“Stone Age. Yes, a sophisticated set of Stone Age tools, but stone. No metalworking. I think we also spotted some pottery at one site. Maybe others. We need to do a whole lot more before we draw solid conclusions about the people down there.”
“Nelly, can you spot any group of hunter-gatherers?” Kris asked.
“Yes, Kris. I’ve spotted several villages,” Nelly reported.
A window opened on the screen. Here was a collection of bark and wood-shingle huts spread along a riverbank. Three watercraft, apparently hollowed-out tree trunks, were pulled up on the shore.
A second window opened. Here a stream flowed through a grassy plain. The dwellings here were made of poles covered with something. “That looks like a wigwam,” Jacques provided. “They use poles covered with animal hides sewn together for shelter. It’s very portable. Nelly, are there any domesticated animals?”
The screen’s view expanded as the village shrank. There were no herds of any sort.
“Hmm . . .” Jacques muttered. “The life of a plains hunter-gatherer is rough without something like a horse for transportation. But it’s also a lot less warlike.”
The picture changed again. Now it showed a collection of stone huts built together with shared walls. They were close to the cliffs that provided the stone. Down close to a small, tree-lined creek were fields covered with a grasslike plant. People were harvesting it with bone or wooden implements.
“From the looks of it,” Jacques said, “they’re using small flint edges to cut the grain off the tops of the plant stems. Interesting. They’re not harvesting the whole plant.”
Kris remembered her stay on Pandemonium. “I’ve seen farmers growing a crop that gives them a grain harvest two or three times a year without them having to replant.”
“I’m aware of that crop,” Amanda, the economist, put in. “It was genetically engineered to provide ground cover to protect the soil as well as food.”
“Genetically engineered, huh?” Jack said.
“I think we need to look at the DNA of that crop as well as some of the wild stuff growing around it,” Kris said.
Professor Labao got that faraway look in his eyes again. No doubt, the ruminations of Kris’s staff were going into some furious planning among the experts elsewhere on the ship.
“And if we find evidence of genetic engineering?” Jack asked.
“I’ve been wondering why it is that the aliens have five nucleonic acids in their DNA while we have only three,” Kris said. “This may be none of my business, but if three hold together very well, why would evolution keep going and end up with two more?”
“You need to make allowances for the additional background radiation of this planet,” Professor Labao put in. “Our rough estimate at this time is that the heavy atomic attack occurred some hundred-thousand-plus years ago. That would have encouraged a lot of mutation among both plant and animal life here.”
“Have you got a definite date for the attack here?” Jack asked.
“No, not yet,” the professor said.
“Because,” Kris said, speaking carefully as she tossed the verbal hand grenade, “if the attack occurred first here, then there, we might have an interesting time line.”
“Are you thinking that the other planet attacked here, and they later counterattacked?” Jack asked.
“It’s possible.”
“It’s also possible,” Jacques said, “that these people fouled their own nest themselves, then attacked the other planet with vicious intent.”
Kris nodded. “The data allows for both interpretations. Let’s see what new data we can find that supports either of those hypotheses or gives us another.”
“I know that Your Highness likes to exercise,” the professor said, “but I do wish you would avoid jumping to conclusions for a while so we professional researchers can do our jobs.”
“Yes, Professor. Jumping to conclusions is off my workout schedule for at least a week,” Kris said, and gave the professor a small grin.
“All hands, this is the captain speaking. The Wasp is now in a steady mooring with the Royal. Resume all normal duties under one gee. Cookie, I expect a decent lunch now that I’ve given you and your cooks two hours to work on it. Captain out.”
Kris released her seat belt. Jack did the same and stood. The belts vanished into the chairs, no doubt to reappear as hull armor.
“My Marines are looking forward to some serious dirt-time scouting out that place. We’ve scheduled a ten-mile hike around the ship in thirty minutes. Admiral, my wife, would you care to join us?”
“Are you suggesting I need the exercise, General, my husband?”
“I’m suggesting that you think better when you’re on your feet, Admiral.”
“I think you just like to see me in gym shorts.”
“This isn’t a run, my dear. The uniform for the hike is battle rattle and fifty-pound rucksack.”
“Well, then, I definitely have to join you. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe this meeting is adjourned.”
As the others left, Kris and Jack headed for the drop bay. She might be an admiral now, but the Wasp still had full battle gear stored in her locker.
12
Kris found herself doing a lot more than thinking during her ten-mile hike. Professor Labao dropped a hot potato in Kris’s lap before she’d gotten her first mile in.
“I should have brought this up during our earlier meeting,” he said on Kris’s commlink as she lugged her armor and fifty-pound load up a ship ladder, “but how much noise are we willing to make for the natives to hear?”
“Noise?” Kris asked.
“To drop probes that hunt for plagues, viruses, and allergens, we need to send the shuttles down. Shuttles make sonic booms. Do you think the natives will notice loud noises coming from a clear sky and give us attention we don’t want?”
Jack eyed Kris. Since Labao was using his computer to talk, all of this was going to Nelly’s kids. Jack was following the new question along with his own computer, Sal.
“Do you think longboat pilots would mind doing their entry and shoving off back for space around a thunderstorm?” the scientist asked.
“Not too close to one. How about we do it at night, when it’s harder to notice,” Kris said.
“Of course,” he agreed.
“Once we have a better idea of what biological hazards we’re up against, we can decide where to set up bases for our extended surveys.”
Kris managed to finish the rest of her hike in peace. What she didn’t get was a better perspective on the puzzling planet below.
It didn’t get easier.
“Kris, we’ve identified an anomaly,” Nelly said over breakfast the second day. “We know that some sections of the great glass plain were lased enough to get the glazing effect.”
“As well as the atomics,” Kris said.
“And we have the impact craters, all apparently timed to the same event.”
“Yes, Nelly.”
“Well, we’ve found what looks like another site that was lased. However, it doesn’t match the other event, and there may be some structures outside the immediate attack zone still standing.”
“A hundred thousand years later!” Kris said.
“We’re not sure it dates from that attack, but we can’t be sure until we gather samples.”
“And we are not gathering samples from the ground yet. Right, Nelly?”
“Yes, Kris, the ground survey is waiting for the biological-hazard survey to finish.”
“And you want me to ask Professor Labao to make a sample-retrieval mission to your anomaly a priority,” Kris said, starting to grin as she gained understanding of the real problem.