KIP was eleven when the other scientists brought their families to Starswarm. That was in the summer after Lara arrived, just before the heat got too bad. Later in the year the dogs would lie in the shade all day and everyone would move very slowly when they moved at all, but when the others first came, it wasn't hot at all; it was the most pleasant time of year.
During spring and summer's early days, even those who lived there might call the planet by its official name: Paradise. The rest of the year it was Purgatory It wasn't easy to get scientists and technicians to live on the planet at all, and even harder to attract them to an obscure research station far away from the major settlements. Many research people left after a few months; but finally Dr. Henderson had built his team and brought their dependents, and he could relax.
Most of the children were younger than Kip and Lara, but there were three older boys. Two of them, Benny and Hank, were eleven, and Marry was twelve. Benny and Hank would have been all right if it hadn't been for Marty.
The three boys had known each other during the Earth-months they'd lived in Pearly Gates, and they stayed together when they reached Starswarm. After a few attempts, the others gave up trying to make friends with them.
That was all right with Kip. He'd never had a friend except for Lara, and it didn't bother him that the three older boys would hardly talk to him. Then they found out they couldn't go outside the gates without Kip.
He hadn't asked for the job, but Dr. Henderson put the instruction into the gate anyway. None of the children could leave Starswarm unless Kip or an adult went along. Dr. Henderson said it was just for a little while, until they learned how to take care of themselves.
Kip watched Marty throw rocks over the fence at a fire-brighter hole and thought that might be a long time. He didn't mind when Lara went outside with him. At first he'd resented her, but now they were friends. They'd had a few fights, and then each one realized there was nobody to talk to when they were mad, and it really was more fun to be friends than to watch TRI-V or fish alone, so they stopped fighting, and when she couldn't come he missed her.
Kip had stopped thinking about Lara as a girl. She obviously didn't want to be kissed or whistled at or any of the other things Kip thought he might have to do with her. She wasn't like the girls on TRI-V. She liked to fish, and go with Kip to look into the centaur village with binoculars—even in spring it wasn't safe to get too close to their groves—and track the caribou herds, and do all the other things Kip liked. She was getting pretty good with a pistol too. Her mother still wouldn't let Lara carry one, and that was silly because she could get herself killed quicker without a gun than with one, and Uncle Mike and Dr. Henderson had told Mrs. Henderson that. Lara thought her mother was going to give up pretty soon.
But all that changed when the newcomers arrived. The little ones were no trouble. The very small ones couldn't come outside at all, and the ones seven and eight always did what Kip and Lara said. They were even fun to have, sometimes, because there were lots of games you couldn't play without six or eight people.
Benny and Hank and Marty were different, though. They didn't like to go out with the other children. They didn't want Kip along either, but there wasn't much choice about that: the gates wouldn't open unless he came with them.
A week after they came, they talked Kip into taking them outside without Lara and the others. Kip didn't want to, but they begged and pleaded until he did. Outside they tramped down the tundra and kicked holes in it, and chased the birds, and threw big rocks at the Starswarm until the poor thing blinked its lights madly and its tentacles were thrust up toward the surface and it squeezed out ink. The ink killed some of the snappers. Then the Starswarm began to collapse into itself, and Kip knew it would take a lot of rest and sunshine before it could recover and start growing again.
They didn't seem to care. When Kip tried to tell them, Marty grabbed Kip's cap.
That was more serious. The receiver to Kip's communications was built into the cap. Besides, it was the middle of the blue-time, and the bright blue-tinted sun burned down through the clear sky and reflected from the lake and the tundra. It was so bright that without his eyeshade and the sunglasses built into the visor Kip wouldn't be able to see well enough to shoot if something big came after them. The big transplanted Earthbears and the centaurs didn't usually come too close to Starswarm Station, and the centaurs avoided the path to the station most of the time, but they might come, and there were other things out in midsummer that you ought to watch out for.
There was even the possibility of a criminal running from the GWE company cops. One fugitive had killed a technician only the year before.
"Give it back!" Kip grabbed for his cap and missed as Marty backed away. "Give it here!" He rushed toward the bigger boy.
"Hey-hey-keepaway!" Marty laughed and tossed the cap to Benny. Kip ran toward Benny, and the cap was tossed to Hank. Hank tossed it back to Marty again.
Kip had never played that game, and gave them a lot of laughs as he rushed from one to the other, never able to get his cap. Finally he stood panting. "Give me my cap!"
Nothing like this had ever happened to Kip in his whole life. When Uncle Mike took something away from him, he always told why. But they just tossed his cap around and laughed.
Then Kip ran after Marty, and Hank came up behind Kip and took his gun. Kip hadn't thought anybody could ever be that stupid. He screamed with all the rage and frustration an eleven-year-old boy can manage. "Give me that! Give it here, or—"
"Or what, sissy?" Marty laughed. He came over to Kip, towering above him, and laughed again. "Or what? You'll shoot us? You've lost your gun!"
Hank held up the weapon and shouted. When Kip looked that way, Benny got on all fours behind Kip, and Marty pushed. Kip fell and the others laughed—
There was an ugly snarl and Silver's teeth closed on Marty's shirt. Both fell to the ground. The big dog stood above Marty with bared fangs, and his growl was pure hatred. It rose in tempo.
Hank was trying to point the gun at Silver when Kodiak and Dawson struck him. Kodiak took the gun arm and shook it, worrying it until Hank dropped the gun, while Dawson dove for Hank's throat. He was ready to kill.
"Dawson. No. Back." Kip said it carefully, so they wouldn't get more excited. The dogs were confused. They'd been told to protect human children, then one of the people they were supposed to guard had attacked their master. They didn't know what to do, and fell back on instinct. If something threatens your pack, kill it! You lived longer that way on Purgatory.
"Back, Dawson! Silver!"
Silver left his pose over Marty and pushed Dawson away. Then both dogs stood with the others of the pack, ten snarling feral faces, fangs bared, the hair on their backs standing straight and stiff and high, all of them in a big ring around Kip.
"Gun, Kodiak!" Kip ordered. The dog trotted over and retrieved it. "Cap." He got that too, then rejoined the protective circle.
Marty was scared. He got up, looked at Kip and the snarling dogs, and the gun in Kip's holster. "We didn't mean nothing. We were just having fun."
Kip couldn't understand that. It certainly hadn't been fun for him. "You don't ever touch other people's equipment," Kip said. His voice was a shrill cry and he swallowed hard before he talked again. The dogs growled nervously at his tone. "I need the cap. The radio's in it. And without the gun we could all be killed. That's stupid. Stupid!"
"I said we didn't mean nothing." Marty turned toward the station. "Come on, guys. Let's go back. We don't need him." The three older boys walked away, leaving Kip standing in his circle of dogs. The others walked on the trail, scuffing their feet and kicking more holes in the bluish grass and breaking the runners.
Kip stood breathing hard, almost crying, until they were over two hundred meters away. Then he remembered that Uncle Mike had told him to take care of the other boys. He couldn't let them walk back alone. "Silver. Big Ruth. Diamond Lil. Help them get home."
Big Ruth growled.
"You heard me," Kip snapped. "Silver! Go!"
Silver barked at Big Ruth, and the three dogs trotted toward the retreating boys. Kip ran after them, suddenly afraid. They'd got a long way off, and they were walking on a trail that hadn't been used recently. Then they went over a low hillock and were out of sight.