It remained for the leader of the party to sum up the geological situation over the first meal after Dar and Kruger had returned.
“This seems to be the story of this planet, according to present evidence,” he said. “It originated about as long ago as Earth, give or take a billion years, and as far as we can tell in the same manner. It passed through the usual stage of cooling, and eventually water was able to condense. Its primary atmosphere was probably retained a trifle better than Earth’s, since the velocity of escape here is over twenty per cent higher. Life started, probably spontaneously in the usual manner but possibly from adventitious spores, and developed on a path comparable to that of the other planets with which we are familiar — that is, it drastically modified the primary atmosphere until it became more or less like that of Earth.
During this period, which lasted for most of the planet’s existence, the tremendous climatic changes now associated with its sun’s periodic passage close to Alcyone do not seem to have been occurring; at least, no evidence whatever has been found to suggest they were, and a number of very significant facts indicate the contrary. For example, in some of the fossil beds great numbers of shellfish and other creatures of apparently identical species but widely differing size are found, without any layering which would suggest that the smaller ones died earlier. It would seem from such facts that the life of Abyormen, at that time, was normal from our point of view in its reproductive habits — creatures were born, grew old, and died pretty much at random.
“Life evolved to the stage of air-breathing vertebrates under these conditions, the characteristic types produced all being six-limbed. There is no evidence that intelligent beings evolved.
“Then somewhere between five and ten million years ago, the tremendous temperature changes produced by Alcyone began to occur and virtually all the life of the planet was wiped out. Either a few simple forms survived and gave rise to the present species, which get around the climate situation in the way we now know, or more spores arrived, or a totally new generation of life took place.
“We still know very little about these last few million years; it seems the consensus that we should actually drain this lake and conduct major excavations in its bed to find remains of the life of this period. However, we do know that at the moment the general life of the planet exists under a form of alternating generations which enable it to survive in two widely different environments. Are there any additions or corrections to this summary?”
“Just a comment; astronomical help is urgently needed,” came a voice.
“I agree. I have been recording this little speech and will send the tape up to the Alphard as soon as possible.”
The meal ended with no further contributions to science.
“What do you think of it, Dar?” Kruger asked later. “Does this go very badly against what your Teachers have told you?”
“It doesn’t conflict at all; they never told us anything about such possibilities. Knowing what the Teachers are, now, I can suppose that is because they never thought of them themselves.”
“Isn’t there some chance of your Teachers’ objecting to your telling all this? Or, if they don’t object, at least some of the ‘hot’ Teachers will.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. I think our own Teachers will be as interested as I am, and I have come to the conclusion that all the other Teachers know about our doings is what our own report to them by radio. The others couldn’t live anywhere near the Ice Ramparts.”
“Not even underground?”
“A long way down, maybe, but they still couldn’t watch very closely. For one thing, didn’t that one at the geyser village mention that there was no way for you to see him or him to see you, since no barrier that would keep you both safe could be seen through?”
“I hadn’t thought of that. But if he depends on reports from your Teachers, why couldn’t they have just said they had killed me, instead of actually trying to carry out his orders?”
“Well, if that ever occurred to them they probably thought that the reason he wanted you killed was of such a nature that he was bound to detect the results if you weren’t. If my people did learn a lot of your science right afterward, for example, it would be quite hard to hide.”
“I suppose so. Still, I’d certainly take a chance rather than kill a friend.”
“Perhaps they weren’t sure how much of a friend you were. Remember, they hadn’t been with you as long as I, and — well, you do have some rather odd characteristics, you know. I can understand that ‘hot’ Teacher’s feeling that way.”
“I suppose so. We know each other pretty well now, but we still find each other queer at times. It doesn’t bother me any more, though.”
“Nor me.” The two looked at each other with a more nearly complete understanding, in that moment, than they had ever achieved before or were to attain later.
XIII. ASTRONOMY; XENOLOGY
THE FLIER that took the geological report to the astronomers also carried Dar Lang Ahn and Nils Kruger back to the Alphard. Dar had followed the summary as far as it went, but he did not see just how astronomy was needed to check on the theories of the rock specialists. His curiosity about all matters allied to the physical sciences had reached a level that few human beings experience after leaving childhood.
He listened carefully as the record of the geologist’s summary was played over by the astronomers, but heard nothing he did not remember from its original utterance. He listened carefully to the conversation of these new scientists and never considered that they might regard his insistent questions as a discourtesy — which, as a matter of fact, most of them did not.
“I am afraid I do not know exactly what you mean when you say that Arren may have ‘captured’ Theer and Abyormen,” Dar would ask at one point.
“I think young Kruger explained something of Newton’s laws to you,” was the beginning of the answer.
“Normally, any two bodies attract each other according to definite law, and that attraction, plus the ordinary fact of inertia — the thing that keeps a stone traveling after it leaves the hand that throws it — results in definite, predictable motions of those bodies, such as the Alphard around your planet at this moment. By ‘capture’ we simply imply that originally Theer did not travel around Arren, but had its own path through space, and this path carried it close to Arren. The star’s attractive forces changed the paths so that now they travel around each other.”
“That seems clear enough. But I gathered that some of you found fault with this idea?”
“Plenty of fault. Capture doesn’t ordinarily occur; it calls, as a rule, for very special circumstances.”
“Why? If this force varies with distance as you say, I should think that all that would be needed would be for the two objects to get close enough together. In fact, I don’t see why Theer and Arren haven’t fallen into each other long ago, if what you say is right.”