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Authors: Alan Dean Foster
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silicate rather than a carbon base, while a great deal of the understory and brush was derived from a combination of sources, many of which defied casual visual identification. The place was a botanist’s wonderland.
As if that was not enough, they had not one but three native sentient species to study. Reputations were going to be made here, he was confident. Quofum might have proven to be a bit of a puzzle to astronomers, but that peculiar conundrum had now been resolved. It might boast an unreal ecosystem, but there was nothing mysterious about the world itself. It was as solid and bona fide as any other world. Privately he wondered at the unique astrophysical distortions that had so often hidden it from detection. A particularly dense and localized dark nebula had to be responsible, he decided, or perhaps some new kind of astronomical distortion yet to be determined.
Not his specialty. What mattered was that Quofum now stood revealed in all its fecund glory, just waiting for a fortunate few to unlock its apparent treasure trove of biological secrets. Not even a week had elapsed and they had already begun, had already started to fill information files with reams of entirely new and unexpected data. Soon they would be able to add details about and descriptions of sentient species to the explosively expanding compendium, starting with the fuzzies.
Boylan had not been happy to see them go. As expedition commander there was nothing to prevent him from accompanying the scientific team, but he knew he would only have taken up space on the boat. Someone had to remain and look after the camp. As he stated on more than one occasion he would have preferred to see his colleagues conduct their studies close to camp, where they would have remained under the protection of the camp and the shuttle’s defenses. Underneath his gruff exterior and behind his curt personality the captain was an old mothering hen, a smiling Tellenberg reflected. He would never dare voice such an analogy to the captain’s face, of course. Not if he wanted to retain his own facial features in their present familiar configuration.
Even Araza had come to the river’s edge to wish them well, in his terse, soft-spoken way. Tellenberg recalled watching both men standing side by side on the bank as they waved the science team on its way.
“Sample all the biota you want!” the captain had yelled after them as soon as N’kosi had started the boat upriver. “Just don’t let it sample
you
!”
Better to have a competent, crotchety, irritating, unsociable leader and a skilled accomplice who hardly ever spoke looking after things than a couple of cheerful, companionable idiots, Tellenberg knew.
While the excitement and sense of expectation on the boat was palpable, it was not universal. Though the current was lazy and there was little or nothing in the way of white water, Valnadireb remained resolutely in the center of the craft, as far away from the sturdy gunwales as possible. Observing the thranx’s discomfort, N’kosi quietly edged over to port and began pushing back and forth on the side of the boat in an attempt to impart a little extra rocking motion. Only a dirty look from Haviti stopped him. A little sheepishly, he returned to overseeing the control panel. He wasn’t having much luck rocking the highly stable inflatable anyway.
Tellenberg had to admit that their thranx colleague was doing an admirable job of dealing with a state of affairs that would have reduced the less stoic and resolved among his kind to shrinking piles of quivering chitin. Not only did Valnadireb stand upright (albeit on all sixes) with his eyes surveying the opposing shores, he even managed to make his share of field observations, taking notes on his recorder while deliberately ignoring the occasional splash that came over the bow.
The only time he evinced any visible fear was on the occasions when one of his counterparts hit a control that turned the sides and bottom of
As if that was not enough, they had not one but three native sentient species to study. Reputations were going to be made here, he was confident. Quofum might have proven to be a bit of a puzzle to astronomers, but that peculiar conundrum had now been resolved. It might boast an unreal ecosystem, but there was nothing mysterious about the world itself. It was as solid and bona fide as any other world. Privately he wondered at the unique astrophysical distortions that had so often hidden it from detection. A particularly dense and localized dark nebula had to be responsible, he decided, or perhaps some new kind of astronomical distortion yet to be determined.
Not his specialty. What mattered was that Quofum now stood revealed in all its fecund glory, just waiting for a fortunate few to unlock its apparent treasure trove of biological secrets. Not even a week had elapsed and they had already begun, had already started to fill information files with reams of entirely new and unexpected data. Soon they would be able to add details about and descriptions of sentient species to the explosively expanding compendium, starting with the fuzzies.
Boylan had not been happy to see them go. As expedition commander there was nothing to prevent him from accompanying the scientific team, but he knew he would only have taken up space on the boat. Someone had to remain and look after the camp. As he stated on more than one occasion he would have preferred to see his colleagues conduct their studies close to camp, where they would have remained under the protection of the camp and the shuttle’s defenses. Underneath his gruff exterior and behind his curt personality the captain was an old mothering hen, a smiling Tellenberg reflected. He would never dare voice such an analogy to the captain’s face, of course. Not if he wanted to retain his own facial features in their present familiar configuration.
Even Araza had come to the river’s edge to wish them well, in his terse, soft-spoken way. Tellenberg recalled watching both men standing side by side on the bank as they waved the science team on its way.
“Sample all the biota you want!” the captain had yelled after them as soon as N’kosi had started the boat upriver. “Just don’t let it sample
you
!”
Better to have a competent, crotchety, irritating, unsociable leader and a skilled accomplice who hardly ever spoke looking after things than a couple of cheerful, companionable idiots, Tellenberg knew.
While the excitement and sense of expectation on the boat was palpable, it was not universal. Though the current was lazy and there was little or nothing in the way of white water, Valnadireb remained resolutely in the center of the craft, as far away from the sturdy gunwales as possible. Observing the thranx’s discomfort, N’kosi quietly edged over to port and began pushing back and forth on the side of the boat in an attempt to impart a little extra rocking motion. Only a dirty look from Haviti stopped him. A little sheepishly, he returned to overseeing the control panel. He wasn’t having much luck rocking the highly stable inflatable anyway.
Tellenberg had to admit that their thranx colleague was doing an admirable job of dealing with a state of affairs that would have reduced the less stoic and resolved among his kind to shrinking piles of quivering chitin. Not only did Valnadireb stand upright (albeit on all sixes) with his eyes surveying the opposing shores, he even managed to make his share of field observations, taking notes on his recorder while deliberately ignoring the occasional splash that came over the bow.
The only time he evinced any visible fear was on the occasions when one of his counterparts hit a control that turned the sides and bottom of
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