“Did any address you?”
The steward’s mouth dropped in amazement. “Address me?” he cocked his thumb and jabbed it against his chest. “Me? I told ’em to locate the cruiser,” and he paused to wink broadly, “cause I know they can find anything anywhere.”
Kai and Fordeliton exchanged amused glances.
“They found you.” He exhaled a hissing breath. “Never seen anything like it, though, all those Thek,” and he planed their angle of arrival with his left hand, “just flowing in—if silicon triangles can flow—just sort of gliding in and never losing their formation, just all of a sudden down on the ground.”
“Thek can be impressive,” Fordeliton agreed urbanely and then gestured for the men to board the pinnace.
“Governor, we left some dinner on the hob like. Had some time to kill,” the older steward said, and the younger one began to grin, well pleased with himself. “I like messing with real food stuffs.
Only this time, someone else gets the kp.”
Kai nodded, grinning. “That’s fair enough. Believe me, your efforts will be much appreciated by everyone.”
“Least we could do, you guys having had such a rough time and all.”
As the pinnace took off with a high-speed whush, the globe’s glow caught his eye, brightening momentarily before regaining its regular coloration. Then the silence in the amphitheater was broken only by the faint hiss of the forcescreen as it disintegrated insects, a comforting noise. Kai took in a deep breath, inordinately relieved to be alone, to have a few hours before the others trooped back in. He strolled over to the mess hall, sniffing at the odor of simmering stew.
He realized suddenly that he had never had the chance to delve into the Zaid-Dayan’s memory banks, to check whether there had been any similar mass movements of Thek. Not that his original question held any pertinence in view of the day’s development. Surely the presence of—and Kai grinned—the Great-Big Bears was exceptional. He’d swap a few drinks on that account himself when he got back to the ARCT-10. Kai inhaled sharply. “When,” he’d said. Another matter he’d forgotten to ascertain, though surely Sassinak would have mentioned any communication about the ARCT-10! Better to assimilate the day’s startling events than deal with … with unknowns.
So, the Thek had been here and no living Thek had retained a record of the event, despite the much praised memory of the species. Kai knew that when each new Thek was created—and some wits insisted that propagation occurred when two Thek bumped into each other with sufficient force to chip off fragments—it immediately acquired the race memory as well as the working memories of every Thek in its direct line. No reliable figures about the exact numbers of Thek were available.
Once again, the humorists’ theories filled a vacuum. They maintained that old Thek never died, they became planets.
138
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors A sudden thought, more fanciful than Fordeliton’s, erupted into Kai’s mind: could Ireta, itself, be a Thek? The notion had a certain appeal, if no plausible scientific basis. But was it possible that somewhere in the areas his team had not yet penetrated, there was a Thek mountain? Kai ran from the mess hall, and then, because his curiosity was intense, he increased speed, pelting up the slope, mindful though, not to catch his shoulder on the iris as he entered the shuttle. He did bang his hip against the narrower door into the pilot’s compartment. Then he tapped out the file designation of the probe survey maps, hoping that time or some unforeseen wipe had not yanked those records from the shuttle’s memory banks.
To his relief, his request was implemented and the screen showed the probe’s journey as the vehicle zoomed in on the planet. As usual, clouds covered most of Ireta’s face but the probe’s filters very quickly produced a clear view of the nearing planet. All right, now, what does an ancient Thek resemble? A pyramidal form might be the most common, but was it the most enduring, the most effective long-term configuration? Surely a silicon mountain would be unusual enough for a probe to register? Catching his underlip on his upper teeth, Kai watched as the probe changed orbit to overfly a new portion of the planet’s main continent. Unless—Kai tapped for a magnification of the island chains but the shattered formations were almost uniformly, and easily identified as, volcanic atolls. Theks had great patience and never “blew their stacks.”