Free Ireta 02 - [Dinosaur Planet 02] - Dinosaur Planet Survivors by Anne McCaffrey

to it. However, let’s give the giffs a life span similar to the Ryxi’s . . .”
    “They don’t like comparisons—” Lunzie remarked.
    “Say, sixty to seventy years Standard.”
    “We could have slept sixty to seventy years, or six hundred. You’d have thought Kai would insist on knowing how long he’d slept.”
    “You know that Thek don’t reckon time in our measurements. Even if Kai had asked, would he have received a comprehensible answer?”
    Triv regarded Lunzie’s sour expression with a bemused smile on his face. “You do dislike the Thek, don’t you?”
    “I would dislike any species that set itself up as an infallible authority on anything and everything.” A sharp gesture of Lunzie’s arm dismissed the noble Thek with no courtesy. “I don’t trust ’em. And this,” her hand lowered toward Kai, feverishly twisting his head and trying to free his arms from the restraint of the sheet, “is one immediate reason why.”
    “We’ve been taught to respect and revere them,” Triv began.
    Lunzie snorted. “Typical xenob training. You can’t help it, but you can learn from mistakes!”
    Kai began to thresh in earnest, loosening the cocoon they had wrapped about him.
    “Sap time!” Lunzie said, reaching for the leaves. “This medication is effective for an hour and a half. I wish I knew if there were side effects to prolonged application. I wish I had something to work with . . .” Lunzie’s tone was fierce but her hands were gentle in their ministrations.
    “What do you need?” Varian asked quietly.
    “The small microscope plus the metal medicine container that Tanegli made off with!”
    “I know the console was blinking its red head off, but none of the warning lights was steady,” Varian said. “I’ll take a look tomorrow. Portegin had enough tools to make that homing beacon, and I’m a fair mechanic when pushed. A few matrices may just have loosened in that hard landing. I remember the coordinates of all the camps . . . as if it were yesterday. . . .” Varian caught Lunzie’s eyes and laughed. Lunzie’s gaze was cynical. “Well, the last thing the heavyworlders would be expecting is a raid by one of us.”
    “Do the bastards good to get shaken out of their sagging skins,” the physician said. “If any of the original ones are still alive.”
    “A bit daunting to think they might all be safely in their graves, or whatever they do,” said Triv, “and us alive and kicking.”
    “You get used to it,” Lunzie said sourly.
    “What?” asked Varian. “The kicking or still being alive when everyone else you know has long since been dead?” With those words Varian faced that possibility for the first time since she had awakened.
    “Both,” was Lunzie’s cryptic reply.
    “I’ll have a go at fixing the sled first light tomorrow.”
    “I’ll give you a hand,” Triv said.
    “Then you,” and Lunzie pointed at Triv, “can take first watch with Kai tonight.” She was wringing out another cloth to place on Kai’s forehead. “I’m tired.”
    Varian gave the physician a searching look. Yes, Lunzie was tired of many things. Tired, resigned, but not defeated.
    “Wake me for the next watch, Triv.” Varian hauled the thermal blanket over her shoulders and was asleep almost before she could pillow her head on her arm.
    Varian woke Lunzie at first light when Kai’s temperature began to rise.
    “That’s the way of fevers,” Lunzie told her, checking her patient. “Some of the punctures are completely closed. That’s good.” Lunzie offered Kai juice which he thirstily gulped. “That’s good, too.”
    Varian went over to Triv and was about to wake him when Lunzie intervened.
    “Can you manage without him? He needs more rest than he’ll let on.”
    “I’ll call if I need help, then.” Varian equipped herself with Portegin’s few tools and shinnied up the vine to the cliff top.
    First she had to empty the sled of the rainwater that had accumulated even in