Putting Up Roots

Chapter Ten

A day could make a tremendous difference. Yesterday morning Josh would have vowed that he’d be happy if he never saw Solomon Brewster again, and he was sure that Topaz, Sig, and the rest felt the same way. Today, though, everyone was secretly watching the sky to the north. They were keeping an eye—a weary eye—open for Brewster and a cargo aircar that never came.

They had gone to bed early, but the moaning and a mad bubbling laughter had continued for half the night. Sometimes it was far off; sometimes it seemed to be inside the building. The knowledge that it was “just animals” didn’t help. When everyone finally rose, later than usual, nobody felt rested. The morning passed in dull, lethargic waiting. Even Rick and Hag didn’t have their normal wild energy and curiosity.

It was after midday when Winnie came wandering out of the camp’s combined kitchen and control center. She said, without much energy or enthusiasm. “All right, people, gather round. I have a progress report for you.”

Her summons did not rouse much enthusiasm, either. Winnie’s previous report had been a dull inventory of food, followed by the conclusion that with the use of local plants and animals, the camp could survive for weeks or months. She had not mentioned which plants and animals. Josh had a vision of chewing on a spangleburger, or dividing up a roast leg of bodger.

“It’s bad news, but it’s good news, too,” Winnie went on. “The bad news: Brewster won’t be back today. The good news is that he’ll definitely be here by tomorrow evening.”

“How do you know all that?” Amethyst asked.

“I just talked to him.” And, when they stared at her, “I used the camp radio. There’s a standard K-band link included in the control center. I didn’t know the carrier wave frequency for the compound, but when I did a band sweep I picked it up easily enough.”

Sig and Amethyst nodded, as though they understood what she was talking about. Josh noticed for the first time that Sapphire was missing from the group. He said, “Yesterday Brewster told us he’d be back this morning. Did he explain why he had to stay longer?”

“Sure.” Winnie became a more confident person when Brewster was away. “He says there’s rough weather forecast, with high winds and heavy rain. Don’t worry, though, this camp is perfectly safe.”

“I thought he went back for something to do with the medical center,” said Topaz. “It has some kind of problem.”

“I heard him say that, too. But I know no more about it than you do. He did tell me that he’ll be at the compound, and won’t be going off-planet. I knew that anyway, because unless he took my lander there’s no vehicle available to take him up to Solferino orbit. Even the lander can’t be used for interplanetary work. He’d need a system-rated ship for that. Meanwhile, he told us to carry on and do some exploration. I’m to help organize. So let’s get to it.”

“There might be,” Amethyst said. “We saw one the day before yesterday.”

Her comment stopped Winnie dead.

“One what?”

“A ship, close to Solferino.”

“You mean the one that brought me? That was yesterday, not the day before, and it’s long gone. But I don’t understand how you could have seen a ship—unless you mean the lander that I used for planetary arrival.”

“Not your lander,” Amethyst said, “or Brewster’s aircar. And it wasn’t the Cerberus, the ship that brought us here through the node.”

“It had to be one of those. Foodlines has no other ships anywhere near Solferino.”

“It wasn’t a Foodlines ship.” Amethyst looked to the others for confirmation. “It wasn’t, was it? It was a Unimine ship. I’m not sure of the name, but it was the Charles somebody-or-other. Charles Lyon?”

“The Charles Lyell.” Winnie frowned. “Then you must have been far out in the Grisel system, near Cauldron. That’s the only place around here where Unimine has mineral rights. What were you doing way out there?”

“We weren’t out there. We were here, in orbit around Solferino, and getting ready to use the lander. That’s when we saw it. Their ship was that close to us.” Amethyst held up her first finger and thumb, half an inch apart. “You could see it without a telescope.” She saw Winnie’s puzzled expression and took it for disbelief. “I’m telling the truth, really am I.”

“That’s all right.” Winnie nodded. “I believe you. Only, if that’s the case…” Her face went blank. It was another half minute before she returned to normal and said, “Very well. Enough of that. Let’s get ourselves organized. Brewster will want a report on what you’ve been doing when he gets back. Who knows? If you’re lucky, one of you will discover a valuable biological product. Then you’ll be Foodlines’s heroes and heroines.”

Josh could see one problem with Winnie’s upbeat speech. He wouldn’t know a valuable biological product if he fell over one. The whole point of their training program on Solferino was to teach them that sort of thing; so far the training hadn’t even started.

Maybe Winnie had the same thought, because she was looking the group over one by one, an odd expression in her watery blue eyes. Her nose was red. She was apparently allergic to something on Solferino, even though that was supposed to be impossible. She went on, “Your first priority is to get a general feel for the life forms around here. Take some time to wander around in this area and see what you can find. Don’t go too far away, and be back here in two hours. I’ll try to answer questions when you get back—though as I told Mister Brewster when I first arrived, all I know about this world is what I’ve read or heard in briefings.”

Josh decided that she was pulling a Sol Brewster on them: saying she wanted to do one thing, then almost at once doing the exact opposite. Three minutes ago Winnie had been all set to organize them. Now she was turning them loose to do whatever they liked. Something or someone had changed her mind.

The group was dispersing. The Karpov sisters, all four of them, were moving upstream, following the line of the valley. Dawn was trailing along behind Sapphire and Ruby on the left bank, while Topaz and Amethyst walked together on the right.

Josh decided that Dawn would be as safe with them as she would be with him. He was ready to explore the downstream direction, until he saw Rick and Hag moving that way. They had been giving him dirty looks ever since he had scared them during the landing. Worse than scaring them, he had made them do the unforgivable: they had acted like cowards in front of everyone—particularly the four girls. They would not forget that for a long time. It was asking for trouble to let them gang up on him away from all the others. Better to avoid them altogether.

He was turning to the steep bank that formed the valley side when Winnie called quietly, “Sig. Josh. I’d like a word with the two of you.”

Josh and Sig exchanged puzzled glances. If they were in trouble, neither one knew why.

“What’s the problem?” Sig asked, as they came closer to Winnie.

“I hope there won’t be one.” She wiped her runny nose. “Do you two agree with Amethyst, that you saw a Unimine ship near Solferino, and it was the Charles Lyell?”

“We saw a ship,” Sig said, and Josh nodded. “It was our ship’s computer that said it was the Charles Lyell. We didn’t.”

“That’s good enough for me.” But Winnie seemed more worried than ever. “Look, nothing has gone wrong, and maybe nothing will. I want you to help to make sure it doesn’t. If anything happens to me, you must look after the others. I said this camp is safe in bad weather, because I don’t want to scare the younger ones. But I don’t know how safe we are. You two are the strongest, physically.”

“Sapphire’s older than me,” Josh said. It was an indirect way of saying, hey, I don’t think Sapphire will take orders from me for one second.

“I know she’s older,” said Winnie. “I just don’t think she’s right for an emergency.”

“You better believe it.” Sig sniffed. “She’s a snaphead.”

“How do you know that?” Josh thought it had been his secret.

“I’ve seen enough of ’em, back in the Pool. Saph’s a classic case.”

It was the first time that Sig had hinted at his own background, but Winnie didn’t pursue it. She said, “That’s going to make things even harder. There’s no way she’ll get snap on Solferino when her supply runs out.”

“It’s not just snap, it’s triple-snap,” Josh said. It was Sig’s turn to give him a startled glance.

“Worse yet, then. She’ll need lots of help.” Winnie nodded. “All right. That’s what I wanted to say to you. Keep your eyes open, and be ready to help the others. If anything happens to me, be even more careful.”

“What sort of thing?” Josh asked.

“If I knew that, it wouldn’t happen. Carry on. Do your exploring.”

Dismissed, Josh turned to climb the valley slope that led to the ridge. He wanted time alone to think, but apparently he wasn’t going to get it. Sig was heading in the same direction.

“What was all that about?” Sig asked, as they ducked side by side into and under the chest-high canopy of leaves.

“Beats me.” Josh wondered how they were going to walk. You could travel crouched over, with the leaves touching the top of your head, but it wouldn’t be easy. And something might be clinging to the underside of the leaves—worms, slugs, caterpillars, he didn’t know what. He didn’t even know if any of those forms existed on Solferino. But the thought was enough for him to bend over and shuffle up the hill sideways like an uncomfortable crab, looking from forest floor to forest canopy alternately with every step.

“Seems like Winnie Carlson is scared,” he said. “She knows something we don’t know.”

“Yeah,” Sig grunted. He was bent over too. “Maybe this planet isn’t as safe as Gage and Brewster make out. I don’t see how they can know what’s here, when no one has explored more than a little bit of the place.”

It was even harder work for Sig. Being taller, he had to bend more. After three uncomfortable minutes, with no evidence that the top of the ridge was anywhere near, they paused for a breather.

“How did you know that Saph’s on triple-snap?” Sig asked.

“I saw her doing it. She didn’t try to hide, didn’t act as though she cared. She seemed to be looking for trouble.”

“Not the only one, is she?” Sig stretched upright, poking his head up through a gap in the leaves to take a rest from his doubled-over stance. His disembodied voice came back down to Josh. “You might as well know that when Rick and Hag get you on your own, they plan to beat the crap out of you.”

“What do they say that I did?”

“They don’t. Not to me, at any rate. I haven’t asked, and I don’t care. But I know how they feel. I’ll say to you what I said to them: When you start to mix it, I won’t take sides and I won’t stop it. I got my own stuff to take care of.”

“Right.” Josh decided that Sig, in his own twisted way, had just done him a favor. “Thanks.”

“For nothing.” Sig crabbed on up the hill, and Josh followed. It was easy enough for Winnie to tell them to see what they could find, but it was hard to evaluate what they saw. A fern of virulent green grew a few feet away to the right. It was striking, it was different, and in its own way it was even beautiful. But it probably wasn’t valuable, and according to Gage anything that color was likely to be poisonous. Josh moved a little farther to the left, just to be safe. In that direction, away from the direct line up the valley side, he saw a patch of light.

“Hey. There’s a clearing. Up this way.” He moved faster, looking forward to being able to stand up straight. With luck they would get an overview of the valley and stream, and learn where everyone else was.

He arrived a few steps ahead of Sig, and paused in surprise. He had said it was a clearing, and that was what he had expected. But it wasn’t. What he found was odder than that. It was an area on the brow of the ridge, thirty yards across, where the stems of the plants were as numerous and substantial as ever. However, all their huge umbrella leaves had been removed. It was a forest of thick bare sticks, through which Grisel’s ruddy light struck to illuminate the cover of ground plants.

Josh looked for the severed leaves. There was no sign of most of them, but off to his right, in the upstream direction, two had been caught between close-growing stems. They hung snagged a couple of feet off the ground. He walked across and picked up the smaller one.

It was dry and thin, but pliable enough that he could easily bend the sheet double. The hairy underside had shrunk as the leaf dried, to form a dense white mat. The colors on both sides of the leaf were much paler when it was dry.

Sig had picked up the other leaf and was turning it around in his hands. “No teeth marks. Nothing’s been chewing on this.”

“Even if they had, there’s supposed to be nothing dangerous on Solferino.”

“Yeah, sure. There’s nothing dangerous. And I’m your long-lost brother, and tomorrow Winnie Carlson will beat up Sol Brewster. What’s ‘dangerous’ mean? Animals eat each other here, they must. So who are ‘they,’ who say the place isn’t dangerous? And how do ‘they’ know?”

Josh did not try to answer. Sig felt the same as he did, that Solferino was more of a mystery than anyone in charge was willing to admit.

He stared off along the ridge. At last, with the advantage of height and with the top layer of leaves out of the way, he could see the giant balloon plants. He tried to estimate their size, and decided they were at least fifty feet tall and almost as wide. It was hard to believe that they would survive even a moderate breeze, and strong winds were in the forecast. What would happen to them? Already, up here on the ridge, he could feel the first stirring of moving air. Did the balloon plants have some strange and unknown method of remaining in one place? Did they perhaps deflate, like real balloons losing air?

Lower down, Josh could make out the line of the stream. He realized now what he would have known earlier, if he had stopped to think before he started to climb. The view from a height offered no great advantage. The long reach of the stream was visible, and a narrow clear strip on each side of it. But beyond that, the jungle of umbrella plants shielded from view everything beneath them.

Downstream, he could see nothing at all of Hag and Rick. Upstream, he thought he caught a glimpse on the edge of the cleared strip of Dawn’s pale yellow dress. A figure in blue was about fifty yards beyond her. He did not know who it was, or even which way she was going. All the Karpov sisters had been dressed in the same color, and without some reference object he could not estimate the girl’s height.

Grisel was past zenith, and beginning its long afternoon descent. It illuminated long ribbons of high cloud. Josh turned to Sig, who was examining the top of a thick stem from which the leaf was missing.

“I’m going back. Are you coming?”

“In a minute. Something funny about this.” Sig, his attention on the extreme upper end of the stem, gave a dismissive gesture. “You go on. I’ll follow”

Josh started, but when he came to the place where the leaves had not been cut off he found that he was in real trouble. After a few seconds he realized his problem. On the way up, he had been uncomfortably doubled over, but because the ground ahead was rising there was always more headroom in front of him. Stooping forward helped. On the way down, the situation was reversed. When he leaned forward, his head moved to a place where the top leaves were lower. He simply could not bend far enough to stoop under the leaf layer.

There was only one answer. He had to go down backward, doubled over as before but now stopping every couple of steps and turning to make sure that he was not on a collision course with one of the thick stems.

As he approached the cleared area by the stream, he became too eager. He went backward faster, without looking, and an umbrella tree trunk hit him on the side of his rear end. He twisted, lost his balance, and rolled the last few feet.

He had not come down the same route as he and Sig had used to ascend. When he sat up, rubbing a skinned elbow, he found that he was about forty yards upstream from the camp. Dawn was sitting cross-legged on the opposite bank of the stream. She had taken her shoes off and was dabbling her feet in the clear water. Sapphire, by her side, was staring up at the sky.

Josh walked across to them, trying to act as if his final downhill roll had been planned. “Find anything interesting?”

Dawn didn’t answer, or even look at him. That was normal enough—for Dawn. What was more surprising was Sapphire’s reaction. She frowned at Josh as though she had never seen him before in her life.

“Uh?” she said.

He recognized that dead-eye expression, wide and staring with irises unmoving. Not from Sapphire, but from some of his mother’s friends. This was the final stage, the surfacing after a long, hard hit.

“Sapphire!” He waded the stream, ignoring the sudden chill of the water, and snapped his fingers under her nose. “Come on Saph, come out of it. You’re back at the camp. Everything is fine.”

She did not speak, but her eyes rolled slowly downward from the sky until she was staring right at him. She smiled, as though everything was for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

“Oh, hell.” That wasn’t Sapphire. The voice came from behind Josh, and without turning he knew it was Topaz.

“Not that.” She advanced to his side. “I was hoping she didn’t have any more of it left.”

“I guess she does. I’ve been trying to bring her out of it, but she doesn’t seem to hear me.”

“You can’t—I’ve tried often enough. It just takes time. By the way, I found out that Amy knows, too. Now we’re trying to keep it from Ruby.” Topaz moved closer and put her thumb below Sapphire’s left eye, drawing down the skin there so she could see the exposed white. “She’s still zonked, but she is coming out of it. A minute or two more.”

“Sig Lasker knows, too.” Josh saw Topaz’s reproachful look. “No, I didn’t tell him. He recognized it for himself—he says she’s a classic case.”

“Maybe he’ll keep it to himself, then. I can imagine how Brewster would react. You didn’t let Ruby see any of this, did you?”

Before Josh could respond, Sapphire took a great shuddering breath and brought her hands up to cover her eyes. “I don’t feel good. Where am I?”

“You’re with us, Saph,” said Topaz. “You’re fine. Everything is fine. We’re all here. See, here comes Amy.”

Amethyst was paddling toward them along the stream, carrying her shoes. Sapphire watched her approach. “Good, good,” she said vaguely. “All here. Good.” She sighed and seemed to shrink in size.

“No.” Josh hated to say it, but he had to. “We don’t know where Ruby is. I didn’t see her when I got here. I haven’t seen her since you all went off along the stream.”

Topaz clutched at Josh’s arm, but when she spoke it was to her sister. “Saph! Where’s Ruby. She went with you and Dawn. Remember? Did she come back with yon?”

Sapphire frowned, as though someone had presented her with a difficult abstract puzzle. Then her eyes blinked wide. She stared at Topaz and Amethyst. “Where is Ruby?”

“Oh, no.” Topaz groaned. She turned to scan the banks of the stream. “If Saph left her behind… Ruby’s only ten. She’s smart, but she won’t have any idea how to get back. And it will be dark in a few hours. We have to find her.”

Josh nodded. He followed Topaz’s gaze along the reach of the stream, empty of all movement. Behind him, an odd mewing sound had begun. Sapphire, falling hard off her snap high, was weeping for her lost sister.

They tried to get direct answers from Dawn. Josh could have told them that was useless; then he decided, good luck to them. Maybe he was wrong, and anyway what they were trying could do no harm. He left Dawn with Amethyst, while Topaz went to tell Winnie Carlson. He headed in the opposite direction, walking Sapphire along the bank of the stream. Where the vegetation grew taller, eight feet high and more, he halted.

“Here?” He thought he could see a trail, faint marks in the undergrowth.

She nodded. The last time she had been on a snap high, he had not seen her when she came down from it. Now he knew why. She was gray-faced and shivering. Normally she must hide away until she felt better. This time she couldn’t. Guilt was driving her on.

“Where did you go next?” The trail was ambiguous, splitting into several possible routes. He led the way in about thirty feet, glad to be able to stand upright without bumping his head on the upper leaf canopy.

Sapphire followed. She hesitated, turning from side to side. Under the shade of the leaves it was already darker. A rustling sound above told them that the wind was rising, although under the canopy the air remained calm.

“I don’t know.” Sapphire’s head slumped forward, her chin resting on her chest. “I’m sorry, but I just don’t know. Everything looks the same and different at the same time.”

It wasn’t expressed clearly, but Josh knew what she meant. The jungle seemed different, because it was later in the day now and the sunlight sloped in at a different angle; but it also looked the same, because one group of umbrella plants was just like another. To be sure of finding your way out once you had gone deep inside, you would have to leave a trail on the ground or mark the stems of the umbrella plants.

There was no visible trail. The plants were untouched. Josh was turning to move back to the cleared stream bank when the question hit him.

“Sapphire, listen carefully. Did you mark a trail on your way in?”

“No.” She wouldn’t look at him, but she answered miserably, “I was high. I thought I knew what I was doing. But I didn’t really think at all.”

“That’s all right. But if you didn’t mark a trail on the way in, how did you find your way out?”

This time she stared at him. After a few seconds she shook her head. “I don’t know. I think we walked a long way in, but I don’t remember coming out at all. I guess we just turned around at some point, and went the other way.”

“Maybe. But maybe not. Come on.”

Josh turned and led the way back. The group on the edge of the stream had increased in size. Rick and Hag Lasker had returned from their explorations. They carried between them what looked like a bunch of purple grapes, except that each fruit was the size of an apple. Sig was there, too, still holding the giant severed leaf of the umbrella plant.

They were all watching Winnie Carlson, who was squatting on the ground next to Dawn and speaking to her softly. Her face was grim. The wind was picking up strength, and the sky to the west was dark. The ribbons of cloud had become fuller and lower.

Winnie stood up as Josh and Sapphire joined the group. “It’s no good. I don’t think I’m getting through. In fact, I’m sure I’m not.” Dawn stared at the woman and through her, with clear, innocent brown eyes, as Winnie went on, “Did you have any luck, Sapphire?”

There was no suggestion of blame in her voice, but Sapphire looked away and shook her head.

“She doesn’t remember,” Josh said. “Give us space, everybody. Keep quiet, and don’t get in the way.”

He reached out his hand to Dawn, and when she took it in hers he lifted her to her feet. The others backed away. No one said a word when he started to walk hand in hand with Dawn along the stream bank. They knew that he was her cousin. They believed that he understood her, and how she thought.

He and Dawn were approaching the place where he had seen the faint trail entering the forest. He went in confidently, as though he knew what he was doing. Once under the leaf canopy he kept hold of Dawn’s hand, but he let himself lag a half-step behind. She walked on. Topaz and Sig followed, gesturing the rest to stay near the stream. Josh decided that in the next two minutes he would be judged either a genius or a total idiot.

Dawn made a quarter turn and walked through a little clearing, over a patch of umbrella plants, and on past half a dozen lurid green ferns similar to the one that Josh had seen on the ridge. After that Josh saw no landmarks at all, though Dawn went on without hesitation. They walked up a small hill and down the other side. Then over another.

Josh was getting very edgy. He had been doing his best to note every change of direction, but it was easy to become confused. Grisel was hidden behind cloud, and with that and the dense cover of plant leaves, he no longer knew east from west.

What would Sig and Topaz say when they realized that he had no real idea what he was doing? It wasn’t something he wanted to hear.

Dawn paused, suddenly enough that Josh bumped into her. He grabbed her to keep their balance, said “Sorry,” and at once felt ridiculous. He was barging into Dawn in the middle of nowhere, then apologizing as if the situation were normal. They were lost, lost hopelessly.

And then Josh saw movement. Something gray and sleek and low was scurrying away through the stems ahead.

“Oh, no!” It was Ruby’s voice. She was sitting on the jungle floor on a pile of umbrella plant leaves. “Why did you make so much noise? You’ve scared it away!”