Delta Pavonis (12 page)

"That's quite a slate of experiments," the reporter commented.

"They'll keep us busy today."

The reporter looked stunned. "Today! Most scientists would spend months on any one of these experiments. You plan to carry them all out at once?"

"I expect to die sometime in this century," she said. "Before that happens, I want to find out about this thing. Now, if there are no further questions, let's be about it." Without waiting to see if there were any further questions, she returned to the cave, followed by the technicians and robots.

"She sure doesn't mess around once she gets started," Govinda said admiringly.

"She does things in a big way," Dierdre agreed. "Who's handling things up at the cold end?"

"Derek Kuroda," Forrest answered. "Survey insists on asserting authority over the project. Sieglinde agreed to pretend they're in charge if they'd make Derek her nominal superior."

"Very slick," Dierdre commented.

Sieglinde's voice came over their comm units. "Start bringing them in, in the order I gave you."

One at a time, the animals were carried to the cave entrance. Without exception, the animals of planetary origin refused to go in. None could be enticed to enter, and those carried into the entrance reacted with utter panic, even the usually phlegmatic reptiles.

"Okay," said Forrest after the last of the planetary creatures had been tried, "they won't go in. Take them back to the lab and let them calm down. We'll try the animals from the orbitals now. Jamail, try a cat."

Dierdre took a fat feline from a cage and carried it to the cave entrance. The cat was striped light and dark orange and seemed happy to be free of the cage. After a few days of depression, it had grown resigned to full gravity. Gingerly, wary of its claws, Dierdre set the cat down and went inside. She crouched on one knee and held out a hand.

"Come on, Tiger, come on in." Unhesitantly, the cat walked in and rubbed its face against her hand, purring. She looked up, grinning. "It's looking like chemistry, after all."

None of the offworld Earth animals seemed uneasy in the cave. All went smoothly until Ping picked up a rabbit and tried to bring it inside. As he stepped into the threshold of the cave, he ran into something, rebounded from it, and collapsed on his back with blood running from his nose. The rabbit scampered off with Colin and Okamura in pursuit.

Fumiyo pronounced Ping sound but stunned. "What hit me?" he asked when he came to a minute later.

"Looked like you ran into an invisible wall," Forrest said. "Let's get a look at the holos."

Sieglinde came out as soon as they reported the incident. She said nothing as the holo was run several times, showing the event from different angles. Ping had walked into something as solid as steel but completely undetectable. She pointed to the time readout that flashed independently of the holographic image.

"Just what I thought. It happened when we were sending one of the robots through. The cave seals solid during transmission."

Dierdre thought of all the times she had walked over the threshold. "But what if somebody'd been standing right in the doorway when you did that? They might've been cut in two!"

"Find out," Sieglinde said. "Put something in the doorway next time we send a robot through." She returned to the cave.

At her next signal, they put an empty cage in the entrance. At the moment of transportation there was no sound or visual display, but the cage was firmly shoved out.

"The barrier seems to be elastic in nature," Fumiyo said.

"Or else very selective," Forrest amended. "Let's try an animal next. Jamail, try your cat again. Get him to flop down across the threshold. He doesn't look like he needs much encouragement to take it easy."

"Sorry, Tiger," she said to the cat. "It looks like you're going to suffer for science." She didn't think it likely that the cat would be harmed. Whatever other qualities the aliens had, they didn't seem inclined to cause wanton injury. She set the cat down and scratched beneath its chin. It lay down on one side and stretched, purring. A few moments later it was scooted out, jumping to its feet, spitting with indignation.

In late afternoon Sieglinde came out. "Secure the animals and let's go to the lab. Derek will start sending his robots through the other transporters in ten minutes."

In the lab, Sieglinde took her chair. The rest stood. A few moments later, Derek was among them. The image was incredibly realistic, but lifetimes of experience allowed them to pick up on the minute discrepancies that told them this was a holographic image.

"They've all gone through," Derek said, a little nervously. "Orbital communication should be reporting in a few minutes, if everything goes well.

After a half-minute of silence, an amplified voice boomed through the lab, causing nearly everyone to jump, a result of fatigue and overstressed nerves.

"Planetside Transporter Project, this is OrbitCom. We have your No. 1 robot triangulated. It's smack in the middle of North Continent, western hemisphere. Here's the image." A holographic scan appeared on one of the lab walls. It showed a cave like the two they had seen already. At least two more transporters were visible. Everyone cheered.

"Here comes No. 2," the voice continued, "South Continent, western hemisphere, just below the equator." This time the reaction was more subdued, as the caves were beginning to get familiar. This one showed one other transporter.

"Nothing at all from No. 3," said OrbitCom. "Here's No. 4. Not much of an image, for the excellent reason that it's under water, off the shore of the big inland sea."

"Now aren't you glad you didn't try those other transporters?" Sieglinde said.

"Still nothing from Three, Five or Six," OrbitCom said. "Hold it, we're getting something from Five, but real weak. Damn! No wonder! It's right under the North Polar icecap, about a hundred-fifty meters down in the ice. We're gonna need to do some enhancement on this signal before we can construct a decent holo. Be patient. They've all been signaled to stay where they are."

The lab buzzed with conversation for the next five minutes. All talk ceased when OrbitCom broke in once more. "We've spotted Three! No wonder we missed its signal, it's on the big moon!" This time the lab erupted in pandemonium, with much hopping and backslapping.

"It transports across space!" Sieglinde said, bouncing in her chair like a little girl. Almost instantly, she restored her usual, impassive demeanor. Moments later, there was a commotion in Derek's lab in the ice age transporter cave. Sieglinde tapped her console and suddenly they all seemed to be standing in the other lab, surrounded by a total-environment holo image. A group of technicians were clustered around one of the transporter terminals.

"Six's back!" one called. Then: "Ow! It's cold!" They could see the spindly robot now. It was frosted with white crystals.

"Check the instruments," Derek said. "I want to know why we didn't get a signal."

"Maybe it went to the south pole," Dierdre said. "Too far under the ice for the signal to make it out."

"I get minus 250 Celsius," called a technician. "That's colder than planetary ice should get. It's also bollixed up our instruments. Most of them aren't designed for cold like that. We're not gonna get any usable holos off this one."

"Derek," Sieglinde said, "arrange for some cold-shielded instruments to be sent down and send them through tomorrow."

"Right."

"And don't give up yet. These transmitters are subluminal. We may hear something yet."

"We've got an image from Five now," said OrbitCom. Derek's lab faded and they had a one-wall view of what robot Five was looking at. The view panned continuously from left to right and back again as the robot scanned. It was a huge, cavernous room, featureless except for the discs inset into the walls. Other tunnels and chambers opened off this one at intervals. They viewed for several seconds in speechless astonishment.

"Look at the transporters!" said the reporter in a strangled voice. " Hundreds of them!"

"Sims!" Sieglinde's voice was a whipcrack. "You're an ice miner, aren't you?"

"Right, Doc."

"Take my shuttle and get up to that site. "I'm giving you top priority. Commandeer whatever you need; personnel, vehicles, equipment. Dig down to that place and inform me the instant you've found a way in. Nobody to enter until I get there. Go!"

Sims ran out of the lab. They heard his voice dwindling with distance. "Damn, I just love this!"

Sieglinde rubbed her face and sighed. "Busy day, people, and we're in for another one tomorrow. Let's adjourn and get something to eat." They were about to leave when another transmission came over Sieglinde's priority channel. The man who appeared in holographic image was stocky, blond-haired with ruddy cheeks. He wore explorer's clothes suitable for a temperate climate.

"Dr. Kornfeld, I'm Pavel Minsky, head of Detail Survey Team Odysseus. We're about five hundred klicks south of the ice age transporter site, and about fifteen hundred meters lower altitude. We're on a big peninsula, where the climate's temperate, courtesy of a warm ocean current. Fauna's mostly middle Pleistocene, not quite as spectacular as in the ice age area, but a lot more abundant. Today, my Team Green recorded something you should see."

Sieglinde shrugged off her weariness. "Let's see it, Pavel."

They got a view of a grassy clearing edged by a dense forest. Butterflys and flowers added color to a predominantly green scene. A small herd of deerlike animals with wonderfully baroque antlers wandered across the field of view. Some of them, males apparently, even had small, forked antlers sprouting from their snouts near the nose.

"Fred Turner, Team Green leader," said a voice. "We were recording these curlyhorns early this afternoon when we encountered these other guys. They were so quiet and careful we didn't even notice them at first. Look closely to the right of the clearing, just within the treeline."

It was dark beneath the trees, but they began to make out small forms moving cautiously. There was something faintly disturbing in the way they moved, a careful deliberation that was unlike the manner of the animal life they had seen so far.

"Monkeys?" Sieglinde said. "Apes? I can't quite make them out."

"That's what we thought at first. When we got back to camp we did some enhancement. Look at this."

The point of view abruptly zoomed in and the enhancement program dispelled the darkness beneath the branches, revealing the curious creatures as if in full daylight. There was a collective gasp. They were small, about a meter in height, covered with short, coarse brown hair. The faces were apelike, with low foreheads and protruding, near-chinless jaws. But the bright, black eyes were intelligent. They had no tails and they stood upright. They seemed unafraid, but intensely curious. There were a dozen visible, some of them females with infants.

"Hominids!" Sieglinde said.

"That's what they are. We haven't yet identified them with any of the known fossil types, but we've only been at it a few hours. Probably won't know for sure until we get skeletons or at least teeth to study. We haven't chased them or molested them in any way, just gone about our business. If they want to make contact, fine, but as I understand it there's no rush about this."

Pavel broke in. "I've ordered no more shuttle flights over this area. From now on they land at the coast and haul our supplies in."

"Good work, Pavel," Sieglinde said. "Good work, Team Green. When word of this gets out, you may get unauthorized intruders. Remember, you're the law in your area. Don't hesitate to open fire if anyone tries to molest these creatures."

"Already got guards in place," Pavel said. "They're our find, just like the transporters are Kurz's Team Red's. We're taking a proprietary interest, you might say. Out."

Finally, they retired to eat and talk over the day's events.

"Sooner or later," Forrest insisted, "We've got to find really huge transporters. They got those dinosaurs here somehow."

"Maybe they brought them in as babies and reared them here," Fumiyo pointed out. "Maybe even as eggs or fertilized embryos. They could transport hundreds of thousands that way in a container the size of a backpack. Our ships have potential cattle herds stored away by the millions, along with enough other livestock to populate a planet. We didn't bring them across space fall grown."

"Who can guess how far they developed this wave technology," Dierdre said. "Maybe all they really needed was the data, and the actual transport wasn't necessary." Conversation continued in this vein until Sieglinde rapped on the table.

"So far you're agreeing with each other too much. Try another angle, it might improve your minds. Everybody is going under the assumption that this is a sort of zoo, where the aliens collected specimens of life from all over the galaxy."

"That fits with the evidence. It seems the most likely inference," Forrest said.

"Because we're zoo-building creatures and we assume they behaved like us. Let's look at it another way. Suppose this is a biological lab where new life forms are developed and distributed to other planets, using the transporters."

Dierdre was first to catch the implications. "Including the hominids?"

"Including the hominids."

"Aw, come on, Doc," Ping protested. "Our kind of life originated on Earth. The fossil record's there." Most of the team agreed.

Sieglinde shook her head. "You reject the idea because it's our received wisdom that our life originated on our planet. Once, it was heresy to suggest that there was life anywhere else. When we got here, we knew for sure that there was other organic life. We still don't know how it originates, whether it develops on the individual planets, or gets around through interstellar space somehow. And the Earth fossil record is still full of unexplained holes. This could be an explanation. The aliens seeded Earth with species they'd developed. Those species lived there for hundreds of thousands, even millions of years, long enough to leave plenty of fossils. Then the aliens sent in new species they'd brewed up, maybe even arranged for periodic mass extinctions to make room for the new animals. That would answer a lot of questions, wouldn't it?"