Tedra glanced at the console to see that the viewing screen had come on so Martha could monitor her. She’d forgotten that Martha could see, too, one of the skills necessary to flying spacecraft.
“No, as long as I’ve started out old-fashioned, I might as well go all the way with my own colors for a change.” And she ordered the eye changer to erase the previous artificial tint. What remained was a clear, light aquamarine. Glancing in the mirror, Tedra smiled. “I’d forgotten how striking my own colors are together. What do you think, Martha?”
“No one would believe you are a Sec, doll.”
“So now you know why I need to go bland when I’m working,” Tedra replied.
“Too bad. You’d have been breached ages ago if-”
“Cut it out.”
“Well, you would have.”
“It might have been tried, but it wouldn’t have happened without my cooperation. Now, how about leaving me alone so I can clothe myself in peace.”
“In another Rover uniform in boring dun gray, which is all I’ve seen you in since we left Kystran? Not today, kiddo. One of those long slinky things that Supply filled your closet with ought to go over well, something teal with lots of sparkling Canture gems. Canture does mine the best quality jewels in the Star System.”
“What’s with you this morning, Martha? You know I never wear feminine clothing that can constrict my legs and hamper my movements.”
“Then what about one of the short skimpy things that show off so much skin? They’re certainly not restricting.”
“Would you like to tell me why I would want to wear one of those hot-weather outfits when the Rover is air-cooled? Are you planning on turning up the heat… or have you programmed Corth to jump on me if I show him some skin?”
“Neither.” There was what passed for a sigh. “It looks like I’ve found you a planet, is all. Thought you might want to dazzle the prospective traders. That is what those flashy trade-courting outfits are in your closet for.”
“Of all the… Why didn’t you just say so, Martha, instead of going round the block to annoy me? I know that’s why Supply stuffed my closet with such outrageous outfits. It’s standard World Discovery procedure to impress the natives with a little sparkle. Are we close enough to Transfer yet?”
“We’ve been orbiting about two hours now.”
“And you let me sleep!”
“The planet’s not going anywhere, kiddo.” The screen went blank, leaving Tedra to swear a blue steak without benefit of an audience.
Chapter Six
“Not bad, kiddo,” Martha remarked as Tedra entered the Control Room, the heart of the Rover with its numerous flashing grids and monitors that kept constant tabs on every function of the ship. “I concede to your own tastes.”
Tedra raised the coffee cup she carried to acknowledge the compliment. She had chosen to wear a close-fitting, two-piece outfit of pants and long-sleeved tunic that covered her from neck to ankles, the material opalescent pearl with a high-gloss sheen to make it glow jewellike in bright light. If that wasn’t impressive enough, she had draped it with a double-strand necklace of large kystrals, the clear crystal mined on Kystran’s single moon that was even more prized than Canture gems, because the live crystals would change color upon request to look like any gem imaginable. Tedra had requested blood red in a brighter hue than the fiery red that occasionally appeared to mix with the other colors in the opalescent outfit.
Her long hair was drawn severely back and coiled on top of her head, held in place by a three-inch-long pearl band that lifted it up and away from her head, to then fall in a thick tail down her back. Her low boots were silver, matching the utility belt that already held a combination phazor/computer link unit that would see to all her needs in one innocent-looking rectangular box. Inside the belt was a homing signal so that Martha couldn’t lose track of her in a crowd.
Corth had been sitting in the Commander’s chair, keeping Martha company. He got up as Tedra entered, but she waved him down, too nervous to sit herself. Now that she actually had a planet to investigate, she’d be using Transfer for the first time, and she still remembered the nightmares she had had for nearly two years after she had first learned about Molecular Transfer, the means to get from ship to planet and back without benefit of spacecraft or landing. One second you stood surrounded by metal walls and flashing grids on board ship, and the next your feet were planted firmly on whatever planet you’d been sent to. It didn’t take even a full second to Transfer. Just pop, and you were in a new location.
Transfer was made possible only on crysillium-powered spacecraft, which the Rover just happened to be, crysillium being the highest source of energy known to man, and the only thing strong enough to allow a safe Transfer. It was that word “safe” that had got to a child of seven, which was how old she’d been in her second year of Explorations study when the class learned of Transfer, making her active mind imagine all kinds of things that could go wrong, that she’d be the only one Transfer wouldn’t work on, that she’d end up lost somewhere between Transfers, wherever that was, and no one would ever find her. Switching to Military Arts at eight, she thought she’d never have to experience Transfer, but she’d still had the nightmares about it for another year.
She might be an adult now and know that those childhood fears had been silly, but the nervousness was there anyway. As long as Martha didn’t detect it and ride her about it, she’d be all right. And once the Transfer was made she could relax-until she had to go through it again.
“So where is it?” she asked, walking toward the four observation screens that divided the area surrounding the ship into quarters for viewing, but were all blank presently. And then the left top screen came on to reveal a huge blue-and-green sphere, and Tedra gasped. “It has vegetation!”
“We’re a bit far from our own Star System to trade for food, kiddo,” Martha felt it necessary to point out.
“I wasn’t thinking of trading for it. I just want to see it. I’ve never thought it was fair that Kystran citizens are forbidden to visit their own space gardens.”
“Contamination, doll. If you want to eat it, you have to keep away from it.”
“I know.” Tedra sighed. “But look at all that green. It’s certainly prettier to look at from up here than Kystran’s drab brown and gray. So tell me. If there’s plant life, there must be other life. Is any of it humanoid?”
“The wide-range scanner indicates it’s not an overly populated planet, but there are enough people in small groupings, probably their idea of cities, so you won’t have trouble making contact.”
“Do I get lucky with a known language you have on file, or will I have to trudge through universal communication?”
“I’ve spot-checked in each hemisphere with the short-range scanner that picks up voices, and the language appears to be the same worldwide, with only slight differences in accent.” Short-range scanning could pick up clear conversations, but only in a five-foot radius. Anything on a larger scale would be just a jumble of noise. “It’s a language you’ve recently learned, too-Sha-Ka‘ ari.”
Tedra stiffened and turned around to glare at the huge computer that took up an entire wall, plus a huge console base in the center of the Control Room. “Did I miss something while I was sleeping, like an unscheduled trip home?”
Martha brought forth her offended tone. “You are fully aware that Kystran is three weeks, four days, eighteen hours, eleven-”
“I know how far away it is, damn it! Just tell me that’s not Sha-Ka’ar down there.”
“It’s not.”
“But you’re picking up their language?” Tedra asked. “There’s no mistake?”