Anne McCaffrey - Dinosaur Planet

“Were mauled about, but no more. Worse for the psyche and the body. One doesn't wish that sort of treatment for anyone. . .” Lunzie grimaced.

“I'm more concerned about their reaction towards Kai and myself when we seemed not to defend or protect them . . .”

Lunzie smiled. "They understand that! I know Cleiti's parents are Disciples and I suspect Terilla's mother is. What they can't understand is the heavy-worlders" metamorphosis into brutal, cruel temperaments." Lunzie sighed. "All in all, I think we comported ourselves rather well, considering the odds against us and the unexpectedness of that mutiny."

Suddenly her body sagged and she sighed again, with relief.

“I'm off,” she said, fumbling with shaking hands for the sedative gun. “Are you two ready for it?”

“Leave it,” said Kai. “We can do ourselves.”

Triv offered his arm to the physician. “I'm off it, too, Lunzie.” The release of Discipline was obvious in the grey that seeped into his complexion. He was nearly asleep before Lunzie had fully administered the drug. “I'll wake first,” he mumbled, and his head dropped to one side.

Lunzie snorted as she turned the spray on herself. “Not if I beat you to it, my friend. That's the marvel of Discipline, or is it the bane, working even when you don't want it to.” She exhaled raggedly and closed her eyes. “you've done well, leaders! You can rest easy on that score. Never met a . . bet . . . ter . . .”

Varian chuckled. “You might know Lunzie would leave a compliment unspoken.” She kept her voice low though not even a repeat stampede would have wakened the physician or the other sleepers. “Kai? Will Tor respond?”

“He's more likely to than any other Thek.”

“When?”

Discipline must be leaving her, Kai thought, hearing the anxiety in her roughened voice. He took her good hand in his and carried it to his lips. She smiled, despite her worry, at the caress.

“I'd say it will be a week before he could possibly arrive. I think we can hold them together that long, don't you?”

“After today, yes, I think we can. But, Kai, they don't know we've no contact with EV Thek help is grand but pretty poor consolation because it's debatable.”

“I know. It is, however, contact.” He felt Discipline leaving him, felt the massive fatigue, like an intolerable weight, press down on his abused body. Muhlah, but he'd be almighty stiff when he woke.

“Are you released, Kai? You look it.”

He laughed softly, noting the drain of colour from her face. He lifted the spray gun.

"Wait." She raised herself on her good elbow and kissed him on the lips, a gentle kiss but nonetheless an accolade. I don't want to fall asleep kissing you."

“I appreciate that consideration,” he said. And gave her a quick, affectionate kiss, pressing the spray against her arm, and then his own. He arranged his limbs and just had time to curl his fingers about hers before sleep overtook him.

Kai was not the only stiff one when they finally woke. And Lunzie had roused before Triv, which put her in a good mood. Trizein was improving, she told the leaders as she handed them each beakers of a steaming nutritious broth. Her own special recipe, she said, guaranteed to circulate blood through abused muscles and restore tissue to normal.

“You'll need to be limber. We've got to have more for the synthesizer to masticate or I won't have enough of my brew to revive the others.”

Kai sipped carefully of the hot liquid. Lunzie had not misrepresented its effectiveness. As the warmth descended to his stomach, he could almost feel the loosening of his stiff muscles. He did have to apply slight Disciplinary controls to reduce the ache in his wrist.

“How long did we sleep?”

"I'd say we made it around the chrono and half again?" Lunzie said, glancing at her wrist bracelet. I know we didn't sleep a mere twelve hours or I've lost my knack at pulling sedatives into a sprayer. Which I haven't."

“How long before the others rouse?” asked Triv, who was now awake.

“I'd say we have another clear hour or so before the dead arise.”

“A little recon?” Triv asked the two leaders.

“Just remember,” said Lunzie at her driest, “you've none of your force-belts anymore. Don't fall.”

From reflex action, Kai found himself reaching for the stun locker door and saw its open, empty shelves.

“Yes, indeed,” said Varian with a wry laugh, “the cupboard is bare.”

“And all we've got is bare hands . . .”

“One a piece,” said Varian with a second laugh,

“Remember, you won't be able to use full Discipline today?” Lunzie cautioned. “I trust the need will not arise.”

“I doubt it. The giffs aren't aggressive,” said Varian, settling her hand comfortably against her body before stepping through the iris. “Another reason why this is a perfect hideaway.”

A scant few minutes later, as they peered past the mouth of their retreat, she revised her statement.

“Well, there are a few drawbacks.” She squinted down at the waves beating against the foot of their twenty metre high cliff. To either side was an expanse of sheer rock. The line Triv had secured from the terrace flapped in the light breeze. Looking up, Varian could see the giffs flying. “At least There's nothing but giffs airborne,” she added with an exaggerated sigh of relief.

“And nothing for the synthesizer either,” said Kai, trying to recall exactly what lay beyond the terrace and the rock-shelf on which the giffs dropped their catch.

Triv had gone to the rear of the cavern and came back now, a sheaf of dried grasses in each hand. “There's lots more of this, dried, but they'll provide some substance for the synthesizer.”

“There's forest beyond the cliffs,” said Varian, thoughtfully, frowning as she concentrated. “Blast but we rely too much on tapes and not enough on our own recall?”

“C'mon, don't fuss yourself, Varian. We'll collect grasses at least. Triv, how are you at climbing up ropes?”

“I'll learn but I suspect it's the sort of thing Bonnard will do extremely well,” he said with a grin, testing the rope and then peering up its length, his expression dubious.

Lunzie was not pleased with the grasses. Fresh they'd have been perfect but there was no telling how long they'd been lying about the cavern. Couldn't they get some fresh green – even tree tops?

Tree tops were about all they could reach, Triv informed the leaders when he and the youngsters had returned from their foraging. There was a tantalizing view of fruiting trees beyond a narrow but impassable canyon which separated the main cliffs from the forest beyond. At least from the terrace level which was, at the moment, all they could reach.

“The giffs watched us,” Bonnard told Varian and Kai, “just like they did that rest day. Just watched.”

“And I watched the skies for anything else,” said Terilla, a curiously bitter note to her soft voice and an unsettling hardness to her face.

“Them?” Bonnard dismissed the heavy-worlders with a fine scorn. “They're still thinking we've all been smashed flat in the dome!”

There was, the two leaders noted with wry approval, a decided smugness about Bonnard to which he was, in fact, entitled. He, alone, had managed to evade and discommode the heavy-worlders, despite their physical superiority.

“Let us devoutly hope that they continue in that delusion for a few more days,” said Kai. “Until Tor has a chance to arrive. Can you manage another trip today?” he asked, eyeing the pile of fresh greens and estimating the finished, synthesized result.

Triv's answer was to turn back to the rope and begin the ascent, the others queuing to follow him.