Chapter 7
“I called Dimity,” Patrick Quickenden told Nils Rykermann. “She wasn't answering. Then I called Vaemar's household. It took me a while to get put through to a human but the kittens' nurse was there. Apparently Dimity and Vaemar flew south. But they've stopped reporting.”
“As far as I know,” said Rykermann, “there was a trip to Little Southland due. Routine check of some automated experiments.” He did not speak particularly warmly to Quickenden, his coolness not all due to security considerations. He knew the Crashlander's protectiveness of Dimity stemmed from a love similar to that which he was trying to kill in himself.
“Their car is down,” said Quickenden. “It was sending out a normal carrier wave. No answer when we interrogated it. Then that cut off.”
Rykermann tried to keep his face impassive. He knew and disliked his own jealousy and possessiveness towards Dimity, and knew its irrationality, but could do nothing about it except try to switch his thoughts in other directions, and keep Dimity at a distance. He guessed now that he was always to be torn in two.
Is Dimity in danger? Yes, stupid! We are all in danger! Tree-of-life? Protectors? Dimity doesn't merely look younger than her years like us, thanks to geriatric treatments. Because of those years in Coldsleep she is young. She could survive the change to Protector if she got a whiff of tree-of-life. And she is with Vaemar, who would tend to think it disgraceful to notice danger because he's not a human in a fur coat but a young male kzin. And Dimity, just because she is a super-genius, isn't assured of common sense. The reverse if anything. I don't want her to go chasing after hidden tree-of-life, and possibly finding it.
He looked at Leonie. A sudden thought of her exposed to tree-of-life gave rise to a peculiarly horrible image: her lower body was much younger than her upper. Mad and impossible. Still, Leonie's presence gave the situation between him and Quickenden at least a superficial feeling of normalcy.
“What happened then?” he asked after an awkward silence.
“I told Guthlac and Cumpston. They've gone to find them. Karan went with them.”
“Karan?”
“Would you like to try and stop her, when she's made her mind up? They suggested she go back to Vaemar's palace and wait. She thought Vaemar might need her.”
“So what do we do now? Go after them?”
Rykermann touched his desk. A hologram globe of Wunderland sprang into existence above it. He touched an icon and the scattering of human settlements on Little Southland was displayed.
“If those three can't take care of any problems our presence may not make much difference,” Rykermann said at length, reluctantly. It's no business of his that I can't let myself see Dimity again.
“Vaemar only spent a short time at the caves,” he went on. “He only looked at a few of the nearest passages. I'm worried about what may be happening there. We've left no one on guard.”
“I'll take a look, if you like.”
“You're not a Wunderlander. I'd rather go myself or, no offence, send someone who knew the ground better. That isn't Procyon in the sky, you know.”
“Someone should be here to coordinate the others or call for help if we need it. That seems to be you or Leonie. She says she'll go with me.”
“I'll organize a car for you,” said Rykermann. No point in protesting. When Leonie's made her mind up, I think I'd rather try to stop Karan. Anyway, I'd like to let you see the caliber of my mate. “Go well-armed, keep your com-link open to me, and wear pressure-suits with the helmets on and the faceplates closed at all, I mean all, times you're on the ground. Don't land at all if you can help it. Just use the car's deep-radar to monitor movement in the caves. If it's bipedal and within certain size parameters, we've got a pattern-recognition program that can tell you if it's human or Morlock. Or kzinti, for that matter. If it's none of those things, well…”
“What chances of other humans there?”
“I hope there won't be any. But even this long after the war, there are too many Ferals about. Leonie and some others have been trying to bring them in, particularly the children, but it's a slow process. They're cunning and wild, and, incidentally, can be very dangerous. There are still weapons lying about for anyone to pick up. I don't know if you understand danger sufficiently, Patrick. Obey Leonie's instructions at all, all times.”
“We Made It isn't exactly a garden world, you know,” Patrick said. “And I was a spacer before I got involved in hyperdrive engineering. My life hasn't been completely sheltered.”
“Those are natural dangers. Not like thinking beings, highly-intelligent beings, consciously out to get you… A spacer, yes, of course you were…
“I never asked you…” Rykermann went on after a pause. “But were you—”
“Yes. I was flying the first ship that helped stop the derelict, and the first to board it. I found Dimity.”
“And without you?”
“It was heading straight for one of the gas-giants. We had quite a race to catch it and deploy the grapnels before it went too deep into the gravity-well. We kept signalling, and there was no answer…”
“You found Dimity…”
“I'll not forget going aboard, pushing through those floating eyeless corpses with their lungs going before them, those monks with their shaven heads, and my light falling on that black medical coffin, with the last lights of its emergency power blinking red. There was a translucent panel. When I saw her face I thought at first that she was dead, too, of course, but she looked so…”
“So we owe you Dimity's life.”
“There were several ships and crews involved. They were all needed before we saved the ship. It wasn't just me. Others actually got her out.”
“But without you she'd be dead.”
“That's true.”
“And without Dimity, no working hyperdrive. Not for decades at least. Not until too late.”
“No. We were making slow progress translating the manual. Dimity was still in rehabilitation therapy when we got it—they were wondering what to do with her, in fact. Then she got word of what was happening somehow and forced her way onto the project. How she broke out of the hospital, evaded the medics, got into the project headquarters—all underground on a strange planet—and forced the team-leaders to give her a hearing and authority was an epic in itself. As you say, she saved us decades. Without her, we might easily be working on it still.”
“And without the hyperdrive, Leonie and I would surely be dead by now, and unless we'd made Protectors Wunderland and probably Earth would be kzin hunting-grounds.”
“Not to mention my own world. I was wrong to say we might be working on it still. They'd have got to We Made it, sooner or later. Probably sooner. We were behind kzin lines though we didn't know it.”
“If we need to land and search for tree-of-life,” said Leonie, “Or do any fighting, it might be handy to have a kzin with us.”
“Apart from Vaemar there aren't that many kzinti available who we know well enough to use, not at short notice,” said Rykermann. “And even on this planet, most of them still have no love for monkeys. Don't ever make the mistake of thinking the handful of Wunderkzin like Vaemar and Raargh are typical, Patrick. I know we're civilizing them, but it's a slow business…”
“I was thinking of Raargh. He knows the caves, too, and that eye of his could be useful,” said Leonie. “I think the alte Teufel's bored with peace, anyway. Promise him the chance of battle, and he'd be with us. I'll call him and brief him now.”