… Ah, yes, sorry about that, Commander.” Anstel subsided, his gaunt face losing its animation as he folded his long body into a chair.
“If your duties permit, Captain Anstel, I’m sure that Trizein would enjoy exchanging information with you,” Kai said.
“I should like nothing better. It has always amazed me how much fascination those prehistoric creatures have for us, who are such insubstantial creatures in the scale of time.”
Deciding that business must be done, Sassinak took charge of the conversation. “Kai, what do you make of this latest development?”
“Can Thek be worried?” Kai asked, glancing around.
“Is that your interpretation of thunder rumbling under-foot?”
Sassinak grinned. “As is only proper for an ephemeral, I have great respect and admiration for our silicon allies. But such a—” she paused to find the appropriate word, “convocation on an otherwise undistinguished world must surely be unique. That must suggest interest of a high degree. Mountainous, I might say.”
“And who is cast as Mohammed?” the irrepressible Fordeliton asked quietly.
Kai suppressed another laugh and noticed Sassiness’ brief acknowledgment of her adjutant’s wit.
“I don’t really see our pirates cast in such an auspicious role, Ford. Nor have I yet seen anything that spectacular about this noxious planet of yours, Kai. Was that the same core which brought Tor to your rescue, Kai?” When he nodded, she continued, “And all those little Thek concentrated on gobbling up the remaining old cores—when they weren’t frying fringes. Kai, it appears to me that your revival, and the providential arrival of the Zaid-Dayan in pursuit of the heavyworlder transport are incidental to a vastly more important problem. Therefore, since the records of both your EV and my Sector Headquarters list Ireta as unexplored, and yet Thek artifacts have unquestionably been 131
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors discovered here, I will venture the perhaps bizarre opinion that there may have been a missing link in the famous Thek chain of information. And it broke here on Ireta. Do you agree?”
A grin might not be the diplomatic response to Sassiness’ astute opinion, but with Fordeliton’s irreverent analogy still tingeing his once dutiful respect, Kai found it possible to entertain the possibility of Thek fallibility. If the Thek were the Bear entities of the old folk tale, who was the parallel for … ah, yes, Goldilocks? Surely not the pirates who were finding the planet far too hot for them. Suddenly the analogy lost its appeal. Kai was not at all certain that he wanted the Thek to lose their reputation for infallibility.
“The old core was definitely of Thek manufacture,” he finally admitted. “And unquestionably it has generated Thek interest. But I can’t see why it or this planet should evoke such an unprecedented response.”
“No more than can I,” Sassinak admitted, picking up her wand and playing it through her fingers.
“I scanned your initial reports again …” She shrugged. “Ireta is rich in transuranics, some of the exotic earth’s and metals, but …” Or perhaps, the Thek must establish to their own satisfaction why this planet is so miscatalogued. And I confess, I’m probably as curious as they are to know how such a break occurred. None of us wishes to cast aspersions on the infallibility of the Thek. No one likes his anchors to come adrift.” She smiled at Kai as if she fully appreciated and shared his ambivalence.
“When our screen first showed the ghost cores, they went as far as the area of basement rock. No farther,” Kai said tentatively.
“Which would suggest that the cores were planted—” Anstel paused, stunned by the immensity of the elapsed time.
“Many million years ago,” Kai finished for him, “considering the geological activity of this planet.”
“And the Thek have rendered all of the old cores completely denying us the chance to date the artifacts,” Anstel said, his eyes flashing with indignation. Then he fixed Kai with a hopeful stare.
“You didn’t by any chance? …”
“No, we didn’t have any dating equipment, since our mission was supposed to be the first.”
“Eons ago the Thek cored this planet?” Sassinak asked.
“If not the Thek then some other—”
“Not the Others again!” Sassinak humorously negated that possibility. “I don’t wish to lose god and nemesis in the same day.”