Hal Clement - Star Light

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Star Light

By Hal Clement

Third of Four Parts

XII

Any effort to explore any frontier is always an invitation to a new and unexpected way of dying.

One a planet like Dhrawn, with a 40-gravity load, and a weirdly unstable atmo-hydrosphere, not even

atomic power engines were an assurance of safety!

Dhrawn is the star/planet companion of Lalande 21185, a red dwarf half a dozen light-years from the

solar system. It has been bothering the cosmologists and planetologists. In terms of mass, it is on the

borderline between typical Jovian planet and extreme dwarf star; in terms of composition, it seems to be

as nearly destitute of light elements as Earth, or Venus. It is generating internal energy; its sun could not

warm it above a few tens of degrees Kelvin, but there are local regions as hot as 1200K. The atmosphere

contains free oxygen, although the oceans (?) contain not only water but ammonia-a chemically unstable

situation leading to the presumption that Dhrawn has active life.

Direct exploration is impossible for human beings because of the forty-Earth surface gravity. It has been

decided to hire natives of Mesklin, the variable-G planet of 61 Cygni A, to do the work. BARLENNAN,

the Mesklinite sea captain who had worked with non-Mesklinite researchers on his own world fifty Earth

years before, jumps at the offer-with unmentioned idea of his own in connection with the deal. A Mesklin-

conditioned settlement is established on Dhrawn, and a dozen exploring vehicles to be manned by the

Mesklinites are designed and built.

One of these, the Kwembly, is commanded by DONDRAGMER, Barlennan's first officer in the old days

when were carrying alien instruments around their own planet. One of the Kwembly's helmsmen is a

young sailor named BEETCHERMARLF.

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The surface work is being monitored from a station manned principally by human beings, in synchronous

orbit six million miles from the planet. Its chief administrator is ALAN AUCION, who has a basic,

though fairly well hidden, distrust of non-human beings. His staff includes ELISE RICH HOFFMAN-

"EASY"-who functions as interpreter with the Mesklinites, and general spreader of oil on troubled

waters; and her husband IB HOFFMAN. Their seventeen-year-old son BENJ is also at the station, serving

an apprenticeship in the aerology laboratory. Like his mother, Benj is as excellent natural linguist and can

talk directly with the Mesklinites.

A distrust has been developing between human and Mesklinite leaders, partly because of Aucion's

attitude and partly from Barlennan's underhanded activities. Even though field communication between

the settlement on Dhrawn and the land-cruisers has to be relayed through the human station, Barlennan

has been working to establish another settlement independent of, and unknown to, the human beings.

Toward this end he has arranged the "loss" of the landcruiser Esket and the disappearance of her crew.

The Esket is being used as the nucleus of the new settlement, at which mining and other activities are

leading toward local self-sufficiency are being carried on.

Now, however, genuine troubles are developing. The complex phase relationships between water and

ammonia have been outwitting the human aerobiologists and their computers, and Dondragmer's

Kwembly has been washed down a river formed by a sudden melting "snow" field, grounded, damaged,

partly repaired and finally frozen in. Beetchermarlf and a companion have been trapped under the cruiser

by the ice; another officer, KERVENSER, has disappeared in one of the tiny scout helicopters carried by

the Kwembly.

The human beings get into a sharp disagreement because of the Kwembly situation. Aucoin, as in the

Esket incident previously, is reluctant to authorize a rescue trip by one of the other cruisers-though he

realized that if Barlennan wants to do this there is no way to stop him. The elder Hoffmans want the

whole decision left up to Barlennan, with any help whatever which he may ask-including rescue from

space-to be furnished from the station. They resent Aucoin's policy of editing, or actually censoring, the

reports between Dondragmer and Barlennan. Benj, who has formed a close radio friendship with

Beetchermarlf, considers only the personal aspects of the problem, but is deeply upset by these. A staff

discussion, kept from becoming a major brawl by Easy's professional tact, leads to only one result: Ib

Hoffman, hearing for the first time a real summary of the relevant facts, begins to realize Barlennan is up

to something on his own.

Beetchermarlf and his companion, caught in the shrinking volume of free liquid under the Kwembly's

hull, spend hours in futile efforts to dig, scrape, and melt themselves free. They finally take refuge in one

of the air cells forming the "mattress" underpinning between the hull and the driving trucks-incidentally

concealing themselves very effectively form possible rescuers. Their own supply of breathing hydrogen,

while not yet critically low, is causing them and the distant Benj more and more concern.

The human assistance to the Kwembly finally concentrates on technical advice, and some of the cruiser's

equipment is dismantled to improvise a heater. Dondragmer is reluctant to take this step, fully aware of

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the Mesklinite position with regard to replacing or repairing the equipment-but it seems the least of a host

of evils.

At the Settlement, Barlennan and his staff have come to suspect that the human beings have not been

entirely frank with their Mesklinite agents. Barlennan does not resent this, since he has been extremely

deceitful himself and regards such things as matters of business acumen; but he decides that he should set

up a test situation to find out how truthful the men are being, using the Esket as bait. He is about to send a

message containing the arrangements by one of the dirigibles which the Mesklinites have improvised

from homemade balloons and human supplied power units. At this point, however, a message arrives

from the orbiting station reporting a disturbance at the site where the Esket was lost. Barlennan is left

wondering whether something is really happening at his secret base there, or whether the human beings

are testing him.

At the Kwembly, Dondragmer is growing more and more concerned about the possibility of another flood,

and keeps asking for risk estimates from the human scientists. If such a thing happens, his command is

likely to be a total loss. He is considering moving the trapped vessel's life-support equipment to high

ground, to insure his crew's survival. He also has other helicopter out, carrying one of the television sets

which transmit to the human station. The pilot is looking for Kervenser as well as for signs of another

flood.

When the human watchers report that this set has also ceased sending, it does not occur to Dondragmer

that the report might be false; but his is annoyed. He supposes that the pilot shuttered the set to keep the

human beings from seeing something which would betray Barlennan's machinations, such as a wandering

dirigible; and unlike most of the Mesklinite staff, he has never been in very close sympathy with

Barlennan's policy of trickery.

Part 3

The weather had long since cleared at the Settlement, the ammonia fog blown into the unknown central

regions of Low Alpha and the wind dropped to a gentle breeze from the northwest. Stars twinkled

violently, catching the attention of occasional Mesklinites who were outside or in the corridors, but going

unnoticed for the most part by those in the better lighted rooms under the transparent roof.

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Barlennan was in the laboratory area at the west side of the Settlement when Easy called, so her message

did not reach him at once. It arrived in written form, borne by one of Guzmeen's messengers who, in

accordance with standing orders, paid no attention to the fact that Barlennan was in conference. He thrust

the note in front of his commander, who broke off his own words in mid-sentence to read it. Bendivence

and Deeslenver, the scientists with whom he was speaking, waited in silence for him to finish, though

their body attitude betrayed curiosity.

Barlennan read the message twice, seemed to be trying to recall something, and then turned to the

messenger.

"All this just came in, I take it."

"Yes, sir."

"And how long has it been since the preceding report from Dondragmer?"

"Not long, sir-less than an hour, I'd say. The log would show; shall I check?"

"It's not that urgent, as long as you know. The last I heard was that the Kwembly had grounded after

washing down a river for a couple of hours, and that was a long time ago. I assumed that everything was

all right, since Guz didn't pass any more on to me about it. I assume now that he either heard interim

reports at the usual intervals, or asked the humans about it?"

"I don't know, sir. I haven't been on duty the whole time. Shall I check?"

"No. I'll be there in a little while myself. Tell Guz not to send anything out after me; just hold any calls."

The runner vanished, and Barlennan turned back to the scientists.

"Sometimes I wonder wheter we shouldn't have more electrical communication in this place. I'd like to

know how long it's taken Don to get into this mess, but I want to learn some other things before I walk all

the way to Guzmeen's place."

Bendivence gestured the equivalent of a shrug. "We can do it if you say the word. There are telephones

here in the lab which work fairly well, and we can wire the whole Settlement if you want the metal used

that way."

"I don't know yet. We'll keep to the original priorities. Here, read this. The Kwembly has gotten herself

stuck in frozen water or something, and both her helicopters have disappeared. One had a communicator

to the human beings aboard and in use at the time."

Deeslenver indicated his emotion with a soft buzz, and reached for the message in turn; Bendivence

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passed it over silently. The former read it silently-twice, as Barlennan had done-before he spoke.

"You'd think the humans would have a little more information if they were watching at all carefully. All

this says is that Kervenser failed to come back form a flight, and that a flier searching for him with a

communicator on board stopped sending-the screen just went blank all of a sudden."

"I can see one possible reason for that," remarked Bendivence.

"I thought you would," returned the command. "The question is not what blanked the screen but why it

should have happened there and then. We can assume that Reffel used the shutter on his set-it would have

been nice if you'd thought of that trick before the Esket went out; it would have simplified that operation a

lot-because something had come into his field of view which wouldn't have fit in with the Esket story. But

what could it have been? The Kwembly is five or six million cables from the Esket. I suppose one of the

dirigibles could be down that way, but why should it be?"

"We won't know until another flight gets back from Destigmet's place," replied the scientist practically.

"What interests me is why we didn't hear about Kervenser's disappearance earlier. Why was there time fro

Reffel's mission to be flown and for him to disappear, too, before we were told about it? Was

Dondragmer late in reporting to the human observers?"

"I doubt that very much," replied Barlennan. "Actually, they may have told us about Kervenser when it

happened; remember, the runner said that other messages had been coming in. Guzmeen might night have

thought the disappearance worth sending a runner for until Kerv had been gone for a while. We can check

up on that in a few minutes, but I imagine there's nothing funny this time.

"On the other hand, I've been wondering lately whether the people up there have always been relaying

information completely and promptly. Once or twice I've had the impression that-well things were being

saved up and sent in one package. It may be just sloppiness, or it may not really be happening-"

"Or they may be deliberately organizing what we hear," said Bendivence. "Half our crew could be lost at

this point without us knowing it, if the humans chose to play it that way I can see their being afraid we'd

quit the job and demand to be taken home, according to contract, if risks proved too high."

"I suppose that's possible," admitted Barlennan. "It hadn't occurred to me just that way. I don't think that

particular notion is very likely, but the more I consider the situation, the more I'd like to think of a way of

checking things-at least, to make sure they're not taking tie to hold conference s on just how much to tell

us every time something does go wrong with an exploring cruiser."

"Do you really think there's much likelihood of that?" asked Deeslenver.

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"It's hard to tell. Certainly we've been a bit less than completely frank with them, and we have what we

consider some very good reasons for it. I'm not really bothered either way. We know some of these

people are good at business, and if we can't keep even with them it's our fault. All I really would like to

be sure of is wheter it's business or carelessness. I can think of one way to check up, but I'd rather not use

it yet; if anyone can suggest an alternative, it will be very welcome."

"What's the one yo8u have?" both scientists asked together, Deeslenver perhaps half a syllable ahead.

"The Esket , of course. It's the only place where we Can get an independent check on what they tell us. At

least, I haven't thought of any other so far. Of course, even that would take a long time; there won't be

another flight from there until sunrise, and that's twelve hundred hours or so away. Of course, we could

send the Deedee even at night-"

"If we'd set up that light relay I suggested-" began Deeslenver.

"Too risky. It would have much too big a chance of being seen. We just don't know how good the human

instruments are. I know most of them stay ‘way up at that station overhead, but I don't know what they

can see from it. The casual way they distribute these picture senders for us to carry around here on this

planet suggests that they don't regard them as very fancy equipment, as does the fact that they used them

twelve years ago on Mesklin. There's just too much chance that they'd spot any light on the night side of

this planet. That's why I overrode your idea, Dee; otherwise, I admit it was a very good one."

"Well, there's nothing like enough metal yet for electrical contract that far," added Bendivence. "And I

don't have any other ideas at the moment-though come to think of it, you might make a simple test on

how well the humans can pick up lights."

"How?" the question came in body attitudes, not verbally.

"We could ask them innocently if there were any way of their hunting for the running lights or the floods

of the missing fliers."

Barlennan pondered the suggestion briefly.

"Good. Excellent. Let's go-though if they say they can't, we won't be sure that they aren't just keeping it

from us. You might be thinking of a further check for that." He led the way out of the map room where

the discussion had been held, and along the corridors of the Settlement toward the communication room.

Most of the passageways were relatively dark; the sponsors of the expedition had not stinted on the

supply of artificial lights, but Barlennan himself had been rather close-nippered with their distribution.

Rooms were adequately lighted; hallways had a bare minim of illumination.

This gave the Mesklinites the comforting feeling that there was nothing overhead, by letting them see the

stars without too much trouble. No native of that planet was really happy to face the fact that there was

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anything in a position to fall on him. Even the scientists glanced up occasionally as they went, taking

comfort from the sigh even of starts not their own. Mesklin's sun, which men called 61 Cygni, was below

the horizon at the moment.

Barlennan looked upward more than he looked ahead, but he was trying to get a glimpse of the human

station. This carried a beacon light visible from Dhrawn as a fourth magnitude "star," ant its barely visible

crawl against the celestial background was the best long-term clock the Mesklinites had. They used it to

rest the pendulum-type instruments which they had made, but which seldom agreed with each other for

more than a few score hours at a time.

Stars and station alike faded from view as the trio entered the brightly lighted communication room.

Guzmeen saw Barlennan and instantly reported, "No further news of either flier."

"What reports have you had from Dondragmer between the time the _Kwembly_ ran aground and now-the

last hundred and thirty hours or so? Do you know how long ago Don's first officer disappeared?"

"Only roughly, sir, to the last question. The incident was reported, but nothing specific was said about

how recently it had happened. I took for granted it had just occurred, but didn't ask. The two

disappearances were reported quite close together-less than an hour apart."

"And you didn't wonder when the second one came in why we heard about both disappearances so nearly

simultaneously, even though they must have occurred some time apart?"

"Yes, sir. I started wondering about a quarter of an hour before you did, when the last message came in. I

don't have any explanation, but I thought I'd leave it to you to ask the humans if you think one is needed."

Bendivence cut it. "Do you suppose Don failed to report the first disappearance because it resulted from a

mistake, and he hope to be able to minimize it by reporting disappearance and recovery at the same time

as a minor incident?"

Barlennan looked at the speaker speculatively, but lost no time in answering.

"No, I don't suppose that. Dondragmer and I don't always agree on everything, but there are some things

that neither of us would do."

"Even if an immediate report couldn't really make a difference? After all, neither we nor the human

beings could really help even after we'd heard the news."

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"Even then."

"I don't see why."

"I do. Take my word for it; I haven't time for a detailed explanation, and I doubt that I could compose one

anyway. If Dondragmer failed to make that initial report, he had a very good reason; and personally I

doubt very much that the failure was his. Guz, which humans gave you the reports? Was it always the

same one?"

"No, sir. I didn't recognize all their voices, and they often didn't bother to identify themselves. About half

the time nowadays the reports come in human language. Most of the rest come from the Hoffman

humans. There are others who speak our language, but those two seem the only ones who do it

comfortably. With the young one particularly, I got the impression that he'd been talking a lot with the

Kwembly, and I assumed that if there were casual chatter going on, nothing much serious could be

happening."

"All right. I'd probably have done the same. I'll use the set; I have a couple of questions to put to the

humans." Barlennan took his place in front of the pickup, the speaker on watch making way for him

without being ordered. The screen was blank. The captain squeezed the "attention" control and waited

patiently for the minute to pass. He could have started talking at once, since it was a safe bet that whoever

was at the other end would lose no time readying his receiver, but Barlennan wanted to see who was

there. If the delay made anyone suspicious, he'd have to live with it.

The face which did appear was unfamiliar to him. Even fifty Earth-years of acquaintance with human

beings had not sufficed to educate him in such matters as family resemblance, though no human being

would have failed to guess that Benj was Easy's son. Actually, the fifty years had not supplied many

different people for comparison; fewer than two score men, and no women, had even landed on Mesklin.

Guzmeen recognized the boy, but was spared the need to tell Barlennan by Benj himself.

"Benj Hoffman here," the image spoke. "Nothing has come form the Kwembly since Mother called you

about twenty minutes ago, and there are no engineers or scientists in this room at the moment. If you have

questions which need technical answers, tell me so I can call the right one. If it's just a matter of detail in

what's been happening, I've been here in the comm room most of the time for the last seven hours and can

probably tell you. I'm waiting."

"I have two questions," Barlennan responded. "one of them you can probably answer, the other I don't

know. The first has to do with the second disappearance. I am wondering how far from the Kwembly the

second helicopter was when it ceased communicating; or if you don't know the distance, perhaps you can

tell me how long its pilot had been searching.

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"The second does depend on a bit of your technology which I don't know, but you may. Is there any

possibility of your seeing lights such as those on the helicopters from where you are? I suppose it couldn't

be done by your unaided eyes any more than it could be done by mine, but you have many optical devices

which I know little about, and probably some which I've never heard of. I'm standing by."

Benj's screen image held up one finger and nodded just as Barlennan finished speaking, but boy waited

for the other question to reach him before he spoke.

"I can answer your first question, and Mr. Cavanaugh has gone to find someone who can take care of the

second," were his opening words. "Kervenser started out on his scouting flight about eleven hours ago. It

wasn't realised that he must be in trouble until about eight hours later, when everything popped at once-

Kervenser and his flier gone, the Kwembly frozen in, and Beetchermarlf and Takoorch somewhere under

the ice-at least no one knows that's where they are but they were working under the hull and there's no

other place anyone can think of for them to be. One of the sailors-Reffel-took up the other flier with a

vision set to look for Kervenser, and searched very close to the Kwembly for a while. Then we suggested

that he move out to where an accident wouldn't have been seen or heard from the cruiser, which he did,

and of course, Dondragmer lost sight of him from the bridge. Then we got into a discussion with the

captain and everyone up here got interested, and it turned out that no one was watching Reffel's screen for

several minutes. Then someone noticed that the screen had gone completely blank-not no-signal-blank

but no-light black-and that was that."

Barlennan glanced at Guzmeen and the scientists. None of them spoke, but none of them needed to. No

one had been watching the screen when Reffel used the shutter! It was not the sort of luck one counted

on.

Benj was still speaking.

"The sound wasn't on, of course, since no one had been talking with Reffel, and no one has any idea what

happened. This was just before my mother called you, less than half an hour ago. That would make

something like two and a half hours between the two disappearances. We'll have to wait for your other

answer, since Mr. Cavanaugh isn't back yet."

Barlennan was a little bewildered by the arithmetic, since the boy had used Mesklinite number-words

with human number-background, but got it straight with a few seconds of thought.

"I'm not complaining," he returned, "but I gather from what you say that over two hours passed between

the Kwembly's freezing in and Kervenser's disappearance, and our being told about it. Do you know why

that might have happened? I realize, of course, that there was nothing I could have done, but there was

some understanding about keeping me up to date with the land-cruisers. Of course, I don't know just what

your job is at the station, and you may not have that information; but I hear from my communications

man that you have been talking a lot to the Kwembly, so you may be able to help. I'm waiting."

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Barlennan had several motives behind his closing remark. One was obvious enough; he wanted to learn

more about Benj Hoffman, especially since the latter was good with the Mesklinite language and, if Guz

were right, seemed to want to talk to Mesklinites. Maybe he would be like the other Hoffman, a second

sympathy-center in the station. If so, it would be important to know just how much weight he could

swing.

Also, the commanded wanted to check unobtrusive on Guzmeen's notion that Benj ad been chattering

with Kwembly crew members. Finally, even Barlennan could tell that Benj was young for a human being

doing serious work-his selection of words and general narrative style had been a giveaway. That fact

might well be put to good use if a reasonably close relationship could be established.

The boy's answer, when it finally came, was inconclusive one way, but promising in another.

" I don't know why you weren't told about Kervenser and the freeze-up right away," he said. Personally, I

thought you had been. I'd been talking a lot with Beetchermarlf-I guess you know him; one of Don's

helmsmen; the one can talk with and not just listen to-and when I heard he'd disappeared I was

concentrating on what could be done about it. I wasn't here in the comm room quite all the time; it's not

my duty station-I just come when I can talk with Beetch. I admit someone should have told you sooner,

and if you like I'll try to find out who should have and why he didn't. My mother ought to know, or Mr.

Mersereau.

"I don't know how much explaining I'd better supply about the background to my job here. On Earth,

when someone finishes basic education-the sort of thing everyone has to get, like reading and physics and

sociology-he has to work as unskilled labor on some essential job for two or three of our years before he

is eligible for either specialises or general higher education. Nobody says it right out, but everyone knows

that the people your work for have the main say in what you can do afterward. Nominally I'm assigned to

the aerology lab here as a sort of picker-upper and hey-you; actually anyone in the station who yells first

and loudest gets me. I must admit they don't make my life very hard. I've been able to spend a lot of time

talking to Beetch the last few days."

Barlennan was able with fifty years experience to translate without effort the thought behind a human

being's use of the word day.

"Of course," the boy went on, knowing your language helps. My mother's a language nut, and I picked it

up form her. She started on yours ten years ago when Dad was first connected with the Dhrawn project.

I'll probably be doing comm work semiofficially a good deal of the time form now on. Here comes Mr.

Cavanaugh with one of the astronomers whose name I think is Tebbets. They'll answer your question

about seeing lights, and I'll try to find out about the other business."

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StarLightStarLightByHalClementThirdofFourPartsIXXXIXIIAnyefforttoexploreanyfrontierisalwaysaninvitationtoanewandunexpectedwayofdying.OneaplanetlikeDhrawn,witha40-gravityload,andaweirdlyunstableatmo-hydrosphere,notevenatomicpowerengineswereanassuranceofsafety!Dhrawnisthestar/planetcompanionofLaland...

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