Warm Worlds and Otherwise by James Tiptree Jr

Author:James Tiptree Jr. [Tiptree Jr., James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141996516
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

The Night-blooming Saurian

Ah, now we can relax. No salad, never touch it. And take that fruit away too, just the cheese. Yes, Pier, much too long a time. One’s ruts deepen. It’s the damned little time-wasters. Like that fellow with the coprolites this afternoon; the Museum really has no use for such things even if they’re genuine. And I confess they make me squeamish.

What? Oh, no fear, Pier, I’m no prude. Just to prove it, how about a bit more of that aquavit? Wonderfully good of you to remember. Here’s to your success; always thought you would.

Science? Oh, but you wouldn’t, really. Mostly donkey-work. Looks a lot better from the outside, like most things. Of course I’ve been fortunate. For an archeologist to have seen the advent of time travel – a miracle, really … Ah, yes, I was in right at the start, when they thought it was a useless toy. And the cost! No one knows how close it came to being killed off, Pier. If it hadn’t been for – the things one does for science … My most memorable experience in time? Oh, my … Yes, just a twitch more, though I really shouldn’t.

Oh dear. Coprolites. H’m. Very well, Pier old friend, if you’ll keep it to yourself. But don’t blame me if it disenchants you.

It was on the very first team jump you see. When we went back to the Olduvai Gorge area to look for Leakey’s man. I won’t bore you with our initial misadventures. Leakey’s man wasn’t there but another surprising hominid was. Actually, the one they called after me. But by the time we found him our grant funds were almost gone. It cost a fantastic sum then to keep us punched back into the temporal fabric and the U. S. was paying most of the bill. And not from altruism either but we won’t go into that.

There were six of us. The two MacGregors you’ve heard of; and the Soviet delegation, Peshkov and Rasmussen. And myself and a Dr. Priscilla Owen. Fattest woman I ever saw, oddly enough that turned out to be significant. Plus the temporal engineer, as they called them then. Jerry Fitz. A strapping Upper Paleolithic type, full of enthusiasm. He was our general guard and nursemaid, too, and a very nice chap for an engineer he seemed. Young, of course. We were all so young.

Well, we had no sooner settled in and sent Fitz back with our first reports when the blow fell. Messages had to be carried in person then, you realize, by prearranged schedule. All we could do by way of signals was a crude go – no-go. Fitz came back very solemn and told us that the grant appropriation was not going to be renewed and we’d all be pulled back next month for good.

Well, you can imagine we were struck to the heart. Devastated. Dinner that night was funereal. Fitz seemed to be as blue as we and the bottle went round and round – Oh, thank you.

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