The Leagacy of Heorot

The computer zoned up on another large, shadowy form. This one was smaller than the first, but was tracked moving in toward the island. It broke the surface of the water for a moment, cresting, then dived deeply. The video image was lost.

"We need you, Cad. We have to assume that the thing we killed was one of a set. If there's more than one, then there's lots. We're not slowing down expansion. We can't. I swear that this colony is going to be a city one day. But we have to be more cautious. You're best qualified to check our defense plans and suggest alternatives. If you don't want to stay here, I won't try to change your mind. We need a test outbacker. Someone to give us an idea of how an individual family would fare in the south country beyond Mucking Great. Someone is going to do it eventually, and no one is better suited than you. What do you say—be our guinea pig?"

"I already am that. But outback guinea pig sounds better than hermit."

"Same situation, different definition."

Cadma

"Damned straight." A huge weight seemed to have been lifted from Zack. The creases in his forehead vanished, and he sighed deeply. "Oh. Cad, will you take back some tools to take rock cores? We're hoping we'll find an iridium layer."

"Iridium?"

"Maybe not iridium, but something widespread, with the makeup of an asteroid. Evidence of a Dinosaur Killer. Something that simplified the ecology."

"Huh. Maybe. What about the monster itself? That thing sure didn't act like a carrion eater, and what else would have survived an asteroid strike? Have you finished the analysis of the corpse?"

"Oh, sure, corpse. Well, we lost a lot of equipment in the fire. Some we repaired, some we worked around, but... anyway, Greg cremated too much of the monster. You can hardly blame him, but we've been analyzing charcoal! What we get is a picture of something that has a cell structure similar to the samlon or pterodons. Closer to the samlon; pterodons have a lot more quick-twitch muscle fiber. We'll be interested in looking at your samples. Half a dozen? Damn. You've found more in seven weeks than we did in the year we've been down. You probably want to talk to Sylvia about that."

Cadma

He turned and left the room. Zack followed him out.

The sun was high, and Cadma

"Celebration?"

"Sure—a

"I guess that I reckon time in terms of Landing Day."

"Most of them weren't even awake when we were down here. They outnumber us, Cadma

"I guess they do at that." He stretched and picked up his backpack from the com-shack stoop. "Where's Sylvia? I guess we should talk."

The creature hovered in the air above the holo stage, only a fourth its actual size, but still too vivid for Cadma

Marnie said, "The creature is amphibian, and the major speculation is that it swam over from the mainland or that it was carried by driftwood."

Cadma

"Not enough food. Not enough variety of food for a sound ecological base. Not enough of them, either. A stable population needs numbers. Any pair of anything produces one pair that survives to breed, on average." Sylvia shut down the projector, but the thing still hovered before his mind's eye.

Marnie was examining a Joe carcass. It lay in the middle of a dissection tray, its fur lusterless and limp. She flipped it over on its back, and pressured the paws, hawing as the dark little claws slid out. "You say that you're domesticating these?" Marnie's lisp was still a bit jarring to Cadma

"Raising them, at least. It's Mary A

"She told me."

With the gleaming tip of a scalpel, Marnie drew a line down the middle of the dead Joe's pink, furred belly, then gingerly peeled away a layer of skin to inspect a fatty layer beneath.

Sylvia sat on a stool with her knees pulled up flush with her swollen stomach. She looked like a pregnant elf perched on a mushroom.

"In general," Marnie continued, pi

"I told Jerry I'd meet him at the breeding pond," she said, smiling shyly. "I'll see you both later." She slipped quietly from the room, leaving Cadma

They stared carefully at the empty stage, and silence hung in the room.

"Cad..." she began.

He leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms, eyes thoughtfully half-lidded. "You know, it gets so damned quiet up there in the mountain. Sometimes, when the air is really still, and the dogs are asleep by what's left of the fire, I look down from the mountain, and I can just hear sounds from the Colony. Machinery. Maybe singing. Maybe the mill. Maybe animal sounds. It sounds warm, and so damned far away." He looked at her. She was close enough to touch, but he didn't. "It feels like everything is getting farther all the time."

"I miss you, Cadma

"Yeah. How is Mary A

"Knocked righteously up. You did a good job there. Three weeks pregnant, and she's healthy as a horse, and I'll bet it's a boy."

"What do you mean, ‘you bet'? Isn't there a test or something?"

"Spoilsport. Half the fun is the speculation. She almost glows. She's so in love with you, Cadma

Cadma

"All pregnant women are beautiful. And think that they're ugly. Didn't you know that?"

Cadma

Sylvia looked at him, startled. "No—it isn't on any of the records."

He gri

She reached out and took his hand. Her thumb rubbed the soft webbing between his knuckles. "I missed you too, big man."

"I was only about eighteen. Elva was twenty-four, and wanted the kid. Wanted to have it by herself. Picked me. Said that she thought I would probably make pretty good basic daddy material."

"I'd say she was right."

"I only know she had it, Sylvia. And on the little girl's third birthday, Elva sent me a holo. That was it—she didn't want to be bothered with a husband."

"Would you have married her?"

"I suppose so. And resented the hell out of her."

"There you go."

"But still, to know. To know that you have a child somewhere. Learning to walk and talk and swim and read, and everything else, and you're not there. It's a little crazy-making. Anyway, that's just background."