“His first name’s Aloysius,” he said thoughtfully. “And yours is Sarah.”
As smart as they come.
“Did you know that in some species the males all compete for the most desirable female?” he said, smiling wryly. “Most of them don’t stand a chance, though. She always picks the one who’s the bravest. Or the smartest.”
“Speaking of which, you were pretty smart to figure out the shuttlewrens built the Wall.”
He brightened. “I still have to prove it,” he said. “I’m going to have to run content analyses and work/size probabilities when I get back to King’s X. And write it up.”
“It’ll be on the pop-ups, too,” I said. “You’ll be famous. Ev Parker, Socioexozoologist.”
“You think so?” he said, as if it hadn’t occurred to him before.
“I know so. A whole episode.”
He looked hard at me. “It’s you, isn’t it? You’re the one writing the episodes. You’re Captain Jake Trailblazer.”
“Nope,” I said, “but I know who is.” And her initials are C.J.T., I thought. “My shit, you may get a whole series.”
The canyon opened out, and we were on another overlook, as big as a field this time, and lower down. Off to one side there was a way down, a slope leading back along the canyon to its floor. Beyond the canyon you could see the plains, pink and lavender. I could see the bluff that backed the anticline off to the east, too far off the scans to notice anything.
“Rest stop,” Bult said and got off his pony. He sat down under a silvershim and opened out the pop-up.
“Do you hear that?” Carson said, looking up in the sky.
“It’s C.J.,” I said. “I told her to come get Ev so he can work on his theory. He’s gotta run some tests.”
“Is she doing aerials?” he said, looking anxiously back in the direction of the bluff.
“I told her to go south and come in over the Ponypiles, that we needed an aerial of them,” I said.
“What about on the way back?”
“Are you kidding? She’s going to have Ev with her. She won’t be running any aerials with him in the heli. My shit, she probably forgot to do the aerials on the way down, she was so excited.”
Carson looked at me questioningly. The heli swooped in and hovered above the field. C.J. jumped down from the bay, ran across to Ev, and practically knocked him down, kissing him.
“What’s all that about?” Carson said, watching them.
“Courtship ritual,” I said. “I told her Ev named the falls after her. I told her he named it Crystal Falls.” I looked at Carson. “It was the only way he was ever going to get a jump. On this planet, anyway.”
They were still in a clinch.
“When she finds out what we really named it,” Carson said, grinning, “she’s gonna be really mad. When are you gonna tell her?”
“I’m not,” I said. “That’s the name I sent.”
He quit grinning. “What on hell did you do that for?”
“The other day Ev almost got a name past me. Crisscross Creek. You were worrying about what Bult was up to, and I was busy trying to load everything on the ponies, and when he asked me what we were going to name that little stream we crossed, I wasn’t paying any attention. It wouldn’t have gotten past Big Brother, but it got past me. Because I was busy worrying about something else.”
Ev and C.J. had come out of their clinch and were looking at the waterfall. C.J. was making squealing noises that practically drowned out the falls.
“Crystal Falls won’t get past Big Brother either,” Carson said. “And Tssarrrah Falls would have.”
“I know,” I said, “but maybe they’ll be so busy yelling at us over naming it that and killing the tssi mitss that they’ll forget about the oil field.”
He stared at Ev. C.J. was kissing him again. “What about Evie?”
“He won’t tell,” I said.
“What about Bult? How do we know he won’t lead us out of these mountains and straight into another anticline? Or a diamond deposit?”
“That’s not a problem either. All you’ve got to do is tell him.”
He turned and looked at me. “Tell him what?”
“Can’t you tell when somebody’s got a crush on you? Making you fires, watching your scenes on the pop-ups over and over, giving you presents—”
“What presents?”
“All those dice. The binocs.”
“They were our binocs.”
“Yeah, well, the indidges seem to have a little trouble with that word. He gave you half a shuttlewren, too. And an oil field.”
“That’s why he said he’d help me with the waterfall.” He stopped. “I thought Ev said he was a male.”
“He is,” I said, grinning. “And apparently he’s got as much trouble telling what sex we are as we did with him.”
“He thinks I’m a female?”
“It’s an easy enough mistake,” I said, grinning. I started to walk away.
He grabbed my arm and swung me around to face him. “You’re sure you want to do this? We could get fired.”
“No, we won’t. We’re Findriddy and Carson. We’re too famous to get fired.” I smiled at him. “Besides, they can’t. After this expedition, we’re going to owe them our wages for the next twenty.”
We went over to C.J. and Ev, who were glued together again. “Ev, you and your pony go back with C.J. to King’s X,” I said. “You’ve gotta get that theory on the Wall written up.”
“Evelyn told me about his theory,” C.J. said. I wondered when he’d had the time. “And how he saved you from the tssi mitss.”
“We’re gonna go ahead and finish out the expedition,” Carson said, dragging Ev’s pony over. “I thought we’d survey the Ponypiles as long as we’re here.”
We heaved the pony into the bay, and told C.J. to swing west over the Ponypiles and then north on the way home and try to get an aerial.
She wasn’t paying any attention. “Take all the time you need surveying,” she said, climbing on. “And don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine.” She went forward.
Carson handed Ev his pack. “If you could take holos of the Wall at different places, I’d appreciate it,” Ev said. “And samples of the plaster.”
Carson nodded. “Anything else we can do?”
Ev looked up at the heli. “You’ve already done quite a bit.” He shook his head, grinning. “Crystal Falls,” he said, looking at me. “I still think we should’ve named it Heart’s Desire.”
He climbed up into the bay, and C.J. took off, dipping so close to the ground we both ducked.
“Maybe we did too much,” Carson said. “I hope C.J. isn’t so grateful she kills him.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” I said. The heli circled the canyon like a shuttlewren and swooped down in front of the falls for a last look. They flew off, straight north across the plains, which meant we weren’t going to get any aerials.
“We’re just postponing the inevitable, you know,” he said, looking after the heli. “Sooner or later Big Brother’s going to figure out we’ve been having way too many dust storms, or Wulfmeier’ll stumble onto that vein of silver in 246-73. If Bult doesn’t figure out what he could get for this place and tell them first.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said. “Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as we think. They didn’t build the Wall, did you know that? They just moved in afterward, clunked the natives on the head, and took over. Bult’d probably own Starting Gate and half of Earth inside a year.”
“And build a dam over the falls,” he said.
“Not if it was a national park,” I said. “You heard what Ev said about how he’d wanted to see the silvershims and the Wall, especially when they find out who built it. I figure people would come a long way to see something like this.” I gestured at the falls. “Bult could charge admission.”