THE CARM WAS LIKE NOTHING ELSE IN THE UNIVERSE. IT WAS all right angles, inside and out; all plastic and metals, unliving starstuff.
The white light that glowed from the dorsal wall was neither Voylight nor sunlight. Weirder lights crawled across the control panel and the bow window itself The carm was mobile, where London Tree moved only with the help of the carm. If London Tree was a living thing inhabited by other living things, then Lawri saw the cam' as a different form of life.
The carm was a mighty servant. It served Kiance the Scientist, and Lawri. Sometimes it went away into the sky with Navy men as its masters. This time it carried Lawri too.
It grated on her nerves that she was not the carm's master here.
Seen through the picture-window bow, the jungle was green, dotted with every color of the rainbow-including overlaid scarlet dots that were heat sources. The Navy pilot pushed the talk button and said, "Let go."
Several breaths went by before Lawri heard, "We're loose."
The pilot touched attitude jet keys. A tide pulled Lawri forward against her straps. Warriors had been clinging to nets outside the hull.
Now they swept into view of the bow window as the cam' decelerated.
A cloud of sky-blue men fell toward undulating clouds of green.
The pilot released the keys after (by Lawri's count) twelve breaths. She'd watched numbers flickering on a small display in front of him. He'd released at zero. And the jungle was no longer moving toward the carm's bow window.
"The savages haven't moved yet," he reported. He was ignoring
Lawri, or trying to; his eyes kept ificking to her and away. He'd made it clear enough: a nineteen-year-old girl had no place here, no matter what the First said. "They're just under the greenery. Are you sure you want to do this?"
"We don't know who they are." The ancient microphone put a squawk in the Squad Leader's voice. "If it's just fighters, we'll retreat. We don't need fighters. If it's noncombatants, hiding—"
"Right."
"Have you found any other heat sources?"
"Not yet. That greenery is a pretty good reflector unless you're looking right into it. We can pick up some meat. Flocks of salmon birds.”
“Squad Leader, I see something off to the side. Something's falling toward the jungle."
"Something like what?"
"Something flat with people clinging to it."
"I see it. Could they be animals?"
"No. I'm using science," the pilot said.
The display superimposed on the bow window showed scarlet dots clustered close. Warmer objects-salmon birds, for instance-showed more orange in that display. Ribbon birds showed as cooler: wavy lines of a darker, bloodier red…The pilot turned and caught Lawri looking.
"Learned anything, darling?"
"Don't call me darling." Lawri said primly/evasively.
"Pardon me, Scientist's Apprentice. Have you learned enough to fly this ship, do you think?"
"I wouldn't like to try it," Lawri lied. "Unless you'd like to teach me?" It was something she wanted very much to try.
"Classified," the pilot said without regret. He returned to his microphone. "That thing hit pretty hard. I'd say it's not a vehicle at all. Those people may be refugees from some disaster, just what we need for copsiks. Might even be glad to see us."
"We'll get to you when we…can." The Squad Leader sounded distracted, and with reason. Spindly savages taller than a man ought to be were boiling out of the green cloud, riding yellow-green pods bigger than themselves. They were clothed in green, hard to see.
There was a quick exchange of arrows as the armies neared each other. London Tree's warriors used long footbows: the bow grasped by the toes of one or both feet, the string by the hands. The cloud of arrows loosed by the savages moved more slowly, and the arrows were shorter.
"Cnossbows," the pilot murmured. He played the jets, kicking the carm away from the fight. Lawri felt relief, until he started his turn.
"You'll endanger the carm! Those savages could snatch at the nets!"
"Calm down, Scientist's Apprentice. We're moving too fast for them." The cam' curved back toward the melee. "We don't want them close enough for swordplay, not in free-fall."
The Scientist had his wish, the carm would never be used for war at all. Putting his Apprentice aboard had been a major strategic victory.
He'd told her, "Your sole concern is for the cam', not the soldiers. If the carm is threatened, it must be moved out of danger. If the pilot won't, you must."
He had not told her how to subdue a trained fighter, nor how to fly the ancient machine. The Scientist had never flown it himself.
Savages flew toward the bow window. Lawri saw their terrified eyes before the pilot spun the cam' about. Masses thumped against the carm's belly. Lawri shuddered. She would do nothing, this time. She would more likely wreck the cam' than save it…and there would be hell to pay even if she got home to London Tree.
The savages were grouping to attack again. The pilot ignored them.
He eased the carm into the midst of his own warriors.
"Nice going. Thanks," said the radio voice. Lawri watched the cloud of savages advancing.
"We're all aboard," said the Squad Leader.
The carm turned and coasted across the green cotton, southwest. Savages screamed or jeered in its wake. They hadn't a hope of catching up.
There was time to look, and time to feel rising fear. Gavving tried to take it all in before the end.
It was curves and billows of green wall spotted with blossoms: yellow, blue, scarlet, a thousand shades and tones. Insects swarmed in clouds. Birds were there in various shapes, dipping into the blossoms or the insect clouds. Some looked like ribbons and moved with a fluttering motion. Some had membranous triangular tails; some were themselves triangles, with whiplike tails sprouting from the apex.
Far to the east was a dimple in the green, funnel-shaped, perhaps half a klomter across; distances were hard to judge. Would a jungle have a treemouth? Why would it be rimmed with gigantic silver petals? The biggest flower in the universe set behind the jungle's horizon as they fell.
The storm had hidden a jungle. He'd never seen one close, but what else could it be? The moby had planned this well, Gavving thought.
Birds were starting to notice the falling mass. Motionless wings and tails blurred into invisibility. Ribbons fluttered away, as in a strong wind. Larger torpedo-shapes emerged from the greenery to study the falling bark sheet.
Clave was snapping orders. "Check your tethers! Arm yourselves! Some of those things look hungry. We'll be shaken up when we hit. Has anybody noticed anything I might miss?"
Gavving thought he saw where they'd strike. Green cloud. Could it be as soft as it looked? East and north, far away, more darting swarms of…dots at this distance…men?
"Men, Clave. It's inhabited."
"I see them. Treefodder, they're fighting! Just what we need, another war. Now what's that? Grad, do you see something like a moving box?"
"'Yea."
"Well?"
Gavving located a brick-shape with rounded corners and edges. It was turning in sentient fashion, moving away from the battle. A vehicle, then…big…and glittering as if made of metal or glass. Men clung to its flanks.
The Grad said, "I never saw anything like it. Starstuff."
The aft end of the box was spiky with bell-shaped structures: four at each corner and one much larger in the middle. Nearly invisible flames, not flame-colored but the blue-white color of Voy, puffed from some of the small-nostrils? The vehicle stopped its turn and surged back into the battle.
"That should do it," Clave said. Gavving turned and saw what he had been doing: setting his last jet pods to orient the turning raft, so that the underside would strike first. It seemed to be working, but the jungle was hidden now. Gavving clutched the bark, waiting…
His head was ringing, his right arm was banged up somehow, his stomach was trying to find something to reject, and he couldn't remember where he was. Gavving opened his eyes and saw the bird.
It was torpedo-shaped, about the mass of a man. It hung over him, long wings stretched out and motionless while it studied him with two forward-facing eyes in deep sockets. The other side of its head bore a saw-toothed crest. Its tail was a ribbed fan; the four ribs ended each in a hooked claw.
Gavving looked around for his harpoon. The crash had bounced it free of his hand. It was meters away, slowly turning. He reached for his knife instead and eased himself out of the greenery in which he was half-buried. He whispered, "I'm meat. Are you?" intending it as a threat.
The bird hung back. Two companions had joined it. Their mouths were long and blunt, and closed. They don't bluff Gavving thought.
A fourth bird skimmed across the green cloud, moving fast, right at his head. He scrambled for cover as the bird dipped its tail hooks into the foliage and stopped dead. Gavving stayed where he was, half under the raft. The birds watched him mockingly.
A tethered harpoon thudded into a bird's side.
It screamed. The open mouth had no teeth, just a scissors-action serrated edge. The bird set itself whirling as it tried to snap at its belly. A third eye was behind the crest, facing backward.
The rest made their decision. They fled.
With his toes locked in branchiets, Alfin reeled the bird into knife range. By then Gavving had retrieved his own harpoon. He used it to pin the bird's tail while Alfin finished the kill, a performance that left Alfin's sleeves soaked in pink blood. A wide grin stretched his wrinkles into uncustomary patterns.
"Dinner," he said and shook his head as if he'd drunk too much beer.
"I can't believe it. We made it. We're alive!"
During all the years in Quinn Tuft, Gavving couldn't remember seeing Alfin grin. How could Alfin be consistently morose in Quinn Tuft, and happy while lost in the sky? He said, "If we'd hit something solid at that speed we'd all be dead. Let's hope the luck holds."
Missing citizens emerged from the green depths. Merrill, Jayan, Jinny, Grad…Minya. Gavving whooped and gathered her in his arms.
Alfin asked, "Where's Clave?"
The others looked around. The Grad tethered himself to the bark and jumped toward the storm, with a turning motion. "I don't see him anywhere," he shouted back.
Jayan and Jinny burrowed into the foliage. Minya called, 'Wait, you'll get lost!" and prepared to follow.
"He's here."
Clave was under the bark sheet. They moved it to expose him. He was half-conscious and moaning softly. His thigh bent in the middle and white bone protruded through skin and blood.
The Grad hung back, squeamishly; but everyone was looking at him, and it was clearly the Scientist's job. He set Alfin and Jayan to holding Clave's shoulders, Gavving to pulling on the ankle while the Grad moved the bones into place. It took too long. Clave revived and fainted again before it was finished.
"That flying box," Alfin said. "It's coming here."
"We're not finished here," said the Grad.
The starstuff box fell toward them through the clear air between foliage and storm cloud. Men garbed in sky-blue clung to all four sides. The glassy end faced them like a great eye.
Clave's eyes had opened, but it didn't seem he understood. Somebody had to do something. Gavving said, "Alibi, Minya, Jinny, let's get the bark sheet out of sight, at least."
They turned it edgewise and pushed it down into the greenery. Gayving moved after it, and Minya after him, forcing their way through the thicket into dark green gloom. The foliage was dense at the surface. Underneath were open spaces and masses of springy branchiets.
"Grad?"
The Grad looked up. "Scientist."
"All right, Scientist. I need a Scientist," Alibi said. "Can you leave him for a moment?"
Clave was half-conscious and whimpering. He should be all right with two women watching him. "Call me if he starts thrashing around," he told them. He moved away, and Alibi followed.
"What's the problem?"
"I can't sleep."
The Grad laughed. "It's been a busy time. Which of us do you accuse of sleeping well?"
"I haven't slept since we reached the midpoint. We're in a jungle, we've got food and water, but Grad-Scientist, we're still falling!" Alfin's laugh surprised the Grad, it had a touch of hysteria in it.
Alibi didn't look good. His eyes were puffy, his breathing was irregular, he was as jumpy as tonight's dinner turkey. The Grad said, "You know as much about free-fall as I do. You learned it the same way. Are you about to run amok?"
"Feels that way. I'm not helpless. I killed a bird that was after Gayving." And for that moment his pride was showing.
The Grad mulled the problem. "I've got a bit of that scarlet fringe from the fans. You know how dangerous it is. Anyway, you don't want to sleep now."
Alfin glanced at the sky. The starstuff box was taking its sweet time, but…"No."
"When it's safe. And I haven't got much."
Alfin nodded and turned away. The Grad stayed where he was. He wanted solitude to nurse his jumpy stomach. He'd never set a broken bone before, and he'd had to do it without the Scientist's help.
Alibi made his way back toward Jayan and Merril and Clave. He looked back once, and the Grad was looking at the sky.
He looked back again, and the Grad was gone. Jayan screamed.
The darkness and the strange, dappled shadows made them almost invisible, even to each other. "We can hide in here," Gavving said.
Minya was nodding. "Burrow deep. Stick together. What about Clave?"
"We'll have to pull him through. What looks like a good spot?"
"None of it," Jinny said. "It would hurt him."
Gavving tracked a dense cluster of branchlets back to a single spine branch. "Cut here," he told Minya.
She didn't have room to swing. She used the sword as a saw, and it took her a hundred breaths or thereabouts. Then Gavving pushed against the freed end and found that the entire cluster moved outward as a plug. He pulled himself into open air and looked about him. "MennI! Here!"
"Good," Merril called. She and Alibi towed Clave toward the opening, moving with frantic haste. The one-eyed box was too close. The occupants must be watching them by now.
They'd have to dig in fast, get lost in the deep branchlets. But— "Where's Jayan? Where's the Grad?"
"Gone," Mernil puffed. "He's gone. Something pulled him down into the thicket."
"What?"
"Move it, Gavving!"
They got Clave inside and pulled the plug-bush closed. Gavving saw that Clave's leg had been splinted with strips of a blanket and two of Minya's arrows.
"The men on the box," Minya said, "they'll follow us."
"I know. Merril, what got the Grad? An animal?"
"I didn't see. He yelled and disappeared. Jayan snatched up a harpoon and ducked through and saw people disappearing deeper in. She's trailing a line. Gavving, should we stop her? They'll trap her too."
Why did it all have to happen at once? Clave's leg, the kidnappers, the moving box. "Okay. The soldiers on the box would be fools to come in here. It's the natives' territory—"
"We're here."
"We're more desperate…never mind, you're right. We go after Jayan right now, because it gets us away from that starstuff relic. Merril— " Would Merril slow them down? Probably not, in free-fall. Okay.
"Merril, me, Minya. We'll follow Jayan and see what's going on. Maybe we can bust the Grad loose. Jinny, you and Alfin follow as fast as you can, with Clave. Merril, where's Jayan's line?"
"Somewhere over there. Treefodder, why does it all have to happen at once?"
"Yeah."