For once the others paid him no attention. They were seeking the source of the flying seeds, and shortly found it: an ice-free patch was exposed to sunlight on the side of the adjacent rock, and a small, tough, low-growing plant was exerting its utmost efforts to reproduce itself, though by this time its main arsenal had been expended and only a few weak flutterings resulted.
Standing back, Arranth began, “I think—”
“Look out!” Yockerbow roared, and dived forward to push her clear of impending disaster.
Whether it was the effect of sunshine, or whether—as they later wondered—the mere vibration of their presence sufficed, the ice-veil before the cave was starting to collapse. A web of cracks appeared; a grinding sound followed…
“Down!” roared Barratong, and set the example as great frozen shards fell crunching and slid down the watercourse. They clutched at what they could, including one another, and somehow succeeded in not being carried bodily away.
And got uncertainly to their pads again, for nothing worse emerged from the cave than a most appalling and revolting stench, as of corpses shut up for uncountable years.
It blew away, and they were able once again to venture close, while the low northern sun beamed on them from a clear blue sky. At the cave-mouth things glistened wetly, and a few were instantly identifiable.
“There’s a mandible,” Barratong muttered, kicking it. “People too were here, you see?”
“Where there were people, I look for what people make!” shouted Arranth, and began to scrabble among the dirt at the opening. And checked, and said something incomprehensible, and rose, clutching a long rigid cylinder such as no creature in the world had generated naturally.
“It’s a glass!” she cried. “It’s a glass tube! And I hear something rattling inside!”
She made as though to crunch the crackly-dry wax that closed the tube’s ends, but Barratong checked her.
“Not here! Whatever’s in it must be fragile, for it’s certainly very ancient. We’ll take it back to the junq and open it with great care in a safe place. Are there any other relics like it?”
Reaching for the mandible, he used it as a scraper, and the others joined him in sifting through the foul mass of putrid matter at the cave entrance. Shortly they were satisfied there was nothing else as durable as the glass tube, and returned on board.
There, quaking with excitement, Arranth broke the wax and removed a stopper made of spongy plant-pith. Tilting the tube, she shook from it a tightly rolled bundle of documents, inscribed on an unfamiliar off-white bark. The moment she unrolled the first of them, she exclaimed at the top of her voice.
“I can’t believe it! It’s a star-map!”
“Are you certain?” Yockerbow ventured.
“Of course I’m certain!” Studying it feverishly, she went on, “And either it’s inaccurate, or … No, it can’t be! It shows the stars as they were before the Freeze, and straight away I can assure you: some of the constellations aren’t the same!”
VIII
The past can communicate with us…
Echoes of Arranth’s repeated argument kept ringing through Yockerbow’s mind as he and Barratong, and the senior Fleet sub-commanders, gathered to hear the result of her and Ulgrim’s researches. In spite of aurorae and shooting stars they had been pursued through every dark-time until now, when their weather-sense warned of an approaching storm and indeed clouds could be seen gathering at the southern horizon. Every junq had been ransacked for writing-materials, and meticulous sketches were piled before Arranth, each adjacent to one of the pre-Freeze maps. Yockerbow shivered when he thought of their tremendous age. Yet they had been perfectly preserved in their airtight container.
Delighted to be the center of attention, Arranth could not resist preening a little, but when Barratong invited her to present her report, she spoke in a clear and businesslike manner.
“With only a single telescope and what crude instruments we could improvise, Ulgrim and I have not been able to make the sort of exact measurements that could be performed at a proper observatory. However, that is paradoxically fortunate. Whoever compiled these ancient maps can have had access to a telescope barely better than our own, if at all, so we have an excellent basis for comparison. In other words, we can be reasonably sure that the stars we see and those depicted on the old maps correspond. Thoughtfully enough, the map-maker indicated which stars were visible to the unaided eye, and which only with the aid of a glass. We have therefore been able to establish the following facts.