The Lani People Page 18

  CHAPTER XVI

  "If you think this job is easy, you have another think coming," Kennonsaid bitterly. "I hired out as a veterinarian, not as a nursemaid fora bunch of psychoneurotic humans and superstitious Lani. The place isjinxed, they tell me.--Ha! Jinxed! Sure it's jinxed! What job wouldn'tbe with a bunch of goofballs like these I've got working on it.

  "I can't keep a Lani here for two weeks without having her throw acatfit, and the superstitious idiots are affecting the men--who ought toknow better! I wish I'd never have opened my big mouth to Alexander! Asfar as I'm concerned he can take this job and--"

  "Hey--take it easy, man!" Blalok said. "You're heading straight for anervous breakdown."

  "And why shouldn't I?" Kennon asked. "Nothing goes right. There's alwaystrouble. I order materials--they don't arrive. There's worker trouble,equipment trouble, installation trouble. Everybody's cutting corners,trying to get done faster and away sooner--and all they do is mess upwork that should have been done right the first time. We should havebeen finished last week, but we have another week to go, at least unlesssome bumble-fingered beanbrain gets another bright idea that sets usback again. I'm sick to death of it!"

  "I know, I know," Blalok said soothingly, "and I'm sorry."

  "Sorry? What good is that? You and Jordan come up here in relays. Justwhat do you think you'll find? Or has Alexander dragged you into keepingan eye on me because I don't like someone snooping inside my skull?"

  "It's not that," Blalok said. "It's just--"

  "Oh, don't make excuses. You know and I know the Boss-man issuspicious." Kennon shrugged. "Normally I wouldn't blame him but it'sa damned nuisance with things the way they are. All we have is one morebay and a hall to finish--but if--"

  "Now wait a minute," Blalok said. "Get the kink out of your neck andsimmer down. Sure--the Boss-man told us to keep an eye on you--butthat's not why I'm here this time."

  "Well?"

  "Douglas came back this morning."

  "What for?"

  "I don't know." Blalok's face wore the noncommittal look it always worewhen he was taking liberties with the truth.

  "You're probably the worst liar in the galaxy," Kennon chuckled. "He'shere to breathe down my neck, isn't he?"

  Blalok nodded.

  "Keep him off my back for another week and he can breathe all he wantsto. I'll be done then."

  "I can't promise a thing."

  Kennon shrugged. "It's too much to ask, I guess."

  "But I can try," Blalok added.

  "That's enough for me." Kennon grinned. "Has he turned Alexandria into ashambles yet?"

  "Not yet, but everyone's uneasy."

  "I can't blame them. That young fellow's undiluted poison. By the way,how does he look?"

  "About the same."

  "The medics must have done a good job," Kennon said.

  "The Boss-man shipped him to Beta for treatment," Blalok said. "Hedidn't trust the docs out here."

  "That figures. At any rate Douglas couldn't have gone to a betterplace."

  "What happened to him?"

  "He stuck his nose where he shouldn't," Kennon said pointedly.

  Blalok stiffened.

  "I'm sorry, Evald. Even if you knew, I couldn't talk about it. What Iknow about Douglas is classified!"

  "Well--Douglas is doing plenty of talking. Claims his stay in thehospital was all your fault."

  Kennon shrugged. "That's his opinion. And as long as he stays out of myway he's welcome to it."

  Blalok looked at Kennon's haggard face with mild concern, "Doc," hesaid, "you'd better take it easy. You're going to pieces."

  "I'll be through here in another week, I'll have this all wrapped up."

  "Providing you're not wrapped up first."

  "Eh?"

  "In a shroud. You look like a walking corpse."

  Kennon chuckled wearily. "Sometimes I feel like one. But I'd like to getthis job finished."

  "Well, I'll do what I can," Blalok said. "I'll try to keep him down atAlexandria for a few days."

  "It'll be enough," Kennon said. More than enough--he added mentally.The coils of fuel wire were ready to load, and the power slugs for theship's reactor were already stored in the power plant building here atOlympus. Three more days and the old spacer would be as ready to fly asshe would ever be. And after that, it was in the lap of fate.

  He ushered Blalok to his jeep and watched until he disappeared.

  "I'm getting to be a first-class liar," he remarked wryly to himselfas he turned back to the temporary quarters he was occupying at thestation. "And the bad thing about it is that I'm actually enjoying it."

  A few weeks ago an admission like that would have been inconceivable.It was odd, he thought, how one thing led to another and produced anend that could not be foreseen. Now he could lie and dissemble with thebest. He had no compunction about falsifying a requisition, or stealingwhat he could not obtain with apparent honesty. His character had sunkto an all-time low, he reflected with grim humor as he walked into theshadow of the main building. Neither Blalok's nor Jordan's frequentvisits bothered him. Both men were creatures of habit and both weremarried. They stayed home at night--and it was nighttime that he workedon the spacer. The project afforded him a perfect cover and it was onlyminutes by jeep away from the crater.

  Even so, the double duty was an appalling task. And it would have beenimpossible if it wasn't for Copper. Her quick fingers, keen eyesight,and uncanny memory made the work seem simple, and neither thetediousness of repairing miles of circuitry nor the depressingenvironment of Olympus Station seemed to bother her. While he workedwith the men on the project she restored and reassembled circuits inhis quarters and at night they replaced them in the old ship. And theGod-Egg was rapidly becoming operational.

  Kennon wondered what it was about Copper that made her so different fromthe rest. Olympus didn't bother her at all. In fact she seemed to thriveon the depressing atmosphere that filled the Station. Perhaps it wasbecause she had violated the tabu about the God-Egg so often thatordinary superstition had no effect upon her. He shrugged. He hadtroubles enough without worrying about Copper's motivations, and not theleast of these was taking the God-Egg into space.

  Kennon looked forward to blast-off with distinct misgivings. There wastoo much about the ancient spacer that was strange--and too much thatwas terrifying.

  Basically the ship was an ion-jet job with atomic primaries and aspindizzy converter that might possibly take her up as high as middleyellow Cth--far enough to give her a good turn of speed, but not enoughto compensate for timelag. Her screens were monstrosities, doublepolyphase lattices that looked about as spacetight as so many sieves.There were no acceleration dampers, no temporal compensators, noautopilot, no four-space computer, and the primaries operated on nuclearrather than binding energy. The control chairs weren't equipped withforcefields, but instead had incredibly primitive safety webs that heldone in place by sheer tensile strength. Taking a ship like that intospace was an open invitation to suicide. A man needed a combination offoolhardy bravery and incredible fatalism to blast off in a can likethis. He had the stimulus, but the knowledge of what he would facetroubled him more than he cared to admit. More and more, as heunderstood the ship, he was amazed at the courage of the ancients whohad blithely leaped into hyperspace in these flying coffins with no moremotivation than to see what was beyond the nearest star. And in shipsmore primitive than this men had swept through the star systems nearestEarth in the outward expansion of the First Millennium.

  He sighed. The breed of man must have been tough in the old days--andhe'd soon be finding out if any of that ancient toughness remained.

  He opened the door to his quarters.

  Copper was sitting in his favorite chair, a pile of completed assembliesneatly stacked beside her, and a disorderly file of crumpled cloth ather feet. Her face was sullen as she looked up at him. "I've had aboutall of this I'm going to take," she said mutinously as she stirred theheap of cloth with a bare foot. "Not ev
en you are going to make me wearthose--things!"

  Kennon sighed. It was the same old story. For months he had been tryingpatiently to indoctrinate Copper with a minimum of civilized habits, butshe was quite literally a savage. In her entire lifetime she had neverworn clothing, and to encase her body in hose, kilts, blouse, andsandals was a form of torture. She scratched, wiggled, and twisted atthe garments until she looked as bad as she felt, and would usuallyfinish a session by tearing off the offending clothes and sulking. Shewas doing it now.

  "You must act like a civilized human being," Kennon said mildly. "You'resimply going to have to learn to wear these clothes properly."

  "Why? I'm more comfortable as I am."

  "That's not the point. You are going to be living in human society andyou must act human. The only planet where you could get away with nudityis Santos, and we're not going there."

  "Why not?"

  "I've explained it time and again. We'll have to go to Beta. That's theonly place I know where you'll have a fair hearing. And on Beta peoplewear clothes. They have to. It's cold, even in summer, and in thewintertime, there's snow."

  "What's snow?"

  "Ice crystals that fall like rain, but I've told you this before."

  "And I still don't believe it."

  "Believe it or not you're going to wear those things. Now put them on!"

  She looked at him with mutiny on her face. "All right, slave driver,"she muttered as she picked up the clothing, "but I hope you'll itchsomeday and be unable to scratch."

  "And try to wear those garments more gracefully. You make them look likea sack."

  "They feel like one. I keep thinking that all I need is a tag around myneck."

  "You haven't much time to get used to them," Kennon said. "We're leavingthis week."

  "So soon?"

  "Yes--and you'll wear those things to the ship, into the ship, and allthe time we're on the ship. You'll keep wearing clothing until it looksright."

  "Slave driver!" Copper hissed.

  "Slave," Kennon answered equably.

  Copper giggled. The sound was utterly unexpected, and completelyincongruous. That was the wonder of her, Kennon reflected. Her mercurialtemperament made life something that was continually exciting She was anever-ending delight.