[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

obsessive personality, a woman with an adolescent crush, and a man in love
with living airships. Cirocco's was the only level head.
"Don't kid yourself," she muttered. "You probably look as crazy to them as
they do to you." But she discarded that notion, too. Bill, Gaby, and Calvin
all knew they had been changed by their experience, though Gaby would not
admit that her love for Cirocco was a side-effect. August was too distracted
by her loss to think about anything at all.
Page 50
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
She wondered again about April and Gene. Were they still alive, and if so, how
were they taking it? Were they alone, or had they managed to link up?
They had a regular routine of listening and broadcasting, trying to contact
the two, but nothing came of it. No one heard a man crying again, and no one
heard anything from April.
Time drifted by, all but unmarked. Cirocco had Calvin's watch to tell them
when to sleep, but it was hard to adjust to the unfailing light. She would
never have suspected it of a group of people who had lived in the artificial
environment of Ringmaster, where the day was set on the ship's computer and
could be varied at will.
Life was easy,. All the fruit they tried was edible, and seemed to be
nourishing them. if there were vitamin deficiencies they had yet to make
themselves known. Some fruits were salty, and others had a tang they hoped was
vitamin C. Game was plentiful, and easy to kill.
They were all used to the strict time-lines of an astronaut, where every chore
is assigned by ground control and the chief pastime is bitching about how it
was impossible and yet doing it anyway. They had been prepared to struggle for
survival in a hostile environment, but Hyperion was about as hostile as the
San Diego Zoo. They had expected Robinson Crusoe, or at least the Swiss
Family Robinson, but Hyperion was a creampuff. They had not yet adjusted
enough to think in terms of a mission.
Two days after Calvin and August left, Gaby presented Cirocco with clothes she
had made from the discarded chutes. It touched Cirocco deeply to see the
expression on Gaby's face when she tried it on.
The outfit was half toga and half loose pants. The material was thin, but
surprisingly tough. It had taken Gaby a lot of hard work to cut it into usable
sizes and sew it together with thorn needles.
"If you can work out something for mocassins," she told Gaby " I'll promote
you three grades when we get home."
" I'm working on it." Gaby glowed for a day after that, and was frisky as a
puppy, brushing against Cirocco and her fine clothing at the slightest excuse.
She was pathetically eager to please.
Cirocco was sitting by the side of the river, alone for once, and glad of it.
Being the bone of contention between two lovers was not to her taste. Bill was
starting to get annoyed by Gaby's behavior, and seemed to feel he should do
something.
She reclined easily with a long limber pole in one hand and watched a small
wooden float bob at the end of her line. She let her thoughts drift over the
problem of aiding any rescue party -that might come for them. What might he
done to make rescue easier?
It was a certainty that they couldn't get out of Gaea on their own. The best
she could do would be
file:///F|/rah/John%20Varley/Varley,%20John%20-%20Titan.txt (39 of 118)
[1/15/03 7:27:02 PM]
file:///F|/rah/John%20Varley/Varley,%20John%20-%20Titan.txt to try contact the
rescue party. She had no doubt one would arrive, and few illusions that its
primary purpose would be rescue. The messages she had managed to send during
the break-up of
Ringmaster described a hostile act, and the implications of that were
enormous. Ring- master's crew would certainly be presumed dead, but Themis-
Gaea would not be forgotten. A ship would arrive soon, and it would be loaded
for bear.
"All right," she said. "Gaea should have some communications facilities
somewhere."
Probably in the hub. Even if the engines were there too, its central location
seemed the logical place for controls. There might be people up there running
things, and there might not. There was no way to make the trip look easy, or
the destination safe. It could be carefully guarded against entry and
Page 51
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
sabotage.
But if there was a radio up there, she should see what she could do about
getting to it.
She yawned, scratched her ribs, and idly moved her foot up and down. The float
bobbed in and out of the water. it seemed a good time for a snooze.
The float jerked, and vanished beneath the muddy waters. Cirocco looked at it
for a moment, then realized with mild surprise that something had taken the
bait. She stood and began pulling in the line.
The fish had no eyes, no scales, and no fins. She held it up and looked at it
curiously. It was the first fish any of them had caught.
"What the hell am I doing?" she asked aloud. She tossed it back into the
water, coiled her fishing line, and started around the bend in the river
toward camp. Half-way there, she began to run.
"I'm sorry, Bill, I know you put a lot of work into this place. But when they [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]