'Doctor, it's that, or we pull you right this moment,' Tia said firmly. 'We will not leave you with those canids on the prowl unless you, each of you, pledge us that. You didn't see how those beasts attacked Alex in his sled. They have no fear of humans now, and they're hungry. They'll attack you without hesitation, and I wouldn't bet on them waiting until dark to do it.'
'What's better?' Alex asked shrewdly. 'Lose two months of work, or two years?'
With a sigh, Doctor Aspen gave his word, as did the rest, although Fred and Aldon did so with visible relief.
'If they'd just supply us with damned guns...' Les muttered under his breath.
'There are sophonts on the other continent. I didn't make the rules, Les,' Tia replied, and he flushed. 'I didn't make them, but I will enforce them. And by the letter of those rules, I should be ordering you to pack right now.'
'Speaking of packing' number='' Alex picked up the cue. 'We need you to bundle Haakon-Fritz's things and stow them in the hold. He's coming back with us.'
Now Les made no attempt to hide his pleasure, but Doctor Aspen looked troubled. 'I don't see any reason, 'he began.
'Sorry, Doctor, but we do,' Alex interrupted. 'Haakon-Fritz finally broke the rules. It's pretty obvious to both of us that he attempted to turn his politics into reality.'
In his cabin, the subject of discussion got over his shock and began a shouted tirade. As she had threatened, Tia cut him off, but she kept the recorders going. At the moment, they couldn't prove what had been on the man's mind when he locked his colleagues out. With any luck, his own words might condemn him.
'Doctor, no matter what his motivations were, he abandoned us,' Les said firmly. 'One more fighter might have made a difference to the pack, and the fact remains that when he reached shelter, instead of doing anything helpful, he ran inside and locked the door. The former might only have been cowardice, but the latter is criminal.'
'That's probably the way the Board of Inquiry will see it,' Tia agreed. 'We'll see to it that he has justice, but he can't be permitted to endanger anyone else's life this way again.'
After a bit more argument, Doctor Aspen agreed.
The team left the shelter of the ship, gathered what they could from the dig, and returned to the domes. Well before sunset, Les and Fred returned with a gravsled laden with Haakon-Fritz' belongings stowed in crates, and by the rattling they were making, the goods hadn't been stowed any too carefully.
Tia didn't intend to expend too much effort in stowing the crates either.
'You'll keep everyone in the domes for us, won't you?' Tia asked Les anxiously. 'You're the one I'm really counting on. I don't trust Doctor Aspen's common sense to hold his curiosity at bay for too long.'
'You read him right there, dear lady,' Les replied, tossing the last of the crates off the sled for the servo to pick up, 'But the rest of us have already agreed. Treel was the most likely hold-out, but even she agrees with you on your reading of the way those jackal-dogs were acting.'
'What will happen to the unfortunate Haakon-Fritz?' Fred asked curiously.
'That's going to depend on the board,' she told him, 'I've got a recording of him ranting in his cabin about survival and obsolescence, and pretty much spouting the extremist version of the Practical Darwinism party line. That isn't going to help him any, but how much of it is admissible, I don't know.'
'Probably none of it to a court,' Les admitted after thought. 'But the board won't like it.'
'All of it's been sent on ahead,' she told him. 'He’ll probably be met by police, even if, ultimately, there's nothing he can be charged with.'
'At the very least, after this little debacle, he'll be dropped from the list of possible workers for anything less than a Class Three dig,' Fred observed cheerfully. 'They'll take away his seniority, if they have any sense, and demote him back to general worker. He'll spend the rest of his life with us undergrads, sorting pot-shards.'
'Assuming he can find anyone who is willing to take a chance on him,' Alex responded. 'Which I would make no bets on.'
He patted Tia's side. 'Just be grateful you're not having to go back with us,' he concluded. 'If you thought the trip out was bad with Haakon-Fritz sulking, imagine what it's going to be like returning.'
CHAPTER SEVEN
