Hal Clement - Cycle of Fire

They reached the designated point ahead of the others, in spite of the extra time spent in the air. When the force finally arrived no further time was wasted in placing the ambush. That completed, there seemed nothing for Dar and Kruger to do but start exploring buildings.

“I don’t see what we’re likely to find that will be of much interest,” the boy remarked. “We’ve already been through most of the places around here. We should at least have picked a neighborhood we hadn’t explored so thoroughly.”

“Then I could not have been sure that it would lend itself to our ambush,” pointed out Dar. “I could go only by memory, you know.”

“I suppose that’s so. Well let’s go in here and see what’s to be seen.” Kruger led the way into a nearby structure and the routine they had developed earlier was repeated. As both had feared there was nothing new about the place above ground, and they both had a healthy dislike of the thought of going below.

And the hours passed. Every so often Dar Lang Ahn went back to the building in which the leader of the bowmen was concealed in order to discuss progress, but there was simply no progress to discuss. Kruger finally stated bluntly that the villagers or their Teachers must have outguessed them, and that the thing to do was take the whole group and proceed directly to the village. The thought, however, seemed to bother his companions seriously; it was not in accord with their instructions.

“We must wait for a time at least,” Ten Lee Bar, the leader of the group, insisted.

“But how much time do you have?” retorted Kruger. “It doesn’t matter so much to me, I suppose, though I’d like to be on the other side of the ocean before the last of your gliders is grounded for lack of pilots, but if you don’t get those books soon you never will and the electrical apparatus that your Teachers want will be a long, long time getting to them.”

The native looked uncomfortable.

“In a way, no doubt you are right. Still, if we fail because we did not follow the plan …” His voice trailed off for a moment, then he brightened. “I recall that you spoke of electrical equipment here in the city. Could you not use some of the time in obtaining samples of that? I will gladly help.” Kruger knew determination when he saw it, even in a nonhuman being. He shrugged.

“It’s your funeral. Come along and I’ll see what can be found.” He turned to the nearest building, Dar Lang Ahn and Ten Lee Bar following him, and led the way through the open entrance hall to one of the inner rooms. Like virtually every other room in the city it had the electric plugs, and with the natives watching, Kruger pried off the covering plates and exposed the connecting wires.

Dar Lang Ahn had heard his explanation before and did not pay as much attention through most of it, but toward the end even he was attracted. This was at the point where Kruger was explaining the need for two conductors and the results that would ensue if any easy path for the current was opened between them. This should have been strictly explanation, since no demonstration material was presumably around; unfortunately, when Ten Lee Bar brought wires together to see what the boy meant the strands of silver suddenly grew red hot, causing him to pull back his hand with a howl of surprised pain.

He was no more surprised than Nils Kruger. For several seconds the boy stared at the glowing wires; then he pried them apart with the insulating handle of his knife.

“Did you just feel heat, or something else?” Kruger asked sharply.

“I don’t know. If that was heat I can see why the books have warned us against it.” The bowman had his hand at his mouth in an amazingly human fashion.

Realizing he could get no information from a being who did not even know what a burn felt like, Kruger experimented. After drawing a few sparks with his knife blade he concluded that the voltage must be very low. Making sure he was on the dry stone floor — as dry as stone was ever likely to be in this atmosphere, that is — he then bridged the gap with two fingers. He was unable to feel any shock, though a final check with the knife blade showed that the circuit had not picked that moment to go dead.

The question now stared him in the face: did the city normally run on very low voltage and still have its generators going or was this the last trickle from some emergency storage system? And also, did the Teachers in the nearby village know about this and was that why they had a general prohibition on the city? Kruger had come to feel a unity with Dar Lang Ahn’s people, in spite of the hostility he felt toward their Teachers. If they would not move on their own initiative to obtain the information they needed Nils Kruger would make them! He turned abruptly to Ten Lee Bar.

“This changes matters. Dar Lang Ahn and I are going to that village; things need to be learned. You may come or not with your men, as you see fit.”

“But if you go what is the use of our waiting here?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea. Use your own judgment. We’re on our way.” Kruger started out of the building without even asking Dar if he was coming. Ten looked after them for a moment; then he, too, went outside and began to call his group from their hiding places. Looking back just once Kruger saw them starting after him; he smiled to himself but went on without comment.

The trail was easy to follow; they had been over it enough times before. Nothing occurred during the walk. No sign of animal or villager, either by sight or sound, could be detected. Even the clearing of the geysers was silent as they approached it. At the place where the trail forked, sending one branch to the point where they had always talked to the Teachers, Kruger turned toward the pool which had so nearly engulfed them in boiling water. A few moments later the whole party stood before the rock shelter which projected from one side of the rim.

Still the silence was broken only by the scrape of claws on the rock. After waiting for several minutes Kruger went boldly up to the shelter and began to examine it minutely for traces of an entrance. He started on the side toward the water, leaning over the rim to do so, since he had long since convinced himself that the door must be concealed there. However, he found no trace of any crack in the rock. Extending the search to the sides and front produced no better results.

The top was more fruitful. There were, here, a set of fine, almost invisible cracks outlining what might have been a square trapdoor, but the opening thus framed would barely have admitted Dar Lang Ahn himself. Never in the Universe could it have allowed the great body of one of the Teachers to pass. No doubt the books and fire-lighter had gone this way, but where the Teachers went was still a mystery.

Kruger extended the search for many yards around the pool, the rest of the group helping once they understood what he wanted and had overcome their nervousness at the sight of the steaming water. Numerous cracks were found, but all seemed to be random breaks produced by nature. An attempt to see through the small holes through which the Teachers had presumably looked out proved equally futile; none of them was more than a few inches deep. Kruger began to wonder whether the whole thing had not been a huge farce, a deliberate misdirection of attention. Perhaps the Teachers had been watching all the time from the edge of the forest, or some similar vantage point, while the conversations had been going on. In that case where were they now? Still no sign of villagers, still no sound of Teacher’s voice — Kruger suddenly felt uneasy.

The others had given up their search and come back to him for further orders as he stood thinking, but he did not stop to feel pleased at having usurped command of the expedition. “Let’s go on to the village,” he said abruptly, and led the way.