Jem

“Thank you for getting the still going. And the latrine, of course, Da

“I’m not finished,” Da

Harriet smiled with closed lips. “We have a message from the Peeps.”

“About that guy who’s stuck?”

“Oh, no. Take a look.” She handed over a facsimile film that said:

The People’s Republics extend the hand of friendship to the second expedition to arrive on Child of Kung. Through peaceful cooperation we will achieve a glorious triumph for all mankind. We invite you to join us for the celebration of the fifteen hundredth a

Dalehouse was perplexed. “Isn’t that some kind of a winter holiday?”

“You are very well informed today, Dalehouse. It is in December. Our instructor called it the Confucian answer to Hanukkah, which is of course the Jewish answer to Christmas.”

He frowned, trying to remember — already, it was becoming hard. “But this isn’t even October yet.”

“You are very swift indeed, Da

“I don’t know. Are they saying something like, ‘Don’t bother us for a couple of months’?”

“Is more like to drop dead,” the pilot put in.

“I don’t think so. They aren’t being unfriendly,” Harriet said, recapturing the fax and squinting at it. “Notice that they referred to Kung Fu-tze by the latinized form of the name. That’s a pretty courteous thing for them to do. Still—” She frowned. At best Harriet’s eyes were always faintly popped, like a rabbit’s, because of the heavy contacts she wore. Now her lips were pursed like a rabbit’s too. “On the other hand, they were careful to point out we’re the second expedition.”

“Meaning they’re the first. But what’s the difference? They can’t make territorial claims because they got here ahead of us; that’s all spelled out in the UN accords. Nobody gets to claim any more than a circle fifty kilometers around a self-sustaining base.”

“But they’re pointing out that they could have.”

Gappy was bored with the protocol. “Any love letters from the Oilies, Gasha?”

“Just a received-and-acknowledged. And now, about that latrine—”

“In a minute, Harriet. What about the Pak who’s stranded?”

“He’s still stranded. You want to hear the latest tapes?” She didn’t wait for an answer; she knew what it would be. She plugged in a coil of tape and played it for them. It was the Peeps’ automatic distress signal: every thirty seconds a coded SOS, followed by a five-second beep for homing. Between signals the microphone stayed open, transmitting whatever sounds were coming in.

“I’ve cut out most of the deadwood. Here’s the man’s voice.

Neither Dalehouse nor Kappelyushnikov included Urdu among their skills. “What is he say?” asked the pilot.

“Just asking for help. But he’s not in good shape. Most of the time he doesn’t talk at all, and we get this stuff.”

What came out of the tape player was a little like an impossibly huge cricket’s chirp and quite a lot like a Chinese New Year festival in which Australian aborigines were playing their native instruments.

“What the hell is that?” Da

“That,” she said smugly, “is also language. I’ve been working on it, and I’ve sorted out a few key concepts. They are in some sort of trouble, I’m not sure what.”

“Not as much as Pak is,” grunted Kappelyushnikov. “Come, Da

“Yes, that latrine is—”

“Not on latrine! Other things in life than shit, Gasha.”

She paused, glowering at him. Kappelyushnikov was almost as dispensable as Da

But what he had that was always useful was resourcefulness. “Gasha, dear,” he coaxed, “is not possible. Your Morrissey still has his micetraps in the trench. And besides, now we have water, I have to make wasserstoff. ”

“Hydrogen,” Harriet corrected automatically. “Hydrogen? What in the world do you want with hydrogen?”

“So I will have a job, dear Gasha. To fly.”

“You’re going to fly with hydrogen?”

“You understand me, Gasha,” the Russian beamed. He pointed. “Like them.”

Da

There they were, the windblown flock of balloonists, high and near the clouds. They were at least two kilometers away, too far to hear the sounds of their song, but in the glasses Dalehouse could see them clearly enough. In the purplish sky they stood out in their bright greens and yellows. It was true, Dalehouse verified. Some of them were self-luminous, like fireflies! Traceries of veins stood out over the great five-meter gasbag of the largest and nearest of them, flickering with racing sparks of bioluminescence.

“Damn,” he snarled. “What are you saying, Gappy? Do you think you can fly up there?”

“With greatest of ease, Da

“You’ve got a deal,” said Dalehouse firmly. “Tell me what to do and I’ll do it. I’ll — wait a minute! What’s that?”

The balloon swarm was scattering, and behind it, coming through the place it was vacating, was something else, something that beat with a rhythmic flash of light.

The sound reached him then. “It’s a helicopter!” he cried in astonishment.

The chopper pilot was short, dark, and Irish. Not only Irish, but repatriated to the UK from eleven years in Houston, Texas. He and Morrissey hit it off immediately. “Remember Bismarck’s?” “Ever been to La Carafe?” “Been there? I lived there!” When they were all gathered he said:

“Glad to meet you all. Name’s Terry Boyne, and I bring you official greetings from our expedition, that’s the Organization of Fuel-Exporting Nations, to yours, that’s you. Nice place you’ve got here,” he went on appreciatively, glancing around. “We’re down toward the Heat Pole — ask my opinion, you folks picked a better spot. Where we are it’s wind you wouldn’t believe and scorching hot besides, if you please.”

“So why’d you pick it?” asked Morrissey.

“Oh,” said Boyne, “we do what our masters tell us. Isn’t it about the same with you? And what they told me to do today was to come over and make a good-neighbor call.”

Harriet, of course, stepped right in. “On behalf of the Food-Exporting States we accept your friendly greetings and in return—”

“Please to stow, Harriet?” rumbled Kappelyushnikov. “But we are not only other colony on Klong, Terry Boyne.”

“What’s ‘Klong’?”

“It’s what we call this place,” Dalehouse explained.

“Um. ‘Klong.’ We’ve been told to call it ‘Jem’ — short for ‘Geminorum’, you see. Heaven knows what the Peeps call it.”

“Have you been to see them?”

Boyne coughed. “Well, actually that’s more or less what it’s about, if you see what I mean. Have you people been monitoring their broadcasts?”

“Sure we have. Yours too.”

“Right, then you’ve heard their distress signals. Poor sod, stuck with those beasts that our translator says call themselves ‘Krinpit’. The Peeps don’t respond. We offered to help out, and they as much as told us to fuck off.”

Morrissey glanced at Harriet. Their translator was doing better than she. He said, “We’ve had much the same experience, Terry. They indicated we weren’t welcome in their part of the world. Of course, they have no right to take that kind of a stand—”