Crashlander

Ten miles down was the wandering line of the forest border, sharply demarcated from the veldt. At this height all the magnificent colors of Gummidgy vegetation blurred into a rich brown.

«Do you see it?»

«No.»

«Look for two nearly parallel lines,» said Emil. «A little lighter than the rest of the forest.»

«I still don't see it.»

«It shows on the veldt, too.»

«Nope. Hah! Got it.» Crossing the rich brown of the forest was a strip of faintly lighter, faintly more uniform brown. «Hard to see, though. What is it?»

«Dust. Blown for hundreds of miles, just like you said. Some of it settled on the tops of the trees.»

So dim was the path that it kept flickering in and out of the visible. But it was straight, with edges that slowly converged. It crossed the veldt, too, in a strip of faintly dimmed blue-green. Before its edges met, the path faded out, but one could extend those edges in the mind's eye.

I let the car fall.

Unless we were building dream castles, Lloobee's cave must be at the intersection.

When we got too low, the dust path disappeared in the colors of forest and veldt. Bellamy's hypothetical cave was half a mile into the forest. I couldn't land there for reasons involving too many big plants and too many pirates. I dropped the car in a curve of the forest.

Emil had been fumbling in the back. Now he pressed something into my hand and said, «Here, take this.» To my amazement I found myself holding a sonic stunner.

«That's illegal!» I whispered furiously.

«Why are you whispering? Kidnapping Kdatlyno is illegal, too. We may be glad we've got these before we're finished.»

«But where did you get police stunners?»

«Let's say some criminal slipped them into my luggage. And if you'll look at the butts, you'll see they aren't police stunners.»

They'd started life as police stunners, but they weren't anymore. The butts were hand-carved from big cultured emeralds. Expensive. Dueling pistols?

Sure, dueling pistols. Lose a duel with one of these and you'd lose nothing but face. I hear most Jinxians would rather lose an arm, permanently. They were not illegal — on Jinx.

«Remember,» said Emil, «they only knock a man out for ten minutes.»

«I can run a long way in ten minutes.»

Emil looked me over rather carefully. «You've changed. You could have driven me straight back to base, and I'd never have been the wiser.»

«I never thought of that.»

«Bah.»

«Would you believe I've decided to be an epic hero? Whatever that is.»

Emil shrugged and moved into the forest. I followed.

I wasn't about to explain my motives to Emil. He'd put me in an unpleasant situation, and if he wanted to worry about my backing out, let him worry.

Back out? I couldn't. It was too late.

There had been a time when I knew nothing about Lloobee's kidnappers. I might suspect Margo, but I had no evidence.

Later, I could suspect Bellamy. But I had no proof.

But Emil had pressured me into confronting Bellamy, and Bellamy had been pressured into putting on an act. If I quit now, Bellamy would continue to think I was a fool.

And when Bellamy confronted Margo, Margo would continue to think I was a fool. That would hurt. To have Margo and Bellamy both thinking that I had been twice an idiot …

It wasn't Bellamy's fault, except that he had voluntarily kidnapped a valuable Kdatlyno sculptor. It was partly my fault and mostly Emil's. I might be able to leave Margo out of this. But Bellamy would have to pay for my mistakes.

And why shouldn't he? It was his antisocial act.

The vegetation was incredibly lush, infinitely varied. Its chemistry was not that of terrain life, but the chemical it used for photosynthesis was similar to chlorophyll. For billions of years the plants of Gummidgy had had oversupplies of ultraviolet light. The result was life in plenty, a profusion of fungi and animals and parasites. On every branch of the magenta trees was an orchid thing, a sessile beast waiting for its dinner to fly by. The air was full of life: birdforms, insectforms, and a constant rain of dust and spores and feathery seeds and bits of leaf and bird dung. The soil was dry and spongy and rich, and the air was rich with oxygen and alien smells. Somewhere in the spectrum of odors were valuable undiscovered perfumes.

Once we saw a flower thing like the one in Warren's photo. I found a dry branch and stuck it down the thing's blossom and pulled back half a branch.

Again, four feet of snake flew by. Emil stunned it. It had two small fins near the head end, and its hind end was a huge, leathery delta wing. Its mouth was two-thirds back along the body.

With typical abruptness, the flowering magenta trees gave way to a field of scarlet tubing. No branches, no leaves; just interlocking cables, three feet thick, moving restlessly over each other like too many snakes in a pit. They were four or five deep. Maybe they were all one single plant or animal; we never did see a head or a tail. And we'd never have kept our footing if we'd tried to cross.