Read Darkover: First Contact for Free Online

Landing teams when they send them to a new planet?”
    “Search me. But maybe on a planet where man never developed, his natural enemies didn’t develop either?”
    It should have comforted MacAran, but instead he felt a cold chill. If man didn’t belong here, could he survive here? But he didn’t say it. “Better get moving again. We’ve got a long way to go, and I’d like to get on the slopes before dark.”
    He stopped by McLeod as the older man struggled to his feet. “You all right, Dr. MacLeod?”
    “Mac,” the older man said with a faint smile, “we’re not under ship discipline now. Yes, I’m fine.”
    “You’re the animal specialist. Any theories why we haven’t seen anything larger than a squirrel?”
    “Two,” MacLeod said with a round grin, “the first, of course, being that there aren’t any. The second, the one I’m committed to, is that with six, no, seven of us crashing along through the underbrush this way, anything with a brain bigger than a squirrel’s keeps a good long way off!”
    MacAran chuckled, even while he revised his opinion of the fat little man upward by a good many notches. “Should we try to be quieter?”
    “Don’t see how we can manage it. Tonight will be a better test. Larger carnivores—if there’s any analogy to Earth—will come out then, hoping to catch their natural prey sleeping.”
    MacAran said, “Then we’d better make it our business that we don’t get crunched up by mistake,” but as he watched the others sling their packs and get into formation, he thought silently that this was one thing he had forgotten. It was true; the overwhelming attention to safety on Earth had virtually eliminated all but man-made dangers. Even jungle safaris were undertaken in glass-sided trucks, and it wouldn’t have occurred to him that night would be dangerous in that way.
    They had walked another forty minutes, through thickening trees and somewhat heavier underbrush, where they had to push branches aside, when Judith stopped, rubbing her eyes painfully. At about the same time, Heather lifted her hands and stared at them in horror; Ewen, at her side, was instantly alert.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “My hands—” Heather held them up, her face white. Ewen called, “Rafe, hold up a minute,” and the straggling line came to a halt. He took Heather’s slim fingers gingerly between his own, carefully examining the erupting greenish dots; behind him Camilla cried out:
    “Judy! Oh, God, look at her face!”
    Ewen swung around to Dr. Lovat. Her cheeks and eyelids were covered with the greenish dots, which seemed to spread and enlarge and swell as he looked at them. She squeezed her eyes shut. Camilla caught her hands gently as she raised them to her face.
    “Don’t touch your face, Judy—Dr. Ross, what is it?”
    “How the hell do I know?” Ewen looked around as the others gathered around them.
    “Anybody else turning green?” He added, “All right, then. This is what I’m here for, and everybody else keep your distance until we know just what we’ve got. Heather!” He shook her shoulder sharply. “Stop that! You’re not going to drop dead, as far as I can tell your vital signs are all just fine.”
    With an effort, the girl controlled herself. “Sorry.”
    “Now. Exactly what do you feel? Do those spots hurt?”
    “No, dammit, they itch!” She was flushed, her face red, her copper hair falling loose around her shoulders; she raised a hand to brush it back, and Ewen caught her wrist, careful to touch only her uniform sleeve. “No, don’t touch your face,” he said, “that’s what Dr. Lovat did. Dr. Lovat, how do you feel?”
    “Not so good,” she said with some effort, “My face burns, and my eyes—well, you can see.”
    “Indeed I can.” Ewen realized that the lids were swelling and turning greenish; she looked grotesque.
    Secretly Ewen wondered if he looked as frightened as he felt. Like everyone there, he had been brought up on stories of