The Leagacy of Heorot

"Good to know that."

Stu was almost as tall as Cadma

"No, I sent a homing pigeon."

Stu looked stricken, and Cadma

"Look, Stu—if you did what you really felt was right, then fine. I have no interest in seeing or hearing anyone crawl. What's got me twitchy—skip it." They have defenses. Great, but where do I come in? Can they make me inspect them? Damn.

There was a general shout of greeting ahead of them as Mary A

I've only been gone for five weeks...

But any momentary discomfort was quickly drowned in a sea of reaching hands.

"Cad! Welcome back!"

"—to see you—"

"—things haven't been the—"

And other fragments piled one atop another, overlapping, irritating and at the same time deeply soothing.

Mary A

What was she projecting? She was using that "forced float" that insecure women use when...

When presenting themselves before a rival.

Sylvia.

She wore her lab smock, which was freshly pressed and looked like nothing so much as a maternity gown. And a maternity gown that she wouldn't be wearing much longer. She waddled a bit when she walked, and was carrying the baby low in her belly.

She smiled at him, at them both, and there was something very like a wall of glass between her emotions and the smile.

Her pageboy haircut was a little longer than the last time he had seen her, and needed a trim around the edges. She held out her hands to him, then, not quite smoothly, shifted positions to offer them to Mary A

"So do you. I'm hoping to get some of that glow pretty soon now."

"You mean... ?"

"Yep."

Sylvia hugged Mary A

"Cadma

"Nope, someone slipped a live round in there. At least, that's what we're hoping. At least, that's what we came down to find out." He hesitated. "Would you take care of my lady for me?"

"You know it." There were tiny moist jewels forming at the corners of her eyes, and she squeezed his hand. "Hey, big man—are we going to be seeing more of you? I'm going to be losing a passenger in a month."

It had to be his imagination, but her hands suddenly flushed with warmth. He released them, embarrassed by the strength of his reaction. "I wouldn't miss it. As soon as you're in labor, I'll head back down. Promise. Aside from that... I've got livestock now, and crops. I just don't know."

She nodded, unwilling to pressure him. "Listen... I'll take Mary A

"Count on it."

Mary A

Then she and Sylvia linked arms and marched off together.

Cadma

None of the children were walking yet. We'll have to fence off the minefield when they get older. And—No! Not my department!

He gri

What the hell. He didn't have to live here to love those little faces. It wasn't the children's fault that their parents were idiots. Dammit, these were his children too.

The veterinary lab had been repaired. Its side was a mass of patches welded in great discolored blotches at the corners. The structural damage to the quad had been repaired. Nothing could hide the scorch marks, but there were strings of colored ribbon wired up around the edges, and the begi

In the center of the quad was something new that glistened in the morning light. Cadma

"Day 295, Year One. REMEMBER." Following those words in a silent tribute were etched thirteen names. He traced them with his fingers. Alicia: gone. Barney, Jon, Evvie Sikes: gone.

Jesus.

"I didn't know what else to do," Zack said behind him, and Cad turned to greet him, clasped his hands strongly.

Zack didn't look tired—he looked hard and wiry and serious. He had trimmed his mustache short, and there was a partially healed burn scar along the inside of his forearm. "We were wrong—you were right. I'm sorrier than I can say."

"Don't bother being sorry. Just don't let it happen again."

Zack took Cadma

Watch."

"The mine field—"

"We turn it on at night."

"And new fences along the gorge. I like it."

"You'll like it better."

Zack held the door of the com shack open as Cadma

Two extra screens had been mounted in the room, and there was a cot in the corner that looked recently used. Andy, the big man from Engineering, sat in a swivel chair, his dark face speckled with crawling dots of reflected light. He distractedly waved a hand in greeting.

One of the six flat video screens was dark, but three others viewed the Colony from varying local angles, and two sca

"We've got the ocean-observation program going—this is the long view. We're also analyzing weather patterns to attempt to build up a model. But we've got optical and infrared sensors working. We should be able to track anything man-size moving close to the surface. If the computer scans an object moving in our direction, it'll call our attention to it."

The picture abruptly changed to a high-altitude view of the ocean itself. Endless gentle white waves rolled in from the west. The ocean seemed deeply and peacefully azure. The illusion was one of guileless transparency. Of an ocean without secrets, welcoming their inspection, soothing away their fears.

"The ocean lies," Cadma

"What?"

"I was just wondering if anything has surfaced yet."

"Nothing notable. Not so far." The screen flickered again, and a roughly fish-shaped outline flashed darkly across the display. A wave of liquid crystals, and the silhouette became an animation. A statistical table ran its estimate column along the edge.

Andy watched the figures hawkishly, then relaxed. "Twenty meters along the side, surfacing fifty kilometers east of Landing Beach. Totally aquatic, Zack—I've seen these before. They don't pose a threat to anything on the land."

Zack traced a finger across the image. "Keep me posted. We can't have damage to one of the Minervas." To Cadma

"I was just about to ask—but you've made a good start."

"We need more, a lot more. All the intelligence that we can gather."

He paused a careful moment, then asked, "What can you report from the highlands?"

"That's what I was hoping to talk to you about. Mary A