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Jonny studied the landscape below with decreasing hope. The Cobras had already
established that there weren't any natural obstacles between the herd and the
Menssana, and now that he knew what they were up against it
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Timothy Zahn seemed very unlikely they could do anything to the terrain that
would make any difference whatsoever. Something more drastic was likely to be
necessary. Drastic and dangerous.
Banyon had apparently reached the same conclusion. "We're going to have to
scare them, I'm afraid," he murmured, just loudly enough for Jonny to hear.
"There used to be herds this size all over parts of Earth and Blue Haven,"
Jonny said. "I wish I
knew how they'd been hunted. Well. We don't have anything like real explosives
aboard, and we don't yet know what this species' predators even look like. I
suppose that leaves close-in work with lasers and sonics."
"Laser range isn't that short oh. Right. If they don't see us, there's no
guarantee they'll figure out which way to run."
"Or even notice they're being killed off." Jonny thought for a minute, but
nothing else obvious came to mind. "Well ... let's try buzzing them with the
car first. Maybe that'll do the trick."
But the animals apparently had no enemies that were airborne. Completely
oblivious to the darting craft above them, they continued stolidly on their
way. "We do it the hard way now?" one of the others asked.
Banyon nodded. "Afraid so. But hopefully not too hard. Saving the biologists
some work isn't worth anyone getting killed over."
"Or even hurt," Jonny put in. "We'll just "
A ping from the car's phone interrupted him. "Governor, we've got something
here that may or may not mean anything," Captain Shepherd said, his attention
somewhere off-camera. "The satellite's been completing its large-scale
geosurvey .. . and it looks very much like that herd is running along one of
the planet's magnetic field lines."
Banyon looked at Jonny, eyebrows raised. "I thought
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the only things that used geomagnetic navigation were birds, insects, and
tweenies,"
"So did all the Menssana's biologists," Shepherd returned dryly. "But they
admit there's no reason something larger couldn't make use of the mechanism."
"If we assume they're indeed paralleling the field lines, is the camp still in
danger?" Jonny asked.
"Yes. The probability actually goes up a couple of points."
Jonny looked questioningly at Banyon. "Worth a try," the other grunted.
"Captain, is there anything aboard the ship that can generate a strong
magnetic field?"
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"Sure the drive modulators. All we'll need to do is pull off some of the
shielding and we'll get enough field leakage to overwhelm their direction
finders. If that's what's really happening."
"It's worth trying," Banyon repeated. "How fast can you get that shielding
off?"
"It's already being done. Say another hour at the most."
The gently rolling terrain could not by any stretch of the imagination be
called hilly; but even so the flatfoot herd was audible long before it could
be seen. Standing a few meters back from the main line of Cobras, Jonny wiped
the perspiration off his palms as the thunder steadily grew, hoping this was
going to work. In theory, the Cobra's antiarmor lasers should be able to make
fungus feed out of the herd if something went wrong ... but Jonny couldn't
help remembering how hard the equally herbiverous gantuas of Aventine were to
kill.
"Get ready," his phone said. He glanced up to see the car as it hovered above
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and ahead of the
Cobras. "You'll see them any minute now. Wait for the captain's signal...."
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Timothy Zahn
And the leading edge of the herd came over a low rise, like a dark tsunami
clearing a breakwater.
They weren't heading directly toward the Cobras, and in actual size were quite
a bit smaller than gantuas, but the sheer numbers and ground-level view more
than made up for it. Jonny clenched his jaw firmly, fighting hard against the
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