9: CROSSED PURPOSES
The weather had long since cleared at the Settlement, the ammonia fog had blown into the unknown central regions of Low Alpha and the wind had dropped to a gentle breeze from the northwest. Stars twinkled violently, catching the attention of occasional Mesklinites who were outside or in the corridors but going unnoticed by those in the better lighted rooms under the transparent roof. Because Barlennan was in the laboratory area at the west side of the Settlement when Easy called, her message did not reach him at once. It arrived in written form, borne by one of Guzmeen’s messengers who, in accordance with standing orders, paid no attention to the fact that Barlennan was in conference. He thrust the note in front of his commander, who broke off his own words in mid-sentence to read it. Bendivence and Deeslenver, the scientists with whom he was speaking, waited in silence for him to finish, though their body attitudes betrayed curiosity. Barlennan read the message twice, seemed to be trying to recall something, and then turned to the messenger. “All this just came in, I take it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And how long has it been since the preceding report from Dondragmer?”
“Not long, sir, less than an hour, I’d say. The log would show; shall I check?”
“It’s not that urgent, as long as you know. The last I heard was that the Kwembly had grounded after drifting down a river for a couple of hours and that was a long time ago. I assumed that everything was all right, since Guz didn’t pass any more on to me about it. I assume now that he either heard interim reports at the usual intervals or asked the humans about it?”
“I don’t know, sir. I haven’t been on duty the whole time. Shall I check?”
“No. I’ll be there in a little while myself. Tell Guz not to send anything out after me; just hold any calls.” The runner vanished, and Barlennan turned back to the scientists. “Sometimes I wonder whether we shouldn’t have more electrical communication in this place. I’d like to know how long it’s taken Don to get into this mess, but I want to learn some other things before I walk all the way to Guzmeen’s place.” Bendivence gestured the equivalent of a shrug. “We can do it if you say the word. There are telephones here in the lab which work fairly well and we can wire the whole Settlement if you want the metal used that way.”
“I don’t yet. We’ll keep to the original priorities. Here, read this. The Kwembly has gotten herself stuck in frozen water or something and both her helicopters have disappeared. One had a communicator to the human beings aboard and it was in use at the time.” Deeslenver indicated his emotion by a soft buzz, and reached for the message in turn. Bendivence passed it over silently. The former read it silently, twice, as Barlennan had done, before he spoke. “You’d think the humans would have a little more information if they were watching at all carefully. All this says is that Kervenser failed to come back from a flight and that a flier searching for him with a communicator on board suddenly stopped sending; the screen just went blank all of a sudden.”
“I can see one possible reason for that,” remarked Bendivence. “I thought you would,” returned the commander. “The question is not what blanked the screen but why it should have happened there and then. We can assume that Reffel used the shutter on his set. It would have been nice if you’d thought of that trick before the Esket went out; it would have simplified that operation a lot. Something must have come into his field of view which wouldn’t c have fit in with the Esket story. But what could it have been? The Kuxmbly is five or six million cables from the Esket. I suppose one of the dirigibles could be down that way, but why should it be?”
“We won’t know until another flight gets back from Destigmet’s place,” replied the scientist practically. “What interests me is why we didn’t hear about Kervenser’s disappearance earlier. Why was there time for Reffel’s mission to be flown and for him to disappear too before we were told about it? Was Dondragmer late in reporting to the human observers?”
“I doubt that very much,” replied Barlennan. “Actually, they may have told us about Kervenser when it happened. Remember, the runner said that other messages had been coming in. Guzmeen might not have thought the disappearance worth sending a runner for until Kerv had been gone for a while. We can check up on that in a few minutes but I imagine there’s nothing funny this time. “On the other hand, I have been wondering lately whether the people up there have always been relaying information completely and promptly. Once or twice I’ve had the impression that, well, things were being saved up and sent in one package. It may be just sloppiness, or it may not really be happening-”
“Or they may be deliberately organizing what we hear,” said Bendivence.?Half our crew could be lost at this point without our knowing it, if the human beings chose to play it that way. I can see their being afraid we?d quit the job and demand to be taken home, according to contract, if risks proved too high.? “I suppose that’s possible,” admitted Barlennan. “It hadn’t occurred to me just that way. I don’t think that particular notion is very likely, but the more I consider the situation, the more I’d like to think of a way of checking things; at least, to make sure they’re not taking time to hold conferences on just how much to tell us every time something does go wrong with an exploring cruiser.”
“Do you really think there’s much likelihood of that?” asked Deeslenver. “It’s hard to tell. Certainly we’ve been a bit less than completely frank with them and we have what we consider some very good reasons for it. I’m not really bothered either way. We know some of these people are good at business, and if we can’t keep even with them it’s our fault. All I really would like to be sure of is whether it’s business or carelessness. I can think of one way to check up, but I’d rather not use it yet. If anyone can suggest an alternative, it will be very welcome.”
“What’s the one you have?” both scientists asked together, Deeslenver perhaps half a syllable ahead. “The Erket, of course. It’s the only place where we can get an independent check on what they tell us. At least, I haven’t thought of any other so far. Of course, even that would take a long time; there won’t be another flight from there until sunrise and that’s twelve hundred hours or so away. Of course, we could send the Deedee even at nighc-”