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"I'd like to see them," Saraidh said, her voice edged with excitement. "Bizarre as it is," she said to Benden, "it is plausible—and unique. Of course, this erratic planet could be a large asteroid, even a comet. Its orbit is certainly cometary."
"No," Benden replied, shaking his head. "The EEC report definitely identifies it as a planet, though probably a wanderer drawn into Rukbat's family only recently. It orbits across the ecliptic."
"Our father was too experienced an airman to make a mistake." Jiro spoke for the first time, his voice as impassioned as Shensu's was cold. "He was a trained pilot and observed critically and objectively on those missions. We have notes of thanks from Admiral Benden, Governor Boll, and Captain Keroon, all expressing gratitude for his investigation and his selfless dedication to duty." Jiro shot a contemptuous look at Kimmer, who was still sobbing, his face pillowed in his arms, while Chio tried to comfort and reassure him. "Our father died to discover such truths."
Saraidh murmured something appropriate. "If you would cooperate, further information about this phenomenon would be invaluable."
"Why?" Shensu asked bluntly. "There can't be other worlds that are infested with this menace, can there?"
"Not that we know of, Mr. Fusaiyuki, but all information is valuable to someone. My orders were to find out more about this organism."
Shensu shrugged. "You're too late by several years to do the most valuable observations," he said wryly.
"We saw some…" Saraidh fumbled for an exact description of the "tu
Shensu shrugged again. "Some on the plains below us.
"How far in terms of time?" she asked.
"A day's journey."
"Will you guide me?"
"You?" Shensu was surprised.
"Lieutenant Ni Morgana is the science officer of the Amherst," Benden put in firmly. "You will want to assist her in this investigation, Mr. Fusaiyuki."
Shensu made a small gesture of obedience with his hands.
"Jiro, Kimo." Chio spoke up. Kimmer seemed to have subsided into sleep. "Help me carry him to his room."
The two men rose, their faces blank, and picked him up, much as they would a sack, and carried him toward a curtained arch through which they disappeared, Chio following anxiously.
"I'll check on Nev," Benden said, rising, "while you arrange tomorrow's expedition with Shensu, Lieutenant."
"A good idea, Lieutenant."
Benden motioned for the remaining marine to stay behind as he made his way out of the superb room, his eyes on the gorgeous murals and their story of mankind's triumph over tremendous odds.
"I could wish, Ensign Nev, that you would learn to think before you speak," Benden said sternly to the chagrined junior when he returned to the Erica.
"I'm real sorry, Lieutenant." Nev's face was twisted with anxiety. "But we can't just leave them, can we? Not if we can actually rescue them?"
"You've made such calculations?"
"Aye, sir, I did, as soon as I got back on board." Eagerly Nev brought his figures up on the monitor "Of course, I could only estimate their weight, but they can't weight that much, and the inward journey only took a quarter of our fuel."
"We've a planet to search, mister," Benden said sharply as he bent to study the figures. This was going to be a command decision on his part: to abandon the search on the basis of the opinion of a few local witnesses, or to carry out his original orders scrupulously.
"We weren't expected to find survivors, were we?" Nev asked tentatively.
Benden frowned at him. "What exactly do you mean by that, mister?"
"Well, Lieutenant, if Captain Fargoe had expected there'd be survivors, wouldn't she have ordered a troop shuttle? They'd carry a couple of hundred people."
Benden regarded Nev with exasperation. "You know our orders as well as I do: to discover the survivors and their present circumstances. Nothing was intimated that we wouldn't find survivors. Or that we wouldn't find them able to continue their colonial effort."
"But this lot couldn't, could they? There aren't enough of them. I don't trust the old man, but that Shensu's okay."
"When I need your opinion, mister, I'll ask for it," Benden said curtly. Nev subsided into glum silence while Benden continued to peer at the numbers on the screen, half wishing they would cabalistically rearrange themselves into a solution for his dilemma.
"Establish how much we'd need to jettison, mister, without seriously affecting safety during slingshot. Ascertain just where we can put eleven passengers, and take into your weight consideration the extra padding and harness we'd need to secure them during lift-off."
"Aye, aye, sir." Nev's enthusiasm and the admiring look he gave Benden was almost harder to endure than his chastened funk.
Benden strode to the airlock and out of the ship, taking the crisp air into his lungs as if that would aid his thinking. In a sense Nev was right: the captain hadn't expected that they would find survivors in need of rescue. She had assumed that either the settlers had overcome the disaster or all had succumbed to it. However, these eleven could not, in the name of humanity, be left behind on the planet.
The Erica's remaining fuel would barely accomplish that rescue. It certainly wouldn't allow the Pernese to bring anything back with them to start again elsewhere, like metal ores. Possibly some of those gemstones Shensu had mentioned could be permitted. With no more than the usual shipwreck allowance, these people would be seriously handicapped in the high-tech societies on most of the Federation planets and financially unable to establish themselves in an agrarian economy. They had to have something.
If Kimmer could be believed—and possibly, with the estranged brothers corroborating his statement, it was true that these eleven constituted all that remained of the original colonial complement—then further search would be fruitless, as well as wasting fuel that could, really, be put to better use. Did the brothers have any reason to lie? Not, Benden thought, when they hated Kimmer so much. Ah, but they'd want to leave this place, wouldn't they, even if it meant perjuring themselves!
Unusual noises attracted his attention, and he walked to the edge of the plateau to check. Some twenty meters below him he saw four people, Jiro and the three youngest mounted on Earth-type horses, herding a variety of four-legged domestic beasts through a huge aperture in the cliff. He heard an odd call and saw a brown, winged shape hurtling after them. As he watched, a heavy metal door swung on well-oiled hinges to close off the opening. The evening breeze wafted some curious smells up to him. He sneezed as he made his way across the plateau to the door to this unusual residence. They'd have to turn those animals loose. Bloody sure, there was no room on board the Erica for that mob.
When Benden reentered the big room, he spotted Ni Morgana and Shensu poring over maps on a smaller table to the left of the main entrance. There were cases of tapes and other paraphernalia along that section of the smooth-carved wall.
"Lieutenant, we've got both the original survey maps here and those that the colonists filled in with detailed explorations," Saraidh called to him. "A crying shame this endeavor was so brutally short-lived. They'd a lovely situation here. See—" Her scripto touched first one, then another of the shaded areas on the map of the southern continent. "Fertile farms producing everything they needed before disaster struck, a viable fishing industry, mines with on-site smelting and manufactory. And then—" She gave an eloquent shrug.
"Admiral Benden rose to the challenge magnificently," Shensu said, the glow in his eyes altering his whole appearance, making him a far more likable person. "He called for centralization of all materials and skills. My father commanded the aerial defense. He had flamethrowers mounted on sleds, two forward and one aft, and developed flight patterns that would cover the largest area and destroy quantities of airborne Thread. Ground crews were organized with portable flamers to incinerate what did get through to the ground, before it could burrow and reproduce itself. It was a most valiant effort!"