakorm and moved in coordination with his two hands. Meanwhile, the two humans pulled on the rope to relieve him of some of his weight. After much sweating and straining, they got the plant-man over the edge of the deck.
He stood up and said, "Now, we'll see if my weight added to yours is too much. I doubt it, since the pack of khratikl it carries must be more than our combined weights."
Deyv, Vana, and the cat went belowdecks to explore. Instead of ladders, the thing had grown ramps with corrugated surfaces. These allowed the claws of its symbionts enough purchase to ascend them. They were also good enough for the humans and the cat. But the dog and the Archkerri might have trouble.