available cerebral loads and knew much about Myral’s environment, but that wasn’t the same as experiencing it. There was still much for me to learn, to know. Though I was certain that the chances of my finding a gabbleduck-a creature from a planet light-centuries away-anywhere on Myral, were lower than the sole of my boot.
“She only did that to get attention,” said Anders at my shoulder.
“Well, let’s hope she didn’t succeed too well!” I replied. I looked up at my blimp, and considered the prospect of escaping this trio and bedding down for the night. Certainly we would be getting nothing more done today, what with the blue giant sun gnawing the edge of the world as it went down.
“You have to excuse her. She’s over-compensating for a father who ignored her for the first twenty years of her life.”
Anders had been coming on to me right from the start and I wondered just what sort of rich bitch game she was playing, though to find out, I would have to let my guard down, and that I had no intention of doing. She was too much: too attractive, too intelligent, and just being in her presence set things jumping around in my stomach. She would destroy me.
“I don’t have to excuse her,” I said. “I just have to tolerate her.”
With that, I headed to the alloy ladder extending down from the blimp cabin.
“Why are they called shit-eaters?” she asked, falling into step beside me. Obviously she’d heard where the name sheq came from.
“As well as the rock conch and octupal, they eat each other’s shit running it through a second intestinal tract.”
She winced.
I added, “But it’s not something they should die for.”
“You’re not going to report this are you?” she asked.
“How can I? — he didn’t want me carrying traceable com.”
I tried not to let my anxiety show. Tholan didn’t want any of Myral’s AIs finding out what he was up to, so, as a result, he’d provided all our com equipment, and it was encoded. I was beginning to wonder if that might be unhealthy for me.
“You’re telling me you have no communicator up there?” She pointed up at the blimp.
“I won’t report it,” I said, then climbed, wishing I could get away with pulling the ladder up behind me, wishing I had not stuck so rigidly to the wording of the contract.
Midark is that time when it’s utterly black on Myral, when the sun is precisely on the opposite side of the world from you. It comes after five hours of blue, lasts about three hours prior to the next five hours of blue-the twilight that is neither day nor night and is caused by reflection of sunlight from the sub-orbital dust cloud. Anyway, it was at midark when the screaming and firing woke me. By the time I had reattached my oxygen bottle and was clambering down the ladder, some floods were lighting the area and it was all over.
“Yes, you warned me,” Tholan spat.
I walked over to Tameera’s tent, which was ripped open and empty. There was no blood, but then the sheq would not want to damage the replacement. I glanced at Anders, who was inspecting a palm com.
“She’s alive.” She looked up. “She must have been using her own oxygen supply rather than the tent’s. We have to go after her now.”
“Claw frames in midark?” I asked.
“We’ve got night specs.” She looked at me as if she hadn’t realized until then how stupid I was.
“I don’t care if you’ve got owl and cat genes — it’s suicide.”
“Do explain,” said Tholan nastily.
“You got me out here as your guide. The plan was to set up a base and from it survey the area for any signs of the gabbleduck-by claw frame.”
“Yes…”
“Well, claw frames are only safe here during the day.”
“I thought you were going to explain.”
“I am.” I reached out, detached one of the floods from its narrow post, and walked with it to the edge of the slab. I shone it down, revealing occasional squirming movement across the cliff of vegetation below.
“Octupals,” said Anders. “What’s the problem?”
I turned to her and Tholan. “At night they move to new pools, and, being slow-moving, they’ve developed a defense. Anything big gets too close, and they eject stinging barbs. They won’t kill you, but you’ll damned well know if you’re hit, so unless you’ve brought armored clothing…”
“But what about Tameera?” Anders asked.
“Oh, the sheq will protect her for a while.”
“For a while?” Tholan queried.
“At first, they’ll treat her like an infant replacement for the one she killed,” I told him. “So they’ll guide her hands and catch her if she starts to fall. After a time, they’ll start to get bored, because sheq babies learn very quickly. If we don’t get to her before tomorrow night’s first blue, she’ll probably have broken her neck.”
“When does this stop?” He nodded toward the octupal activity.
“Mid-blue.”
