Lady Lure (13 page)

“Perri!” Halvo’s shout nearly broke her
eardrums as she emerged into the open. “If you do not respond in
ten seconds, I am coming after you!”

“You needn’t bother. I am safe. I’m sorry you
were worried about me,” she said, though privately she was touched
by his concern. “I think the thickness of the rock cut off the
transmissions between us. Halvo, I have found a place for us.”

“Describe it.” There was a definite note of
relief in his voice. Perri smiled to herself as she complied with
his order.

“It sounds fine. We don’t have much time left
before the temperature drops well below zero,” Halvo said. “I want
you to stand outside the cave entrance and point your lamp toward
the ship. Don’t ask questions. Just do it.”

Perri obeyed. Since she was facing away from
the cliffs and toward the flat plain at the center of the crater,
she could see how far outward the shadows had advanced while she
had been exploring. The sun was sinking rapidly and the
Space
Dragon,
which on landing had stopped just outside the edge of
the shadows, was so completely enveloped in darkness that Perri
could barely make out its location. She lifted her left arm,
directing the beam, and the light shone on a swirl of orange flames
being belched out by the dragon painted on the side of the
ship.

Through her feet she could feel the vibration
of the
Space Dragon’s
thrusters starting. Slowly the ship
began to move toward her, skimming just above the surface of the
ground. It stopped with the exit hatch facing Perri, just a short
distance away from her, in a spot where it would be well concealed
both day and night within the shadows cast by the cliffs.

“Come back inside the ship,” Halvo said when
the thrusters were silent once more. “But keep your helmet on. You
aren’t going to stay long.”

Perri made two trips between the ship and the
cave she had found. Each time, she carried to the cave the supplies
Halvo collected while she was gone. On her third visit to the ship
Halvo announced that he was ready to leave.

“I am going to run to the cave,” he said, as
if there were nothing at all unusual in a man with a bad back and
bouts of vertigo attempting to race uphill across crumbly soil.

“You’re mad!” Perri cried. “Halvo, it is
already bitterly cold outside and my sensor tells me the air
pressure at this altitude is just barely within acceptable limits
for a human.”

“Without a space suit that fits me, what else
can I do?” he asked. “I will take a couple of deep breaths inside
the ship and then run as fast as I can. It shouldn’t be much worse
than a high dive into cold water. All you have to do is see me out
the hatch, after which you are to close and seal it as you go
through.”

“I can’t leave Rolli behind,” Perri said.

“We cannot take the robot!” he said. “From
what you have said, Rolli’s body is too big to squeeze it through
the slot in the ice.”

“If the temperature inside the ship tonight
is going to be low enough to freeze us to death,” Perri said, “then
it may also be low enough to damage Rolli’s main circuitry. We are
going to need the information stored in there, Halvo.”

“You do have a point,” he said, “and I have
sent some other temperature-sensitive equipment to the cave in
those bundles you carried out of here. But only Rolli’s head goes,
along with a kit of tools, so I can work on the circuitry before we
come back to the ship.” Disappearing into the aft portion of the
Space Dragon,
Halvo reappeared a minute or two later with a
sheet from one of the beds. Into it he placed Rolli’s head and the
special tools he would need. Slinging the bundle over his shoulder,
Halvo stepped to the exit hatch. There he paused to look
around.

“All you need to do after I leave is make
certain the hatch is properly sealed so the air in here won’t seep
out,” he said.

“I know what to do. Halvo,” Perri said, “take
care. Get into that cave as quickly as you can. And do not, under
any circumstances, stop to wait for me or come back to help me. I
promise you I will be all right.”

“You are no mean officer yourself,” he said
with a grin that warmed her heart. Then he was gone from the ship
and Perri quickly finished her last tasks aboard so she could
follow him.

Halvo had moved the
Space Dragon
so
close to the cliffs that he did not have to run any great distance,
and as Perri hurried forward she could see his light ahead of her
in the all-encompassing darkness.

She caught up with him in the narrow fissure,
just before the ice ended and the rock began. He was gasping for
breath, struggling to move on, and Perri could see he was dizzy and
possibly disoriented by lack of air. She pushed him into the rock
corridor, shoving at his back with all her strength. Halvo burst
into the wider opening, stumbling and dropping to his knees.

The sheet containing Rolli’s head and the
tools fell to the ground. The corners of the sheet pulled apart,
releasing the contents. The tools stayed where they landed, but
Rolli’s head went bouncing and rolling downward along the slope of
the corridor. Perri ran after the head, awkward in her space suit,
trying not to damage the suit since it was all the protection they
had against the extremes of temperature and the inadequate air
pressure outside the cave.

Rolli’s head came to rest against a curve in
the corridor wall. Perri bent to retrieve it. When she straightened
up, the light still attached to her arm shone into the
distance.

In the blackness beyond the edge of the wall
something moved and gleamed softly. Swallowing her fear, Perri
advanced a step and directed the light ahead of her.

It was a liquid that had reflected her light.
Setting Rolli’s head down again, Perri used her hand sensor to
check the composition of the liquid. It was a large pool of water,
filtered through the rock and as pure as water could be, though it
was so cold it was almost ice. In contrast to the damp outer
corridor, a smooth little niche in the high-roofed inner chamber
was dry and had a reddish-brown, sandy floor that made a tiny beach
where it met the pool.

Perri returned to the outer corridor in
triumph, carrying Rolli’s head and eager to tell Halvo of her
findings. He was sitting propped against the wall, breathing
deeply. His face was moist from the trickling water he had just
gathered in one hand and splashed onto himself.

“Did you catch Rolli?” he asked.

“Yes, and I discovered something wonderful.”
Placing the robot’s head on the sheet, Perri eased off her gloves.
Then, with her fingers working at the fastenings of her helmet, she
sank down beside Halvo.

“You looked so funny,” he said, “running
downhill, chasing poor Rolli as if that metal head were a ball
about to bounce out of your reach.” Leaning his own head back
against the rock, he began to laugh.

“I don’t think it was funny at all,” Perri
said sternly. Pulling off her helmet she added it to the sheet next
to Rolli’s head. “Rolli could have been damaged beyond repair.
Worse, if I had fallen, the space suit could have been torn.”

“If it had been, we would have discovered a
way to repair it – or to do without it. I am beginning to think you
and I together can overcome most problems.”

“Are you sure you are all right?” Perri was
startled by his humor and by his too casual response to her remarks
about the space suit. “I was afraid you were going to die there,
just at the entrance, before you reached the good air.”

“Thanks to your timely shove, I am rapidly
recovering from oxygen depletion and from the euphoria that goes
with it. The feeling is rather like the altitude sickness a
mountain climber suffers when he ventures too high. A few more deep
breaths and I will be fine. Since you don’t need it in here, you
ought to take that entire suit off. We can fold it and store it
there in the sheet. Shall I help you with the seals? Those boots
can be awkward to remove.”

“Please.” Perri held out first one foot, then
the other. With an upwelling of emotion, she regarded Halvo’s head
bent to his task. It was all she could do to keep herself from
stroking his thick dark hair. When he looked up at her, his gray
eyes shining, she almost believed that he felt a similar urge to
touch her. To distract her thoughts she told him about her
discovery of a pool of water.

“It appears to be a dry chamber,” she said,
finishing her description a few minutes later. “Perhaps we could
make our camp there.”

“All right.” With a steadying hand on the
rock wall Halvo pushed himself to his feet. To her confusion, Perri
could detect no emotion in his voice and his face was closed to
her, his eyes suddenly cool. “Hand me a couple of bundles to carry
and lead the way.”

They had four blankets with which to make
their beds, Pern’s hand weapon, the tools Halvo would use to work
on Rolli’s head, and several pieces of ship’s equipment he had
disconnected and brought along.

“Heat won’t be a problem for the ship itself
since we are parked in permanent shadow,” Halvo said, piling the
equipment on the spread-out sheet to keep it away from the sand,
“but these are extra-sensitive items.”

“Where did you find these packets?” While
unrolling one of the blankets, Perri had just uncovered packages of
compressed food. “I didn’t know these were aboard. We could have
eaten them.”

“Then it’s a good thing we didn’t know about
them until I started rummaging through the stores a couple of hours
ago. We will have to ration ourselves until the food processor is
repaired once more, but at least we won’t starve for a while.”

“But Rolli told me all of our food must come
from the processor.” Perri began stacking the packets into a neat
pile.

“Perhaps these stores were left aboard after
the last time the
Space Dragon
was used,” Halvo said. “I,
for one, do not intend to question our good luck. There is nothing
on this planet that we could eat, so I am glad to have our own
supply of food.”

“I believe you when you say it is as safe a
place as we will find,” Perri said, “but I do not like this world.
It is entirely lifeless. During my explorations my sensors never
registered so much as a microbe.” She moved a little closer to
Halvo as she spoke, seeking the only other source of life on that
barren planet. To her dismay, Halvo immediately stepped to the
other side of the sheet upon which they were arranging their
supplies.

“All the more reason to make our repairs and
get away as quickly as possible,” Halvo said, studying their meager
belongings. “I also found a small heater. With it we can warm the
air and feast on hot food. Then you ought to rest while I work on
Rolli. As soon as the temperature begins to rise just before dawn,
we have to go back to the ship and start the repairs.”

“Halvo, are you angry with me?” Perri asked.
“Have I done something wrong?”

“Not at all. You have performed remarkably
well. Now, if you would just fill this container with water, I will
set up the heater and we can eat.” He was careful not to touch her
fingers when she took the container from him, and he did not look
directly at her.

“Be sure to fill it only half full,” he
said.

“Stop giving me orders!” Baffled by Halvo’s
behavior, Perri could only snap at him.

“Sorry. The habit is hard to break.” Standing
with the portable heater in one hand and a packet of compressed
food in the other, Halvo appeared to be searching for something in
the collection of gear laid out on the sheet.

To Perri, it seemed that he was avoiding her
eyes. When she approached him with the container of water, he moved
away again, motioning to her to put it on the ground.

“Why don’t you want me to touch you?” she
asked.

“This is a subject you would do well not to
pursue.” He spoke as if he expected her to understand his meaning,
but Perri did not understand.

“Why, Halvo?” Not to be denied, Perri went to
him with determined strides and took his arm. The eyes he finally
turned upon her blazed with an emotion she did not recognize. Perri
took a step backward, but she did not let go of his arm.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know,” he said. “It
has been perfectly obvious. On the ship, with Rolli in working
order and all the doors jammed open, it was difficult enough to
keep some control. Here, alone with you, it is going to be far
harder than I imagined. But if I do what I want, it would not be
fair to you, Perri. You are so much younger than I, and I don’t
think you have had much experience along these lines. Nor do I want
to bind you to me when you have just been freed to live your own
life.

“So, my dear,” Halvo said pointing across the
chamber, “you will sleep over there, against the rock wall, while I
sit here to work on Rolli, as far away from you as I can possibly
get inside this cave.”

“Now I understand.” Comprehension flooded
over Perri. She had loathed what she must do for Elyr each time he
appeared in her bedchamber, but for Halvo, she would not mind. For
Halvo, it would be a pleasure. Perri did not pause to think what
that difference in her attitude meant. Her only concern was to put
Halvo at ease. “Forgive my denseness. I should have recognized the
symptoms. It is time for your manly need to make you
uncomfortable.”

“My what?” Halvo stared at her as if he could
not believe his ears.

“You do not have to feel embarrassed,” she
assured him. “I can relieve your discomfort. On the night of my
sixteenth birthday, Elyr showed me how to pleasure a man.”

“Did he?” There was a note of steel in
Halvo’s voice. Very deliberately, he bent and put down the food
packet and the heater. He kept his face turned away from Pern’s
sight for a few moments.

“Yes,” she said eagerly. “I know exactly what
to do. I have become more expert since that first time. Halvo, it
would be an honor to serve you in that way.”