“Though the, the revelation here—”
They had finished coffee; she had declined to share brandy with him. “Tell you what,” he said, “if you want, we can go out. I’ll give you the guided tour.”
She accepted eagerly. Aglow, his tongue still clattering, he nonetheless walked as steadily as her. Karel accompanied them to the gorge, but not on the scramble down its steep, rocky side. The boat could scarcely hold him together with the humans. He turned back. He and Dzesi, eating their separate rations, had apparently become interested in fathoming one another’s personalities.
The boat slipped forth onto the water. Clouds westward loomed ever higher and darker. The wind had strengthened. “A storm seems to be brewing at sea,” Lissa remarked. “Do you think it’ll come this far inland?”
“I’d guess not,” Hebo replied. “Though by now, don’t your people, with all their instruments and observations, know the weather patterns pretty well? Dzesi and I haven’t been here but a short while, and have hardly gotten around at all.”
“Coming straight down, with scarcely any study from orbit first—wasn’t that a little—reckless?”
He shrugged. “Life’s a crapshoot, however you play it.”
Some of his words and phrases were strange to her; she had to take their meaning from context. Archaic, she supposed. Well, in many ways he was archaic himself.
The boat arrived. He made fast and offered a hand to help her up the metal flank. She didn’t need it, but enjoyed the contact. [30] Mainly, her attention was underfoot, on intricate low-relief patterns that possibly bore—circuits, receptors, transmitters, receivers—?
They halted on top and stood mute. The wind tossed her hair and ruffled the stream. The sun glowed dull and huge. Creatures leaped briefly out of the water or winged in noisy hordes.
She looked to and fro, the length and breadth of the mystery. Awe nearly overwhelmed her. “What is it?”
He chuckled. “Wouldn’t Dzesi and I like to know?”
“You must have learned something.”
“Of course. I think.”
Eagerness throbbed. “What?”
He shook his head. “Uh-uh. The idea is to sell information, not give it away. We haven’t got any institution supporting us, nor professional prestige to gain by publishing.”
She had been turning that question over at the back of her mind. “I can’t promise anything,” she said slowly, “but I can do my best—and I know some influential people who’d probably agree—I can try to arrange that you be rewarded for what you’ve done.”
He beamed. “Hey, that’s really sweet of you.” He moved in on her.
She retreated a step, pretending she did it casually. “Only fair. The discovery is a tremendous contribution. And whatever you’ve learned is that much work already done.” Keep this practical, impersonal. “However, I’ll have to know what to tell those people.”
“Quite the little bargainer, aren’t you?” he said, more amicably than she liked. “Well, reasonable. But I’ve got to dicker too. I’ll give you a quick and dirty outline if you want, and keep our exact facts and figures under the table till later.”
She smiled. “Besides, this is hardly the place for a scientific lecture.” Nor are you in shape to give one, she judged.
“No,” he agreed. “We can talk comfortably over a drink, the two of us.”
[31] “Our partners deserve to be there,” she answered warily. Divert him. “Could you give me some slight notion of, of what to expect?”
“A sketch of that outline? Why not?” He gestured grandiosely. “This is doubtless a self-growing, self-renewing device. Same principle as we often use, but way superior. Nothing we can make could maintain homeostasis anywhere near as long as this has. Well, of course the plan, the chemistry, everything’s entirely unlike our stuff.” His words gathered momentum. “We’ve traced its configuration electronically, sonically— Hm, am I a poet? Anyhow, it sits on the river bottom, but extends deep roots to anchor itself and extract the minerals it needs to repair the, uh, ravages of water and weather and radiation and what-all else. Deep. Clear through bedrock, way into lower strata. Dzesi and I think it is, or was, an observatory, taking data on everything that comes in range, geology, atmosphere, life, everything, maybe down to the molecular level.”