hours. But let's log some data now, while we have the leisure."
As Alina flipped a switch to Record, he cleared his throat. "Kobolak reporting, captain. Landed shortly before fifteen hundred hours. Instruments show atmo somewhat thinner than Earth's but partial-pressure of oxy makes up for it. Temp, here at late afternoon, is thirty Celsius. Accelerometer puts local gravity at point-eight-two gee." Lighter than Shaarbant's, Lisele thought, but not by much.
Anders continued. "We're less than two kilos from the Patton, which is at-uh, I'm not sure of the latitude but it's only a bit north of the equator, so we don't have to worry about Sitdown's excessive axial tilt; days and nights will be roughly equal, and climate shouldn't vary a lot."
Gesturing, Lisele caught his attention. "It will, Anders." He scowled, and she said, "The tilt. In a year-not that we expect to be here that long-incident angle of sunlight swings from sixty degrees north to sixty south and back again, going through vertical both ways, at each equinox. So-"
He nodded, "I get it. Sines and cosines: effect of received radiation, a two-to-one ratio. He looked around. "Anybody get a fix on what part of the cycle we're in now?"
No answers, until Eduin Brower said, "Katmai said some stuff, one time we was talking. Something like: Sitdown, right now, it's about halfway from southern solstice-I think that's what she said-to equinox."
"So we're heading," said Lisele, "into the hot half of the year."
Anders said, "What's the difference? We won't be around long enough to worry. And- He gestured toward the screen that showed the downed ship. "The groundsiders seem to have managed."
He signaled for Alina to stop recording. "So let's start paying attention to what we're here for."
XII
Viewed on a side screen, the Patton didn't look too bad. Dust had accumulated, most noticeably at the nose and then
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down as far as there was slope to hold it. Around the upper airlock, effort had been made to clear the stuff away-but not, Lisele deduced, for some years now.
Vines grew almost halfway up the landing legs, hiding the crippled Drive nodes. But not near the bottom of the main airlock's ramp; that area was clear. Past one side of the ship's hull, Lisele could see a corner of the cargo hatch, opened down to its horizontal position.
Around the ship, mostly outside its normal safety perimeter for liftoff, stood a number of buildings. The majority were small, built of stone, sheet metal, and what looked like wood. From among the nearest, a group of humans now approached the scout.
"Hi-mag," said Anders Kobolak, and the pictured image zoomed closer. "Six men and three women, I make it. How many are armed? Can anybody see for sure?"
Lisele was still checking when deWayne Houk said, "Standard energy gun on the man leading; one behind him packs a heavy-duty. Woman on our right, needier shows out of a pocket. Whatever's so-maybe hidden, can't be said."
Eduin Brower spoke up. "On ships or any damn place else, UET never trusted the grunts with guns. Just the brass."
Kobolak nodded. "Right. Which is why we decided that a scout s officers are considered brass, these days, when the scout is on its own." Again he looked at the screen. 'They'll be here in a few minutes. Let's get the greeting party geared up to do its function."
"Officer" assignments on the scout, made solely on the basis of proficiency with hand weapons, fit reality more than not. Control officers would be Anders, Arlen, and Lisele: the first two carried energy guns, but Lisele's weapon threw softnosed, expanding needles. The difference was that she'd learned, on Shaarbant, to aim first and then fire. With the miniature projectors a person could pull trigger and sweep the beam across a target; that was about the extent of the two men's marksmanship. Naomi Gray's skill was roughly the same-but since no "officer" slot was available for her, she would stay aboard.
Eduin Brower insisted he "couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from inside, with the door shut." While deWayne Houk, Lisele was surprised to learn, was expert with blasters
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and needlers alike. Molyneux had never fired a gun, and Alina was frankly terrified of handling weapons. Yet she insisted on accompanying Anders groundside-and surprisingly, he agreed.
So the Kobolaks, Houk, and Lisele would be the team.
Last minute recap: ''You know the gen, Brower. We-"
"Yeah, yeah. No matter what comes off, I don't let any groundsiders in, without you say 'I assure you, Chief.' Anything else, crap on it. Right?" Kobolak nodded, but Brower wasn't done. "You're doing real dumb here, you know that?" He'd said as much, earlier, but clearly he was determined to say more. "Something does happen; they get the squeeze on, you can't get back in here. So like you say, I stand fast." His face reddening, the man took a deep breath. "Stand fast to do damn-all what? Not a one of us, left here, knows how to jump this can. Let billy hell-alone, use it. What you expect me to do, Kobolak? Sit on my big toe, while me and these two take our sweet damn time starving?"
Seconds passed, before Kobolak's stony expression relaxed. Then he nodded. "All right, Brower. I don't think there's a chance we'd have that kind of trouble, but just in case-" He turned to Lisele. "Give him your needier; he'll come groundside and you sit First Pilot, monitoring the screen, too."
She and Brower were both trying to protest, but Anders, now pointing a finger at the Comm Chief, pitched his voice to override the man. "Don't tell me again how you can't shoot: I believe you. But if it comes to that, here are my orders."
Pausing a moment, then he said, "First, no matter what happens, nobody on this team shoots before I do. And now: you specifically, Brower. I don't care whether you can hit anything on purpose, or not. All I ask is, if shooting starts, you do some-just make damn sure you don't hit any of ms."
Face flushed, clenched fist opening, after a moment Eduin Brower gave a soft chuckle. "Fair enough. Let's go."
Lisele didn't want to be left aboard, but even if she'd felt like arguing, there wasn't time for it.
As soon as all five were clear of the airlock ramp, Lisele raised and locked it. Now then, check comm: "Anders?" The tiny receiver stuck behind his left ear was working,
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and so was the small comm-unit in his shirt pocket, switched to Send. Because his voice came clear enough. "I read you."
"And vice versa." She flipped a switch. "Now recording."
"Yes. They're getting closer; two-three minutes away. Lisele-"
"Yes?"
"In case I have to talk something past them, just to you but with them hearing also, listen carefully."
"I'll do that. Good luck, captain."
Then the five below stepped forward to meet the Uties.
"What's that captain stuff?" It was Alys Molyneux, sitting to one side in an Aux seat. "Second Hat, that's all he is."
Impatient with the complaint, having no time for it, Lisele was glad when Naomi Gray said, "On this scout he's captain."
Below, the two groups were close to meeting; Lisele waved a hand for silence and strained to see and hear. Six men and three women approached. All wore standard worksuits, each embellished with at least one item, however faded or ill-fitting, of UET uniform garb. Here and there Lisele saw the shine of insignia.
A tall, elderly man led the nine; he moved more vigorously than his looks would have indicated. His left cheek bore a scar: a circle with an X inside. What-?
Anders stepped to shake the leader's hand. "Anders Kobolak, Captain Maiden." To identify the rank, he must have seen something Lisele couldn't spot on the screen. "I'm the Tamurlaines Third Officer, promoted in space. Now commanding our scoutship here, and of course speaking for our own captain, Karl Delarov."
Trying not to be noisy about it, Lisele sighed in relief. Because acting had never been one of Kobolak's strong points.
He was off to a good start, though. When Maiden, asked about the baldness of all but Houk-"Is that a new reg, or what?"-Anders ran through their prearranged story about the Tamurlaine's misadventures, including the story behind his own in-space promotion. Once those hurdles were passed, Lisele paid less attention to what was said, and more to what she saw.
The others, all of them, were considerably younger than
