The Green World by Hal Clement

Author:Hal Clement [Clement, Hal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00378L5W4
Publisher: Wonder Publishing Group
Published: 2010-02-03T22:00:00+00:00

"It has happened. In such a case, of course, trace elements rather than nitrates or phosphates are responsible. That's what I suspect here."

"But wouldn't it be better to dig where you actually have — in the middle of a block, if that's what it is? Then you'd be fairly certain to hit a building, which should be richer ground than a street."

"Only if you actually strike artifacts. The building itself might be much less well preserved than a paved street. However, you are the one who's handling that mechanical mole. Dig where you want, and see what you can learn about this hilltop. Just get me at least a couple of cores from my 'streets' before you're done, please."

Lampert nodded and proceeded to assemble his equipment. The "mole" was a cylinder about five centimeters in diameter and three times as long. A cutter-lined mouth occupied one end, while the other was attached to a snaky appendage which was wound on a fair sized drum. A set of controls knobs and indicators were mounted near the center of the drum.

The geophysicist set the cylinder on the ground mouth downward, pushing it into the soft earth far enough to assure its remaining upright. Then he turned to his controls and after a moment, with very little noise, the cylinder began to sink into the ground. In a few seconds it was out of sight, trailing its snaky neck after it.

The men watched it in silence.

Perhaps thirty seconds after it disappeared, there was a minor convulsion in the neck, a momentarily rising hum from the machinery, and a plug of dirt about two centimeters in diameter and five long was ejected from a port in the center of the drum. This was seized by Lampert and examined briefly, then tossed aside. "The soil is pretty deep," he remarked.

"How far down did that come from?" asked Mitsuitei.

"One meter. That's the sampling interval I've set in it, for now. If it meets anything much harder or easier to penetrate, it will warn me and I'll grab them more frequently." Conversation lapsed while two more samples arrived and were inspected. Then a light flickered on the panel, and Lampert reset one of his knobs; and almost immediately a core of light gray limestone was produced.

"Apparently the same stuff as the cliffs," said Lampert after examining the specimen. "Do you want to go any deeper, or drill a few more holes to get an idea of the contour?"

"How fast will that thing go through limestone?"

"A couple of centimeters per minute. It's too small to pack a real power unit."

"Give it five minutes, just to make sure it isn't a building block."

"Ten centimeters wouldn't give you a whole building block."

"A sample from that far inside one would tell me what I want to know. You rock-chippers don't seem to think that archaeology is a science yet. Let me have that first core, too." Mitsuitei looked confident to the point of being cocky, and Lampert let the mole burrow on.

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