*
Switzer stared at the readouts, scratching his head. “Bandicut, I don’t think you even need that cast anymore. Ol’ King Cole is going to love you.”
Bandicut blinked. “Say again?”
“Jackson. I’m telling him that you’re cleared for driving duty today. But,” Switzer added, frowning as he tapped Bandicut’s ankle through the fastract cast, “I’m leaving this thing on for one more day, just to play it safe. There’ve been too many damned weird things about you lately.” He gave the cast a good rap with his knuckles. “Feel anything?”
Bandicut shrugged. “I feel you hitting me.”
“Do you feel any pain?”
He shook his head.
“No fever? Never mind, I can read it right here.” Switzer pulled the readout plugs out of the cast. “You can go to work. Hell, you can play soccer, for all I care. Come back tomorrow to get the cast off.” He shook his gray-haired head and turned away with a dismissive gesture. It was clear he regarded Bandicut as an annoying enigma, and the sooner the man was out of his sight the better.
Bandicut was happy to oblige him.
As he walked to the exo-ops center, Bandicut conceded, /That’s pretty amazing, what you did. The ankle feels great. It seems silly to still have this cast on./
/// I’m glad you’re pleased.
But now, my friend, comes the time for us
to earn our keep. ///
Bandicut started to give a jaunty reply, but swallowed it when he realized exactly what the quarx meant. He’d met the translator once before, and he hadn’t liked the experience, not at all.
Chapter 21
Translator Dreams
THE DEEP BLUE Neptune was a comforting companion in the midnight sky, as he drove toward navpoint Wendy. In the week since he’d last been out in a buggy, Triton had completed slightly more than one tidal-locked orbit of Neptune, and the mother planet was once again in crescent phase, a slender scythe in the sky. Whatever misgivings he had about the surreptitious mission he was about to undertake for Charlie, he could not resist the pleasure of the solitude, and the view. He knew there were not too many other people who would have considered this a scenic drive, but he loved the rugged desolation under Neptune’s regal presence. He sometimes wondered if there was something wrong with him, that he didn’t become as jaded by it as everyone else.
/// Do you ever get this sort of feeling
for your homeworld? ///
Charlie asked, as they bobbed and bumped over the landscape.
Bandicut squinted, picking out a course through the hilly nitrogen ices. /I dunno. Sometimes, I guess. Why?/
/// You don’t seem to think of Earth that often.
Or of people you left behind. ///
Bandicut shrugged. /Didn’t really leave a whole lot of people behind. My family’s gone—you already know that. Except my niece, of course. And a few friends. But not really any close friends, I guess./
/// Is that hard for you to accept? ///
/What are you, a damn shrink? I’m alone. So what? Lots of people are alone./
For a few moments, the quarx didn’t reply. Bandicut tried to concentrate on his driving. He glanced off to his left and watched Napoleon galloping over the dunes, paralleling his route. It was about time for the robot to check in with them.
/// What about Dakota? ///
Charlie asked suddenly.
Bandicut growled in annoyance. /What about her?/ He waggled the control stick, making the buggy veer left, then right. He was annoyed because he was feeling distracted and guilty; he’d gotten a message from Julie, saying that exoarch seemed to be onto something exciting, but they couldn’t send out a team until more orbital scans had been done. He felt as if he were lying to her.
/// I’m trying to understand, that’s all.
Dakota’s your niece, right?
So you don’t have a relationship with her
the way you would, say, with Julie. ///
/Obviously./
/// Therefore,
this thing that you’re doing,
putting your earnings in trust for her,
is something that you’re doing
for no other reason than that you care for her? ///
/Yeah, so? What’s your point?/ Bandicut braked suddenly, realizing that he was veering from his plotted course. He sighed, noting that Napoleon was heading his way, probably to check on him. He flashed a signal to Napoleon that everything was all right. They were getting close now.
/// We’re just under a kilometer from the cavern.
I’m skirting the point, I know.
But here it is:
Would you miss Earth, John,
if you were never able to return? ///
Bandicut felt a sudden chill. He instinctively pulled back on the power. /What the hell is that supposed to mean, Charlie? Yeah, I’d miss it. I’d miss it a lot. Why?/
Charlie stirred with an unusual restlessness.
/// Nothing . . . exactly.
Let’s hope the question never comes up. ///
/Then why’d you bring it up?/
/// Just . . . trying to understand your emotions. ///
Bandicut grunted suspiciously and gunned the motor. The buggy crested a rise with a dim puff of snow, and on his console, two arrows converged. Time to get started. He keyed the comm. “EXO-OP CONTROL, UNIT ECHO. APPROACHING NAVPOINT WENDY. BEGINNING SURVEY RECORDINGS.” He touched several switches on the console, turning on the mapping-sensor recorders.
/I hope you’ve got this figured out. If I cross the STOP HERE line again—even Stelnik and Jackson will be smart enough to figure out that something is going on./
/// Time to ask Napoleon to help us, ///
the quarx said, as they began their sweep over the assigned territory.
/// When you reach your turn up ahead,
could you ask it to come alongside? ///
/You’re the boss. Let’s just do it right./