The Gentle Giants of Ganymede

widespread in the equatorial regions of the Minerva they had known. At the professor #146;s insistence they accepted some cuttings to be taken back to the Shapieron and grown there as mementoes of their home. The gesture seemed to affect them deeply.

Danchekker then led the party down into a large storage room excavated out of the solid ice below the biological labs. They emerged into a spacious, well-lit area, the walls of which were lined with shelving that carried a miscellany of supplies and instruments; there were rows of closed storage cupboards all painted a uniform green, unrecognizable machines draped in dustcovers, and in places stacks of unopened packing cases reaching almost to the ceiling. But the sight that immediately captured every eye was that of the beast towering before them about twenty feet from the doorway.

It stood over eighteen feet high at the shoulder on four tree-trunk-like legs, its massive body tapering at the front into a long sturdy neck to carry its relatively small but ruggedly formed head high and well forward. Its skin was grayish and appeared rough and leathery, twisting into deep, heavy wrinkles that girded the base of its neck and the underside of its head below its short, erect ears. Over two enormous flared nostrils and a yawning parrot- beak-like mouth, the eyes were wide and staring. They were accentuated by thick folds of skin above, and directed straight down to stare at the door.

'This is one of my favorites,' Danchekker informed them breezily as he walked forward at the head of the party to pat the beast fondly on the front of one of its massive forelegs.

'Baluchitherium #151;a late-Oligocene to early-Miocene Asian ancestor of modern rhinoceroses. In this species the front feet have already lost their fourth toe and adopted a three-toed structure similar to the hind feet #151;a trend which had become well pronounced in the Oligocene. Also, the strengthening of the upper-jaw structure here is quite developed, although this particular breed did not evolve into a true horned variety, as you can see. Another interesting point is the teeth, which #151;' Danchekker stopped speaking abruptly as he turned to face his audience and realized that only the Earthmen had followed him into the room to stand around the specimen he was describing. The Ganymeans had come to a standstill in a close huddle just inside the door, where they stood staring speechless up at the towering shape of Baluchitherium. Their eyes were opened wide as if frozen in disbelief. They were not exactly cowering at the sight, but the expressions on their faces and their tense stances signaled uncertainty and apprehension.

'Is something the matter?' Danchekker asked, puzzled. There was no response. 'It #146;s quite harmless, I assure you,' he went on, making his voice reassuring. 'And very, very dead. . . one of the samples preserved in the large canisters that were found in the ship. It #146;s been very dead for at least twenty-five million years.'

The Ganymeans slowly returned to life. Still silent and somehow subdued, they began moving cautiously toward the spot where the Earthmen were standing in a loose semicircle. For a long time they gazed at the immense creature, absorbing every detail in awed fascination.

'ZORAC,' Hunt muttered quietly into his throat mike. The rest of the Earthmen were watching the Ganymeans silently, waiting for some signal to resume their dialogue and not sure yet what exactly it was that was affecting their guests so strongly.

'Yes, Vic?' the machine answered in his ear.

'What #146;s the problem?'

'The Ganymeans have not seen an animal comparable to Baluchitherium before. It is a new and unexpected experience.'

'Does it come as a surprise to you too?' Hunt asked.

'No. I recognize it as being very similar to other early terrestrial species recorded in my archives. The information came from Ganymean expeditions to Earth that took place before the time of the Shapieron #146;s departure from Minerva. None of the Ganymeans with you at Pithead has ever been to Earth, however.'

'But surely they must know something about what those expeditions found,' Hunt insisted. 'The reports must have been published.'

'True,' ZORAC agreed. 'But it #146;s one thing to read a report about animals like that, and another to come face to face with one suddenly, especially when you #146;re not expecting it. I suppose that if I were an organic intelligence that had evolved from a survival-dominated organic evolutionary system, and possessed all the conditioned emotional responses that implies, I #146;d be a bit shocked too.'

Before Hunt could reply, one of the Ganymeans #151;Shilohin #151;finally spoke up.

'So . . . that is an example of an animal of Earth,' she said. Her voice was low and hesitant, as if she were having difficulty articulating the words.

'It #146;s incredible!' Jassilane breathed, still keeping his eyes fixed on the huge beast. 'Was that thing really alive once. . .

'What #146;s that? ' Another Ganymean was pointing beyond Baluchitherium to a smaller but more ferocious-looking animal posed with one paw raised and lips curled back to reveal a set of fearsome, pointed teeth. The other Ganymeans followed his finger and gasped.

'Cynodictis ,' Danchekker answered with a shrug. 'A curious mixture of feline and canine characteristics from which both our modem cat and dog families eventually emerged. The one next to it is Mesohippus , ancestor of all modem horses. If you look carefully you can see. . .' He stopped in midsentence and seemed to switch his line of thought abruptly. 'But why do these things seem so strange to you? Surely you have seen animals before. There were animals on Minerva, weren #146;t there?'

Hunt observed intently. The reactions that he had witnessed seemed odd from a race so advanced and which, until then, had seemed so rational in everything they said and did.

Shilohin took it upon herself to answer. 'Yes . . . there were animals. . .' She began looking from side to side at her companions as if seeking support in a difficult situation. 'But they were different. . .' she ended, vaguely. Danchekker seemed intrigued.

'Different,' he repeated. 'How interesting. In what way do you mean? Weren #146;t there any as big as this for instance?'

Shilohin #146;s anxiety seemed to increase. She was showing the same inexplicable reluctance to discuss Oligocene Earth as on earlier occasions. Hunt sensed a crisis approaching and saw that Danchekker, in his enthusiasm, was not getting the message. He turned away from the rest of the party. 'ZORAC, give me a private channel to Chris Danchekker,' he said in a lowered voice.

'You #146;ve got it,' ZORAC responded a second later, sounding almost relieved.

'Chris,' Hunt whispered. 'This is Vic.' He observed a sudden change in Danchekker #146;s expression and went on. 'They don #146;t want to talk about it. Maybe they #146;re still nervous about our links with the Lunarians or something #151;I don #146;t know but something #146;s bugging them. Wrap up and let #146;s get out of here.'

Danchekker caught Hunt #146;s eye, blinked uncomprehendingly for a second, then nodded and abruptly changed the subject. 'Anyway, I #146;m sure all that can wait until we are in more comfortable surroundings. Why don #146;t we go back upstairs. There are some more experiments being conducted in the labs that I think might interest you.'

The group began shuffling back toward the door. Behind them, Hunt and Danchekker exchanged mystified glances.

'What was the meaning of all that, may I ask?' the professor inquired.

'Search me,' Hunt replied. 'Come on or we #146;ll get left behind.'

Many hundreds of millions of miles from Pithead, the news of the meeting with an intelligent alien race broke over an astounded world. As recordings of the first face-to-face contact aboard the Shapieron and the arrival of the aliens at Ganymede Main Base were replayed across the world #146;s viewscreens, a wave of wonder and excitement swept around the planet, exceeding even that which had greeted the discoveries of Charlie and the first Ganymean spaceship. Some of the reactions were admirable, some deplorable, some just comical #151;but all of them predictable.

At a high, official level, Frederick James McClusky, senior United States delegate to the extraordinary session that had been called by the United Nations, sat back in his chair and stared around the packed circular auditorium while Charles Winters, the UK representative from US Europe, delivered the final words of his forty-five-minute