Free Uncharted Territory by Connie Willis

no wrong, even if he’d just caught us red-handed.
    “Well, thanks,” I said and wondered exactly how smart he was and what explanation I could get away with. “Carson and I had things we needed to discuss, and we didn’t want Big Brother listening.”
    “It’s a gatecrasher, isn’t it? That’s why the expedition left in such a hurry and why you keep running whereabouts when there isn’t supposed to be anybody but us on the planet. You think somebody’s illegally opened a gate. Is that why Bult’s leading us south, to try to keep us from catching him?”
    “I don’t know what Bult’s doing,” I said. “He could have kept us away from a gatecrasher by crossing where we were this morning and leading us up along the Wall past Silvershim Creek. He didn’t have to drag us clear down here. Besides,” I said, looking at Bult, who was down by the Tongue with Carson and the ponies, “he doesn’t like Wulfmeier. Why would he try to protect him?”
    “Wulfmeier?” Ev said, sounding excited. “Is that who it is?”
    “You know Wulfmeier?”
    “Of course. From the pop-ups,” he said.
    Well, I should have known.
    “What do you think he’s doing?” Ev said. “Trading with the indigenous sentients? Mining?”
    “I don’t think he’s doing anything. I got a verify this morning that he’s on Starting Gate.”
    “Oh,” he said, disappointed. In the pop-ups we must have gone after gatecrashers with lasers blasting. “But you want to go there just to make sure?”
    “If Bult ever lets us cross the Tongue,” I said.
    Carson came stomping up. “I ask Bult if it’s safe to water the ponies, and he pretends to look in the water and says, ‘tssi mitss nah,’ so I say, ‘Well, fine, since there aren’t any tssi mitss, we can cross first thing in the morning,’ and he hands me a pair of dice and says, ‘Sahthh. Brik lilla fahr.’” He squatted down and rummaged in his pack. “My shit, ‘lilla fahr’ is practically in the Ponypiles.” He glared at the mountains. “What on hell is he up to? And don’t give me that stuff about fines.” He pulled out the water analysis kit and straightened up. “He’s got enough already to buy himself a different planet. Fin, did you get that aerial of the Wall from C.J. yet?”
    “I was just calling her,” I said. He stomped off, and I went over to the transmitter.
    “What can I do?” Ev said, tagging after me like a shuttlewren. “Should I gather some wood for a fire?”
    I looked at him.
    “Don’t tell me,” he said, catching my expression. “There’s a fine for gathering wood.”
    “And starting a fire with advanced technology, and burning indigenous flora,” I said. “We usually try to wait till Bult gets cold and builds one.”
    Bult didn’t show any signs of getting cold, even though the wind over the Ponypiles that had sent that dust tantrum into us had a chill to it, and after supper he gave Carson some more dice and then went off and sat under his umbrella out by the ponies.
    “What on hell’s he doing now?” Carson said.
    “He probably went to get the battery-powered heater he bought last expedition,” I said, rubbing my hands together. “Tell us some more about mating customs, Ev. Maybe a little sex’ll warm us up.”
    “Speaking of which, Evie, have you figured out which brand Bult is yet?” Carson said.
    As near as I could tell, Ev hadn’t so much as looked at Bult since we started, except when Bult was snacking on the shuttlewren, but he spoke right up.
    “Male,” he said.
    “How do you figure that?” Carson said, and I was wondering, too. If it was table manners he was going by, that wasn’t any sign. Every indidge I’d seen ate like that, and most of them didn’t bother about taking the feathers off first.
    “His acquisitive behavior,” Ev said. “Collecting and hoarding property is a typical male courtship behavior.”
    “I thought collecting stuff was a female behavior,” I said. “What about all those diamonds