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."A straight ram course," Hume muttered, more to himself than Vye.Again the flyer drove forward in a rising thrust of speed.Then the smooth purr of the propulsion unit faltered, broke into protestingcoughs.Hume worked over the controls, beads of sweat showing on his forehead and cheek in the gleam of the cabin light."Deading--deading out!"He brought the flitter around in a wide circle, the purr smoothed out once more in a steady reassuring beat."Out run them!"But Vye feared they were back again on the losing side of a struggle with the unknown alien power.As they had been herded along theriver, so now they were being pushed across the sky, towards the mountains.The enemy had followed them aloft!Some core of stubborn will in Hume would not yet allow him to admit that.Time and time again he climbed higher--always to meetclimbing, twisting, spurting lines of lights which reacted on the engine of the flitter and threatened it with complete failure.Where they were now in relation to Wass' camp or that of the safari, Vye had no idea, and he guessed that Hume could not be toocertain.Hume switched on the flitter's com unit, tried a channel search until he picked up a click of signal--the automatic reply of the safaricamp.His fingertip beat out in return the danger warning, then the series of code sounds to give an edited version of what must beguarded against."Wass has a man in your camp.His skin is in just as much danger as the rest.He may not relay it to the Patrol, but he'll keep the forcebarrier up and the civs inside--anything else would be malicious neglect and a murder charge when the Guild check tape goes in.Thiscall is on the spacer tape now and will be a part of that--he can't possibly alter such a report and he knows it.This is the best we cando now--""We're close to the mountains, aren't we?""Do you know much about this part of the country?" Vye persisted.Hume's knowledge might be their only hope."Flew over the range twice.Nothing to see.""But there has to be something there.""If there is, it didn't show up during our survey." Hume's voice was dull with fatigue."You're a Guild man, you've dealt with alien life forms before--"Star Hunter 29/55Star Hunter"The Guild doesn't deal with intelligent aliens.That's X-Tee Patrol business.We don't land on any planet with unknown intelligentlife forms.Why should we court trouble--couldn't run a safari in under those conditions.X-Tee certified Jumala as a wild world, oursurvey confirmed that.""Someone or something landed here after you left?""I don't believe so.This is too well organized an action.And since we have a satellite guard in space, any ship landing would be tapedand recorded.No such record appeared on the Guild screens.One small spacer--such as Wass'--could slip through by knowingprocedure--just as he did.But to land all those beasts and equipment they'd need a regular transport.No--this must be native." Humeleaned forward again, flipped a switch.A small red light answered on the central board."Radar warn-off," he explained.So they wouldn't end up smeared against some cliff face anyway.Which was only small comfort amid terrifying possibilities.Hume had taken the precaution just in time.The light blinked faster, and the speed of the flyer was checked as the automatic controltriggered by the warn-off came into command.Hume's hands were still on the board, but a system of relays put safety devices intoaction with a speed past that which a human pilot could initiate.They were descending and had to accept that, since the warn-off, operating for the sake of the passengers, had ruled that move best.The directive would glide the flitter to the best available landing.It was only moments before the shock gear did touch surface.Thenthe engine was silent."This is it," Hume observed."What do we do now?" Vye wanted to know."Wait--""Wait! For what?"Hume consulted his planet-time watch in the light of the cabin."We have about an hour until dawn--if dawn arrives here at the same time it does in the plains.I don't propose to go out blindly in thedark."Which made sense.Except that to sit here, quietly, in their cramped quarters, not knowing what might be waiting outside, was anordeal Vye found increasingly harder to bear.Maybe Hume guessed his discomfort, maybe he was following routine procedure.But heturned, thumbed open one of the side panels in Vye's compartment, and dug out the emergency supplies.9They sorted the crash rations into small packs.A blanket of the water-resistant, feather-heavy Ozakian spider silk was cut into aprotective covering for Vye.That piece of tailoring occupied them until the graying sky permitted them a full picture of the pocket inwhich the flitter had landed.The dark foliage of the mountain growth was broken here by a ledge of dark-blue stone on which theflyer rested.To the right was a sheer drop, and a land slip had cut away the ledge itself a few feet behind the flitter.There was only a steadilynarrowing path ahead, slanting upward [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]