Powers that Be

Chapter 14

The track-cat lumbered down the riverbank and into the trees, surely and slowly-much too slowly to suit Diego. What if someone caught them and tried to take them back? What would happen to them then? Would they send Dad off-planet? Would they split them up? Would he be charged with the theft of the track-cat?

Hours seemed to pass as the vehicle rolled, slowly but staunchly, up small hillocks and forded freshets of water and melting snow running toward the river.

The track-cat was open to the air, too, so it was a good thing the day was exceptionally warm or they all might have frozen. Diego's dad lay inert against Steve, who clung tightly to his clothes to keep him from bouncing out of the vehicle.

The slushy, icy terrain was tough going even for the track-cat. Diego nursed it up a hill and down over the other side, only to lodge with one edge of the track in a ditch.

"Try rocking it," Steve hollered. "Forward, reverse, forward, reverse! Let it dig its own way out."

But the tracks could not bite or budge. Diego put it in neutral and climbed down to see exactly what the problem was. That was when he heard the noise from the other side of the trees and realized they weren't the only ones in trouble.

He pointed to show Steve where he was going and, leaving the vehicle running, trudged through the slush until he was clear of the trees.

The snowy road that the snocles had been so blithely using had become separated from the bank by a foot of open, steaming water. A soldier waved his parka to keep oncoming traffic from adding to the twenty or thirty vehicles already slewed crazily over what remained of the iced river. Beneath snocles and the feet of the drivers, huge steaming cracks yawned and pieces of ice broke off and floated in the blue-black water.

As Diego watched, the ice broke and a snocle shifted, unbalancing its ice raft so that it and one of the men both slid slowly into the river.

Groaning at this new emergency, Diego raced back to the track-cat just as Steve slid out from under Francisco and fastened the safety harness around the flaccid body.

"What the devil's going on over there?" Steve demanded as he sprinted toward Diego.

"The ice is breaking, and there's people stranded on it," Diego told him, panting and pointing urgently toward the river. "They need a lot of help and fast. We've got to let the village know right now."

But Steve had to see for himself and swept past Diego to crash through the brush and look at the river. Diego followed uncertainly, torn between the crisis on the river and his father's helpless body left alone in the snocle.

On the fracturing ice, maybe a half-dozen people now lay on their bellies, hands and feet linked, forming a human chain to fish for the man who had fallen into the river. He still had a perilous hold on the ice floe, which bobbed about, having tipped free of the snocle.

Steve stood poised on the bank for just a moment before he took a grip on Diego's shoulder. "Get your father to the village on the double, Diego, and send back help. I'll lend a hand here."

"But, the track-cat's stuck," Diego reminded him.

"Deal with it," Steve commanded in the same kind of gruff tone Diego had heard him use to talk to shipboard staff. Diego glared at him, resentfully. Steve, seeing his face, added, "That's our expedition team down there. See? The big fellow with the red bandanna? That's Sandoz Rowdybush. And I think the guy on the ice is Chas Collar. Your dad and I have worked with them for ten years. I'm not about to desert them."

"No, but you'll desert Dad."

Steve took a deep breath. "He's got you, too. Go back to the cat. If you can't get it moving, stick with your father till I can come for you. If you make it to the village, tell them this river is having a serious meltdown problem and we'll need all the help they can muster."

Not quite mollified but having no other option, Diego sloshed back to the track-cat. Sure the guys on the ice needed help, but what if help from SpaceBase came and found Diego's stuck track-cat? Then Dad would never get the help Diego was now convinced was his only hope. There were plenty of other guys out on the ice already-why did Steve think they needed him more than Dad did? Angrily, Diego kicked at the brush surrounding the track-cat-which gave him an idea on how to free the vehicle. He tore into the vehicle's locker, strewing a number of items on the floor until he found a hatchet, which he used to lob off enough branches to cushion the treads and give them some traction. Then he cleaned the mud out of the tracks as well as he could, all the while muttering to himself, as much to keep his own spirits up as to vent his frustration and anger.

Just about the time he had the cat ready to go, he had reached the conclusion that Steve had really had no other option but to go rescue his friends. On the other hand, there was no way Diego was going to wait tamely here. Not when he risked being found by the company corps, who might resent his appropriation of their vehicle. More importantly, they would take Dad back to the clinic, where nothing was being done for him, and Diego knew with a certainty he couldn't have explained even to himself that he had to get his dad to the village, and away from the company. The people in Kilcoole understood what had happened to his dad, and they could cure him. He knew they could. They had to.

He didn't realize how tense he had been until he broke the track-cat free of the mud. Hoping his spontaneous shout of relief had been inaudible among the shouts and cries coming from the river, he immediately changed directions, driving across the gully and back into the woods. Now he steered away from the riverbank, keeping to the trees, avoiding anyone who might be struggling ashore and also avoiding surveillance by airborne rescue parties.

Half an hour later, with the light beginning to wane, he was far enough from the river that, when the ice finally completely gave way, all he heard was a dull roar, like a far-off crowd cheering some sporting event. And he heard that only because the engine of the track-cat, which had been left running day and night since the vehicle had been commissioned, had run out of fuel.

He stopped and listened to the distant roar, tasted smoke and ash on the air mingling with the released ozone smell of open water, felt the ground trembling beneath the track-cat as if it, too, would break open at any time. Birds screeched through the trees as if crying warnings.

His father's inert body looked uncomfortable in the harness that was keeping it upright on the seat beside him. Diego tenderly rearranged the passive limbs into less grotesque positions. He didn't think his father could have been hurt by the rough journey, but he really hated to see his dad, once so athletic and fit, collapsed like a disconnected android.

With no more fuel, the vehicle was useless. Diego let out a deep sigh. Despite his detours, he couldn't be that far from the village at this point. He glanced around, sniffing and finally noticing the odd smells in the air: acrid, oily, definitely nonregulation. Usually by now the air started to chill off, but it was still as warm as it had been all day. Strapped as he was in the seat, Dad wouldn't be in any real danger from chilling for at least another half hour, Diego estimated. He reached for the coat he had removed during his exertions to get the track-cat moving again and tucked it around his father, patting it in place, remembering his father doing the same service for him when he was smaller. Maybe he shouldn't leave his father here. There were wild animals on Petaybee, wild animals strong enough to break into the track-cat, maybe. Would they be more afraid of the machine smell than they would be hungry? Suddenly Diego wasn't sure he could take the risk. Not with his father so helpless.

But he couldn't just sit here, halfway to nowhere. Fretting more than ever, he turned to rummage through the track-cat's locker, hoping there might be something useful in it. There was nothing: nothing to use to build a fire, no emergency rations, not even a canteen of water, but then the cat had been used around the SpaceBase, where such supplies had always been at hand. It wasn't as if the motor pool had anticipated the cat being stolen for a cross-country escape. Totally demoralized, Diego flopped down on the driver's seat, wondering how he was going to cope now. If Steve did keep his promise to come after him, he wouldn't be there anymore. Would Steve be able to come looking for them? What could he do? He'd only wanted to help his father!

As if to seal his depression, the first keening howl sounded through the evening.

Bunny didn't have to alert the village: the dogs' wailing did it for her. People poured out of their houses to see what was wrong. She didn't have to tell them the river had broken up. Anyone born on Petaybee and raised with Kilcoole's long winters could smell breakup in the air, could feel the change in the pressure, and if that wasn't enough, the ice melting from the roofs and the slush seeping through the soft soles of their boots made it all too evident.

Bunny ran up to Lavelle's door first. Liam opened it. "Liam, the river's breaking early and people in snocles are trapped."

"The planet take them, then." Liam shrugged angrily and started to shut the door in her face.

"Seamus is out there helping, and Dinah's got loose and ran off toward the river. Please, Liam, if you won't help, at least spread the word!" When he reached for his parka on the hook by the door, she caught his hand, grinning. "You don't need it. Come on."

She didn't wait to see if he followed but ran straight to her Aunt Moira's. Moira and her three oldest sons, Nanuk, Tutiak, and Tim, were already hitching up Charlie's dogs while Maureen and 'Naluk, the oldest girls, carried blankets and other provisions to the sleds. "Auntie Moira, the river's breaking up-"

"I know, Bunka. Don't just stand there! Help us! Seamus is out there on that river."

"He's okay for now, Auntie. The soldiers pulled him out. But they all need help."

Tutiak growled at her. "What do you think we're trying to do?"

"No need to be rude to your cousin, Tutiak," Moira said, slapping at him. "He's sorry, Bunka. We're taking Charlie's dogs to go help now. Okay with you?"

"Fine," Bunny said. "I have to go tell Clodagh."

"Hmph," Tim grunted. "As if anyone ever needed to tell Clodagh anything."

Bunny paused at Aisling and Sinead's, first noticing that the dogs were missing from the yard, then that the long daylight was finally waning. The door opened on her first rap to reveal Aisling wearing her waterproof breakup boots, with her arms full of blankets.

"Breakup's come early, Aisling, and-"

"I know."

"How?"

"Alice B heard from the other dogs. Sinead and the dogs are on the way."

"It's getting too slushy for dogs even. We're going to need the curlies."

"Have you asked Adak to call Scan?"

Bunny felt something inside her wrench suddenly. "No! I- Aisling, the soldiers kept Yana. I think Sean's in trouble."

"Warn Clodagh," Aisling said. "I'll tell anybody else who hasn't figured it out yet and meet you there."

With a wave, Bunny ran on through the dusk to Clodagh's house. Clodagh was holding a lamp when she opened the door. None of the cats were in sight; then one appeared, taking immediate advantage of the open door to brush past Bunny and jump up on the table, where it began mewing piteously.

"Marduk says Yana hasn't been home to feed him," Clodagh translated.

Breathless, Bunny collapsed in a sprawl on Clodagh's bed. "She was goin' to try to reason with Captain Fiske for us, but it mustn't have worked. Clodagh, the river's breaking-"

Clodagh nodded with some satisfaction. "Of course it is. The river ice has been Space Base's quickest connecting route to us. The planet's protecting us-and itself."

"Seamus almost drowned trying to help one of the soldiers," Bunny said, without asking how Clodagh knew what the planet knew, or was trying to do. She just did, that was all. She always did.

"That Seamus," Clodagh said, shaking her head. "Of course he would try to help. Is he okay?"

"He's out on the ice with the others. They're all still stranded. And not only that, Clodagh, but when 1 stopped by Lavelle's to untangle Dinah from her harness, Dinah-well, it was like she talked to me. She was all upset about some boy. And that has to be Diego, but he should be safe at the SpaceBase. What are we going to do, Clodagh? Everything's coming to pieces." This last came out of Bunny almost like the howl of one of the dogs. That made her realize that she was very tired and keyed up to the highest possible pitch. She would give anything to be able to sleep for a week-if only someplace felt safe enough to sleep in! Even Clodagh seemed different somehow, her eyes glittering and her customary expressions underlain with agitation and a hard anger that had nothing to do with Bunny. Clodagh, Bunny felt, was actually glad about the river and wouldn't have minded if everyone-well, not Seamus, but everyone else-had drowned. Bunny suddenly realized that she, too, wouldn't mind if they all drowned, if all of SpaceBase suddenly sank into the planet and disappeared and the company moon vanished from the sky. They were bound and determined to ruin Petaybee. Everything Bunny cared about and counted on was changing, coming apart the way the ice, usually as much to be depended upon as the ground this time of year, had broken away beneath her.

Even Clodagh's house no longer felt like the haven of comfort and reassurance it had been for Bunny ever since her parents had died and she realized she could no longer live among her cousins.

"Bunka," Clodagh said, touching her shoulder.

"Why couldn't they leave us alone, Clodagh? Why couldn't they leave Petaybee alone? Did they have to ruin everything?"

"They've ruined nothing yet, Bunka. Oh, they set a few charges about here and there, and sent soldiers out to the mountains. But until they stop and pay attention, they're not likely to learn anything about Petaybee worth the knowin'. And meantime, the planet has means to protect itself."

"Clodagh, have you ever been to SpaceBase?" Bunny asked. It hadn't occurred to her before that she had never seen Clodagh outside the village except for a time or two on journeys to Sean's house. Clodagh couldn't possibly understand the power the company had.

"Of course not, alanna, now why would I want to go there?"

"They have thousands of soldiers there right now. Yana says they mean to evacuate us. By force! Just without a by-your-leave make us all go into space someplace. Then they'll keep blowing up things on Petaybee until they get all the minerals and stuff they want. Clodagh, I've seen the shuttles and the ships. I know lots of the soldiers. They can do it if they want to. They own Petaybee."

"Nonsense, Bunka. Nobody owns Petaybee but Petaybee."

Bunny was about to argue the point when something landed with a heavy thud on the roof.

Marduk, the cat who had been living with Yana, stood on his hind feet and pedaled his front paws at the ceiling, chittering and mewing as if looking for a rafter to jump onto.

From outside the house came a sound like a well caving in, a roar with a deep echo to it. Bunny recognized it at once as the voice of one of Sean's big cats.

She, Clodagh, and Marduk were at the door all at once, but before they could go outside, a huge shape landed softly in front in the doorway. The black and white bewhiskered face of the big cat regarded them quizzically.

Marduk, far from being frightened by the larger feline, stepped forward to rub noses with it. Each brushed scent glands on the side of his face into the other cat's fur.

Clodagh stood away from the door, and the big cat padded inside, leapt to the bed, and circled about on her handmade quilt to make a nest for himself. Marduk hopped on top of the larger creature's back and chirruped autocratically. Clodagh produced a pair of thawed fish and a pan of water for the cats to lap. While they ate, Clodagh sat beside them on the edge of the bed and stroked their backs.

She crooned especially to the big cat, and it looked up from its meal with narrowed eyes and purred thunderously back at her. Marduk, annoyed at being left out, butted her hand with his head before he continued to eat.

"Do you suppose it knows where Sean and Yana are?" Bunny asked. "When I petted Dinah, I felt as if she was talking to me."

"Come here, Bunka," Clodagh said, and put Bunny's hand on the cat's head. "Have you an answer for Bunka, Nanook?"

Why else would I bother coming? the cat asked her in a velvety, rumbling voice.

The words weren't spoken; but Bunny heard them nevertheless, inside her head, the way she had heard Dinah's. Nanook's diction was much better than the dog's.

Clodagh regarded Bunny speculatively.

"It talked to me," Bunny told her, blinking rapidly.

"This cat is a he, not an it," Clodagh told her. "He talked to you because you can understand him. Marduk, also, is a he. In fact, on our whole planet, there are no its. Some things have no gender, but they are not without names. It's only polite to learn those names."

Bunny shrugged. "Well, I guess I knew that." She had played with the big cat since he had been a kitten, actually, every time she had gone to visit Sean. She petted him again. "Sorry, Nanook, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

Having cleaned his chops of fish residue, Nanook began to tidy up the white fur of his chest. The house suddenly shook, and-from under the counter came the sound of crashing glass. Marduk jumped down, and Nanook stretched beneath Bunny's hand.

Bean's gone swimming, he said. Yana came with soldiers, but their chop-chop bird squawked and the soldiers took her away again. They do not have good feelings for her. They have even less good feeling about Sean, They did not like those of us who live with Sean and tried to find us, to take us away with them. We were not found. Then the ground shakes and I smell smoke-that-is-not-cooking. And shedding time is early. What are people doing to our place?

The last thought was accompanied by a plaintive roar that sent a blast of fishy breath into Bunny's face.

Diego found a sturdy branch, though he knew it wouldn't be much good as protection against wild animals. Hefting it in his hand made him feel somewhat less vulnerable, however. He could hear the river roaring, along with a crunching and grinding of the ice that set his teeth on edge. He prayed Steve would be done with his rescuing of other people and remember he had a duty to rescue his own family. Darkness was closing in.

The distant howling picked up again and became separate sounds: keening, howling, and plain crying, like the ghost of an all-too-familiar memory. Diego glanced over at his father. For a moment he thought he had seen a flicker in his dad's eyes, but the older man sagged against the harness as limply as ever.

Another howl, much closer now, was answered by several others, still distant. Diego swung his stick like a baseball bat, placing himself between the track-cat and the hostile woods. As an afterthought, he reached inside and switched on the lights, grateful that the battery wasn't drained yet. Then the lights picked up a ring of shining eyes in the woods, closing in on him.

The howling took on a triumphant note, and suddenly something dashed from the woods and straight at him.

Cocking the stick to make his first blow count as much as it could, Diego released it at the top of his swing as the lights picked up the red fur of the dog. Dinah crushed him against the grill of the track-cat with the weight of her body. She licked his face and the hands he tried to protect his face with and whined her relief.

He couldn't have said how he knew the dog was Dinah instead of any other, except that Dinah had done this sort of thing I before. And behind her came answering whines and howls and a? man's voice crying "Whoa! Down, dogs."

Diego freed himself from Dinah's embrace in time to see a sled pulled by four dogs break through the trees into the lights of the track-cat.

The man driving the sled wore no coat and frowned when he saw Diego, but Dinah ran frantically between the cat and the sled until the man relaxed.

"You're the boy who was with my mother, aren't you?" the man asked.

"Your mom was Lavelle?" The guess wasn't hard, with Dinah bouncing between them.

"That's right."

"Then please help us. I have to get my dad to Clodagh's. He's been dying at SpaceBase like Lavelle died when they took her off-planet."

The wind blew and the planet shook, whether in fear or anger or both Bunny couldn't tell, but inside Clodagh's house a phenomenon was taking place that Bunny would have only partially understood the day before.

A taciturn Liam Maloney, whined and howled into submission by Dinah and the other sled dogs, had delivered Diego Metaxos and his father to Clodagh's just after dark. Now Diego nursed a cup of tea, while his father sat tied into Clodagh's rocker.

Liam had returned home to feed the dogs, although Dinah had whined and made her peculiar "oooo ooo" sound when pulled away from Diego. Bunny wondered what she would hear the dog say if she stroked her. She wondered if Diego could hear Dinah yet, but thought he probably couldn't. After all, she had lived fourteen years on Petaybee, and she had always known communication existed between certain aspects of the planet and its people. Come to that, she had communicated with the planet like everyone else during the hot-springs interfaces at the end of every latchkay.

Everyone knew that some people, like Clodagh and Scan, could talk to most of the animals. Others, like Lavelle, could certainly understand their own lead dogs. Bunny had always talked to the animals, all of them, having been brought up to think it was only polite to do so. But today was the first time the animals had ever struck up what could be called a conversation with her. Maybe it was because she had bonded with her snocle instead of to dogs or cats or curlies, or maybe Dinah was just an unusually telepathic dog. Anyway, although Dinah was evidently tuned in to Diego, the dog had talked to Bunny first, and underlying all the worry and trouble, Bunny felt a marvelous elation about that.

The big cat, Nanook, had bounded past her as she held the door open for Liam and Diego to carry Francisco Metaxos into Clodagh's house. Bunny had caught a flutter of thought, Wonder what's happening out there now…, as the cat passed by.

Darkness blanked the windows and the wind blew fiercely, carrying the scent of ash and fresh water, thawing earth and smoke. It howled around the house like a team of hungry dogs and rattled the roof. Inside, the stove kept the house almost stiflingly warm as it kept Clodagh's caribou stew simmering in her biggest pot.

Diego was wolfing down his second bowlful and Bunny making short work of hers while Clodagh stirred fresh ingredients into the pot.

"Want to have enough for when people come in off the river," she said. "Some of them are bound to stop by."

The cozy domesticity of the scene was reinforced by Clodagh's cats, who had returned from whatever business they had been about when Bunny had first arrived.

Diego had one on his lap, while another, Bearcat, napped on Bunny's knees. And, of course, one of the more enterprising members of the pride twined around Clodagh's ankles as she cooked. Marduk and the remaining five seemed fascinated by Francisco Metaxos.

Marduk sat on the scientist's lap, kneading and purring and gazing raptly through narrowed eyes up into his face. Another cat sat on the scientist's shoulders, its rust-striped cheek and white whiskers snuggled against the man's right ear, front paws pedaling his shoulders while the ringed tail curled possessively around Metaxos's neck from the other side. Two more cats flanked Metaxos on either arm of the chair, licking his fingers and hands and grooming him, while another pair alternately wove about his feet and settled across them like house slippers.

You'd have thought the man was made of catnip the way the silly animals were carrying on, Bunny reflected. Whether it was coincidence or communication, at the moment the thought formed she drew an indignant dig from the cat in her lap.

"Can I have a bowl of stew for Dad, please, Clodagh?" Diego asked. "But maybe it'd be better-" He broke off and looked at Clodagh's back imploringly.

She turned and gave him an impassive half smile. "Yes?"

"If you'd feed him? Bunny says you're good at taking care of people and things and, to tell the truth, he never eats very well for me."

Bunny, who had watched Diego feed his father a couple of times, suspected that half the problem was that Diego found spoon-feeding his once-brilliant and vigorous father a disgusting process. She knew it made him sad and angry: that would be the way she would feel, she knew. Unnerving, too, to have to shove food into the mouth of a grown man as if he were an infant.

Clodagh regarded Diego with understanding and sympathy. She looked at the bowl she had filled and then handed it to him with a kind smile.

"No, it's better if you do it, son. Someplace inside your da he still knows you and loves you. If he'll eat for anybody, it'll be you."

"I guess so," Diego said dispiritedly, and pulled a chair opposite his father. Bunny noticed he was careful not to disturb any cats, though Marduk raised a paw as if to snag the spoon carrying food to Metaxos's mouth.

Grimacing, she looked away as the spoon neared the man's lips: that was the disgusting part, when stuff fell 'off the spoon and down the chin and had to be wiped off before it messed up the shirt. At least Diego didn't have to actually pry open his father's lips to get the food in. But, as she was turning her head, Diego suddenly said, "Hey, Dad. All right! That was great. Try another bite."

When Bunny looked back at them, Diego had a grin of satisfaction on his face: his father, eyes still dull, face otherwise slack, was chewing the soft diced bits in the stew. Encouraged, Diego replenished the spoon with more bits; the cat on his father's shoulders sniffed as the spoon passed his nose, but didn't try to snag it. Dr. Metaxos's eyes even looked a little more focused when he chewed, Bunny thought. Food was the best thing he could concentrate on right now; maybe he was even tasting it. She hoped so: it was a shame to waste a good Clodagh stew on someone who couldn't appreciate the fine taste of it.

Just then the door burst open and Aisling swirled in like a one-woman typhoon, followed closely by Steve Margolies. Through the door behind Steve, Bunny saw Sinead talking into the ear of one of the curly-coat horses that stood around about the house.

"Clodagh," Aisling called cheerfully, "Sinead and the cur lies did some right fine towing work at the river, getting snocles out of trouble. Everyone's out now and on their way back here. We left all the snocles at Adak's, but he's so busy, I thought I'd see if you had something cooked up for him to eat. He's going to be there all night. And it's not just the river breaking up early, either. You know all that smoke we've been after seein' and the ground shaking? Well, that's from a volcano eruption over by where Odark found Lavelle and Siggy with your lad here and his da." She grinned at the expressions of disbelief and amazement. "And the miners and engineers and company men that went out that way to start work, they got caught right under that volcano." She grinned so broadly at the effect of that news that she had to lick her lips.

Of them all, Clodagh didn't seem surprised.

"And, there's a shuttle down, almost right on top of the volcano, to hear Adak tell it, and the survivors yelling like stuck pigs for help. Well, that smooth redheaded captain who was sniffin' after Yana took her and Giancarlo and some other soldier to go see if anyone got out of the shuttle. They made it to the miners and then"-Aisling's expression changed to indignation- "that captain wanted to leave behind the injured miners and all, right where they were being bombarded with ash and hot mud, so's he could search for the shuttle. Can you believe the man's sand that he'd abandon wounded, his own people, mind you? And crazy enough to want to make a copter fly into all that heat and ash and smoke? But as luck would have it, and such good luck I can scarcely believe myself, the pilot was Rick, you remember Orla O'Shay's oldest boy that went into the service fifteen years ago? He and Yana Maddock made the captain and the colonel and the other bloke with them get out and load the wounded. He radioed back for a pickup for them and the other survivors, and Adak was just talking to him as we came in. Sinead says she has it from her sources that Scan's gone missin', too, and she's that worried about himself and Yana. The O'Shay boy says Yana disarmed the colonel and his lad neat as you please and not a moment too soon. Dr. Steve here wants to rustle up some transport. He feels he's got to get out there to eyeball that volcano while it's growing."

She paused to take a deep breath and then, with a grin, added, "Seems like Petaybee's not supposed to have volcanoes in that spot."

"Bunka, take a bowl of stew over to Adak and see if there's any more news, will you?" Clodagh said in a tone that was not a request.

"Sure, Clodagh," Bunny said.

"You're the one I'm to ask about transport?" Steve Margolies asked, looking perplexedly at the big woman.

"Eat first," Clodagh said hospitably, and handed him a bowl before filling a bigger one for Bunny to take to Adak. "You need good food after that stuff at the river, and for anything else you want to do."

Steve dragged a tired hand across his face as if he had only just remembered an essential like eating. He accepted the bowl and found a spot to sit, then took a good look around the room.

"Frag!" Steve Margolies exclaimed, his eyes wide with astonishment. "Look at Frank. He's petting that cat."

"Sure, it's fine exercise for his fingers," Clodagh was saying matter-of-factly. "Everyone knows animals are good for distressed folk."

Bunny was grinning, too, as she carried the stew bowl out the door on her way to Adak.

Despite the lid to keep the heat in, she had to walk carefully to keep from spilling the stew. It would keep hot long enough, however, for her to make a few short stops on her way to Adak's.

She slipped in at her own place, where she traded her soaked and stiffened hide boots for her breakup muckers and put on a kettle of food for her dogs. She looked in at Moira's window. The cousins and the dogs must have come and gone again, for Seamus was sitting large as life by the stove, shoveling Moira's soup and bread into his face. Moira was busy cooking. Now that Bunny knew that Seamus had made it back okay, she could continue with an easy heart.

Passing Maloney's again, she was greeted by Dinah's unhappy howl. She would pet and reassure the dog on the way back. Right now, not only was Adak's stew cooling but also a clever dog like Dinah might try to have first grabs at it. So she simply clucked reassuringly at the dog and kept going.

Six or seven snocles sat parked outside Adak's shed, but they had not been cleaned, serviced, or fueled, and were still covered with melting slush, water, and mud. Inside, Adak, headphones over his ears and microphone at his lips, was hunched over the radio. Bunny slid into a chair beside him and shoved the stew in his direction. He looked a little startled to see it appear in front of him, but accepted it without question. Lines were etched deeply into his face and his eyes looked hollow, but his whole body was taut with nervous energy. Early breakup and a new volcano a-borning might be considered catastrophes, but the end result was that today had produced the most excitement Kilcoole had seen since the first expeditionary team had been lost in a tsunami down on the southern edge of the ice pack.

"Well, I'm sorry about that, SpaceBase," Adak was saying with a certain amount of agitation, "but until the next hard freeze, the snocles aren't reliable as transportation for a trip clear out there. Over." He managed to spoon some stew into his mouth. "Oh, sure and they'll run on the snow, that's not the problem. The problem is the rivers, you see, and if you don't believe me, you can ask yer lads as got fished out of them today. Over.

"Is that so? Well, I'm sorry to hear that, too. It's a shame about Dr. Fiske's shuttle crashin' and to be sure we do understand the urgency and all. Over." He hurriedly ate some more.

"No, of course flyin' over it is impossible if the ash and smoke are as thick as you say. My suggestion would be to get yourself some of them crane-copters and have them hoist the snocles to the edge of the affected area and then see if the snocles'll drive at all in the ash. You're still going to be havin' the same problem with slushy going as we have here though. Over.

"The rivers of course, man! Petaybee has more rivers and lakes than you can shake a stick at, and who knows which ones are thawin' this early? Normally the high country would stay frozen longer, but a volcano, now, that's a chancy thing. I'm not a scientific man like yerself, but it seems to me such a thing would warm the country considerable. Over.

"Like I said, air-hoist a snocle to where O'Shay picked up the wounded. I'll wager Yana Maddock can drive it even if your two officer lads don't know how. Over.

"They what! When? How'd you find out? Uh-very well, over.

"Yes, then, I do see the urgency. Look here, I'll try to get some of the local folk on it in the meantime. The point is, machinery just doesn't do awfully well in some of the conditions we have hereabouts right now. That's why we use animals. I'll get back to you. Right. Over."

"What," Bunny asked impatiently, "was that about Yana?"

"Well, seems O'Shay radioed for help as soon as he was airborne and the other copter passed him at the halfway point. He was almost to SpaceBase when they radioed back that they were bringing in the rest of the survivors, but that Fiske, Giancarlo, and Corporal Levindoski overpowered Major Maddock and forced her to go with them into the flow area to look for Dr. Fiske. The higher-ups are that frantic to be after them, but the ash would clog any machines they got and it's not that good for the beasts either."

"I'll bet the curlies can do it, if anything can," Bunny said staunchly. "They were bred for sand and snow back on Earth, and they can close off their nostrils if they need to, and their eyes have a protective lid."

"Maybe so," Adak said, taking a slurp of stew. "Hard to figure why anybody'd want to risk a good curly to go after some company bigwig, though."