"We camp here tonight. Have to make some plans."
"Yes, sir." He agreed with that. To attempt passage of the mountains
in the dark was a suicide mission which he would have refused. On the
other hand, to his mind, they would sleep more soundly if they were
out of the city. He speculated whether he dared suggest that they use
the few remaining moments of twilight to head into the open and
establish a camp somewhere in the countryside.
The alien officer made some comment in his slurred speech and faded
away into the shadows. Raf saw that the others had already dragged out
their blanket rolls and were spreading them in the shelter of the
flitter while Soriki busied himself at the com, sending back a message
to the _RS 10_.
"... should not be too difficult to establish a common speech form,"
Lablet was saying as Raf climbed into the flitter to tug loose his own
roll. "Color and pitch both seem to carry meaning. But the basic
pattern is there to study. And with the scanner to sort out those
record strips--did you adjust them, Soriki?"
"They're all ready for you to push the button. If the scanner can read
them, it will. I got all that speech the chief, or king, or whatever
he was, made just before we left."
"Good, very good!" In the light of the portable lamp by Soriki's com,
Lablet settled down, plugged the scanner tubes in his ears, absently
accepting a ration bar the captain handed him to chew on while he
listened to the playback of the record the com-tech had made that
afternoon.
Hobart turned to Raf. "You went off with that officer. What did he
have to show you?"
The pilot described the globe and the body he had been shown and then
added what he had deduced from the sketchy explanations he had been
given. The captain nodded.
"Yes, they have aircraft, have been using them, too. But I think that
there's only one of the big ones. And they're fighting a war all
right. We didn't see the whole colony, but I'll wager that there are
only a handful of them left. They're holed up here, and they need help
or the barbarians will finish them off. They talked a lot about that."
Lablet pulled the ear plugs from his ears. In the lamplight there was
an excited expression on his face. "You were entirely right, Captain!
They were offering us a bargain there at the last! They are offering
us the accumulated scientific knowledge of this world!"
"What?" Hobart sounded bewildered.
"Over there"--Lablet made a sweep with his arm which might indicate
any point to the east--"there is a storehouse of the original learning
of their race. It's in the heart of the enemy country. But the enemy
as yet do not know of it. They've made two trips over to bring back
material and their ship can only go once more. They offer us an equal
share if we'll make the next trip in their company and help them clean
out the storage place--"
Hobart's answer was a whistle. There was an avid hunger on Lablet's
lean face. No more potent bribe could have been devised to entice him.
But Raf, remembering the spear-torn body, wondered.
_In the heart of the enemy country_, he repeated to himself.
Lablet added another piece of information. "After all, the enemy they
face is only dangerous because of superior numbers. They are only
animals--"
"Animals don't carry spears!" Raf protested.
"Experimental animals that escaped during a world-wide war generations
ago," reported the other. "It seems that the species have evolved to a
semi-intelligent level. I must see them!"
Hobart was not to be hurried. "We'll think it over," he decided. "This
needs a little time for consideration."
7