Hal Clement - Fossil

An image of Barrar, wearing a dome-shaped body with a dozen arms ensconced on a platform in the center of what he probably thought of as a desk and surrounded by numerous data-handling and communicating devices, appeared in a few seconds. Hugh gave him no time to complain.

“Ged, did you ever have much talk with the Erthumoi working for Ennissee?”

“No. Practically none, and that little was all through him. Neither they nor I had appropriate translator mods. Why?”

“Did you ever hear them talking between themselves? And if you do, do you remember the words ‘Pill-Dahn’ or ‘Palaksee?’ “

“Thanks for the flattery. I have a brain, not a mechanical recorder. I heard them talk often enough, but don’t remember a syllable. Why? Get to the point, if any. Spreadsheet-Thinker is screaming about empty cells.”

“I’d like to hear a Locrian scream, but you’ll have to do. The words both mean the same, in the language of one of the Erthumoi — the female, if you care.”

“I don’t. Get to the point. What do they mean?”

“Faked fossil. I don’t know why that should rate a single word, let alone two, in any language but I suppose it’s a historical…”

“Shut up!” Barrar’s speech mechanism was not designed to produce a scream, but it had a more than adequate volume control. Hugh and his wife decided it might not be necessary to ask S’Nash how the Samian was feeling.

“Why, how, and how do you know?” The questions came with surprising speed, considering the usual pace of Samian thought, and at a much more moderate volume than the initial reaction. Hugh answered them together, describing his conversation with Mahare Chen in detail though not verbatim.

“Ennissee is from Wildwind, where a lot of Seventh Race material has been found. Crotonites like to assume that it was a flying species, though if you really corner one he’ll usually admit there’s no real proof. It’s generally taken for granted, though, on Wildwind, and often carried to feeling that Crotonites are the natural heirs to any relics left by the Seventh Race.”

“I’ve heard of that idea, but never took it seriously.”

r “I don’t see why anyone should, but people do. Anyway, when Habranha was discovered by Crotonites a few decades ago — Common time, not Habra; they’ve been here longer than any of us — it turned out likely for chemical reasons that the Habras hadn’t evolved here but are descendants of some colonizing race. Since there is only one other star-faring species we’ve ever had a trace of, and the Habras certainly aren’t related to any of the Six, the natural implication sent the wilder Wildwinders out of control.

“To boil things down, Ennissee came here to ‘prove’ that the Habras had evolved here. Like a lot of true believers, he didn’t much care how he did it; he was spreading the truth, and if he had to juggle mere facts a bit to convince the unbelievers that was all right. Personally I don’t think much of that attitude, but I can’t say all Erthumoi are above it. How many other Wildwinders were in it with him, or even how many would go that far, I have no idea, but I’m afraid we’ll have to publicize this affair in the interests of ordinary historical honesty and protection of the naive.”

“But — well, yes, of course. I see that. But what evidence other than the word of this Erthuma do you have that the fossils are false? How were they made? Was the first body…”

“The first body was genuine enough, and fairly modern. Jan has it well inside carbon range in age, and of course it’s a perfectly ordinary native. It’s a real accident or storm victim, apparently, found by Ennissee on Darkside. Chen says there were several more at the same site, but that Ennissee had said one was enough.”

“He told me it had come from just a few meters down,” said Barrar, “and he was sure it was recent, too, but he said he found it with his mole instruments while he was testing it and deciding where to start boring. Now I wonder how good the mole was, really. I never went very far down in it.”

“Oh, it seems to have been all he told you, according to Chen. Janice has found quite a bit of the plant stuff from Ennissee’s base to be beyond carbon range in age. It could have done good work. I hope it can be rebuilt. He destroyed it to keep anyone from checking the spot where he claimed to have found the second specimen.”

“Destroyed it!” How could he? It was — it was useful! How could anyone destroy such a thing? A mass-produced truck, or aircraft, or communicator, something easy to replace, one could understand; but this was specially designed equipment! And how could he have taken such a chance with the Erthumoi and me?”

“The explosion was thermite, set off under the ice where he’d parked it. Of course the steam made it impressive, and he must have been planning the whole thing well in advance to have so much thermite at the site. He would certainly never have used it for fossil digging. I’m a little surprised that the building you and the Erthumoi were in survived. I know the stuff isn’t really an explosive, but that much of it under ice would have to make a lot of steam. He probably cared a little more about you and his workers than he did for Rekchellet, but not too much. He also knew about when we would be coming — didn’t he? You were out there, after all.”

“Yes,” admitted the Samian after a pause. “He left in the aircraft I had used to get there, shortly before you arrived. I still can’t believe he would have risked us.”

“I’ve always been unhappy with coincidences,” answered Hugh, feeling a trace of smugness which presumably didn’t show in his key work. “After all, he must have had a flyer from somewhere. I’m sure you didn’t deliberately send him to Pwanpwan on one of the Pitville machines, but you might ask whoever piloted you out there last time just where he or she dropped the Crotonite off.” Ged made no answer.

“And you didn’t know what happened to Rekchellet until afterward,” Janice remarked. The Samian seemed, if anything, grateful for the change of subject; Hugh felt he would have a lot to ask S’Nash at their next meeting.

“Yes. I am friendly with many of the local Habras, just as you are, and had asked them to help me keep in touch with Ennissee whenever he was in the neighborhood. Some of them helped when we brought the frozen body back by air. The truck has never been very far from Pitville; Ennissee set up the autodriver and its record after he decided we were ready to get you people out to his dig and display the first body.”

“You got it that long ago?”

“Oh, yes. Several years. He was going to show you the mole, and all the other specimens he had collected, and his records — everything, he told me. That was why I was so upset when the mole was destroyed, and begged so hard for the material to be taken here for Janice to examine. How did he actually get the specimen? You say it’s faked somehow?”

“Yes. You’ve wandered off the question of how you found out about Rekchellet.”

“Oh. Sorry. When Ennissee asked them to help him take Rek’s translator and tracker, they complied because it seemed to fit my request but weren’t really happy about it. They decided to watch Rek, too. Unfortunately, only one of them at a time did this while the others reported back to me. She saw the two Crotonites leave the truck, followed them, saw them land together, and then start to fly once more with Ennissee drawing ahead. My instructions had been to watch Ennissee, so she lost track of Rekchellet fairly soon. However, she had a very good idea of his actual path. She also knew just what he was wearing and carrying, so that she knew what he — well, about the only word is ‘looked’ like to Habra electrical senses. She was in your search group, not by chance I assure you; I had managed to get instructions to my people by then. She was responsible for the change in search pattern which bothered you, I gather, but which resulted in Rekchellet’s being found.”