“Yes,” said Fokin. “A very unusual layout.”
Komov nodded silently. This city was quite unlike the others. Before the discovery of Leonida, the Pathfinders—the workers of the Commission for the Research of the Evidence of the Activity of Extraterrestrial Intelligence in Outer Space—had come across only two cities—the empty city on Mars and the empty city on Vladislava. Obviously the same architect had designed both—cylindrical buildings descending many levels underground, made of shining silicones arranged in concentric rings. But this city on Leonida was entirely different—two rows of gray boxes made of porous limestone.
“Were you there after Gorbovsky?” asked Komov.
“No,” answered Ryu. “Not even once. Actually, I had no time. After all, I’m not an archaeologist—I’m an atmosphere physicist. And then, Gorbovsky had asked me not to go there.”
A boom! boom! came from the construction site. Red puffs of smoke flew up in thick clouds. Through them the smooth walls of the storehouse could already be made out. The mother robot came out of the smoke into the grass. Next to her hopped black cyberbuilders like praying mantises. Then the cybers formed a chain and ran off to the river.
“Where are they going?” Fokin asked curiously.
“Swimming,” said Tanya.
“They’re leveling an obstruction,” Ryu explained. “The storehouse is almost ready. Now the whole cybernetic system is retiming. They’ll build a hangar and a water system.”
“A water system!” exclaimed Fokin.
“Still, it would have been better to have moved the base a little farther from the city,” Komov said doubtfully.
“This is how Gorbovsky laid it out,” said Ryu. “It’s not a good idea to get too far from base.”
“Also true,” Komov agreed. “But I wouldn’t want the cybers wrecking the city.”
“Come now! I never let them near it.”
“A planet with all the conveniences,” said Mboga.
“Yes indeed!” Ryu confirmed happily. “The river, the air, the greenery, and no mosquitoes, no harmful insects.”
“All the conveniences indeed,” Mboga repeated.
“Is it possible to go swimming?” asked Tanya.
Ryu looked at the river. It was greenish and turbid, but it was a real river with real water. Leonida was the first planet that had turned out to have real water and breathable air. “I think so,” said Ryu. “I haven’t tried it myself, though. There hasn’t been time.”
“We’ll swim every day,” said Tanya.
“I’ll say!” shouted Fokin. “Every day! Three times a day! All we’ll do is go swimming!”
“Okay,” said Komov. “What’s that?” He pointed to a ridge of low hills on the horizon.
“I don’t know,” said Ryu. “No one has been there yet. Falkenstein got sick all of a sudden, and Gorbovsky had to leave. He only had time to unload the equipment for me, and then he shipped out.”
For some time everyone stood silently, looking at the hills on the horizon. Then Komov said, “In three days or so I’m going to fly along the river myself.”
“If there are any more traces,” said Fokin, “then undoubtedly we’d find them along the river.”
“Probably,” Ryu agreed politely. “Now let’s go to my place.”
Komov looked back at the helicopter.
“Never mind, let it stay,” said Ryu. “The hippopotamuses don’t climb hills.”
“Hippopotamuses?” said Mboga.
“That’s what I call them. They look like hippopotamuses from far off, and I’ve never seen them close up.” They started down the hill. “On the other side of the river the grass is very tall, so I’ve only seen their backs.”
Mboga walked next to Ryu with a light gliding step. The grass seemed to flow around him.
“On the other hand there are birds up here,” Ryu continued. “They’re very large and sometimes they fly very low. One almost grabbed my radar set.”
Komov, without slowing down, looked into the sky, shading his eyes with a hand. “By the way,” he said. “I should send a radiogram to the Sunflower. May I use your communicator?”
“By all means,” said Ryu. “You know, Percy Dickson wanted to shoot one. A bird, I mean. But Gorbovsky wouldn’t let him.”
“Why not?” asked Mboga.
“I don’t know,” said Ryu. “But he was dreadfully angry; he even wanted to take everyone’s weapons away.”
“He did take them away from us,” Fokin said. “There was a great flap at the Council. If you ask me, it became very ugly. Gorbovsky simply ladled out his authority on top of everyone.”
“Except Tora-Hunter,” noted Tanya.
“Yes, I took a gun,” Mboga said. “But I understand Gorbovsky. You don’t feel like shooting here.”
“Still, Gorbovsky is a peculiar man,” declared Fokin.
“Possibly,” said Ryu with restraint.
They approached the low circle of the door to the spacious laboratory dome. Over the dome three gridwork radar dishes turned in various directions.
“You can pitch your tents here,” said Ryu. “And if you need it, I’ll give you a team of cybers, and they’ll build you something more substantial.”
Komov looked at the dome, looked at the puffs of red and black smoke behind the laboratory, and then looked back at the gray roofs of the city and said guiltily, “You know, Ryu, I’m afraid we’ll be in your way here. Wouldn’t it be better if we got settled in the city? Eh?”
“Besides, there’s a smell of burning here,” added Tanya. “And I’m afraid of the cybers.”
“I’m afraid of the cybers too,” Fokin said decisively.
Offended, Ryu shrugged his shoulders. “As you like,” he said. “I think it’s very nice here myself.”
“Tell you what,” said Tanya. “We’ll put up the tents and you can move in with us. You’ll like it, you’ll see.”
“Hmm,” said Ryu. “Maybe… But for now you’re all invited to my place.”
The archaeologists stooped down and walked toward the low door. Mboga went last, and he did not even have to bow his head.
Ryu hesitated at the threshold. He looked back and saw the trampled ground, the yellowed crushed grass, the dismal pile of lithoplast, and he thought that somehow there really was a smell of burning here.
The city consisted of a single street, very broad, overgrown with thick grass. The street extended almost due north and south, and stopped close to the river. Komov decided to make camp in the center of the city. The setting up started at around 3:00 p.m. local time (a day on Leonida was twenty-seven hours some minutes).
The heat seemed to grow worse as the afternoon wore on. There was no breeze, and warm air shimmered over the gray parallelepipeds of buildings. It was a bit cooler only in the southern part of the city, near the river. There was a smell of, in Fokin’s words, hay and “a touch of chlorella plantation.”
Komov took Mboga and Ryu, who had offered his help, got in the helicopter, and set off for the boat to get equipment and provisions, while Tanya and Fokin surveyed the city. There was relatively little equipment, and Komov transferred it in two trips. When he had come back the first time, Fokin, while helping with the unloading, had stated somewhat pompously that all the buildings in the city were quite similar in size.