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THE first step in the journey was not the packing. Sloosh said he must find the location of their two tribes. From the information collected from his plant-people, he would make a simple map. This would be in mud, since he had no papyrus. But the Archkerri only had to look at it once to have it fixed in his mind.
The process would take at least five sleep-times and possibly extend to eight. He went to work at once.
In the meantime, Deyv, The Shemibob, and the two animals left to spy on the local tribe. The Beast was again covering the sky, making conditions more favorable for them to escape detection. They got rather close to the village during the sleep-time, halfway up the hill before a sharp-eyed sentinel saw them. His alarm brought the warriors racing from the gate. By then the two had gotten safely into the swamp.
Deyv, The Shemibob, and the animals returned much later. This time, they witnessed a raid on the podplants by seven adults and six young of the giant red-eared rodents. The awakened warriors charged the invaders, but on this occasion the beasts fought them. Two of the creatures were killed with spear thrusts through the eyes, and the others lumbered off. The price for the tribe's victory was high: four men killed, six mauled badly.
A severe quake struck as the casualties were being carried back up the hill. Deyv didn't see what happened after that. He was too busy ru
The party got back to camp to find things in a mess. Trees had been uprooted or tilted here, too. The bamboo lift and bridge had been shaken apart. A mud slide had buried the front part of the vessel, though it had not quite reached the door.
After Deyv had made sure that Vana and the baby were all right, he was taken aside by Sloosh. "I'm afraid I have bad news for you. I can't find either of your tribes."
Deyv had had enough shocks for the time being. He didn't understand what the plant-man was talking about.
"You mean your plants have failed you? Did the quake shake them up?"
"No," Sloosh said. He sounded angry. Deyv knew then that Sloosh didn't like what he had to report. It took much to upset him.
"What I mean is that your people and Vana's have, for some reason, left their area. Not only that. The other tribes there have also gone."
Deyv felt sick. He asked slowly, hesitatingly, "Are you sure?"
"You understand that getting data from the plants is not an easy business. It takes time, patience, and much skill in requesting and interpreting. The mindless plants can only report what they've recorded.
But I am fairly sure. I covered a large area, which is why I took even longer than I'd expected.
"As to why thev deserted, I can't say. The quakes, however, have been even stronger there than in any area we've traveled in. Perhaps that is why they left. They wanted to go to a more stable place. They won't find any. Not for long, anyway."
"Could you track them down?"
"Not unless I knew their general area. You see, the plants record visual and aural- data only. But they don't see with eves or hear with ears. Nor would any data which could 'dentify the individuals of the tribes mean anything to the plants. That data would be mixed in with everything else recorded. I'd have to have at least the general area in which the tribes were before I could start my questioning. Then I'd have to sort out the nonrelevant data. All this would take much time and work. As it is, the task is almost hopeless.
"In addition, the quakes are disturbing my informants. They're subject to a lot of what I call noise. It's analogous to static, though it's not at all the same.
Transmission of data has been getting more difficult. It's going to be worse. That's because the quakes will increase in frequency and severity. The matter in space is becoming more dense. As the density increases, the effect puts more stress on this planet. The Shemibob told me that there are twenty dead stars which are within—I told you what a light-year is?"
Deyv nodded and said, "Yes. A light-year is the time it takes light to travel in—"
"It was a rhetorical question. I know I told you. Anyway, these are within half a light-year of Earth.
They are foreru
The leaved face and the beak, restricted to a buzz, were not perhaps as capable of modulation of expression as the hum
"Consider this," Sloosh said. "It was good that you delayed your journey. Otherwise, you two would have gotten to your homeland only to find your people gone. You wouldn't have had the slightest idea how to track them down. If you'd returned here, you might have been too late. The gateway might have been gone or have winked out. Or it might have shifted so much that it would have been unreachable."
Deyv sank to his knees and began howling. His tribe, his parents, forever lost!
After he'd given his tears to the wetness of the earth, so many that he had no more—at the moment—he lay face down, silent. Then Sloosh's huge half-leaved hand lifted him up onto his feet.
"Vana is still quivering from the quake. She was very concerned about her baby and also the life within her belly. I wouldn't say anything about this until she's recovered."
Deyv rubbed the tears from his eyes and said, "I'd have gone to her now and told her. But I'll wait, do as you say. You're very perceptive, Sloosh. Almost human."
"I suppose you think that's a compliment. So I'll accept it as such. Still ..."
Deyv had hoped to delay telling Vana until she'd had a good sleep. He was unable to conceal his sorrow, though he didn't say anything about it and tried to act as if nothing unusual had happened. It was no use.
Vana knew immediately that he was very upset about something. He denied it, but she attacked him with many questions and finally told him that he was lying to her. She didn't like it; they were married, his concerns were hers and vice versa. If he didn't tell the truth, he was a shrinkell, a small dung-eating beast which emitted an offensive odor.
Deyv told her what troubled him. She turned pale and began to cry out and staggered off to get a knife to gash her flesh. He followed her to take the knife away from her.
"You'll frighten the baby," he said. "Go off somewhere until you are over your grief."
Her tears had started him weeping also. Thrush, hearing his mother, began to howl. Deyv went into the vessel to soothe him while Vana went up the hill and crouched behind a tree. After a while, she came back with red but now dry eyes.
"What do we do now?"
"Sloosh says that we could try to get adopted by the tribe near here. He has more in mind than our wellbeing, though. He hopes to get them to go through the gateway. But he says that they aren't numerous enough to provide the minimum needed to avoid the bad effects of inbreeding. He wants to find other tribes and get them to go through, too."
"It would be nice to have a tribe," she said, "even if they have strange ways and a strange god. But they're more likely to kill us than to take us in."
"I have an idea that might work. If it does, they'll be happy to adopt us."