Free Jaydium by Deborah J. Ross Page B

granules.
    They went on for a while, deeper into the crowded heart of the city. Some of the courtyards were sunken, accessible only by ramps. After a while they no longer exclaimed at each new building, as if their capacity for awe had gone numb with overload.
    Eril knelt and picked up a fist-sized piece of flame-colored glass shaped like an elongated teardrop. Was it a sculpture, a thing of deliberate beauty, or only a fragment that happened to have a pleasing form?
    Straightening up, he saw the sun had begun to dip behind the horizon. A chilly, moisture-laden breeze sprang up, whistling eerily between the towers. The crystal buildings seemed even colder and less human as daylight left the sky.

Chapter 9
    Eril unfolded Kithri’s micropore emergency blanket and spread out their meager supplies while she went in search of dead wood for a fire. He added the contents of his own pack to the pile and sat back to contemplate the situation. The food supply was meager, just the lunch leftovers and emergency rations, his and Kithri’s. They could find water in the forest but they had no purification unit or anything to hunt with, except the force whip and stungun. Prudently, they should return to their own Stayman tomorrow. Given that he didn’t know exactly how to get there, they ought to be trying right now instead of preparing for a camp-out.
    Just one night won’t hurt anything, Eril told himself, knowing full well that he was rationalizing. The truth was that he wanted the city to himself for a little longer, before it swarmed with Federation scientists.
    Lennart hunkered down beside him, looked over the assembled gear and said something incomprehensible. Eril pointed to the variable-insulation fabric. “Blanket.”
    â€œBee-ann.” Lennart nodded and grinned.
    â€œNo, no, you’re saying it all wrong. The word has an L and a K . Blan-ket. Say it, Blan-ket.”
    Kithri dropped a double armful of fallen wood next to them. It rattled like dry bones as it hit a patch of bare earth. She scowled. “Don’t patronize him.”
    â€œI was just —”
    â€œHe’s not an idiot. He knows what you mean.” She brushed off her hands and set them on her hips.
    â€œWe’ve got to understand each other better,” Eril said. “Since there’s two of us and one of him, it makes more sense for him to learn our dialect.”
    â€œSokay, pal,” said Lennart. “Doanfi vermee. Telps f’yoo tak slow, buh nawso bad. I gih the gennel driff.”
    Kithri turned her back on both of them and began making the campfire.
    Eril pointed to the force whip. “Do you know what this is?”
    Lennart shook his head. He looked troubled when Eril explained that it was a weapon. “Yoofol kep, yoofol yooz,” he said, shaking his head. “No thin, no tall, no damm guh! Nessep — whar! Unnerstan?”
    After a moment’s uncomfortable silence, Eril went through the assembled items, naming each one and watching the spaceman’s response, either recognition or puzzlement. As he did so, he sorted them into items better stored away for safekeeping and those needed at hand. The water in particular would have to be rationed until they could find a safe source.
    Lennart pointed towards the place where Kithri had set the guardsafe-field. “Is wazz?”
    â€œA device,” Eril answered, “for hiding something valuable, keeping it from being stolen. You understand?”
    â€œHies reel weh, yoono. I can see a thin. Whuzzo valla? Hoo’d stee sumthin tauheer?”
    â€œSorry, I don’t understand.”
    Lennart took a deep breath. “Whuh — arr — yoofol — hie?”
    â€œNothing much, only a half-load of jaydium.”
    â€œEril!” Kithri whirled around from the newly lit fire. She’d used her stungun to ignite the tinder and now she waved it in his direction. “That’s my jaydium!”
    â€œWhat is he