Read Online Across a Billion Years by Robert Silverberg - Free Book Online Page B

Ones machine and that it was by far the largest High Ones artifact ever found, but they had no more idea than I did of what it was. No one offered congratulations to me for having made the best discovery in this field since the finding of the first site. I didn’t feel awfully proud of myself myself, considering the chimpo way I had carried on during the excavating work.
    When the conference broke up, Mirrik reverently scooped the globe up on his tusks—it weighs about as much as a man, he says—and carried it to the lab. That was three hours ago. Dr. Schein, Dr. Horkkk, and Pilazinool have been in there all this time. With them is 408b; Saul Shahmoon has been going in and out. Each time he comes out he looks more excited than the time before, but he isn’t saying a thing except that nothing definite has been learned yet.
    Mirrik, Kelly, Steen Steen, and Leroy Chang have gone back to the dig. Leroy’s face is a little bruised and he looks pretty sour about things. Jan and I were assigned to cleanup detail for the afternoon, she in her shack and I in mine.
    That’s a great reward for making a big find, isn’t it?
    Two hours later. The conference in the lab is still going on. I’d love to know what’s up, but if they wanted apprentices in there, they’d invite us. Saul hasn’t come out for a long time. The diggers are still at work, though they haven’t found anything unusual. Kelly and Mirrik would dig all night, if we’d let them.
    When I finished my cleanup I went across to talk to Jan.
    She was less interested in discussing the strange ancient globe than she was in talking about Leroy Chang’s uncouth behavior. I’d say that that’s just like a girl, but I’d probably offend you, and besides I’m not sure I’m right.
    “You saw him pawing me,” Jan accused. “Why didn’t you do something?”
    “I didn’t realize anything serious was going on.”
    “Serious? How much more serious could it have been? He practically had my clothes ripped off!”
    “Good old Leroy. He sure knows how to coax a girl along.”
    “Very funny. Suppose he had raped me?”
    “He didn’t get very close to succeeding, did he?”
    “No thanks to you. Down there in the pit digging like a madman, and me screaming for help.”
    I said, “You know, they say that rape isn’t really possible unless the victim cooperates. I mean, all she has to do is defend herself, and if she’s a girl of normal strength and her attacker isn’t some kind of superman, she’ll be able to fight him off. So when a rape happens, it’s either because the girl is paralyzed with fear, or else because she secretly wants to be raped. Besides, I don’t remember hearing you scream.”
    “I don’t find your two-credit psychology very convincing,” Jan said. “I don’t know where you got that half-baked theory, but I can tell you it just isn’t so. Like most men you don’t have the first idea of what a woman’s viewpoint is in such things.”
    “I suppose you’ve been raped a couple of times, so you know all about it.”
    “Can we change the subject? I can think of several hundred thousand subjects I’d rather discuss. And, no, I haven’t been raped, and I mean to keep it that way, thank you.”
    “How did you discourage Leroy?”
    “I hit him in the face. I didn’t slap. I hit. Then I kicked.”
    “And he gave in. Which proves my theory that—”
    “We were changing the subject.”
    “You were the first one who started talking about rape,” I said.
    “I don’t want to hear that word again!”
    “Right.”
    “And I still think it was foul of you to go on digging when Leroy began to—to attack me.”
    “I apologize. I got wrapped up in what I was doing.”
    “What was that thing, anyway?”
    “I wish I knew,” I said. “Shall we go over to the lab and see if they have any answers yet?”
    “We’d better not. They don’t want us there.”
    “You’re probably right.”
    “I didn’t mean to do so much cranking just now,