Free H.M. Hoover - Lost Star by H. M. Hoover

something lying on the grass. She could hear Dr. Farr repeating over and over, "Don't touch them! Don't touch them!"
    Scotty was standing apart from the crowd, looking up toward the camp, as if waiting for something. Following her line of sight, Lian saw one of the airtrucks lift off and head toward the dig. It was setting down by the time she was close enough to the linguist to be heard.
    "What happened?" she called over the rush of air-jets.
    "Accident," Scotty answered. "They're going to be flown into the medical center at Limai."
    If the medicom couldn't handle it, that meant a severe injury. "Who?"
    "Two tolats," Scotty said. "They hit something with the drills. It threw them up there." She sounded incredulous.
    There was a break in the crowd, and Lian saw the victims. They lay with their bowllike bodies resting on top of the sod piles. Their eye stalks dangled; their eight legs hung as limp as chitinous-sheathed legs could hang. What made Lian take a deep breath was the injured tolats' color. Instead of their normal gleaming pink and white, they were a pallid ivory.
    "What threw them up there?" she asked.
    "We think a massive electrical charge, from that." Dr. Scott pointed to the black boxlike building they had been working on. "But we can't get any power reading on it now. We thought they'd cut a power line, but there's no penetration."
    "The computer," Lian whispered to herself. "That's why the dials jumped!"
    "What? I can't hear you."
    "I was just wondering if they were going to be O.K."
    "We don't know. Dr. Farr and Tsri Zahr are going with them to Limai. Not that those poor creatures will know they have company."
    Lian nodded, not really listening. She was trying to understand how the computer had done this. And if it was deliberate. It must all still be connected, this old city, all the power lines intact. But why would it have defenses like this, against what enemies?
    From the airtruck a tank of gas and other apparatus were being rushed over to the injured tolats, and triangular helmetlike sheaths were being fitted over the top end of them. Other tolats and humans were readying a sling device as a stretcher. In a few minutes the victims were hoisted up and carried, legs dangling, into the airtrucks. One of them had regained enough con-
    72
    sciousness to try tearing off its oxygen mask. The color on both looked more normal.
    "Tolats are a tough breed," said Scotty. She drew a deep breath and pulled her lab coat around her as if chilled. "That was very frightening! We heard this odd crackling noise, and I smelled something hot. They were dancing in blue light, and they still managed to shut off those drills so no one else would get hurt when they let go." The woman blinked rapidly. "I've never liked tolats much. I still don't. But I never saw anyone act with such courage. Once the drills' power went off, the incoming charge really hit them. That's when they flew—"
    A silly grin stretched Scotty's mouth and wavered there. Lian saw the woman was either going to cry or go into a fit of laughter as a release from shock.
    "Let's go up and get something to drink. Come on." Lian took Scotty's cold hand and tugged as the lumpies did. "There's nothing we can do here. Maybe we can have lunch and then you can show me the lumpies' place. O.K.?"
    Scotty nodded, freeing her hand but not trusting herself to speak. The airtruck took off when they were halfway down the road. The woman stopped, turned, and followed it with her eyes until it had disappeared. Lian got the impression she was saying a prayer for the tolats.
    To protect the lumpies, Lian felt she had unwittingly subjected this crew to grave danger; if she had told Dr. Farr what she had found yesterday, this accident would not have happened. But she did not regret her decision; it would have happened if she had never come here, and in any event it could not be changed now. There was one bright spot in the situation; no one would doubt her sanity when she told them