work the mask off.”
“How about the treecat?” Toby asked.
“I think he’s all right. I mean, the treecats have all huddled around him, but they don’t seem anxious. I saw some patches of burnt fur, but I think Jessica grabbed him before much worse could happen.”
“That was really brave,” Christine said, admiration in her voice. “I don’t know if I could have done it. I mean, I didn’t mind getting close to the fire because the suits kept out the worst of the heat and smoke. Opening up a suit when surrounded by fire…”
Jessica obviously overheard. Even before she fluttered open her eyes she said in a very soft voice, “Brave or really dumb…”
She coughed a few times. Stephanie patted her hand, then moved it so Jessica could feel the oxygen mask.
“Don’t stress your voice. If you need more air, take a pull on this.”
“Okay. Can Valiant have some?”
“Valiant?” Stephanie realized Jessica must mean the treecat. “Sure. Take a drag and I’ll see if he wants any.”
Knowing that Lionheart would likely be with Stephanie when she went on fire duty, Richard Harrington had shown her how to adjust the flow for treecats. She did so now, glad that she hadn’t been such a blackhole as to ignore good advice just because it came from her father. Dad had also included a variety of simple drugs- painkillers and stimulants mostly-that had been proven to work on treecats.
“Lionheart,” Stephanie said holding out the mask. “You’d better show Valiant how to use this.”
Lionheart took the device promptly. One of the females-an older one, Stephanie thought-hissed, but another treecat patted her and eased her back when she would have intervened.
His wife? Stephanie thought. His mother? I can tell a kitten from an adult, but there’s so much I don’t know…
The oxygen seemed to help Valiant. Lionheart then made a quick inspection of the other ’cat’s bedraggled fur. It was burnt in places, but the skin was badly blistered only in one area-a long streak down the left shoulder and flank.
Stephanie took out some quick-heal and sprayed on a light application. In nature, burns healed best if kept clean and left to open air, but she wanted to do something for the creature’s evident pain.
“Valiant got that,” Jessica said softly, “when he pushed me into the stream. I froze for a minute too long, then I stumbled and did something to my ankle. He could have gotten away, but he stopped…”
Her voice choked with tears. “He’s going to be all right, isn’t he? I’ll just die if anything happens to him, especially because of me…”
Stephanie’s eyes widened. There was more here than just guilt or sympathy. She heard in Jessica’s voice the same pain she had felt when Lionheart had attacked the hexapuma in an effort to save her.
She looked at Lionheart, wondering if he would confirm her guess.
“Bleek,” he said, nodding. “Bleek!”
Me and Lionheart. Scott and Fisher. Now Jessica and Valiant…
Stephanie shook her head in wonder, then realized she hadn’t answered Jessica’s question.
“It’s just a burn. I gave him something for the pain and his family has him all warm. Next thing you know, they’ll be cleaning up his fur for him. You concentrate on getting well…Valiant’s going to need you, too.”
Anders awoke to screams of panic.
He sat up, wondering who was sitting on his chest, then remembered it was the weight of the world-literally the world, all of Sphinx’s 1.35 gravity. Switching on his counter-grav unit to the minimum setting alleviated the pressure, but did nothing to still the screaming.
It was Kesia.
“Oh God oh God oh God…” the linguist was saying without pausing for breath. Then she began babbling in some language Anders had never heard before but which, from the fluency with which she spoke it, must be her native tongue.
He glanced toward the forest, thinking that the fire must have reached the area. The picketwood grove, however, remained untouched. If anything, the smoke was lighter than before.
Kesia was pointing a few meters away from the islet in the bog on which they had made their new camp, pointing, apparently, at one of the patches of mud. An eddy of motion focused Anders’ attention. He froze, for a moment believing that he was still asleep and that this was his worst nightmare yet. Then he had to accept what he was seeing was real.
The mud was slowly crawling toward them. This mud had teeth, teeth between which it whistled as it moved, an eerie sound, soft and gentle, completely at odds with the horror before them.
Other voices were joining Kesia’s incoherent babbling. With a small corner of his mind, Anders realized he was not the only one who had fallen asleep. Exhausted from their recent labors and poor diet-probably also from breathing the smoky air-they had all drifted off. If Kesia had not awakened when she had…
Then Anders realized that Kesia’s waking had not been a complete coincidence. A cream-and-gray treecat, certainly one of the two he had spotted earlier, was standing next to her. One of its upper paws-one of the “hand” set-rested on her shoulder as if it had just shaken her, while the other still pointed in the direction of the mud monster.
The latter was moving forward with more speed than Anders would have credited for something that lacked any apparent legs or even tentacles. Despite its lack of features-except for the teeth, those were all too evident-it must have had something that served as sound receptors, because Kesia’s keening had caused it to pause, rippling in place.
…In thought? In anxiety? In contemplation of where to take its first bite?
One of the above. Some of the above. All of the above, Anders thought frantically. Certainly it showed no sign of retreating, so although Kesia’s keening had disconcerted it, it wasn’t about to be scared off.
And if the treecat had taken the risk to come out and warn them, then there was no way this thing wasn’t dangerous.
Come out to warn them…Wonder filled Anders. As he got to his feet, he switched his counter-grav unit to compensate fully for the extra gravity. If they didn’t get rid of this thing, well, they’d have more serious problems than functioning under and extra. 35 gravity.
“A new species,” Dr. Calida was saying. She sounded almost as much excited as scared. “It looks as it dwells mostly in this sort of terrain, so it might be amphibious.”
“We’ve got that single tranq rifle,” Virgil said tightly. “I don’t fancy taking on that thing with a short knife, no matter what Stephanie Harrington did to that hexapuma. Who’s a good shot?”
Virgil was looking directly at Dr. Whittaker as he spoke, but Anders’ dad was shaking his head. “Since we were camping out,” Dr. Whittaker said, “we were permitted to bring the tranq rifle, but I’m not a marksman. Our main defense was going to be a sonic perimeter. They’ve had a great deal of luck with those keeping off even hexapumas.”
Dacey Emberly held out a hand. “Give it here. I haven’t shot anything for years, but Calli’s father and I used to go hunting.”
Everyone watched, tense and uncertain as the older woman took careful aim and fired. Clearly the powerful darts hit, but they didn’t seem to have any effect.
“I think,” Dr. Calida said, with detached scientific interest, “the darts embedded in the plants that grow on the thing. I wonder if it deliberately cultivates them as armor?”
“Either way,” Dacey replied. “I’m not going to get through-and that was the last dart.”
“This thing didn’t seem to like Kesia’s screaming,” Anders mused. “I sure wish we had that sonic thingie.”
Virgil dove toward one of the bags. “I think I saw…”
He raised an arm triumphantly. “Got it! I didn’t bother to set it up when we were in the trees because we were pretty safe. It should still have juice…”
Anders had raced over to Virgil’s side. The sonic perimeter guard consisted of a series of slender rods connected by an almost invisible wire.
