Cordon Santaire Timothy Zahn

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."Or a descendant of such a group.The people who built those ruins seem to have arrived rather abruptly on Pallas and then have left equally abruptly.There is no 'dead civilization' here, just temporary visitors.""Visitors?" Lyell frowned."I got the impression from your reports that these ruins were more elaborate than a simple exploration team bivouac.""They are," Rom said."All of them so far have shown evidence of extensive permanent buildings—one of them even has a nested series of perimeter walls, which indicates periodic growth of the settlement.""Sounds more like a fort setup," Mitch murmured."Doubtful," Rom shook his head."The walls weren't thick enough to defend against any real attack.Probably they were just decorative." He peered at the magnified needle for another minute."I gather you want me to take the Sunray up tomorrow and look for whatever's out there shooting these things.Suppose he doesn't want to be found?""We'll just have to flush him out, won't we?" Mitch said, and immediately regretted it as Rom sent him a look of disgust that could have sterilized culture plates at twenty paces."I don't suppose it occurred to you that he may not want our company," the archeologist said icily."If he's used to being alone or part of a small group we'd probably scare the hell out of him charging in on him like that.In fact, maybe that's what started him shooting in the first place.""We've been tromping all around this part of Pallas for well over six months, apparently without bothering him." Lyell pointed out."Why should he start shooting now if he doesn't want any attention? If, on the other hand, he just got here, it may be he is in need of help or company.""He's got a funny way of showing it," Rom grunted."But my original question was how you intended to locate him in the first place.If you were counting on the Sunray's sensors to pick up the needles or magnets, you can forget it.A properly designed mag-ring gun doesn't leak very much field, even when it's being fired.""Then we'll walk around and listen for the tarsapien enemy call," Kata put in."The what?""Lyell and I heard a tarsapien danger cry just before the needles started flying," she amplified."At the time we thought it meant a heloderm was scuttling around, but now I'm not so sure.""And why would the tarsaps identify this visitor as an enemy?" Rom snorted."They don't treat us that way.""I only meant—""It's as good a working assumption as any," Lyell interjected mildly."The whole tarsap community was unusually quiet this morning, and I've never known even a family of heloderms to cause a reaction that widespread.Do you have any idea yet what the people who built those ruins looked like?" Rom shrugged."Bipedal, certainly; probably at least vaguely humanoid, as well.We haven't yet located any photos or sculptures that would tell us for sure, but all the more subtle indications are there." He favored Lyell with a sardonic smile."Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be distinguishable from any tarsaps in the area.He'll be holding a gun, for one thing.When do you plan on organizing this hunt?" Lyell winced slightly at the word hunt but didn't comment on it."I thought early tomorrow morning you could take the Sunray up and just see if you can pick up any traces of our visitor from above.If not, Mitch, Adler, and I will go to the spot where I was shot and work outward from there.Unless you have another suggestion?""No, I suppose that's as good a plan as any," Rom said."You won't object if I leave any details to the rest of you?—I've got some samples I want to get catalogued.I thought not.Good night, all." Without waiting for a reply, he turned and disappeared down the hall.Always a pleasure, Mitch thought sourly, but he refrained from saying it aloud.Shannon was still in the room, and whatever he thought of Rom he did genuinely like her.So he merely gave her a friendly smile and strolled over to where Kata was tapping her fingers idly on her terminal."Feeling any less scared than you were this afternoon?" he asked, pulling up a chair beside hers.She didn't turn to face him, and her fingers halted their drumming only for a moment."Yes or no," she answered over her shoulder."I'm not as afraid of the needles as I was.but the rest of it just keeps getting worse.""You mean Rom's odd-man-out theory? I agree it's shot full of holes—""Doesn't that bother you?" she interrupted, turning to give him a strange look."This isn't some nice, safe theoretical discussion about the ecological function of Frensky moss.There is a real someone out there, shooting real needles for real reasons—and it seems to me that charging into this without knowing what we're doing could be dangerous as well as plain stupid."The intensity of her outburst startled Mitch, and he glanced over to see if Lyell had heard.But the other was deep in quiet conversation with Shannon."If you feel that way," he asked Kata, "why didn't you bring it up a few minutes ago?"She shook her head and turned away again."Lyell had his mind made up—you saw that.""But you're—" his lover "a long-time colleague.Someone he trusts.You could change his mind." She snorted." No one changes Lyell Moffit's mind once he's decided on a course of action." Her face was still turned away, and Mitch abruptly realized what she was staring at.Crouching motionlessly in one corner of his cage, Swizzle had a preternatural alertness about him.Occasional ripples of muscle sent waves through his fur, and his flared nostrils were larger even than his unblinking eyes."How long has he been like that?" Mitch asked quietly."I noticed it when we were working on the needle drug analysis earlier.I don't think he's moved half a meter since then."Mitch shivered.Generalizing from one species to another was always an iffy proposition, but he'd rarely seen a more textbook example of herbivore danger reaction."Could he have heard the tarsap enemy cry earlier?""I don't know.Actually, I'm not quite sure how to read this; he acts nervous, certainly, but he accepted his dinner from me without any hesitation I could detect.""In other words, it's not us he's afraid of?""I wouldn't even swear to that.I just don't know," Kata's fingertips slapped the console one final time and came to a halt."Well.maybe it'll all prove academic, after all.If you catch the sniper tomorrow we should be able to put all the pieces together easily enough.""Maybe." Mitch glanced once more at Swizzle and then turned away."Might be interesting to see if his wake-up call tomorrow has any of the 'danger' overtones in it, though.""I've already got the recorder set up."Mitch had planned to be listening when the tarsapien cry came the next morning; but though he was up well in advance of the event he wound up missing it entirely as he walked innocently into the common room and straight into a full-fledged war of words.Lyell, it seemed, had finally run afoul of his own abundant self-confidence.Apparently simply assuming Adler's cooperation in the morning's activities, he hadn't bothered to clear his plans with the geologist.and Adler was not amused at having been volunteered for such clearly hazardous duty."I don't care," he was saying when Mitch arrived."I'm not going out there to be shot at on a half-hour's notice.Not without better protection than these coveralls—certainly not without a better idea of what we're up against."Even Lyell's temper was showing signs of strain [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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