Chapter 29

The two landers descended simultaneously at daybreak on the planet. Gagugakhing had said two days, but she hadn't specified a time in the second day, and MacPherson didn't want to waste an instant. But as they touched down there was nothing awaiting them except for the newlyweds.

It remained thus throughout the morning, as the four humans—Igwanda, Heisinger and the two pilots—paced restlessly back and forth. Occasionally one or another of them would initiate a conversation, but it quickly lapsed. All were by now aware of the dangerously tight time­table under which they were working, and each passing moment only added to their tension.

Not that there was anyone to whom they might express their impatience other than themselves. Since the wedding not a single Edenite had been seen, not only nearby but anywhere. The alien village was completely still and vacant-seeming, the cropfields lay untended, it was as though the entire native community had simply vanished. Not even wildlife was visible, having long since learned to avoid the settlement, and all of the domesticated creatures had already been loaded aboard the Ark.

Finally at about midday the eerie stillness was abruptly broken as a column of Edenites suddenly appeared at the edge of the overgrowth. They moved steadily—and, thankfully, fairly quickly—toward the two landers.

"All right, Amanda, they're coming," Heisinger said into her communicator.

"At last!" came the response. "Get them started boarding as soon as you can. Both landers at once, it'll go faster, but Angus says Dorothy's should be finished first and she should leave immediately. Then Arlen, as soon as he's ready."

"OK," she said. She told the two pilots to resume their places and conveyed the directed sequence to her new husband. Then for a while they were both busy hurrying the Edenites up the ramps and into the landers.

It was, she soon realized, going to be a fairly tight fit, something on the order of a crowded public commuter vehicle back on Earth. But the Edenites behaved in a far more orderly fashion than human commuters, readily accepting instructions to "squeeze in" and "tighten up," and in short order they had more than sixty of them on Yuan's lander.

"Go, Dottie," called Heisinger as she slipped back out and cycled the airlock closed. She hastened down as the ramp retracted and jumped the final meter to the ground, hurrying toward Igwanda at the foot of the second ramp. As Yuan's lander lifted she joined him in herding the remaining aliens on board.

And within minutes it was done. The two humans—the only living beings now visible on the surface—raced up the ramp and pushed their way through the airlock, with Igwanda, last in, giving the "cycle" command. There was no need to direct Nassir; as soon as his console tell-tale showed the lock had closed he lifted off.

"Welcome," called Heisinger loudly as the lander started upward. "I'm sorry we couldn't talk to you before, but as I think you've seen we must hurry. I'll try"—her voice broke slightly from the strain of making sure she could be heard throughout the crowded lander—"I'll try to explain what's going to happen."

"You need not talk loud," said an Edenite directly in front of her. "If you speak only to this one, all will know."