Read Online The Mystery of Ireta by Anne McCaffrey - Free Book Online

area and we can set up some safeguards around, say, one larger, suitably situated secondary camp and your field teams would be relatively safe . . .”
    “You don’t sound certain.”
    “I’m not certain about anything on this crazy planet, Kai. And your discovery today only makes my uncertainty more . . .” she grinned, “certain!”
    He laughed.
    She took one more long appraising look at the predator’s rows of needle-sharp teeth and then asked Kai to roll the tape. “Sure glad you were aloft when you met that fellow. Gaber managed to tag him? That’ll help estimate his territorial sway. Oh, I say, aren’t they lovely!”
    The golden fliers were on the screen, and while it might have been the juxtaposition to the preceding predator, they seemed so benign and graceful.
    “Oh, hold that frame, Kai, please!” Varian gestured for him to go back on the tape until she had the frame of the creature, suspended in its flight, its crested head slightly turned toward the camera so that both golden-colored eyes were visible.
    “Yes, I’d agree that it’s intelligent. Is that a pouch under its beak for storing fish? And it’s a glider, I think. Roll it, Kai, I want to see if that wing can rotate. Yes, see, there! As it veers away. Yes, yes. Much more advanced than that carrion-eater this morning. Why is so much of our reaction dependent on the eye of a creature?” She looked up at Kai, whose brown eyes widened with surprise.
    “Eye?”
    “Yes. The eyes of that little mammal today . . . I couldn’t have left it behind, Kai, short of mutiny, once I’d seen the frightened lost confusion in its eyes. Much less the entreaty in Bonnard’s and Cleiti’s. Those swamp horrors, they had tiny eyes, in comparison to their skull shape . . . wicked, beady, hungry eyes.” Varian shuddered in recall. “And that new predator’s eyes . . . fang-face has a wicked appetite. Of course, it isn’t a hard and fast rule—the Galormis were a hideous example of camouflaged intent. . . .”
    “You were on that expedition?”
    Varian made a face. “Yes, I was a very junior member on the team at Aldebaran 4 when those monsters were encountered. My first assignment out of xenoveterinary college. They had soft eyes, mind you,”—eyes which occasionally still haunted her sleep—“mild-looking creatures, too, softish, perfectly amenable until full dark—then—whammie!”
    “Nocturnal feeders—”
    “Bleeders! Sucked the blood and then chewed the flesh . . . like what’s been feeding on Mabel . . . no, it couldn’t be Galormis. Teeth are too big.”
    “Why on earth call it Mabel?”
    “Knew someone like her once, a walking appetite, hating the world around her, suspicious and constantly confused. Not much intelligence.”
    “What would you name the avian?”
    “I don’t know,” she said after regarding the furry face. “It isn’t easy until you’ve actually met the creature. But this species has intelligence and personality. I want to see more of them!”
    “Thought you would. Although we couldn’t tag them. They moved too fast. Kept up with the sled at cruising speed.”
    “Very good.” A yawn caught her unawares. “All this fresh air, chasing wounded animals to doctor them what don’t wish to be helped.” She stroked his cheek and gave him a regretful smile of apology. “I’m going to bed. And you ought to, too, co-leader. Sleep on our puzzles. Maybe sleep’ll solve ’em .”
    Kai could have wished it had, but he woke the next morning feeling refreshed, and the teams, when assembled, were in such good spirits that his rose, too.
    “I’ve discussed secondary camps with Varian. Until she has catalogued the habits of the predators, she can’t guarantee our safety,” said Kai, “but she’s going to set and search areas into which we can move, if we adhere to the safeguards she devises. Okay? Sorry, but you’ll understand better if you see the marks on the herbivore’s flank.” He noticed by the grim