• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Boss, what about the gaps in the old cores, here, here and here?” Triv asked, pointing out the areas southwest and due south.

“Faults,” said Gaber, slipping a scale transparency over the seismic map. “I read a massive overthrust here. Good area to search now but any seismimic would have been crushed. Or subsided too far below the surface to transmit.”

“Triv, you and Aulia explore that overthrust today. Margit and Dimenon, your sector is here,” and he gave them the coordinates in the southwest, and to Berru and Portegin, explaining that he and Bakkun would try to explore the Rift Valley since there were old cores leading up to it. He stressed that they maintain safety procedures, tag or telltale animals when possible, and note and report any scavengers circling over what could be injured livestock specimens for Varian.

As Kai and Bakkun lifted in their sled, Kai saw Varian on her way down to the corral. He saw the herbivore, Mabel, busily eating her way through what trees remained in the enclosure.

Bakkun, who preferred to pilot, brought the sled on its southeast heading.

“Why didn’t our Theks know this planet’d been cored?” the heavy-worlder asked.

“I haven’t asked our Theks if they know. But Ireta was not marked as surveyed.”

“Theks have their reasons.”

“Such as?”

“I do not presume to guess,” replied Bakkun, “but they always have good reasons.”

Kai liked Bakkun as a teammate; he was inexhaustible, cool-headed like all his race, thorough and dependable. But he had no imagination, no flexibility and once convinced of anything, refused to change his opinion in the face of the most telling facts. Theks were, to him as to many of the short-spanned species, infallible and godlike. Kai did not wish, however, to enter into any argument with Bakkun, particularly on such a heresy as Thek fallibility proven in the existence of seismic cores on this planet.

Fortunately the telltale bleeped. Bakkun automatically corrected course and Kai watched the remote-distance screen attentively. This time they found more herbivores running away from the sled’s whine through the thick rain forest, occasionally caroming off trees so hard the top branches shuddered wildly.

“Come round again, Bakkun,” Kai asked and flipped up the tape switch, hanging in against his seat strap as Bakkun acted promptly to his order. He swore under his breath because none of the creatures crossed any of the clearings, al- most as if they expected an aerial attack and were crowding under whatever cover they could find.

“Never mind, Bakkun. Continue on course. I thought I saw another flank-damaged beast.”

“We see them daily, Kai.”

“Why didn’t you mention that in your reports?”

“Didn’t know it was important, Kai. Too much else to mention bearing on our job . . .”

“This is a joint effort . . .”

“Agreed, but I must know how to contribute. I didn’t know the mere ecological balances were essential knowledge, too.”

“My omission. But you would do well to report any unusual occurrence.”

“It is my impression, Kai, that there is nothing usual about Ireta. I have been a geologist for many standard years now and I have never encountered a planet constantly in a Mesozoic age and unlikely to evolve beyond that stage.” Bakkun gave Kai a sideways glance, sly and mysterious. “Who would expect to find old cores registering on such a planet?”

“Expect the unexpected! That’s the unofficial motto of our profession, isn’t it?”

The sun, having briefly appeared in the early morning to oversee the beginnings of day, now retired behind clouds. A local ground fog made flying momentarily difficult as conversation was discontinued. Kai busied himself with the seismic overlay, checking the old cores, which faintly glowed on the screen in response to his signal.

The cores advanced beyond the line of flight, right down into the Rift Valley, subsiding with the floor which composed the wide plateau. They were entering the valley now and Bakkun needed all his attention on his flying as the thermals caught the light sled and bounced it around.