“I see your point, captain, but what do you want me to do?” “Well - I’d guess she’d fall for unconditional enthusiasm. Boyish gush, if you can manage it - and I know you can.” She let her eyes caress him, and he laughed aloud. “Yes - exactly that. Be dinosaur-crazy, act as if you’d do anything for a mere glimpse of them - you’re so lucky to have the chance, and so on. You can start by being skeptical - are they really dinosaurs? Are they sure? Let’s pick a survey team today, and brief them - you can introduce them as fellow hobbyists tomorrow. They’ll probably accept two or three, and if they go for that maybe another two or three later. How’s that sound?”
“Right. Makes sense.” Ford, faced with a problem, tackled it wholly, absorbed and alert at once. She watched as he scrolled through the personnel files, with a search on secondary specialties. “We’ll have to pick those who do have a real interest - they’d catch on to something faked, and I can’t teach someone all about dinosaurs in one night - “ He stopped, and fed an entry to her screen. “How about Borander? He’s taken twelve hours of palaeontology.”
“No, not Borander. Did you see how he interacted with Varian?”
“No, I was with Currald then.”
“Well, take a look at the tape later. Young trout let her dominate him. Admittedly, she’s a Disciple, and she’s declared herself planetary governor, but I don’t like my officers buckling that easily. He needs a bit of seasoning. Who else?”
“Segendi - no, he’s a heavyworlder and I doubt you want to complicate things that way - “
“Right.”
“What about Maxnil, in supply? His secondary specialty is cartography, and he’s listed as having an associate degree in xenobio.” Sass nodded, and Ford went on, quickly turning up a short list of three crew members who could be considered “dinosaur buffs.” It was even easier to come up with a list of those who knew a reasonable amount of geology, although harder to cut the list to three. All had excellent records, and all had worked with non-Fleet personnel.
Sass nodded, at last. “Good selection. You brief them, Ford, and be sure they understand that they did not know dinosaurs were here until tomorrow. We didn’t see anything on the way down: we came too fast. I had seen the information stripped from the beacon, but no one else had. Once you see the beasts, I imagine you won’t have to fake your reactions. But keep in mind that I need information on more than large, noisy, dangerous reptiloids.”
Ford nodded. “Do you still want to speak to Major Currald before lunch?”
“If he feels he has things well in hand with the transport. What’s that captain’s name - Cruss? Foul-mouthed creature, that one. I want Wefts and heavyworlders, round the clock - “
“Here’s the roster.” As usual. Ford had anticipated her request. She thought again how lucky she was to have Ford this time, and not Huron. In a situation like this, Huron’s initiative and drive could have been disastrous. She could trust Ford to back her tactics, not go off and do something harebrained on his own.
She glanced at the roster of Fleet personnel stationed inside the transport to ensure that personnel in coldsleep were not revived. She didn’t want to face a thousand or more heavyworlders: theZaid-Dayan would have no trouble killing them all, but Fleet commanders were supposed to avoid the necessity of a massacre. Each shift combined Wefts and heavyworlders: she trusted her heavyworlders, but with Wefts to witness, no one could later claim that they’d betrayed her trust. “Get Currald on the line, would you?”
A few moments later, Currald’s face filled one of the screens, and he confirmed that the situation remained stable.
“I’ve told the native-born survivors that I’ll supply some of their needs, too,” Sassinak told him. “I don’t want them to think that all good comes from Diplo. I’ve got some things on order, that’ll be delivered to the perimeter. But if you can turn surveillance and supervision over to someone, I’d appreciate your company at lunch,”
“You’re not giving them weapons - “
“No, certainly not.”
“Give me about half an hour, if you can, captain; I’m still arranging the flank coverage.”
“That’s fine. I’ll order a meal for half an hour from now - and if you’re held up along the way, just give me a call.” She cleared the circuit, and turned to Ford. “See if Mayerd can meet with us, too - and you, of course, after you’ve notified your short lists that you’ll brief them this afternoon. I’ll be on the bridge, but we’ll eat in here.”
On the bridge, she told the duty officer to carry on, and came up behind Arly. Although most of the ship had been released from battle stations, the weapons systems were powered up and fully operational. It would be disastrous if someone erred at this range - no doubt the transport would be destroyed (with great loss of life she’d have to account for) but the resultant backlash could endanger theZaid-Dayan. Arly acknowledged her without taking her gaze from the screens.
“I’m just running a test on quadrant two - “ she said over her shoulder. “Interlock systems - making sure no one can pull the same trick again - “
Sass had more sense than to bother her at that moment, and waited, watching the screens closely, although she could not interpret some of the scanning traces. Finally Arly sighed, and locked her board down.
“Safe. I hope.” She smiled a bit wearily. “Are you going to explain, or is this a great security mystery?”
“Both,” said Sass. “How about lunch in my office?”
Arly’s eyes slid back to her screens. “I should stay - “
“You’ve got a perfectly competent second officer, and it’s my considered opinion that nothing’s going to break loose right now. That Cruss may be up to something, but we’ve interrupted his plans, and this is our safe period. Relax - or at least get out of that seat and eat something.”
Currald brought the stench of the Iretan atmosphere back into Sassinak’s office, just as the filters had finally cleared it out after the morning’s visit. He apologized profusely, but she waved his apology aside.
“We’re going to be here awhile, and we might as well adapt. Or learn to wear nose-plugs.”
Arly was trying not to wrinkle her nose, but positioned herself a seat away from Currald. “It’s not you,” she said to him, “but I simply can’t handle the sulfur smell. Not with a meal on the table. It makes everything taste terrible.”
Currald actually chuckled, a sign of unusual trust. “Maybe that’s what drove the mutineers to eating meat - I’ve heard it ruins the sense of smell.”
“Meat?” Mayerd looked up sharply from a sheaf of lab reports. “It makes the person who eats it stink of sulfur derivatives, but it doesn’t confuse the eater’s own nose.”
“I don’t know…” Sass paused with a lump of standard green vegetable in white sauce halfway to her mouth. “If things taste different in a sulfurous atmosphere - and they do - “ She eyed the lump of green with distaste. “Then maybe meat would taste good.”
“I never thought of that.” Mayerd’s brow wrinkled. Ford grinned at the table generally.
“Here comes another scientific paper… The Effect of Ireta’s Atmosphere on the Perception of Protein Flavorings’… ‘Sulfur and the Taste of Blood.
“Don’t say that in front of Co-leader Varian,” Sass warned. “She seems to be very sensitive where the prohibition is concerned. She wouldn’t think it was funny.”
“It’s not funny,” Mayerd said thoughtfully. “It’s an idea… I never thought of it before, but perhaps an atmospheric stench would affect the kinds of foods people would prefer, and if someone were already tempted to consider the flesh of living beings an acceptable food, the smell might increase the probability - “ The others groaned loudly, in discordant tones, and Mayerd glared at them. Before she could retort, Sassinak brought them to order, and explained why she’d wanted them to meet.