Decker was surprised tofind that the bark was gathered as small flakes from underneath thescrubby trees that produced it. Ekno explained that it was nearlyimpossible to remove the bark from the trees directly, withoutdestroying them.
Upon examination, the barkflakes proved to be as hard as granite. Decker rolled one around inher fingers, asking, “How do you mash it up?”
“From keeping useof cherpcha.”
“Cherpcha?” Deckconfirmed. “What is that?”
Ekno’s explanation of theobject in question wasn’t enlightening to the humans, so the Feataypromised to show them later. During the gathering process Deckernoticed some immense white tubes running from the abandoned citythrough the gorge and seeming to disappear underground.
When asked about them, Eknoresponded, “You mark the float-ways. In seasons earlier, Feataykept use of them, traveling to homes of Maykure and Intabet. Talesare kept that in the star-burst times, they held service great andalways. The times of my knowing and still that of our elders holdno memories of float-way travel.”
“Oh,” Decker said, “thoseare the ways of travel, you were talking about last night.” AfterEkno confirmed this, she asked, “Why are they so dangerous? Havethey collapsed in places?”
“No, the tale is kept thatall remain unbroken but grew consumed by veil-worms. Since thearrival of the veil-worms, the float-ways hold danger great.” Thataccount had to be repeated several times until Decker accepted thatEkno was actually saying, “veil-worms.”
“What do they look like?Have you ever seen these worms?”
“No, but still all Feataywho seek travel in the float-ways in seasons recent knew attacks.Death came to most.”
Over Ekno’s strenuousobjections, Deck insisted on examining the “float-ways.” The tubesturned out to be plaster-like structures interposed with sets ofhydraulic doors approximately every fifty feet. With some effortDecker was able to force open one set of doors and found a flightof stone steps leading down to a wide platform a few feet above afast-flowing stream. With Moira observing from a safe distance,Naiche gave a cursory examination of the interior with her handscanner. She detected no life-signs of anything bigger than abeetle. There was no time to explore further since Ekno was callingthem back; the gathering basket was full and it was time to grindthe bark.
The cherpcha was locatedoutside the village pharmacy and turned out to be a small mill,consisting of a large, stationary stone cylinder upon which asmaller stone rotated. While Ekno was still pointing it out to themfrom a distance, Kayatennae took off in a mad dash towards it,barking frantically. Deck was at a loss to explain his strongreaction until she scanned the mill – the stone was kiatilium. Sheexplained, “He associates this stone with…um…a kind of a game heplayed…not too long ago.” When Moira asked her to describe thegame, Naiche said, “It’s a long story.”
“You have many longstories, it seems.”
“Yeah, it’s the hallmarkof a challenging life.” Deck observed to Ekno, “This mill is madeof a very rare stone. It’s highly prized throughout the galaxy. Doyou know where it originally came from?”
“The cherpcha came toFeatay in seasons earlier than star-burst times. Rare to we, likeyou speak, is the geide stone; the cherpcha is all we know ofthis.”
“Well, it’s worth afortune. If you ever wanted to sell it, I could arrange anexcellent price for you.”
“The cherpcha holds valuegreat for grinding leckma. Featay find no lure from off-worldwealth.”
“Good point,” Naicheadmitted.
When they were leaving thevillage with a sample of the bark, Moira asked, “Why is the stonethat mill is made from so valuable?
“We’ve found that it canbe used to make a metal we call ‘steinium’, after the person whocaptained the ship that discovered it. It’s ten times stronger,while still being much lighter, than the vanadinlum which wecurrently use for ship hulls. Unfortunately, kiatilium is not onlyextremely rare but everyone else in the galaxy who engages in spacetravel wants it for the same reason.”
Moira had been listeningclosely but suddenly looked around and said, “Oh, we’ve headed offin the wrong direction.”
“Not really. This isexactly where I intended to go. I want to get a better look atthose float-ways.”
“Do think that’s safe?What about those deadly worms Ekno spoke of?”
“I didn’t detect anythingmuch in those tunnels. At worst, the water is probably infestedwith some kind of parasite. If that’s true, then as long as youstay out of it – in a sturdy boat, say – those float-ways couldstill be used.”
“Used forwhat?”
With a wide grin, Deckeranswered, “To pay a visit to the Intabet, of course.”
***
Moira wanted to explore thefloat-way with Naiche but had been instructed to stay at the top ofthe steps. She noticed Decker arranging her wrist light on herupper arm and offered, “I could come down a little lower on thesteps and hold that for you. Wouldn’t that make iteasier?”
She held her breath whileDecker considered the question, and then finally acceded. Naichetrotted up the steps and handed the flat, slim band to Finnegan anddemonstrated how to put the light on wide-mode. She headed backdown towards the platform, followed by Kay. “Shouldn’t your dogstay up here with me?”
“No, he shouldn’t. He’snot my dog – Kayatennae is a corpsman, third class in the UDC andpart of this mission.”
Privately, Finneganbelieved that explanation had to be a stretch of the truth. Howcould a pet be part of the military? There was little she could doabout it now; however, she planned to question Decker on the matterlater. She watched Naiche sweep her immediate surroundings with thehand scanner and mutter, “Yep, nothing but insects….” She thenremoved something from her daypack and unfurled what looked to be asmall collapsible tube on a long telescoping rod.
“What is that for?” Moiracalled.
“I want to get a sample ofthat water so Scientific can test it and tell me exactly what kindof parasite we’re looking at.” Decker crouched down and extendedthe sampling rig into the water.
So intently was Moiraobserving the sampling effort that, in the dim light, it took her amoment to notice that a piece of the tunnel ceiling was peelingaway over Decker’s head. Finnegan supposed some decay was to beexpected as old as these tunnels were and turned her attention backto where Naiche was closing up the sample tube. Suddenly, sherealized that the layer of
