Resurgence

“Well, I would say the choices are rather clear-cut. There is exactly one place on Marglot where you have a member of our party, and also evidence of surface activity. We should take the pinnace down to E.C. Tally’s location and find out what’s going on there.”

“You got it in one. Can you be ready in two hours?”

“Louis, I’m ready now. For anything.”

She looked it. Her cheeks were glowing.

“One other thing, Sinara. We have no idea what we may find down on the surface. We all wear suits.”

“I know that. I’m not a raw trainee, I’m a survival specialist. Assume I’m good at something.”

Louis did, but he wouldn’t say what. He watched her bounce out, happy as if he’d announced they all had the day off and were going for a picnic down on Marglot. She had come to the same decision as him about a choice of destination, but there was one detail of Louis’s own thought processes that he had declined to mention: of all the creatures, human or non-human, that you might find down on the surface of the planet, E.C. Tally was the one entity whom Louis Nenda could persuade into believing almost anything.

Unfortunately, others already on Marglot might be able to persuade E.C. just as easily.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Fun and games on Marglot

One more decision had to be made. Louis had not mentioned it to Sinara, because he was still turning it over in his mind. They had not come here to see the sights, so the safest approach would be to fly to your landing point as directly as possible. On the other hand, if there were spoils to be gained on Marglot—something which Louis increasingly doubted—then a survey from a few thousand meters above the ground, and even a landing at multiple locations, would be needed.

He never made a final decision. He didn’t have to, because Atvar H’sial made it for him.

“Do you anticipate that we will be obliged to wear closed suits for most of the period while we are on the surface of Marglot?”

“Dunno. Seems like there’s a pretty good chance of it, ’specially when we meet Tally an’ whatever goes with him.”

“Then let me remind you that on similar occasions in the past, you and I have suffered because of our inability to communicate. Sealed suits prevent any form of pheromonal communication, and you have difficulties when I seek to make statements employing human speech modes.”

“You’re gettin’ better, At.”

“Do not waste both our times. Your true opinion of my efforts shows clearly as a sub-text. No matter. What is important is that, since you and I will be unable to communicate efficiently once we are on the surface and our suits are closed, we must have an opportunity to decide upon a course of action before we arrive. We are able to fly in the pinnace with suits open. I therefore propose that we perform a preliminary reconnaissance of Marglot and formulate our plans, before we land and close our suits to meet with E.C. Tally and whatever surrounds him.”

“Got it. I’ll define a full low-altitude circuit of the planet before we touch down. Anything shoots at us, naturally we’ll be out of there.”

Louis thought about his partner again as he took the final steps to separate the pinnace from the Have-It-All and begin the swoop toward Marglot. You took one look at a Cecropian and you wished you could wake up; but you were already awake, and when it came to business the pheromonal conversations between Louis and Atvar H’sial agreed point by point. Those conversations were also—Louis was very aware of Sinara, sitting right behind him and breathing down the back of his neck—unclouded by those other pheromonal exchanges which prevented clear-headed discussion with members of the opposite sex.

He stared ahead at their nearing destination. From this distance one whole hemisphere of Marglot was visible. It was almost all the cold side. Making a landing down there among the ice ridges of the oceans or the vertical walls of land glaciers would not be easy. With any luck they would never have to try it.

He had his suit open, and he was offering a running commentary on what he saw to the Cecropian at his side. Atvar H’sial was in the observer’s seat—a wild misnomer in this case, since her echolocation permitted her to see only what was in the cabin of the pinnace. Louis wondered how she could stand it. She couldn’t “see” anything at all unless it gave off or reflected sound waves. For Atvar H’sial there were no stars, no moons, no galaxies—not even the planet below, until they were close to the ground. And, once her suit was sealed, there was also no speech. The urge to open up as soon as they landed would be enormous. But she never complained.

Not like the sniveling wretch in the seat behind her. Claudius had a special suit, one adapted to his strange helical physiology. Insisting that he was dying, he had refused to wind himself into it on the Have-It-All, until Nenda brought Archimedes into the picture.