Fossil (1993) by Hal Clement

Author:Hal Clement [Clement, Hal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 1993-06-14T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Clear Sight May Not Provide The Clearest View

His four Habras came aboard happily enough. Early metal aircraft brought to the planet by the starfaring races had given them claustrophobia, since the walls had blocked their electrical senses; this machine had been built of nonconducting synthetics with natives in mind. As passengers, they chattered eagerly at the view from heights they could never reach under their own power, and admitted Janice and S’Nash freely into their discussion.

They worked quickly and efficiently at the first stop, setting up the light and transmitter Hugh had promised the Crotonites, stacking cases of food beside them, and flying around to scout the region within a forty or fifty kilometer radius to learn whether they could sense any evidence that Rekchellet and the other had actually come that way.

The Erthumoi were rather surprised when they did. A dozen kilometers north of the just completed cache a single empty Crotonite food package was detected just under the ice-dust surface, its material charged differently enough from the surrounding material to reveal it to Habra senses. The discoverer brought it in for detailed examination, assuring Hugh and Janice that nothing could be read from the surrounding surface. If S’Nash felt any skepticism, it/he kept it private.

The interesting part of the container itself was that it bore markings in addition to the machine-impressed label, markings definitely not made by machine, though they were more regular than either of the Erthumoi could have produced by hand.

S’Nash insisted after a glance that they were Crotonite writing in the same language Rekchellet had used in his earlier note. It/he could not read a symbol, but was completely certain of the pattern. Janice was willing to believe it/him; she had already been impressed by the Naxian pattern-analysis ability shown at the point on the road where the truck had stopped. It fit her favorite hypothesis about the way the emotion-reading worked, now all the dearer since the collapse of the one about Locrian deep-sight.

Hugh was less certain, but willing to accept S’Nash’s opinion as a working hypothesis. After a moment’s thought, he took the wrapping outside and carefully placed it under a food carton. When the Crotonite searchers got that far and reported to him, he could tell them where it was and ask for interpretation, meanwhile hoping that the group included someone familiar with Rekchellet’s language. The interpreting devices were designed for oral and to a lesser extent gestured speech, not for writing.

They had reached and were setting up the fourth cache, some two thousand kilometers from Pitville and not yet that close to their putative goal, when the flier’s communicator asked for attention. Janice answered.

“This is Velliah. We have reached the first food cache. We found it with no trouble, and there is plenty of food for all of us. I am sorry to say we found nothing on the way.”

“We may have,” answered the Erthuma. “Under the carton at the west end of the pile you will find the remains of what seems to be an ordinary Crotonite food pack, open and empty.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.