[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
miracle like you pulled off at Vrashin. We've got to justify the money we've
spent here to get more."
"I've been thinking about that. Dad, where is the lab report on the specimen
from the stray monolith as com-pared to the liths of the circle?"
"We don't have a lab report because we couldn't chip off a specimen. We tried
everything short of destroying the lith. That's the documentation we needed
for our paper." "That's probably why it's survived all these millennia. I
wonder Mom, why not send the whole thing to the lab and let them worry about
analyzing it? Maybe do diffrac-tion studies on the entire thing?"
"Do you know what that wouldcost? The nearest de-cent lab is halfway around
the planet on top of a moun-tain!"
"I'll bet Lantern would go for it," said Dennis. "I don't know," Madlain
replied. "Their credit isn't as spotless as it used to be. We've had to pay
for several or-ders with cash in advance rather than use Lantern's credit." "I
can't see why," said Dennis. "Their books are selling!" "I read about some
bookkeeping problem they've been having."
"Then maybe it's only temporary," said Dennis. "If they're having trouble
getting Interfaces, that could be why they're having accounting problems. Let
me talk to Selig about my idea."
Dennis spent days closeted with his father and Selig Ernske. Evenings, he
wandered about the site with Arshel, matching the actual places with the
catalogue numbers of minor finds.
Dennis regained the deep skin color he'd had on Vrashin. Arshel's scales
thickened and stiffened to protect her from the ultraviolet and the heat and
the predatory insects that plagued the soft-skinned humans and natives. As
shelearned to distinguish the friendly flora and fauna from the rest, she
began to feel more at home than she had in years.
Dennis buried himself in his references and computer studies, while she took
to swimming in the river in the early morning before the large predators came
out. Mean-while, the ordinary work of the site continued: Fliers were sent up
every day scanning the countryside, sounder crews were graphing underground
echoes, detector crews were searching for anomalies underground.
One evening, as Dennis was about to express her before dinner, she tried to
tell him how isolated she felt.
"It's just your imagination. Everybody's busy. Don't you realize there isn't
Page 78
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
much time before the Guild contract runs out? An uncooperative Dorsan is
better than no Dorsan! You knew you'd be the only kren here. I told them a
green priest could handle it. Don't let me down."
His hand on her venom sack shook as he expressed her.He's afraid. When she
could speak again, she had to say, "I'll do my part. I'm your bhirhir,
remember?"
All the next day, it seemed to Arshel that she'd been self-ish. She wandered
about the site, handling some of the artifacts in the laboratory shed and
searching for some trace of life in them. But there was nothing except the
dis-trustful stares of the humans and careful avoidance by the natives.I'm too
nervous. No wonder I'm not getting any-thing.
She sat down near the river and began a systematic re-laxation technique she
had learned at Mautri. It took a while, but alone by the water, she stilled
her mind until she could ask questions and expect to hear answers. She wanted
to know why the people here had perished.
But instead of the panorama of the site as it had been in its last days, she
saw Dennis's face. She felt his hand on her sack, expressing her. She
remembered how, at first, ex-pression had been the high point of her day. Now
his touch was perfunctory, as if it were just another chore, like brush-ing
his teeth.
The sad pain threatened to raise venom, and she had to concentrate on her
breath control, holding the Mautri pat-tern of calmness. Again she asked. But
she only recalled her first molt, her bhirhir's touch seeming to say that he
understood her suffering and wanted to help. Her latest molt, on the way to
Pallacin, had only annoyed him because it had kept him from the game room for
three days. His hands had been gentle but disinterested.A bhirhir's hands can
turn molt into a pleasure, went one of her sur-mother's favorite sayings.
A shiver of mental pain threatened her calm, and again she resorted to
concentration to dispel the unwanted thought. And again, when she addressed
the ruins, she re-ceived Dennis's voice:Itold Mom and Dad a green priest could
handle it.
It had been a long time since he'd objected to her Mautri practices because
they had relieved him of the duty of at-tending her.Perhaps I should have
tried for the blue and for balbhirhir.
She recalled the previous night and relived it with new eyes, remembering
what Khelin had said.In any bhirhir, one will dominate the other. She stroked
the bracelet he'd given her. It had become the symbol of everything he'd
taught her. Now she knew that she couldn't read the site because it was Dennis
who wanted to know, not herself. If she were to be his archeovisualizer,
ironically enough, she'd have to gain some independence from him so that it
would be by her own will that she sought answers.
She resolved to consider herself in training for the blue. The idea didn't
terrify her as it once had. The blue was only a small step from where she was
now. It wouldn't make her balbhirhir.
That evening she was comfortably ensconced in the sands of her bed, reading,
when Dennis came in, jubilant. "I did it! They're going to start tomorrow!"
"What?" she asked blankly.
"Moving the monolith to the Cairnhigh Labs, of course! What have I been
Page 79
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]