Lanny chuckled, “That there’s a hopper house! Dessie, she found one yesterday and showed me where to look, Watch!” He rapped smartly with his knuckles on the top of the dome.
A second later a hopper’s head popped out of the ground level door and the indignant beast let them know very plainly its opinion of such a disturbance of the peace.
“Dessie, she got a hopper to stand still and let her pet him, My sister Marya-now she wants a hopper-says they’re like kittens. But Ma says they steal too much and we ain’t gonna bring any in the cave, I’d like to try to tame one, though.”
They detoured around a field of the blue-pod grain, meeting the harvesters working there. Dard shook hands with strangers, bewildered by all the new faces. As he went on he asked Lanny:
“How many are there of us now?”
Lanny’s lips moved as he counted. “Twenty-five men- counting you explorers-and twenty-three women. Then there’re the girls, my sisters, Marya and Martie, and Dessie and Lara Skort-they’re all little. And Don Winson, he’s just a baby. That’s all. Most of the men are down rippin’ up the ship.”
“Ripping up the ship?” Why did that dismay him so?
“Sure. We ain’t gonna fly again-not enough fuel. And she was made to take apart so we can use parts of her for machine shops and things like that. Well-here we are!”
They came out on what was now a well-defined path running up to the main entrance of the cave. Three men were working on a swinging platform suspended from the top of the cliff, fitting clear glass into a hole ready to receive it as a window:
“Dardie! Dardie! Dardie!”