Trevany looked over and made a gesture at the screen. “Not quite. We’re through to Hamil, waiting for him to come back with something. . . . That’s him there, in the suit. You asked the other day what this is all about. I didn’t want to go on then about things that might not be what they seemed. But this is from this morning at Troy. Does it say anything to you?”
Kieran studied the curious mixture of shapes and sizes more closely. The lines defining them couldn’t be natural, he realized. This wasn’t some kind of formation. It had been built. No two of the stones were the same, some having maybe a dozen or more faces, angles, and notches making up their complex polygonal outlines, yet all dovetailing together to form a peculiarly striking jigsaw effect. And they were immense. The stone that Hamil’s hand was resting on stood more than twice his height.
“It’s got Murphy Construction Company written all over it,” Kieran said. “Jeez, they get everywhere.”
“Just north of Cuzco in Peru, there is an ancient citadel called Sacsayhuaman,” Juanita said. “Conventionally, it’s supposed to have been built by the Incas, but a lot of us have never believed that. Some of the blocks weigh hundreds of tons, yet they’re fitted like machine parts. And you see the same thing at another place not far away called Machu Picchu, somehow built at the top of an impossibly inaccessible mountain. Both places use a highly distinctive system of blocks with irregular angles interlocking three-dimensionally; also, a form of reentrant-cut, right-angle block for internal corners. Uncannily similar designs turn up in other places far across the world. A coincidence? Then you find they use the same unusual way of cutting huge gateways out of a single block of rock.” Juanita made a deprecating face. “Maybe the Incas were spread out farther than everyone thought, eh?” She turned to follow Kieran’s gaze, still taking in the screen. “And now, here we have it again. Or something that looks so extraordinarily close, that from an image, at least, I can’t tell the difference.”
It was one of the rare times in his life when Kieran felt truly overwhelmed. If his emotions were a fraction of what this must be producing in the scientists, their powers of self-control were astounding. “What are you saying?” he asked them. His flippancy had vanished. “Does it mean that the Technolithic Culture was alien after all—the way some people have always thought?”
“I’m not saying anything at this point,” Trevany said. “As I told you the other day, I’m not jumping to anything. Premature commitment causes more problems in science than anything I know. But at least, now you have a better idea of what we’re doing.”
At that moment, a window showing Hamil’s face opened on the screen. He was brown-skinned with saggy chins and a wisp of gray beard, but with an easygoing, jovial disposition—at least, from the few times that Kieran had talked to him—that was conveyed principally by large, animated eyes. “No, we don’t have those counts yet,” he said. “I’ll send them through later. . . . Oh, hello, Knight. So what do you think of this? I assume Walter and Juanita have given you the news.”
“Just this moment,” Kieran said. “I don’t think I’ve really had a chance to digest it.”
“It’s big. I promise you, it’s big,” Hamil said. “What do Rudi and the others think?”
“We’re just about to go forward and join them to eat,” Trevany answered. “I was meaning to tell them then. My God, one thing at a time, Hamil! Don’t you ever let up? Is it going to be like this all the time when we get there?”
Hamil grinned unapologetically. “What else is life good for if not to get things done? Don’t you think so, Knight?”
Kieran pursed his lips. “It’s probably the best chance you’re going to get,” he agreed.
“Aha! A natural philosopher too. He’ll fit in well, Walter.”
“Yes, well, before you start getting philosophical, our lunch is waiting,” Trevany said. “I’m sure it’s going to be a lively one.”
“Enjoy your meal. I’ll probably have the figures to you before you’re finished.” Hamil vanished, leaving his other image, dwarfed by the mysterious orchestration in stone.