CHAPTER III
"I'd never have guessed yesterday that I'd be here today," Kennon saidas he looked down at the yellow waters of the Xantline Sea flashing tothe rear of the airboat at a steady thousand kilometers per hour as theysped westward in the middle traffic level. The water, some ten thousandmeters below, had been completely empty for hours as the craft hurtledthrough the equatorial air.
"We have to move fast to stay ahead of our ulcers," Alexander saidwith a wry smile. "Besides, I wanted to get away from the Albertsvilleoffices for awhile."
"Three hours' notice," Kennon said. "That's almost too fast."
"You had nothing to keep you in the city, and neither did I--at leastnothing important. There are plenty of females where we are going andI need you on Flora--not in Albertsville. Besides I can get you therefaster than if you waited for a company transport."
"Judging from those empty sea lanes below, Flora must be anout-of-the-way place," Kennon said.
"It is. It's out of the trade lanes. Most of the commercial traffic isin the southern hemisphere. The northern hemisphere is practicallyall water. Except for Flora and the Otpens there isn't a land area fornearly three thousand kilometers in any direction, and since the companyowns Flora and the surrounding island groups there's no reason forshipping to come there. We have our own supply vessels, a DiscoveryCharter, and a desire for privacy.--Ah! It won't be long now. There'sthe Otpens!" Alexander pointed at a smudge on the horizon that quicklyresolved into an irregular chain of tiny islets that slipped below them.Kennon got a glimpse of gray concrete on one of the larger islands, asmudge of green trees, and white beaches against which the yellow watersdashed in smothers of foam.
"Rugged-looking place," he murmured.
"Most of them are deserted. Two support search and warning stations andautomatic interceptors to protect our property. Look!--there's Flora."Alexander gestured at the land mass that appeared below.
Flora was a great green oval two hundred kilometers long and about ahundred wide.
"Pretty, isn't it?" Alexander said as they sped over the low rangeof hills and the single gaunt volcano filling the eastward end ofthe island and swept over a broad green valley dotted with fieldsand orchards interspersed at intervals by red-roofed structures whosepurpose was obvious.
"Our farms," Alexander said redundantly. The airboat crossed afair-sized river. "That's the Styx," Alexander said. "Grandfather namedit. He was a classicist in his way--spent a lot of his time readingbooks most people never heard of. Things like the Iliad and Gone withthe Wind. The mountains he called the Apennines, and that volcano'sMount Olympus. The marshland to the north is called the PontineMarshes--our main road is the Camino Real." Alexander grinned. "There'sa lot of Earth on Flora. You'll find it in every name. Grandfatherwas an Earthman and he used to get nostalgic for the homeworld.Well--there's Alexandria coming up. We've just about reached the end ofthe line."
Kennon stared down at the huge gray-green citadel resting on a smallhill in the center of an open plain. It was a Class II Fortalice builton the efficient star-shaped plan of half a millennium ago--an uglyspiky pile of durilium, squat and massive with defensive shields andweapons which could still withstand hours of assault by the most modernforces.
"Why did he build a thing like that?" Kennon asked.
"Alexandria?--well, we had trouble with the natives when we first came,and Grandfather had a synthesizer and tapes for a Fortalice in hisship. So he built it. It serves the dual purpose of base and house. It'smostly house now, but it's still capable of being defended."
"And those outbuildings?"
"They're part of your job."
The airboat braked sharply and settled with a smooth, sickeninglyswift rush that left Kennon gasping--feeling that his stomach was stillfloating above him in the middle level. He never had become accustomedto an arbutus landing characteristics. Spacers were slower and steadier.The ship landed gently on a pitted concrete slab near the massiveradiation shields of the barricaded entranceway to the fortress.Projectors in polished dually turrets swivelled to point their uglynoses at them. It gave Kennon a queasy feeling. He never liked to trusthis future to automatic machinery. If the analyzers failed to decode theship's I.D. properly, Kennon, Alexander, the ship, and a fair slice ofsurrounding territory would become an incandescent mass of dissociatedatoms.
"Grandfather was a good builder," Alexander, said proudly. "Thoseprojectors have been mounted nearly four hundred years and they're stillas good as the day they were installed."
"I can see that," Kennon said uncomfortably. "You ought to dismantlethem. They're enough to give a man the weebies."
Alexander chuckled. "Oh--they're safe. The firing mechanism's safetied.But we keep them in operating condition. You never can tell when they'llcome in handy."
"I knew Kardon was primitive, but I didn't think it was that bad. What'sthe trouble?"
"None--right now," Alexander said obliquely, "and since we've shown wecan handle ourselves there probably won't be any more."
"You must raise some pretty valuable stock if the competition tried torustle them in the face of that armament."
"We do." Alexander said. "Now if you'll follow me"--the entrepreneuropened the cabin door letting in a blast of heat and a flood of yellowsunlight.
"Great Arthur Fleming!" Kennon exploded. "This place is a furnace!"
"It's hot out here on the strip," Alexander admitted, "but its coolenough inside. Besides, you'll get used to this quickly enough--andthe nights are wonderful. The evening rains cool things off. Well--comealong." He began walking toward the arched entrance to the greatbuilding some hundred meters away. Kennon followed looking aroundcuriously. So this was to be his home for the next five years? It didn'tlook particularly inviting. There was a forbidding air about the placethat was in stark contrast to its pleasant surroundings.
They were only a few meters from the archway when a stir of movementcame from its shadow--the first life Kennon had seen since theydescended from the ship. In this furnace heat even the air was quiet.Two women came out of the darkness, moving with quiet graceful stepsacross the blistering hot concrete. They were naked except for aloincloth, halter, and sandals and so nearly identical in form andfeature that Kennon took them to be twins. Their skins were burned adeep brown that glistened in the yellow sun light.
Kennon shrugged. It was none of his business how his employer ran hishousehold or what his servants wore or didn't wear. Santos was a planetof nudists, and certainly this hot sun was fully as brilliant as the onewhich warmed that tropical planet In fact, he could see some virtue inwearing as little as possible. Already he was perspiring.
The two women walked past them toward the airboat. Kennon turned tolook at them and noticed with surprise that they weren't human. The longtails curled below their spinal bases were adequate denials of humanancestry.
"Humanoids!" he gasped. "For a moment I thought-"
"Gave you a start-eh?" Alexander chuckled. "It always does when astranger sees a Lani for the first time. Well--now you've seen some ofthe livestock what do you think of them?"
"I think you should have hired a medic."
Alexander shook his head. "No--it wouldn't be reason able or legal.You're the man for the job."
"But I've no experience with humanoid types. We didn't cover that phasein our studies--and from their appearance they'd qualify as humansanywhere if it weren't for those tails!"
"They're far more similar than you think," Alexander said. "It just goesto show what parallel evolution can do. But there are differences."
"I never knew that there was indigenous humanoid life on Kardon," Kennoncontinued. "The manual says nothing about it."
"Naturally. They're indigenous only to this area."