The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall (31 page)

At 0835, when Benden left the galley and proceeded to the Hold, he found Kimmer and the women in the main room, none of them looking too happy.

“We’ve done the calculations, Kimmer, and we can allow each of you, the children included, twenty-three-point-five kilos of personal effects. That’s what Fleet personnel are generally allowed to bring on voyages, and I can’t see Captain Fargoe objecting to it.”

“Twenty-three-point-five kilos is quite generous, Lieutenant,” Kimmer surprised Benden by saying. He turned to the women chidingly. “That’s more than we had coming out on the
Yoko
.”

“And,” Benden said, turning to Faith, “that wouldn’t include medicinal products and respective seeds to a similar limit. Lieutenant Ni Morgana is of the opinion that they could well be valuable commodities.”

“For which we’d be reimbursed?” Kimmer asked sharply.

“Of course,” Benden said, keeping his voice even. “We have to allow for the weight of padding and harness to keep you secure during our drop into the primary’s gravity well.”

Charity and Hope emitted nervous squeaks.

“Nothing to worry yourself over, ladies,” Benden went on with a reassuring smile. “We use gravity wells all the time as a quick way to break out of a system.”

“Be damned grateful we’re getting off this frigging forsaken mudball,” Kimmer said angrily, rising to his feet. “Go on, now, sort out what you’ve got to bring but keep it to the weight limit. Hear me?”

The women removed themselves, with Faith casting one last despairing glance over her shoulder at her father. Benden wondered why he had thought any of them graceful. They waddled in a most ungainly fashion.

“You’ve been extremely generous, Lieutenant,” Kimmer said affably as he settled himself again in the high-backed carved chair that he usually occupied at the table. “I thought we’d be lucky enough to get off with what we have on our backs.”

“Are you absolutely positive that there are no other survivors on Pern?” Benden asked, favoring a direct attack. “Others could have carved holds out of cliffs and remained secure from that airborne menace of yours.”

“Yes, they could have, but for one thing, there aren’t any cave systems here on the southern continent. And I’ll tell you why I think the rest perished after I lost the last radio contact with those at Drake’s Lake and Dorado. In those days I was more confident of rescue and I’d enough power left in my sled to make one more trip back to Bitkim Island, where I’d mined some good emeralds.” He paused, leaning forward, elbows on the table and shaking one finger at Benden. “And black diamonds.”

“
Black
diamonds?” Benden exclaimed, doing what he considered an admirable job of faking amazement.

“Black diamonds, a whole beachful of them. That’s what I intend to bring back.”

“Twenty-three-point-five kilos of them?”

“And a few pieces of turquoise that I found.”

“Really?”

“When I’d enough of a load of stones, I went into a natural cavern on Bitkim’s southeast side. Big enough to anchor ships in, if you stepped the mast. And it was there.”

“Pardon?”

“Jim Tillek’s ship was there, mast and all, holes and grooves where Thread had scored it time and again.”

“Jim Tillek?”

“The admiral’s right hand. And a man who loved that ship. Loved it like other men love women—or Fussy Fusi loved flying.” Kimmer allowed his malice to show briefly. “But I’m telling you, Jim Tillek wouldn’t have left that ship, not to gather dust and algae on her hull, if he was alive somewhere on Pern. And that ship had been anchored there three or four years. That’s one very good reason why I know no one was left alive.

“Did you find any sign of human occupation,” Kimmer went on, his voice less intense, his eyes glittering almost mockingly, “when you spiraled down across the northern hemisphere?”

“No, neither on infra or power-use detection,” Benden had to admit.

Kimmer spread both arms wide then. “You know there’s no one there, then. No need to waste your reserves of fuel to find ’em. We’re the last alive on Pern and, I’ll tell you this, it’s no planet for mankind.”

“I’m sure the Colonial Authority will want a full report from you when we return to base, Kimmer. I shall certainly log in my findings.”

“Then do mankind a favor, Lieutenant, and tag this disaster of a world as uninhabitable!”

“That’s not for me to say.”

Kimmer snorted and sat back in his chair.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must join Lieutenant Ni Morgana on her scientific survey. There are sufficient liftbelts, if you’d like to come along.”

“No, thank you, Lieutenant.” Kimmer flicked his hand in dismissal of such activity. “I’ve seen about as much of this planet as I have any wish to.”

Benden was just strapping on his liftbelt when Kimmer erupted from the Hold, the whites of his eyes showing in his agitation.

“Lieutenant!” he cried, running toward the small party.

Benden held up a warning hand as one of the marines beside him moved to intercept the man.

“Lieutenant, what power do you use for the belts? What power?” Kimmer cried excitedly as he approached.

“Pack power, of course,” Benden replied.

“Regulation packs?” And, without apology, Kimmer grabbed the lieutenant by the shoulder and swung him round, just as the marine took hold of the old man’s arm.

“As you were!” Ross Benden barked at the marine, but with a nod to reassure him, because he understood what Kimmer, in his excitement, did not explain. “Yes, the standard power packs, and we have enough to reactivate that sled of yours, if it’s in any reasonable working order.”

“It is, Lieutenant, it is!” Kimmer reassured him, his agitation replaced by immense satisfaction. “So you’ll be able to eyeball the remains of the colony and report honestly to your captain that you followed your orders, Mister
Benden,
as assiduously as your noble relative would have done.” Ross grimaced, but his relation to the admiral would have become public sooner or later. “I thought you looked familiar,” Kimmer added smugly.

Benden took Ni Morgana aside for a quick conference, and she concurred that it was Benden’s first obligation to search as far as he was able for survivors. She was quite willing to conduct her own scientific research with Shensu as her guide and two marines as assistants. So she wished the lieutenant good luck and lifted gracefully off the plateau, floating down in the direction of the nearest evidence of Thread, some ten klicks down the valley on the other side of the river.

That matter settled, Kimmer began to pluck at Benden’s sleeve in his urgency and hurried him, Nev following, back into the Hold. Maps were still spread out on the table from the previous evening.

“I searched east as far as Landing and Cardiff,” Kimmer said, prodding one map with an arthritic index finger. He dragged the finger back and down along to the Jordan River. “Those stakes were all empty—and Thread-ridden, though Calusa, Ted Tubberman’s old place, wasn’t.” Kimmer frowned a moment, then shrugged off that enigma, moving his finger up to the coastline and west. “Paradise River must have been used as some kind of staging area, because there were netted containers in the overgrowth along the shore but the buildings were all boarded up. Malay, too, and Boca.” He stabbed at those points on the map. “I went north from Boca to Bitkim, but I confess that I didn’t stop at Thessaly or Roma, where they had well-built stone houses and barns. And I didn’t get any farther west. The gauge on the power pack was jiggling too much for me to risk getting stranded.”

“So there could be survivors to the west . . .” Benden pored over the map, feeling a surge of excitement and hope. Then he wondered why Kimmer was willing to take such a risk: that enough survivors might be found for the colony to be left to work out its parochial problems. Maybe the prospect of leaving so much behind, including being the default owner of a planet, was giving Kimmer second thoughts. If fifty years of his life’s endeavors were going to be crammed into a 23.5-kilo sack, living out the remainder of his life in the comforts he had achieved might indeed hold more charm for the old man than an uncertain, and possibly pauper’s, existence in a linear warren.

“There could indeed be stakeholders there, but why haven’t they attempted any contact?” Kimmer asked defiantly, and his eyes quickly concealed a flicker of something else. “I got the last communication from the west, but that could have been for any number of reasons. Now, if you’ve got a portable unit that we could bring with us, maybe closer to one of the western stakes, we might rouse someone.”

“Let’s see this sled of yours.” Benden didn’t mention that they had opened the broadest range of communications on their inbound spiral with not so much as a flicker on any frequency.

Kimmer led them to the locked door, opened it, and proceeded down to the next level, which proved to be a hangar with wide double doors at one end opening out on the wide terrace below the Hold entrance plateau. The sled occupied the center of the considerable floor space; Kenjo’s little atmosphere underwing craft was not quite hidden in the back. But Benden’s attention was all for the sled, which was cocooned in the usual durable thin plastic film. Kimmer energetically punctured the covering, and all four men helped peel the sled free as Kimmer enumerated his exact shutdown precautions. Although the plascanopy was somewhat darkened with age and the tracks of Thread hits, when Benden touched the release button, the door slid back as easily as if it had been opened the day before.

This was a much older model than those Benden was used to, so he did a thorough inspection; but the fabric of the sturdy vessel was undamaged. The control panel was one he recognized from text tapes. When he depressed the power toggle, the gauge above it fluttered and then dropped back to zero. He walked aft to the power locker, flipped up the latches on the power trunk, and lifted the big unit out to examine the leads. Liftbelts used much smaller packs, but he could see no difficulty in making a multiple connection of smaller units to supply power. Moving forward again—Kimmer stepped out of his way, exuding a palpable excitement—Benden tested the steering yoke. It moved easily in his grip.

“We’ll just make a linkup and see how she answers to power. Ensign Nev, take Kimo and Jiro and break out twelve belt packs, and the portable comunit. We’re going to take a little ride.”

An hour later, the old sled drifted under its own power to the narrow lower terrace.

When Benden returned to the
Erica
for rations and a bedroll, an earnest and anxious Nev accosted him, wanting to join the expedition.

“You don’t know what that old man might try, Lieutenant. And I don’t trust him.”

“Listen up,” Benden said in a low and forceful tone that stopped Nev’s babbling. “I’m not half as worried about my safety as I am about the
Erica’s.
Kimmer goes with me. I don’t trust him either. I’ll take Jiro along, as well. And Sergeant Greene. Neither of them could get through Greene to me. You’ll only have Kimo to worry about, and he strikes me as too placid to do anything on his own. Shensu is a proven ally. Present my compliments to Lieutenant Ni Morgana when she returns and relay this order: Either you or the lieutenant are to be on the
Erica
at all times. Also, the marines are to stand proper watches until I return. Have I made that clear?”

“Aye, aye, sir, Lieutenant Benden. Loud and clear, sir.” Nev’s teeth were almost chattering with his assurances, and his eyes were wide.

“I’ll report in at intervals, so break out handunits for yourself and Vartry.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

“We’ll be back in two days.” Ross ordered Greene to collect supplies and carry them to the sled.

“If you will pardon me, Lieutenant,” Kimmer said unctuously as he and Jiro entered the craft, “I think we can easily reach Karachi Camp today, stopping at Suweto and Yukon on the way. Karachi is a real possibility because, now that Thread is gone, they’d want to activate the mines.”

Surprising himself, Benden gestured with an open hand to the pilot’s seat. “You have the conn, Mr. Kimmer.” It was as good a way as any to see just how competent the old man had been: if he had actually done what he’d said he’d done. “After all, you’re more familiar with this model sled than I am, and you know where we’re going.” It would also be easier to keep the old man occupied.

So Benden seated himself behind Kimmer while the sergeant, giving his officer only a mildly reproachful look, took the seat next to Jiro on the starboard side.

The old sled purred along as if delighted by its release from long imprisonment. It answered the yoke with the smoothness of a well-maintained vehicle as Kimmer swung it to port. Kimmer wasn’t all bad, Benden thought to himself, and wondered again why the old man had insisted on this search. Was it really to prove to Benden that his folk were the only ones left? Or had Kimmer some ulterior motive? And would Kimmer be surprised if they did find anyone? After overflying the snowy waste of the northern continent and the devastation of the southern lands, Benden could only be surprised that anyone had survived. It was certainly most unlikely that his uncle, who’d be well into his twelfth decade, would still be alive.

They came down from the foothills across the river, obliquely to port of Ni Morgana and her group, and then across a lifeless plain of circles in the dust. There were spots here and there of struggling plant life, and Benden wondered if the wind would scatter the topsoil before vegetation could reestablish itself and prevent further erosion. And that was the pattern for the next few hours: broad uneven-edged ribbons, about fifty klicks across of ravaged land, then broader belts of grassland or forest, even thick vegetation that was neither shrub nor jungle, with the glint of hidden water in rivers and ponds.

The old sled purred along at about 220 klicks per hour. Benden broke out rations and passed them around. Kimmer altered the course and, over the sloping nose of the sled, a large and brilliantly blue lake could be seen. As they neared it and Kimmer obligingly skimmed low, they saw the vegetation-crowned mounds that indicated the ruins of a considerable settlement.