"I thought of that, but look at them. The CARM scares them worse than being lost in the sky. Anyway, the man's almost there."

The burned man hadn't seen them. Kicking steadily, far ahead of the others, he reached the bark and clung. Without a pause he pounded a stake into the bark, moored a coil of line, and hurled the coil at the older woman. She freed a hand and caught it, pulled herself toward the tree, then snapped the line to send a sine wave rolling toward the trunk. The nearer girl caught the line in her toes as it bowed toward her.

Clave came around the bulge of the bark. He slowed when he saw the strangers. Gavving and Minya joined him. They moved toward the strangers.

There were four on the trunk now: a girl, the man, and the older woman with her coughing burden. Rather watched Clave take the burned man's line, hurl a sine wave across the one-winged girl's torso, and pull her in.

"Looks okay," the Scientist murmured.

Clave looked up and waved. Jeffer nodded and set the CARM moving. "It's all right," he said. "They sure don't look dangerous. I wonder what happened to them? Where are they now?"

"I never saw strangers before," Jill said. "I don't know what to think."

"That burning tree is still coming at us," Rather said. Jeffer nodded. The CARM surged, turning.

Black smoke wreathed the middle section of the tree. Flame glowed sluggishly from within, illuminating blurred curves and oblongs. Debby said, "There's stuff in the fire. Made stuff, machinery. It'll burn up."

That was knowledge burning in the core of the fire. Jeffer hated what he had to say. "We can't save it. If we had Mark and the silver suit. . .no. That might burn even him."

"You're not taking us into the fire?"

"We can push anywhere. The tide will hold the tree straight." Jeffer had already taken them below the inward limit of the firecloud, where a black plume drifted east. The CARM was passing north of the trunk. Jeffer tapped: the CARM turned. "It's still dangerous. The tree could come apart while we're on it."

He moved in on the trunk. The bow grated against bark; Jeffer's crew surged forward against their elastic bands. "I think the CARM was built for pushing," he said. He tapped a blue dash in the center of the panel, and the whisper of power became a whistling roar. Tide surged against his back.

This was what it was to be a Scientist. Knowledge, power, mastery of a universe. This was what Kendy the Checker had to offer. At what price? Who but a Scientist would have the strength to resist?

The sun passed zenith and started down its arc. Jeffer had changed the display; he watched sets of letters and numbers. The roar of the main motor strummed his bones.

Chapter Three

Refugees

from the Citizens Tree cassettes, year 4 SM:

TIME