Jeffer didn't react to the insult, barring an increase in infrared radiation from his cheeks, neck, and ears. "We'd need things Citizens Tree can't spare. Lawri's on my side, but we can't both go. The tree needs a Scientist. We'd have to take the CARM too. We-"

"Take it."

"You're not serious. Dalton-Quinn Tree died because we couldn't move it. I won't see it happen to Citizens Tree."

"Bring the CARM back when you're through with it." Jeffer paused to think. (Kendy never did that. It was another reason to distrust Kendy: he seemed to leap at his answers, without forethought.) "We might lose the CARM."

"You can build a steam rocket. Jeffer, I'm drifting out of range."

"We've got one pipe, and we need that to be loggers. Without the pipe, Citizens Tree couldn't build a steam rocket. I wouldn't have believed that so much could change in twenty sleeps. Kendy?" The signal dissolved in noise.

Kendy returned to his records.

For twenty State years CARM #6 had been taking pictures, not just through the CARM cameras but through the fisheye lens on the pressure suit too.

Here: the squirrel cage that ran a muscle-powered lift, and the lines leading up. Far too much footage of that.

Here: fire burned in a great bowl of soft clay. The silver suit moved around the edges of the fire, poking it, or adjusting sheets of bark that had been set as vanes to channel the wind into the burning wood. The look of the clay began to change.

Here: less fire than smoke. What looked like enough spaghetti to feed Sol system's entire State government had been spread leeward of smoldering wood. The pressure suit moved around and within the mass, turning it and loosening the strands-vines-with the handle of a harpoon so that the smoke would cure them. These were the lines that now served Citizens Tree.

Ingenious. A poor way to treat State property; but they were making use of local resources too.

The platform-around the cookpot was of boards tied with line. It had always been flimsy, and that didn't matter much in Citizens Tree's low tide; but over the years the lines had loosened. Jayan and Jinny complained about the way the platform lurched while they tried to make dinner. So Rather and Carlot had been sent to repair the platform.

Rather enjoyed the work. It called for muscle rather than dexterity. He lifted one end of a new branchwood plant into place. He called, "Hold this," and waited until Carlot was set. Then he bounded down to the other end and hoisted that.

Carlot giggled.

Rather began to tie the planks. One loop of line to hold it, then he could work on a more elaborate mooring. He asked, "What's funny?"

"Never mind," Carlot said. "Are you going to tie this for me?"

"I thought I'd just leave you there. You make a good mooring, and decorative too."