Mindbridge by Joe Haldeman Page A

HASENFEL. MALE, 26. 6 TH MISSION.
    3. TAMER 2 (PROB) JACQUE LEFAVRE. MALE, 26. 3 RD MISSION.
    4. TAMER 1 VIVIAN HERRICK. FEMALE, 24. 2 ND MISSION.
    5. TAMER 1 CAROL WACHAL. FEMALE, 24. 2 ND MISSION.
     
    EQUIPMENT:
    5 GPEM MODULES W/GROOMBRIDGE 1618 MOD
    1 PERSONNEL RECORDER
    1 HOMING FLOATER W/GROOMBRIDGE 1618 MOD (SECOND SHOT)
    2 SERVO NETS (THIRD SHOT)
    1 MASS SPECTROGRAPH, WESTINGHOUSE MOD 17 (FOURTH SHOT)
    1 COLLECTING TANK (FOURTH SHOT)
    POWER REQUIREMENT:
    3 SHOTS 17.89688370924 SU, TUNING
    @ LOCAL TIME
    10:24:38.37677BDK399057
    10:32:29.66498BDK399059
    10:36:46.00983BDK399060
    1 SHOT 17.89688370930 SU, TUNING
    @ LOCAL TIME
    10:42:05.83997BDK399062
     
    MISSION PRIORITY 1.
    FUNDING            #733092           PSYCH            40%
         #483776           EXOB   20
         #000101           PR        20
         #000100           GENEX            20
     
    They came out of the LMT near Groombridge’s southern pole. The floater that followed eight minutes later had been modified to approach and then hover nearby, awaiting Tania’s command (to prevent the kind of accident that had left them grounded on the first mission).
    They got aboard the floater and homed in on the two nets. That, and taking the nets to the river where they’d found the first bridge, totaled over three hours’ flying time. They unloaded and Tania asked for a volunteer.
    “The collecting tank and the MS are a couple of hundred kilometers away. Who wants to go get them?” Silence. “Less than a two-hour job.”
    “We should have arranged for B Team to pick them up,” Gus said. “It’s really their job.”
    “Too late to change things now,” Jacque said. “Let’s draw straws.”
    Tania had everyone pick a number between one and a hundred. Carol lost.
    The other four immediately set up the nets, isolating a kilometer-long stretch of the river. The intent was to surprise a number of the creatures, not allowing one to warn the others away.
    Of course, there was always the chance that there had been only one bridge on the planet, and it had sought them out. If so, they would spend forty-seven days in fruitless wading.
    Jacque thought they would probably catch dozens, maybe hundreds, on each sweep. Spend most of the seven weeks playing with the mass spectrometer.
    The actual results fell somewhere in between. When Carol came back with the floater, they were just about through with the first sweep. It was quite a contrast to their practice session: no activity, just a coalescing mat of floating weed. The nets joined at the bottom and they hauled them in.
    After an hour of picking through the mess, they found one bridge.
    They hurried downstream fifty kilometers and repeated the process. Nothing. They did it again: nothing again.
    On the fourth try they came up with another bridge. B Team showed up, homed in on the MS, and started mining the mud.
    That first day was the only day Tania’s team caught two bridges. At the end of the seven weeks they had a total of eight bridges. B Team fared better. They had built a small town of airtight, interconnected A-frame huts: rigid silvery tents of aluminum-silicon alloy. They were in high spirits.
    Tania’s team was bored and frustrated. Jacque had exploded several times and even snapped at Carol. When they huddled together for the translation back to Earth, it was with desperate relief.
     
29 - They Also Serve
     
    Arnold Bates spends half his life sleeping or taking drugs. Most of the drugs are to help him get to sleep. He is a millionaire several times over, but spends little: rent and food and drugs. He has no hobbies.
    When he is awake he is more awake than most people. He must be; he is Senior Controller of the LMT chamber at Colorado Springs. Its 120-centimeter crystal is the largest that AED has, and the busiest.
    Bates is a short, wiry man with a shock of white hair framing Amerind features. His skin is pale for an