Jessica turned and looked below her. Robor's dragon shape stirred in the wind, seemed almost to breathe. Its red and green stubby wings struggled to break from bondage. The lower cargo doors were opening, ramps descending. One of the mini-tractors was exiting smoothly.
Below Robor, and beyond, stretched Grendel Valley. Green, wild, twisted with vegetation. And through the very middle of it ran a river. The Styx. Death.
Higher up were plateaus where children of Earth could play. North and east she could see three mountain ranges. The farthest high peaks were lost in the mist. In winter even the lowest would be snow-crested, but today the air was warm and moist, the light and heat of Tau Ceti steady upon them.
Pterodons glided silkily through the peaks, more plentiful here than on Camelot. On the island they ate fish, or darted into the isolated horsemane trees to snatch eggs from a variety of Avalon crab that lived in their tops. She could see other birdlike things. Huge insects, perhaps, dragonflyish things that darted. At half a kilometer she couldn't make out details.
The air was heavy, moist and... well, green.
It smelled alive. It buzzed and hummed and crackled. The very sounds here were different, a low, heavy thrum of life. The area immediately surrounding the Styx was relatively clear, but back a kilometer or so the forest began in earnest, dense enough to satisfy any dreams of childhood discovery.
Joe Sikes trudged up the hill while Linda followed with the tractor.
Cadzie, stretching and looking about, bounced in a sling across her chest.
"What's the schedule?" she asked Joe when he was close enough.
Joe was laughing. "Jess, Chaka just went past me with a kind of a glass shell on his back. It must weigh a tonne. He looks like a giant turtle!"
"It's just the cook pot, Joe."
"He could get something a lot lighter. Is he just showing off his muscles?"
She chuckled.
"Star Born Secrets? Well, never mind. Business first," he said. "We want to take a good look at the processor."
Now the Biters were streaming down Robor's passenger ramps. Twenty kids, the youngest just eleven, bright healthy kids on their first trip to the mainland.
"Stay close together," Jessica called down. "Patrol leaders check packs." She turned back to Joe. "Justin will check and if all's clear, we'll hike in and sleep at the oasis."
"The usual communication arrangements?" Joe was smiling a little, even through his concern.
"Joe. You wound me. It's a sheer accident that those transmitters get switched off every time."
"Yeah, yeah."
Justin was climbing up atop Robor, and had unhooked one of the three slave skeeters. He revved its engine, then whipped it up into the air and down toward the mining complex.
"We want to get down to Paradise," Jessica said, "get things set up.
If we're lucky, we can get a Run in tonight. You can handle things here?"
"Sure," Joe said. "Straightforward diagnostic and repair. We've got the tools, and some replacement parts. Everything we need to repair—the problem is: what the hell happened, and will it happen again?"
Chapter 9
PARADISE
I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU, Walden
"Fall in. Count off," Justin said.
The youngsters formed a line, oldest and largest to Justin's left, a stair step down of heads off to the right until at the end was Sharon McAndrews, not quite the youngest but certainly the shortest. Beyond Sharon, Jessica, Carey Lou, and Heather McKennie formed a small group.
"One. Two." They counted down the line to Sharon, then the older Scouts, finally Jessica.
"Remember your number," Justin said. "Now let's do it again. Count off. Okay. Remember your number, and remember who's on each side of you. Okay, go wander around."
The kids scattered. Justin waited a moment, then blew a whistle.
"Count off!"
There was a moment's hesitation, then they began, "One. Two."
"Twenty-six." Jessica finished the count.
"Right. We'll be doing that a lot," Justin said. "Now the rules-"
"We don't need no stinking rules." Carey Lou giggled. "Rules are for Earth Born."
Justin saw that Joe Sikes was recording everything. "Not quite," he said. "There are times when you need rules, and this is one of them. Now listen:
"Groups of three. Never less than three," he said. "One to break his leg, one to stay with him, and one to go for help. Groups of three or more. Okay? Good.
"The trail is marked, orange paint splotches on the rocks. If you see red splotches you're off trail to the left side as we go out. Green is off trail to the right side going out. Everyone got that?"
"Red right returning," one of the smaller ones said gravely.
"Right-uh, correct. And Jessica is Tail End Charlie. Nobody gets behind Jessica. No one. When I look back and see Jessica I want to be sure everyone is ahead of her.
"When either Jessica or I call ‘Count off' you count off, right then, and nobody ever answers for anyone else. This isn't Camelot! There are grendels out here."
Some of the Grendel Biters exchanged knowing looks.
"Okay." Justin turned to Joe Sikes. "Latest reports?"
"All clear to Paradise," Sikes said. He didn't sound happy. "You're cleared to trek. Good luck."
"Thanks. Okay, let's move out."
Chaka lifted his pack-minimal gear, plus the glass cauldron that was big enough to serve them all-and swung it into place with a grunt. He hadn't done that a moment early. Joe Sikes shook his head and turned toward the minehead.
Justin unslung his rifle and checked the loads, then led off down the side of the pass, down north and eastward toward the green valley and the grendels. There wasn't any danger up this high. Everything they knew about grendels said they couldn't go far from water. Still, he looked everywhere, ahead, to the sides. It was his fourth trip, the third as leader, and every time there was that feeling in the pit of his stomach.
The first time Justin had come down this trail his father had been leader, and Joe Sikes had been Tail End Charlie. There had been a big fight in the council, with Zack adamant that no children would go to the mainland.
"Think again, Zack," Cadmann had said. "You have to let go sometime."
"No."
"Speak for yourself, Zack. You can give orders down here, but my family hasn't been part of your jurisdiction since a year after we came here."
"That's not fair."
"Which way did you mean that?" Sylvia demanded. There'd been a buzz of conversation and whispers as everyone remembered those times. Cadmann had predicted danger. No one had believed him. No one believed there were any dangers on the island at all. They were all sure it was pranks, or something worse, an old military man's desperate efforts to be needed. Until the first grendel attack. Then Colonel Weyland had taken his share of tools and equipment and gone up to build the Stronghold, and if he hadn't done that, when the samlon changed the grendels would have killed everyone on the planet. No one liked to think about that, not then and not now. Colonel Cadmann Weyland, warrior and Cassandra. And now Zack kept seeing dangers.
The trail was dry and dusty, which made Justin feel better. Grendels didn't like dry and dusty. After fifteen minutes he stopped. The two youngsters who'd been trying to keep up with him gratefully leaned against boulders. Behind him the Grendel Biters were strung out along the steeply rising trail. No sign of Jessica, but the trail threaded among boulders. "Count off!"