James H. Schmitz Trigger & Friends

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brief explanation of the circumstances.
Duffold cleared his throat. The circumstances, he said carefully, are that
we have investigators working in that area.
Ostensibly, they are archaeologists. Actually, they re part of an Outposts
project, checking the theory that Palayata is operating under some kind of
secret government. There is a concentration of the deserted settlements we
find all over the planet around those swamps. The two men involved in the
restructure were working through such a settlement or supposed to be working
through it when the accident occurred.
He added, If it was an accident. I brought the record along because of the
possibility that it was something else.
The Section Head said in a heavy voice, The restructure appears to have been
made within two hours after the actual incident.
A little less than two hours, Duffold agreed. There were hourly position
checks. When the team failed to check in, a restructure heli began to track
them. By the time they reached this keff animal, some natives already had
killed it with a kind of harpoon gun, as the restructure shows. Some portions
of the bodies of our investigators were recovered.
Had the natives observed the incident? Lueral inquired.
They said they had too far off to prevent it. They claim they kill a keff
whenever they find one, not because they regard them as a danger to themselves
but because they are highly destructive to food animals in the area. They
hadn t realized a keff might also be destructive to human beings.
The Section Head said, This is a view of the keff some minutes after the
killing of the two men. The promptness with which the restructure was made
permits almost limitless detail.
Duffold felt himself wince as the colors in the amplification stage between
them blurred and ran briefly and cleared again. The keff appeared,
half-submerged in muddy water, a mottled green and black hulk, the eyeless
head making occasional thrusting motions, with an unpleasant suggestion of
swallowing.
Weight approximately three tons, said the Section Head. The head takes up
almost a third of its length. Motions very slow. Normally, this would indicate
a vegetarian or omnivorous animal with a limitless food supply, such as these
mile-
long swamp stretches would provide. Possibly aggressive when attacked, but not
dangerous to any reasonably alert and mobile creature.
He added, However, we were able to pick up tele-impulses at this point, which
indicate that the natives description of its food habits is correct. I
suggest using tel-dampers. The impulses are rather vivid.
Pilch s voice said, Hold still! behind Duffold, and something like a pliable
ring slipped down around his skull. Soft clamps fastened it here and there,
and then he was aware of her settling down in the chair beside him. Her
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whisper reached him again, If you don t like what you re getting, say so!
They don t really need you for this.
Duffold made a grunting sound, indicating complete contentment with his
situation and a desire not to be disturbed, but not entirely turning down the
suggestion. There were crawling feelings along his spine.
He felt good. He felt drowsy but purposeful, because now there were only a few
more steps to go, and then the great pink maw would open before him, and he
could relax right into it. Relax and
He jerked upright in his chair, horror prickling through his nerves. Pilch was
tapping his arm.
Outside! she whispered. Keep the damper on. They moved through the dim
room; a door clicked ahead of Duffold, then clicked again behind him, and
light flooded around them.
He pulled the tel-damper off his head like some small, unclean, clinging
animal.
Whew!
he breathed. Should have taken your advice, I think!
Well, you didn t know.
We should have thought of it. There are ways of letting stuff like that come
at you, and you
Don t say it, he warned. I m learning my limitations. He was silent a
moment. Was that how it felt to them? He described his sensations.
They felt something like that, she said. You gave the impulses your
individual interpretations, of course, because you d seen the restructure and
knew what the keff was like. Cabon will be out in a moment, by the way. They
got the
Integrators report back on this. I gather there s nothing definite enough in
it to change our plans.
I see, Duffold said absently. Mentally, he was reliving that section of the
restructure in which the two investigators had come walking and wading right
up to the keff, looking about as if searching for something, and apparently
not even aware of each other s presence. Then they had stood still, while the
huge head came slowly up out of the water before them and the wet, pink maw
opened wide and slapped shut twice.
Cabon stepped out of the room behind them. He grinned faintly. Raw stuff, he
remarked. You ve got a fine restructure team, Excellency.
Any delays indicated? Pilch inquired.
No. You d better go ahead on schedule. It s almost certain we ll still need
our average Palayatan and the one we ve got spotted isn t going to hold still
for us forever.
3
Yunnan, the average Palayatan, had finished the satisfactory third day of his
solitary camping hike with a satisfactory meal composed largely of a broiled
platterful of hard-shelled and hard-to-catch little water creatures, famed for
their delicacy. The notion of refreshing his memory of that delicacy had been
in his mind for some weeks and had finally led him up to this high mountain
plateau and its hundreds of quick, cold streams where they were to be found at
their best.
Having sucked out the last of the shells and pitched it into his camp fire, he
sat on for a while under the darkening sky, watching the stars come out and
occasionally glancing across the plateau at the dark, somber mass of the next
mountain ridge. Two other campfires had become very distantly visible there,
indicating the presence of other soqua spearers. He would stay here two more
days, Yunnan thought, and then turn back, towards the valleys and the plain,
and return to his semi-permanent house in his semi-permanent settlement, to
devote himself again for a while to his semi-permanent occupation of helping [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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