Tuning William - Fuzzy Bones

'Ruth and Gerd climbed the steps up the portable scaffolding and picked up two power-lights from the pile of equipment there. They took a look around the rim of the excavation, where Marine guards were posted to restrict access to the wreck, looked down at Helton and Holloway, then bent down and crawled into the aft hatch of the whatever-it-was. "What kind of drive system did this thing have, Phil?" Holloway asked. "Any idea yet?"

"I can' t say for sure," Helton replied. "What we do know is that it was housed in the sphere part, there, that's aft and between the legs of the rear-extending nacelles. It's going to be a puzzle, because it's just about all melted together into one big lump."

"And that's what forced the ship to land here." Holloway said. "Am I right?"

"Likely," Helton said. "It used to be larger than what we see now. The ship may have been intending to land and what melted down the drive was the cause of it crashing on the mountainside. From examining the lower decks, I'd say she was in trouble and making an emergency set-down-this isn't the ideal spot to land something that big."

"So you think the lift drive-or whatever their equivalent was-finally quit, maybe a hundred meters up," Holloway suggested.

Helton nodded. "Yep," he said. "The helmsman was a good one, though. He brought her in on forward momentum toward the valley floor and used the mountain slope as a ramp to brake mass-velocity against gravity. Kept her pretty much in one piece."

"Do you think you can ever figure out what kind of drive it was?" Holloway asked. "If it didn't operate on the same principle as the Dillingham, we could learn a lot from it."

Helton shrugged. "We can but try, "he said. "We'll dope out as much as we can by taking the drive apart as far as possible-until we get to the fused parts.

Then we'll do test borings of the melted areas and map the core samples. Maybe we can work out a crude plan of what the guts of the thing used to look like."

Light was reflecting off the inside surface of the open hatch. The van Riebeeks emerged and stood up on the scaffold platform. Even from the distance Holloway could tell they were shaken.

Once back on the ground, Gerd turned to Helton. "We're going to have to get some equipment and technicians up here," he said.

Helton nodded. "I can authorize that. What do you think?"

"We can't be positive," Ruth said, "until we move the skeletons and remains back to Holloway Station, take measurements, and make comparisons with our own Fuzzy data under laboratory conditions . . ."

She paused and Gerd finished the sentence for her. "It looks like we have found some Fuzzy bones."

Chapter 27

Lieutenant Colonel James O'Bannon stroked his beard and looked at Major Max Telemann in a way that not even that expert reader of human character could fathom. "I watched your 'screen interview in Mallorysport with that young news analyst," he said.

Telemann's face brightened into a warm smile. "And how did you like it, Colonel?"

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Max-lying to that kid on the air-even if it is in our best interests at the moment." Telemann put on his astonished look. "Lie? Me lie? Of course I didn't lie!"

O'Bannon leaned forward slightly. "It sounded that way from my end," he said.

"Oh, heavens, no," Telemann said. "Of course not. Every word I said was a perfectly truthful example of some line of speculation that we're working on.

The interviewer merely assumed that I was talking about exclusively Terran vessels." Telemann shrugged. "It's not my fault if his attention is so preoccupied with the Federation that he never thought of the notion there might be another race with hyperdrive." He shrugged again.

A faint smile played over O'Bannon's face. He was silent for a moment as he flicked an imaginary speck of dust from the toe of his boot.' Telemann," he said finally, "If I 'm ever stupid enough to stand for public office, will you be my press agent?"

"Why, certainly, sir," Telemann said, "but I can't imagine why a man of your intelligence would want to run for elected office."

Ben Rainsford stormed back and forth in his office, chuffing madly on his pipe. "Why can't they run this like a proper dig?" he demanded. "Regardless of what they've got-or think they've got. Archeology is an exact science. You don't go in and conduct a dig with manipulators and power shovels, for Ghu's sake!"

Gus Brannhard was excited about exactly nothing. He rested his huge frame in an easy chair. Only his eyes followed Rainsford as he paced. "Be realistic, Ben," he said. "You know as well as I do that there isn't a really trained archeologist on the whole planet."

Rainsford jabbed his index finger toward the ceiling. "It's an affront to science and the scientific method! That's what it is!"

"And there isn't time," Brannhard added quietly.

"If you don't have time to do it right the first time," Rainsford said as he noisily knocked out his pipe in the ashtray, "when will you have time to do it correctly?"

Brannhard chuckled, which made Rainsford even madder. "Be practical, Ben," he said. "The TFMC helped out the ZNPF when they were short-handed. Then they found this whatsis up in Fuzzy Valley. The Navy became very interested and wanted to know all about it and damned quick, so they butted into the situation. Now, you know as well as I do that when the Navy thinks it's important to find out something, archeology, or any other science, is going to be sucking hind tit."

"Oh, Nifflheim with it!" Rainsford said as he hurled himself into the chair behind the desk. "Now then, what the blazes are we going to do about this range war on Delta Continent? Who do we indict and how do we catch them?"

"Sir," Helton said, "the scanner crew's report from yesterday has a very interesting item in it."

Scanner crews had been combing Fuzzy Valley, looking for more buried titanium.

They had found some, and dug it up, but it was mostly scraps-presumably debris from the wreck. Not very interesting.

O'Bannon rubbed the first two fingers of his right hand back and forth across his expressionless forehead. "Go on," he said.

"It seems there is a large cavern behind the rockfall on the mountainside,"

Helton said. "There are several good-sized titanium objects inside."

"Mmrnmmm," O'Bannon said. "What's your recommendation?"

"I think we should tunnel in and find out about it," Helton said flatly.

"How does Casagra feel about this idea?" O'Bannon asked.

"He concurs," Helton replied.

"Then why isn't he here to say so?" O'Bannon asked.

Helton grimaced. "He's re-deploying some of the guard detachment. Asks that you excuse him, and says he'll talk to you about it after Officers Call."

"I see," O'Bannon said. "How would you go about boring this tunnel?"

Helton shrugged. "The best way available. I mean, when I have a readout on what equipment of that nature is available on Xerxes, then I can pick the best method from what we have at hand."

O'Bannon got to his feet. "Okay, Gunnie. Get your shopping list and pick out what you think is the best shovel. I'll talk to Casagra and get back to you."

The airboat bobbed slightly as it eased slowly down the canyon, close to the ground, taking advantage of whatever cover there was.

"Take it easy, Alex," Jimmy said.

Alex looked pained. "This is very delicate," he said. "It makes me nervous."

"Not as nervous as you'll be if you scratch up Ingermann 's airboat," chimed in a third man.

Alex half-turned from the controls. "Oh, be quiet, Morrie," he said to the third man. "It just makes me more nervous."

A large beefy man in the rear of the boat suddenly jumped to his feet. "Look out!" he shouted.

Alex jerked around in time to see that he was heading straight for a rock outcropping. He swerved to miss it and barely regained control after the evasion.