Intrepid

''Where's the populated section?'' Kris asked.

Andy pointed, and Nelly zoomed in the map to show a bay off a large ocean in the northern temperate zone and a river running inland. Beyond that, it was hard to tell yet.

Andy began to fill them in. ''The place we settled in is covered with what we call ‘broom trees.' Tall things, fifty to a hundred meters, with thick bare trunks and all their foliage at the top. It's not much use, trunk is tougher than steel. Can't mill it. And what passes for leaves can't be eaten. We burn them out, as well as the swamp bush on the ground below, and plant it with bramble berries. Nasty stuff the local animals won't touch but the goats love. After a few years of the berries and goats, we've got the beginnings of a human-usable topsoil, and we seed it with microbes and worms and plant it in a base crop not all that different from what you saw on Xanadu.''

''Let's see what I can do with that,'' Nelly said. ''All this greenish purple sounds like your broom trees.'' A huge block of the map leading up to an inland mountain range took on a light crosshatching, and the map zoomed in closer on what was left.

Along the river leading in from the landing bay and its various tributaries, several holes in the crosshatching showed clear, with a surrounding set of short black lines.

''Those are the burned but still-standing trunks of the broom trees,'' Andy supplied. ''It must be late in the day, you can make out their shadows.''

Jack nodded, his lips getting tight. ''Not the place I'd want to set a lander down.''

''The homesteads are in the clearings,'' Andy said, fingers going over the very centers of the arrangements.

''What about towns?'' Kris asked.

''Not many. Landing hasn't grown a lot, ‘cause we're mainly moving away from it. Grampa has picked up sticks three times since we first got here, selling out to folks that had more money than patience for building a place. Most of us Fronours are out here,'' he said, pointing at one of the tributaries that wandered off to the northeast, a low ridge between it and the rest of the slowly growing population of Pandemonium. Its northernmost boundary was marked by a long line of smoke from a fire.

''You still expanding?'' Kris asked.

''I'd imagine so. We're not the only ones.'' Andy's finger roved over the western and southern boundaries, where fires still burned, as well as several large broom-tree areas that had been left behind bordering cleared land. ''It's fall, and that's when we burn.''

''How long does a fire usually take, from the time you set it until it burns out?'' Kris asked.

Beside her, Jack nodded as his fingers traced over the fire line, then searched the terrain features beyond it. They came to rest on a small lake several klicks north of Fronour holdings.

Andy blinked in thought, then spoke slowly. ''The broom trees store a lot of water in their trunks. You light the scrub under it for ten or twenty yards wide, say a mile or two long, then see how hot the fire gets. On a normal dry day, the fire catches and spreads for forty or fifty yards before it dies down. Usually, you can get two, maybe three, strips of that before the rains start and the fire goes cold.''

''How long between lights?'' Kris repeated her question in a different way.

''Three, four days,'' Andy said, then finally understand what Kris was getting at. ''Three or four days ago, things were normal on Pandemonium and people were going about setting fire lines.''

''So if we'd gotten here four or five days ago,'' Captain Drago said slowly, ''Captain Thorpe would be the one doing the approach under our guns.''

''We still wouldn't know what he was up to,'' Kris said, ''and probably be even less prepared for the first broadside.''

''There is that,'' Drago said.

''So what are you going to do?'' Andy pleaded.

''Find out more about this picture,'' Kris said, turning to the man. ''If I turn my Marines loose on your planet, it will quickly become a small vestibule to hell. Let's make sure we're visiting Hades on the people who deserve it.''

Andy looked at Jack, then back at Kris, his face draining of color as he took in the cold heat of their meaning. ''I meant for you,'' he said, stumbling, ''I mean, I thought you'd help us.''

''We will, Mr. Fronour,'' Kris said. ''But you must realize, the help we bring is never cheap.''

While the farmer gnawed on just what was coming in answer to his cry of need, Kris decided lunch was over. She folded her napkin and rose. For the questions she had now, the bridge was the place to find the answers.

12

On the bridge, Kris found a happy surprise. While they'd eaten, Sulwan had done another navigational miracle. Pandemonium had a rather large moon. With a bit of adjustment to the Wasp's course, Sulwan sideslipped her approach to Panda so that the moon stayed between them and the bothersome Captain Thorpe.

''It will cover us right up to our final approach.''

''That's going to limit my observations,'' Chief Beni said.