Cycle of Fire

see what the astronomers were doing. It would be a change and if Dar’s interest really was flagging, unlikely as that seemed, it might take a new turn for the better. He would make the suggestion when Dar emerged from his contemplation.

It turned out that the little native was not tired of geology, however. His natural courtesy made him suggest that they go back to the other party for “just a little while” before returning to the ship; he would not have considered a return at all had he not realized that Kruger was getting bored.

The geology group, when they did get back to it, had made progress — more than they or anyone had a right to expect; so much that Kruger’s boredom disappeared within seconds after landing at the current site of operations. Briefly, they had found the “break” in the geological sequence.

It had dawned on one of the scientists, after much fruitless labor, that the drastic climatic change each long year should produce an effect similar to, but more pronounced than, the seasonal changes in such formations as varved clays on Earth. Lakes, for example, should dry up completely and alternate wind-blown with water-laid sediments in a much more distinct fashion than had ever been seen on the home planet. With this thought in mind they had selected a large, shallow lake. A series of cores from the edge compared with a similar series from the deepest part of the body of water had led to results which were fairly certain to make the astronomers very happy.

The seasonal changes as described by the Teacher in the distant village of the geysers had been going on, apparently, for just a trifle under six million years according to one worker’s theory, or a trifle over ten million according to another’s. The two schools of thought were about evenly divided, the first basing its figures on the assumption that the long year had always had its present length of about sixty-five terrestrial years, the second insisting that the seasonal period must have been more or less steadily decreasing in length. This group had no suggestions for explaining such a phenomenon but stuck to their interpretation of the data. Dar Lang Ahn was fascinated; it was the first time that he had realized that positive knowledge did not always result at once from scientific investigation.

It remained for the leader of the party to sum up the geological situation over the first meal after Dar and Kruger had returned.

“This seems to be the story of this planet, according to present evidence,” he said. “It originated about as long ago as Earth, give or take a billion years, and as far as we can tell in the same manner. It passed through the usual stage of cooling, and eventually water was able to condense. Its primary atmosphere was probably retained a trifle better than Earth’s, since the velocity of escape here is over twenty per cent higher. Life started, probably spontaneously in the usual manner but possibly from adventitious spores, and developed on a path comparable to that of the other planets with which we are familiar — that is, it drastically modified the primary atmosphere until it became more or less like that of Earth.

During this period, which lasted for most of the planet’s existence, the tremendous climatic changes now associated with its sun’s periodic passage close to Alcyone do not seem to have been occurring; at least, no evidence whatever has been found to suggest they were, and a number of very significant facts indicate the contrary. For example, in some of the fossil beds great numbers of shellfish and other creatures of apparently identical species but widely differing size are found, without any layering which would suggest that the smaller ones died earlier. It would seem from such facts that the life of Abyormen, at that time, was normal from our point of view in its reproductive habits — creatures were born, grew old, and died pretty much at random.

“Life evolved to the stage of air-breathing vertebrates under these conditions, the characteristic types produced all being six-limbed. There is no evidence that intelligent beings evolved.

“Then somewhere between five and ten million years ago, the tremendous temperature changes produced by Alcyone began to occur and virtually all the life of the planet was wiped out. Either a few simple forms survived and gave rise to the present species, which get around the climate situation in the way we now know, or more spores arrived, or a totally new generation of life took place.

“We still know very little about these last few million years; it seems the consensus that we should actually drain this lake and conduct major excavations in its bed to find remains of the life of this period. However, we do know that at the moment the general life of the planet exists under a form of alternating generations which enable it to survive in two widely different environments. Are there any additions or corrections to this summary?”

“Just a comment; astronomical help is urgently needed,” came a voice.

“I agree. I have been recording this little speech and will send the tape up to the Alphard as soon as possible.”

The meal ended with no further contributions to science.

“What do you think of it, Dar?” Kruger asked later. “Does this go very badly against what your Teachers have told you?”

“It doesn’t conflict at all; they never told us anything about such possibilities. Knowing what the Teachers are, now, I can suppose that is because they never thought of them themselves.”

“Isn’t there some chance of your Teachers’ objecting to your telling all this? Or, if they don’t object, at least some of the ‘hot’ Teachers will.”

“I’ve been thinking about that. I think our own Teachers will be as interested as I am, and I have come to the conclusion that all the other Teachers know about our doings is what our own report to them by radio. The others couldn’t live anywhere near the Ice Ramparts.”

“Not even underground?”

“A long way down, maybe, but they still couldn’t watch very closely. For one thing, didn’t that one at the geyser village mention that there was no way for you to see him or him to see you, since no barrier that would keep you both safe could be seen through?”

“I hadn’t thought of that. But if he depends on reports from your Teachers, why couldn’t they have just said they had killed me, instead of actually trying to carry out his orders?”

“Well, if that ever occurred to them they probably thought that the reason he wanted you killed was of such a nature that he was bound to detect the results if you weren’t. If my people did learn a lot of your science right afterward, for example, it would be quite hard to hide.”

“I suppose so. Still, I’d certainly take a chance rather than kill a friend.”

“Perhaps they weren’t sure how much of a friend you were. Remember, they hadn’t been with you as long as I, and — well, you do have some rather odd characteristics, you know. I can understand that ‘hot’ Teacher’s feeling that way.”

“I suppose so. We know each other pretty well now, but we still find each other queer at times. It doesn’t bother me any more, though.”

“Nor me.” The two looked at each other with a more nearly complete understanding, in that moment, than they had ever achieved before or were to attain later.

XIII. ASTRONOMY; XENOLOGY

THE FLIER that took the geological report to the astronomers also carried Dar Lang Ahn and Nils Kruger back to the Alphard. Dar had followed the summary as far as it went, but he did not see just how astronomy was needed to check on the theories of the rock specialists. His curiosity about all matters allied to the physical sciences had reached a level that few human beings experience after leaving childhood.

He listened carefully as the record of the geologist’s summary was played over by the astronomers, but heard nothing he did not remember from its original utterance. He listened carefully to the conversation of these new scientists and never considered that they might regard his insistent questions as a discourtesy — which, as a matter of fact, most of them did not.

“I am afraid I do not know exactly what you mean when you say that Arren may have ‘captured’ Theer and Abyormen,” Dar would ask at one point.

“I think young Kruger explained something of Newton’s laws to you,” was the beginning of the answer.

“Normally, any two bodies attract each other according to definite law, and that attraction, plus the ordinary fact of inertia — the thing that keeps a stone traveling after it leaves the hand that throws it — results in definite, predictable motions of those bodies, such as the Alphard around your planet at this