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Green World - Hal Clement · The Wealth of Nations

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  Speaker 1: Part one of the Green World by hal Clement. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: librevox dot org. Recording by Phil Schinevert Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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  Speaker 1: The Green World by hal Clement. This story was first
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  Speaker 1: published in Worlds of IF Science Fiction, May nineteen sixty three,
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  Speaker 1: Part one. A zoo can be a rather depressing place,
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  Speaker 1: or it can be a lot of fun, or it
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  Speaker 1: can be so dull as to make the mind wonder elsewhere.
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  Speaker 1: In self defense, in fairness to Emerald Robin Lampert had
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  Speaker 1: to conclude that this one was not quite in the
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  Speaker 1: last group. He had been able to keep his attention
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  Speaker 1: on the exhibits. This was in a way surprising, for
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  Speaker 1: while a frontier town has a perfect right to construct
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  Speaker 1: and maintain a zoo if it wishes, one can hardly
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  Speaker 1: expect such a place to do a very good job.
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  Speaker 1: The present example was, it must be admitted not too good.
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  Speaker 1: The exhibits were in fairly ordinary cages, bored for the
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  Speaker 1: larger creatures, glassed for the smaller ones. No particular attempt
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  Speaker 1: had been made to imitate natural surroundings. The place looked
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  Speaker 1: as artificial as bear concrete and iron could make it.
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  Speaker 1: To a person used to the luxuries provided their captive
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  Speaker 1: animals by the Great cities of Earth and her sister planets,
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  Speaker 1: the environment might have been a gloomier one. Lambert did
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  Speaker 1: not feel that way. He had no particular standards of
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  Speaker 1: what a zoo should be, and he would probably have
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  Speaker 1: considered attempts at reproduction of natural habitat a distracting waste
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  Speaker 1: of time. He was not a biologist and had only
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  Speaker 1: one reason for visiting the Emeralds Zoo. The guide had
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  Speaker 1: insisted upon it. There was, of course some justice in
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  Speaker 1: the demand. A man who was taking on the responsibility
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  Speaker 1: of caring for Lampert and his friends in the jungles
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  Speaker 1: of Ritis had a right to require that his charges
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  Speaker 1: know what they were facing. Lampert wanted to know himself,
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  Speaker 1: so he had read conscientiously every placard on every cage
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  Speaker 1: he had been able to find. These had not been
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  Speaker 1: particularly informative, except in one or two cases. Most of
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  Speaker 1: the facts had been obvious from a look at the
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  Speaker 1: cage's inhabitants. Even a geophysicist could tell that the Philodon
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  Speaker 1: for example, was carnivorous. After one of the creatures had
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  Speaker 1: bared a rather startling set of fangs by yawning in
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  Speaker 1: his face. The placard had told little more less, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: than MacLaughlin had already said about the beasts. On the
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  Speaker 1: other hand, it had been distinctly informative to read that
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  Speaker 1: a small salamander like thing in one of the glass
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  Speaker 1: fronted cages was as poisonous as the most poisonous of
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  Speaker 1: terrestrial snakes. There had been nothing in its appearance to
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  Speaker 1: betray the fact. It was at this point, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: that Lampert began really to awaken to what he was doing.
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  Speaker 1: He was aroused all the way by Maclaughlin's explanation of
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  Speaker 1: a number which appeared on a good many of the placards.
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  Speaker 1: Lampert had noticed it already. The number was always it
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  Speaker 1: seemed different, though always in the same place, and bore
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  Speaker 1: signs of much repainting. It wore no resemblance to any
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  Speaker 1: classification scheme that Lampert knew, and neither of the paleontologists
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  Speaker 1: could enlighten him. Eventually, he turned to maclachlin and asked,
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  Speaker 1: not expecting a useful answer, since the man was a
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  Speaker 1: guide rather than a naturalist. However, the tall man gave
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  Speaker 1: a faint smile and replied, without hesitation, that's just the
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  Speaker 1: number of human deathsiness known to have been caused by
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  Speaker 1: that animal this year. It did not confert Lampert too
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  Speaker 1: greatly to learn that the year used was that of Veridis,
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  Speaker 1: some seventeen times as long as that of Earth. For
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  Speaker 1: the Felondon the number stood at twelve. This was not
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  Speaker 1: very much when compared to the annual losses from tigers
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  Speaker 1: in India during the nineteenth century, but this reflection was
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  Speaker 1: not particularly consoling the human population of Burritis was so
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  Speaker 1: very small compared to that of India. Lampert examined the
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  Speaker 1: creature thoughtfully. It was of moderate size as carnivores, went
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  Speaker 1: some four feet long without the tail, and looked rather
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  Speaker 1: harmless as long as it kept its mouth shut. It
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  Speaker 1: was lying at the center of the cage, so it
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  Speaker 1: was difficult to judge the length of its legs. It
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  Speaker 1: showed no trace of the tendency displayed by many captive
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  Speaker 1: animals of lying against a wall or in a corner
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  Speaker 1: when l and there was none of the restless pacing
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  Speaker 1: so characteristic of Earth's big cats. Under similar circumstances. It
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  Speaker 1: simply lay and stared back at Lampert so steadily that
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  Speaker 1: he never was sure whether or not the cold eyes
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  Speaker 1: were provided with lids. I never liked reptiles back home,
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  Speaker 1: but I think I like these creatures less. The voice
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  Speaker 1: of Mitsuwezi, the Little Archaeologists cut into Lampert's reverie. Don't
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  Speaker 1: let hans are in DOMI here you mentioned them in
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  Speaker 1: the same breath with reptiles. He answered, well, I'm not
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  Speaker 1: fond of frogs either. I'm afraid that wouldn't make them
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  Speaker 1: much happier. These are not even amphibians. They certainly are.
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  Speaker 1: I've been told that they lay eggs in water and
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  Speaker 1: have a tatpole stage. He should have said they aren't
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  Speaker 1: amphibians with the capital A. That is, they don't belong
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  Speaker 1: to the order Amphibia, since they are not genetically related
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  Speaker 1: to the corresponding or on Earth. As for as we know.
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  Speaker 1: Suluweyo gets quite peeved at people who try to lump
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  Speaker 1: terrestrial and extraterrestrial creatures in the same order. I believe
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  Speaker 1: that whoever decide things for biologists has a decreed that
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  Speaker 1: on Ritis, the dominant order is to be called amphibids.
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  Speaker 1: It's a quibble, if you like, but I can see
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  Speaker 1: why they insist on it. Hmmm, so can I. Even now,
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  Speaker 1: you sometimes run into people who go to great length
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  Speaker 1: to make you admit that there are pyramids both in
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  Speaker 1: Egypt and Mexico, and for that matter, on regular six,
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  Speaker 1: and infer from that that their makers had something in
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  Speaker 1: the way of common culture. I say these things are
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  Speaker 1: amphibians without the capital A, because they are at home
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  Speaker 1: both on land and in water, and the dictionary would
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  Speaker 1: back me up. I don't insist that they're related to
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  Speaker 1: those of Earth any more than a Mayan pyramid has
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  Speaker 1: anything but geometry in common within Egyptian one. But I've
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  Speaker 1: heard I'm sure you have, But it's a sore subject.
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  Speaker 1: I'll be open minded if you like, and admit that
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  Speaker 1: some Egyptians may have been blown across the Atlantic and
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  Speaker 1: taught architecture to the Americans. But I don't regard it
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  Speaker 1: as proved. What was that remark of yours, as far
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  Speaker 1: as we know in connection with the ancestry of the amphibids.
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  Speaker 1: That's being at least as open minded as I was.
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  Speaker 1: I would say, in a way, yes, I don't think
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  Speaker 1: anyone has seriously suggested that these things originated on Earth. However,
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  Speaker 1: a puzzle we're here to investigate still exists. How could
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  Speaker 1: there be life forms corresponding to those which took a
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  Speaker 1: good half billion years to evolve elsewhere on a planet which,
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  Speaker 1: by geophysical evidence hasn't been solid for forty million. Someone
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  Speaker 1: certainly has suggested that the world was stocked from outside,
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  Speaker 1: but certainly it hasn't been proved. I don't think anyone
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  Speaker 1: has tried very hard either, and I certainly won't on
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  Speaker 1: a planet with as much radioactivity as this one, you
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  Speaker 1: think that would account for high speed evolution. Lampert shrugged
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  Speaker 1: his shoulders and began to stroll toward the next cage
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  Speaker 1: as the palaeontologists. My opinion doesn't carry much weight. Mitsuetzi nodded,
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  Speaker 1: started to follow the geophysicist, and then turned back to
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  Speaker 1: stair once more. At the carnivore lying a few feet away,
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  Speaker 1: it stared back unblinkingly. The visit to the zoo was
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  Speaker 1: one of several which continued until Lampert, Mitsuezzi, and the
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  Speaker 1: two paleontologists were able to identify each of a dozen
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  Speaker 1: animals which were most concerned in the death rate of
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  Speaker 1: vertis Apparently MacLachlan was not the only guy who did this.
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  Speaker 1: The zoo was equipped to give a final examination, in
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  Speaker 1: which any creature the guide desired could be seen on
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  Speaker 1: a television screen from viewpoints quite different from those obtained
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  Speaker 1: in front of the cages. MacLaughlin proved hard to satisfy.
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  Speaker 1: Lamper did not blame him. He knew a lot about Veridics.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, he had not only read of it in
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  Speaker 1: ordinary reference material, but had done much of the laboratory
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  Speaker 1: work on drill cores brought from the planet. His name
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  Speaker 1: had been one of those attached to the report giving
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  Speaker 1: the probable age of the planet's crust. At that time, however,
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  Speaker 1: the mental picture he held had been of continent distribution,
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  Speaker 1: rock strata, zones of diastrophic stress, and the like. The
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  Speaker 1: question of the appearance or even the existence of plants, animals,
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  Speaker 1: and people had simply never risen to conscious level in
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  Speaker 1: his mind. That had changed shortly before his arrival. The
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  Speaker 1: tramp spacer, which had brought him an his group to Veridis,
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  Speaker 1: had had to orbit about the world in free fall
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  Speaker 1: for several hours while its obsolete dry elements cooled, and
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  Speaker 1: the passengers had examined the planet Lampert, oddly enough, had
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  Speaker 1: been as much impressed by the night side as by
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  Speaker 1: the sunlit hemisphere. The latter had shone, at twenty thousand kilometers,
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  Speaker 1: a fairly standard land and water pattern. The most unusual
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  Speaker 1: thing about it had been the almost perfect uniformity of
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  Speaker 1: the land coloration, a light green, which bespoke or at
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  Speaker 1: least implied, a virtually complete covering of vegetation. By the
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  Speaker 1: time the ship had circled to the dark side, however,
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  Speaker 1: it was much closer to the surface, and Lampert would
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  Speaker 1: have expected to make out luminous sparks and patches of
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  Speaker 1: towns and cities. By the hundreds. He saw just too,
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  Speaker 1: and was not really sure of those. For the rest,
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  Speaker 1: the planet was a vast gray black circle occulting a
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  Speaker 1: portion of the Milky Way. It was not absolutely black, either.
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  Speaker 1: Its contrast with the background of the galaxy was diminished
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  Speaker 1: by the glow in the upper atmosphere, arising from the
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  Speaker 1: recombination of water molecules dissociated during the day by Beta
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  Speaker 1: Libre's fierce ultra violet light. The center of the circle
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  Speaker 1: was darker than the edges, with a line of sight
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  Speaker 1: penetrated through more of the luminous gas. But even this sight,
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  Speaker 1: unusual as it was, did not affect Lampart as much
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  Speaker 1: as the lack of city lights. He had done field
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  Speaker 1: work in lonely wild places before, of course, but until
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  Speaker 1: now he had always had the feeling of being in
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  Speaker 1: an island of wilderness, more or less surrounded by civilization.
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  Speaker 1: On Verritis, it was the civilized spots which formed the islands,
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  Speaker 1: and very small islands they were. There was no known
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  Speaker 1: native intelligent race, and settlements of alien races, such as
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  Speaker 1: the men from Earth, were still few and far between.
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  Speaker 1: So Lambert was prepared for Maclachlan's care in readying the
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  Speaker 1: group for its trip. He was even glad of it,
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  Speaker 1: though he would probably not have admitted to being at
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  Speaker 1: all afraid of the venture. He would simply have said
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  Speaker 1: that it was nice to have a guide who took
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  Speaker 1: his responsibilities seriously. That, of course, did not mean that
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  Speaker 1: Lampert was intending to disavow any of his own responsibilities. He,
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  Speaker 1: like MacLachlan, had been keeping a careful eye on the
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  Speaker 1: other members of the group, looking for the signs of
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  Speaker 1: impatience or ill temper, which could be the seeds of
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  Speaker 1: serious trouble. If the journey were prolonged. He had come
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  Speaker 1: to tentative conclusions about this during the flight from Earth,
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  Speaker 1: but was pleased to see that apparently men who could
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  Speaker 1: stand the enforced companionship of a tramp spacer were also
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  Speaker 1: able to retain their senses of humor in the steam
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  Speaker 1: bath and environment of Burritis. Suluweo, of course, had seemed
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  Speaker 1: safe from the first A man who had spent his
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  Speaker 1: formative years in the Congo rainforests, where his ancestors had
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  Speaker 1: lived for generations, was ideal for this world. His sense
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  Speaker 1: of humor was extremely durable. Lampert suspected that it might
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  Speaker 1: sometimes be a little too good. Miss Whetze, the archeologist,
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  Speaker 1: had once or twice appeared to resent some of the
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  Speaker 1: young fellow's remarks, though not to an extent where Lampert
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  Speaker 1: had felt the need for introducing his own personality into
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  Speaker 1: the matter. Krendall nearly twice. Suluweo's age seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: a check on the younger man. Anyway, he was a
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  Speaker 1: member of the same profession, and Sulueyo would have been
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  Speaker 1: the first to admit his respect for Krendall's work in
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  Speaker 1: the field. Under the circumstances, Lampert felt that the group
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  Speaker 1: was well matched it would be able to do the
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  Speaker 1: job it had undertaken was another matter. The news reports
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  Speaker 1: had spoken glibly of the expedition which was going to
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  Speaker 1: solve the mysteries of Verttus once and for all. Lampert,
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  Speaker 1: like any other scientist, knew perfectly well that the solution
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  Speaker 1: of the present crop of mysteries about the planet would
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  Speaker 1: almost certainly be achieved, only at the cost of creating
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  Speaker 1: an even greater number of new ones. Even the guide,
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  Speaker 1: who was admittedly no scientist, had expressed a similar opinion,
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  Speaker 1: though his was based on a general pessimism, but of
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  Speaker 1: familiarity with the planet. However, he had undertaken to get
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  Speaker 1: them to the start of country they wanted, and from
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  Speaker 1: then on the problem with solving was not his affair.
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  Speaker 1: These scientists, whatever may have been their feeling about matters
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  Speaker 1: of personal safety, were eager to start, which tended to
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  Speaker 1: cause rapid progress in Maclachlin's Animal Record Ignition school. Another
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  Speaker 1: factor tending toward the same result was that there was
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  Speaker 1: little in Emrod for such men to do except learn.
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  Speaker 1: The town was still small. It had a spaceport and
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  Speaker 1: airport which furnished little entertainment. Docks which could muse for
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  Speaker 1: a while but not indefinitely, and warehouses which were completely
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  Speaker 1: uninteresting to geologists, paleontologists and archeologist. There was no museum.
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  Speaker 1: The numerous specimens of mineral, animal, and vegetable matter collected
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  Speaker 1: on the planet invariably wound up on outbound spacecraft. The zoo,
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  Speaker 1: which the town maintained for purely practical reasons, was about
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  Speaker 1: the only thing that was left. In consequence, not many
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  Speaker 1: days passed before all four scientists were able to meet
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  Speaker 1: maclaughlan's requirements. Sudaweyo was annoyed by the guide's edition of
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  Speaker 1: a short postgraduate course in edible flora and fauna, but
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  Speaker 1: it admitted that the knowledge might well be useful. However,
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  Speaker 1: he made no secret of his satisfaction when MacLachlan finally
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  Speaker 1: announced that, as far as he was concerned, the journey
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  Speaker 1: could begin at any time. All four re checked their equipment.
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  Speaker 1: That of Lampert was by far the bulkiest, and everyone
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  Speaker 1: satisfied with the group's ability both to live and to
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  Speaker 1: work in the steam bath that was the world of Aritus.
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  Speaker 1: They watched the harbor on which Emirod was located shrink
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  Speaker 1: and blend into the rest of the shoreline behind them.
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  Speaker 1: Within a few minutes, only the restless surface of Green
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  Speaker 1: Bay was visible through the ever present haze. The jaws
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  Speaker 1: of the phelodon abruptly stopped moving, and its fore legs straightened,
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  Speaker 1: bringing the fanged head up and away from the kill
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  Speaker 1: it had just made. If a man had been there,
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  Speaker 1: he would neither have seen nor heard the disturbing factor,
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  Speaker 1: For a thunderstorm a few miles to the west was
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  Speaker 1: emitting an almost continuous growl, and the towering trees shut
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  Speaker 1: out nearly all the sky. Nevertheless, the beast appeared to
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  Speaker 1: send something out of the ordinary. It twisted its short
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  Speaker 1: but supple neck ceaselessly, rocking its head from side to
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  Speaker 1: side to bring first one eye and tympanic membrane to
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  Speaker 1: bear on the jungle roof, then the other. Sometimes it
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  Speaker 1: froze motionless for a long moment, and a watcher would
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  Speaker 1: have sworn that its minute brain was struggling with a thought.
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  Speaker 1: If this were the case, the thought must have been
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  Speaker 1: both unusual and unpleasant. For under normal circumstances, nothing short
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  Speaker 1: of overwhelming force would have driven a phelodawn from its meal. Now, however,
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  Speaker 1: the hind leg slowly straightened, and the creature came erect
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  Speaker 1: for another moment. Moment it stood motionless, took a step
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  Speaker 1: or two away from the body, and stopped again abruptly,
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  Speaker 1: as though in defiance of some impulse. It turned back,
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  Speaker 1: lowered the murderously armed head, and tore a huge mouthful
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  Speaker 1: of flesh from the Caucasus. Then, like a child leaving
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  Speaker 1: the cookie jar as its mother approaches, it leaped away
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  Speaker 1: into the underbrush, still swallowing. Its speed was high, and
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  Speaker 1: it did not have far to go. The jungle thinned
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  Speaker 1: in a few hundred meters to the point where some
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  Speaker 1: sky became visible, and a short distance further, the riotous
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  Speaker 1: plant growth vanished completely to give place to an open beach.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Here the creature stopped and repeated its search of the
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  Speaker 1: hemisphere overhead. This time it found what it sought. Along
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  Speaker 1: the line of the beach, perhaps a kilometer out to sea,
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  Speaker 1: the thing came flying. It must have been utterly different
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  Speaker 1: from it anything the Pheladon could ever have seen, but
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  Speaker 1: no sign of fear appeared in the beast's demeanor. It
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  Speaker 1: stood on the beach, well away from the shelter of
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  Speaker 1: the jungle, and certainly in full view from above its
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  Speaker 1: head following the flying object, and a fearful snarl which
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  Speaker 1: mighter might not have been its normal expression of hunger,
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  Speaker 1: giving its face an almost mammalion cast. This thing was
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  Speaker 1: larger by far than any flying creature the phelodon knew
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  Speaker 1: incomparably larger than the philodon itself. Its details were hard
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  Speaker 1: to make out through the hazy air, and would have
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  Speaker 1: meant little to the flesh eater in any case. The
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  Speaker 1: most noticeable characteristic was the steady, whistling hum that proceeded
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  Speaker 1: from it. There was a suggestion of motion, too, which
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  Speaker 1: might have been wings or might not. Actually, the thing
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  Speaker 1: was little more than a dark dot against the purplish
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  Speaker 1: blue sky. At the moment, no sunlight was striking it directly,
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  Speaker 1: for it was in the shadow of the thunder head.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps this prevented the animal below from being bothered by
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  Speaker 1: another unusual feature it possessed, though even the appearance of
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  Speaker 1: this last characteristic produced no sign of fear when it
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  Speaker 1: finally came. This occurred shortly after the flying thing passed,
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  Speaker 1: while it was still quite close. It moved out of
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  Speaker 1: the shadow of the great cloud, and as the greenish
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  Speaker 1: sunlight struck it. The eyes of the watching creature were
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  Speaker 1: dazzled by a gleam of metal. This was certainly something
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  Speaker 1: it had never seen, for a native metal on Verritus
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  Speaker 1: is just about as common as it was on Earth
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  Speaker 1: before men began to pry it out of its oars.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Veritus has an oxygen rich atmosphere and plenty of moisture,
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  Speaker 1: and pure aluminium or chromium just doesn't occur in that environment.
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  Speaker 1: Strange or not, However, the gleam did not appear to
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  Speaker 1: have infect the Pheladon's a rudimentary sense of fear. For
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  Speaker 1: just an instant, it paused as the flying thing hummed
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  Speaker 1: on into the northeast. Just once, it looked back toward
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  Speaker 1: the point in the jungle where it had left its kill,
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  Speaker 1: a point from which eloquent sounds were now coming, betraying
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  Speaker 1: the presence of carrion eaters. Just one step it took
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  Speaker 1: in that direction, then it turned away, as abruptly as
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  Speaker 1: it had from the meal a few minutes before, with
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the same purposeful air it had displayed on the way
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: out of the jungle. It headed down the beach in
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the direction taken by the flying piece of metal. Though
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: the animal speed was high. The humming soon faded out
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: ahead of it. However, this did not seem because any inconvenience.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: The Pheladon moved on with a gait that might have
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: been called a fast walk or a slow run, never hesitating,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: never pausing, it remained silent. Smaller creatures which might have
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: given it a wide berth had they heard the hunting call,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: now sprang away most from underfoot. It paid them no heed,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: but continued on its way, while the Green Sun settled
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: into the jungle behind and to its left. The fact
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: that its recent kill was now little more than a
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: skeleton did not seem to bother it. Perhaps it had forgotten.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: End of Part one, Part two of The Green World
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: by hal Clement. This librevox recording is in the public domain.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Part two. The humming was a little more noticeable than
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: the helicopter cabin, but not much. John McLachlan, sprawled as
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: comfortably as his two meters of height would permit in
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: its confines, had noticed the sound only at first, and
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: after remarking to himself else that they seemed to be
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: building better ion turbines since he had left Earth, had
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: permitted his thoughts to wonder in other directions. These did
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: not concern Philodons. The interest there was not at the
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: moment mutual. The rather crowded cabin offered material enough for consideration.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: MacLachlan was not a scientist by training, but neither was
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: he the sort of guide that might have been found
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: in Yukon or Amazon territory a few centuries back. He
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: did not despise people merely because they were, by his standards, greenhorns.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: He knew that each of the other men now sharing
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: this cabin with him was an expert in his own field,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: even though some of them, in spite of his training,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: would have been able to survive for less than a
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: day in the jungles of Ritis. After all, why should
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: they have learned such an art. There were other things
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: worth learning, and one could always hire MacLachlan if a
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: need to visit the jungles developed. Since this particular party
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: had done just that, they were evidently a fairly practical crew.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: They were not talking very much, which, from the guide's viewpoint,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: was an additional point in their favor. They already knew
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: what they planned to do and saw no point in
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: repeating what had already been said. Of course, if they
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: should fail to find the area they were seeking, there
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: would be talk oliver aimed at maclaughlan, but he had
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: no fear on that score. There were few enough mountains
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: on Veridis, and of those few, by far the greater
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: number were volcanic cinder cones. When these scientists had specified
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: a region of tilted, block or folded mountains, the guide
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: had been more than dubious at first. It had taken
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: him time to recall that there was a small area
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: meeting these specifications less than fifteen hundred miles from the
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: spaceport at Emirod. He was not himself a geologists, but
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: pictures and diagrams had been used freely in explaining to
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: him just what was wanted, and he was quite certain
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: that the party would be satisfied with what he had
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: to offer. A slight rocking in the hitherto steady motion
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: of the helicopter roused him from this line of reverie.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: There were already several hours from Emorrod, and maclachlin realized
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: that he should have been paying more attention to the course.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: He straightened up in his seat and looked out to
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: the left and ahead was a huge thunder head whose
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: satellite air currents had probably caused a variation on the
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: helicopter's flight path. More importantly, there was land in sight.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Maclachlin knew that the long flight across Green Bay was over.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: He waited, however, before saying anything. He had given the
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: pilot full instructions as to the route before take off,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: and he wanted to see whether those had been clear enough.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Apparently they had. Without asking questions or even looking back
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: at the guide, Lampert swung the aircraft from its northerly
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: heading on to one which paralleled the shoreline, a turn
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: of about forty five degrees to the right, and the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: helicopter resumed its steady flight. MacLaughlin did not relax. From
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: now on, the route was a little more difficult to follow,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: and there were not too many more hours of daylight.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: The shadowless night glow, which made vision relatively easy after sunset,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: did not lend itself to aerial navigation over a very
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: poorly mapped world. He kept his eyes on the shoreline,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: watching for the landmarks he had not seen for many months,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: and then not from above. He did not see the
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: pheladon which became so intensely interested in the helicopter. If
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: he had, he would have attached little importance to the
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: creature's presence, and he could not possibly have seen its
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: actions in sufficient detail to catch any peculiarities in them.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: No one else saw the beast ee. The change in
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: course had roused most of the party from whatever lines
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: of thought they had been pursuing, as it had MacLaughlin,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: and most of them were looking out the windows, but
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: they were interested in what lay ahead, not below. Sometime
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: soon the relative monotony of jungle and swamp would be
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: relieved by rising ground, indicating the nearness of the mountains
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: they sought, and the helicopter's flight altitude of some two
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: thousand feet was low enough to permit any significant rise
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: of terrain to be visible. Sulaweyo, the younger paleontologist, made
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: a remark to that effect, which passed without comment. Real
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: conversation did not start for some minutes. As I understand it,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: we have one more course change before we see the mountains.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Isn't there a river we have to follow for a time?
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: String Lampard asked the question, without looking back. That's right,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: MacLachlan replied. It runs into Green Bay from almost straight
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: north and about a hundred miles inland makes a turn
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: to the east. That's general direction. It winds a lot
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: it would in country as nearly Peneplaine as this muttered
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Lampert under his breath. The mountains. You want to start
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: about sixty airline miles from the Big Bend. If you
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: trust your guirocoppas enough, you can head for them directly
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: from the river mouth. If you have any doubt about
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: being able to hold the line, though, follow the river.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: I doubt that there are any good landmarks otherwise. Of course,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: I've only seen the area from the surface and close
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: to the river, but I'd be very surprised if there
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: was anything around. But the swamp and jungle mess were
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: over now, so would I. We'll stay inside of the river,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: but edges for east as visibility lets us. The guide
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: approved this plan with a nod, and the conversation lapsed
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: for several minutes. The silence was finally broken once more
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: by Suluweyo. I hope these hills we're looking for have
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: something of interest. This planet is the most monotonous I've
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: seen yet. Where it is in jungle, its swamp, and
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: the only difference between the two is that the jungle
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: grows higher trees. Maclachlan's face crinkled into something like a smile,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: and he sat up once more. There's one other difference,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: he remarked, What's that in the jungle, dressed and equipped
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: as you are now, you might live as long as
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: a day in the swamp. Five minutes would be an
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: optimistic estimate. Sulaweyo looked down at the shorts and boots
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: which constituted his costume and shrugged. I admit the point,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: but I don't expect to go out this way. What
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: I actually wear and carry beside my professional equipment is
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: up to you. Also, I was referring to appearances. Bethel
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Ire nine looked almost as dull as this whirl from above,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: and I'll bet it was at least as deadly when
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: you reached the surface. MacLachlan had never visited New shol
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: and admitted it. But it took more than that to
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: stop Suluweo. Actually, I was hoping that these hills didn't
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: turn out to be so covered with soil that any
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: fossils would be yards underground at the best. Do you
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: recall any places where the rock strata themselves were exposed.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Steep cliffs are deep stream gullies. Perhaps definitely, Yes, the
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: big river cuts right across the range, or else starts
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: in it. It comes out from a canyon like that
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: of the Colorado on Earth, though a lot less spectacularly. Actually,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know anything about the country more than a
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: couple of miles up that canyon. I was stopped on
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the river by rapids and couldn't get my anfib out
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: on either side. For the most part, there simply wasn't
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: any shore, just cliff quite a current. I suppose lampert
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: cut in. Actually not very much. I went swimming in
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: worse on Earth that hardly ties in with steep cliffs
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: and a river cutting through a mountain range. MacLachlan shrugged,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: you're the geologist. Look it over for yourself. Maybe you'll
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: just have to add it to the list of things
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: you don't understand about verritis. Fair enough, the pilot commander
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: geophysicists nodded. I did not mean to imply that you
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: were not reporting accurately, But the situation you have described
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: would be a trifle queer on more planets than Earth.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I assure you, still, with luck, your cliffs will show fossils.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Maybe we'll solve one problem in exchange for another life
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: could be worse. Just hope we don't solve the first
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: one by proving that certain geophysicists have been talking through
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: their hats the hitherto salient. Krendle remarked, Hey, what would
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: you do if we found a chuck of say uh
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: pagmatite with radioactive inclusions that checked out at half a
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: billion years instead of the thirty five million U lads
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: have been giving us as a timescale for this mudball?
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: I should check very carefully under what circumstances and in
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: what location you found it. If necessary, I would admit
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: that the problem had disappeared. Half a billion years would
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: account reasonably well for the evolutionary status of this planet's
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: life forms, though actually it took Earth a good deal
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: longer to reach a corresponding condition. Frankly, however, I do
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: not expect any such find. We spotted our borings rather
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: carefully and should have taken pretty representative samples. I'm sure
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: you did. If your results are right, it means that
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: the problem belongs to Hans and me, and string here
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: had better find us a lot of fossils. You have
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: to find your own bones. MacLachlan replied, I'm taking you
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: to the sort of ground you want. A fossil would
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: have to show its teeth in my face before I'd
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: recognize it, and then I'd probably shoot before I realized
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: it was dead. All right, Suluweyo chuckled. You take care
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: of the quick and Krendall and I will worry about
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: the dead. Doctor Lampert can figure out how old fossils
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: are if we find any, and take can look for
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: stone axes or automobiles or pieces of space drive tubes
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: or other artifacts. Mitsuetzi answered the implied dig I plan
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: to sit back in loaf and less and un chill.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: One of you lads turns up a skull that could
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: have held more than half an ounce of brain. I
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: am going to be very unscientific. I believe that there
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: is nothing on this planet for an archaeologist to do,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: and I'm not going to work myself into a lather
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: to prove myself wrong. You've formed an opinion rather early
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: in the game, Lampert remarked, After all, remarkably little of
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: this world has been explored. Why should there not be
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: traces of occupation in unknown areas such as we are
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: about to visit. Because while most of the planet remains unexplored.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: A very large number of places which should have furnished
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: traces of habitation have failed to do so. We've surveyed
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: many spots which were or are ideal for cities based
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: on ocean commerce or market centers for what could be
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: farm areas are spaceports. After a while, you get to
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: a point where such finds can be predicted with some certainty.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: As I said, I am far from certain, and it
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: would be most unreasonable to say I was. But in
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: the area we are seeking, I see no reason to
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: expect anything of interest to my profession. Lampert shrugged and
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: brought his atention back to the controls. The sun was
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: slowly sinking, bringing into bolder relief the irregularities of the
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: ground as their shadows lengthened. However, these irregularities were still few,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: and the jungle roof was for the most part evenly illuminated.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: As MacLachlan had expected, there was nothing that could be
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: used as a landmark in its own way. The forest
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: was as featureless as the ocean. The pilot kept his
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: gaze riveted ahead in expectation of the river, which the
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: guide had told them to expect, and presently he saw it.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Reflecting the color of the faintly purplish sky, it stood
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: out fairly well against the gray green of the jungle.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Once they were close enough to penetrate the ever present haze.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: With MacLachlan nodding silent approval, Lampert swung the helicopter to
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: the left and proceeded more nearly straight north, angling gradually
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: toward the river. Now the jungle took gone a little
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: more feature, though still nothing that could be used for guidance.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: At fairly frequent intervals, a glint of water became visible
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: through the trees directly below them. Evidently numerous tributaries were
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: feeding into the larger stream, but none of these could
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: be seen from any distance. For the most part, they
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: were so narrow that the trees growing on each side
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: met above them. I should think that one could cover
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: a great deal of that territory in a boat, remarked Mitsuezzi,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: after nearly half an hour in the new direction. You'd
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: need an anfib replied the guide. A boat is all
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: right for the main stream, but all that stuff coming
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: in from the size is so shallow that you'd never
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: make progress with anything else. I've tried most of them
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: in my own crock. Every time I've had to crawl
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: rather than float. Before I was a mile from the river.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: How is the ground swamp? No, it's fairly solid for
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: the most part. It doesn't show very well yet, even
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: with the sun as low as it is, but the
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: general ground level is pushing up slowly. All along here,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: we'll be in sight of your mountains before too long.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: This declaration brought all members of the group to the windows,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: all five pairs of eyes covering the quadrant of vision
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: below and ahead. The meandering river was now on their left,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: but just visible through the haze. Ahead of them was
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: the eastward turn MacLachlan had predicted. Lampard headed a little
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: more to the right in an attempt to cut the
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: final corner, but the helicopter reached the winding purplish band
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: before their goal came in sight. In spite of this effort,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: the flier hummed on. The bars of sunlight admitted by
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: the side ports had been nearly horizontal when the turn
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: to the east cut them off. They were only slightly
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: more so. When maclaughlan gave a satisfied grunt and nodded forward.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: The others followed his gaze straight ahead, Little could be
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: seen because of the bright spot familiar to every flier,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: the shadowless area directly opposite the sun centered on the
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: aircraft's own shadow. To either side, however, the promised hills
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: rose out of the jungle to heights exceeding the present
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: flight altitude of the helicopter. Presumably the canyon from which
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: the river was supposed to emerge lay in their paths,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: so at any rate, Lambert remarked, and MacLaughlin confirmed him,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: I cruise pretty slowly from here on. The guide added,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: there are a number of hills on this side of
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: the range. Even if you're not worried about running into
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: one of them, you may want to examine them for
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: exposed rocks. Mightn't it be better to find a spot
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: to park before the sun goes down? Countered the pilot.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: It might. What I said still holds, though you haven't
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: much chance of finding one inside the canyon without quite
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: a long search, and it will be best to stay
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: this side of the range until sunrise. Remember my trouble
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: in finding a beach for the amphib while I was inside.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: All right, can we land to the jungle, though not
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: unless you want to fold the blades in flight and
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: drop the last twenty to fifty feet. Hunt for a
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: fairly high hill. They're usually somewhat bare on top, and
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: you'll at least have room for the roaders to swing.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: If you don't like that or can't find a suitable hilltop,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: land on the river and tie up to the shore.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: But again, don't try that in the canyon. You're unlikely
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: to find anything to tie up to. This machine has
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: good lights, I suppose you realize, but then you know
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: the planet. As far as I'm concerned, which you say goes?
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Are there chances of a hill equally good on either
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: side of the river, maybe a little better to the
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: The ground looked higher that way. When I came out
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: of the canyon, Lampert obediently eased the flyer's course a
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: trifle to the left, and everyone aboard watched the ground
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: as it began to rise toward them. At first, the
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: hills were merely low mounds, as jungle covered as the
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: level ground, but very quickly these gave way to higher,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: steeper rises on whose top the larger trees grew very sparsely.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: One of these was quickly selected after a brief questioning
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: glance from Lampert to the guide, and the helicopter began
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: to descend. We'd better take what we have now. Maclaughlan
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: amplified the nod with which he had answered the pilot.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: This belt of hills is pretty narrow, and we'd be
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: into the main range in another minute or two. Do
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: you know whether the other side is as abrupt or whether?
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Lampert's question was cut short by an exclamation from Mitsuweetzee,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: rob hold it a moment. Uppert was a good pilot.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: The increase in rotorblade pitch under his steed fingers brought
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: the helicopter's descent to as nearly an instant halt as
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: was possible to anything airborne. Not until he had also
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: checked horizontal drift did he look in the direction the
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: archeologist was indicating. By then everyone had seen what had
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: attracted Mitsuwetzee's attention. Between the hill on which Lampert had
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: intended to land and the river were several lower eminences.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: These were now almost directly south of the helicopter, and
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: every detail upon them was shown in exaggerated relief by
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: shadows stretching to the east. It was one of these
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: hills which Mitsuwetzee was examining with the utmost care. It
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: was covered with jungle like the rest, but a curious
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: regularity was visible. The trees appeared at this distance to
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: be of the usual species, but some of them towered
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: over their fellows by a good thirty or forty feet.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: This in itself was not odd. The whole jungle was
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: studded with such projections. However, on this hill the taller
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: trees seemed to have been planted in orderly rows. Five
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: solid lines of them were visible, extending roughly north and south,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: so that their long shadows made them stand out sharply.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: They were separated from each other by perhaps a quarter
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: of a mile. Running at right angles to them were other,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: less outstanding rows of vegetation. Lampert was not quite sure
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: that these were not the product of his own imagination,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: since the trees which formed them rose little, if any
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: above the general level. The whole hilltop, however, suggested something
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: to every man who saw it. The archeologist was the
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: first to give voice to the impression that was a city.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: No one answered. Some of the scientists must have thought
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: that he was jumping from one opinion to its direct opposite.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: On the strength of some rather feeble evidence, But the
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: thought went unvoiced. They simply looked, except for Suduweyo, who
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: moved to turn a camera on the scene. Rob can
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: we land there now? Lampert had anticipated this question, but
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: could have answered it without hesitation. In any case, Sure,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: if you don't mind using strings method of folding the
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: blades and falling in. The archaeologist turned to the guide.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: Will it be hard to get there on foot from
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: this hill? We're headed for MacLaughlin shrugged from two hours
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: to a day, depending on undergrowth. We have torches, we
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: can burn our way. If the vegetation is dense half
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: a day, then you'll still have to let the steam clear.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Pretty often there is little wind below the trees and
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: the air is saturated. Well, that place will be worth
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: more than a day of any one's time. Maybe tomorrow
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: we can hold up a moment take Lampert cut in
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: before Mitsueetze could develop his plan further. If you take
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: string out to that hill before take off tomorrow, what
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: do the rest of us do for the day or
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: week before you get back. What we'd better do is
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: note this place, go on to the canyon, set up camp,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: get the fossil hunting going, and after our routine is
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: set up and we know the more common dangers of
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood, perhaps we can spare Maclaughlan for a day
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: or two so that you can look over your city,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: if that's what it is. Lampert's last few words banish
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: the hurt expression from the little man's face. What do
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: you mean? If what else could make a pattern like that?
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: It must have been streets, or a joint system in
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: the rock below trapping enough water, are draining enough off
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: to permit superior growth along the joint lines, or a
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: system of tilted strata doing the same thing. If it's
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: the latter, it's just the sort of thing you want
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: to It should bring fossils near the surface. The pilot
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: nodded slowly. You do make it sound more attractive. Still,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: I think we'd better follow the original plan, except that
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: I may come with you myself when we do get
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: around to looking that hill over. He turned back to
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: the controls and resumed their descent. Miss Suwetzy subsided once
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: more to his seat. The archaeologist realized the wisdom of
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Lampert's decision, but did not particularly enjoy the enforced weight
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: his face showed the fact until Sulaweo opened the camera
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: he had been using and passed him the sheaf of
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: prints on which the city appeared as the young paleontologist
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: had expected. These so occupied the little man's attention that
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: he did not even notice the landing. The helicopters settled
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: to the hilltop which Lampert had chosen, in the center
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: of a quadrangle of trees growing just far enough apart
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: to give clearance to the rotors. The sun was nearly gone.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: It had vanished in the haze as they dropped below
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: flight altitude. Maclachlin knew that in all too short a
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: time it would be as dark as Veritas ever became.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: The knights could be dangerous. There was quite enough light
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: to deceive a man into thinking he could see clearly,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: and an inexperienced wonderer might not realize until too late
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: that details were not really distinct, and that there was
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: no clue to direction in the shadowless glow. Maclachlin himself
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: could use the moons, but he doubted that any other
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: member of the party could do so they or their
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: motions took knowing. He was pleased to note that there
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: was no general rush to the door. As the great
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: Blades whistled gently to a stop. The scientists turned to him,
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: but remained where they were. No words were spoken, but
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: Lampert's relinquishment of command was evident. MacLachlan unfolded his length
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: from the seat. There are two choices, he said. We
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: can sleep in the copter or outside. The first will
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: be a trifle cramped, but the second will require either
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: a double circle of charged wire or two armed guards
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: on constant watch with no offense. Meant I doubt that
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: anyone but myself in this group would qualify as a
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: night guard. Why a double circle of wire, asked Lampert.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: The wire will stop only an animal in control of
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: its motions when it makes contact. If a fellow dawn
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: were to spring from a little distance, it might not
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: like the wire, but it could hardly stop until it
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: reached the ground, and there should be a similar barrier
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: ahead of it. We could use a lethal voltage, even
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: if you want to take the risk. What is lethal
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: to a phelodon will be equally so to a man.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: You'll have the insulation problem. There's always a darn good
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: chance of rain before morning, and we might as well
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: stay inside. Then, We have the electric equipment, but it
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: will take quite a while to set it up, and
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: it hardly seems worth the trouble for a one night stand.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: As you say, it will be a little crowded here,
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: but we've all slept under worse conditions. Would any one
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: rather set up the fence? There was no answer to
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: this question. At Lambert's direction, a meal was served in Eden.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Then the scientists settled down for the night, some to
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: sleep at once, others to review plans, our Reechuk equipment.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: Mitsutzi occupied himself with making careful measurements of the photographs
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: he had been given. He was the last asleep. Scores
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: of miles to the southwest, the phelodon reached the river.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: It was no longer on the coast, sometime since it
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: had swerved inland. A casual compass sheck would have revealed
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: that it was still heading straight for the now grounded helicopter.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: Even MacLachlan could not have told what led the creature on,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: familiar as he was with the animals of Verdis, but
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: no one who had watched the thing since the flying
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: machine had passed could have doubted its goal. Actually, it
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: was now on the same bank of the river as
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: the helicopter, but whatever guided it pointed across the Great
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: Stream without hesitating. The amphibid plunged into the water. End
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: of Part two, Part three of The Green World by
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: hal Clement. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: Part three. The men were awake well before sunrise. The
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: human body takes a long long time to accustom its
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: physiological cycle to a change in something as fundamental as
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: the length of day, but they did not attempt to
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: resume flight until the Green Star was once more in
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: the sky. Mitsuwetze put forth a tentative suggestion that the
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: interval be spent in a visit to the city site
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: he had seen the night before, but McLaughlin vetoed it.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: Going on foot through the jungle at night is a
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: fool's game, though I admit people sometimes get away with it.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: I could get you there, but even if we turned
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: around and came back immediately, there'd be a lot of
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: time wasted. Doctor Lampert went over all that last night. Look,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: that hill of yours is right by the river. After
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: we've set up in the main camp, it will be
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: relatively easy to drop down to it. We have collapsible
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: unless we camp above the rapids, you won't even have
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: to fly. Even if we're farther upstream and do have
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: to use the copter, the trip will only take a
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: few minutes. Mitsuweetzee had agreed, though with evident reluctance. No
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: one else had any desire to go out. There was
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: not enough rock exposed on the hilltop to excite the paleontologists.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: The hill itself presented nothing unusual to Lampert's geophysical eye,
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: and MacLachlan was in no hurry to get to work.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: They waited, therefore, until the claw Lampert had recalled that
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: Leebrey's Arabic name had risen and the skyglow been replaced
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: by its emerald brilliance. Then the journey was resumed. It took,
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: as MacLaughlin had said the night before, only a few minutes.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: The hill where they had slept was less than five
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: miles from the face of the mountain range, only the
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: haze of the night before had prevented their seeing it.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: The river emerged from a canyon some fifteen hundred feet
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: in depth, a couple of miles to the south of
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: their eastward course line. Lampert in hopes that the usual
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: haze might not be too evident. At this hour, climbed
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: above the level of the cliff top to get an
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: idea of the mountain range as a whole, but he
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: was disappointed. For nearly an hour he cruised over the area,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: now several thousand feet above the western cliffs, and then
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: well below them. It slowly became evident that the range
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: represented a single block which had been tilted upward on
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: the west side. The opposite slopes were very gentle, merging
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: so gradually into the general pinaplain level of the continent
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: that it was impossible to say decisively just where the
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: range ended. The river did originate somewhere beyond the range,
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: cutting entirely through it, and as the guide had said,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: its current was not particularly swiet. Lampard had much explaining
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: to do, After all, waters should have drained toward the
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: low side of the block. It seems evident, he summed
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: up his ideas as they hovered once more over the
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: western cliffs, that the river was here before this particular
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: bit of block tilting occurred. This planet does have some
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: diastrophic forces left in its crust, in spite of its
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: generally smooth nature. Apparently this just represents the end of
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: a long period of rest, such as the Earth has
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: had several times. As a matter of fact, I have
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: no business calling at the end of such a period.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: It might be fifty million years before the world will
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: be generally mountainous again. Why do you say again, rob
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: asked Grendle. According to findings of your own colleagues, this
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: planet has hardly been solid for forty million years. Could
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: it be this flat now if it had ever been
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: markedly mountainous in that time? Good point. I don't know,
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: but would be inclined to doubt it. Well, we'll cancel
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: the again if it will make you happy. In any case,
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: the block forming this range came up slowly enough so
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: that even this river, with its relatively low cutting power,
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: was able to keep pace with it and not be deflected. Probably,
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: he glanced at Mitsuwezze, the rock of which it is
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: made will turn out to be quite strongly jointed. It
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: looks rather that way from above the river course, I
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: mean a lot of right angle or what were once
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: right angle bends. We'd better go down and look for
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: a camp along the river somewhere put in Mitsuwezzi. Let's
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: start at the cliff's end. Then we may wind up
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: reasonably close to that hill, and I still want to
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: look it over. Joints are no joints bare enough. Lampered
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: ease the helicopter once more downward until they were only
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: a few hundred feet above the jungle, moved along the
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: cliff face until they reached the canyon, and very cautiously entered.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: His caution proved unnecessary. The air currents in no way
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: resemble the treacherous hodge podge he had expected, at least
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: not over the center of the river. A steady wind
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: was blowing into the canyon mouths, but did not seem
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: to be eddying very much, even at the numerous bends.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: To the archeologist's annoyance, two sets of rapids were passed
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: before a place was reached where the bank was wide
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: enough for a campsite. At this point, a fairly large
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: side canyon entered the main one from the north, where
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: as central Stream joined the main river, a gravelly area
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: several acres in extent, offered itself for the purposes of
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: the scientists. Lampard brought the helicopter down on this surface.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: The surroundings looked promising. The cliffs facing Both canyons looked
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: reasonably accessible on foot for some distance, at least along
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: their bases. Climbing appeared to be impracticable for the most part,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: as the rock walls rose sheer except for the occasional
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: joints which Lambert had predicted, but the material was certainly sedimentary,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: and everyone but the guide tumbled out of the flier
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: with a glow in his eyes, which promised a speedy
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: scattering of the party. With some difficulty, MacLaughlin got them together.
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: A sight some twenty yard square was selected against one
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: of the cliffs and fenced off. The big prefabricated sheet
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: metal tint was erected and its tiny conditioning unit installed.
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: Sleeping and cooking gear were placed inside that completed geologists
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: hammers appeared as though by magic, and MacLachlan realized that
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: he had better do some explaining before he lost a
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: scientist or two. Once more, he called them together. All right, gentlemen,
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: I admit the necessary camp work has been done, and
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: there should be nothing to keep you from projects. Still,
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: there are some things you had better understand. Having canyon
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: walls on all sides does not make this place safe.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: Every carnivore in poison lizend on this planet to get
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: to us by way of the river. Even the ones
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: which look like land animals, every one of them could
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: swim underwater from a point out of sight in either
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: direction to where you are standing. And if you think
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: he would have to come up at least once to
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: judge your position, guess again. I don't know how they
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: do it, and neither does anyone else. But a fellow
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: dawn could submerge around the bend up there, come up
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: behind the helicopter, out of sight of any one of us,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: and be waiting when we marched around the machine. Therefore,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: go armed at all times. I know you want to
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: cover a lot of ground and can't stick in one party,
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: but I insist that you do not go anywhere alone.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: Take at least one companion, preferably one who is not
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: a member of your own field. If you two paleontologists
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: are together, for example, it seems more likely that you'll
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: be found with your heads in the same hole in
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: the rock. When one of you has to dig, make
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: sure the other has his neck on a swivel. I
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: know this will slow your work, but not as much
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: as if the work had to wait for a new
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: investigating team from emord or from Earth. You've seen most
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: of the dangerous animals in the zoo at Emorrod, so
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: I won't waste time describing them. Just remember that you
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: won't always hear them coming. You'll have to use your eyes,
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: all right, Doctor Lampert, you're the boss's far as the
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: scientific work goes, Who does what and where? The geophysicist
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: gave no sign of having detected the humor in the
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: guide's remark, but began speaking at once. I should say
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: that the main canyon upstream and the side one in
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: the same direction should be covered first. We've all already
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: used up a good deal of today and would waste
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: more breaking out the boats, and Dommy and I will
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: go up the mainstream. Hans and take can take the other.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: Don't hurry. If anything looks good, take the time to
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: investigate it on the spot. Of course, if it is
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: obviously a major job, just to market and go on.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: There's no sense in one man trying to examine a
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: six foot lizard skull. Since the region must have been
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: at sea when the limestone was deposited, there's not much
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: chance of land animals. However, we want as complete a
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: chronological series as possible, So do the best you can
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: on this level. We'll try for higher formations later. There
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: should be plenty further upriver. If this block is tilted
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: the way it seems to be, string perhaps you'd better
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: go with Take in, Hans, set out. When you're ready,
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: be back in. He glanced automatically at the narrow strip
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: of purple blue sky, then at his watch. Four hours.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: Then we'll compare notes. After that we can either concentrate
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: on one place or the other, or break out the
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: boats and cross the streams as indicated. Twenty minutes later,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: the parties were out of sight of each other and
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: the helicopter. Lampert had spent the first few minutes of
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: the walk wondering whether he had been too obvious and
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: arranging for both the guide and Krendle to accompany the
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: little archeologist, but he quickly confesced himself that maclaughlan's speech
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: had covered the arrangements pretty well. In any case, he
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: would probably have been distracted soon enough. The cliffs were
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: interesting limestone, evidently as expected, but rather dince at that
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: maybe some barium replacing the calcium, or was the gravity
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: different enough to destroy his judgment for such a small fragment.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: Probably not. He was actually using inertiam more than weight
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: in making his estimate. Anyway, the stuff was certainly a carbonate.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: It frothed satisfyingly under a drop of acid from Lampert's kit,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: and there were fossils. Suluweyo's form was bent over a
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: spot on the cliff face, examining minutely, but Lampert could
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: see others from where he stood. None seemed remarkable. Most
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: were rather evidently shellfish. He carefully refrained from giving them
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: names according to the genera they resembled in Earth's rocks.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: Sulaweyo and his colleagues frowned on the practice, which could
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: be most misleading. He could not, however, resist the temptation
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: to think of them as scallops. What do you have there?
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: In dami? He knew the other would not have spent
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: so long on any shellfish, Not sure precisely. Maybe vertrae,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: maybe not? What could be armor and what could be ribs?
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: All mixed up? I think I'll mark it for future reference.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: I suppose it'll be another Devonian. What's it like everything
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: else on this planet? When you do decide, Pennsylvanian would
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: better describe the world as a whole. Barring that. You
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: may be right, Rob. If you'd give me a hand here,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: we could get some basic work done. Hey, you say
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: this is a tilted block in lowest formations right now,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: I'd like to get photos and, if possible, specimens of
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: as many different varieties of shell fish as possible at
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: each level. Then it may be possible to set up
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: some sort of temporal sequence and use the things as
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: index fossils. If animals do evolve on this benighted mudball,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: if you could get me some radioactive dates at two
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: or three nicely separated levels, it would also help. Thanks,
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: returned Lampert dryly. I could use material like that myself.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: I can tell you what you probably already know. You're
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: not likely to get anything of the sart from limestone. Well,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: intrusions are always possible. You watch for him. Then the
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: pair went to work two hours out a little more
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: than one back. There was no one at the helicopter
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: when they reached it, but the other group came in
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: only a few minutes over the four hour limit which
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: Lampert had imposed. A Comparison of notes over the meal,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: which had been quickly prepared, indicated that the second group
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: had gone farther in point of miles covered, but had
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: accomplished less work. Prindle had had the same idea as Sulaweyo,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: but he had not attempted to carry it out, since
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: his canyon did not cut across the range and would
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: presumably not furnish a continuous change in formations. Lampert and Sulawayo,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: as it happened, had not found any evidence of change themselves.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: The last fossils they had found were at least superficially
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: identical with the first. There was the usual evidence of bedding,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: and it had been quite evident geometrically that the walk
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: had taken them to originally higher and presumably later levels.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: But in what must have been eight hundred feet or
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: more of original deposit, there seemed to have been no
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: significant change in the fossil life. What eight hundred feet
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: would mean in point of time, of course, no one
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: had the least idea. There was not even a good
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: guess as to how fast carbonates might be expected to
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: precipitate in a varidiant ocean. Anyone could compute the carbonate
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: iron equilibrium between atmosphere and sea, but no one knew
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: anything to speak of about carbonate precipitating organisms of the planet.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: Mitsuwetze changed the subject slightly at this point. We found
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: several of the joints you predicted, he said to Lambert, Oh,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: very wide. We didn't spot anything that was obviously a joint,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: but there are several small side canyons, all narrow enough
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: for us to wait or jump their central streams, which
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: might have started life that way. Ours were quite narrow
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: and bore traces of volcanic ash at the bottoms. Ay,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: that's right, Rob, here's a bit of it I brought back.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: I thought you might win a little corroboration on that one.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: Grendall handed over a bit of crumbly tough as he spoke.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: Lampard examined it with purse lips. Maybe we'd better get
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: back into the air and search the neighborhood for volcanoes,
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: he said at last. I can't bring myself to believe
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: in two full mountain building cycles on this planet, and
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: if I could, I'd have a hard time swallowing the
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: idea of these limestone layers coming up, going down, and
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: coming up again unaltered. How deep were these volcanic deposits variable,
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: shallowest and wider joints in the very narrow ones up
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: out of sight, suggesting that they've been washing off for
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: some time since the original settling anything organic in them.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: Nothing's turned up yet. Do they extend below the present
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: river level or what they're at least down to it?
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: We couldn't do any major excavating if they run much below,
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: muttered Lampert. I'll join the roster of geophysicists who have
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: been driven off the rails by this woozy world. Well,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: let's assume, as a work in hypothesis that the volcanic
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: activity is relatively recent. That will at least have the
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: advantage of keeping me sane until something comes up to
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: disprove it. He finished his meal in silence, while maclaughlan
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: gave a reproving lecture on the matter of waiting. There
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: was still a little daylight to go when all the
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: men had eaten, and Lampert, Sulueyo, and the archaeolic just
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: took the helicopter up the main canyon to check on
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: the possibility of walking to any really new deposits. They
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: were sure from changes of color already seen at various
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: levels up the cliff face that these existed, but it
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: appeared that the lowest of them did not reach river
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: level for more than a dozen miles. The distance was
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: less map wise, but the canyon, winding back and forth
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: around what the geophysicists still felt must be joint bounded blocks,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: went a good two miles in other directions for each
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: one that it led eastward. Realizing this, the explorers lifted
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: the helicopter and began checking as close to the cliffs
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: as Lampert dared at higher levels. In this way, they
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: worked back toward the campsite. Once again, it was Mitsuezi
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: who first spotted something of major interest. Found another city, take,
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: asked Silueo at the other's call, not exact exactly. It's well,
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: I guess it's really a system of those joints you
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: keep talking about. Still it looks awfully regular, He sounded
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: a little wistful. It does. The paleontologist nodded slowly, as
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: you say, it's probably a joint system. Also, it's probably
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: full of volcanic ash. If my eyes don't deceive me, Rob,
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: what's the chance of landing on one of the shelves.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: There are at least three formations accessible on foot from
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: that point, and I could get some more tought samples
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: to make or break your peace of mind. While I
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: was doing my own work, Lampard examined the area carefully.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: Like Earth's Grand Canyon, this one receded from time to
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: time in shelves where softer layers of rock had worn
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: further back or the orogenic processes had paused to give
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: the river a longer bite. At that level, the cracks
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: Bitsuweesi had seen formed a neat crisscross pattern at the
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: top of one of the shelves. Some of them betrayed
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: their nature by emerging from its vertical face. It was
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: admittedly an unusually small scale joint pattern, at least for
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: this mountain system, and might well contain readable evidence of
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: the forces which had shaped the area. However, they had
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: only one helicopter. Lampert slowly shook his head indication I'm
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: afraid not, Tommy. Your shells may be big enough, but
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: they're not level enough. I'd have to make a swinging landing,
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: and I'm not that good a pilot. Well, how about
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: letting me down on the ladder. We have one hundred
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: feet of that, so you could be up above the
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: next shelf while I went down. You'd have plenty of
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: blade clearance. The next level goes back a couple of
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: hundred feet. That might be all right, Lampert spoke hessitently,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: you certainly have the right to risk you your own
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: neck on the climb if you want to. We won't
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: try tonight, though, I'd like to check with String on
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: the advisability of your being there alone. The place looks
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: pretty hard to reach for anything that doesn't fly, and
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know of any really dangerous flying things on
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: this world, but we'd still better check, all right with me.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: I just as soon have a full day anyway. If
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: Indami will be spending a day alone up here, how
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: about having String take me to the other place and
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: settle that point once and for all, asked Mitsuweetzi, as
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: the helicopter east downward toward the camp. That would still
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: leave Hans and you to form another team for whatever
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: else you want to do. That should be all right.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: It'll depend though, on whether String thinks it's safe for
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: a man to work alone on that shelf. The proposition
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: was put to McLaughlan as soon as the machine was landed.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: To Lampert's surprise, the guide gave a qualified approval. Remember
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: he concluded, I don't know what lives on the cliffs.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: It's the country I've never covered. All I'm saying is
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: that no varidian animal I know of could get there,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: except flying ones, and they're nothing to worry about, especially
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: in the daytime. I'd like to go with you to
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: look over the place when you take him up tomorrow,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: and strongly recommend that he carry a communicator as well
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: as a weapon. But unless I see something you haven't mentioned,
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: when I do go, I would say it was all right.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: Once more, the fellow Dawn reached the river, but this
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: time it did not cross. It was no longer heading
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: straight for the helicopter. Hills had not altered its course,
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: but the cliffs had. They formed a wall on its right,
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: which was too nearly vertical for its agility and strength.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: Even this barrier, however, had caused no visit, hesitation or doubt.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: It had swerved, followed the base of the wall to
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: the point where the river emerged, and plunged in as
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: promptly as it had done before. Few amphibians have ever
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: lost the art of swimming when their larval gills vanished.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: The feeble current meant nothing to the philodon. It turned
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: upstream and went on its way end of Part three.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: Part four of the Green World by hal Clement. This
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part four in
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: Dammi Sulaueyo had pursued his occupation on terraces of Earth's
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: Grand Canyon, on cliff's sides of foamal Halt four's highest range,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: and in bad lands on the dimly lighted Antares twelve.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: The physical hazards of his present position troubled him. Little
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: MacLachlan had agreed that the ledge where the paleontologists had
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: been left was inaccessible to the larger carnivores, and had
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: merely issued a final warning about poisonous lizards. The primary danger,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: as nearly as Siloueo could see, was that something might
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: happen to the helicopter. He certainly could not rejoin the
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: others on foot. He was facing a sheer wall some
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: sixty feet high a score of yards behind him. The
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: terrace ended in another straight drop of several hundred feet
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: a quarter of a mile on either side. The flat
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: surface ended to the west by narrowing until the two
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: walls became one. At the other end, it was cut
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: off as far as he was concerned by a joint
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: penetrating apparently the full depth of the canyon. There were
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: several other cracks in the wall facing him, Like those
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: in the tributary canyon explored by Krendall and Mistsuwezzi, these
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: were packed with volcanic detritus. This was hard to reconcile
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: with the suggestion that erosion had been long at work.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: In such a case, the higher portions should have washed
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: away long before the material found at the canyon. Bottom
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: examination at close range suggested a possible explanation. The tough
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: at this point was fairly well cemented. It seemed reasonable
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: to suppose that the joints had been present before the
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: mountains had started to rise, that a volcanic mud flow
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: had filled them with detritus, that the new material had
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: then been cemented by dissolved material coming from above. This
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: would make the top levels of the tough more resistant
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: than those lower down, where the semented minerals had not reached,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: and account for what had been seen so far. The
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: hypothesis also implied a plentiful supply of fossils. Volcanic mud
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: flowing into a crack in the ground should carry plenty
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: with it. Suluweo set to work with a hammer and
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: was presently soaking with perspiration. He was tempted to remove
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: some of his clothing, but this had been treated chemically
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: to repel veridian insects, and caution prevailed. MacLachlan had not
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: mentioned any dangerous biters or stingers, and in all probability
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: his blood would not be to the taste of any
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: such creatures of this world. But if the mosquito or
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: tick did not learn that fact until after it had tried,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: Sulaweo would hardly profit by it. In any case, the
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: temptation to strip passed quickly, in only a few minutes.
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: His attention was fully occupied by his work, for the
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: expected fossils proved to be present in very satisfactory numbers.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: Most seemed rather fragmentary. Apparently the original creatures had been
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: tumbled about rather badly before the medium hardened. However, the
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: remains were definitely bones, as he had expected and hoped.
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: For some time, Sulaueo was occupied alternately digging out more
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: fragments and trying to fit the more hopeful looking specimens together,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: although he had no success at the latter job. Then
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: evidence of a more complete set of remains appeared, and
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: he instantly slowed down to the incredibly meticulous procedure which
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: marks a paleontologist anywhere in the universe. At this time
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: he had cut perhaps a foot into the tuft for
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: the full three foot width of the crack, and from
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: terrace level up to about his own height. In spite
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: of its apparently firm texture, the rock was extremely soft,
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: and the old question about erosion was reappearing. Big pockets
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: of extremely crumbly material had been responsible for most of
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: his speed. Now, however, with the usual perversity of the inanimate,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: a firm or substance was encountered, apparently incasing the bones
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: he suspected of existing a little farther on. This, combined
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: with his increased care to bring almost to a halt
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: the removal of rock from the cleft. The bones were there,
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: perhaps they had been betrayed by a discoloration of the
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: rock too faint for him to have noticed consciously. Perhaps
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: something more subtle is involved in the makeup of a
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: successful field worker in paleontology. But as flake after flake
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: of the matrix fell away under his attack, a shape
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: gradually took form. At first a single bone, which might
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: have been an unusually short digit or an unusually long corporal, or,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: of course, something totally unrelated to either was outlined, then
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: another close enough to suggest that their lifetime relationship might
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: have been maintained, and another. Sulaweyo vailed to hear the
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: approach of the helicopter until its rotor, washed from one
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: hundred feet above, lifted the dust about his ankles. Knowing
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: that Lampert would be having trouble holding that cloase to
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: the cliff side, the paleontologist reluctantly hooked his equipment to
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: his belt and started up the ladder. Five minutes later,
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: they were back at camp, with Crendall listening eagerly to
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: Sulueyo's description of his find. It's certainly a vertebrae, hans
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: that stuff can't possibly be shell or wood. It's almost
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: certainly a land dweller, likely enough, and that's sort of
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: rock anyway, because I got enough uncovered to be nearly
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: certain that it's a foot. Certainly a limb that would
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: not be needed by a swimmer like an ichthyosaur, queried
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: Lampert innocently, Sulaweyo grinned, quite possibly more likely one of
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: our ubiquitous anphibs, though certainly something worth getting out, since
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: the general idea is to get an evolutionary sequence of
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: some sort. I suppose that means you'll want me to
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: date the eruption which filled all these cracks with detritus.
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: Then sure, but there's no hurry tomorrow will do? Lampert
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: found he had no answer to this, and Mitsuitzi managed
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: to edge into the discussion. He had spent the day
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: with McLaughlin as he had hoped, and mere failure to
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: find paving stones had not damped his order. I suppose
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: you and Hans will both want to go up the
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: cliff tomorrow, he remarked. In that case, Rob might as
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: well stay with string and me. It will speed up
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: the digging Back at my hill, are you still scraping
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: dirt off that thing? Asked Sulaueo in mock surprise. Didn't
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: one day indicate that it was a joint pattern like
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: the rest. Not yet. We haven't gotten down to rock
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: over any place where your cracks should be. The root
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: tangle of the taller trees slows the digging. I admit
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: the rock is limestone like the cliff, but there is
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: still no evidence why those trees grow so regularly. That's
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: just what we've been saying all along, But you keep
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: looking for the remains of a city. I gathered, en
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: dummy from your recent conversation that you were digging for
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: a land animal on the basis of three bones. Either
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: you are working on a hunch, which destroys your right
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: to criticize, or you are reasoning from knowledge not available
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: to the rest of us. In the latter case, you
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: should at least be open minded enough to credit me
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: with equivalent knowledge in my own field. It was Silaualo's
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: turn to have nothing to say. He had honestly supposed
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: that the archeologist had been taking the city hypothesis no
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: more seriously than the rest. He apologized at once, and
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: peace was restored. Lampert sealed it by agreeing to miss
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: Duetzy's suggestion. The rest of the evening was spent in
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: detail planning by the two groups. At sunset, all turned
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: in to sleep behind the protection of the electrified fence.
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: Even the guide regarded this as an adequate safeguard. Apparently
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: his opinion was shared by at least one other. The
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: Phelodawn had spent most of the day underwater, part of
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: the time in the canyon fairly close to Lampert and Krindle,
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: and later down the stream by the sight where the
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: guide and archaeologist had been working at. Neither place had
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: it emerged or shown the slightest sign of wanting to attack.
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: McLachlan's reference to the strange instinct of the creatures seemed justified.
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: It certainly could not see the men, but just as
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: certainly was aware of their presence. What it was about
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: the alien visitors that exercised such an inn influence on
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: the minute brain of the carnivore. No one could have
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: said then. Any watcher who was supposed from its earlier
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: actions that it was moved by a desire for new
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: and different taste sensations would have had to discard the notion. Now,
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: with the men safely settled down behind their fence, the
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: beast suddenly turned back downstream. It had returned to the
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: camp site at the end of the working day. In
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: an hour, it was in the jungle below the canyon.
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: In another it had killed and was feeding, as it
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: had the moment before the hum of the helicopter had
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: first attracted its attention. This time it finished the meal
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: in peace, and once finished, did not show immediate signs
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: of its former obsession. Instead, it sought a layer and relaxed,
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: blending so perfectly into the undergrowth and remaining so silent
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: that within a few minutes small animals were passing only
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: feet away from the concealed killer. Robin Lampert was only
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: a fair statistician, but if he had been acquainted with
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: the moves of that philodon during the last few days,
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: even he would have been willing to take oath that
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: more than chance was involved. He would probably have wanted
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: to dissect the animal in search of whatever mechanism was
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: controlling it. But Robin Lampert knew nothing of the creature.
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: Neither did Takehiko Mitsuweizi, and that was rather unfortunate for
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: the lair it had selected was on the same hill
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: as the archaeologist's digging site, and a scant quarter mile
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: away from the pit Mitsuwezzi had left. The rising of
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: the green sun was not visible. The next morning, the
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: ever present mist had thickened into a solid layer of cloud,
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: and hissing rain cut the visibility to a few hundred yards.
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: The helicopter felt its way way down the hill with
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: radar landed on the river, tax seed on its floats
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: to the bank, and was moored. Lampert, MacLachlan and Mitsueitze emerged.
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: The scientists laden with apparatus and started up the hill
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: toward the site. The guide carried only his weapons. The
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: equipment was not of the sort Mitsuwheezzee was accustomed to using.
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: It actually belonged to Lampert. Normally, it would not be
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: used in an archaeological dig, anymore than it would have
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: been had they been fossil hunting, for neither activity takes
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: kindly to any sort of automatic digging machinery. Lampert had
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: suggested its use, however, in order to get a rapid
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: idea of the nature of the soil cover, bedrock, and
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: joint structure of the hill. If evidence warranted, it would
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: be abandoned for the slower methods of digging, if not
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: a few hours would permit them to learn as much
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: about the area as many days of work with slower equipment.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: The whole Metsuweitzi had already dug was part way up
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: the hill in a space cleared of underbrush by a flamethrower.
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: Several other such clearings or in the neighborhood. As the
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: archaeologist had said, he had made more than one attempt
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: at digging, which had been frustrated by roots. Somewhat to
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: Lampert's surprise, it was possible to tell even from ground
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: level the orientation of the taller trees, which had been
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: so prominent from the air. Even the smaller plants showed
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: signs of some underground influence. Between the tallest trees, tracing
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: out the straight lines the men had seen from above,
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: the underbrush formed an almost impenetrable wall. Elsewhere foot travel
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: was easy, though the surface was by no means Barren
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: Lampert understood, how indeed, there might have been difficulty in
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: digging on one of the fertile lines, and admitted as much.
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: That's the trouble, responded Mitsuwitzzi. I'd write to get down
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: right at such a point to see what's underneath. It
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: seems to me that paving might be responsible if they'd
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: use the right materials. Lots of civilizations have used organic
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: substances which decay to good fertilizer. Then there might be
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: the remains of a sewage system, which would account for
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: a richer soil after the time which must have passed
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: since the place was buried, it has happened. In such
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: a case, of course, trace elements rather than nitrates or phosphates,
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: are responsible. That's what I suspect here. But wouldn't it
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: be better to dig where you actually have in the
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: middle of a block? If that's what it is, then
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: you'd be fairly certain to hit a building, which should
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: be richer ground than a street. Only if you actually
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: strike artifacts, the building itself might be much less well
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: preserved than a paved street. However, you are the one
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: who's handling the mechanical mole, big where you want to
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: see what you can learn about this hilltop. Just get
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: me at least a couple of cores for my streets
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: before you're done, please. Lampert nodded and proceeded to assemble
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: his equipment. The mole was a cylinder about five centimeters
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: in diameter and three times as long. A cutter lined
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: mouth occupied one end, while the other was attached to
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: a snaky appendage, which was wound on a fair sized drum.
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: A set of control knobs and indicators were mounted near
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: the center of the drum. The geophysicist set the cylinder
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: on the ground, mouthed downward pushing it into the soft
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: earth far enough to assure its remaining upright. Then he
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: turned to his controls, and after a moment, with very
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: little noise, the cylinder began to sink into the ground.
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: In a few seconds, it was out of sight, trailing
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: its snaky neck. After it, the men watched in silence.
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: Perhaps thirty seconds after it disappeared, there was a minor
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: convulsion in the neck, a momentary rising hum from the machinery,
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: and a plug of dirt about two centimeters in diameter
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: and five long, was ejected from a port in the
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: center of the drum. This was seized by Lampert and
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: examined briefly, then tossed aside. The soil is pretty deep,
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: he remarked, how far down did that come from, asked mists, Sweetze,
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: that's the sampling interval. I've set it in for now.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: If it meets anything much harder or easier to penetrate,
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: it will warm me and I'll grab them more frequently.
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: Conversation lapsed while two more samples arrived and were inspected.
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: Then a light flickered on the panel and Lampert reset
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: one of the knobs, and almost immediately a cord of
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: light gray limestone was produced, apparently the same stuff as
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: the cliffs, said Lampert, after examining the specimen, Do you
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: want to go any deeper or drill a few more
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: holes to get an idea of the contour? How fast
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: will that thing go through limestone? A couple of centimeters
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: per minute. It's too small to pack a real power unit.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: Give it five minutes, just to make sure it isn't
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: a building block. Ten centimeters wouldn't give you a whole
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: building block. A sample from that far inside one would
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: tell me what I want to know. You rock chippers
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: don't seem to think that archaeology is a science yet.
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: Let me have that first core too. Mitsuetzea looked confident
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: to the point of being cocky, and Lampert let them.
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: Old burrow on. The second core came in due time,
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: and the little man set merrily to work with tiny
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: chips from the two stone cylinders, a pinch of the
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: lowest soil sample which had been acquired, a small comparison microscope,
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: and a kit of tiny reagent bottles. Lampert used the
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: time the tests consumed in reversing the mole and resetting
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: the equipment on a new spot by the time the
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: little mechanism had gnawed its way once more to rock
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: mit Suwezze was forced to admit that the formation appeared
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: to be natural. He did not seem disheartened by the discovery,
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: as might have been expected. He simply waited for more cores,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: his narrow face reflecting nothing but the utter absorption Lampert
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: knew he experienced whenever a problem arose in his line.
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: In spite of his apparent tendency to jump to conclusions,
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: Takehiko Mitsuwezze was an experienced and respected member of his profession.
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: Lampert knew enough about his record to be perfectly willing
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: to accept his instructions for the present. A series of
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: holes was drilled from the original position toward one of
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: the streets forty yards away from it. After each, the
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: archaeologist admitted with perfect cheerfulness that there was nothing inconsistent
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: with the idea that the hill was a perfectly natural formation.
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: He still insisted, however, that the regular lines of trees,
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: reinforced as they were by the undergrowth pattern, required explanation.
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: Lampert admitted this, but felt that he knew what the
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: explanation would be. After all, the volcanic residue is more
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: than likely to contain trace elements vegetation requires, even on verridis. Finally,
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: the time came to get verification or the opposite. The
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: flamethrower had to be used this time, and for several minutes,
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: clouds of steam swirled about the men as its blue
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: white tongue fought the sappy rain soaked undergrowth. Then the
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: mole and its controls were wheeled into place, and the
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: little robot once more nosed its way out of sight.
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: I don't suppose you want any these samples above the
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: regular rock level, do you, asked Lampert, as the machine disappeared.
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: I think it would be best if we took them
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: as usual, was the reply. For one thing, we should
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: try to learn the depth at which the soil composition changes.
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: We are at least agreed that it changes in some manner,
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: after all. True enough, the geophysicists set his controls and
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: the process continued, a process familiar now to Maclaughlan as
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: well as the scientists for the guide, had caught numerous
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: glimpses of what was going on. While he prowled about
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: the work area on self imposed guard duty. Mitsuwizzi took
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: the crumbly soil course as they came, examined them quickly
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: they were arriving every few seconds, and filed them in
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: numbered compartments in a specimen case he had opened. Detailed
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: stratigraphy would come later. For some time, there was no
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: gross evidence of a change in the soil, not in fact,
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: until his first case had been filled. Can you stop
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: that thing for a moment, rob, he asked, At this point,
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: I don't want the loose track of these, and we'll
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: have to hold up while I open a new case.
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: All right, I thought you'd want to stop for thought
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: soon anyway. Why because the mole is nearly four meters down,
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: well below the depth at which we hit bed rock before,
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: and is still in soil eye But it's still ordinary soil.
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: None of your volcanic ash toff had been eroded out
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: of a lot of the joints in the cliffs. There's
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: no reason to expect it to be at the same
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: level as the surrounding rock. That's true, Bitsweetsey paused in
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: thought for a moment. If we keep on going straight down,
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: we may just be working into a natural crack. As
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: you say, might it not be better to drill several
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: holes within a few square yards here to determine whether
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: it's a narrow joint such as you expect, or an
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: actual edge to the rock at this level, maybe the
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: edge of a roof. Eh Lampert chuckled, but spoke in
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: a manner which could give no offense. I can do
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: better than that. Don't need to pull up and start over.
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: Simply drill horizontally from where we are now. Shouldn't take
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: long to get dimensions, if that's all you want. He
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: halted the robot momentarily, and from a compartment in the drum,
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: removed something like a small the outlite. Mounting this, he
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: sat on a short tripod over the point where the
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: neck of the mole emerged from the ground and set
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: a pointer at right angles to the line of tall trees.
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: Then he started digging again. End of Part four Part
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: five of The Green World by hal Clement. This libri
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: vox recording is in the public domain. Part five four
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: starts in as many differ directions, and twenty minutes of
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: time showed fairly conclusively that the line of vegetation which
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: had given rise to the street theory, was growing along
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: a straight crack, apparently a fairly ordinary joint in the limestone.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: While several more holes would have to be drilled to
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: prove it, even Mitsuwetzi was willing to admit that in
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: all probability, the remaining lines would be found to be
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: over similar cracks. You must admit, though, that the regularity
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: of this joint pattern is pretty unusual, the archaeologist said
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: at length. It's far from being unknown. Lampert replied, I
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: got my first large taste of it in my student
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: days back on Earth. Fly over the mesa country in
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: southwestern North America. Sometime. Most of the joints there are
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: invisible from a distance, of course, but at the edge
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: of a butte, where weathering is most prominent, the blocks
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: have frequently started to separate. The thing looks as though
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: it had been put together from outsized bricks. Humh seem
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: to remember something of the sort myself, now that you
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: mention it. I did some digging in that area too.
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't have connected that sort of country with what
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: we have here, though different meat, same skeleton, replied Lampert.
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: But how about this volcanic ash or mud or whatever
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: it is, which at least fills the joints we saw
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: in the cliff. That's not so usual, is it not?
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: In my experience, But granting the joints and the volcanoes,
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: there's nothing really surprising about it. Incidentally, we don't know
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: that this crack we're standing on has the same filling.
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: We'd better bore down again to make sure. At least
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: we may get some idea of the date of the
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: volcanic action compared to that of the orogeny that tilted
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: the block where we were camped. If there's tough down
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: there too, it will substantiate the idea that the vulcanism
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: is the older. Why couldn't ash have settled down here
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: as well as up there at substantially the same time
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: it could? But I'd bet a fairly respectable sum that
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: the tough we saw in the canyon was from a
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: mud flow, not a fall of airborne ash that could
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: hardly have reached the top of the cliffs. Actually, the
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: opposite slope of the mountains where Sulaueyo was working and
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: this area simultaneously, maybe from different eruptions. I get the
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: impression that this world has a slight tendency to produce
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: volcanic fields rather than individual cones or flows. Might be
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: chemistry will probably settle that question. During the latter part
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: of this discussion, Lampert had directed the mole once more downwards,
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: and every half meter of travel another core was added
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: to the collection. At six and a half meters below
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: the soil, the first solid specimen arrived. The others had
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: been held together only by roots. This one, however, caused
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: the two scientists to look at each other. Lampert nodded
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: slowly with a smile. Mitsuweetsee gave a shrug and let
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: the expression of resignation play over his usually impassive features.
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: The core was tough, apparently identical with that in the
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: cliffs to the east. It even contained fossils. I guess
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: this whole dig might as well be taken over by
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: the paleontology department, Lampert commented, finally, I suppose they'll at
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: least want to compare fossils into tilted and levels shrotum.
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: I suppose so. Mitsuwisi was turning the little cylinder over
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: and over in his hand. Tell me, Rob, what's this
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: little speck of green copper salts of one sort or another?
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: I suppose Lampert was not greatly interested. A lot of
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: secondary minerals form in undervolcanic detritus. On this world, carbonates
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: like malachite should form quite readily. Why should it form
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: an irregular thread like this? You mean a vein? Hard
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: to tell precisely, varying rates of water seepage, varying degrees
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: of oxygen or carbon dioxide penetration, varying degrees of compactness
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: in the rock where the stuff is formed. I don't
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: mean a vein. This is in a cylindrical body, going
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: right through the core from one side to the other,
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: as though there had been a copper wire there originally,
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: which had been attacked by soil acids. Let's see, You're right,
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: it's hardly an ordinary vein. Though your suggestion seems a
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: trifle fore fetched, the paleontologists can probably furnish an idea.
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: Maybe a vine or even a worm buried in the
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: mudflow acted as the precipitating agent for copper salts in
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: the subsequent seepage. I've seen beautiful fossils of pyrite which
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: had been formed that way, But this shows no trace
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: of structure except for its exterior shape. Isn't a really
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: well preserved structure the exception rather than the rule in fossils,
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: I suppose so. Still, I'd like to know just how
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: far and which way this green thread goes. I'd also
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: like to know whether there are dilute copper deposits spread
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: through this rock which could be concentrated in the way
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: you suggest. The first could be learned by taking enough course.
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: The other would call for some very careful analysis of
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: samples which had been selected with a very sedulous eye
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: kept on the stratigraphy. You know that you must have
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: done that sort of thing looking for carbon fourteen samples
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: at times. Yes, I see that. Could you make such
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: analyzes here? No, except for the mere presence of copper,
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: the cores would have to go back to a well
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: equipped lab. Still, if you want to get them, it's
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: all right with me. Problems were made to be solved.
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: I'll admit this one doesn't seem very exciting to me,
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: but I can use your data after you've finished for
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: work of my own. You should wind up with material
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: for a pretty complete geochemical picture of this neighborhood. Shall
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: I get the course for you? Yes? Please? Silly question?
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: All right? The mole was drawn up a short distance
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: and went questing down once more at an angle to
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: the original shaft, branching off a short distance above the
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: level from which the copper deposit had come. Again and again,
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: the process was repeated, each time in a slightly different
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: bearing from the central hole, and Mitsuweetzee examined each core
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: for traces of green. At last he found it piercing
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: the little cylinder of rock as the other had done,
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: and then, at his suggestion, Lampert reset the mole to
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: get a sample in the opposite direction from the one
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: which had furnished the new specimen. This also checked positive,
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: and four more samples taken along the same line at
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: various distances all did the same. Apparently, the line of
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: green extended for some distance about parallel both to the
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: surface of the ground and the trend of the joint
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: in which it was buried. Mitsuetze was radiant, I'm going
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: down to that level if I have to come back
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: with an expedition of my own. If that's a fossil worm,
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: it's worth getting the whole length anyway. But I don't
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: believe it is I. That will take a lot of time,
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: you know, Lampard pointed out mildly. Certainly, I know, even
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: if I use your fast excavator down to the tough level.
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: I'll have to do detail work from then on. What
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: of it? Well, the others may have jobs they want
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: to do, then they can do them. What are we
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: here for? Anyway? I thought it was to investigate the
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: past of this planet, and Domi and Hans are doing
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: that their own way right now. Why can't I? I'm
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: an archaeologist, and I came along to do any archaeological
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: work that presented itself to do. This is the only
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: thing of the sort anyone seen so far. I know
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: what you're thinking. Maybe you're partly right. I certainly won't
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: bet any money that this thread of green is a
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: fossil telephone wire, but it's as likely to be that
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: as anything else you've suggested. And I'm going down to
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: that level and sif the whole volume, Hans and DOMI
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: can have any fossils I find, if that will make
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: you happier. And if one of them says he has
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: no use for fossils he didn't dig himself, I'll make
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: him eat his words. I can identify, locate, and report
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: on anything that turns up in a rock, as well
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: as any of those jicksaw puzzle people and I can
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: do it in mud too, which is more than any
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: any of them could manage. Don't get hot under the
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: collar if you can help it on this planet. You
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: sound as though one of the boys has been given
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: you a lecture on the importance of knowing what strata
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: a given series of specimens represent. Not one of our boys.
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: They have a little more sense. But there was a
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: young palaeontologist when I was covering the Antares worlds whose
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: memory still makes my blood pressure go up. Never mind me,
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: that's not important. But I want to make this dig.
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: It will tie up machines, however freely we can spare time,
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: Lampert said, slowly. I'll tell you how about this. We
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: spend the rest of the day getting cores from other
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: points along these cracks. For one thing, we ought to
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: know more about the structure of the hill, and for another,
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: we might find more of your wires. After all, the
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: chance of our hitting the only one around is pretty remote.
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: I can't quite see a single dropped piece of copper
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: wire showing up in the first two days of a
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: project like this. I neither said nor implied that this
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: should be the only piece. I don't doubt for a
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: moment that there are others, whether they are wires or worms. Sorry, well,
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: we take these scores back to camp this evening, together
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: with any others we find of the same sort, and
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: let Hans and and Dommi look them over. If they
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: don't turn out to be something that the boys recognize
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: and can classify right off the bat, we come back
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: tomorrow with all the diggy machinery you want and dig
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: until you either find out you want, satisfy yourself that
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: there's nothing here, or find something which obviously requires more
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: specialized attention than we can give it. All right, nothing
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: could be fairer. Let's go. The discussion in camp that
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: evening was animated beyond anything the guide had heard. His
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: original estimate of these men as relatively quiet specimens underwent
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: a sharp revision. Mitsuisi's report of the day's activity at
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: his site had, it is true, been delivered quite calmly.
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: But from then on matters grew progressively livelier. This was
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: not caused by opposition to the archaeologist's plans. The others
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: were all in favor of remaining for their own reasons. However,
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: the question of just what was likely to be found
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: gave rise to much rather borbed comment on Sulaweyo's port.
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: I don't see how you can expect to find any
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: trace of civilized work here, he said flatly at one point,
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: the animal and plant life on this planet is at
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: a stage of evolution corresponding to something like Earth's Pennsylvanian age,
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: when the Amphibians were the highest known forms of life.
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that there couldn't be such a thing
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: as an intelligent amphibian, but I do say that the
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: normal set of polutionary forces, which on both Earth and
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: Varidis produced creatures of the amphibian pattern, could have done that.
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: Are produced and intelligent fish, not both if the latter
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: ever evolved. It failed for the amphibians, pardon me, amphibids
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: or here. To get an intelligent amphibid on this world
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: will or would if the sun was to last long
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: enough require another orogenic period with the accompanying climatic changes,
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: then you'd stand a considerably higher chance of getting reptiles instead.
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: If the comparative work done on over four hundred planets
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: carries any meaning, I don't doubt the value of the
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: work at all. You are very probably correct it did
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: not occur to me to expect remains of intelligent amphibians.
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: I saw no reason to presuppose that anything in the
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: way of artifacts which I might find would necessarily be
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: native to this planet. You think there were other visitors
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: from outside the Beta Librace system. The possibility certainly exists
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: here we are. But for Pete's sake, do you really
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: expect that they stayed long enough to build a city,
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: or do you think you have the remains of a
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: camp like ours, or what? I don't think anything. It
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: has been suggested that such people did come and stayed
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: long enough to and you think you found them. I
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: think nothing except that I found, with Rob's help, something
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: which neither his professional knowledge, nor mine, nor even yours
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: is able to explain, and I think an explanation is desirable.
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: I hope you won't consider me discourteous for pointing out
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: that each time you have tried to accuse me of
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: jumping to conclusions, you have been able to do so
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: only by jumping to some yourself. I might further add
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: that the suggestion that this planet had been stocked with
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: its present supply of life types by visitors from space
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: was advanced by a paleontologists, not by one of my colleagues.
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: I gather he could not understand how life could evolve
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: to the state it shows in the thirty one million
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: years that the planet seems to have been solid. I
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: neither support nor deride the idea. I simply want to
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: gather data in an attempt to explain a much simpler question.
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: Why are narrow threads of copper compounds to be found
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: every few feet in the volcanic tough filling the joints
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: in a certain limestone hill, And why are those threads
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: always nearly horizontal? You and Hans say they are not
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: organic fossils, and I accept your conclusion. Rob says that
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: there is no copper in that rock, detectable with his
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: equipment except within a few millimeters of the green threads.
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: I say nothing except that I have never seen such
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: a thing before under the circumstances. I fail to understand
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: where you get the idea that I think there is
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: a city built by the people who stock this world
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: thirty million years ago, buried under that hill. I know
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: I said city when I first saw it, and I
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: still think I was justified in the opinion. I have
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: now seen evidence which causes me to admit that the
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: vegetation pattern was not caused by artificial structures, and I
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: dismissed the original hypothesis. I still want to dig there,
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: and in accordance with Rob's agreement, I am going to
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: dig there with the assistance of anyone who chooses to help.
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: I know you want to go back to your set
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: of leg bones in the cliff, and have no objection
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: to your doing so. Even I can see the importance
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: and even the nature of your work, Why can you
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: do the same for mine? The little man was leaning
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: forward and staring intensely into Sulaweyo's face by the time
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 1: he finished this harangue, and and Domi once more felt
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: a trifle ashamed of himself. Lampert, however, saved him the
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: need for formulating an apology. I'm sure Indami didn't mean
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: to ridicule your work in any way, take, he said,
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: we all realize perfectly that an underground phenomena which cannot
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: be explained at sight, either by geology, paleontology or archaeology,
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: is something which requires investigation. I imagine that the best
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: plan will be for straying me to go with you tomorrow.
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: While the others continue their stone cutting. Hans, just how
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: far along are you anyway, the older palaeontologist thought, for
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: a moment, we really don't know, he said at last,
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: of course, we aren't trying to get the individual bones
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: completely free of the matrix. That will take somebody months
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: or years. We're uncovering just enough to determine the extent
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: of the specimen so we can take it all out
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: in one big block or more. Of course, if it's
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: too big. So far we can only guess at how
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: big it is. We've uncovered with certainty two feet and
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: gone about half a meter along one of the attached legs.
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: They seem to be extending straight back into the cliff,
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: so in effect, we're cutting a tunnel beside the thing.
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: Assuming it had two main legs sections, as most of
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: the present animals on both Earth and Veridis appear to have,
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: we're about half way between knee and hip joint. Of course,
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: it might turn out to be the Veridian equivalent of
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: a horse or chicken. In that case, we're about half
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: way between ankle and knee. We certainly have several feet
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: yet to penetrate before we can outline the whole block.
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: Assuming that the specimen is essentially complete. I would guess,
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: can you use any sort of power apparatus for any
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: of your cuts? I don't like to on general principles,
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: but yes we could with actually very little risk. If
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: you have some sort of rock saw whose cutting part
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: can get fine control, I'd be willing to use it
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: for parts of the tunnel away from the actual specimen
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: I have. We'll take you up there first thing in
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: the morning, and I'll go down with you and show
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: you how to use it before going on with take
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: and string? Who holds the copter in place while you
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: climb down the ladder? Give your lesson and come back,
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: asked the guide. Humh, I forgot about that, all right,
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: I'll break out the machinery and give the lesson right now.
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: He got up and strode to the helicopter. MacLachlan covered
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: him from the fence to the aircraft, but nothing dangerous appeared.
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: The geophysicist disappeared inside and returned a moment later with
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: a compact metal case under his own. The guide holstered
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: his weapon as the gate in the fence closed once more. Actually,
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: the Fellow Dawn was miles downstream. It has spent the
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: day in its chosen layer, apparently indifferent to the doings
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: of the men a few hundred yards away. With the
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: coming of darkness, real darkness this time for the rain,
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: clouds cut off both the moonlight and the night glow
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: from the upper atmosphere. It had emerged, hunted, killed and
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: fed as before, apparently unhampered by the lack of light.
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: By midnight it was back in the same layer. Pauch
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: distended as close to sleep as its cold blooded kind
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 1: ever came. End of Port five, Part six of The
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: Green World by hal Clement. This libre vox recording is
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Part six the rain was still
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: falling when the clouds lightened once more to the rising sun.
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: Lampert was getting used to navigating the canyon by radar,
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: and was an excellent pilot anyway, so he did not
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: have too much trouble in locating the shelf where Sulueo
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: and Crendall had been working. Getting the men down to
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: it was not particularly difficult, though, rather nerve racking. Creundall
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: went first unburdened except for his personal equipment. Then he
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: studied the ladder for Sulueo, who had the cutter strapped
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 1: across his shoulders. The studying hand was needed. Climbing down
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: a rope ladder, when loaded top heavy, can be an
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: extremely awkward bit of activity. Had the pilot above been
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: less capable, it would probably have been impossible. The ledge
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: was wet, but fortunately not very slippery. The men set
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: their equipment on the ground at the point where there
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: cut entered the crack in the cliff, and without delay
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: set to work. The tunnel was deep enough now to
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: shelter the one actually cutting from the rain, so at
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: first they took turns at this operation. The cutting machine
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: Lampert had provided was a sort of diamond tooth chainsaw,
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: capable of a two meter extension. Ordinarily, it was not
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 1: the sort of thing a paleontologist would consider using so
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 1: close to a specimen, but the men were fairly sure
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 1: by now of the general extent of the thing they
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: were uncovering. Even so, they used the saw only on
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: the side of their tunnel, away from the visible remains.
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: They speedily widened the passage enough to permit them both
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: to get inside and work on the face of the
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: exposed material, but they still used hand tools whenever there
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: was any suspicion that a bone might be about to appear.
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: Work proceeded several times as fast as it had the
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: day before. They tried cutting another tunnel on the opposite
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: side of the fossil, but this proved rather awkward. The
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: creature was close to this side of the crack, and
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: they had to cut limestone as well as the softer
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: tough The saw proved capable of handling this. It would
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: have handled granite without trouble, but went a little more slowly. Eventually, however,
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: the two men were working on opposite sides of the fossil,
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: each in a tunnel extending some two meters into the
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 1: cliff face. Half a day's work uncovered the leg bone
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: sufficiently to show that Krendall's first idea had been right.
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: There were only the two major joints, each a trifle
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: shorter than the corresponding parts of the human skeleton. The
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: lower leg was single rather than double. However, knee and
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: ankle both consisted of ball and socket joints, and with
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: this fact determined, the men paused for thought. Now, why,
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: mused Krendall aloud, Should any sort of creature need that articulation?
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: Could that foot be a hand? Instead? Asked SLUEO. Of course,
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: questions like that should have awaited the results of detailed
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: examination in a laboratory. Equally, of course, the two men
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: proceeded to clear one of the feet a little more
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 1: thoroughly in order to find out for themselves. The answer
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: was not helpful. Though he might have picked up a
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 1: twig with it, but he couldn't have held it any
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: more tightly than I can in my toes. Was Crendle's verdict.
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 1: It's a bigger, flatter foot than ours, but it's a foot,
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 1: nothing more. Maybe a swimming organ on the side, suggested
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: Sulaueo cautiously seems doubtful. If that joint evolved for such
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: a purpose, I should think there'd be a corresponding modification
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: in the footbones, too, say a flattening such as you
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: see in the paddles of some of the Mesozoic se
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: tiles of Earth. Reasonable but not necessarily right, bet, I
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: admit anything else strike you? Yes, though it makes the
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: joints still more unbelievable. What the foot itself, unless some
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: rather remarkable distortion has occurred. It had both longitudinal and
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: transverse arches like yours and mine, which suggest strongly that
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 1: this thing's ancestors had been walking erect on two legs
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: for some hundreds of thousands of generations. Crendall raised his
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: eyebrows at this and silently examined the bony structure before
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 1: them for several minutes. I hadn't spotted that, he said, slowly.
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: He looked in silence for several more seconds. Then the
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 1: two men, moved by a single thought, went to the
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 1: other end of the exposed leg and began to clear
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: the hip joint and pelvic region. They worked almost in silence,
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: understanding each other perfectly, like an experienced surgical team, and
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 1: gradually the equivalent of a pelvic girdle and lower end
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: of a spinal column were cleared sufficiently to show their
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: general nature. It was at this point that the helicopter returned,
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: but neither man noticed the fact until maclaughlan had called
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 1: several times from the open letter hatch. They climbed silently
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: and thoughtfully up to the flier, but Mitsuezzi's first question
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 1: started the talk flowing. It did not end for a
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 1: long long time. Crindle, with difficulty held interruptions of his
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: more volatile companion. There can be only the slightest doubt
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: that this thing were uncovering walked erect on two legs,
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: he reported, the feet, the way the pelvis is modified
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: to support internal organs, the fusing of the lower vertebrae
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: with the pelvic girdle to fore, or a weight carrying foundation.
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 1: They all point the same way. The only thing hard
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: to understand is the knee and ankle joints. If we
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: had them, it would be virtually impossible for us to
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: hold our legs rigid. Perhaps some really remarkable musculature, or
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 1: a courtilage structure which has not been preserved cut in Suluweyo,
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: or some such thing as that would explain it. I
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: don't know. The creature is good for several pH D
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 1: theses just as it lies, and probably an equal number
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: of nervous collapses when we get it out. I find
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 1: myself strongly desirous of seeing a skull, remarked Lampert. Suluweyo
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 1: glanced at him. Shortly, you two, asked the young pialeontologist.
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: I was hoping I was the only one crazy enough
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 1: to have thought of that. Mitsutsi smiled openly and almost
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: unheard of act for him. He said nothing for a moment,
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: but everyone said, and even Maclaughlan understood the thought. After
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 1: a sufficiently long pause. He asked a question, have you
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: uncovered enough of this creature's structure to guess at any
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: evolutionary connection or lack of it with the amphibids we
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: already know on this world. I'd hate to take any oaths,
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 1: replied Krendall. The legs which we've seen most of are
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: different in detail, but they at least correspond in general
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 1: with what we find here. The only really significant point
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: there would be the single shinbone, in that it resembles
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: veridian land life in general. These animals don't have the
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: separate tibia and fibula characteristic of the usual run of
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: earthly land vertebrates. It really proves nothing about what we're
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: all thinking. Of course, I am tempted to work with you,
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: gentlemen tomorrow, muttered the archaeologist. Why didn't your investigation pan out?
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: It's harder for me to say than for you so far.
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: To dig a pit big enough not only to work in,
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: but to cover a useful amount of ground and a
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: driving rain is quite a job, even with Rob's machines,
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: which I would never use. Where I'm not sure that
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: there is nothing of importance above the limestone level I
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: have gotten down to the rock over an area three
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 1: meters square, which is very good going. But I shall
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 1: undoubtedly find the pit full of water tomorrow. As we
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: have not yet improvised a really satisfactory drainage system, I cannot,
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: or at least will not use machines inside the crack
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: in the limestone, so it will be some time before
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: I get down to our mysterious green threads. Then it
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: would seem that the best we can do is to
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 1: go on as we have said Lampert. The only change
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: might be if one more man were to help at
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 1: takes dig, But I don't suppose either hans Or and
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: DOMI would care to leave his own job at the moment.
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 1: And actually there's not much more to do with the
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 1: hill which can be done by anyone but take himself.
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 1: I'll continue to help him as long as it's a
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: question of moving mud, but after that he'll have to
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: do his own sifting. String is automatically on guard duty
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 1: at the hill, so there's not much change we can make,
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 1: though I must say I haven't seen anything dangerous yet
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: in that jungle. Those animals are like crows, remarked the guide.
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 1: We used to have them on the farm back on Earth,
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: they'd be all over a freshly planted field while no
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 1: one was around, come out yelling, they don't move, Come
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: out with a gun, and they're gone, unless you'd happen
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: to forget to load it. Then they sat and laughed
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: at you. If you're suggesting, doctor that I should relax
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: the guard duty and lend a hand with digging, I
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: veto the idea, and not because I'm afraid of getting
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: my hands dirty. I won't say I didn't have some
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 1: such thought, but I accept your ruling, smiled Lampert. There
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: was silence for a moment. Then Crendall reverted to the
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: earlier subject. You know, he said, if that thing we've
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: found does turn out to have been intelligent, it will
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: hardly solve any of the existing problems about verritis. Why not,
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: asked Sulueo. In some surprise, we still won't know whether
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 1: it's native to the planet or not unless we can
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: establish a relatively complete evolutionary sequence leading to this form.
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: If we do that, the question of speed of evolution
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: here gets worse than ever. If we don't, no one
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: will be sure whether or not we ought to look
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 1: for buried spaceports or send out expeditions to find the
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: planet they might have come from, the latter would be
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: something of a waste of time, remarked MacLaughlin. Haunting one
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: planet in the galaxy is like hunting one log of
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: wood on Verritis. No one contradicted this. All had seen
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: the galactic star clouds from outside planetary atmosphere. It seems
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: to me, speaking as an amateur in your fields, gentlemen,
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: said Mitsuwetzi, that the mere discovery of an intelligent creature
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: in the Ridian fossil deposits, would, on the basis of
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 1: our present knowledge of the mechanisms of evolution, strongly support
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: the idea that this world was stocked from others. I
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 1: realize that our knowledge may not be sufficient to justify
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: us in that conclusion, but it is certainly not great
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 1: enough to justify any other. You seem to have something there, take,
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: admitted Crendell. If this thing does turn out to have
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: room for a brain in its skull, I suppose the
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: next ten conventions of the Interstellar Archeological Society, or whatever
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: you call it, will be meeting at Emerald. I shouldn't
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 1: be at all surprised. So far my profession in yours
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: have not overlapped due to a considerable factor of difference
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: in the time spance covered. But it is just possible
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: that we would be holding joint meetings in the event
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 1: you describe this meeting is changing from discussion to speculation,
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: Lampert said dryly. I would be the last to decry
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 1: the value of imagination, but actually we are as likely
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: to face the need for entirely new hypotheses as a
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 1: result of our work here as to find support for
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 1: any now in existence. I can speculate with the best
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 1: of you, but for goodness sake, let's not take any
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: speculation too seriously. I don't really believe that some big
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: headed descendants of Indami's fossil are listening in on me
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: right now. Even Suluweo admitted that this was rather unlikely,
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: and the conversation turned to other matters. Until darkness fell.
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: No one had trouble sleeping. The loud drumming of the
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: rain on the metal roof meant nothing to feel workers
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 1: with their experience. If anything, the sound was soothing, giving
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: a perpetual reminder that there was a roof. Such protection
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: is not always available in that line of work. The
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 1: Phelodons seemed to have lost its traveling propensity. Once more,
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: it went out into the utter darkness solely to get
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: a meal. It accomplished that as quickly as ever, though
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: its eyes must have been useless, and the hiss and
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: rumble of falling water drowned and buried any sounds which
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: would have been useful in tracking back in the same layer.
• 2:08:38
  Speaker 1: Full fed, it drowsed once more. End of Part six,
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 1: Part seven of The Green World by hal Clement. This
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: libre vox recording is in the public domain. Part Mitsuwezi
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: had been almost right in his prediction that the pit
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: would be full of water. Only the fact that the
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: land sloped a trifle they were not right on top
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: of the little hill had saved it. As it was,
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: several feet of water were in the bottom, and a
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: good deal of mud had washed in from the two
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: sides facing the edges of the crack. The other two,
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 1: much better based by deep reaching roots, had held firm.
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: After some thought, Lampert used the little robot again. He
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: started it at the bottom of the pit on the
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 1: downhill side, and drove almost horizontally toward the river. The
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: two hundred meters of neck permitted the mold to emerge
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: from the slope further down. When it was withdrawn, a
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: small drain hole was obtained. Several more of these were drilled,
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: and the pit lost its water fairly rapidly. There was
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 1: still the problem of getting into the crack itself, which
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: of course would involve digging below the level of the
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: drain holes. Lampert using the same excavator which had made
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 1: the pit itself, finally provided a fair solution by digging
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 1: a set of ditches around the larger hole. And since
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: the opening itself was quite well protected by overhanging trees,
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: Mitsuwetzi had only drainage from the surrounding soil to contend with.
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: Two hours after arriving, therefore, he had a relatively clear
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: working space. The bottom of the pit was limestone, exposed
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 1: by the complete removal of the overlying soil, some three
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: meters square across it ran the crack a trifle less
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: than a meter wide, still packed with dirt. Everything was muddy, limestone,
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: projecting roots, and Mitsuwetzi himself a slender log with branches
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: cut to ten centimeter stubs leaned against one corner, forming
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 1: a rough ladder and giving entrance an egress to and
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: from the site. The machinery which had done the original
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: digging was at one side. Mitsuwezi did not expect to
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 1: need it again. He was now equipped with a hand
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: shovel and seemed about to use it. Lambert, standing at
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 1: the edge of the pit, felt the incongruity, but managed
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: not to laugh. Are you sure there's nothing I can
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: do down there with you? He asked, I'm afraid not.
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 1: From now on, I want every bit of dirt to
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: pass under my own eyes. Are you going to try
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 1: to throw it all up here as you finish? No,
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 1: that's the purpose of the extra pit area. Down here,
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 1: I can get a long way down the joint simply
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: heaping the material on the rock. It's stamp enough to
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: pile quite steeply too. How far down do you think
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 1: you can get? The Crack's rather narrow to work in,
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: and you have three and a half meters to go
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 1: before you hit tough. That's going to be rough shoveling.
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: I still think you could use a machine safely for
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: a little way further, at least, no doubt I could,
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: but I'm not going to. There's one thing I might use, though,
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: If you have another of those saws such as the
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: bone men are using up on the cliff. I could
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: widen this crack as I go, cut steps, in fact,
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: to get the mud up to this level when I'm
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 1: further down. That's a good thought, but I don't have
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: any other if you really get far enough down to
• 2:12:27
  Speaker 1: need it, though I could fly up to get it.
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: They were going to shift over to hand labor anyway.
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: All right, of course, it will be some time before
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: I get that deep. Anyway, maybe I won't need it today,
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: He bent to his work. But what do I do,
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 1: asked Lambert. I can't go off to attend to my
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 1: own projects because String has to stay here to guard you.
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: I can't get to the site where the others are
• 2:12:55
  Speaker 1: working because I can't land there. I can't sit in
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 1: the helicopter and twiddle my thumbs because I'll go crazy
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 1: before the day is over. Mitsuwezi straightened once more and
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 1: thought briefly. Is there nothing in the geophysical line you
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: could do within sight of this pit? He asked? Finally,
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: the saw and digging machine are not the only apparatus
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 1: you brought. That's true. I brought some seismic gear, though
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 1: I didn't plan to use it quite like this, I
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: might map the formations under this hill. The information will
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: be usable, I should think, and the joints will give
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 1: quite a calibrating job. It will keep me busy anyway,
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 1: just a minute, Mitsuisi looked a trifle perturbed. Does that
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: mean you're going to set off explosives around here? I
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: want the sides of this pit held together by something
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 1: better than roots, if you do, Lampert chuckled. No explosives,
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 1: he said. This is a nice little gadget with a
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: robot like the Core sampler. It puts out waves of
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: in any type desired from any depth down to two
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty meters, a sort of subterranean sonar. You'll
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 1: never know it's working. The wave amplitude isn't enough to feel.
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 1: He turned toward the helicopter on the riverbank below and
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: was starting to walk toward it when maclachlin interrupted. The
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 1: guide had heard the conversation, and his question was purely rhetorical.
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 1: You weren't planning to walk down to the flyer alone,
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: were you, Doctor? Well, yes, as a matter of fact,
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 1: After all, I won't be working. I can keep my
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 1: eyes open as I go. You can see me for
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 1: the greater part of the journey from here too. Rather,
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 1: to his surprise, the guide approved this argument after a
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 1: moment's thought. All right, but please keep your gun in
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: your hand as well as your head on a swivel.
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: I'd prefer to have doctor Mitsuisi come down with us
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: so we could stay together, but I know how he'd
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 1: react to the interruption, and I realize you're not a kid.
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: Just be careful, Lampert promised, and the guide's manner had
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: impressed him to the point where he was almost afraid
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: to make their return journey. After reaching the flyer and
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: packing his new equipment, he was rather surprised to get
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 1: back to the site without being attacked, and Maclaughlin's very
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 1: evident relief of seeing him did nothing to ease his feelings.
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: He began to set up the machinery. This consisted of
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 1: an assembly very similar to the drilling mole, a small
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: delving robot drawing a slender tail behind it. The tail
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 1: wound on a drum which surrounded the control unit. A
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: dozen smaller cylinders reposed in attached clips. The attached borer,
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 1: Lampert explained to the guide, goes down to any depth.
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 1: I set up to two hundred and fifty meters. It
• 2:15:54
  Speaker 1: can produce any of the three normal types of earthquake
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 1: wave singly or in any combination, with sufficient intensity to
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 1: be detected at a range of over two kilometers in
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: reasonably well conducting rock. These small cylinders are detectors, equipped
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 1: not only to receive and analyze the wave coming through
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 1: the ground, but to measure electrically their location with respect
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: to each other and the main station. I can use
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: as many of them as I please, up to the
• 2:16:22
  Speaker 1: full dozen, but they can be planted only a little
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: way below the surface. There exists the equipment for getting
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 1: readings at depths comparable to that of the transmitter, but
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 1: I don't have it as it stands. By spotting receivers carefully,
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: I can get a pretty good picture of the formations
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 1: for a radius of a kilometer and a depth even greater,
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 1: with ten minutes measuring and ten hours computing. How far
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: out do you plan to place these receivers, the guide
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: asked politely, Well, I hadn't made a detailed plan of that.
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 1: I'd rather like to have them in radiating lines of three,
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 1: the line writing about fifteen degrees, and the individual cylinders
• 2:17:04
  Speaker 1: about two hundred meters apart, and just how were you
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: going to place them? I gather that someone has to
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 1: walk the best part of four kilometers or do these
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: things fly in addition to their other abilities? Uh? Someone walks.
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 1: I thought, perhaps, since you don't like the idea of
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: my going alone through the jungle, that I might stand
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 1: guard overtake in the pit while you set them out. Hmmm.
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: The guide did not explode. To Lampert's relief, it had
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: not occurred to the scientists that the job wandering around
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 1: a hole in the ground waiting for animals which never
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: came might get a little boring to a man of
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: maclachlan's background. Let's go over first and see how doctor
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 1: Bensweetseee is getting along. I guess you could stand over
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 1: him with a gun for half an hour. Of course,
• 2:17:57
  Speaker 1: the cover runs dangerously close to the pit. Maybe we'd
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 1: better burn it off to a safer distance. Still, I
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 1: guess that won't be necessary. You can stand out here
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: where it's relatively clear and see all the approaches to
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: the pit. Something might jump in without your having time
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 1: to hit it, and you'd at least see it and
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 1: get there fast enough to do any shooting necessary. They
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 1: approached the hole and looked in. Mitsuet See was working busily.
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: A fair quantity of earth lay spread on the rock,
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 1: and some two thirds of the length of the crack
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 1: had been excavated, to a depth of perhaps a quarter
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 1: of a meter. The geophysicist attracted the little man's attention
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 1: and told him of the plan. Mitsuweetze nodded and bent
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: once more to his work. The pheladon was becoming restless.
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 1: It could hardly be hungry as yet, but it was
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: on its feet, snarling silently as it had when the
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: helicopter first entered its kin. For perhaps a minute it
• 2:19:00
  Speaker 1: stood there. Then, with the same air of determination it
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 1: had shown days before, and scores of kilometers away, it
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 1: began to thread its way through the underbrush toward the
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 1: river and the digging sight. I'll stand where you suggested,
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 1: and never take my eyes off the pit, Lampert promised.
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: Then I'll come back to find you missing, replied the guide.
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 1: You're guarding yourself to remember. Don't keep your eyes on anything,
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 1: keep them moving. He finished distributing the little cylinders in
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 1: the various pockets of his outer clothing and moved off
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 1: in the direction Lampert had indicated. He looked back frequently,
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 1: but each time saw the scientist alert. When the underbrush
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 1: finally cut off the view, he refused to worry too much. Actually,
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 1: MacLachlan had gone to considerable pains to make the jungles
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: of arit As sound more dangerous than they really are.
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 1: His conscious motive was to make the inexperienced members of
• 2:20:04
  Speaker 1: the party alert enough for their own safety. It was
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 1: quite true that a man could be killed in quite
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 1: a variety of ways in those rainforests. There was a
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: distinct possibility, however, that he also wanted to impress them
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 1: with the importance of his surfaces. He did not therefore
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 1: suffer much from anxiety during his walk, though on the
• 2:20:25
  Speaker 1: other hand, he wasted no time. He had, of course,
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: only a rough idea of the distance he had traveled,
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: though he was able to keep his direction With a
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 1: small impulse compass tuned to the seismic apparatus and forming
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 1: part of its regular equipment. He dropped three of the
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 1: cylinders at the required intervals as nearly as he could guess,
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 1: forcing them each a little way into the ground as
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 1: Lampert had shown him. Then he turned at right angles
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 1: walked what he hoped was the right distance and started
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 1: back toward the site planting equipment. As he went again,
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 1: in again, and the last of the dozen tubes was
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 1: in the ground, Midsuwisi's shovels scraped deeper. Lambert, glancing up
• 2:21:09
  Speaker 1: and around every few seconds, made minute adjustments to the
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 1: controls of his seismic apparatus. Its little mole robot had
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 1: started on its downward trip. The fellow dawn lurked thirty
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 1: yards from the point where Lambert was standing, protected from
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 1: his sight by the undergrowth and by one of the
• 2:21:28
  Speaker 1: piles of dirt thrown up by the machine which had
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 1: dug the pit. It seemed to be looking through the
• 2:21:34
  Speaker 1: soil at the spot where the man was. The snarl
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 1: was still on his face, but no muscle moved in
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 1: its long body. It had been there for minutes without moving.
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 1: It had frozen similarly when McLachlan had passed it on
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 1: his way out. Now it simply stood and waited on
• 2:21:56
  Speaker 1: a cliff side kilometers away, and Dommy Suluweo gave utterance
• 2:22:00
  Speaker 1: to the first profanity Krendall had ever heard him use.
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 1: They were on opposite sides of the block containing the fossil,
• 2:22:07
  Speaker 1: so neither could see the other. Crendall naturally asked, what
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 1: was wrong? Don't tell me a bug got through one
• 2:22:14
  Speaker 1: of these suits. Worse if possible, I told you this.
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 1: Foreleg both had been carefully avoiding the use of such
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 1: words as arms, was sticking outsideways, so that I was
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 1: afraid we might have cut off part of it in
• 2:22:30
  Speaker 1: digging the tunnel. Crendall nodded, I remember, did we? I
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 1: don't know? Hey, how come I should think that'd be
• 2:22:39
  Speaker 1: no doubt one way or the other if you have
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 1: that much of the limb clear, Well I haven't. I
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 1: got as far as the bone goes, and right there
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 1: I run out of tough and into the limestone. If
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 1: there's anything more, it's an entirely different kind of rock,
• 2:22:56
  Speaker 1: which is a trifle unlikely. But I'm going to have
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 1: to check the blocks we cut from this part of
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 1: the tunnel in order to make sure. And I don't
• 2:23:05
  Speaker 1: look forward to the job at all. Krindle, properly sympathetic,
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 1: came around to Suluweyo's side to look and agreed that
• 2:23:13
  Speaker 1: the search was necessary. The bone the younger man had
• 2:23:17
  Speaker 1: been clearing in it in a joint of the type
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 1: they had come to regard as typical of the creature's limbs,
• 2:23:24
  Speaker 1: and this had occurred almost exactly at the surface they
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 1: had left when first outlining the block with the saw. Sulueyo,
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 1: with a grunt of disgust, dropped his tools and went
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 1: out into the rain where the blocks cut from the
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 1: cliff had been piled. Krindle, nobly sacrificing his personal inclinations,
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: went along with him. The search lasted for a long time,
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 1: for a long time in fact, after it became evident
• 2:23:54
  Speaker 1: that it was going to be useless, for the chance
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 1: of a perfect specimen is not easily own away. Finally, however,
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 1: Crendlall straightened up with a sigh. I guess we'll have
• 2:24:07
  Speaker 1: to be satisfied with the restoration on one side, he
• 2:24:10
  Speaker 1: said wearily. I hope some one fifty years from now
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 1: doesn't find another and discover that it's a sort of
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: vertebrae fiddler crab with one fourlimb ending in a paw
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 1: or cloth something like five times the size of the
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 1: one on the other. Sulaweyo gave a gloomy assent, and
• 2:24:28
  Speaker 1: the two went back to work in their respective tunnels.
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 1: Lampert saw MacLachlan, the instant the underbrush made it possible,
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: a fact which the guide later admitted was to the
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 1: scientist's credit. He had, of course been eagerly awaiting that
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: return for the transmitter was down to its first set depth,
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 1: and awaiting only the word that all receivers were in place.
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: He called eagerly the moment the guide came within earshot
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 1: everything down. MacLachlan nodded everything down as nearly as I
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 1: could tell the way you said, how long will the
• 2:25:05
  Speaker 1: readings take? Only a few minutes. I'll take a couple
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 1: of calibration shots from ten, fifteen and twenty meters depth,
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 1: then one, a fifty, a hundred, and so on down
• 2:25:15
  Speaker 1: as far as the mole will go. The shooting takes
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 1: practically no time. It's a drilling that will hold us up.
• 2:25:23
  Speaker 1: What then, well, Lampert smiled. After that, the usual procedure
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 1: is to pick up the receivers and place them in
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 1: a similar pattern in a new direction. If the field
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: crew doesn't go on strike, we take the whole circle
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 1: about the transmitter. I was afraid of that, grunted McLaughlan
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 1: as he stopped by the machine. Well let's go. The
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 1: two men bent over the controls in a silence broken
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 1: only by the scraping of Mitsuitsi's shovel a thousand meters away.
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 1: Lampert pressed his shot button, and a light on the
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 1: panel flashed white. Momentarily below their feet unfelt. The pulse
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 1: of sound energy raced outward, echoing from the walls of
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 1: deep striking joints, from the boundaries between rocks of differing densities,
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 1: or elastic constants, from the walls of caverns deep in
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 1: the limestone, some tiny portion of the energy, from time
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 1: to time, encountering and affecting one of the tiny receivers
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 1: MacLachlan had buried. As each receiver gathered its bit of data,
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: it retransmitted the information to the master unit, and everything
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 1: was recorded on a single sheet. As the milliseconds sped by.
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 1: Long before a full second had passed, the first of
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 1: the pulses had damped out as heat energy and enough
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 1: had been transmitted for the machine to obtain an adequate
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 1: averaging record. The light blinked out again. Lampert nodded in
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 1: satisfaction and sent them mold downward once more. Looks good now.
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: The next set, he remarked, as that pulse of seismic
• 2:27:06
  Speaker 1: energy went forth, The pheladwn rose to its full height,
• 2:27:10
  Speaker 1: almost showing itself over the pile of dirt which was
• 2:27:13
  Speaker 1: now its sole protection from the view of the men.
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 1: The snarl on its face seemed to grow fiercer, if
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 1: that were possible. For just an instant, it seemed torn
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 1: by conflicting desires. But that was for just an instant.
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 1: Any tendency to flee was smothered before it could take
• 2:27:33
  Speaker 1: full form. There were two men now to worry about,
• 2:27:37
  Speaker 1: and correspondingly, less chance for the opportunity it had been awaiting.
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 1: But the opportunity came for just a moment. The guide
• 2:27:47
  Speaker 1: looked down at the panel, which was absorbing Lampert's full attention.
• 2:27:52
  Speaker 1: In that moment, a green and lavender streak flowed over
• 2:27:56
  Speaker 1: the heap of sorrow in a single leap and vanished
• 2:28:00
  Speaker 1: into the pit. It must have been timed and guided
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 1: by the mysterious sense MacLachlan had mentioned. It could see
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 1: none of the men when it leaped, yet it timed
• 2:28:11
  Speaker 1: the act for the moment none were looking, and landed
• 2:28:14
  Speaker 1: directly on Mitsuizzi. The little archaeologist never knew what hit him.
• 2:28:20
  Speaker 1: He died without a sound, and the killer as though
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 1: nothing lived anywhere in the neighborhood settled down to its meal.
• 2:28:29
  Speaker 1: In this it must have been disappointed. The chemicals in
• 2:28:33
  Speaker 1: the clothing designed to repel varidian insects, were equally obnoxious
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 1: to the carnivore, and it made no serious attempt to
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 1: get through them. However, not all of the body was
• 2:28:44
  Speaker 1: protected in this way. A second pulse went from the
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 1: buried transmitter, and then a third, each from a point
• 2:28:52
  Speaker 1: a few meters deeper than the last. Lambert's attention, of course,
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 1: was centered on his controls. Maclachlin's eyes were once more
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 1: sweeping restlessly over the surrounding landscape. Both heard the sounds
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 1: coming from the pit, but neither interpreted them as anything
• 2:29:09
  Speaker 1: more than the scraping of mids suweet Sea's shovel. Neither,
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 1: of course, considered them consciously. Their attention was finally attracted
• 2:29:19
  Speaker 1: by something decidedly more noticeable. The phelodon did not or
• 2:29:24
  Speaker 1: could not, remain at its meal for more than a
• 2:29:27
  Speaker 1: few moments. Its apparent indifference to the other men changed
• 2:29:31
  Speaker 1: once more to what seemed like an internal struggle. An
• 2:29:35
  Speaker 1: observer would have been sure up to now that it
• 2:29:39
  Speaker 1: was using its peculiar sense to avoid the sight of
• 2:29:42
  Speaker 1: men with guns, but that hypothesis failed now as Lampert
• 2:29:48
  Speaker 1: started the mall robot downward once more, the pheladon leaped
• 2:29:52
  Speaker 1: out of the pit toward the two men, regardless of
• 2:29:55
  Speaker 1: the fact that MacLachlan was facing toward it. Part seven,
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 1: Part eight of The Green World by hal Clement. This
• 2:30:11
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part eight. McLachlan
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 1: saw the fanged had emerge, and his reflexes took over instantly.
• 2:30:22
  Speaker 1: A streak of flame passed beside the leaping carnivore, exploding
• 2:30:27
  Speaker 1: into a white hot blossom of blazing gas as he
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 1: contacted the pile of dirt on the fore side of
• 2:30:33
  Speaker 1: the pit. The guy ducked and rolled frantically sideward as
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 1: another spring carried the creature toward him. Claws raked the
• 2:30:41
  Speaker 1: air past his shoulder, and he fired again. Before the
• 2:30:44
  Speaker 1: roll was complete, and without any sort of aim. Man
• 2:30:49
  Speaker 1: and beasts alike were splattered with white hot droplets of
• 2:30:52
  Speaker 1: metal from the seismic recorder as the second shot caught
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 1: it squarely, and this seemed to be enough for the carnivore.
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 1: It's next leap was away from the men instead of
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 1: toward them. A geyser of steam and mud erupted beside it.
• 2:31:08
  Speaker 1: As Lampert finally got his weapon into action, and before
• 2:31:11
  Speaker 1: the vapor had been beaten down once more by the rain,
• 2:31:14
  Speaker 1: the animal was out of sight behind the undergrowth. Both
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 1: men sent several shots in the direction of the crackling bushes,
• 2:31:21
  Speaker 1: but accomplished nothing except the felling of a tree or
• 2:31:24
  Speaker 1: two and the starting of a bonfire, which failed to
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 1: make any headway against the rain. Convinced that the phelodon
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 1: had gone, the men ran to the pit. Lampert did
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: not even take time out to glance at the wreckage
• 2:31:37
  Speaker 1: of his equipment. There was just enough distance to cover
• 2:31:41
  Speaker 1: to let each one realize that he had no idea
• 2:31:44
  Speaker 1: how long the carnivore had been inside and what the
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 1: scraping sound might have been. Both slowed down as they
• 2:31:52
  Speaker 1: approached the edge, not relishing what they expected to see,
• 2:31:56
  Speaker 1: but this did not prove to be what they had expected.
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 1: Mcloughlan's face, already grim, turned gray as he saw that
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 1: his first shot had not merely missed the animal at
• 2:32:07
  Speaker 1: which it was aimed. The bolt had struck the pile
• 2:32:11
  Speaker 1: of dirt which had been left by the digging machinery
• 2:32:14
  Speaker 1: at the far lip of the pit, and scattered most
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 1: of it to the four winds, perhaps half a ton.
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 1: It slid back into the hole from which it had
• 2:32:23
  Speaker 1: originally been removed. There was no telling from above what
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 1: the phelodon had done to Mitsuizzi. The upper half of
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 1: the archeologist's body was buried completely, and the rest so
• 2:32:37
  Speaker 1: liberally sprinkled with dirt that it was not at once identifiable.
• 2:32:41
  Speaker 1: The guide, using language strange even to the widely traveled Lampert,
• 2:32:46
  Speaker 1: leaped the three meters downward without bothering to use the latter,
• 2:32:50
  Speaker 1: seized a projecting leg and tried to draw the little
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 1: man clear of the soil. Lampert, equally aware of the
• 2:32:58
  Speaker 1: possible value of time, but feeling that he would do
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 1: little good with the broken leg, made the descent in
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 1: the normal manner. By the time he reached the bottom,
• 2:33:08
  Speaker 1: MacLachlan had succeeded in dragon Mitsueze almost completely clear. Lamperts
• 2:33:14
  Speaker 1: started forward to clear the mud from the still hidden face.
• 2:33:18
  Speaker 1: Then he stopped, and his stomach abruptly heaved as he
• 2:33:22
  Speaker 1: realized that the face was not hidden. It was gone.
• 2:33:27
  Speaker 1: Mitsuweisi had removed the headgear and gloves from his protective
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 1: suit for the normal reason to see and manipulate better.
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 1: The exposed head and hands had formed the phelodon's hasty meal.
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 1: The paleontologists saw the helicopter approaching this time, for they
• 2:33:48
  Speaker 1: were working outside the tunnel. Between them on the ledge
• 2:33:52
  Speaker 1: lay a block of stone some five feet long, too
• 2:33:55
  Speaker 1: high and four wide, over two tons of material altold,
• 2:34:00
  Speaker 1: which had been worked out of the hole rather ingeniously
• 2:34:03
  Speaker 1: by the men. Partial undercuts had been made, rollers worked
• 2:34:08
  Speaker 1: out of stone by the cutter placed underneath, and the
• 2:34:11
  Speaker 1: under cutting completed along a plane which sloped slightly upward
• 2:34:14
  Speaker 1: into the tunnel. Of course, the block had run off
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 1: the rollers once it was out of the open, and
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 1: the men could no more shift in another centimeter than
• 2:34:23
  Speaker 1: they could return to Emirod without the helicopter, but at
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 1: least it was more or less accessible by air. They
• 2:34:30
  Speaker 1: were chipping waste rock from the corners when the flier appeared,
• 2:34:35
  Speaker 1: so the whale was first up the ladder. Unburdened. This
• 2:34:38
  Speaker 1: time they expected to have further use for the cutter.
• 2:34:42
  Speaker 1: He noted that Lambern was alone in the machine, and
• 2:34:45
  Speaker 1: promptly asked the question the geophysicist had been dreading. Where's
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 1: take We've found something for him. I'm afraid he won't
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 1: appreciate it. He was killed a couple of hours ago
• 2:34:58
  Speaker 1: by a phelodon. The news silenced even Suluweyo, and the
• 2:35:04
  Speaker 1: expression on his junior's face actually startled Krendle when he
• 2:35:08
  Speaker 1: climbed through the hatch and dommy what in. Lampert cut
• 2:35:12
  Speaker 1: in with the same news he had given a moment before.
• 2:35:16
  Speaker 1: Grendall reacted similarly, then slowly lowered himself into a seat.
• 2:35:21
  Speaker 1: He did not ask for details. Both men could see
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 1: that this was not the time to put such a
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 1: question to the pilot, though neither realized then the personal
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 1: responsibility that Lampert felt over the incident. Krendall pulled a
• 2:35:37
  Speaker 1: small fragment of tuff from his pocket and looked at
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 1: it thoughtfully. Nothing further was said until the helicopter landed
• 2:35:45
  Speaker 1: once more on the river near the city MacLachlan and
• 2:35:49
  Speaker 1: the bundle which held what was left of Takahiko Mitsuizi
• 2:35:53
  Speaker 1: were waiting on the bank and were loaded aboard without
• 2:35:56
  Speaker 1: a sound. It's early. We'll take him back to Imara
• 2:36:01
  Speaker 1: tonight and come back for your work. Tomorrow, Lambert said,
• 2:36:05
  Speaker 1: and lifted into the air without waiting for agreement. All right,
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 1: replied Crendall, as long as we come back. I don't
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 1: think he'd have wanted us to stop. I'm going to
• 2:36:17
  Speaker 1: find out about those green threads of his, too. Lampert
• 2:36:21
  Speaker 1: nodded in approval. He had already formed a similar determination.
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 1: For half an hour, they flew on in silence. The phelodawn,
• 2:36:31
  Speaker 1: half submerged in swamp water a kilometer downstream from the hill,
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 1: heard the helicopter hum overhead. It seemed totally disinterested. For
• 2:36:42
  Speaker 1: just a moment, its feigned head pointed upward, then settled
• 2:36:46
  Speaker 1: back again. There was a burn under its jaw, which
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 1: had been inflicted by metal spraying from the ruined seismic apparatus.
• 2:36:54
  Speaker 1: It was more comfortable to keep it under water. What
• 2:36:59
  Speaker 1: was it you found and dummy that you thought take
• 2:37:02
  Speaker 1: would want to see, Lampert broke the long silence. It
• 2:37:06
  Speaker 1: was when we were undercutting to get the block out
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 1: of the tunnel. Sulaueo answered, it's just some more of
• 2:37:12
  Speaker 1: his green threads in the tuff below the fossil. I
• 2:37:16
  Speaker 1: brought a chunk of the rock, showing them here. Lampert nodded,
• 2:37:20
  Speaker 1: without taking his main attention from flying. Maybe that fossil
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 1: of yours was intelligent after all, then he said, it
• 2:37:29
  Speaker 1: seems to have died under very similar circumstances to take
• 2:37:33
  Speaker 1: just the Bobbe said of those green threads. Maybe it
• 2:37:37
  Speaker 1: was a member of a party like ours. Maybe it
• 2:37:41
  Speaker 1: certainly walked erect. The whole body structure shows that if
• 2:37:46
  Speaker 1: its brain were large enough and it had some sort
• 2:37:48
  Speaker 1: of manipulating appendage, I'd say it was virtually human incapacity.
• 2:37:54
  Speaker 1: That is, it was more of an amphibian anatomically. You
• 2:38:00
  Speaker 1: have the block out of the open. Haven't you been
• 2:38:02
  Speaker 1: able to study the head and limbs? No, damn it,
• 2:38:06
  Speaker 1: Grendell took over from his junior. That was the big
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 1: disappointment in the whole find. The specimen seems to be perfect,
• 2:38:14
  Speaker 1: except for missing skull and hands, not a trace of either.
• 2:38:19
  Speaker 1: The helicopter wavered slightly on his path, then steadied as
• 2:38:23
  Speaker 1: Lampert forced his attention back to his job. No one
• 2:38:27
  Speaker 1: said anything for a long time, but every one was thinking.
• 2:38:35
  Speaker 1: Some One else was thinking too, but wasn't keeping his
• 2:38:38
  Speaker 1: thoughts to himself. They were being spoken and virtually dripped
• 2:38:42
  Speaker 1: with a thinker's fury, you sloppy, lazy parasites. I don't
• 2:38:50
  Speaker 1: mind being stuck with a job in a deadline, even
• 2:38:53
  Speaker 1: if it's a report that's duein only fifty years and
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 1: needs about two hundred for a real conclusion. I'd sooner
• 2:39:00
  Speaker 1: do it all myself than have some of you loose
• 2:39:03
  Speaker 1: thinkers butting in. But if I'm to give my whole
• 2:39:07
  Speaker 1: attention to it, so I can produce something that won't
• 2:39:10
  Speaker 1: be laughed at from here to the Magellanic clouds, how
• 2:39:14
  Speaker 1: about some of you watching what goes on on this planet.
• 2:39:19
  Speaker 1: I didn't know those creatures were poking around until they
• 2:39:22
  Speaker 1: began cutting censor lines. Thirty. The protective life we've bred
• 2:39:26
  Speaker 1: on the surface was your idea? Why didn't you put
• 2:39:29
  Speaker 1: it to work? The answering words tried to be soothing.
• 2:39:34
  Speaker 1: Thirty was working dreaming? You mean? But I put one
• 2:39:39
  Speaker 1: of the Guardians on the job for him. It stopped
• 2:39:42
  Speaker 1: the digging, didn't it. Sure after a lot of damage
• 2:39:46
  Speaker 1: had been done, do you want to come out in
• 2:39:50
  Speaker 1: the open and repair my wiring with those space travelers
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 1: poking around? If they find you at it, the Council
• 2:39:58
  Speaker 1: won't just laugh at us they'll excommunicate us and let
• 2:40:02
  Speaker 1: this new species of intelligence clean us out. Why did
• 2:40:06
  Speaker 1: it take so long for the Guardian to do anything? Well?
• 2:40:11
  Speaker 1: I well, you were dreaming too, weren't you blasted? You're
• 2:40:16
  Speaker 1: here to do constructive thinking, not just to entertain yourself.
• 2:40:20
  Speaker 1: How about you any self respect? They actually dug out
• 2:40:25
  Speaker 1: sixteen What difference will that make? He's been dead too
• 2:40:30
  Speaker 1: long to mind it himself, And anyway, his brain and
• 2:40:33
  Speaker 1: sensor connections were decently burned. But they wouldn't have had
• 2:40:38
  Speaker 1: to dig much deeper to get someone who's not dead,
• 2:40:41
  Speaker 1: would day ninety five? My young friend, I suppose when
• 2:40:45
  Speaker 1: they cut one or two of your sensors you decided
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 1: it was time to do something. Don't interrupt, I'm talking.
• 2:40:53
  Speaker 1: This planet is supposed to be a whyet place where
• 2:40:57
  Speaker 1: people can expect to spend a decent number of centuries
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 1: at a time thinking without being disturbed. If you're too young,
• 2:41:05
  Speaker 1: or too lazy, or just too stupid to do any
• 2:41:08
  Speaker 1: real thinking yourself, at least you can devote a little
• 2:41:11
  Speaker 1: time from your casual amusements to making sure that other
• 2:41:15
  Speaker 1: people can shut up. You'll do some thinking now, or
• 2:41:20
  Speaker 1: find yourself in real trouble. Here's a problem for you
• 2:41:24
  Speaker 1: to solve, and see that you solve it, you get
• 2:41:29
  Speaker 1: my censors repaired, making sure not only that you're not
• 2:41:34
  Speaker 1: caught at the job by these space travelers, but also
• 2:41:38
  Speaker 1: that they don't realize it's been done. In other words,
• 2:41:43
  Speaker 1: don't just neatly fill in the hole they made after
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 1: you've finished, so they can't help knowing they are not
• 2:41:48
  Speaker 1: the only intelligences on this world. I don't know when
• 2:41:52
  Speaker 1: they'll be back any better than you do, so you'll
• 2:41:55
  Speaker 1: have to guess at your own time limit. You can
• 2:41:58
  Speaker 1: booby trap your canyon with landslides or anything else to
• 2:42:02
  Speaker 1: keep yourself from being dug out. But if you fail
• 2:42:06
  Speaker 1: in either problem and either of us looks likely to
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 1: be found, I personally guarantee you'll be found in the
• 2:42:14
  Speaker 1: same shape as sixteen. Now get to work and let
• 2:42:20
  Speaker 1: me think. If you think you can get help or
• 2:42:23
  Speaker 1: sympathy from anyone else on the planet, good luck to you.
• 2:42:28
  Speaker 1: A wave of agreement spread along the countless miles of
• 2:42:32
  Speaker 1: censor wiring that extended through Veridic's crust, but twenty five
• 2:42:37
  Speaker 1: didn't feel or hear it. He had already taken the
• 2:42:40
  Speaker 1: myriad of tendrils that terminated his arms away from the
• 2:42:43
  Speaker 1: mosaic console that formed the end of the vast bundles
• 2:42:47
  Speaker 1: of greenish threads coming through the walls of his cave
• 2:42:50
  Speaker 1: and its settled back in his lounging chair, that report
• 2:42:55
  Speaker 1: only fifty years to have it thought out. His full
• 2:42:59
  Speaker 1: attention went back to it. End of Port eight, End
• 2:43:05
  Speaker 1: of the Green Planet by hal Clement