The Smoke Ring

The storm enclosed the tree. The fringe of it was a fine mist, just begi

Clave looked. “Jungle. Small. Just opposite the Wart.”

Now Jeffer spotted green dots around the puckered bark. Men, and one was pointing toward the CARM.

The voice of Kendy startled him. “I’m sca

Jeffer accelerated in. He asked, “Did you just come into range?”

“Yes. I’m ru

As the CARM approached, the jungle jetted away on a trail of steam: north into the storm, then around the trunk, steam spraying in a wide curve. It was hidden before the CARM arrived.

Jeffer brought the CARM to rest a quarter klomter from the wooden crater. The happyfeet had been digging around one side of the Wart. Elongated men hovered around the block of black metal.

“Ten,” said Kendy. Rings of red light blinked scientifically on the bark, haloing men Jeffer had already spotted, pointing out others. Three interlocked rings circled bare wood. “Four in the open, three between the bark and the Wart, three more in a crack outside the crater.”

“We’d better follow the jungle,” Clave said. “They could find the rest of us while we’re busy here.”

Jeffer turned in his seat, but Kendy spoke first. “There’s time.”

“They’re too many to fight anyway,” Clave said.

“Nonsense. Spray them with rocket exhaust. Jeffer, have you been shown the throttle for the main drive?”

“Yes.” Jeffer didn’t know the word throttle, but Lawri had shown him how to control the push of the rockets. His fingers danced.

The CARM moved toward the Wart. The happyfeet waited, blurred by fog, spears ready. “Brace yourself, Clave.” The CARM swung around, still approaching the puckered bark, but stern foremost.

Men left the Wart, swimming hard. Others appeared from the bark beyond. Spears flew. The dorsal camera watched a bulbous-headed spear strike the hull and explode in a puff of smoky flame. Authoritative thumps could be heard through the hull.

Jeffer tapped the main drive on…

It felt like suicide. He’d nearly died the last time he did that. The CARM surged forward. Jeffer felt his chest sag, his cheeks pull backward in a dead man’s grin. But his arm was rigid above his face, fingers almost touching the control panel.

It worked! Moving his fingertip down along the green bar reduced the main drive’s thrust to something he could handle. Throttle.

A nearly invisible blue washed across ten happyfeet warriors. The invaders burst into vivid yellow flame. They were comets, the flame streaming back from them.

Explosions sent bits of men flying—

Clave cried, “Treefodder, Jeffer! Stop!”

Jeffer tapped the drive off. (Hydrogen, oxygen: both quite low. The Wart receded.) “Clave, they attacked us. They’ve got exploding harpoons.”

“They couldn’t have moved the Wart with us on their tails! We only had to take it away from them!”

“All right. Chairman.” Jeffer turned to look at Clave. “Now tell me what they’re doing to Booce and Debby and Carlot.”

“It’s time to learn that,” Kendy said. “Time to move, Jeffer. I’ve lost sight of the jungle from Discipline’s position. It circled half around the trunk and was approaching the point where you dropped Rather. We’ll have to get there fast, before I’m out of range. The invaders here are harmless enough now.”

They were. Some were still writhing, some were motionless, but all were burned black. Jeffer set the CARM moving. It was too early to feel guilt.

They were in the cloud now: a thick, swirling fog, growing thicker. Jeffer could see the tree only as a wall of shadow. Kendy said, “Turn starboard. You need not steer so wide of the trunk, Jeffer. I have infrared.”

The CARM moved around the trunk in a great curve.

Lightning flared suddenly aft.

“I have the jungle in view, straight out by five point six kilometers. Straight out, Jeffer.”

“I can’t see.”

“Ventral. Two degrees more. Good. Accelerate. Cut! Rather has the jungle in view. Silver Man, come in.”

Rather’s ti

“They’ve found you somehow,” Jeffer said.

“You’re near,” said Kendy. “Swing one-eighty degrees.”

“I won’t—”

“Citizen, I don’t know where the men are! What else can we do but attack the jungle itself? Swing around.” There was something strange in Kendy’s voice.

Jeffer turned the CARM. He half hoped Clave would countermand the order, but Clave said nothing.

“Main drive.” Kendy should have sounded excited. He only sounded loud.

Jeffer tapped the button. The CARM surged. His face tried to crawl around to the back of his head. A yellow light bloomed in the mist behind him, and he heard Rather’s gasp. He killed the drive, but the yellow light remained.

The harsh bass said, “Done. I’m losing range—”

Clave said, “You kill too easily, Kendy.”

Kendy’s voice was becoming blurry. “Citizens, you’re missing the point. This was a mobile jungle. These happyfeet may have contacts in the Admiralty. They’ve seen the CARM and the silver suit.”

“Men aren’t honey hornets, Kendy!”

There was no answer.

Rain drifted across the CARM’s main window in drops the size of fists, carried by eddies in the wind. The wood outside was black with water. Inside the cabin it was soggy enough. Jeffer’s segment of pond had spread a film of water across all the walls and the cradles.

Warm, dry air blew from vents fore and aft, thrusting the water away from it. The citizens clustered around the aft jet.

Next time I’ll pump the water, Jeffer thought. Got to build a pump.

Carlot said, “We saw that huge shadow come out of the fog. It was scary enough. Then five…well, they could have been birds for all I could see, except that they were flying toward the jungle and thrashing at both ends. Waving their arms, I guess. It was the bandits who ran away from Rather. The jungle stopped to pick them up.”

“They were Lupoffs,” Booce said. “I know their clothing. I’ve met them in the Market. A big family, three jungles, and they’d colonize if they could buy another firepipe. They’re crowded.”

Clave said, “So?”

“If the Lupoffs find out what happened here, you’ll have two jungles hunting you.”

“They won’t find out.” There was no triumph in Clave’s voice. Jeffer shuddered.

They were warm enough, dry enough, if they stayed in the air jet. But the storm splashed rain across the bow window, and through the rain came the yellow glow of the burning jungle.

“I wouldn’t mind killing a bandit or two,” Booce said.

“I’ve been robbed once or twice. It’s the scale of the thing that bothers me. There must have been forty citizens in that jungle, not counting children.”

Clave jumped toward the fore end of the cabin. After a moment, Jeffer followed. The fore air jet was as dry as the aft.

Clave said, “I’d had enough of that.”

“Forty people,” Jeffer said. “There just isn’t any way to make them stop talking about it.”

Clave’s voice was’a hoarse whisper. “Persuasive, is he? Nobody but you can be trusted to talk to Kendy, right? You burned them while they were trying to rescue their citizens!”

“They attacked us.”

“With spears. So?”

“What was I supposed to do? They were threatening our citizens!”

Clave sighed. “I’m not blaming you. And if I am, I shouldn’t be. But Kendy—” By the flick of his eyes, Clave had remembered that Kendy would hear this. He began pronouncing his words with more care. “Treefeeding Kendy killed them like a hive of honey hornets, because they were in his way. Because they might talk to the wrong people!”