Chief Ranger Shelton gave a tired smile. “Asking for volunteers would be a sensible course of action to take in most cases, but this isn’t one.”
He held up his fingers and started ticking off points.
So that’s where Karl picked up that mannerism, Stephanie thought, swallowing a wholly inappropriate giggle-a giggle she knew was born of the tension coiling and uncoiling in her gut.
“First of all, it’s fire season,” Chief Ranger Shelton said. “With the drought conditions, the risk is higher than usual. As Stephanie and Karl can tell you, most fires-on other worlds, at least-are started by human action. Here on Sphinx we don’t have enough people yet for that to be the case, but the more people you have wandering around, the more likely you’re going to have somebody careless doing the wandering. As much as we want to find Dr. Whittaker and the others, we don’t want to be responsible for scattering potential fire sources all over the landscape.
“Second, although those of us at SFS have welcomed these off-planet scientists and their insights, our feelings are not universal. There are many here on Sphinx who view them as intruders. Worse, Dr. Hobbard tells me that not all of the intellectual community even here in the Star Kingdom was delighted about the decision to bring in out-of-system specialists, no matter how carefully they were chosen.
“Third-and rather selfishly, as I’ll be the first to admit-if the news becomes general that these people slipped SFS supervision so easily, we’re going to come in for a lot of criticism. Already SFS is not the most popular body on the planet. We spend too much time telling people not to do things they want to do. We protect resources many colonists prefer to see as limitless. These people would just love an excuse to criticize us further.
“Fourth,” Chief Ranger Shelton’s expression turned very serious, “there’s the question of why Dr. Whittaker and his crew apparently never arrived at their first scheduled destination. Did their accident happen before they could arrive or did they have some other agenda? We’re operating on the assumption that either the accident occurred first or that, for some reason that doubtless will make perfect sense when we hear it, they changed the order in which they were going to view the sites and neglected to tell us. They may not have thought it necessary. After all, they were cleared to visit all of those areas. In any case, for some reason they went to another site first-and the accident occurred then.”
Karl nodded, “Which is why they haven’t been found yet. The area is too spread out.”
“Exactly,” Chief Ranger Shelton replied. He turned to Jessica. “Does that clarify why we’re not calling in a larger group?”
She nodded, very somber. “I promise I won’t say anything, not even to my parents. I’ve told my mom that I’m going to tag along with Stephanie and Karl on their SFS probationary ranger rounds. That’s true enough, right?”
“Right.” Chief Ranger Shelton indicated a segment of a holomap that dominated one portion of the table. “This is where we’re sending you in. Cover as much ground as you can as carefully as you can from the air, landing only if you think there’s a good reason. Dr. Whittaker’s vehicle was a boxy air van, capable of carrying a lot of people and gear. At least we’re not looking for shreds of a lighter-than-air craft. Report if you find anything worth landing to inspect. Good luck.”
“We’ll do our best,” Stephanie promised, then they hurried out.
They were taking Karl’s car, so he slid into the pilot’s seat. Stephanie took the front passenger seat, while Jessica got in the back, behind Karl.
“So I can cover that side while you pilot. I wish they could have given us some sort of fancy scanner array.”
Stephanie replied, “They’ve already done what they can with satellite downlook and such. No hot-spots or the like to indicate a crash. In a way, we’re lucky it’s fire season, so the SFS already has extra satellite time allocated.”
Lionheart perched in Stephanie’s lap, placing his “hands” on the side of the door and looking down. For once, he didn’t “bleek” to have the window opened.
I guess, Stephanie thought, he’s figured out this isn’t a time for the wind in his fur. I wonder if he’s just looking out because that’s what he always does or because he knows we’re looking for Anders and his dad and the others. Whatever, I’m glad to have him here.
She was no less glad when the search was called at twilight and despair as black as the gathering night filled her. Climbs Quickly stood on his hind legs and stroked her cheek with his true-hand, then leapt into the backseat to wrap his tail around Jessica and nuzzle her downturned face. Since Karl was piloting, the treecat settled for patting him lightly on one shoulder before getting back into Stephanie’s lap.
Jessica’s voice came disembodied from the back of the air car. “You don’t think they’re all dead, do you? I can’t believe there could have been an accident that huge without some sign.”
Unless they crashed in the river, Stephanie thought. Unless they were somehow sabotaged. Chief Ranger Shelton mentioned that not everyone was happy Dr. Whittaker was here, but would they go to such lengths?
Once she wouldn’t have had such thoughts, but that was before Dr. Ubel had sabotaged Arvin Erhardt’s air car just to get rid of an inconvenient witness. Or before she herself had held a gun on Tennessee Bolgeo, knowing she would shoot him if he didn’t stop what he was doing. Before she had seen what Bolgeo was willing to do to creatures he, at least, didn’t seem to doubt were sentient.
Karl spoke reassuringly. “Tomorrow they plan to expand the range of the search. We already have our assignment-that ravine we saw today, but couldn’t go down into without spending more time than we should.”
But by the next morning, everything had changed.
Chapter Ten
As the second day of their exile drew to a close, Anders was aware of a growing sense of expectation among the crew. He thought it was unduly optimistic-they wouldn’t even be missed until that night-but he knew that both Virgil and Kesia hoped their spouses would alert the authorities.
Anders realized, too, that his own activities had certainly added to this sense that rescue was certain to come quickly. After helping Dr. Emberly with checking the fish traps and more foraging, he’d asked to be excused.
“It’s not that I’m not interested, Dr. Emberly,” he said, looking at the four rather strange-looking “fish” they’d taken from the traps. It was a good thing the SFS guidebook assured them this species was edible, because based on appearance alone, Anders would have had serious doubts. “But I have some ideas how we might make it easier for us to be found.”
“Why don’t you just call me Calida,” she suggested. “It seems ridiculous to use titles while we’re all stranded here.”
“Because my dad wouldn’t like it,” Anders replied promptly. “But if you don’t mind, I’ll call you Doctor Calida.”
“Done,” she said. “Now, what is it you have in mind?”
After listening to Anders outline his plans, Dr. Calida had agreed. “But be careful up in the trees.”
Figuring that talking to Dr. Calida counted as asking permission, Anders avoided talking to his father. Dr. Whittaker-Dad had glowered when any of his underlings had addressed him by anything except this title-was behaving really strangely. Not only was he insisting on maintaining the academic hierarchy, but he was carrying on with his fieldwork as if nothing else was important.
When Anders had questioned him about this, privately, so as not to cause any embarrassment, Dad had smiled fondly and all but patted him on the head.
“You go ahead and play at camping adventure if you’d like,” he said, his tone so warm and affectionate that Anders wondered if he somehow imagined they were on holiday at their mountain cabin. “I’m here to work and so are the others. We’re learning a great deal. Dr. Emberly has already recorded some fascinating evidence that the treecats may be in transition from a purely hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one with elements of agriculture. She wouldn’t have had the opportunity to learn this without our current situation. Even if we’d waited only a few weeks for permission to come here, much of the evidence-such as those patches of near-lettuce-would have grown
