Saturn Rukh, page 21
“With Rod off, I’m in charge,” she said with a stern voice. “We’ll only take risks when we must. Rod is going to need us all to haul the reactor out, so we are all going down to back him up—together! Now leave those safety lines connected and get a move on!”
Seichi’s voice came over the radio link. “You are approaching the reactor. Although the reactor is unshielded, it has been off for some hours. It is safe to approach within fifty meters, but any closer and you will start to accumulate a perceptible radiation dose.”
The downward-sloping Hoytether finally reached the floor of the windpipe and they could now crawl faster because their knees and feet were less likely to slip off the lines and down through the large gaps in the Hoytether. When they reached Rod, they found him at a tattered section of tether, holding the two eyes at bay with his meta torch.
Sandra noticed that one eye had raised up its head and pulled back away from Rod, with its four extralarge front foreclaws folded to its body. “That must be the eye we met on topside,” she thought to herself. “We had it trained to keep its claws off humans.” The other eye, however, was still feinting an attack. It tried to reach toward Sandra, at the end of the crawling group of humans, but Pete quickly drove it away with a long flame from his meta torch. After foiling a few more feints at the humans and the tether, the humans soon had both eyes trained to stay off at a distance with their foreclaws folded.
“The first eye desisted from the attack on the tether right away,” said Sandra. “We trained it to keep its claws off humans up there, so it was easy to extend the training to keep it away from the tether. The other eye took longer to train. That probably indicates that each eye has a separate intelligence behind it.”
“A being with two brains,” said Dan, musing.
“I remember being told in grade school that the real big dinosaurs had many brains,” added Pete. “I always wondered which brain ran things.”
“For Christ’s sake, Pete,” said Rod, annoyed again. “You’re beginning to talk like a scientist instead of an engineer. We’ve got more important things to do now than discuss the number of brains needed to run this flying monster. Keep those eyes at bay while Seichi and I get the reactor free from the flexfans. Seichi? Is Tabby ready?”
“I have instructed the reactor mechbot to come to your position,” came Seichi’s voice over their radio link. “It should arrive shortly.” The mechbot soon appeared out of the darkness, its six clawed feet crawling nimbly along the primary lines of the Hoytether. Rod handed his meta torch to Tabby, who took it off down the Hoytether in one claw, its five remaining legs working just as effectively as six had done on the way up.
“What is Tabby going to do?” asked Sandra, a little puzzled. Her query was answered by a bright light as Tabby lit the meta torch and started to cut through the mechanical connections linking the flexfan system to the reactor complex.
“Careful!” warned Sandra. “You’re likely to burn the poor creature! All our training could go for naught!”
Her warning was augmented as the two eyes took notice of the distant light and started toward it. A quick blast of flame from Pete’s meta torch drove them back, but instead of staying motionless, the two eyes now wavered back and forth as if uncertain what to do next.
“I have the mechbot positioned so that any molten drops of metal fall on it, rather than the creature’s skin,” Seichi reassured her.
The Hoytether gave a jerk as the load on it lightened. A short time later they felt a shift in the slope of the floor of the windpipe.
“Feels like the rukh got rid of some excess weight,” said Rod in a pleased tone. Tabby soon reappeared and returned the meta torch to Rod.
“Now comes the hard part,” said Rod. “Pulling the reactor back out. Hope you’re all in good shape.”
Chastity and Pete had been active during the interval when Tabby was busy. They had restrung one of the braided climbing lines so that one end was hooked firmly on the upslope portion of the Hoytether, while all along its length were tied stirrup loops.
“Don’t try to lift using your arm muscles,” warned Rod as the five crewmembers spread themselves along the multi-looped line. “Just put your feet firmly into the stirrups, bend your legs, reach down to the nearest tether connection point and pull it up using your leg muscles.” They all reached down and grabbed adjacent connecting points on the Hoytether. “All together now ...pull!”
“It’s moving!” said Sandra excitedly, but her gloved fingers slipped and the shock of losing her support caused the others to also lose control. The reactor slipped back to the end of the tether with a jerk.
“This is going to be harder than I thought,” said Pete with concern. “We’ve got a half kilometer to go. All uphill.”
“We need to have some method of holding the load while we reset ourselves,” said Chastity. Soon the lower Hoytether segment they were pulling on had short segments of safety line attached to it. After each lift, the four larger crewmembers kept their legs stiffened to hold the half-meter gain they had made, while Sandra moved the hooks to consolidate that gain. They would then wait until the jet exhaust phase of the rukh’s breathing pattern had passed, so they didn’t have to fight wind drag as well as gravity, and then lift again for another gain of half a meter. After each ten meters, the multi-loop climbing line was reset higher up the Hoytether, and the crew took a sip of water or a nibble on an energy bar and started again.
“That’s the last of my water,” said Pete at a rest stop after they had progressed about another hundred meters. “I wish it had been filled with laser juice—calories as well as refreshment. As it is, I’m pooped.”
“I hate to admit it, but I am too,” said Dan.
“We can’t give up! Now that we’ve come this far!” said Chastity.
“I agree,” said Rod, emptying his water squeezer and putting his feet into the stirrup loops. “Okay, crew. Tote that barge.”
Groaning, they bent to their task. The first pull was successful, but on the second one, both Sandra and Dan slipped and the reactor fell back.
“I’m afraid it’s no use,” said Dan.
“Damn!” said Rod. “We’ll just have to tie it down here and go back to the ship and come back when we’re rested. Bringing more water and energy bars this time.”
“That isn’t going to work,” said Chastity, pointing to the two eyes still watching them from a distance. “As soon as we’re gone, those eyes are going to complete their tether-cutting job.”
“One of us will have to stay and keep them at bay with a meta torch,” said Rod.
“Perhaps we can have Seichi do the job by giving Tabby the meta torch,” suggested Pete.
“Neither one of those ideas is going to work,” said Chastity. “There are two eyes. They could attack the tether at two widely separated points and there would be no way to stop one or the other of them from sooner or later cutting the tether and dumping the reactor.”
“There’s got to be some way out of this mess,” said Rod, going silent as he went into his test-pilot-in-trouble mode. Chastity did the same. The others grew silent to let them think.
~ * ~
“What are the yellow vermin doing now?” asked Petro.
“They’re not moving. Must be resting,” Petra replied. “They have obviously been working very hard at pulling the heavy hot thing up Petru’s airtube.”
“It is amazing to see vermin cooperate like that,” said Petro. “Why don’t they cut the multitendril with their hot light and let the heavy thing slide out Petru’s jet? They got rid of the other heavy thing that way.”
“They must want to keep the heavy thing for some reason,” said Petra.
“Perhaps it is some sort of food,” suggested Petro.
“Your suggestion is probably correct,” said Petra. “But instead of food for them, perhaps it is food for their host. When I left the vermin, they were all inside the mouth of the heavy conical creature that is sitting in the middle of Petru’s back. Perhaps the vermin go out and drag in prey for the cone. The hard mouth of the cone can no doubt crush the hard shell of the heavy thing, and they all share in eating what is inside.”
“Food or not, the vermin are doing what we want them to do,” said Petro. “Getting the heavy hot thing out of Petru’s airtube before it becomes hot again and causes more pain.”
“They seem to be having trouble. Perhaps we should help them,” suggested Petra.
“How can we?” replied Petro. “We have already found that we could not pull the heavy thing up the airtube, even when we two pull together.”
“And the five vermin do not seem to be able to move the heavy thing,” said Petra. “Even when they all pull together.” She paused as she reconsidered the strange idea that was forming in her head. “Perhaps if we two helped pull, then all of us, working together, could remove the heavy thing from Petru’s airtube.”
“Help?” said Petro incredulously. “I can understand helping others of the flock, for they are family. But helping vermin?!”
“It will get the heavy thing out of Petru’s airtube,” Petra reminded him.
“Perhaps it is a good idea,” replied Petro, always a pragmatist “But how? Every time we come close to the multitendril they start their hot lights and threaten to hurt us.”
“They seem to be relatively intelligent—for vermin, that is,” said Petra. “And they do seem to understand the idea of mutual cooperation. Although we can’t talk to them, they do have that big bulbous eye at the front of their heads to see us with. Perhaps I can show them our intent by example.” She elongated her neck and stretched it out down the airtube, foreclaws reaching out like she was attempting to grasp something.
~ * ~
Sandra suddenly broke the enforced silence of the thinking group of humans. “Look! One of the eyes is doing something funny.”
“Doing what?” said Rod, coming out of his trance with his meta torch at the ready. As all their helmet lights focused on the two eyes, they could see that one of them was stretching its neck downwind, parallel to the Hoytether, but a good distance away from it. The neck then contracted, pulling the head back along the same path. It repeated the motion a number of times, each time reaching out with its foreclaws as if it were grasping something and pulling it back.
“What is it doing that for?” said Rod, bewildered. “Could it be some kind of trick? Keep a watch on the other eye—”
“Looks like it’s digging a ditch,” said Pete.
“Tote that barge... lift that bale…” murmured Dan in time to the motions of the eye, also puzzled.
“Haul that Hoytether!” said Sandra. “It’s making motions like it was pulling on the Hoytether. Like it wants to help us pull!”
“That sure makes sense,” said Dan. “I’m sure they want the reactor out of their body’s windpipe as much as we do.”
“How do you say yes in rukhese, Sandra?” asked Chastity.
“Perhaps this will do it,” said Rod. He stuffed the meta torch out of sight in a pouch on his backpack and raised both his hands to show they were empty. Pete did the same.
Watching him carefully, the eye that had been doing the hauling motion came closer to them and reached slowly for the segment of Hoytether below them. It touched one of the main strands, grasping it firmly without trying to cut it. The line was slightly slack since the load of the reactor was being carried on some of the adjacent primary lines that were anchored onto the multilooped pulling line. Chastity reached out to grab the same strand and pulled on it too. Together, human and alien felt each other pull... cooperating ... working together to bring the line taut... getting it ready for the next lift. The other eye joined with the first eye. The humans scrambled into position on the climbing line.
Now certain that they all agreed on what needed to be done, Rod, Chastity, Dan, Pete, and the two eyes pulled on the Hoytether. The reactor moved readily and Sandra scrambled to readjust the holding hooks for the pause between lifts.
At first the two eyes kept their necks far from the humans and the Hoytether. Only the foreclaws directly under the head actually touched the Hoytether lines, and then only when it was time for the next pull. But the necks found that they were pulling at an awkward angle, and as the effort went on, the smaller neck claws that extended from between each neck segment shifted their anchor positions on the airtube wall from one feather to the next, a feather more in line with the direction in which they were pulling. Then, some of the claws found a better purchase on the upper sections of Hoytether. Soon the humans found themselves practically engulfed in legs, as neck claws obtained purchase on the Hoytether lines all around them. The stronger, but only two-legged, humans and the weaker, but multilegged, alien heads soon jointly worked out a routine. The five humans and two eyes would climb the taut upper portions of the Hoytether for about ten meters, pulling the reactor with them, while the Hoytether piled up below them. Then, while four of the humans and the two eyes held their gain, Sandra got the limp section of tether out of the way and readjusted their climbing line, and they prepared for their next burst of effort.
To coordinate the effort, Rod took to yelling commands and encouragement. “Everybody ready? Everybody bend ... everybody PULL!” Soon his command of “Pull” was matched by a deep bass note that arose from deep within the air bladders of the giant body. Sandra noticed that although the body of the rukh could make sounds, the eyes were strangely silent. She had hoped that there would be an opportunity to speak more with these creatures (creature—she reminded herself—two eyes and two brains but only one body and one “individual”), but it was going to be difficult to hold a “conversation” with one of the eyes when it couldn’t speak.
With all of them working together, it didn’t take long to pull the reactor up the windpipe to the inside of the featherblade curtain, Tabby riding shotgun on the reactor itself. Rod had given his meta torch to Tabby, and any time one of the eyes tried to approach the reactor, Tabby warned it off. The humans didn’t need warning.
“Now what do we do?” said Chastity as they called a halt with the reactor still a hundred meters downhill and downwind. The slope of the windpipe had become shallower, and it was now possible for just two humans to haul the reactor along by pulling on the Hoytether attached to it. “We need to get the reactor up over the lip of the mouth. We can’t get near it, so we can’t push it over the edge, and we can’t pull on it, because the Hoytether goes up from here.” She pointed at the inflated keel of the giant bird. The prow of the keel stuck out ahead of the intake port of the mouth. “Looks like we need a few people to climb out to the end where they can anchor themselves and pull the reactor from there.” She didn’t sound very enthusiastic about the prospect. Pete gave a heavy sigh of weariness and sat down heavily in the floor of mouthfeathers. There was a long silence as everyone tried to think of some other option.
“We already have two of us anchored out there!” said Rod in a brightening tone. Holding on to the safety line connected high up on the hanging portion of the Hoytether, he waited until the breathing cycle of the rukh reached the point of minimum wind, and walked across the mouthfeathers to where the two eyes were watching them. As the tiny human approached the giant caterpillars, their bodies now contracted significantly in length, one of the giant ten-meter-diameter eyes bent down to Rod’s level. Rod bravely reached upward and grabbed the sharp claw at the end of one of the four large forearms. The eye, instead of pulling the claw away or using it to grab him, allowed the tiny creature to lead it by the claw. Rod brought the eye back to the section of the Hoytether where they had all been pulling, and made pulling motions toward the front of the mouth. He even went so far as to lean out over the downward-sloping lip of the mouth, held up solely by his grip on the Hoytether.
The two eyes started to pull on the Hoytether as he had shown them and the reactor actually moved a few meters, but suddenly they quit pulling, dropped the Hoytether, lifted their heads, and started contracting their inflatable neck segments.
“Shucks!” said Rod in disappointment. “I was sure they had got the idea. But instead of helping, they’re leaving.”
“As their neck segments contract, they sort of ‘back up’ their feet,” remarked Sandra bemused.
“Like a moving picture run backwards,” added Dan.
The humans watched as the multitude of legs underneath the contracting necks climbed the feathered keel and nestled into place in the notch-like “cradle” that just fit it. The last segments, however, didn’t settle down into their niche. Instead, they inflated again and lifted the eye up into the incoming wind. Small fins rose up from the head in back of each giant eye and the fins guided the eye back across the gap from the keel to the mouth, where the Hoytether and the reactor waited.
