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and it wouldn't be wise to leave it unguarded for more enterprising people
like Pardoe and company. But total quarantine? Wouldn't you want to leave
someone here, in charge? A look-out?"
"Look out for what? There'll be a network of watch-dog satellites and
alarms. And eventually, maybe, we will put down a base team, but not for a
long while yet some years. The scientists will gather and take away
enough material to keep them busy that long. You see, if we can't grow the
plants and make them do tricks in our laboratories, or in some spot of our
own choosing, there's not a lot of point, is there? So who needs a ground
base? And, in any case," he added, so negligently that she fell right into it,
"who would want to stay here in this wilderness?"
"I would," she said grinning as he stirred just a little. "You like sneaking
up on people, don't you? All right, now you know. I want to stay here."
"You look well on it. That glow isn't just health; Selly, I know you that
well. There's only one thing could make you offensively radiant like that
and willing to pull out of the Corps at the same time. Want to tell me about
him?"
She was relieved to be able to talk, and Conway Ash was a good listener.
"It wasn't," she admitted, "until I was slanging him for being a
drop-out tucking himself away in the Scout Service, and then here that I
realized I was talking about myself, too. I don't belong anywhere. All my
life I've been pretending to be this, that and the other. The only reason I
liked being in the Corps was because it set me apart from the herd. And
above them, too and that's not good. I don't belong out there. But I am at
home here."
"All right. It's your life. He sounds quite a character. The way you've
drawn him, I don't blame him for hiding out. But, supposing you do find
him, and he doesn't think the way you do, then what happens?"
"It's a big planet. I really do like it here, Dad. Leave me a caller, and I'll be
official guide and advisor to the base team, when you do send one. But not
for a year, please?"
"All right again. May I offer just one piece of advice? That research
monitor up there is stuffed with psychologists of all kinds. You have a chat
with some of them, learn up a bit. It can't hurt, and in my opinion that boy
of yours needs help. You do that, eh?"
"You're ahead of me, as always. I was intending to do just that."
She had her chances. It took the researchers almost four weeks of
concentrated effort to get all the material they needed, and for the Navy to
establish a four-unit network of guardian satellites, small and far out, almost
invisible, but triggered to give warning should anyone try to orbit and land
on the planet. Eventually, though, the shuttles went off into the blue for the
last time. Temporary base cabins were dismantled and shipped out; people
went away in groups one small crew took care of her own ship and lifted it
to swing with the rest and the planet was still and silent once more.
She was prepared for a long wait. She had managed to find Joe's old ship;
it had not been easy because he had allowed the landing feet to settle deep
into the soft earth and had encouraged creepers and flowering shrubs of all
kinds to drape themselves around it until it was like a part of the living
forest, but she found it. Without her special sense of space she might never
have succeeded. Having located it, she took no liberties, but made herself at
home in a discreet manner with the minimum of disturbance, like a guest.
He had made sure it would never fly again, but it was otherwise quite
functional and comfortable. There were book tapes and musicassettes
enough to make sure she would not be bored, even if she had not had ploys
of her own to occupy the time.
Part of her task was to get to know the friendly flowers all about his home
and to revive his custom of playing them tuneful and rhythmic music. They
really did prefer waltzes, and it was great fun for her to sit and be aware of
their pleasure in the music. Another thing she did was to discard all the
artificial trappings of civilization. "Consider the lilies of the field . . ." She had
quoted the lines from Matthew often, but never until now had she realized
the point of them. Quite happily, she went naked and was at one with the
peaceful and unspoiled world about her. Warmed in the sun by day,
securely dreamless and untroubled by night, she settled into a serene and
quiet bliss she had never before believed possible, a state of mind that took
her back to the carefree, semi-mystical days of her childhood. And, like a
child, she had mischief in mind.
It was in the early afternoon of the. ninth day that he came back. She was
aware of his approach long before he came into sight, and she assumed that
he was likewise aware of her presence. She had counted on it and prepared
against it as part of her mischief. She sat, quite still and at ease, on the warm
turf by the ship's gangway foot, and waited, sensing his slow movement,
guessing at his suspicions and waiting for him to appear through a break in
the bushes across the glade from where she was. The slanting sun was on
his face as he stood there, gripping his spear and swinging his head from
side to side in bewilderment.
"Selena?" he said very softly and in doubt. She kept silent, stealing this
precious moment to study him and refresh her memory. He looked lost and
baffled searching for her, although she was in plain view.
"It's a trick," he said. "You're playing a trick on me. Where are you?"
"I'm here, Joe. It's all right." She rose and went to him, took his arm and
led him back to where she had been sitting. "Yes, I played a trick on you.
Several tricks, in fact, but none of them malicious "
"I watched the ships go. I thought everyone had gone. I thought they
would quarantine the planet."
"They did. It's a Q-Max. There'll be no one coming back here for at least a
year, and then only a research team. You're quite safe now."
"But you're here. You stayed."
"Do you mind that very much?"
"I don't understand." He looked lost and troubled. "Why are there so
many of you like echoes?"
"I made friends with your friendly plants, Joe, and I trained some of
them, four of them, to play a trick on you on your Friendly. He is picking
me up all over the place, isn't he? And, all the time, I am here, right by your
side." She touched his hand again, and he shook his head.
"You know?"
"I've known for a long time, Joe, that you're blind."
NINETEEN
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H , just where he was, and she settled down beside him, to reach and
e sat
take his hand again. It was quite still in hers.
"How long have you known?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]