Paula launched a comdrone, which shot up to a two-kilometre altitude. From there it established a link to Lydian’s diminutive cybersphere, allowing her to make the call. Twenty minutes later, the Farndale executive hypersonic was landing beside the woods in a downblast of air that sent a wild cyclone of grass and leaves swirling about. Greg Wise hurried down the airstairs to stare at the sullen captives standing beside Paula and Dino.
‘What happened?’ he asked.
‘They aggravated the herd by graverobbing,’ Paula told him. ‘That’s why the homesteaders have been attacked. The Onid didn’t know how else to vent their anger over the violation. Any invader is a target for them, they can’t distinguish between us. But it’s over now.’
‘Graverobbing? What the hell is in an Onid grave?’
Paula and Dino exchanged a look. Paula held up one of the dozen bags they’d recovered from the raft. Greg gave her a surprised glance when he felt the weight, then opened it tentatively. ‘Shit!’ he pulled out a nugget longer than his thumb. ‘That’s gold.’
‘The real raw thing,’ Paula confirmed.
‘Every herd uses a different totem,’ Dino said. ‘This herd had the misfortune to pick gold. To them it’s nothing, a different kind of rock, to us…’
Paula waved at the Kajara range dominating the horizon. ‘There must be some rich veins in the ore up there and the nuggets wash down from the mountains. The whole area around their burial ground is laced with streams.’
Greg shook his head at the nugget. ‘So they just grab the closest shiny thing, huh?’
‘Yeah,’ Dino said.
‘Poor them,’ Greg said. ‘So do all the herds along the mountains use gold?’
‘Not all,’ Dino said. ‘And certainly not the next few along. But if it’s prevalent, they’ll use it.’
‘Damn. I wonder how much ore is up there? We completely missed that in the geological survey. Not that the preliminary satellite scans are ever particularly detailed.’
‘I’m sure Farndale will rectify that soon enough,’ Paula said. She removed the bag from Greg’s grasp. ‘In the meantime, we need to keep this quiet. I’ll take this gang back with me to Paris, the prosecutors can charge them with endangering the settlers. It means they can be kept in isolation for the immediate future.’
‘Sure,’ Greg said. ‘That fits in with my brief. So will the herd stop now?’
‘We’ll take the totems back,’ Dino said. ‘That should satisfy them.’
‘Take it back?’ Greg gave the bags a startled look. ‘You’re going to give it to the animals?’
‘It’s the only way to stop the raids on homesteads,’ Paula said.
‘Someone else is going to find out what they’ve got soon enough,’ Greg warned. ‘There’ll be a stampede of prospectors out here. They’ll bring heavy machinery into the mountains. Everything will get shoved aside.’
‘I’ll talk to Wilson Kime,’ Paula said. ‘See what we can work out.’
‘Your call,’ Greg said.
‘That it is,’
Paula and Dino rode across the grasslands, heading straight for the herd’s valley, making no attempt to conceal themselves. They led three of the horses from the raft, who were laden with the bags of gold. The seven baby Onid freed from cages bounded along beside the horses.
‘I know what the Onid have,’ Paula said as they entered the forest surrounding the valley. ‘I know how they saw the eyebirds, and how they knew about the tracker.’
Dino gave her a startled look. ‘What?’
‘Process of elimination. Besides I have it myself.’ She held up her hand as her e-butler activated the sensor mesh. The silver threads of the OCtattoo gleamed in the bright sunlight. ‘They can see electricity. Terrestrial bees have something similar, don’t they?’
‘A magnetic sense,’ Dino said. ‘Of course! That fits everything. They can sense metal like the nuggets lying about. Hell, it might even be why they can always find marak roots. The tubers have a high iron content. Damn!’ He grinned happily.
Paula was still smiling as they came out into the open. The baby Onids started to hoot enthusiastically. Before long every adult in the valley was heading for them.
‘Just keep going for the burial ground,’ Dino said as the herd swarmed round the horses. This time they didn’t pick up stones, but they still circled quite fast.
When they reached the mounds at the base of the cliff, Dino got down and unhitched each of the bags, cutting them open so the nuggets spilled across the ground. The herd rushed in, claiming the nuggets, clutching them close and then running off to find an open grave.
Paula was amazed to see them scamper past the closest desecrated mounds. Instead, each Onid choose a specific grave for the totem they carried. ‘They know which grave each totem belongs to,’ she said.
‘Their ancestral identity is everything to them,’ Dino said. ‘We saw that right from the start.’
‘That kind of memory must count for something. Surely they must be classed as proto-sentient now?’
‘Possibly.’
The replacement process took over an hour. ‘I have a theory, too,’ Dino said when only a few nuggets remained. He picked one up, and in his other hand he held a flashgem. They’d been popular in the Commonwealth years before; an artificial crystal which stored photons directly, then released them at random to produce elegant sparks. The Onid who came to reclaim the nugget hooted softly, staring at the gentle sparks. It reached for the flashgem. Dino withdrew the bauble, and proffered the nugget instead. The Onid reached for the flashgem again.
Dino persisted for a while, denying the Onid the flashgem each time until he finally dropped the nugget at the Onid’s feet and stood up, pocketing the flashgem. The action agitated the Onid, but it eventually picked up the nugget and rushed off to find the grave to which it belonged.
‘What are you doing?’ Paula asked.
‘Suppose one of the herd dies, and they can’t find a nugget for its totem?’ Dino asked. ‘After all, the water is washing them down those streams the whole time. They’re not static. There’s no guarantee.’
‘So?’ Paula asked. ‘They wait until the rains wash down another batch.’
‘No. The graves and the herd are everything to the Onid. I think they do it differently.’
The last totems were retrieved and carried off to the graves. ‘Watch the one I offered the flashgem to,’ Dino said.
Paula saw it scrabble soil back into the mound’s hole. When it was finished, it scurried off to the base of the tall cliff, and disappeared into one of the fissures.
‘Ah,’ she said. ‘Good reasoning, Dino, I’m impressed. We could make an Investigator out of you yet.’
‘Yeah, in ten lives’ time when I’m so utterly bored with everything else.’
The Onid reappeared, carrying a new nugget. It was large. The Onid had to use both its forelimbs to hold it.
‘Well what do you know,’ Paula said. ‘A genuine cave full of treasure. Thank heavens the raider gang never found that. They’d own Lydian by now, probably half of the continent to boot. How much do you think is in there?’
‘Enough,’ Dino said. The Onid hurried over, and Dino gave it the flashgem in return for the new nugget, which was half the size of his fist. He produced another flashgem. The Onid raced back to the fissure.
Paula leaned forward, resting her hands on the front of the saddle. ‘Just how many of those flashgems have you got?’
‘Not enough. I need to bring a crate back here. Will you give me that time. Please?’
‘Dino…’ She paused because what he was saying was completely out of character. Then she thought she saw tears in his eyes. ‘What do you want that kind of money for?’
‘What would have happened if the asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs back on Earth had missed?’
