MacAran said, "Well, that's a help. And now that we're all together-‑Ewen, kiss your girl goodbye and let's get moving."
Heather laughed softly, turning and putting back the hood of the uniform‑-she was a small girl, slight and delicately made, and she looked even smaller in some larger woman's uniform‑-"Come off it, Rafe. I'm going with you. I'm a graduate microbiologist, and I'm here to collect samples for the Medic Chief."
"But‑‑" MacAran frowned in confusion. He could understand why Camilla had to come‑-she was better qualified for the job than any man. And Dr. Lovat, perhaps, understandably felt concerned. He said' "I asked for men on this trip. It's some mighty rough ground." He looked at Ewen for support, but the younger man only laughed.
"Do I have to read you the Terran Bill of Rights? No law shall be made or formulated abridging the rights of any human being to equal work regardless of racial origin, religion or sex‑‑"
"Oh, damn it, don't you spout Article Four at me," MacAran muttered. "If Heather wants to wear out her shoe leather and you want to let her, who am I to argue the point?" He still suspected Ewen of arranging it. Hell of a way to start a trip! And here he'd been, despite the serious purpose of this mission, excited about actually having a chance to climb an unexplored mountain‑-only to discover that he had to drag along, not only a female crew member‑-who at least looked hardy and in good training‑but Dr. Lovat, who might not be old but certainly wasn't as young and vigorous as he could have wished, and the delicate‑looking Heather. He said' "Well, let's get going," and hoped he didn't sound as glum as he felt.
He lined them up, leading the way, placing Dr. Lovat and Heather immediately behind him with Ewen so that he would know if the pace he set was too hard for them, Camilla next with MacLeod, and the mountain‑trained Zabal to bring up the rear. As they moved away from the ship and through the small clutter of roughly‑made buildings and shelters, the great red sun began to lift above the line of faraway hills, like an enormous, inflamed, bloodshot eye. Fog lay thick in the bowl of land where the ship lay, but as they began to climb up out of the valley it thinned and shredded, and in spite of himself' MacAran's spirits began to lift. It was, after all, no small thing to be leading a party of exploration' perhaps the only party of exploration for hundreds of years, on a wholly new planet.
They walked in silence; there was plenty to see. As they reached the lip of the valley, MacAran paused and waited for them to come up with him.
"I have very little experience with alien planets," he said. "But don't blunder into any strange underbrush, look where you step, and I hope I don't have to warn you not to drink the water or eat anything until Dr. Lovat has given it her personal okay. You two are the specialists." he indicated Zabal and MacLeod, "anything to add to that?"
"Just general caution," MacLeod said. "For all we know this planet could be alive with poisonous snakes and reptiles but our surface uniforms will protect us against most dangers we can't see. I have a handgun for use is extreme emergencies‑‑if a dinosaur or huge carnivore comes along and rushes us‑‑but is general it would be better to run away than shoot. Remember this is preliminary observation, and don't get carried away in classifying and sampling‑‑the next team that comes here can do that."
"If there is a next team," Camilla murmured. She had spoken under her breath, but Rafael heard her and gave her a sharp look. All he said was, "Everybody, take a compass reading for the peak, and be sure to mark every time we move off that reading because of rough ground. We can see the peak from here; once we get further into the foothills we may not be able to see anything but the neat hilltop, or the trees."
At first it was easy, pleasant walking, up gentle slopes between tall, deeply rooted coniferous trunks, surprisingly small in diameter for their height, with long blue‑green needles on their narrow branches. Except for the dimness of the red sun, they might have beep in a forest preserve on Earth. Now and again Marco Zabal fell out of line briefly to Inspect some tree or leaf or root pattern, and once a small animal scooted away in the woods. Lewis MacLeod watched it regretfully and said to Dr. Lovat, "One thing--there are furred mammals here. Probably marsupials, but I'm not sure."
The woman said, "I thought you were going to take specimens."
"I will, on the way back. I've no way to keep live
specimens on the way, how would I know what to feed them? But if you're worried about food supply, I should say that so far every mammal on any planet without exception, has proved to be edible and wholesome. Some aren't very tasty, but milk‑secreting animals are all evidently alike in body chemistry."
Judith Lovat noted that the fat little zoologist was puffing with effort, but she said nothing. She could understand perfectly well the fascination of being the first to see and classify the wildlife of a completely strange planet, a job usually left to highly specialized First Landing teams' and she supposed MacAran wouldn't have accepted him for the trip unless he was physically capable of it.
The same thought was on Ewen Ross's mind as he walked beside Heather, neither of them wasting their breath in talk. He thought, Rafe isn't setting a very hard pace, but just the same I'm not too sure how the women will take it. When MacAran called a halt, a little more than an hour after they had set out, he left the girl and moved over to MacAran's side.
"Tell me, Rafe, how high is this peak?"
"No way of telling, as far off as I saw it, but I'd estimate eighteen‑twenty thousand feet."
Ewen asked, "Think the women can handle it?"
"Camilla will have to; she's got to take astronomical observations. Zabal and I can help her if we have to, and the rest of you can stay further down on the slopes if you can't make it."
"I can make it," Ewen said, "Remember, the oxygen content of this air is higher than earth's; anoxia won't set in quite so low." He looked around the group of men and women, seated and resting, except for Heather Stuart, who was digging out a soil sample and putting it into one of her tubes. And Lewis MacLeod had flung himself down full length and was breathing hard, eyes closed. Ewen looked at him with some disquiet, his trained eyes spotting what even Judith Lovat had not seen, but he did not speak. He couldn't order the man sent back at this distance-‑not alone, in any case.
It seemed to the young doctor that MacAran was following his thoughts when the other man said abruptly, "Doesn't this seem almost too easy, too good? There has to be a catch to this planet somewhere. It's too much like a picnic in a forest preserve."
Ewen thought, some picnic, with fifty‑odd dead and over a hundred hurt to the crash, but he didn't say it, remembering Rafe had lost his sister. "Why not, Rafe? Is there some law that says an unexplored planet has to be dangerous? Maybe we're just so conditioned to a life on Earth without risks that we're afraid to step one inch outside our nice, safe technology." He smiled. "Haven't I heard you bitching because on Earth you said that all the mountains, and even the ski slopes, were so smoothed out there wasn't any sense of personal conquest? Not that I'd know‑‑I never went in for danger sports."
"You may have something there," MacAran said, but he still looked somber. "If that's so, though, why do they make such a fuss about First Landing teams when they send them to a new planet?‑
"Search me. But maybe on a planet where man never developed, his natural enemies didn't develop either?"
It should have comforted MacAran, but instead he felt a cold chill. If man didn't belong here, could he survive here? But he didn't say it. "Better get moving again. We've got a long way to go, and I'd like to get on the slopes before dark."
He stopped by McLeod as the older man struggled to his feet. "You all right, Dr. MacLeod?"
"Mac," the older man said with a faint smile, "we're not under ship discipline now. Yes, I'm fine
"You're the animal specialist. Any theories why we haven't seen anything larger than a squirrel?"
"Two," MacLeod said with a round grin, "the first, of course, being that there aren't any. T
he second, the one I'm committed to, is that with six, no, seven of us crashing along through the underbrush this way, anything with a brain bigger than a squirrel's keeps a good long way off !"
MacAran chuckled, even while he revised his opinion of the fat little man upward by a good many notches. "Should we try to be quieter?"
"Don't see how we can manage it. Tonight will be a better test. Larger carnivores-‑if there's any analogy to Earth‑‑will come out then, hoping to catch their natural prey sleeping."
MacAran said, "Then we'd better make it our business
that we don't get crunched up by mistake," but as he watched the others sling their packs and get into formation, he thought silently that this was one thing he had forgotten. It was true; the overwhelming attention to safety on Earth had virtually eliminated all but man‑made dangers. Even Jungle safaris were undertaken in glass-sided trucks, and it wouldn't have occurred to him that night would be dangerous in that way.
They had walked another forty minutes, through thickening trees and somewhat heavier underbrush, where they had to push branches aside, when Judith stopped, rubbing her eyes painfully. At about the same time, Heather lifted her hands and stared at them in horror; Ewen, at her side, was instantly alert.
"What's wrong!"
"My hands-‑" Heather held them up, her face white. Ewen called, "Rafe, hold up a minute," and the straggling line came to a halt. He took Heather's slim fingers gingerly between his own, carefully examining the erupting greenish dots; behind him Camilla cried out:
"Judy! Oh, God' look at her face!"
Ewen swung around to Dr. Lovat. Her cheeks and eyelids were covered with the greenish dots, which seemed to spread and enlarge and swell as he looked at them. She squeezed her eyes shut. Camilla caught her hands gently as she raised them to her face.
"Don't touch your face, Judy--Dr. Ross, what is it?"
"How the hell do I know?" Ewen looked around as the others gathered around them.
"Anybody else turning green?" He added, "All right, then. This is what I'm here for, and everybody else keep your distance until we know just what we've got. Heather!" He shook her shoulder sharply. "Stop that! You're not going to drop dead, as far as I can tell your vital signs are all just fine:,
With an effort, the girl controlled herself. "Sorry."
"Now. Exactly what do you feel? Do those spots hurt?"
"No, dammit, they itch!" She was flushed, her face red, her copper hair falling loose around her shoulders; she raised a hand to brush it back, and Ewen caught her wrist, careful to touch only her uniform sleeve. "No, don't touch your face," he said, "that's what Dr. Lovat did. Dr. Lovat, how do you feel?"
"Not so good," she said with some effort, "My face bums, and my eyes‑‑well, you can see."
"Indeed I can." Ewen realized that the lids were swelling and turning greenish; she looked grotesque
Secretly Ewen wondered if he looked as frightened as he felt. Like everyone there, he had been brought up on stories of exotic plagues to be found on strange worlds. But he was a doctor and this was his job. He said, making his voice as firm as he could' "All right' everyone else stand back; but don't panic, if it was an airborne plague we'd all have caught it, and probably the night we landed here. Dr. Lovat, any other symptoms?"
Judy said, trying to smile, "None‑-except I'm scared."
Ewen said, "We won't count that‑‑yet." Pulling rubber gloves from a steri‑pac in his kit, he quickly took her pulse. "No tachycardia, no depressed breathing. You, Heather?"
"I'm fine, except for the damned itching."
Ewen examined the small rash minutely. It was pinpoint at first, but each papule quickly swelled to a vesicle. He said, "Well, let's start eliminating, What did you and Dr. Lovat do that nobody else did?"
"I took soil samples," she said, "looking for soil bacteria and diatoms."
"I was studying some leaves," Judy said' "trying to see if they had a suitable chlorophyll content."
Marco Zabal turned back his uniform cuffs. "I'll play Sherlock Holmes," he said. "There's your answer." He extended his wrists, showing one or two tiny green dots. "Miss Stuart, did you have to move away any leaves to dig up your samples?"
"Why, yes, some flat reddish ones," she said, and he nodded. "There's your answer. Like any good xenobotanist, I handle any plant with gloves until I'm sure what's in it or on it, and I noticed the volatile oil at the time, but took it for granted. Probably some distant relative of urushiol‑-rhus toxicodendron‑‑ poison ivy to you. And it's my guess that if it comes out this quickly, it's simple contact dermatitis and there aren't any serious side effects." He grinned, his long narrow face amused. "Try an antihistamine ointment, if you have any, or give Dr. Lovat a shot, since her eyes are swollen so much it's going to be hard for her to see where she's going. And
from now on don't go admiring any pretty leaves until I pass on them., all right?"
Ewen followed his instructions, with a relief so great it was almost pain. He felt totally unable to cope with any alien plagues. A massive hypo of antihistamines quickly shrunk Judith Lovat's swollen eyes to normal, although the green color remained. The tall Basque showed them all his specimen leaf, encased in a transparent plastic sample case. "The red menace that turns you green," he said dryly. "Learn to stay away from alien plants, if you can."
MacAran said, "If everyone's all right, let's move along," but as they gathered up their equipment, he felt half sick with relief, and renewed fear. What other dangers could be lurking in an innocent‑looking tree or flower? He said half‑aloud to Ewen, "I knew this place was too good to be true."
Zabal heard him and chuckled. "My brother was on the First Landing team that went to the Coronis colony. That's one reason I was heading out there. That's the only reason I happen to know all this. The Expedition Force doesn't care to publicize how tricky planets can be, because no one on our nice, safe Earth would dare go out to them. And of course by the time the major colonizing groups get there, like us, the technological crews have removed the obvious dangers and, shall we say, smoothed things down a bit."
"Let's go," MacAran ordered, without answering. This was a wild planet' but what could he do about it? He'd said he wanted to take risks, now he was having his chance.
But they went on without incident, halting near midday to eat lunch from their packs and allow Camilla Del Rey to check her chronometer and come closer to the exact moment of noon. He drew closer to her as she was watching a small pole she had set up In the ground:
"What's the story?"
"The moment when the shadow is shortest is exact noon. So I note the length every two minutes and when it begins to get longer again, noon‑‑the sun exactly on meridian‑‑‑is is that two‑minute period. This is close enough to true local noon for our measurements." She turned to him and asked in a low voice, "Are Heather and Judy really all right?"
"Oh, yes. Ewen's been checking them at every stop. We don't know how long it will take for the color to fade, but they're fine."
"I nearly panicked," she murmured' "Judy Lovat makes me ashamed of myself. She was so calm."
He noticed that imperceptibly the "Lieutenant Del Rey," "Dr. Lovat," "Dr. MacLeod" of the ship‑-where, after all, you saw only your few intimates except formally‑‑were melting into Camilla, Judy, Mac. He approved. They might be here a long time. He said something like that, then abruptly asked, "Do you have any idea how long we will be here for repairs?"
"None," she said' "but Captain Leicester says‑‑six weeks if we can repair it."
"If?"
"Of course we can repair it," she said suddenly and sharply, and turned away. "We'll have to. We can't stay here."
He wondered if this were fact or optimism, but did not ask. When he spoke next it was to make some banal remark about the quality of the rations they carried and to hope Judy would find some fresh food sources here.
As the sun angled slowly down over the distant ranges, it
grew cold again, and a sharp wind sprang up. Camilla looked apprehensively at the gathering clouds.
"So much for astronomical observations", she murmured. "Does it rain every night on this damnable planet?"
"Seems like it," MacAran said briefly. "Maybe it's a seasonal thing. But every night, so far, at this season at least hot at noon, cooling down fast, clouds in the after
noon, rain at evening, snow toward midnight. And fog in the morning."
She said, knitting her brows, "From what I've guessed from the time changes‑‑not that five days can tell us much-‑it's spring; anyhow the days are getting longer, about three minutes each day. The planet seems to have somewhat more tilt than Earth, which would make for violent weather changes. But maybe after the snow clears and before the fog rises, the sky will clear a little …" and fell silent, thinking. MacAran did not disturb her, but as a thin fine drizzle began to fall, began to search for a camping site. They had better get under canvas before it turned into a downpour.
They were on a downslope; below them lay a broad and almost treeless valley, not in their direct path, but pleasant and green, stretching for two or three miles to the south. MacAran looked down at it, calculating the mile or two lost as against the problems of camping under the trees. Evidently these foothills were interspersed with such little valleys, and through this one ran something like a narrow stream of water-‑a river? A brook? Could it be used to replenish their water supplies? He raised the question, and MacLeod said, "Test the water, sure. But we'll be safer camping here in the middle of the forest."
"Why?"
For answer MacLeod pointed and MacAran made out something that looked like some herd animal. Details were hard to make out, but they were about the size of small ponies. "That's why," MacLeod said. "For all we know they may be peaceful‑‑or even domesticated. And if they're grazing they're not carnivores. But I'd hate to be in their way if they took a notion to stampede in the night. In the trees we can hear things coming."