Donald Moffitt - Genesis 02

factor of centrifugal force tending to make us slide outward, though we don’t think it’d exceed the diagonal gravitational vector tending to pin us down. To say nothing of all sorts of unpredictable edge effects to get past before we could cross to those interesting structures on the rim. No, Mim, this is the simplest way. We’ve got it all worked out.”
    Bram had felt Mim stiffen at Jao’s mention of “sliding outward” and “edge effects.” He turned it into a joke. “What Jao’s really worried about is having to hike across a ninety-million-mile plain to get to where we’re going.”
    She smiled gamely. “I guess I don’t understand physics.”
    “That’s all right, Mim, I don’t understand Bach,” Jao said.
    “Don’t worry, we’ll be very careful,” Bram told her, “and we’ll be locked in to Jun Davd and his computer the whole time.
    The third member of the exploration team, a dour geologist named Enry, pushed his way through the well-wishers and said apologetically to Bram, “Lydis says she’s about ready. Says it’s time to get these people out of here and climb aboard.”
    Enry stood there, stolidly waiting. He was a blocky, square-jawed man who long ago had been a touch associate with a geology touch group on the Father World. Though the Father World no longer existed, Enry had never given up his speciality; he pored over the old Nar records in the library and published a monograph every quarter century or so. He was the nearest thing to an expert the tree possessed, and he handled himself well physically in the null-gravity sports at the trunk’s center. Bram had thought of him immediately when choosing the exploration team.
    “All right,” Bram said. He gave Mim a final peck that turned into something more as their lips touched again, then went with Enry to pry Jao loose from Ang.
    A warning blast came from a two-tone bass whistle. Exasperated monitors wearing headbadges rushed back and forth, trying to shoo lingering spectators out of the drop area.
    “Behind the ropes, behind the ropes! Everybody behind the ropes! Other side of the air curtain track!” The crowd moved as sluggishly as sap. “Keep it moving, keep it moving, unless you want to breathe vacuum!”
    Bram got Enry and Jao started up the landing leg ladder with their gear and was preparing to climb it himself when he became aware of a disturbance at the fringe of the retreating crowd. A small, agile figure was darting past the monitors, getting chased by them, and darting back into the forbidden area. The interloper evaded a pursuer and made a beeline for the base of the ladder.
    Bram saw corn-yellow hair flying and green eyes on either side of an upturned nose and recognized his great-great-great-granddaughter. “Ame!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
    “I’m going with you,” she announced. “Here, take this.”
    She unslung a lumpy shoulder bag and thrust it at him. The clinking sound of some kind of equipment came from within.
    “You can’t,” he said. “We don’t know what we may run into. Anyway, it’s only a scouting trip. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to go along on the later landings, like everybody else.”
    “That’s the point, Bram-tsu . You ought to have a palentogist along on your first survey, and I’m the only authentic specimen you’ve got.” She grinned engagingly at him. “Besides, I’ve turned myself into a pretty fair geologist, so I’ll carry my weight.”
    “We’ve got a geologist, a good one.”
    “Oh, Enry knows his subject, I’ll give him that. But his subject’s the Father World. Those disks out there are something nobody’s an expert on. But my group’s been doing theoretical studies for twenty years now—you’d be surprised at some of the computer simulations we’ve come up with!” She wrinkled her nose. “We really ought to have an archeologist with us, too.”
    “An archaeologist, is it? Spare me! A theoretical paleontologist’s farfetched enough on a preliminary scouting expedition like this.”
    “Does that mean you’ll—”
    A monitor came puffing up, a man with a broad, law-abiding face and a long-suffering expression.
    “Sorry, Captain. She slipped past us. I’ll get her out of here.”
    Ame turned on him. “I’m not going with you. I’m going aboard, isn’t that right, Bram -tsu Captain?”
    The monitor looked doubtfully at the lightweight knee-lengths and slipover she was wearing. “If you want, I can get one