Ancestor's World

by T. Jackson King

  pulled his own slate from his neck and sat on his haunches while checking the readouts.

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  Greyshine's ears swiveled in the Simiu's direction. "Khuharkk', where's the robot flyer? Is the radar probe ready?"

  Accustomed to the professor's constant worry over every detail, Khuharkk'

  replied, "The flyer is involved with a plant inventory transect for Doctor Ttalatha along the upriver canyon rims. She requested its use today so she could build a present-day baseline for her paleoenvironmental studies."

  The Heeyoon stopped recording the gate arch and lowered his slate. He fixed amber eyes on Khuharkk'. "Well, we'll need it soon. Right now, I'd like that radar probe to run a series of ground transects between here and the Red Causeway."

  "Yes, Professor." Khuharkk's job, as Camp Technologist, was to maintain all the analytical equipment needed for their work. Adjusting the software of the ground- penetrating radar probe required continuous input, which was why he spent half of each day following the chairman of his senior pair project.

  As the professor moved on, Khuharkk' followed him through the open sandy area lying between the city's high stone walls and Outlier Building A-Six.

  Greyshine stopped just as they reached the western comer of the city wall and pointed toward the half-mined causeway that led up from the River Gate.

  "There! Set the radar probe to run linear transects between here and the near wall of the Red Causeway," Greyshine said. "I want to see if, as with ancient Egypt, the Na-Dina buried any Royal Barges next to the causeway's wharf."

  Khuharkk' doubted that, but loaded the required parameters into the radar probe and watched it float off to begin its run. "It's started, Professor. When it's done, I'll dump the subground images into--"

  "My slate!" Greyshine barked sharply, then lowered his long ears as if realizing how peremptory he'd been lately. "I'm sorry, my friend. I didn't mean to be so abrupt. It's just--the job here is daunting! The lake will flood this rain 136

  in only three years. We need the resources of six universities!"

  Yes, the Royal Tomb would be flooded in three years, Khuharkk' thought glumly. It felt more like a scant three weeks.

  Greyshine lowered his slate from its recording of the River Gate's two pylons. "The earthfill dam will be completed in one year," he grumbled, almost to himself. "The diversion lake already there will start to back up and begin filling the five hundred and sixty kilometers of river canyon lying between us." The Heeyoon sighed wearily. "So many other ruins will be flooded long before this one. Flooded and lost forever."

  Khuharkk's heart sank at the bitter reminder.

  Greyshine nodded, still speaking more to himself than to his assistant.

  "According to Doctor Gordon, there are thirty-four temple cities, three island ossuaries, and at least two hundred forty farming villages lying downstream of the dam site, between it and the capital, Spirit. They're currently populated and will not be flooded. But how many temple cities, burial caves, tunnel-tombs, and abandoned farm villages do you think the Na-Dina accumulated from the dam site up to here, to the City of White Stone?" Khuharkk' looked away, feeling Greyshine's frustration keenly. "I have no idea."

  "Neither do I," Greyshine remarked, his tone almost affable. "Nor do the modem Na-Dina, despite the valiant efforts of the Temple of Records historians. The population centers have moved, over the millennia, farther and farther downriver." The Heeyoon waved across the wide valley, toward the Great Ramp that rose toward the canyon rim and the mouth of the Royal Road. "The upper reaches of the River of Life, and from the First Cataract to the Fifth Cataract, have been unpopulated for over a thousand years. We have so much to learn and so little time to learn it in." The Simiu struggled for optimism. "At least with the robot flyer we can--"

  "We can reduce the workload of fifty years to a decade or so," the Heeyoon interrupted. "Thanks to the equipment

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  donated by the Mizari Archaeological Society that Ambassador Burroughs brought in."

  Khuharkk' watched the radar probe complete its third subground sounding transect. "But we don't have a decade, Professor. We only have three years."

  "I know," the Heeyoon grumbled. "We'll make do with what we have. If the Revered Ancestors are willing, I will, by the time of the weekly research conference, present Doctor Mitchell with a preliminary inventory of all sites recordable from aerial surveying. That should give us a rough inventory of sites, all the way from simple hunter-gatherer camps of twenty thousand years ago, to modern-day salt evaporation ponds."

  Khuharkk' looked upcanyon. "By means of the robot flyer?"

  "Yes."

  He began to appreciate his own critical role of Technologist in this giant, multidisciplinary effort. Without his labor-saving and remote-sensing equipment, they had no hope of even completing the aerial inventory, let alone doing major excavations at more than this single ruin.

  The Heeyoon moved away, heading toward the slanting ramp of the Causeway. "So, let us do what we can in the time we have. I need to make a graphical record of the North Gate, measure the relationship of the northerly out- liner buildings C-Four, C-Five, and C-Six to the city's north wall proper, and have your robot flyer do an ultraviolet scan of the entire valley floor around the city. All before nightfall."

  Once more, the Simiu followed the Heeyoon, while checking his own slate to confirm that the rest of the remote-sensing equipment either stored at the Lab, or out on field assignment, was still in prime working order. "Professor, do you think we can get more funding from the CLS?"

  "I doubt it." Greyshine slung his slate from his neck and began climbing hand over foot up the tumbled rocks of the causeway scar. "The CLS gave Doctor Mitchell an initial grant last year, when the Traditionalist faction of the 138

  Na-Dina Council of Elders requested assistance in making an

  archaeological survey, inventory, and test excavation of this valley. With the finding of the sarcophagus and the Mizari relics, that assistance was increased tenfold." Greyshine's bushy tail swung rapidly as the elderly archaeologist balanced atop a boulder. "But there are other planets where crops have failed, where natural disasters exceed resources, and they too call for help." The Heeyoon reached the top of the Red Causeway and paused, breathing deeply.

  Khuharkk' followed, moving rapidly over the rocky core of the Causeway.

  Reaching the top, he joined the Professor. "Is there any chance the Na-Dina Council of Elders might delay completion of the dam?"

  Greyshine laughed harshly. "Unlikely. The Modernist faction of the Council is already worried that finding the Royal Tomb will be a hindrance to their industrialization plans. Nordlund follows a tight timeline. Archaeologists must fit into the narrow crevice between alien wishes and commercial plans."

  Khuharkk' told himself that they were doing the best they could, but it did no good. During his next guard watch, he knew full well the night would be crowded with images of long-dead cities being drowned under muddy water.

  And there was nothing he could do to prevent the loss to the ages.

  That same night, Etsane took her first turn at guard watch. She shared the long midnight stretch with Khuharkk', who also walked back and forth along the canyon rim overlooking Base Camp, the Landing Field and, in the downstream distance, the City of White Stone. The City glowed in the bright light of Mother's Daughter, newly risen over the southern horizon. That glowing ball, twice the size of Earth's Moon, was an odd contrast to the ruddy glow of erupting volcanoes that fringed the southeastern part of the horizon where the Mountains of Faith rose like a hel ish wal .

  Thanks to the elevation of the canyon rim, Etsane could

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  see the gleaming surface of the River of Life as it snaked easterly through the enclosing horseshoe of the mountains. The side canyons were deep here, back-cut long ago by the river. While there were places where arable bottomland had formed in a dead arm of the river, high canyon walls contained the waters unti
l after the First Cataract, where the land opened out into a wide valley. At that point the river turned north and continued flowing through densely populated farmlands until it reached the delta, where it fingered out into a dozen rivulets that emptied into the Northern Sea.

  Etsane sighed. Imagining what she could not see might interfere with what she must watch for. Lowering the scanner eyeshade, she blinked, adjusting her eyes to the pale green of the nightscope. Then she fingered the com unit clipped to her waist and spoke into a collar pickup. "Scanner check, Khuharkk'. You show clear? No predators? No smugglers?"

  "I show clear," he said in a growly voice. "Scanner shows no other life-forms.

  Out."

  She double-tapped the com unit control pad. "Out." The silence of the night puzzled her. Etsane turned and walked downriver along the canyon rim, away from Khuharkk', who would now turn and walk upriver. In the highlands of her homeland, she'd always heard the rasp of crickets, the rustle of marmots, and the howl of a rare lion. After centuries of deforestation in the ancient mountain uplands that overlooked the Horn of Africa, her land had mostly recovered from the Great Devastation of three centuries before. There were half as many people in Africa as when man had first walked on the Moon, but at least now they no longer died from malaria, AIDS, Ebola Fever, famine, and the other catastrophes that had once accompanied the war, poverty, neglect, and greed of those centuries.

  Dismissing the past, Etsane listened intently. Where were the local equivalents of those night animals?

  The Ethiopian woman blinked the eyeshade nightscope off starlight magnification, blinked over to infrared, and searched for the body-heat signatures of small creatures. Turning away from the valley bottom--where the cluster

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  of dome-tents glowed pale red and the metal Lab building lying at the ring's center glowed dark crimson--she scanned the ground lying to the east.

  Like a wrinkled apron, it rose up to meet one arm of the Mountains of Faith, while in the south a similar rise turned into foothills, then high peaks. A high mountain lake lay in that direction, as did a rocky pass that connected with the southern hemisphere of Ancestor's World.

  Suddenly something small, red, and swift moved across Etsane's field of vision.

  Walking toward it, Etsane wondered if it were reptilian, insectivore, or something else. Most of the reptilian life here seemed immune to the ultrasonics of the repulsors. Furtively, she reached behind to the small of her back, and felt the outline of the pulse gun Dr. Mitchell had insisted she wear.

  Khuharkk' knew she'd have her sling, but he didn't know she had the high-powered pulse gun, while he, of course, was weaponless--if a mature Simiu could ever be said to be weaponless, naturally armed as they were with formidable teeth and claws.

  She knew most Simiu abhorred the human tendency to find the answers to difficult questions in weapon-fire, and Etsane cared for Khuharkk' enough to respect that. However, guard watch was dangerous; that's why they maintained it so rigorously. The smugglers were armed and wouldn't hesitate to kill. And while most of the large predators were rarely encountered, they maintained the watch because they could not risk an unexpected attack. The pulse gun was a last resort. Khuharkk' did not even know she had it. If the watch was quiet, he would never need to.

  By the time she drew near enough to identify the small, rustling animal, its little red tail had already disappeared. Swinging her head from side to side, Etsane searched for other life signs. Then she stopped. She listened hard, straining for every vibration. The smugglers could move silently, she knew. A chill ran up her spine. Was something there, or were her nerves finally failing?

  Then she saw it. Looming as large as a Terran Siberian tiger, one of the massive beasts they called the long-necks

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  moved gracefully along the rolling rise of land that lay to the south of her, perhaps a kilometer away. As she watched in silence, not even daring to breathe, the creature stopped. The breeze shifted, swirling around Etsane and carrying her scent downwind. She swallowed. She was alien to this world. Surely, the leggy, powerful predator would have no interest in her foreign scent and would go its own way. The huge, indistinct red image of the warm-blooded reptile shifted position, its angular, carnivore's head moving from side to side as if tasting the air. Tasting her scent.

  As if it suddenly spied her, it turned its entire body to face Etsane's much smaller one across the expanse of ridge. She froze, praying that it needed motion to detect her actual presence. Her hand crept to her com unit slowly.

  The massive animal reared back on its hind legs, its head swiveling. It will go its own way now, Etsane willed it. Then it dropped to all fours and moved purposefully toward her.

  "Khuharkk'!" Cursing, she slapped the com unit control pad on. "Khuharkk'!

  Predator alert! A long-neck's coming for me, fast. Range--" Her voice cracked as she read off the integers glowing at the top of her eyeshade.

  "Range is one thousand meters and closing. Estimated speed, thirty klicks an hour. Mass, about two hundred kil os."

  "Etsane!" The alarm was clear in his voice. "Retreat! Something that large will not be deterred by the repulsors."

  "I know!" Her mouth suddenly dry, Etsane felt the weapon-belt at her waist.

  Repulsor ward on the left, her sling with bag of rocks on the right. Her hunting kni fe was strapped to her thigh. And, strapped to the small of her back, was the pulse-gun that astamari Mitchell had insisted she carry. Out of respect for Khuharkk', she had worn it concealed beneath her loose blouse.

  Etsane felt the impulse to draw it and shoot the beast down. But then she envisioned Khuharkk's disgust if she resorted to a weapon, and suddenly it seemed as severe and unforgiving as her father's. Surely she didn't have to kill the creature with a weapon!

  The Simiu had told her to retreat. That made sense. But when she forced herself to turn away from the vision of the

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  advancing predator to get her bearings, she found that behind her, the canyon rim dropped off in a vertical fall of more than fifty meters. She did not trust herself to find the place where a rockfall had piled up in a makeshift ramp. Retreat suddenly seemed far more dangerous that the approaching animal.

  "Khuharkk'! There isn't enough room. I'm backed against the canyon rim!"

  "I'm almost there!"

  Self-consciously she touched the pulse-gun, then pulled her hand away.

  How angry would he be? He'd despise her for violating his taboo. Etsane glanced upcanyon. The Simiu's bright scarlet form sped along at an amazing pace, as he ran on all fours. Looking from one glowing image to the other, she realized with sick certainty that the night creature would reach her first.

  What would her father tell her to do?

  "Remember the leopard/" a voice whispered.

  Yes! Shaken from her paralyzed stance, Etsane pulled her sling out, felt in her bag for a large piece of hard quartz, loaded it into the sling, then put two more thumb-sized rocks in her mouth, where they would be ready for reloading. It was a weapon, and with luck a hard shot to the head would drive the creature away, sparing its life--and hers.

  The night of the smuggler raid, Khuharkk' had not objected to her use of her sling. Stretching her arm out to the right, she made the meter-long projectile weapon whistle in the night air. Then, in one fluid motion, Etsane let loose one string while snapping forward with all the strength she had.

  The predator howled and spun around as the stone hit its mark hard.

  Now it would flee, and they would be safe! Her exhilaration lasted only seconds--almost immediately, the now- furious animal gathered itself and broke into a fast lope.

  She did not stop to think about the danger an injured creature posed. Quickly she spit out the second rock, slung it, and tossed. Before it could hit its target she had reloaded a third stone, slung it, and then shouted when she struck 143

  her target twice at over a hundred meters distance. The massive animal yowled, but kept on comi
ng.

  "Etsane!" Khuharkk' called, nearly running fall tilt into her.

  "I hit it three times, but it keeps coming!" she said, in frustrated disbelief.

  "I can see it in the moonlight! It's too big to be brought down by stones. We must retreat now!"

  Her feet felt rooted onto the ridge. It was irrational, she knew, but she was convinced that if they turned their backs now, the beast would be on them before they could make it over the canyon rim.

  Use the pulse-gun, her inner voice warned. Glancing at Khuharkk"nearness, she could not make herself do it. She was so mixed up with fear, adrenaline, and the need to react she didn't know what to do.

  "Try the repulsor ward," Khuharkk' barked, to her amazement. "It will not affect the animal, but you can disorient it by firing at the ground in front of it."

  Yes! the woman thought, pulling out the ward. She twisted the power knob to

  "full" and fired at the ground in front of the rapidly closing creature.

  Blue light flared, blinding her. She cursed silently, realizing their night vision was now compromised. Blinking to clear her eyes, she strained to hear the running scrabble of the clawed beast.

  Etsane heard it. Still advancing. She fired at the ground again and again, trying to create a safe fire-zone around them, hoping the animal would get tired of having stones and dust hurled at its face. Dimly she could see it evading the blasts, dodging around them. The ward slowed it, but did not stop its steady approach.

  She felt Khuharkk's warm palm press against her arm. "I have already called for help," the Simiu's rumbling voice told her. "I can only hope to slow its advance until they arrive. You must find your way down the slope while I fight it."

  While he fights it? Without even thinking, she grabbed a

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  handful of his mane in her fist. "You can't fight that thing, Khuharkk'! You'll be killed!"

  And in the eerie glow of her augmented night vision, she saw the odd burgundy gleam of his eyes as they stared at her, saying so much clearly than his words ever could--I am a Simiu. My death will be rich with Honor, for I will have saved my friend. Then he turned without looking back, and launched himself toward the enraged, wounded reptile.