The Green Brain (v4.0) Page 11

  Messenger units began assembling overhead, dancing the pattern to imprint it. They took off in compact groups, darting out of the cavemouth into the sunlight.

  The Brain admired the color and motion for a few minutes, then lowered its sensors, set itself to the problem of overcoming protein incompatibility.

  We must produce immediate and consequential benefits that the humans cannot fail to recognize, the Brain thought. If we can demonstrate dramatic usefulness, they may yet be brought to understand that inter-dependence is circular, inextricably entangled and a matter of life and death.

  They need us and we need them . . . but the burden of proof has fallen on us. And if we fail to prove it, this will be truly barren earth.

  ***

  "It will be dark soon, Jefe," Vierho said. "You will go then." Vierho swung the pod's canopy forward, leaned into it.

  Joao stood one step behind him, still feeling weak and plagued by occasional flash-cramps in his left leg above the energy pack. The direct feed and specialized hormones could only approximate the needs of a specific body, and Joao could feel himself half poised against strange tensions because of this treatment.

  "I have put the food and other emergency supplies here under the seat," Vierho said. "There's more food in the gigbox there in the back. You have two sprayrifles with twenty spare charges, one hard-pellet carbine. I'm sorry we have so little ammo for it. There're a dozen foamal bombs under the other seat, and I've tied a hand-spray rig into the corner back there. It's fully charged."

  Vierho straightened, glanced back at the tents. His voice fell to a conspiratorial whisper. "Jefe, I do not trust the Doctor Chen-Lhu, I heard him when he thought he was dying. This new face is not like him."

  "It's a chance we have to take," Joao said. "I still think you or one of the others who weren't as sick should go in place of me."

  "No more talk of that, Jefe, please."

  Again Vierho's voice fell to the conspiratorial whisper: "Jefe, step close to me as though we are saying goodbye."

  Joao hesitated, then obeyed. He felt something metallic and heavy pushed into the belt pocket of his uniform. The pocket sagged with it. Joao pulled his jungle jacket around to cover the sag, whispered, "What's that?"

  "It belonged to my great grandfather," Vierho said. "It is a pistol called the .475 Magnum. It has five bullets and here are two dozen more." Another packet was slipped into the side pocket of Joao's jacket. "It's not much good except against men," Vierho said.

  Joao swallowed, felt tears dampen his eyes. All the Irmandades knew the Padre carried that old blunderbuss and wouldn't part with it. The fact that he parted with it now meant he expected to die here -- likely true.

  "God go with you, Jefe," Vierho said.

  "Joao turned, looked to the river about five hundred meters away across the savannah. He could just glimpse the beach of the opposite shore, the wild growth there illuminated by the afternoon sun. The jungle lifted there in steady waves of color, its bold lines standing out in the flat light. The growth was a deep blue-green at the bottom, a sun-bleached sage at the top, and with flecks of yellow, red and ochre between. Above the green towered a candello tree with batfalcon nests cluttering the forks of its branches. A twisted screen of lianas partly obscured a wall of mata-polo trees to the left.

  "Fifteen minutes of fuel in the pod and that's all?" Joao asked.

  "Maybe a minute more, Jefe."

  We'll never make it with nothing but that river's current to move us, Joao thought.

  "Jefe, sometimes there's a wind on the river," Vierho said.

  Christ, he doesn't expect us to sail that thing, does he? Joao wondered. He looked at Vierho, saw the deep weariness in the man's face, the scarecrow emaciation.

  "That wind could cause trouble, Jefe," Vierho said. "I have used one of the pod's grapnel anchors to make a thing that will float just under the surface and provide some drag. It is called a sea anchor. It'll keep the nose of the pod into the wind."

  "That's a clever idea, Padre," Joao said.

  And he wondered: Why do we play out this farce? We're going to die here, all of us . . . either here or somewhere down that river. There were seven or eight hundred kilometers of that river -- rapids, chasms, waterfalls -- and the rainy season was almost on them. The river would become a torrential hell. And if it didn't get them, there were always the new insects, the creatures of acid and sophisticated poisons.

  "You better inspect it one more time yourself, Jefe," Vierho said. He gestured at the pod.

  Yes, anything to keep busy, to keep from thinking, Joao thought. He'd already been over it once, but another look wouldn't hurt anything. After all, their lives would depend on it . . . for awhile. Our lives!

  Joao allowed himself to wonder then if escape were possible, if there were any hope at all. This was, after all, the pod of a jungle airtruck. It could be sealed against most insects. It was designed to take abuse. I mustn't allow myself to hope, he thought. But he set himself to another inspection of the pod . . . just in case.

  The white bandeirante paint of its exterior had been washed away in patches, streaked and etched by acid. The float skids, normally long and faired extrusions of the pod's bottom curve, had been cranked out manually and locked in position. They formed a flat step up to the stub wings and into the cabin. The entire pod was just short of five and a half meters long with two meters at the rear taken up by the rocket motors. The motor complex which had nested into the discarded rear truck section was cut off flat on both sides. The pod itself was roughly oval in cross section. This left two flat half-moon surfaces which opened into the rear bulkhead of the pod's cabin. The left-side half-moon was a maze of male and female connectors which once had linked the pod to the truck section. The right side was sealed by a hatch which now opened from the cabin and down to one of the float skids.

  Joao inspected the hatch, made certain the connectors had all been sealed off, looked at the right-side float skid. A jagged rent in the side of the float had been patched with butyl and fabric.

  He could smell rocket fuel, and he knelt to peer up at the belly tank section. Vierho had siphoned out the fuel, applied a chemical hotpatch on the outside and spray-tank sealant inside, then replaced the fuel.

  "It should hold all right if you don't hit anything," Vierho said.

  Joao nodded, worked his way around, climbed up on the left stub wing and looked down into the cabin. Dual control seats forward and the padded gig-box in the rear. Spray stains were all over the interior. The interior formed a space about two meters square and two and a half meters deep. Windows in front looked down over the rounded nose. Side windows stopped at the wings forward, dipped deeper in the rear. A single transparent panel of polarizing plastic ran over the top to the rear bulkhead.

  Joao let himself down into the command seat on the left, checked the manual controls. They felt loose and sluggish. New fuel-monitoring and firing controls had been installed with crude, hand-lettered labels.

  Vierho spoke at his shoulder.

  "I had to use whatever was available, Jefe. There was not much. I'm glad these IEO people were such fools."

  "Hmmm?" Joao spoke absently as he continued his examination.

  "When they left their truck, they took tents, I would've taken more weapons. But the tents gave me the new guy cables and fabric for patches."

  Joao finished tracing the fuel controls. "No automatic demand valves on the fuel lines," he said.

  "They couldn't be repaired, Jefe -- but you don't have much fuel anyway."

  "Enough to blow us all to hell -- or run away with us if it gets out of hand."

  "That's why I put the big knob there, Jefe; I told you about that. On and off in short bursts -- no problem."

  "Unless I accidentally give it too big a drink."

  "Underneath there, Jefe: the piece of wood, that's the stop I put in. I tested it with containers under the fuel injectors. You won't have a very fast ship . . . but it's enough."

  "Fiftee
n minutes," Joao mused.

  "That's just a guess, Jefe."

  "I know -- maybe a hundred and fifty kilometers if everything works as it's supposed to; a hundred and fifty meters with us spread all over if it doesn't."

  "A hundred and fifty kilometers," Vierho said. "You wouldn't even be halfway to civilization."

  "No argument," Joao said. "I was just thinking out loud."

  "Well, is everything ready to go?" Chen-Lhu's voice boomed up at them full of false heartiness. Joao looked down to see the man standing near the tip of the left wing, his body bent over with the appearance of weakness. Joao had just about decided Chen-Lhu's weakness was appearance only.

  He was the first to recover, Joao thought. He's had more time to regain his strength. But . . . he was closer to death. Maybe I'm just imagining things.

  "Is it ready or isn't it?" Chen-Lhu asked.

  "I hope so," Joao said.

  "There's danger?"

  "It'll be like a Sunday ride in the park," Joao said.

  "Is it time to come aboard?"

  Joao looked at the shadows stretching out from the tents, the orange cast of the sunlight. He found he was having difficulty breathing, knew this for tension. Joao took a deep breath, found a level of hesitant calm within himself; not relaxed, certainly, but with fear held at bay.

  Vierho answered for Joao: "Twenty minutes, more or less, Senhor Doctor." He patted Joao's shoulder. "Jefe, my prayers go with you."

  "You sure you wouldn't rather take my place, Padre?"

  "We will not discuss it, Jefe." Vierho stepped down off the float skid.

  Rhin Kelly emerged from her lab tent with a small bag in her left hand, crossed to stand beside Chen-Lhu.

  "About twenty minutes, my dear," Chen-Lhu said.

  "I'm not at all sure I should have a place in that thing," she said. "One of the others might give you a . . ."

  "It has been decided," Chen-Lhu said, and he put angry sharpness in his voice. The fool woman! Why can't she let well enough alone? No one will permit you to stay," he said. Besides, my dear Rhin, I may need you to sway that Brazilian. This Joao Martinho will have to be played very carefully. A woman sometimes can do that better than a man.

  "I'm still not sure," she said.

  Chen-Lhu looked up at Joao. "Perhaps you should speak to her, Johnny. Surely you don't want to leave her here."

  Here or there -- not much difference, Joao thought. But he said, "As you say: the decision already has been made. You'd better get aboard and fasten your safety harness."

  "Where do you want us?" Chen-Lhu asked.

  "You in back; you're heavier," Joao said. "I don't think we'll get off the ground before we hit the river, but we might. I want us nose high."

  "Do you want us both in back?" Rhin asked. And she realized then that she had agreed with their decision. Why not? she asked herself, not realizing she shared Joao's pessimism.

  "Jefe?"

  Joao looked down at Vierho, who'd just completed a final examination of the undercarriage.

  Rhin and Chen-Lhu went around to the right side, began climbing in.

  "How does it look?" Joao asked.

  "Try to hold it up on that left skid a little, Jefe," Vierho said. "That might help."

  "Right."

  Rhin began strapping herself into the bucket seat beside him.

  "We'll send help as soon as we can," Joao said, sensing how empty and useless the words were as soon as he spoke them.

  "Of course, Jefe."

  Vierho stepped back, readied a bomb thrower.

  Thome and the others came out of the tents, loaded with weapons, began setting them up on the side facing the river.

  No good-byes, Joao thought. Yes, that's best. Treat this as routine, just another flight.

  "Rhin, what's in that little overnight bag you brought?" Chen-Lhu asked.

  "Personal things . . . and . . ." She swallowed. "Some of the men gave me some letters to take."

  "Ahhh," Chen-Lhu said, "an appropriate and touching bit of sentimentality."

  "What's wrong with it?" Joao growled.

  "Nothing," Chen-Lhu said. "That's just it: nothing is wrong with it."

  Vierho returned to the wingtip, said, "Just as we planned, Jefe -- when you give the signal that you're ready, we'll lay down a foamal barrage along your path. That should stall them long enough for you to make it onto the river, and it'll make the grass out there more slippery."

  Joao nodded, began, rehearsing the flight routine in his mind. None of the switches were exactly where they should be. Igniter to the left now; throttle knob jutting from the dash instead of on the floor between the seats.

  He set the trim tabs, adjusted the feather-slots in the ailerons.

  A pre-dark hush had fallen over the savannah. The grass stretched out ahead of them like a green sea. The river out there was only about fifty meters across: a narrow path for him to hit if the pod got up too much speed. There'd be no dusk at this latitude and altitude, Joao knew. He'd have to gauge his moment carefully, using the last of the light for the dash across the savannah -- and darkness to shield them once they hit the river.

  A fifteen-meter range for those acid-shooting insects, Joao thought. That only leaves us a narrow strip down the middle if they attack from shore. And God alone knows what other forms they may be able to hit us with -- flying creatures, water skaters . . .

  "Stand by with sprayrifles as soon as we're safely on the river," he said. "They may mount on all-out attack once they see us trying to escape."

  "We'll be ready," Chen-Lhu said. "The rifles are in this gig-box under me, not so?"

  "Right."

  Joao lowered the canopy, sealed it. "This model has self-sealing rifle ports on both sides where the windows dip just behind the wings," he said. "See them?"

  "Clever design," Chen-Lhu said.

  "Vierho's idea," Joao said. "It's in all our pods." He waved to Vierho, who returned to the bomb thrower.

  Joao turned on the pod's landing lights.

  All the men saw the signal; a shower of rifle spray arched out toward the river. Foamal bombs began landing along the track they'd take.

  Joao punched the igniter, saw the safety light go on. He waited, counting three seconds before the light dimmed and went out. Not too bad, he thought, and he eased the throttle knob ahead.

  The rocket motors came on with a jarring blast that had them over the perimeter ditch and roaring toward the river before Joao could ease off the feed. With a sense of breathless shock, he realized they were airborne. The pod felt sluggish, though, and with a tendency to fishtail -- too much drag from the floats. They weren't meant to be left out there in flight.

  There was no time for flying niceties, though. Joao wrenched the nose around, aimed for a stretch of river where the savannah blended into jungle on both sides. The river was a long pool there, wider, pointing toward blue hills in the background. There came a moment of gliding suspense. Floats touched the river in a cushioned bounce . . . up, down . . . spray on both sides . . . slower, slower.

  The nose came down.

  It was only then that Joao remembered he had to favor the right side float.

  The pod was still making forward speed, but coasting slower and slower.

  Joao held his breath, wondering if the patch had been torn off, waiting for the right side to start its tipping plunge into the river.

  The pod remained level.

  "Have we made it?" Rhin asked. "Are we really out of there?"

  "I think so," Joao said, and he cursed the surge of hope that had accompanied that brief flight.

  Chen-Lhu passed sprayrifles forward, said, "We seem to've caught them by surprise. Ah, ah! Look back!"

  Joao whirled as far as his safety harness would permit, looked back across the savannah. Where the distant cluster of tents had been there now rolled a gray mound that heaved and extruded odd protuberances which flailed and subsided.

  With a shudder, Joao realized the mound was composed of bil
lions of insects overwhelming the camp.

  An eddy caught the pod, turned it away from the scene as though some instinct within Joao controlled the motion to remove from view a thing he no longer could bear to see. For a moment the river shimmered ahead of him with a glassy orange haze. Then night blotted the view. The sky became a luminous silver with a thin slice of moon.