'Transition,' Paul corrected. He had sat in the front with Dorland's pilot often enough to pick up some of the jargon. During transition, the stream driver switched control to the stasis system for atmospheric flight.
'Whatever.' Ogram frowned at the console when nothing happened. He leaned over to consult the card beside the readout screen. 'Oh yeah, this light has to be green. To make it green you push these three switches up.' He demonstrated. 'Now we have to wait for the computer to beep, then we'll be ready to go.'
Paul turned around in his seat to look into the rear compartment. Borland's head rested against the back of the seat, and his eyes were closed. Possibly asleep—Paul knew the last few hours had taken a lot out of him. More likely he was meditating. That was Dorland's way of sorting out his feelings. Paul had learned soon after they met that Dorland was subject to wide mood swings. Now he
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was somber and uncommunicative, drawn deeply into himself.
Beep.
Paul's thoughts were disturbed again by the sound from the console. He turned around as system lights winked from amber to green. Ogram punched out an instruction on the keypad, then nudged the drive control panel out of the way and unfolded the flight wheel. He consulted the manual again, then touched one of the hand controls. The stasis engines roared and the craft shot forward, throwing Paul back into his seat.
'Take us an hour or so to get down,' Ogram said. If we live that long, Paul thought, rearranging himself in the seat.
Ogram gestured at the vidscreens. 'Beautiful, isn't she?'
A huge mass of land stretched out on the central screen, green and brown beneath scattered clouds. Paul made a grudging sound of concurrence, and in fact he was grateful to feel the first faint tug of gravity. The old scoutcraft had no grav-field, and the long period of weightlessness had made him feel a little queasy. Already the noise of passing air was building up outside the hull, whistling through the fore and aft drive webs.
Ogram activated another console screen that had a dark green background with a superimposed image in lighter green that looked to be the outline of a map. Gridlines were marked off across it, and a yellow light pulsed faintly in one comer. As Paul watched, the map shifted slightly to a new position.
'That's our beacon,' Ogram replied when Paul asked about it. He used a finger to tap at the pulsing light. 'The map and beacon were programmed by the original Vanguard Explorer crew. Very superficial, but it does the job. Without it we'd never find our way back.'
The comment resurrected a question Paul had 56 William Greenleaf CLARION
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wondered about earlier. 'Why hasn't the planet been explored in more detail?'
Ogram offered a wry smile. 'Not exactly progressive, are we? Not like you folks, flitting hitherthither.' He shook his head with open wonder. 'All those planets—it boggles the mind.' He sighed.
'High Elder Brill won't even let us go outside our little valley. According to him, we have everything we need in Fairhope and Chalcharuzzi.' Fairhope was the village at the site of the Vanguard colony. Ogram had already told him about that. 'What's Chalcharuzzi?'
'The Tal Tahir city. Ruins, really—mostly overgrown.' Tal Tahir. Erich Frakes had used the name. 'The gents?'
Ogram gave him a blank look.
'Intelligents. The race of beings that used to live on the planet.'
'Oh. Yeah, that's the Tal Tahir.' Paul sensed that Ogram had loosened up somewhat. Maybe this was the time to try to get more information out of him. 'Who's Lord Tern?' Ogram glanced up at the vidscreen. He seemed to gain strength from the view of his homeworld.
'According to the Holy Order, Lord Tern is the only Tal Tahir still living.'
Ogram said it in such a matter-of-fact way that Paul turned to look at him. Ogram obviously opposed the Holy Order, but that didn't necessarily mean that he didn't believe in Lord Tern. 'Is he really alive?'
Ogram hesitated, then shook his head. 'As far as I'm concerned. Lord Tern is Holy Order gobbledygook. Nobody's ever seen him outside the Holy Order's temple. But there's something funny going on inside the temple. That's what Sabastian wants to find out about.'
Ogram had mentioned something earlier that
