The Smoke Ring

“They’re asleep. I was too. Everyone but me sleeps on the bark. Kendy, how do I refuel the silver suit?”

Diagrams appeared: CARM and silver suit, side by side. Parts of the schematics blinked blue as Kendy talked. Jeffer saw that tanks along the calves of the silver suit were what made the legs so bulky. “Hydrogen here, oxygen here. There’s hose under these little panels. The spigots are recessed, here and here, under these covers on the hull. You open them from the control panel. Bring up the schematic, then twist above these dots, this way.”

An arrowhead circled.

“Good.”

“Remember. Oxygen line from here to here. Hydrogen from here to here. Getting it wrong may cause an explosion.”

“What keeps the gases cold?”

“In a pressure suit? No, the gases are just under pressure. That’s why the tanks go dry so fast.” Kendy’s face was back in the bow window. “Did you find six metric tons of metal ore?”

“Yes. Thanks. Booce says it makes us rich.”

“Good. I see you’ve been building a steam rocket. Is it finished?”

“Booce still has to build cabins. We’ll go to the out branch for the wood. He still doesn’t know how to hold the pipefire—”

“Here’s the CARM,” a voice said. “Feel the airiock walls? Treefodder!”

Clave was in the airiock with Rather behind him. The display went blank, a breath too late.

Clave got his mouth closed. “First things first. Scientist, Rather’s having an allergy attack. You remember how Gavving was during the drought? Rather, you need thick wet air. So, we’ll close the airiock and turn up the pressure and humi…um, wetness. Do it, Jeffer.”

Jeffer let his fingers dance. Close both doors, humidity up, pressure up. Pressure in his ears. He worked his jaw. He untethered himself and moved aft.

Rather’s eyelids were puffy; the eyes were scarlet. Jeffer said, “It goes away after a while no matter what you do. This might help. Or not. Work your jaw to pop your ears.” He turned to Clave. “Well?”

“How long has the Checker been back?”

“Since the Serjents reached the trunk.”

“Why didn’t you tell someone? Me!”

“Let’s go outside.”

He opened the i

“Keeps the pressure in,” Jeffer said. “That’s why it’s called airiock.” He kicked out into the sky.

Clave followed on mismatched wings. “You’re stalling.”

“No. Kendy can’t reach us except when the sun is dead east, but anything that goes on in the CARM, Kendy hears it later. He can’t hear us now.”

“He wouldn’t have heard us in the Citizens Tree commons!”

“Yeah. Clave, the truth is that I didn’t trust anyone else to talk to Kendy. I don’t trust Kendy, and he’s very persuasive.”

“Am I too fluff-brained to say no?”

“Clave…all right, so I was arrogant and wrongheaded. Now let’s go tell the Serjents.”

“Uh—”

“Hey, citizens!” It wasn’t really a shout, but Clave’s long fingers closed over Jeffer’s face. After a moment the palm lifted to expose an evil grin.

Clave said, “You still should have told me. Rather didn’t see anything. Did you tell Lawri?”

“No.”

“What does Kendy want?”

“He wants the Clump. He wants to know everything about the Clump.”

“This trip was his idea, wasn’t it?”

“I told you he’s persuasive. Clave, we have to tell Rather about this before he talks to anyone. He already knows too much. Nobody else, right?”

“Right. Then I want to talk to Kendy.”

“He comes in range every four days lately. Four days from now, when the sun is dead east.”

Jeffer found Rather in the Scientist’s seat, hands poised above the controls. “Freeze,” he said. “Now move away.”

Rather obeyed. “I was trying to open the airlock.”

“Use the little lights on the doors. Rather, any citizen knows better than to fiddle with the controls. Once I nearly killed us all with one ill-considered tap of one finger. But I don’t have to explain that to you. I only have to say, Jeffer captains the CARM, keep your tree-feeding hands off the controls. Stet?”

“Stet. Sorry, Jeffer. I’ve seen you open the doors, and I was feeling shut in.”

“How are your eyes?”

“Okay.”

He held still while Jeffer looked. Rather’s eyes were pink and the lids were puffy, but he didn’t blink. “From now on you sleep in the CARM with me. I should have someone here anyway in case we get shaken up when the tuft tears loose.”

Rather had already summoned the blue diagram of the CARM’s cabin. Jeffer opened his fingers over the lines that represented the airlock. The doors opened behind him. He said, “Help me get the hose linked up. Then take it outside.”

Booce met them at the door. “I’ll take that, Rather. We’re filling the rocket. How are you doing?”

“Better.”

Debby, Clave, and Carlot waited at the rocket. Booce and Rather crawled along the bark, dragging the hose after them. Booce spoke quietly. “Did you know that Carlot was a crossyear child?”

“No. What’s it mean? The crossyear is when Voy crosses the sun—”

“Children born at the crossyear are unpredictable. They can go any way at all. Rather, I’m trying to tell you that you and Carlot are not to marry. She’ll marry a logger.”

Rather didn’t answer. Carlot’s expression was unreadable until the moment Booce’s back was turned. Then she winked. Rather felt his face glowing.

To work. Booce forced the hose into the rocket nozzle.

“Jeffer says he can fill it without anyone sucking on the end. Clave, give us a hand here. Now push. Jeffer! Ready?”

The three were braced to hold the hose in place. Clave said, “There’s a signal Jeffer uses that tells the CARM to push what’s in the water tank back out. It gets rid of mud—”

The hose writhed. Water sprayed out around the join. Rather could feel the power of the water trying to tear the hose out of his hands.

They held it, held it…and suddenly the hose bucked loose and thrashed like a live thing. Rather dodged and was flailing in the sky. Booce bellowed, “Enough! Jeffer, it’s full!”

They were soaked before the hose went limp. Jeffer called cheerily from the airlock. “When do we see a test?”

Booce looked embarrassed. “I still don’t know how to substitute for the sikenwire. We’ve got time—”

“Yeah. Well, we’ve used up too much water, one way and another. I want to refuel the CARM. Clave, Rather, come along. We won’t be long, Booce. The rest of you can start di

The three of them returned to the CARM. Clave asked, “What do we do for a pump?”

Jeffer was smiling. “I’ve thought of something. There’s a pond thirty klomters out and a little east…”

The sun wasn’t much past zenith. A pinpoint diamond blazed next to it, out and a bit west: sunlight focused through a pond. Jeffer set the CARM moving straight out.

The out tuft ran at them and past them. The pond wasn’t far beyond, and not much bigger than the CARM. Jeffer set the forward jets firing when they were close. They came to a stop just in from the water globule.

Jeffer opened the airlock. He told Rather, “Get into your wings and follow us. Bring the silver suit. We’ll refuel the jets.”

Jeffer led them outside and around to the CARM’s dorsal surface. Rather followed, tugging the silver suit by its limp wrist. There Jeffer took the suit from him. He watched as Jeffer produced narrow hoses from under a hatch…

Clave said, “Forget the suit for a while. Let Jeffer do it. Rather, you missed something during the allergy attack. What do you think happened then?”

“All I know is, you caught Jeffer at something.”

Jeffer grunted. He had the hoses hooked to holes in the suit’s legs.

Clave said, “You missed your chance to see Sharls Davis Kendy. You’ll get it again in, what, half a day?”

Jeffer looked at the sun: past two o’clock, a few degrees out from west. “A little more than that. The thing is, this is a secret, Rather.”